4 Pillars of Your Job Target: Know your destinations so you can get there!

The big job market news in recent weeks has been the major effort underway to restructure the federal government and aggressively downsize its workforce. You, or someone you know, may have had their job “dismantled” as a result of closing all DEI functions. Or, you may have to decide within a few days whether to accept the “fork in the road,” and depart federal employment at or before the end of this fiscal year.

Your job may also be at risk if you are a contractor or consultant (especially a DEI consultant) serving the federal government. As we know from basic economics, market changes have a “multiplier” and “accelerator” affect that causes ripples throughout the economy.

And, as I type this, the US, Canada, and Mexico have become embroiled in a “tariff war.” This will reduce the demand for US exports and raise import costs in our supply chain, leading to further job losses.

Whether your job is being “dismantled,” “forked,” or you are losing your government customer base, you may want to find another job. Should you look for “any job” to pay the bills, or search for something specific?

There is a good chance you will find that friends, family, coworkers, and others cannot help you unless you articulate what you want to do next. Coaches refer to this as your identifying your job target. You will be one step closer to identifying your next professional challenge when you set a realistic job target. Elements, or “pillars” of a job target include:

1. Job title,
2. Career level,
3. Industry or sector, and
4. Location.

Each aspect of a job target is important for your success. They should be addressed explicitly or implicitly in your resume’s personal brand statement and accomplishment-based summary. Additionally, all four pillars of your job target should be reflected in your LinkedIn headline, contact card, and “about” section.

Job Title or Function

The job title or function answers the question “what are you?” Are you an accountant, software engineer, customer service representative, administrative assistant, etc.? Prospective employers, recruiters, and industry contacts are not going to analyze your work history and education to figure out what job function to put you in.

Many of us work in job functions that bear little connection to our college major so it won’t clue readers in to our job target. My own college major was Economics, I worked in an accounting-related federal government job, and now work in career services. My father majored in Chemistry, and then spent his career in telecommunications. A software engineer I have worked with has a law degree and practiced bankruptcy law.

As a federal employee you may feel there is an extra hurdle—an obscure job classification. For example, I was a “GAO Evaluator.” There is no such thing outside of the GAO.

Corporations often create obscure job titles, too, so this is not an unusual situation. For example, a client I worked with had the title “Patient Access Coordinator” at a hospital. This would translate to customer service representative in a setting outside of healthcare. We would have used a “compound job title” if she was transitioning to work outside of healthcare.

You’ll have two job title challenges when leaving government. First, translate your current title to something the business world will understand. Next, you need to know the job title that most closely matches your goal in the new industry.

Career Level

The next step for picking your job target is establishing the career level. Are you seeking work as an intern, entry level staff member, experienced individual contributor (sometimes called a journeyman), senior level, supervisor, or executive?

No one will figure out what level you want to work at, but they will analyze your background to decide whether you are qualified for that level. For example, a jobseeker I worked with wanted to apply for a job at the United Nations that required ten years of specialized experience in a certain field. She just finished graduate school in the field. Her experience prior to graduate school was as a customer service rep at a bank. We recommended that the jobseeker match her credentials to the job announcement before engaging me to collaborate on a resume. As a result of this analysis, she realized that this job target would not work for her.

Industry or Sector

It’s important to address the industry or sector you want to work in. A hospital accountant, for example, deals with a different maze of rules and regulations than, say, a real-estate accountant. You’ll have to demonstrate, at a minimum, that you are flexible enough to learn and then implement a different set of rules if you are coming from a different industry. Similarly, if you are departing from the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a financial job at a hospital may potentially be a match, but a finance job in real estate might not use comparable knowledge.

You will improve your chances of landing the right job for you when you find an industry that will benefit from the skills and experience you gained in government.

\Location

Consider the location where you want to work even when you are targeting remote roles. The best practice is for your resume and LinkedIn profile to reflect the location where you want to work, rather than where you are now. Otherwise you may be eliminated from consideration, or you may not be found in searches, when the employer wants you to be in a certain geographic area. And private sector employers, like the government, are encouraging or requiring “return to office,” so specifying the metro area where you want to work is more important than ever.

While you probably won’t include your location in your brand heading, it will be implied by the location in your resume header and LinkedIn contact card.

What if You Lack a Job Target?

Downsizing and restructuring comes unexpectedly for most of us. It happens when financial conditions change in many industries, as well as in government. So, it is understandable if you do not have a job target yet. Career management coaches have tools that may help you identify potential job targets that match skills, education, personality traits, and communications style to jobs and careers. There are many resources online, too, so don’t panic. But you will benefit from identifying the right job target because it is difficult to start a journey without a destination!