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Job Search Survival Guide

Your job search has been going on for months. After turning in hundreds of applications, you only landed a handful of interviews. You made it into the final round on a few occasions but have yet to receive an offer.

Looking for a new job is a lot tougher than you imagined. Initially, you were hopeful but now you feel lost and discouraged. You hear news of the job market opening up which only adds to your despair. Trust me, you are not alone.

I realize this is a small consolation. However, it is really important to remember that looking for a new job is a tough process. I don’t know anyone who thrives under financial pressure, enjoys being in a state of limbo and relishes the sting of rejection.

Unless you just won the lottery or inherited a fortune, giving up is probably not an option. Like it or not, the hunt for a good job must go on! Here are three tips to help you survive your job search.

Take a Break

Job seekers who are dealing with health issues tend to flounder the most. It is difficult to focus on job search activities or make positive networking connections when grappling with anxiety, depression or serious physical conditions.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is put your search on hold. Depending on your circumstances, this could mean a week, a month, or perhaps longer. You may need counseling support or you may simply need to give yourself a break from the stressors of life.

During this time, you will not scan job boards, go to networking events, or even peek at LinkedIn. Instead, put your health and wellbeing first and fill your calendar with enjoyable activities. You might add a few house projects to the list if that seems therapeutic.

Once you are stronger and more confident, you can step back into the job search process with renewed energy and hope.

Get Clarity

The second biggest hindrance to job search success is a lack of focus. Job seekers who struggle the most often confess to being unsure about what they want to do next.

When you lack clarity, you are going to pale in comparison to more focused, enthusiastic and determined candidates. Your networking tribe will struggle to support you in your search. Simply stated, it is mighty difficult to be compelling when you are confused.

You may need outside support. Visit a workforce center, utilize alumni career services at your college or seek out a job search coach to help you gain the clarity you need to move forward.

Reset the Strategy

Finally, many job seekers struggle because they do not know how to conduct an effective search. Landing a position in today’s marketplace requires a fresh strategy and a different set of job search skills than in the past.

Today, you need so much more than a polished résumé. Landing a great job and managing one’s professional growth requires a career marketing plan. If you have never heard of a career marketing plan, you have some homework to do!  If you have one, start executing it with determination.

It’s a jungle out there. In order to survive, self-care is key. You also need a clear focus, updated job search skills and a strategic career marketing plan. If you are still feeling lost and unprepared, find a group of other job searchers and band together. The journey is much easier, and hopefully more fun, when shared with fellow travelers.

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Resumé Advice You Never Hear: Stop the Endless Targeting!

Imagine you are at a barbeque and a friend says, “We are hiring. Shoot me your résumé and I will pass it along to my manager.” Elation suddenly turns to panic. You spend the rest of the weekend pulling your hair out in order to get a résumé together by Monday.

Whether you are in active job search mode or more passively open to new opportunities, it is prudent to have a sparkly résumé ready to send off in a moment’s notice.

Job seekers are generally advised to target their résumés to each specific position. This sounds good in theory but it is not always possible. The aforementioned barbecue scenario is one case in point.

Another issue is that position descriptions vary widely. Some are overly detailed while others are short and skimpy. Rather than expressing any amount of passion and truth, job seekers parrot back what they think employers want to hear. The end result is a résumé that reads like the back of a can of paint.

There are certainly times when we should tailor a résumé to a specific position. However, there is a lot to be said for creating a personalized marketing piece that can be used more broadly. This allows us to be nimble and effective in responding to opportunities and it ensures we don’t lose ourselves in the job search process.

For the next few minutes forget everything you have heard about the importance of targeting your résumé. Rather than focusing on employer needs, look into your heart to identify what you want in your next position. Here are three steps to creating a powerful, all-purpose résumé:

Be Future Facing

Let this version of your résumé describe the job of your dreams. Rather than simply regurgitating what you have done in the past, highlight what you want to do more of going forward. Don’t list anything that you find draining.

Think beyond recent work experience and also emphasize skills gained through volunteering and personal interests or from positions held long ago. A résumé is a ticket to your happy future and it needs to be written with a clear vision in mind.

Be Compelling

Beyond listing skills and qualifications, develop a “career highlights” section in which you provide brief accomplishment statements to communicate the real value you can provide.

These accomplishment statements are like pencil drawings that support your goals and ambitions. When you land an interview, you can turn these pencil drawings into vivid word pictures and stories. For now, let your resume offer captivating snippets of who you are becoming professionally.

Be Yourself

When it comes to landing a good fit opportunity, your best bet is to present yourself honestly. Most résumés are sterile and lack personality. It seems the goal of so many job seekers is to avoid offending anyone – ever.

