Brainstorming Target Organizations

The process of targeting is all about creating choices for yourself. It requires some creative thinking that only you can do. The easiest type of targeting which helps to understand the concept is geographic. If you are not willing to commute more than 15 miles from home to work, a 15 mile radius from home is you’re “A” target zone. You might extend your commute for the right job, so let’s say that your “B” zone is 30 miles from home but it must be the ideal job for you. Now you might even commute as much as 45 mile for the right job, so your target “C” zone is 45 miles away. With this little exercise we have created 3 geographic zones and now we want to look at organizations in these zones that may have the job position that you are targeting.

To help you to understand the concept, I am going to use the targets that I developed for myself in 2008. I have a long history in the high tech industry prior to my coaching career. I am an expert in radio frequency identification which is an automatic identification technology similar to bar codes, except bar code use light wave and RFID uses radio waves. You can read this article at Wikipedia, if you need to understand the technology better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification. My goal at the time was to land project or part-time work as a business development executive. Below are the five targets that I developed for myself:

Target 1:

An internal consulting or part-time business development role with a start-up hardware company headquartered in the SF Bay Area that makes wireless data collection technology; were I can leverage my experience in channel development and knowledge of the automatic data collection industry. Wireless data collection devices include hand held data terminals, Personal Data Assistants (PDA’s) with wireless interfaces, RFID both Passive and Active, GPS devices, battery powered Zigbee devices, 802.11 devices that can track people or inventory, wireless sensors and data loggers. Commute to work and work from home.

Target 2:

A representative role on retainer for a start up hardware company located in the US or over seas that would need a part time representative for their products in the US or West Coast until they could establish the need for a full time representative. Wireless data collection devices include hand held data terminals, PDA’s with wireless interfaces, RFID both Passive and Active, GPS devices, battery powered Zigbee devices, 802.11 devices that can track people or inventory. Work from home and travel mostly up and down the west coast.

Target 3:

Value Added Resellers (VARs) headquartered in the Bay Area that resells wireless data collection devices by adding proprietary software that gives the company a unique selling advantage. Leverage my knowledge of wireless data collection devices and software for connecting devices to systems of record (ERP systems).

Target 4:

A west coast representative on a retainer or part-time basis for a Value Added Reseller located outside of the area that resells wireless data collection devices by adding proprietary software that gives the company a unique selling advantage.

Target 5:

An internal consulting business development role with a software company located in the Bay Area that leverages data collected from wireless devices and integrates that data into a business solution such as asset tracking, security or monitoring of sensor networks.

Once you have developed your own temporary target list, you can create a spread sheet like the one attached. The idea is to continually expand this list by weekly adding to new companies to research.

This list really is nothing more than a method to help you create choices for yourself. These companies on the list above may not have a position open, but I am interested in these companies and I know that I could be of service to them. Within each target group, I rated each company as an “A, B or C” based on the research that I did on each company.

The result of this exercise was that I was hired as a part-time business development executive at a software company headquartered in San Jose. This job gave me the income that I needed while I focused on developing my career coaching business.

I hope that you can sense how an exercise like this gives you control over the job search process. When I did this exercise, I didn’t need to have a recruiter make contact for me, nor did I have to wait for these companies to post job positions on a job board. The point is that you can control your job search by creating targets and doing the research directly yourself without relying seeing a posting on-line or getting in touch with the right recruiter. Having your targets helps with networking. You can mention the companies that you are researching which gives your networking partner a chance to help you with inside information that they may have. If you have developed a healthy list of targets, then you have made a significant advance toward finding that new job that will be rewarding and fulfilling.