# Job Hunt Strategy - Which job to choose?

After a period of courting various companies, it is quite possible that you end up with a bunch of offers and are left with a dilemma? Which company should I choose? What offer should I accept?

Right now, I am kinda in that stage too - with interviews in progress for a few companies. Will answer this question when I have some clarity myself :)

But again, it is up to you, your preferences. What are you after? Money? Job satisfaction? Diversification / Consolidation of job skills? Preference for a particular location?

More soon...

# Job hunt Strategy - Cast a wide net & Have an open mind.

"Cast a wide net. Better chances of catching fish". - Old jungle saying (kidding :)

"Mind is like a parachute. Works best when open". - True saying. Not kidding. 

These 2 strategies shall help you get through to more jobs. Do not presume that such and such is a good fit for you. Give some liberty to the recruiter too. Let him / her have a say in what is a good fit for you. Do apply for the general resume submission. And do email a copy of resume if they accept emailed resumes for their database.

Typically, once you start applying, expect a week or 2 or 3 of lull (before the storm). After the perios of silence, expect to bombarded with replies from various companies.

Maintain separate folders for companies in your email. Sort them out. Flag the important emails. Reply on time. Do not delay. Stay on top of things rather than get overwhelmed by the load of emails you receive.

# Job hunt Strategy - Maintain a log book

When you start applying for jobs, you kinda lose track about which companies you have applied for. And you end up with a million user ids and passwords. So what you can to simplify this process is this:

Maintain an excel sheet record of all your applications. That shall help you lots. For example:
Serial number, name of company applied to, position applied to, follow up and remarks. Try it :)

GE Healthcare Careers

Correlation of Business School that you study in, to the Jobs available for you in the market.

There is an adage "It is not what you know, but WHO you know that matters in Canada". Similarly, it DOES matter which business school you go to study if you need jobs purely by networking or purely by help from then Career Services department of the business school.

Sure, if you are confident enough to find a job on your own, any school will do. But if you want good networks, then go to a business school with MAXIMUM networks. As of now, TRSM / Ryerson MBA being a relatively new program, does NOT have extensive connections in the industry as compared to many other business schools in Ontario. I am hoping that this shall change with time as TRSM builds its networks and the alumni grows.

There are many companies that have tie ups with other business schools but do NOT have tie ups with TRSM. This is where schools like Schulich, DeGroote and Rotman score over TRSM. The other schools have networks with the industry since decades as well as thousands of alumni.

Here are some examples - and I shall build the list with time -
* Colgate Palmolive deals with Schulich, Queen's, Ivey & McGill but not TRSM.
http://www.colgate.ca/app/Colgate/CA/EN/Corp/StudentOpportunities/DevelopmentPrograms.cvsp

* Eli Lilly has contract with DeGroote for its internship program, but not with TRSM. That SUCKS!

 http://www.lilly.ca/en?t=/contentManager/selectCatalog&e=UTF-8&i=1306943185696&l=0&s=54W2yts5bax6ABj3&ParentID=1247069449030

* GE has tie ups with some Universities like McMaster, Waterloo, McGill, Queen, Calgary, Wilfred Laurier but NOT with Ryerson University.
http://www.ge.com/careers/students/recruiting/canada_info.html


I notice a pattern here:
Queen's University and McMaster University have extensive industry connections, waaaay better than that of other Universities. and so on...

Does that mean that I would have preferred going to Queen's? Hell, no! For the VFM (Value For Money) at TRSM, I think that I am capable enough to find a decent job myself :)

Welcome to BeKnown, from Monster Worldwide - A Facebook App

1. Introducing BeKnown - A new experience from Monster.com

Using LinkedIn to find jobs

Thus far, I looked for jobs at company websites - career section as well as sites like:

• Monster.ca
• Workopolis.ca
• wowjobs.ca     etc

Now, I am taking a look at LinkedIn as well. Sometimes, there are resources right under the nose and we kinda neglect them. So far, I had used LinkedIn as a way to make connections. But I had not used it for job search - honest confession. Hope to use LinkedIn as the search engine for jobs now on :)

Another question that arises is this: Should one use LinkedIn upgrade (and pay about $50 a month instead of using it as a free service) and get extra services? Is this strategy effective? Hmmm... Gotta mull over this for a while.

By the way, LinkedIn does allow you to download your resume in a PDF format. Try that. It is pretty decent. Cheers!

2nd stage of interview does not excite me anymore ...

Anybody who has experience in sales will tell you that not all leads get converted into sales. One must have a lot of patience and persistence to get to that "aha" moment. As they say (for girls), you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the prince.

Same with job hunting. It needs a lot of patience, especially in a tough economy. Getting to the 2nd stage of the interview does not excite me anymore. Why? That's because there is not always a guarantee of conversion into a job offer. Sometimes, there is administrative delay from the side of the company and you just do not hear back from them for weeks...

Currently, I am in the 2nd stage of the interview process for 4 different companies. But the wait if frustrating. Keeping fingers crossed...