In most cases, we're competing with people who can do the work, and love the work, and will likely fit into the organization as we will. But sometimes we trip up on a few small details, giving the edge to a better-prepared competitor.

Read an excerpt from ICMA's Job Hunting Handbook for Local Government Professionals to give yourself that edge. 

Highlights include:

1. Finding the Vacancies
   • Develop a roster of the site(s) you want to use as the foundation of your search. While we encourage you to use our Job Center, some people may have a specific local government or region in mind to focus their search. In those cases, manager state associations and municipal leagues might be a better place to start.
2. Doing Your Homework
   • Read about the community, the organization, the issues. If you're fortunate to be contacted for an interview, don't let preparation be your downfall! In addition to the resources in the handbook, we've prepared a helpful guide to interview preparation. But these tactics can also feed into a great cover letter, showing you understand the concerns of the community.
3. Working with Recruiters
   • For years, many job candidates regarded executive recruiters as intimidating and unapproachable. The demographics of the executive search industry are changing, however, and recruiters now understand that every client could be a future candidate and every candidate could be a future client.

ICMA members can access the complete handbook in the Knowledge Network.