I began my job search about a year ago. It wasn’t as full blown as it is today, but the career management class Rollins forced us to take, encouraged us to figure out what we wanted to do and where we wanted to do it. Those who took the class seriously actually did the assignments generated to help us hone in on the perfect job. That’s when I began my research about the type of position I’d like to hold.
I knew, not because of the economic times or even my experience level that I would start from the ground up. I am a big fan of CEOs who have some real idea about the struggles and the amount of work their employees have at all levels. And while I currently have no aspirations of becoming a CEO, that doesn’t mean that when I become a manager, I don’t want those same skills. I’ve already learned from experience that the best managers have been where their employees are and know from that what works and what doesn’t in terms of processes and procedures, etc. So I knew even then, that my first job will be entry level, because I want to be able to empathize with my employees when I get to a point where I’m managing people. Additionally, my interests lead me to three departments; marketing, editorial, and production. In each of these divisions, I would begin my career as an assistant.
Now it was time to target my companies. The advice given to us in this class suggested that using a shot gun approach to job searching rarely works in the seekers favor. Instead, one must target their perspective companies and hound them until they relent. Mine are all large publishing houses, and my reasoning is this, there are more opportunities there, through imprints or otherwise; chances are they have all of my interested-in-divisions and more. However, a friend recently advised me that publishing is going more independent. The self publisher no longer has the stigma attached to their books and smaller independent book publishers would more than likely have these same departments and services in house. I’ll be looking into that further, so stay tuned.
Anyway, back to what I was saying, my targeted publishing houses are the big ones. Besides the opportunities available, this has an added bonus of getting me out of Orlando, as most publishing companies reside in NY, CA, or MA. Don’t get me wrong, I love it here, but I’ve been here all my life. I’d like to try living elsewhere, have an adventure or two before I have kids and have to start worrying about school zones and money for private school and whatnot. If I end up living in Orlando after the whole kids are born thing, I’d be ok with that. I have family here. I have friends here. Sometimes I can’t even tell the difference between the two. But for now, I preferably want out.
So, I have a list of where I want to go, and I know what I want to do. Since then I’ve been handing out my resume to these companies like they were candy. I have slightly different resumes highlighting different skills for each department. For every company, I have a unique cover letter describing what I think makes that company worth working for. For the positions that I really, really want to get called back for, I even try to use the same language they do in the resumes. All of these are techniques told or taught to me by people who are supposedly experts at getting a job. So far, I’ve received very little correspondence back; and none of it asking to meet me or have a chat on the phone. Sad face.
But I’m thinking it’s my salary requirements. Only recently have I gotten a reliable salary guesstimate for these positions. Apparently, in the real world, an MBA doesn’t actually raise your pay, unless you have that and a large amount of experience in the biz; any biz.
So, from here on in, I’m putting the right pay scale on my applications.
What confuses me though is that in interviews, is it not taboo to discuss pay during the first one anyway? Is it not the rule of thumb to wait until your potential employer brings it up? Why then is salary requirement included in the application process? To weed out those who ask for too much? But how does one know what’s too much? Like I said, I’ve been researching, and every source I’ve found has the pay at much higher than my contact (the reliable one) told me to ask for. So, how do recruiters simply cut those resumes out of the running when it could simply be a misunderstanding? Everything is negotiable.
The good news is that now I know. And at least now I can pinpoint a reason for not getting called back. Additionally, it gives me a reason to follow up with the applications that are sent through email. Hell, it gives me a reason to follow up with all the positions I know haven’t been filled yet. It’s just with the online application database ones I’m going to have to cold call some people; a lot of people. Well, I am supposed to be hounding them.
I knew, not because of the economic times or even my experience level that I would start from the ground up. I am a big fan of CEOs who have some real idea about the struggles and the amount of work their employees have at all levels. And while I currently have no aspirations of becoming a CEO, that doesn’t mean that when I become a manager, I don’t want those same skills. I’ve already learned from experience that the best managers have been where their employees are and know from that what works and what doesn’t in terms of processes and procedures, etc. So I knew even then, that my first job will be entry level, because I want to be able to empathize with my employees when I get to a point where I’m managing people. Additionally, my interests lead me to three departments; marketing, editorial, and production. In each of these divisions, I would begin my career as an assistant.
Now it was time to target my companies. The advice given to us in this class suggested that using a shot gun approach to job searching rarely works in the seekers favor. Instead, one must target their perspective companies and hound them until they relent. Mine are all large publishing houses, and my reasoning is this, there are more opportunities there, through imprints or otherwise; chances are they have all of my interested-in-divisions and more. However, a friend recently advised me that publishing is going more independent. The self publisher no longer has the stigma attached to their books and smaller independent book publishers would more than likely have these same departments and services in house. I’ll be looking into that further, so stay tuned.
Anyway, back to what I was saying, my targeted publishing houses are the big ones. Besides the opportunities available, this has an added bonus of getting me out of Orlando, as most publishing companies reside in NY, CA, or MA. Don’t get me wrong, I love it here, but I’ve been here all my life. I’d like to try living elsewhere, have an adventure or two before I have kids and have to start worrying about school zones and money for private school and whatnot. If I end up living in Orlando after the whole kids are born thing, I’d be ok with that. I have family here. I have friends here. Sometimes I can’t even tell the difference between the two. But for now, I preferably want out.
So, I have a list of where I want to go, and I know what I want to do. Since then I’ve been handing out my resume to these companies like they were candy. I have slightly different resumes highlighting different skills for each department. For every company, I have a unique cover letter describing what I think makes that company worth working for. For the positions that I really, really want to get called back for, I even try to use the same language they do in the resumes. All of these are techniques told or taught to me by people who are supposedly experts at getting a job. So far, I’ve received very little correspondence back; and none of it asking to meet me or have a chat on the phone. Sad face.
But I’m thinking it’s my salary requirements. Only recently have I gotten a reliable salary guesstimate for these positions. Apparently, in the real world, an MBA doesn’t actually raise your pay, unless you have that and a large amount of experience in the biz; any biz.
So, from here on in, I’m putting the right pay scale on my applications.
What confuses me though is that in interviews, is it not taboo to discuss pay during the first one anyway? Is it not the rule of thumb to wait until your potential employer brings it up? Why then is salary requirement included in the application process? To weed out those who ask for too much? But how does one know what’s too much? Like I said, I’ve been researching, and every source I’ve found has the pay at much higher than my contact (the reliable one) told me to ask for. So, how do recruiters simply cut those resumes out of the running when it could simply be a misunderstanding? Everything is negotiable.
The good news is that now I know. And at least now I can pinpoint a reason for not getting called back. Additionally, it gives me a reason to follow up with the applications that are sent through email. Hell, it gives me a reason to follow up with all the positions I know haven’t been filled yet. It’s just with the online application database ones I’m going to have to cold call some people; a lot of people. Well, I am supposed to be hounding them.
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