Greetings Leaders!
Last night I volunteered at a Career Coaching event at Bayside of Granite Bay. The event supported the Career Coaching program for those in transition, and there were 50+ job seekers there. For those in the Sacramento-Roseville-Rocklin area, I highly recommend it. They’ve successfully helped over 200 people find their next career. Although affiliated with the church, this is a non-evangelical event. Meaning you can walk in the door without getting preached to. The point is to help people in need get back on their feet.
I’ve done this before both at the church and other groups, and am always struck by the high caliber people who are for whatever reason unemployed. If you find yourself in this predicament, take heart, it is only temporary. Having said that – I do also come across those who I know will struggle to find their next job. If you’ve been unemployed for over 6 months, here are 5 things you need to consider.
- Stop blaming everyone else for your situation. I’m not saying you did anything wrong. And yes, the economy is tough, there is age discrimination and some markets are gone forever. By focusing on the negative, you are holding yourself back. It shows in your attitude and what happens is a reflection of your attitude. Bad attitude = Bad results. So… yell, scream, punch a pillow… then move on. Your complaining isn’t going to help you get a job.
- Assess your job skills. Some industries are gone… probably for a long time. If you’re in an industry that is dwindling, you are going to have to get retrained. I know… if you’re over 50, you don’t want to do this. Guess what? That’s right. You have to do it anyway. The longer you take to admit that you’re going to have to do this, the longer it’s going to take. You are also going to have to be current in your skills. If you are in technology, and the last class you took was in Cobol, you need to go back and get more training. You can argue all you want about the skills that you bring due to your experience, but to compete, you have to be relevant. Keep your skills current.
- Speaking of relevant – You MUST become proficient at social networking. Yes… I know. It’s not like the old days. But we live in a new world. You need to understand how to use Twitter and LinkedIn at a minimum. This doesn’t mean just getting an account. You need to understand how to actually build relationships online.
- Don’t apply through job boards 100% of the time. Only 5-10% of jobs are awarded through an online ad. Let’s do the math. 100 resumes on your part, equals a 5-10% chance of that job being awarded online. Of those 10%, how many people do you think are applying for each job. I’d safely bet at least 200. This means that you have a 1/200 chance of getting that job. Overall, this means you have a .05% chance of getting that job. That is really really low odds. What do you need to do? Network. Get out and meet people. There are tons of ways to go about this. But… my point is you need to get out. Don’t just apply to jobs online.
- Take charge of your destiny. If you will take “any job” – you are not going to get anything worthwhile. You need to realize that you have value, that you can contribute, and that things will be alright. But… you have to have direction. Determine what you want to do… and go for it. Just make sure there are jobs in that industry.
All the best!
All the time!
JT
Related articles
- 100 Blog Articles That Every Job Seeker Should Read (catherinescareercorner.com)
- 10 Outdated Job-Search Techniques to Avoid (wisebread.com)
