Everyone dreads the job search. Often, we stay in a job we hate because at least we know what we have rather than to experience the uncertainty of looking for a new job, new boss, new way of doing things, and new people.
Suddenly, we get that pink-slip! Once we find ourselves out of work, the panic often sets in. The uncertainty is overwhelming and when we reason in times of uncertainty and stress, we function with our weakest personality type. We seem to become someone else.
The first thing most people tend to do (I went straight home and plopped into bed for two days) is get on the Internet and look for jobs at the various job sites. We see this glimmer of hope—there are jobs listed in our field. Then we proceed to painstakingly fill out online resumes, job applications, and other forms. It takes hours and then we sit back and wait for an answer. Depending on the job, mostly an answer never comes. “Why?” We ask ourselves. “What’s wrong with me? Why aren’t employers interested in me? I must be a loser.”
The second thing most people tend to do is to read classified ads in the Sunday newspaper and respond to each interesting ad. The problem here is that everyone else has already seen this job posting and has also responded. Now you are competing with hundreds of people, not just a few.
This is the extent of most people’s job search and this is where they spend most of their time looking for work.
It pains me to see people limiting themselves to the two worst ways to look for a job. I saw report on the NBC Nightly News on March 11, 2009 where a man took a “survival job” as a janitor to help make ends meet at home. He started each day spending over 3 hours searching the Internet and sending out electronic resumes. He was saddened and depressed that no one responded to his posts.
Does this sound familiar? Richard Bolles, states in his book, What Color is Your Parachute?, that out of every 100 people looking for a job on the Internet, only 4 will be successful. Another study done in 2005, says there are over 40,000,000 resumes floating around out there on the Internet. Richard Bolles also claims that only 12 out of 100 people will find a job through the classified ad section of the Sunday newspaper.
No wonder that hard working guy on the NBC Nightly News is having a hard time finding a suitable job.
The good news is that there are employers out there looking for you, and they are having a big problem—finding you. Not all companies are suffering through rough times in this economy, many are growing. Other companies are losing good employees through normal attrition (people die, get sick, get in accidents, transfer, quit, take leave to care for a family member etc), or to competitors looking lure away the best people they can find in a challenging economy. These all create new openings. Being out of work, our job is to identify these employers and make it easier for those employers to find you. You create your own timing (some would say luck) by being at the right place at the right time.
Even though these methods (Internet and Sunday classified ads) should be part of your job search, you must use several more alternatives.
Five more ways to find your job
One: The first thing to do is to write down the names of everyone you know:
Let all these people know you are out of work and ask if they know of any job openings where they work. If they do, ask if you can use their name when you contact the employer.
Two: Research Organization where you’d like to work (this is the time to use the computer).
Find their Mission Statement, Vision Statement, Core Values, Core Competencies, and Strategic Direction (if you can on this one). Learn as much about a company as you can.
Three: Get out the Yellow Pages
Find the businesses that are interesting to you, get the phone numbers and start dialing. Ask for the manager of the department where you want to work. You simply ask if they are hiring people for the type of work you do. This smiling and dialing technique is effective because it relies on the law of numbers and it works better than most people realize.
Four: Knocking on doors.
Wearing out a little bit of shoe leather has always been effective. However, don’t go knocking on the doors of organizations that have a job posting listed—knocking on these doors might backfire on you. Often we see the convenience of a computer and forget about this option. It should be a part of every job search.
Five: Join or start a group of other job seekers and make calls as a group.
The benefits are similar to smiling and dialing using the yellow pages; however, Richard Bolles suggests the percentages of finding a suitable job increase by 15% if you are calling with a group of other job seekers. One reason is because you are motivated to make the calls when you have that camaraderie of others doing the same thing with you.
Get out and meet with people, it’ll keep you busy and you will be back to work soon. Use that same American work ethic you used on the job to find a better one. You can do it, all it takes is work.
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