Job Search Strategies
Searching for a job is something you will do more than once in your life, using a variety of methods and strategies. Strategies that work well for finding a job in one field, however, may be completely different than strategies that work for another field. Meet with a career counselor to build a strategy that best achieves your objectives.
The prospect of starting one's job search can be exciting as well as overwhelming, but the advice provided here and by professionals in Career Services is designed to support you every step of the way!
THE JOB SEARCH PROCESS
Step 1: Clarify your interests, skills, and goals.
It is generally easier to search for a job if you know what you are looking for! Many seniors, however, are interested in a variety of options and sometimes say that they worry they are overlooking other possibilities they are not even aware of.
As a starting point in the job search, it is best to spend time identifying your interests (what you like to do), your skills (what you are good at doing), your values (what’s important to you), and your personality (what qualities you possess that compliment your other skills). Often referred to as “self assessment,” this is the process of learning more about yourself and clarifying some of the things that are most important to you.
Meet with a counselor in Career Services to identify the best ways to learn this information about yourself. Call 258-3325 to schedule an appointment, or come to walk-in hours any weekday from 2 to 4 pm for a 15-minute meeting to get you started.
Step 2: Research and explore your options.
Armed with greater knowledge about yourself, it becomes easier to look for options that are a good fit, as well as evaluate those options. Numerous resources are available online and in print to help you better understand what your options are. To learn more about what resources are available to research a specific field or occupation, visit our Research Occupations Guide.
Talking to alumni and others about what they actually do on a day-to-day basis can help you even further in identifying your options and deciding whether or not they are a good fit for you. Career Services offers the Alumni Careers Network (ACN), an online searchable database of over 4,000 alumni, as a way to build connections with alumni. You may search for alumni in jobs and geographic locations of interest and contact them for advice. Although you cannot expect alumni to just offer you a job, you may talk to them about what they do, what they like about it, and their advice for effective strategies and resources to secure employment in that field. To learn more about the best ways to approach alumni for advice, visit our Networking Guide.
Step 3: Identify and research prospective employers.
Once you’ve identified the career fields of interest to you, you can move on to actually identifying opportunities that fit those interests. Career Services has a variety of tools to help you.
TigerTracks
Career Services utilizes TigerTracks (eRecruiting), an online career management system that enables students to learn about and apply to a variety of jobs. Throughout the year, organizations come to campus to interview students for full-time positions and internships; you may use TigerTracks to review those position listings, upload documents (e.g., resumes, cover letters), apply online, and if invited sign up for interviews.Other job and internship listings from a wide range of industries are also available, as well as the ability to receive targeted e-mails according to your fields of interest and submit your resume for referral to employers seeking candidates. Job search and on-campus recruiting orientation sessions are held at the beginning of the year.
MonsterTrak
Career Services partners with MonsterTrak to provide additional job listings for current students and alumni; some internships are posted there as well. If you are OFF CAMPUS and not connected to the Princeton network, a password is required to access MonsterTrak; email career@princeton.edu to obtain the password.
Career Fairs
Career Services hosts a fall career fair with employers from a variety of fields, including business, government, communications, non-profits, manufacturing, and more. The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences hosts a Science and Technology fair in the fall. Career Services hosts "Careers in the Public Good," a spring non-profit fair. To take best advantage of these events, use our overview of Making the Most of Career Fairs. Organizations participating in these events are typically posted on the home pages of our web site a few weeks prior to the event.
Professional Associations
Most occupations and fields have professional associations that set standards of practice and foster professional development within the field. If you are interested in marketing, perhaps the American Marketing Association web site has job listings, or you can contact the association directly to inquire about certain types of employers or options they would suggest. If you use your favorite Internet search engine, use words like “association” + “field of interest” or “society” + “field of interest;” more often than not, this will quickly identify associations that are most prominent in that field.Career Services also has the National Trade and Professional Association Directory, which includes a vast array of national organizations in all fields imaginable.
Networking
A dreaded activity for many, and yet it is one of the best methods for securing job leads! Everyone has heard the expression, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” The truth in this statement is that it does help to develop relationships with other individuals who can provide you insight and advice to assist in your search. The misconception about this statement, however, is that you already have to know someone in your field of interest in order to get a job.
In fact, you can CREATE connections that you may not realize exist. As mentioned above, start with the Alumni Careers Network to contact alumni who have already offered to provide advice and assistance. Talk to friends about internships they may have had in the past and ask if you can get the contact person’s name where they worked. Ask professors and graduate TAs who they might know in industry or organizations that interest you. Follow up by emailing or calling those contacts.
To expand your outreach to alumni, you may consider using TigerNet, Alumni Council’s web site for the alumni community. A complete online diretory of alumni is available on the left menu. On the left-hand menu, you can also click on “Discussion Groups” to be able to subscribe to a number of listservs that will allow you to connect with alumni. Click on the “Professional/Careers” link to gain access to career-networking, the primary and most used listserv. Alumni post job listings here, so it’s useful to monitor (especially during the spring). You may also post a brief message to the list, request advice about how to get a job in a certain field, asking if any alumni have contacts at certain specific organizations or companies, and other related questions.
Other Ways to Identify Potential Employers
Use directories online and in Career Services (e.g., Hoover's, Biotechnology Industry Guide), as well as professional journals and job newsletters. Many of these online directories are listed in our Research Companies Guide.
A variety of additional industry-specific web sites are available in Online Jobs. Here you will find job listings for arts, entertainment, publishing, sciences, engineering, nonprofits, international, government, and more.
Read newspapers, not just the want ads but also the articles that talk about changes in business that might lead to the creation of jobs.
Identify your geographic area of interest and use the business pages in the phone book or the municipal/regional Chamber of Commerce to identify major businesses or organizations in that location.
Step 4: Initiate contact, submit applications, and generate interviews.
Show your interest in working for your targeted organizations through telephone calls, letters, and personal contact. Request an opportunity to interview for information or to discuss job opportunities. Never mail out hundreds of resumes and expect employers to respond. You must be proactive, patient yet persistent, and take the initiative to express interest. You’ll need to polish you resume and cover letters before applying for open positions. Visit Career Services for a counselor’s help or take a look at our Resume Guide and Cover Letter Guide.
Organizations usually hire based on face-to-face interviews. You may start by interviewing over the phone, but always ask for the opportunity to meet in person. It is good to interview with many organizations, but be selective (don't take just any interview because you need practice). Practice your interview skills in a mock interview with a career counselor. Review our online Interview Preparation Guide to get a sense of common interview questions.
Steps 5 and 6: Create a notebook and keep records. Follow up!
It may sound like common sense, but set up a system to manage your job search, such as a three-ring binder with a variety of dividers. Keep copies of cover letters and resumes you submit, as well as of the position announcements you respond to. If you apply to something online, print out a copy of what you submit (if possible) to keep for reference. These materials will all prove useful in helping you prepare for interviews.
Maintain a list of all prospective contacts, companies contacted, and people you talked to (including phone numbers and dates of contact). If someone tells you to follow up with them on a certain date, make note of that date and be sure to follow up! Employers will not usually contact you right away and some not at all! After submitting a resume, it is reasonable to place a follow-up call two weeks later to check on the status of your application; it is important, however, that you do not call employers every week. Your follow-up gives you the opportunity to re-express your interest in the position. After speaking to someone, ask what "the next steps" are or what the timeline is for this search, to help you determine when to follow up again.
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