Career Research One-year Goal

Two-year Goal

Five-year Goal

(State your one-year goal here. Must be different from your two- and five-year goals.)

(State your two-year goal here. Must be different from your one- and five-year goals.)

(State your five-year goal here. Must be different from your one- and two-year goals.)

EMPLOYERS

Starbucks

Zappos

Apple

Name, location(s), contact information

Seattle, WA

Las Vegas, NV (owned by Amazon)

Cupertino, CA

Products and/or services

Quick service restaurant/coffee shop

Online shoes/clothing retailer

Consumer electronics (hardware + software)

Number of employees

Annual sales/profits/growth for the past year

$14.82 billion

~$1 billion

$170.9 billion

Potential for growth of the firm and the industry as a whole

Mature industry, light U.S. growth. Corporate growth focused on China

Moderate growth in online sales for foreseeable future

Key markets are maturing, but industry evolves rapidly so high growth very possible

Major competitors

Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, many regional coffee chains

Wal-Mart, Target, large department stores, specialty stores

Samsung, Google, Toshiba, Microsoft

Mission and/or vision statement

To inspire and nurture the human spirit -- one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

To provide the best customer service possible. Internally, we call this our WOW philosophy.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

Reputation

Good reputation as a place to work, and as an ethical company and a very good success story

Very good reputation as an employer.

I plan to achieve my goals by having focus on those goals, and by charting a course for myself. Goals are easier to achieve when you know what they are and you know the steps you need to take to achieve them. Part of achieving my goals will be to find ways to penetrate the hidden job market. This is where most of the jobs are. The best way to gain access to the hidden job market is by networking. By talking to managers and to friends, and other acquaintances, one is able to find out about opportunities to a higher degree than would normally be available through the visible job search channels. Expanding the professional network is important to tapping into the hidden job network. The best way to do this is to simply get out in public and meet people. This is an important process that can be a challenge, but every person you meet both online and offline represents another good networking opportunity. Finding job leads is challenging sometimes, but is done both through formal channels and through the hidden job market. The best job leads usually come through the hidden market, so special attention should be paid to that pathway.
Networking is perhaps the skill I need to work on the most. At this point in my life, I have acquired significant skills and educational training. What is needed the most at this point to take my career to the next level is opportunity, and that will come from networking and finding more ways to tap into the hidden job markets. It will also help to formalize my job search -- for example keeping an Excel or database file of all the people I have talked to. This allows me the opportunity to follow up with previous contacts, and to avoid duplication of efforts (unless I specifically choose to contact the company again because I want to work there).

Friends, families, educators and former employers are all good sources to help the job search. No stone should go unturned. Contacting people is actually simple -- no need to make it seem complicated. Finding contact information for people is usually as simple as asking, and then at that point it is a matter of initiating communications, either via email or phone. Stalking is probably not recommended.…