Why Research is Important When Job Searching

For those of us living in the digital age and making our careers out of it, researching what the market looks like, and what it's predicted to look like, and what it wants, is very extremely important.

Things like what employers are looking for in who they are hiring, what companies are planning their budgets to be regarding digital mediums (social networking, web sites, marketing), and how the economy is agreeing (or disagreeing) with agencies.

Researching these things can be easy, especially if you know where to look.

My first experience with understanding what the digital job market wanted from me, should I start applying, involved looking at job ads on Craigslist. It was very noticeable (even with the scams) that there would be expectations of the applicant that I didn't have any experience with yet, like ASP.net and jQuery, and as a result of seeing these trends, I've started researching the things I know and fiddling with them. Gaining a "working knowledge".

While this doesn't mean I'm an expert at something, it means I have the drive and ambition to learn new things that are expected of me for a job, and that I'm passionate about what I do.

Conferences/Conventions are a luxury for those of us that can be sponsored or can afford it themselves. South by Southwest (SXSW), which is a convention split into Music, Film, and Interactive, with the Interactive section focusing on technology and the digital age, is a popular one. I've mentioned it before, as I know a lot of people that have had the benefit of attending it. I, however, am not one of them.

If anyone has 1k sitting around, I'd be thrilled to go next year!

The most recent research device I have found comes from a 2009 Digital Marketing article from the Society of Digital Agencies. Well, it's not really an article, it's more of a report. Well, it's not really a report, it's more of a... anyways.

This is one of the diagrams in the report. To me, this is one of the most helpful pictures of what the current job market is looking for. Know how I got connected to this? Twitter. Awesome, right? I'm personally so sick of defending myself as to why I love Twitter. But that's another story.

The image to the right links to the site the diagram came from. Well, it's where you can get the report the diagram came from. You have to sign up for a free service to download it, but I recommend it since it's 70 pages and there are a lot of charts that I recommend getting a really good look at.

I haven't had a chance to read the entire thing, but I'm probably going to print it out and read it at the gym, so I'll talk about that later.

As a college student, and as someone entering the digital job market, knowing what is expected of me when really get "out there" is my top priority. When a person has all the tools they need to excel in the job market, the world can be open to them. One of the reasons I'm excited about my future and the job market I'm going into is that I have opportunities all over the world, I don't have to be bound to a building, and I don't have to be bound to just where ever I can get a job.

So, as a main point, researching is a vital part of preparing for the job market. It tells you what employers are expecting of their applicants and it grows you as a professional in the digital age. It keeps you one step ahead of your peers, allowing your resume to be just that much better - and it can increase your job security if you're already employed.

Part of being a geek, which a lot of us are, is the ability to be a student of life - constantly learning. There is so much in life to know and understand, and so much that we will never know or understand, why wait? Get on it! You're on the Internet! It's your job to know the world you live in, so continue onwards and upwards.


Cheers,
Klopfstein