Target Your Job

Once you have developed a positive attitude and know how to maintain it, the next step in preparing for the job search is to determine what particular type of work you are looking for.

Job targeting is an essential part of the job search process. It is not an option. If you don't take this step before you start looking for work, you will find yourself wasting a lot of energy looking for jobs you aren't qualified for.  Or you may end up getting a job that you aren't interested in.

Use the following steps to help bring some focus to your job search.

1. Look in the mirror! The first step to targeting specific job areas is to identify what you like and what you have to offer. What would you like to do? What can you do? Where would you like to be in five or 10 years? What are your values?

   If you are following the entire career-planning process in our site, you may have done much of this self-assessment already. Now you only need to bring it up to date. If you have not done some type of self-assessment, it might be a good idea to check out our Self-Assessment section.

2. Define your job objective. Use the results of your self-assessment to define a job objective that matches your personality and talents. Do you have the skills to perform the required duties of the occupation you have chosen? Do you meet the training and/or educational requirements of the occupation? If you answered "no" to either of these questions, find out how you can change the answer to a "yes."

3. Don't be too narrow. While you want to have a defined job objective, you also want to be open to new ideas, new ways of working, and different career options.

   For example, while you want to have a specific type of job in mind when looking through the classified ads, you should still read through all of the ads. You might find an interesting job you hadn't thought of before which requires many of the skills you have or which might in some way fit in with your career goals.