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Frustrated with your job search?

in How-to,Job loss,Job search,JobPounce,Tools

Frustration
As our coaches work with Jobpounce participants and interact with many aspirants, majority of the people are grappling with a serious ailment.

It would be easy to call it frustration but I think it has a lot more to it. Let’s review it a bit more closely.

Cause and effect

  • Most people put in a lot of effort to polish their resume and send it to their friends, or post it online or use job websites to respond to opportunities that have been posted
  • And then they wait for a response…maybe an email, maybe a phone call
  • Most of the time, there’s no response. And that gets job seekers even more determined to send out resumes and cover letters to a wider audience – the thought process being to spread the net a bit more wider to get a bigger catch
  • And when they still don’t hear back, frustration starts to creep in. And it’s not just because of the lack of response from HR or recruiters, it is because of the amount of effort that has already been put in with very little results. It is sunk cost…all that time and effort…we can never get it back

What to do?

Our recommendation is to change the way you look for jobs:

  1. Define your market and focus on what the employers in that market are looking for. Because it’s about what is in demand and what the requirements are. One good question to research is “why is this employer hiring for this position at this time?”. The answer to this question will give you clues and will help you align with the opportunity
  2. Connect with your personal and professional network. And remember that that current and past employers of people within your network are also your extended network.
  3. Celebrate even the smallest of milestones you achieve…it could be a phone call with a counselor, or a new job lead or an introduction to a recruiter.
  4. Keep your exercise routine up, its amazing how much physical well being can contribute to positive thoughts and inspired action
  5. Don’t stress, even thought reports say that 10% of the population is unemployed, understand that 90% of the population is still employed :) It is just a matter of time before you are back to work.

What would be some other ways to reduce job search frustration?

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Rethink your job strategy

in communication,Job search,Market Trends

Slideshare

We have recently posted a slide show that provides some more information about job trends and how we help our clients rethink their job strategy (see below).

But when we were building the slides and posting to slideshare, lightbulbs went off in terms of how our clients can leverage this amazing contagious platform.

Slideshare is a fantastic medium to share your ideas, thoughts, experiences and even your value proposition to future employers. You can spread your ideas at zero cost.

Take a look your entire work experience; pick one and develop a couple of slides that really highlight the following:

  • The problem at hand
  • How you approached and solved the problem
  • What was the lesson learned or how would you approach similar situations now
  • Most importantly, how can you help future employers now that you have this skill / technique / methodology

One thing you might want to keep in mind is not to share specific proprietary information to steer clear of intellectual property issues. Good luck!

RethinkYour Job Search 

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