What if there was a silver bullet for job searching? What if you could do one thing that would increase your chances of finding your dream job exponentially? Fortunately, you can.

Richard N. Bolles, author of the best-selling career book of all time (What Color Is Your Parachute) has done the heavy lifting for us. Based on decades of experience counseling job seekers and studying the employment market he has determined the least successful and most successful strategies.

Least Productive Ways to Find a Job

1. Mailing resumes to employers (7%  success rate)
2. Responding to ads in professional or trade journals (7%) 
   
3. Using the internet to look for employer job postings (10%)
4. Answering local newspaper ads (5-24%)
5. Seeking an employment agency or search firm (5-28%)

Most Productive Ways to Find a Job

1. Networking (33%)
2. Door Knocking (47%)
3. Personal Research (69%)

But the absolutely most successful job hunting strategy  with an 86% success rate is (#4) DO HOMEWORK ON YOURSELF. This is 12x more effective than sending out resumes. Bolles says this is so because of a UNIVERSAL TRUTH: “You must keep your eyes always on the target you are trying to reach. And the more detailed your picture of that target, the more likely you are to reach it. Vision is everything. The vision of who you are and what you want to do for the rest of your life.”

In conjunction with Essentials, One Source Health Careers has developed a cutting edge tool to help you do just this – get a grip on yourself. Our simple, but comprehensive psychological profile surfaces your key performance motivators, strengths, and weaknesses even providing you with recommendations for greater success. You can read more about it and check out a sample profile here.

Then, why not try it out yourself?

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