Leadership Roles for the Job Hunter
Although assuming a visible leadership role in your professional community forms the essence of my strategy, not all leaderships roles have equal value for the job hunter. I have listed what I consider to be the best four roles in a typical professional group with my sense of a ratio of time put in relationship to the benefit you get from it as a job hunter.
In the parenthesis, I have listed the typical hours per month you will spend at each role on the left and the relative value (10 being the highest) of each role on the right.
Resume Bank (2/10) - This is my favorite role for job hunters, because you will be the first in your group to find out about any employment opportunities. Recruiters will contact you as will others who refer their candidate searches through you. And of course, you should definitely inform the rest of the group about any opportunities you don't want yourself! So what do you do if your professional organization does not have a Resume Bank? Start one!
Newsletter Editor (7/10) - Although writing/producing a newsletter can take quite a bit of time, it provides you with the opportunity to have a monthly column with your picture in every issue. One of my clients even put "Qualified and Job Hunting" underneath his name!
Activities Committee Chairperson (8/10) - This role is excellent because it allows you to call up any expert in the world and invite him/her to speak at an upcoming meeting. As chairperson, you can pick up this speaker at the airport, tell him/her you are job hunting, ask for referrals, etc.
Executive Position (15/9) - While executive positions are generally good for visibility, they typically are much too demanding time-wise to be appropriate for job hunters.
