Office of Disability Concerns
Job Search Tips
- Make a commitment to find a job before starting the search. Resolve that nothing right now is more important than finding the job you want.
- Identify your goals and put them on paper, whatever they are. The goals may be, "I want to be paid well," or "I want to be outstanding in my field." Seeing your goals written down can help you plan how you will achieve them.
- Draft a blueprint of steps needed to achieve your goals and look at the obstacles as well as the opportunities. Ask yourself specific questions about the job goal you have chosen.
- Establish a timeline for accomplishing each step along the way to your goal. Even if you miss the target dates, you will have established a goal.
Use as many of these 13 avenues of job hunting as possible:
-
- use the Internet
- use contacts of family, friends, former teachers
- make cold calls at personnel offices
- get on state and federal registers or hiring programs for people with disabilities
- contact public employment services; Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, City and County Personnel Offices
- contact temporary employment agencies
- contact local college placement offices
- call job lines
- answer ads in the newspaper
- place your ad in the newspaper
- mail out resumes
- work through a job search program
- contact private employment agencies
Finally, do not stay home waiting for job offers by mail or phone. You must attack the job market each day.
Most Commonly Used Job Search Methods
| METHOD | PERCENT OF TOTAL JOB SEEKERS USING THIS METHOD | EFFECTIVENESS RATE* |
|---|---|---|
| Applied directly to employer | 66.0% | 47.7% |
| Asked friends about where they work | 50.8% | 22.1% |
| Answered local newspaper ads | 45.9% | 23.9% |
| Asked friends about jobs elsewhere | 41.8% | 11.9% |
| Asked relatives about jobs where they work | 28.4% | 19.3% |
| Asked relatives about jobs elsewhere | 27.3% | 7.4% |
| Private employment agency | 21.0% | 24.2% |
| Civil Service test | 15.3% | 12.5% |
| School placement office | 12.5% | 21.4% |
| Asked teacher or professor | 10.4% | 12.1% |
| Union hiring hall | 6.0% | 22.2% |
| Placed ad in local newspaper | 1.6% | 12.9% |
- A percentage obtained by dividing number of job seekers who actually found work using the method, by the total number of job seekers who tried to use that method, whether successful or not.