Career Search: The plan from the beginning

I'm in that place where I don't think anyone wants to be: Everyone has jobs or plans and I'm still looking. My goal is to work in Washington, D.C. in the public finance sector. First, I was mostly interested in economic consulting and similar positions. Now, with the excitement of the 2008 presidential election, I'm looking for a political position. I've worked on my search for the entire year but now I've got concrete ideas of what I want to do. Now the real search starts.

Today, I'll introduce the first steps of the plan. Stay tuned for the next steps--I'll keep them general so they're easy to apply, and you'll also hear about them from my experience.

I'm starting out by locating interesting positions and organizations. The best place to start is regular job listings. For that, start with experience.com, especially if they are linked with your on-campus career center. In addition, find some industry-specific sites. In the public sector search, the Brad Traverse list (http://www.bradtraverse.com/) is one of the best. The only problem is it's subscription based: $10 to join and $5/month. I signed up because the listings are fantastic, but there are other options without costs. Once I've narrowed this list down to 5-10 options, I'll draft some cover letters and start the application process. More to come on this in the future.

At the same time, I'm working on my network. To effectively make contact, seek out people who can provide information and connections. For me, I'm starting with the people in the office where I interned last summer. Ask people to help you, be reasonable, and don't take it for granted. People want to help--find them through alumni contacts, parents, professors, whatever. Just find them.

Now, here's how to expand the network. You've made contact but what can that do? Ask your contacts if they have any contacts. Specifically, ask them if they have connections to anyone in the positions you are interested in. Be sure to let everyone in this process know that you are not asking for a job, but how to get one. Finally, if you're successful, you'll have a network of contacts stretching to a number of individuals who went down the same path you're starting out on. Contact those individuals and ask them for help: They know better than anyone else how they got their job.