I’ve been doing a lot of research while I’m looking at the job market over the last couple of months and have had some good days – lots of new sources of information, leads into other new content, new authors to follow, etc. – and some very poor ones – the same old content from the same old sources, repackaged and refreshed for the latest round of posting.

Yesterday was a very good one. I revisited a few old haunts online and checked out a couple of industry-specific writers who I had overlooked when I was thinking about recruitment in months and years gone by. And there was some real gold in there.

I had shut down the part of my brain that was in research mode for a while, taking time not to go too deep into any area to see what I felt like on a lot of much broader topics that have always interested me but I have not had the time or inclination to follow up on. But I have switched back now to focussing on a small number of topics and getting to know as much about them as I can.

And it does pay off. Getting familiar and bang up-to-date on topics in a narrow sphere does feel more comfortable to me. And there does seem to be a repayment in coming across new ideas, writers, etc. when you narrow your focus that you might not spot if just skimming content. The cutting edge stuff will always be a bit harder to find and that is how it should be, but I am going to sick to this process and see where it leads.