Review Target List
Is Your Target List Big Enough
Remember the job hunt is a “numbers game” and you need a critical mass of target list to be successful.
- How many companies do you have in your list based on your key ptoolkits: location, industry and other criteria
(size, growth pattern, values etc)
- What’s the total number of employees in each company who have skills similar to you – an estimate is good.
This is the total number of employees on the company’s payroll who do work similar to you. eg if you are an accountant, then check how many total accountants this firm has.
- Now check the total number of suitable jobs exist in your list of companies ie total up the numbers which you estimated in the above step.
- What’s the turnover rate in these companies ?
Can you find out how long people stay in these jobs in these companies? eg. if it’s a govt organization, then people stay longer for stability. For a volatile domain like sales, people leave jobs more often and there are more upcoming job opportunities in the company.
- Estimate the number of new job opportunities in your target list every year or every quarter.
Based on the above info you have collected, you should have a good educated guess.
Use your own information to make this estimate. Do not answer this questions simply by researching the job boards.
An Example Analysis
• Say you are a nurse looking for a job in Fort Worth, Texas.
• There are 3 hospitals, 6 elder care nursing homes and 7 walkin clinics in that city.
• The total number of nurses employed by each of the above 40 – 15 in the hospitals , 18 in the nursing homes and 7 in the clinics.
• On an average: In the hospitals nurses stay on for 5 years, in the nursing homes for 2 years and in the walking clinics for 1 year.
• Not counting expansion of these existing organizations and new ventures, the total number of NEW job opportunities each year could be : Hospitals 15/5 =3 per year, Nursing Homes : 18/2 =9 per year, Clinics : 7/1 = 7 per year.
• So we estimate that a total of 19 job openings per year for nurses are possible in Fort Worth.
How To Expand Your Target List
Your ideal target list should contain at least 20 organizations. However if it’s too large (ie more than 100), then make it shorter to bring focus to your search.
• Review and talk with different people to see if you are missing any organizations in your preferred area..
• Reconsider your location, or check organizations a little further from your house.
• Can you expand the scope of your professional objective ?
In addition to a nurse’s job perhaps you can also target jobs for day care specialists, admin assistants ? If you are a sales rep, perhaps you can look for jobs as a sales coach or as a sales contract specialist ?
• Reconsider the list of your industries or group of companies.
In addition to hospitals, clinics and nursing homes, perhaps you can also consider individual elderly care or temporary job contracts?
• Reconsider other criteria like size, working hours etc
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