Last year I participated in Job Action Day by publishing a post called Making Job Search Social. I took a look at how being more outgoing in your job search can push you forward. This year I want to go along with some of the Job Action Day 2009 themes and talk about one key concept:

Being entrepreneurial in your job search

What does that mean? It simply means being opportunistic and taking advantage of favorable situations. Whether you aspire to run your own business or not, you need to start shadowing great entrepreneurs right now.

…But I’m Not an Entrepreneur

What’s that? You thought that you were supposed to be looking for jobs? That’s wrong.

You need to be looking for companies and entrepreneurs that are creating success day in and day out.

There are lots of people making lots of money right now—and I’m not just talking about bank CEOs who are getting huge compensation for lackluster performance (although you can even learn from them). I’m really talking about people who have been growing businesses through a significant recession. You don’t need to concern yourself with how they’re doing it or why they’re so successful—although you’ll want to learn that eventually. You just need to take a look at what they’re doing, and then figure out how you can jump on the bandwagon.

Early Adoption Is Key

Let’s look at a couple of examples of how this works outside the job search.

Have you ever started a fashion trend? Not bloody likely. Have you ever been an early adopter of a fashion trend? There’s a decent chance.

Have you ever created a joke or coined a catchphrase that became insanely popular? I doubt it. Have you ever introduced your friends to a great joke or catchphrase? I hope you have at least once for your sake.

Those few weeks when you were one of a dozen kids at school popping your collar felt great. Ok, it actually felt kind of awkward. You were totally unsure of yourself, but then popped collars caught on, and you were able to take credit for being an early adopter. You weren’t so sure at first that popping your collar would be cool, but your super cool friend did. So you trusted him. And it worked.

I know this is a stupid example that trivializes what you’re going through in the job search, but think about it. You need to stop trying to do too much, and start cheating by using the intuition of successful people. You don’t need to take the risks that they take. You can wait for their initial successes, and then jump in.

How To Apply This

The reason that the traditional job search is so hard right now is because opportunities are few and far between. Large companies aren’t growing, and many people get more risk averse in a recession. That means that there’s more competition than ever for most jobs.

But if you move to where the opportunity isn’t quite as certain, you’ll have a huge advantage. Yes, you’ll be taking on a little more risk, but you’ll be way ahead of the competition. You’ll have to work harder to find what you’re looking for, but the rewards will be worth it.

We’ve heard a lot about how much growth there is in green jobs, alternative energy jobs, social media jobs, and even government jobs, but now everybody knows about those. How will you find the next big industries of growth? Or how will you find out about the new companies in these areas that aren’t yet on the radar?

You look for the new leaders. They’re the ones being featured on magazine lists. They’re the ones who were tweeting on Twitter 2 years ago. They’re the ones who went to YOUR college.

However, they’re not the ones posting their jobs on job boards. They’re not the ones going to job fairs. They might not even be hiring right now at all.

They’re too busy growing their businesses.

But they will respond to your e-mail. They will talk to you about your career aspirations. And they might even respond with a job offer to your cold call (if you do it right).

These are the people that you want to follow. They’re in the process of making something out of nothing—and that something might include a job for you. Entrepreneurship is a great alternative to the job search, but it’s not the right path for most new college grads. However, an entrepreneurial mindset and a knack for being an early adopter will give you an edge that most other job seekers are too scared to have.

Don’t get caught up in looking for jobs. Look for cool companies. Look for charismatic entrepreneurs. Look for opportunities that will turn into jobs instead of jobs that will turn into opportunities.

Be sure to check out JobActionDay.com to find more great content related that will help you with your job search.

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