“Feel Like a Job Search Failure?” Rob says "Go Underground"

Feel Like a Job Search Failure?
Job-Hunt.Org, March 19th, 2009 by Susan P. Joyce

You’ve been unemployed for an extended period. Too long! You’ve applied for hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs. You’ve sent out hundreds, if not thousands, of resumes. Your savings are running out or gone. You feel like a failure, and you’re desperate. Probably difficult for you to believe, but it’s NOT you . . .

Please take some time to review Susan's complete post which provides a number of productive options that will help you deal with feeling like a "Job Search Failure".

Follow this link to Susan P. Joyce's post on Job-Hunt.org: http://www.job-hunt.org/job-search-news/2009/03/19/feel-like-a-job-search-failure/

... and don't forget to come back and read the comment by Career Marketplace and my comment "Go Underground!"


2 Comments for “Feel Like a Job Search Failure?”

Career Marketplace says: This is a great post. So many people are feeling down about being out of a job and the economy is bad and bla bla bla. The news is quite depressing for those who have recently found themselves in the job hunt or those graduating soon. The key to everything that you said above is the word “NEW”. The days of working for “the company” for your entire career are unfortunately over for now. With multi-national corporations, the internet, and advanced electronic equipment the workforce has changed dramatically since the late 1980s. The modern job market in the US has many people having to learn dig up old skills they haven’t used in ages or learn new ones. This is a fantastic opportunity if approached with an open mind. There are many emerging fields that have no experts yet, and many fields in deep need of workers willing to learn a new trade. Most cities have unemployment networking groups that you can join. These are great places to meet people in the same boat as you that may even be able to help you out in being more efficient in your job search.

Rob Taub (March 19th, 2009 at 7:02 pm) also says: "Excellent post!"
To Susan's 5 terrific suggestions, I'd like to add a Number 6: "Go Underground!” … and use the current recession to your advantage.

If you can scratch beneath the surface of the “public” or “published” job market you may find many more jobs than you originally thought existed AND fewer people competing for them. Go “underground” and attack the “unadvertised” job market as part of your multiple-prong approach that the post ” Feel like a job search failure?” encourages.

For example, look for well-capitalized firms with growth or expansion strategies or acquisition strategies unfolding, or in place. This is the time recession, when well-funded companies can find those companies that need a savior to stay in business; and too, pick them up on the cheap. All these organizations will eventually be hiring. You begin to see hiring patterns unfolding, usually within a 3 to 5 months after the acquisition or merger. That’s YOUR opportunity to get in with a proposal – your value-proposition – and before the crowd gets there… before the public is aware.

Another avenue for getting “underground” may be through the smaller or mid-size firms that see this market as a buyer’s market; ready to scoop up some real good talent from a very fat labor pool.

There’s also the troubled company that could be facing Chapter 11 or 7 looking for someone to rescue them – liberate them. You’ll always recognize such companies because of their massive lay-offs, ironically, the clue to you that there may be real job opportunities there. Would “normal thinking” suggest that massive-layoffs, severe corporate downsizing, are signals that job opportunities exist?

Today, you have to think not just creatively, but differently. Where you think job opportunities are non-existent may actually be where they abound. Think differently and get hired differently: Use the recession to your advantage and go underground. Make the recession work for you.

RT