6 minute read

Common Job Curses

Lack Of Research Fatal To Career Progress

Job Seeker's Story

Tom, an experienced Mechanical Engineer in the Michigan automotive industry, was at his wit's end. After having gained and lost or left nine jobs within 11 years, he was stymied in his job search. His track record of jobs appeared to be job hopping, but Tom knew there were good reasons why each job had ended, such as company mergers and bankruptcies, lay-offs, and even one job he had to leave after just six months (insurance salesman). The problem was that Tom wasn't being given a chance to explain these “good reasons” to employers and recruiters, and he was baffled about how to make his case.

After one year of an unsuccessful job search, Tom retained a career coach to help him with his résumé. Tom felt sure that if his résumé were somehow “fixed,” he would have no problem getting interviews.

When Tom explained his job history to the coach, she asked, “How did you find each of your jobs?” In every case, Tom said it was an Internet job posting.

The coach went on to ask, “How much research did you do about the company prior to the interview?” An uncomfortable couple of seconds passed while Tom fidgeted and then unhappily admitted he had done no research at all! Because he was desperate to secure a job with a steady income and benefits, he felt he had to take every job offer. Looking back, Tom realized that strategy had backfired.

Many of the companies Tom had joined had been in dire straits financially or on the verge of being bought out. It was only a matter of a few months before Tom was on the streets again as a job seeker. The longest stint of his employment at any one company was nine months!

Job Seeker's Stumble

Tom's desperation coupled with his lack of company and industry research landed his career in hot water consistently. Even when Tom tried a career change, he ended up in a career field wholly unsuited to him that he felt compelled to leave. Tom needed more from his career coach than just a strategy for presenting his résumé; he first needed coaching on the importance of and methods for company and industry research as absolutely essential components of an effective job search for long-term success.

Job Seeker's New Strategy

Tom's lack of research into industry trends and companies’ backgrounds, including their financial and business status, proved fatal to his career progression. Whereas Tom failed to research companies, employment reviewers and recruiters customarily research candidates to determine who to bring in for interviews and, after more in-depth research, who will get job offers. According to a 2007 survey by ExecuNet, 83 percent of recruiters use search engines to learn about candidates; furthermore, 43.4 percent of recruiters who use the Internet to check out prospects say they have eliminated candidates based on what they found online. Wouldn't it have made sense for Tom to have also used the same selective-research rationale to determine which companies were best bets for interviewing and which ones he could pass up?

Stay organized in your search by drilling down tier by tier: industries, companies, key players, and jobs. Tom could have started with industry research to gain a “big-picture” perspective into the automotive industry, as well as the medical-device industry where he felt he might have a better future. This kind of research yields overall trend information that could have helped Tom as he planned and managed his career future.

Then Tom could have proactively researched top companies in those industries to approach, as well as researching companies that appeared in job postings of interest. That would have maximized his job search efforts by allowing him to eliminate companies with questionable histories or that appeared to be financially distressed.

Finally, within each of the companies that survived his selective-research process, Tom could have researched the appropriate department heads (key players) to contact, as well as researching specific interviewers by name. Asking questions and connecting with other professionals on social networking Websites such as LinkedIn, Ryze, and Facebook could also have yielded “insider” information on industry trends, company culture and values, referrals to key players, and job openings. Armed with this kind of information, Tom would have quickly become recognized as a high-quality and sought-after candidate.

This tiered-research method does take some time, but can be done easily using online and offline resources. The following list represents a sampling of the resources Tom could have used grouped by categories:

Industries and Professional Occupations

Company Financials

Industries/Companies/Key Players

Social Networking

Jobs Boards/Search Engines

Additional topics

Job Descriptions and Careers, Career and Job Opportunities, Career Search, and Career Choices and ProfilesJob Search, Job Interview Questions, & Job Interview TipsCommon Job Curses - Dead-end Job Dilemma, Chart Your Career Future With Care, Lack Of Research Fatal To Career Progress