I have noticed over the years all the changes. Changes take all forms. Star Trek went from a very crude television series in the 1960s to quite a marvel in the latest Star Trek: Into Darkness complete with Imax and 3D, although I only saw the 3D, not the Imax. In the 1960s, there was no such thing as a smartphone. Star Trek introduced a flip top communicator as a huge thing never to happen in our lifetimes. Well, flip top cell phones came and went and we now have smartphones. We have touch screen 3D monitors, and a buggy Windows Phone 8 that does not allow email access. Okay, some things are the same, namely buggy stuff.
There is another thing that has not changed over the years. I have seen that over, and over again, even in my own family. What is that? The way we look for a job. Most people do not look for a job properly. They may yell, get violent, huff, puff, and threaten to blow a house down, but the plural vast majority of people have no clue how to find a job.
Thankfully, I got lucky. I had someone teach me years ago now. Before going further, see if the following applies to you. You ask a few friends and/or family members if they know of a job. This approach got a bit more sophisticated with LinkedIn and Facebook. You collect millions upon zillions of friends. (I highly recommend that each person on this planet who subscribes to Facebook, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn be forced to watch and study The Great Gatsby. Okay, the first half hour to hour was super boring, but the ending was quite riveting and had a lesson to teach.) Of those millions upon millions of friends, if you have one real friend, then consider yourself lucky. I could right an entire novel on what I think of Facebook, but I am off topic. Okay, people buy a book and read, much better use of time.
People ask a few friends, they maybe go to a job board or two and respond to a few job postings, and talk to your favorite recruiter, who contrary to popular belief does not have your interest at heart and does not work for you, no matter what they say. Recruiters work for employers and have the employer’s interest at heart. Period. Dealing with a recruiter is like playing Power Ball or whatever favorite idiocy name is applied to the get money from poor people fad, otherwise known as the lottery. In total people might send out somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty resumes every couple of weeks, maybe a month.
When the method just described does not work, people get demoralized and say that there are no jobs. During the recession there were reduced jobs, but there were still jobs. Even the good times met with hard times for obtaining work. There is no such thing as hanging your shingle on the door, Little House style, and you will see people come knocking with a town behind you to give you business and the modern day equivalent to chickens paid in kind.
No matter what changes in life, searching for a job does not. I know. Jobfish provides a prism to the way in which people look for a job. Yes, by looking at the areas that people use, but much more importantly by the support calls and talking with individuals. Even ones that feel liberal in sending in support tickets, many of them still do not look for work properly.
Oprah a few years back (have your grandmother explain who Oprah is/was) had a few episodes, which got picked up by the multitude of media even Newsweek (ask your Great Grand Father on that one), where she talked of “The Secret”. If there ever was a product that shows that someone can get rich of selling ice to Eskimos in Alaska, it is that product. I still could not sit through the entire DVD without falling asleep. Okay, it does have that redeeming quality. It is better than a book or music. The DVD stated that if you think positive that you will get what you want. If you do not get what you want, then that is because you had a stray thought. Basically, you are not pure Vulcan. Spock would fail.
Success comes to those that try and do not give up. Those that do not take no for an answer are likely to succeed. If everyone will say that you are a failure, but you keep chipping away at the goal, you will one day succeed. There are those that wake up at 8:00 AM in the morning, screw off half the day, and go to bed early, and say they are working. There are those that go to bed at a reasonable time and wake up at the crack of dawn and work their asses off. When I say “work their assess off”, I do mean smartly, not stupidly. Work hard yes, but smartly too. You have to analyze mistakes and judge comments from others judicially perusing the point and regardless of the source and judging if the point has merit.
Before going on, here is another pet peeve of mine that I hear from others. Sorry, but although some males exhibit this behavior, by and large it applies to women, at least from my observation. Yes, there is Hillary, Martha, and others are counterweights, but they are still the exception. Many people say that they are not smart enough to do something. They do not have the skill to do something. They are not this and not that. You here every excuse in the book. You really want to shake these people. Maybe some shaking would scramble some neurons in the brain properly and straighten out the thinking. Southern California has Magic Mountain. These individuals should go there.
One learns by doing. Believe in yourself and the rest follows. Do not judge yourself. That is a job for others. Your job when looking for a job is to cast as wide a net as possible and be the little engine that could. (That was a great childhood story. Loved it.) That is a better example. A little train that thinks he can, can do more than a big noisy train that thinks he cannot. The relevance is there, if you interpret the story the right way. (Perchik from Fiddler on the Roof would smile at this statement.)
I hear people say that they do not really want to do this or that. A better comment would be do you really want to spend several years out of work and wasting your life and watching your family blow away? I am not saying to settle. That is another problem. Working in a hotel kitchen is fine, but if you could do more, then do not settle because you think of yourself as a failure. You rob society, g-d, and yourself by doing so. Okay, I sound like Gene Roddenberry here, but hey, why not.
