I've been putting off asking this for a while, as I expect to receive a lot of flak from people. Before you do, consider I grew up in a town with 200 population. I've moved up to a 6000 population town - but not growing up in a metropolitan area means I don't really have the ... I guess situational awareness of those who do, and the type of jobs available there means looking for / applying for is entirely different. I finally decided that not asking was never gonna provide me with information, so here I am, ready to weather the storms of your scorn.
Up until now, I've let job boards (indeed, dice, etc) and the recruiters that poll them do my job hunting for me. I LOOK, but my "look" is a handful of key words I search on indeed every day or two, and I know I'm missing out because of that - and it has to change. Especially since it seems my searches are finding entry-level or senior positions; nothing in the 'about 2 years experience, looking for a junior but not entry-level spot' that I'm in right now.
Now, I'm an hour from a decent sized (to me) city (117k population), and 2 hours from St Louis - both are reasonably in driving distance. Assuming I were to print off a score of resumes and hit the road, how does one know what businesses to target? Or are there better methods of being more active in your searches?
I feel like a damn yokel with some of these questions (just wait until my "how do you accept jobs that are too far away to drive? You're homeless until you can save up enough money to start looking for a place big enough for your family!" thread.) But like I said - if I don't just put myself out on the line and ask, I'll never grow in THAT direction, and at the end of the day, it's all a matter of growing yourself.