Speak your truth. Use conversational language and let your natural voice flow on to the page. Being forthright and creative in your presentation will cost you some jobs but staying true to yourself increases the likelihood of finding a position in which you can thrive and grow.

A future facing, compelling and personalized résumé allows you to be ready when random opportunities present themselves. When you do need to target your résumé for a specific position, you can modify this version while maintaining your personal brand. Putting more heart into your résumé is a good first step to attracting the attention you desire.

 

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Job Search in a Funk? Maybe it’s Time to do the Hustle!

The search for a position that aligns with your career aspirations sometimes takes longer than expected. At what point do you consider taking a stopgap job or doing a side hustle to earn some extra money? And what are the pros and cons of doing so?

First, it’s important to understand that there are some key differences between these two alternatives. If we are completely honest, a stopgap job is one that you would never accept if you were gainfully employed in your desired industry. The bottom line is that you take a stopgap job because you need additional income.

The best kind of stopgap measure is a temporary or contract position in your field. This allows you to expand your network and keep your existing skills sharp. You may even be able to add a few new accomplishments to your résumé. Another plus to this approach is that it you can get an inside look at different organizations and workplace cultures.

Unfortunately, many stopgap jobs are menial and don’t offer much in the way of professional development. A good example of this is the laid off software engineer who ends up in an orange apron selling wares at the local home improvement store.

However, even this may be better than isolating at home. Unemployment can take a toll on one’s self-esteem. Stopgap jobs, even those below your area of expertise, offer human interaction and the routine of going to work. Many job seekers stay more focused and upbeat when they have some money coming in and a reason to get out of the house each day.

It is important to consider how the stopgap job will look on your résumé. It may lessen gaps in employment but it may erode your professional image and detract from your larger career goals. One of the biggest challenges is to remain committed to your search for a professional position.

Rather than taking a stopgap job, you may consider creating additional income through a side hustle. Scott Balster, principal at Employtown and creator of the Side Hustle Muscle Movement, helps people create abundant lives with full-time work and side income. Balster believes that side hustles offer job seekers and those already employed a chance to increase earnings and find greater personal and professional satisfaction.

There are always individual considerations but side hustles typically add to your professional image and toolbox rather than detract from it. You might think of a stopgap job as a Band-Aid. A side hustle, on the other hand, is curative and nurtures our personal and professional wellbeing.

Side hustles are a great way to gain the training and expertise we need to be more competitive in the job market. Side hustles can also allow us to dip our toes in new career waters without giving up our steady paychecks. They can be the bridge to a new full-time career or they can always remain “something extra” we do on the side.

According to Balster, “Job seekers who focus on creating side hustles typically find themselves partnering and interacting in new ways with other professionals. The process of creating and implementing a side hustle naturally expands a job seeker’s network and can lead to discovering employment opportunities they were not finding through traditional job search processes.”

Balster adds, “Side hustles also increase the value we bring to our day jobs. Many of my clients have full time jobs. They are looking for increased job satisfaction as well as additional income. As they create their side hustle, they often bring greater energy and a renewed sense of creativity to the workplace.”

Balster believes this is because through creating a side hustle we strengthen what he refers to as the idea muscle. “The more we tap into our creativity and solve problems, the more we build the idea muscle. This leads to having greater confidence and success in everything we do.”

Balster offers a list of hundreds of side hustle ideas to fit your lifestyle and he also provides templates and coaching to help people get started in various side businesses. There are endless ways to create a side hustle that matches your talents, needs, and goals.

You can teach what you know, offer a service, consult in your industry, or invent and sell a product. You may decide to rent vacation property through an online site. Side hustles can be born of hobbies or they may be an extension of what we do in our day jobs.

We all know people who have side hustles. I recently met a schoolteacher who imports and sells coffee grown on a small farm in Costa Rica. He is supplementing his income and creating a fair-trade business model that supports rural farmers in developing countries.

Another colleague sells medical devices by day and does professional photography on the side to nurture her creative spark. An accounting manager in my neighborhood started a seasonal sprinkler blowout business to help his young son gain business skills and save for his college education.

Jobs have become more temporary and transient in nature and yet we still yearn for and need some amount of stability in our lives. Side hustles are a great way to take more control over our destinies. Balster says, “Ideas are the currency of the future. The process of generating ideas and building a profitable side hustle helps us create our own sense of security and avoids being completely at the mercy of employers and the economy.”

Stopgap jobs can ease financial pressures but this approach can sometimes be a slippery slope leading to a downward spiral in our careers. Side hustles, on the other hand, expand our horizons and tend to increase our marketable skills.

