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where/how do you look for jobs?
I would really like to find another job closer to home. I've sort of painted myself into a corner w/ my current job field - as its very narrow and there are not alot of jobs at my level and if they do have them - they are all in DC (possibly Baltimore, but not many). I need to expand my industry options - but I'm not quite sure how. I have a broad search running on Monster every day, but that hasnt' yield anything really.
I'm on LinkedIn and I've mentioned this to people IRL too, but most of my business contacts are in my field. I haven't actually "looked" for a job since the early 1990's - everything has come to me through contacts, so I really don't know how to start. I know its a long process and I'm not in any huge rush. .. but I feel like I really don't know how to go about this process anymore.
Help/Ideas - suggestions??
Re: where/how do you look for jobs?
What do you do and how do you think you want to/need to branch out? I like the website indeed.com. If I find a listing that I like or many that seem around what I like, I'll go directly to the business site to see if they have better/more interesting openings. I've also found careerbuilder pulls better jobs than monster.
I should say about indeed - they don't have their own job listings, they pull from multiple sites - kind of like kayak.com for travel. I think that is what makes it so good. And it is really good at pulling relevant jobs.
I am in charge of researching all my company's incoming work and I ultimately manage a huge database w/ all kinds of relevant information about the clients, their accounts and their cases, etc. So, I deal w/ research and data, but not in a technical way, but I also make sure we comply with certain legal requirements and deal w/ the lawyers and staff to make sure we follow establish procedures. Its a research based job, but unique to law firms.
Indeed is a good idea - I've never been there before - thanks for the suggestion.
Ditto uc on using online job listings to give you a lead toward the actual company website. Not knowing anything about how you want to branch out, what you want to branch into, etc - I'd say that the best general advice is to start off by figuring out what kind of company you want to work for, then find those companies - either by job listings, or industry groups or whatever.
Like...I'm an engineer. I go to the American Socieity of Civil Engineers or Institute of Transportation Engineers website and see who their members work for around here. That gives me a starting point to reseach what those firms do, if they're hiring, benefits, etc and then I bombard the good ones with my resume. Whether they have a listing that fits me or not...I'll either pick the listing that I almost fit (which is how I got my current job) or I'll just send a resume and cover letter to the hiring contact anyway, saying in the CL that if anything opens up I'm interested.
In your case, re-writing your resume to emphasize the skills that are relevant in the field you'd like to branch into is also important. (I'd also like to take this moment to say: I no longer have a working in-browser spellcheck. Please forgive me)
My Goodness...another food blog. Featuring: Macarons from a old post with a photo taken by my mom for a break from my crappy food photos!
hmmmm - see but I don't know where else I could use my skills; I guess that's kind of the problem. I know they have to be applicable in other fields, but I don't know enough about other industries to know where/how I would use them.
Ah. Ok. Yeah...not sure what to tell you there. "What do I want to be when i grow up" is a much bigger question. I mean, I know that's not really what you're asking, but it kinda is.
My Goodness...another food blog. Featuring: Macarons from a old post with a photo taken by my mom for a break from my crappy food photos!
Are you specially trained for law work or do you just happen to work for a lawfirm. A couple other types of positions that sound similar would be research coordinator or project manager. I'm not sure if research coordinator would be lower than what you do now. I know there are places that hire project managers without a PMP certification. I think you could get into either of those in business or university settings, more so through business and contracting firms (Booz Allen, L3, etc). I've recently seen some research coordinator positions at Johns Hopkins. My work is looking to hire a couple PMs, though I can't say I'd recommend working here right now, but we hire without certification and will pay for test training and test costs.
If you, Kathryn, decide to look into Project Manager jobs, pay close attention to the field. In IT, you'll be expected to have a working knowledge of the SDLC (Standard Development Life Cycle), and how that would apply to that particular IT field and project. There's a LOT involved in being an IT PM, and I don't believe your work experience would have you suited for the task.
See - that's kinda what I'm thinking - but when I look at those jobs, they all seem very computer/technically oriented - like I need to know certain computer programs, etc. I thnk I'm missing some kind of vocabulary term to look for non-computer versions.
I should look @ Booz Allen, etc. and see if there's anything there.
BTW - I just sort of ended up in law firms - I don't have any special training per se.
We are research oriented, so our PMs don't have a technology requirement. They do a lot with contracts and dealing with clients and researchers. Making sure for the organization that the projects are running on time and on budget and working on behalf of the researchers to be able to go to leadership when leadership (or clients) are being unreasonable and asking for things that are outside of the scope of the originally agreed upon project. Kind of like an administratively heavy liason. Generally there is a budget/financial component to project management but that level of involvement can vary by organization.
Thanks ladies - I appreciate your thoughts and insights.
ucgrad - will you PM the name of your organization so I can look at job descriptions - I do think that sounds like sort of what I'm looking for - some kind of admin liason, but not secretarial. And, I dont' have enough of a finance background to sell myself on it, but I can get by.
No clue if this will help you...but I thought this blog post was a pretty comprehensive look at options for career changers.
http://corporette.com/2011/04/18/tips-on-changing-careers/
(although seriously...I sometimes hate that blog. I have a weird love of suits even though I have no reason to wear them on a regular basis and she makes me want to buy a new one about once a month. fun to drool though)
My Goodness...another food blog. Featuring: Macarons from a old post with a photo taken by my mom for a break from my crappy food photos!