Week three is the time to set up your office and finish updating your job search toolkit. For the duration of your job search, your home will be your office. If you don’t already have a dedicated office space, set up shop in a relatively quiet area of your home where you have a comfortable desk chair, adequate light and the ability to close your door.
To stock your office, go to the store and purchase:

1. 200 sheets bright white, quality paper with envelopes
2. Postage stamps
3. Extra toner or ink cartridge for the printer
4. Pens, paper clips and other basic desk supplies
5. Two small notebooks—one for phone messages, one for general notes
6. 250 copies of a basic business card for networking purposes

Once you have a functional office, then it’s time to prepare and update the key elements of your job search toolkit: the resume, cover letter, two-minute pitch and your list of references.

Resume

You cannot underestimate the importance of an effective resume. The resume provides your first, and sometimes only, opportunity to impress prospective employers. A good resume alone will not get you the job, but a mediocre resume can prevent you from getting your foot in the door with prospective employers.
Crafting a first-rate resume takes skill, particularly when you have a nonlinear career path, so consider outsourcing this task to a professional resume writer. While a professionally written resume can be expensive (ranging in price from a few hundred dollars for a junior-level person to over a thousand dollars for an executive-level package) it is a worthwhile investment that can directly impact your ability to find a better job in a shorter period of time.
If you decide to write your own resume, take advantage of Resume Creator here at SuccessHawk (membership required).

Cover Letter

No matter how wonderful your resume, the employer may never take the time to read it, unless it is introduced by a persuasive cover letter. A cover letter is a three or four paragraph letter that states:

1. Why you're writing
2. Why you're best qualified for the position
3. How you plan to follow up

It goes without saying that a cover letter, just like a resume, must be free of grammatical and spelling errors. Because it is a brief note, it’s important that you convey your message using powerful and succinct language that captures the reader’s attention and makes him or her want to read your resume. The cover letter also provides you with an opportunity to personalize your resume to the employer’s needs, without having to rewrite your resume. You can highlight or add relevant information in a cover letter that might not be obvious in your resume. To get started on writing your cover letters go to Cover Letters.

Personal Statement

Also known as your “elevator speech,” your personal statement is a brief description of yourself and your job objective, delivered in two minutes or less. Once you develop your pitch, you’ll be using it for networking, socializing and in response to that perennial job interview question, “So, tell me about yourself.”
Developing a powerful pitch takes practice. Write it out, rehearse it and then try it out on your friends and support team. Ask for suggestions on ways to improve it. Remember, the key to an effective pitch is to make it crisp, succinct and pertinent, providing enough information that the listener gets a good sense of your experience and objectives in a quick sound bite. To get started, use the SuccessHawk Personal Statement Builder.

References

Before you begin to interview for a new job, it’s important that you line up people who are willing to provide strong references to potential employers.

1. Start by making a list of all of your prospective references. It’s best to choose people who have worked with you in a business setting, but if needed, you can also include personal references from people who’ve worked with you in a volunteer capacity.
2. Call the people you’ve selected and ask if they’d be willing to serve as references.
3. Compile a master list that has all of the pertinent contact information for your references.
4. Be sure to alert and update your references before they are called by potential employers.

Always thank your references and offer to return the favor in the future.
For help in contacting potential references and drafting your references document, go to References.