33_DAY4_2005-02-25

Day 4 - Find the demand for jobs in your area

Get new ideas for the kind of jobs available to your skill set.

Last update: February 28, 2006 - 9:39 AM

Yesterday, you identified three of your favorite skills.

Use startribune.com/jobs or some similar site as a resource. You're NOT looking for jobs at this point, only information. You want to get new ideas for the types of jobs using the three skills identified in Day 3.

Let's say your three favorite skills are writing, training and managing. Go to startibune.com/jobs and perform a search.

For example, I typed in the three skills above like this: writing training managing (no spaces or commas!) and the "Quick Job Search" tool returned these results:

Credit Consultant
Help Desk Manager
Claims Intake Supervisor

That's quite a variety. A range of job titles like this will help you brainstorm and choose your dream job more effectively.

But don't stop there. Experiment with different combinations of your top three skills. Example combinations to search for:

writing, training, managing
writer, trainer, manager
writing, training, management

Use many keyword combinations to generate a nice-sized list of job openings. Because, what you want to do next is ...

Day 5: Find demand for jobs where you live.

Kevin Donlin owns Minnesota based Guaranteed Resumes and writes a biweekly column providing job search and resume writing advice. He is also the author of the books "51 Ways to Find a Job Fast -- Guaranteed" and "Resume and Cover Letter Secrets Revealed." Reach him at the Guaranteed Resumes website: http://www.gresumes.com.