In 2003, I thought that I should do something about the sense of unease that had permeated my career to that date. I simply had no idea of what I wanted to do. The nebulous concepts I did have, of being a management consultant, of wanting to change companies, seemed impossibly beyond the reach of my experience (I was 26 and 4 years out of Uni)...

I took an NLP course towards the end of the year (2004) on goal-setting, and really my goal was to find a goal. My goal was to discover what I wanted to do. My Dad, with some of the best advice I've ever had, suggested I could change it to discover what I want to be.

To this end I set-off happily finding out more about myself. I completed as many personality and career questionnaires as I could find. In this I was ably helped by the generosity of The Nielson Group, who let me try some of their (very useful) tests in exchange for some feedback on them.

Thus, I learned lots of information about myself. Some was useful, most was not, and none of it seemingly significant at the time. So I blindly pushed on, just trying as many things as I could to help with the cause. I went to loads of networking events and annoyed people by giving them job-hunt cards with my photo and a blurb about why they should employ me. Didn't get me a job, but most people liked the idea.

The goal I came up with was to change organisations by helping people to fulfil their potential. It seems lofty and not a little pretentious, but basically it was a statement of how I wanted to be: someone helping people and thus creating change.

Around this time I got an award from the company I was working for (an 'experience voucher') and I duly spent it on a life-coaching session with a follow up phone session. I thus met Usha Nair from One2One Professional Coaching Ltd and she helped me to give solidity to my new realisations. Whilst they were still new and scary to me, she saw no reason why I shouldn't get on with the job hunting. Read about the experience here

In the job-hunting I also had the right help. Firstly in the form of Paul Volans (A previous contributor: to the free will debate) who advised me on the form of letter to write.

Secondly I was given a copy of 'what colour is your parachute?' by my Mum, and it was great, it gave me the confidence to try what I really wanted to do. Its basic advice is, never apply to a company with more than 20 employees, never respond to adverts and make the most personal contact that you can.

By now I had a reasonable CV, having gone through iterations on Arrod, with feedback from you lot and Mike Kelly of First Impressions. Read about the evolution of my CV.

Thus, all I needed was a mailing list. This was put together by searching for cool job phrases on google, like 'systems thinking' or 'authentic business'. The other great route was the Thompson directory online, which has a post-code proximity search and a classification for management consultants.

For each company I found, I checked their website to see if they did the type of work I was interested in, then I phoned them and asked who to send a letter introducing myself to. After this process I had some 60 companies with a personal contact name within a 10-15 mile radius (plus a few uber-cool companies that were further out)

The letter was of the style, this is me, can we chat about how to get work in this industry, here's the letter that got me the interview for my current job. I got many responses. The bigger companies tended to just put me in the pile for a job that was going at the time, so I got some weird rejection letters (No thanks you don't experience for health-care sales?!) and one that said they didn't offer careers advice (slap!).

However, several people offered their support and encouragement despite not being able to offer me a job. I even got some free time with one guy: advice in exchange for some time on his website.

After the initial burst of 25 letters in March I paused, then another 15 in April, then work took over, and I no longer had the time between A levels, systems course and imminent project go-live at work to get the letters personal enough (each one was different!)

Incredibly, out of just 40 or so letters, one hit the mat at the right time for a company and they asked me in for a chat. Three informal interviews later, and I was offered a job by the rather brilliantly named Future Considerations.

Needless to say I got out of the last place ASAP and I'm now finding my feet working for a small, dynamic company that is making a real difference.

The best advice is to just get going with the hunt; and remember the successful job hunt goes no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes! So don't get disheartened...

Got a suggestion?, email Dave

Can't find what you want? - use the search!

WWW www.arrod.co.uk