Managing our careers has become more complex than ever. What would you do if you lost your job tomorrow? Maybe it’s time to do the hustle.

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Creating Personal Presence

Thanks to Tami Palmer of Greyzone and Karen Southall Watts for contributing to my recent piece on Personal Presence.  You ladies rock!  You can read the full article here or click on this link to visit the NCBR/BizWest site.

Cultivating Personal Presence – The REAL Key to Success

Most of us spend way too much time working on our résumés while barely giving our personal presence a passing thought. Your résumé may get you an interview but it won’t land you a job. It’s like having a whole bunch of nails but no hammer. What good is that? Personal presence is the real key to opening doors and meeting with success.

Karen Southall Watts is a coach, trainer, and writer who works with job seekers at all stages of their careers to assist them in achieving their goals. She says, “I see many highly educated, well-qualified people who are out of work. Many people expect that their impressive résumés will do all the talking.”

“Candidates think they can present a laundry list of qualifications and get job offers, contracts, and deals in return. It simply doesn’t work like this. Even when candidates can rattle off their skills, they struggle to convey their value or what it would be like to work with them as an overall experience.”

Tami Spaulding, founder of Greyzone, a job search and career mentoring organization, agrees. Spaulding tells her clients, “Your résumé is an outline. YOU are the presentation. Your résumé is marketing piece to help you get in the door. It’s up to you to sell yourself.”

Helping clients develop personal presence is a topic near and dear to Spaulding’s heart. “I think I have stumbled upon the secret sauce for interview success and even overall career success. It is pairing humility with confidence. That energy is what makes people attracted to you and gets you far. You really need both of these qualities in balance. We need the energy and the confidence to reach out to others and at the same time we need to remain humble and sincere in our approach.”

Spaulding talks about a client who recently had the courage to be real when asked about his biggest weakness during an interview. “It turns out that the interviewer had the same weakness! They bonded over their shared shortcoming. We crave this kind of authenticity. People feel comfortable around us when we are open and honest. Candidates go unnoticed or are quickly forgotten when they are too guarded or when they try too hard to please.”

The goal is not to be perfect. Presence is about being authentic. Watts’ background in musical theatre gave her early insight into what it meant to have presence. “Over the years I have seen many performers who were technically accomplished but no one would sit through their performances. Then there were those singers who did not necessarily hit all the high notes yet audiences couldn’t get enough of them. It takes more than being qualified and now I see this in every pool of people I work with as a coach.”

Personal presence can be difficult to define yet most of us recognize it in a heartbeat. It’s unique to every person and comes in as many different flavors as there are people on the planet. Gandhi had presence. So did Marilyn Monroe. The key is discovering your own presence and staying true to it in every situation.

The good news is that presence can be cultivated. We can learn to how to dress or how to sit with greater poise and presence. We can join groups such as Toastmasters in order to refine our public speaking skills. Networking plays such a key role in our success. There are countless books on the topic and endless opportunities to practice connecting more authentically with others.

It is best to begin cultivating presence through a process of self-discovery. We need to embrace what makes us unique and then set clear intentions about how we want to show up in the world. In my work with clients, I incorporate journaling activities, creative visualizations, personality assessments, value clarifications, video coaching, and communication practice to help people discover what makes them unique. Only then do we begin to define and develop their personal brands.

As they move out into the world, the intention they have set can inform and guide their behaviors. Acting from a place of intention allows us to feel greater confidence and a sense of ease in every situation. Watts adds, “We can meditate on what we really want to be known for and keep these qualities in mind as we interact with others.”

“When networking, for example, it is more about being someone worth talking to than collecting business cards and asking for favors. People can feel when you are trying to convert them to a sale or a job offer. They don’t like that. On the flip side, people can feel when you are genuinely interested in them with no expectations.”

Spaulding encourages her clients to ask lots of good questions during interviews and networking conversations. “Show curiosity. Be attentive. It is as simple as asking questions and letting others tell their stories. Listen and make eye contact. People are drawn to us when we show sincere interest in their stories and experiences.”

Kristi Hedges, executive coach and author of, “The Power of Presence – Unlock Your Potential to Influence and Engage Others,” offers this definition. She says, “Personal presence is the ability to connect with and inspire others.”

Watts agrees, “Presence is not about us as much as it is about how we make others feel. We all have this little seed inside that yearns to become something bigger and brighter. People with charisma and presence cause us to see these things in ourselves that perhaps we did not even know were there. That is what presence does. It brings out something wonderful in the other person.”

Toss your résumé aside. Get busy discovering who you are and how you want to be known in this world. Personal presence is cultivated in through a lifetime of intentional living. Every interaction offers a chance to be your best self and to inspire others to do the same.

 

 

 

 

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