5 Steps to Starting Your Job Search Project. Every journey begins with a single step.

Is it time to find a new job? Some of us wake up most morning feeling like we don’t want to go into work, or that we have to change jobs. Others arrive at their job one morning and find that they are no longer welcome. Either the department has closed, the whole company is gone, or their individual services are no longer needed.

Whether the job has left you or you have decided to leave the job, it is time to act. Often perspective clients come to me and tell me they need a resume but is this really the first step? Here are some things we feel you should think about before you even start planning a resume:

1. Do you have to change jobs?
2. What kind of job do you need?
3. What career level do you want to be at?
4. Where do you want to work?
5. What strategy will you use to find a job?
6. What level of compensation do you need?

These five questions are just the starting point. Over the next ten or more weeks we will prepare blog posts discussing each phase of the job search process. Short blog posts will not give you all the answers, but we think they will give you enough information to help you get started on a successful search.

Do you need a new job?

You may already have the answer to this question if your job has left you. You know it is time to move on if you have been downsized by the DOGE in the federal government, accepted a deferred resignation plan from the federal government, or if your company or non-profit agency has let you go. You may have also left a job on your own volition for whatever reason. Regardless of whether you have been downsized or left the job on your own, you can skip the “whether or not you need a new job” step.

The situation can be more challenging when you have to consciously decide whether to stay at a job or whether to go. It can sometimes make sense to “go down with the ship” because you get severance pay and unemployment insurance benefits when that happens.

Career professionals like to say that it is probably time for you to leave when you feel it is time to make a change. Unfortunately, the decision is not always that simple. We have put a brief questionnaire on our website that is designed to help validate your gut feeling that it is time to look for a new job. You can do the survey and keep your results confidential if you wish.

The best situation, of course, is to find a new job while you are still working. This approach avoids interruptions to your salary and benefits, but it can be difficult to do an effective search while you are also obligated to be at your job full-time. As a result, there is a tradeoff to think about.

Once you have decided that it is time to look for another job, the next step is to figure out what kind of job you are looking for. You may already know that you want to continue working in the same function and in the same industry. There are times though when you may feel it is time to change what you do entirely and not just switch places of employment.

What kind of job do you want?

Career change is a challenge. One study I saw years ago suggested that up to 90% of job seekers who say they want to change careers wind up back in the same career or job. This is because it is very difficult to convince prospective employers that you are a match for work in a different field. But it can be done if you are qualified and determined to make a career change.

Career management coaches have a number of tools that can help you decide whether a career change would work for you and what careers you may want to consider. You can also do research on your own.

A number of assessment tools are available online and through career management coaches that can help point you in the right direction. My favorite is a tool called the DISC Communications Assessment that can point you toward jobs and careers that match your soft skills and work style. A DISC assessment is not a personality assessment or aptitude assessment though although it is available at much lower cost than tools such as MBTI. We have provided more details on the DISC assessment in a previous post.

You can also do research on your own to determine whether a career you are thinking about is suitable for you. My favorite technique is to speak with people who are doing the job you think you want to do and then think about whether you can visualize yourself in that job.

A new career may be more complex or require more training than you expect. For example, a New York Times article, “Major Decisions,” pointed out that one has to be more than kind-hearted to be a successful nurse. It is a very technical field where students take classes similar to those pre-medical students study.

Give career change a lot of thought before committing yourself to this course of action.

What career level do you want to work at?

Your next step is to determine what career level you want to work at. Are you qualified to be an intern, entry-level employee, journeyman-level individual contributor, supervisor, manager, or executive?

You will probably not get good job search results when you apply for jobs at the wrong level. For example, a client I worked with some years ago was very disappointed when she was not landing interviews. She was not landing interviews, I found, because she was applying for jobs that required ten years of experience in her field or more. Although she had just finished her graduate program and had never worked in the field. Read job leads carefully to make sure you qualify at the career level you are applying to work in.

Where do you want to work?

The next step is to decide where you want to work. Job leads can be valid for a very short time or even be fake. As a result, a more productive approach can be to develop a list of companies that you want to work for and then make contacts in those companies and research those companies. This part of the job search was always the most fun for me because I enjoy doing research and speaking with people in different companies and industries to find out what they do. Whether you are making a major career shift or just looking for a job in the same industry and function, this is is one of the most worthwhile steps you can take before you start a job search.

Another blog post provides more detailed information on selecting target companies for your job search.

What job search strategy will you use?

Job search is more complicated than simply applying for every job posted online. This “spray and pray” technique gets a very low response rate while frustrating employers because most of the applications they get are from job seekers that are totally unqualified for their open positions. As a result, you may want to investigate more sophisticated strategies.

People hire people so the most successful strategies involve personal networking. For example, you can use LinkedIn and your personal contact list to identify people you know who either work in companies you want to work for or know people that work in those companies. Then you can talk to these people to find out whether they know of opportunities for you or know of people who may be aware of opportunities in your target companies.

You can also opt to join professional organizations or volunteer for non-profit organizations doing work related to your field of interest. Personally, I have landed two of my favorite jobs through volunteer efforts.

A career professional who trained me liked to say any job search technique you could do in your PJs is too passive. You have to get out there and speak with other people.

What level of compensation are you seeking?

An article in New York Magazine I read years ago called “Salary: The Last Taboo” said people would rather discuss their loved lives than their salaries. Today some major states and cities have pay transparency laws that require pay ranges to be included in job postings in many cases. As a result, it is easier than it used to be to decide on the salary you should be requesting.

Most businesses, and even the public sector to a certain extent, work in a similar way. The top people are very highly compensated. In some cases, they earn enough money to choke an ATM. The rest of us have to scramble. That doesn’t mean you have to accept being underpaid. It means you have to be realistic and research what you are worth in the market.

Final thoughts

Now that you have made basic decisions about your career direction, it is time to start preparing your career marketing documents. We will discuss this step in more detail during the next few weeks.