Manage Your Job Search

by Johanna Rothman

Are you a technical person, such as a software developer, tester, writer, or project manager? You know that a job search is tough. You have to network, online and in person. You have to customize your resume for each job, so you can showcase your talent and technical skills. You have to look for a culture that fits you. How do you start?

Treat your job hunt like the project it is. Use agile and lean project management approaches that allow you to create a visual system.

You’ll increase your productivity, track your progress, evaluate your work, gain feedback, and throw out what doesn’t work while building on your successes. Learn from your past career to optimize for your next step. Full of tips, stories, and humor, this book shows you how to apply practical techniques to take control of the most important project you’ll ever work on: finding your next best job.

This work was written and produced entirely by the author. We are proud to be distributing it.

A job search is an emergent project. How do you handle an emergent project? By creating a system that allows for serendipity and flexibility: personal kanban and one-week timeboxes.

Once you have a system, you can use the tips in Part 2 to prepare for your job search: choose your career, write your résumé, prepare for your interviews, and decide how you will decide on an offer. In Part 3, you’ll learn how to network without feeling slimy. You’ll learn to build your target network, where to look for the jobs that you need, and how to spot the warning signs of a job that organizations might no longer need. There are many traps for unsuspecting job hunters, so Part 4 has a section on traps to avoid and tips to try. If you’re in special circumstances, such as being a new grad, in a career transition, or over 50, then Part 5 is for you. Even if you’ve been diligent, any job search can take more than three months. Part 6 addresses your feelings and how to persevere when your search seems as if it takes forever.

Written with her trademark practicality, humor, and empathy, Johanna will help you learn how to find your next job.

This book was written and produced entirely by the author. We are proud to be distributing it.

Releases:

• P1.0 2014/03/20

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1: Learn to Manage Your Job Search Project

• Become Your Own Project Manager
• Start Using Your Kanban Board
• Reflect on the Past Week
• Iterate and Organize

Part 2: Choosing a Career, Interviewing, and Deciding on an Offer

• Know Your Previous Job Patterns
• Write Your Résumé
• Prepare for the Interview
• Decide How You Will Decide on an Offer

Part 3: Build Your Network

• Network, Network, Network
• Use Social Media to Network

Part 4: Iterate Through These Job Hunting Traps and Tips

• Avoid These Traps
• Try These Tips

Part 5: Special Circumstances: New Grad, Career Transition, Over 50

• What You Need to Know if You Are in Transition
• Just for People Over 50

Part 6: What to do When Your Job Search Takes Longer Than Three Months

• It’s Been Three Months. Now What?

Glossary

Annotated Bibliography

More from Johanna

I consult, speak, and write on managing high-technology product development. I’ve helped managers, teams, and organizations to become more effective by applying my pragmatic approaches to their issues of hiring, project management, risk management, and people management.

I’m the author of Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Project Schedule or Cost, Manage Your Job Search, Hiring Geeks That Fit, Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects, Manage It! Your Guide to Modern Pragmatic Project Management, Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (with Esther Derby), and Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People.