A person who sends out 500 resumes each and every week, talks to a hundred different companies and people each week, and does a slew of other things inclusive of learning and studying is more likely to land a job than the one that talks your ear off on why they cannot do something. There is a difference between really trying and not succeeding and needing a hand up and out and talking the talk, but not walking the walk.
The hardest part is to get started and to know that the journey will be long, but that patience will in the long run pay off. Yes, I am the choir to the statement that I was born without patience, that I fell asleep at the park, when nature / g-d chimed for all to get in line to collect patience. I would not even know what that is. Like I said, I feel asleep. Ditto for faith. That does not mean that I do not know that things take time and hard work. Let just say that I did not just fall off the turnip truck. That possibly happened last week. 😉 I am not knocking turnips. A relative of mine, when I was young grew turnips in the backyard and prepared all sorts of things with the vegetable. You have to take a deep breath, and start by putting the first foot in front and saying that the journey should begin. Please, do not wait until January 1st.
I offer an example. I always prided myself on healthy eating and at little to no sweets. I was roughly 38″ around my middle for years. For about a year, people, one in particular, kept after me that I look funny that there is nothing up there by a whole lot down there. I was asleep or something. One day, I measured myself and saw that I got to 42.25″ and was well over 200lb. That was last July. I got me a personal trainer, as I knew that beside everything else that I would not workout properly on my own. I am way too lazy. I admitted that. It was the truth, so nothing to be ashamed at. I told my trainer the facts and the first session had measurements and conversation. Next Monday is Memorial Day 2013, so just about a year and a year of much hard work. I am not back at 35″ yet (my healthy waist measurement, which corresponds to 160lb to 165lb or so). I measured myself yesterday at 38.25 inches and 178lb. I have a long way to go, but I already came a long way. I lost four inches and about 25 to 30lbs.
Why did I bore you here? The reason is that success comes through hard work. Good is bad, and bad is good, except when good is good and bad is bad. The trick is to know the difference. Bread and sugar is bad, even though you temporarily think of it as good, but what really is good and bad? Is being 215lb good and suffering walking up the stairs just to enjoy a pizza or is being healthy and fit good and forgoing the pizza?
Am I off topic? Nope. I would not even begin to debate that I have patience or know about faith. I freely admit that I lack the two. As I said, I was asleep at the park underneath a tree or something, when nature / g-d passed out patience and faith. I do know the benefit of hard and continuous work. I never said that I was on a diet. That is such a stupid word. Diet implies going back to old ways when you reach your goal. That means a yoyo effect, as the old ways caused the problem in the first place. Think of adjusting oneself as a lifestyle change. Eat vegetable soup, not potato cheese or broccoli cheese soups. Did you know that a bowl of good split pea soup is 490 calories but a bowl of vegetable soup (no potato or other trash) is 90 calories?
Landing a job requires being 100%, not 50%. You have to have a realistic assessment of where you are and what you need to do, and then start checking off one item at a time over a prolonged period of time. Landing a job requires putting in the time, much like losing weight. What you think of as bad is actually good. When it came to my weight, I had someone nagging me and pointing out the facts until I saw them on my own. Searching for a job is no different.
Jobfish can help. Butterflyvista designed Jobfish with the job seeker in mind. We as a company have collective stories of what it is like. Yes, we have experience on both ends, recruitment as well. Still, Jobfish can help and not just because we designed the program, but because it can.
You have to talk with many different recruiters and keep logs and schedule and keep track of callbacks. There is no such thing as your favorite recruiter. Use all recruiters, 100 per day, each day new, each and every day. At the same time, broaden your skill set. Think of yourself as major awesomeness. Be the expert, even if you are not. Nobody is. People who say they are experts just talk that way. Yes, some have real facts, but a lot of it is attitude. Do not say trash and stupid things. That is where studying comes in and doing due diligence.
Send out 50 to 100 resumes each and every day, Sundays inclusive. Keep different versions of your resume. If a recruiter says that they need something in a particular format, say no worries. Hang up. Scream or yell, curse at the recruiter, but then give the recruiter what they need. They know what the hiring manager and HR department will need and what they do not want to see.
Also, if you have a father that says that you can wear athletic shoes to an interview because you are a college graduate, you have my permission to disregard the person and read books on the topic. One must always dress to impress. Guys, that means that you can and should get a manicure and have your hair done. Looking clean cut and groomed always helps. Please know a tailor and a dry cleaner. Clothes should fit and be clean and pressed. No exceptions.
Get a life coach. It takes a real person to know that you cannot do it alone. There is no bravery for going it alone. Hillary once wrote that it takes a village to raise a child. That is true. Jobfish is not your entire village, nor meant to be, but it is a powerful tool that can help. We are here to help.
Check out Jobfish at our website at www.butterflyvista.com or www.jobfish.com.