If you were to perform a statistical research project to determine the percentage of job seekers who have a written, strategic plan on how they will go from unemployed to employed or underemployed to rewardingly employed, you’d be hard pressed to get more than 1% at most. If there was one component of the job transition (job search) campaign that causes pain, underachievement, and hardship for most job seekers, it’s the lack of a cohesive written plan. Most job seekers key in on their resume. But what good is an exceptional resume accompanied by a poor strategy? That would be like getting in a Ferrari and driving east to catch a sunset.   Great car; poor strategy; no sunset!

Similar to a scientific experiment, there is a structured process to attaining that right job at the right pay.   When you create a MAP (Massive Action Plan), you create a ‘success roadmap.” A MAP challenges you to:

1. Define a clear job objective
   - What job(s) are you seeking?
2. Evaluate urgency
   - How soon must you secure employment?
3. Assess potential obstacles
   - Identify potential barriers to success and develop a strategy to neutralize / eliminate them.
4. Identify which of the 10 ways to secure employment will work best for you
   - You will need to develop a multi-faceted plan to ensure you secure the job you want at the pay you deserve.
5. Optimize your resources
   - How do you plan to wisely invest your resources of time, energy, and money?
6. Set goals
   - How many resumes will you send out a week? How many people from your network will you contact each week? What are your targeted weekly goals?
7. Measure results
   - If your plan is not working, you must have a method for measuring what you have been doing in order to modify it. You can’t fix what you can’t measure.

Before one can develop a pragmatic job search strategy, one must be aware of the methods of securing a job and what the odds are of each strategy for landing the ‘right’ job. Below are the 10 methods for securing employment and the success rate of each. Though these statistics may vary based on geography, industry, and individual situation, these statistics are universally accepted by most employment and career management experts.

Once you have determined which methods will work best for you, you must develop a plan that specifically outlines what tasks you will do each day to achieve the results you desire. This begins with identifying how many hours a week you plan to invest in your job transition efforts. Then you must break down your weekly hours into daily hours and tasks.

For instance, if John decides to invest 45 hours a week in his job transition campaign, he might break up his week as follows:

Weekly Breakdown

Your MAP (Massive Action Plan) must include weekly goals. How many resumes do you want to send out a week? How many new contacts do you want to initiate? How many networking events do you want to attend? How many hours on the Internet do you want to invest in, and how many job boards will you post your resume on? How many interviews do you want to go on each week?

In the end, the success of transitioning from one job to another, or from no job to a new one, is in direct proportion to the effectiveness of one’s action plan. Most job seekers don’t have any kind of plan. As a consequence, most job searches are long, arduous and ultimately underachieving.

Armed with a powerful resume that promotes your ability to produce results, and an effective MAP that will lead you to your next job, you will achieve your career goals – and reap the rewards at working at a job that is truly worthy of your skills and abilities.