Second, I would like to announce a pretty major change on my end. I recently decided to pursue a new career opportunity and, as of this week, I will be joining Aon Corporation as an AVP of Global Strategy in its human-capital consulting division. While the new job is for the consulting division, it is a non-consulting role that is a blend of traditional corporate strategy and corporate development (I’ve provided more information on this with an updated biography on this site). I am thankful for the experiences that I gained at Waterstone, but, when I met the folks that I would be working with in this new role, I knew that this opportunity would present lots of growth possibilities for me and, as such, I HAD to go after it. With this upcoming transition, I’ve got the idea of the job hunt on my mind and have decided to devote a blog entry to it. I’m hoping that my readers find it interesting.
As I was leaving McKinsey, I took a somewhat random approach to the job search and ended up spending several months going back and forth until I found the job that I ultimately accepted. During this time, I felt like I was going through lots of ups and downs as I waded through job listings, completed a TON of phone screens and interviews, and tried to figure out what the “right” next step would be. It was a really stressful experience and I left it never wanting to go through anything like it again. Once I’d accepted my post-McK offer, I looked back at the job search process and realized that I could have knocked it out much faster if I’d been more strategic about it from the beginning instead of letting it be a random walk. Next, I started thinking through what I would do differently and developed a pretty nifty four-part framework for approaching the job search process to help others who might be considering a job search themselves.
Over the past year, I’ve shared my “Strategic approach to the job search” framework with several friends who were looking at the job market and received great feedback on it, which helped me to improve it over time. Then, when I decided to test the waters in the job market recently, I used it myself and was able to find and secure a great opportunity in less than a month. I’m not saying that the framework was the ONLY reason I was able to find my next gig so quickly, but I do believe that it helped me to avoid another long, drawn-out, and incredibly stressful job search process. In the words of Hannibal from the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together” 
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I’d been planning to post the framework on this site for months, but kept delaying it because I had so many reader emails to address. But, after seeing how helpful the approach was during my own recent job search, I was motivated to get the camera rolling and start putting it into videos that I could upload and post. There is quite a bit of content in each of the four parts of the framework, so I’ve decided to split the presentation of my recommendations into four separate videos. The first video, which provides my tips for preparing for the job search, is below and I will post the other videos over the next couple of weeks once I’ve had a chance to record them.
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Part 1: Preparing for the job search
Strategic approach to the job search, Part I from Marquis Parker on Vimeo.
Key steps:
- Decide on your desired industry, function, and location
- Update your resume and cover letter and create different versions of each for the different industries/functions you’re targeting
- Develop comprehensive and well thought-out answers for two key questions: “Why are you leaving your job?” and “Why are you applying for this position?”
- Give notice to your current employer (if doing so makes sense and would ease the process of finding a new job)
Congratulations on your new position. Thanks for sharing your recruiting information with everyone.