If you’ve been looking hard, and haven’t found a job worth cheering about, it’s time to return to job search basics. But before you dig in, look around and see where you are:
Are you sending out dozens of resumes and getting no responses? Are you toying with giving them out at basketball games? Have you tried billboards and carpet-bombing?
When is the last time you wrote an original cover letter? Are you still mailing that worn out one-size-fits-all you used when you graduated college?
Are you sleeping in longer and staying out later? Remember, if an aggressive search doesn’t cut it, try a passive approach. Dream about it.
Are you sleeping in longer and never leaving home? Never meeting people will lead to never getting a job. If that ‘s what you want, you are right on track.
Are you finding reasons to not accept very acceptable offers?
After you’re out of work for awhile, you can get squeamish about taking a job that looks challenging. Take a pass on all of them.
Are you seriously considering positions that lack challenge but provide temporary shelter? That’s the old “Please Under-Employ Me” story: take what’s so safe you’re bound to be sorry. Don’t go there unless you absolutely have to.
Are you talking yourself into jobs that you and three tackles couldn’t manage on a good day? That’s the “Of Course I Failed, Who Wouldn’t?” game. Don’t go there either.
The longer you look, without success, the more likely you’re backing yourself into a cave of your own making. That cave can get mighty comfortable, particularly if you like sitting around in a bathrobe, sipping coffee, and surfing the ‘net.
So what’s a person to do? Well, it begins with mind set. Think failure, and you will. Think success and you’re off to a good start.
The trip from thinking success and becoming successful takes planful action: getting out of your head and out of your cave and into the world where it is riskier. Taking risks results in either winning or losing. Minimize your losses by strategizing a plan that moves you forward. Maximize your wins by getting advice from people who know and have a track record to prove it.
About your resume: Whether you go to a pro or write it yourself, be sure to test it out on folks who hire and are successful at it. You’re bound to know them: a trusted colleague, a friend, and a neighbor. Ask: “What am I missing?” and “How can I improve it?”
About your presentation: Go to a career coach. Test your interviewing and negotiating style, skills and techniques. Role play, and have the courage to let go of what doesn’t work by replacing it with something that does.
About your networking: Learn to network effectively and purposefully. Identify successful people you know personally, and whose opinions you trust. Tell them what you want to pursue and why. Describe ways that you can make a difference. Ask how they have managed their careers. Ask what they’ve done that’s worked, as well as what hasn’t. Learn from their experience. Ask for suggestions in marketing yourself and your work. Listen to what they say. Confirm your understanding of what they are telling you. If their ideas take you down a path you don’t want to go; ask them to elaborate. Take your time before disagreeing (which can end an otherwise productive opportunity). You may benefit from a shift in your thinking.
About your interviewing: Know your strengths and what you bring to their table before you walk through the employer’s door. Be able to say what you mean, convincingly. Ask good questions, probe for deeper meaning, and know what to do with what you hear.
If you want the job, ask for it. And work hard to prove that they made the right decision when they hired you.
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Yes! You may use this article by Executive and Career Coach, Joyce Richman, in your blog, article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:
Joyce Richman (www.joycerichman.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started her own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.
