The job market, while stabilizing, is by no means robust. For the long-term unemployed, it will be even more competitive now as the employed but unhappy get encouraged by the improving market outlook to take a chance and start looking. For the employed, many will find that, despite the happier news being reported, the market is still extremely tight. If you aren’t motivated to launch a hard-charging job search, you will get easily discouraged by this market and may be tempted to settle. Yet, this would be a mistake. Now is the time to get outrageous.
The job market, while stabilizing, is by no means robust. For the long-term unemployed, it will be even more competitive now as the employed but unhappy get encouraged by the improving market outlook to take a chance and start looking. For the employed, many will find that, despite the happier news being reported, the market is still extremely tight. If you aren’t motivated to launch a hard-charging job search, you will get easily discouraged by this market and may be tempted to settle. Yet, this would be a mistake. Now is the time to get outrageous.
Great things are only possible with outrageous requests. – Thea Alexander
Focus on getting the job you love, not just any job. In difficult times, it is not enough to go after just any job. Getting just any job will be difficult, and you won’t have the interest to see it through. But a job that you really care about will be just as difficult, and you will have something extra to get you through the ups and downs inevitable in every tough job search.
Focus on the intangibles (e.g., boss and colleagues, office culture, room for growth), not just on the basic job elements (e.g., title, salary, security). You want to like where you work, and you want to establish career momentum. Aiming for being lucky enough to get a job is not going to be high enough to get anything. The higher you aim, the more likely you get more.
Focus on the long-term, despite the short-term urgency. I absolutely coach my clients to be realistic about their cash position and personal circumstances, which may require that they take consulting, temporary or even less-than-ideal full-time jobs if their obligations dictate that. There may be moves you make in the immediate term that will move you off your idealized long-term path. But then you must immediately get back on there. Don’t get complacent in your underutilized role. Keep with the search, and dial it up a notch now that you have regained some breathing room. It is a big mistake that many jobseekers make to get a comfortable job and forget the urgency to push for something more. Remember you are managing a career, not any one job.
Is Your Job Search Flexible or Just Unfocused?
As a recruiter, I’ve seen lack of flexibility on the recruiting side with employers clinging to every last detail in their ideal spec while perfectly good candidates get overlooked. As a career coach, I see jobseekers prematurely dismissing possible targets waiting for that perfect job. It’s true that you want to be focused in your job search (otherwise you dilute your efforts and come across as scattered and possibly desperate).
5 Questions to Test If Your Resume Is Recruiter-Proof
After recruiting in search and in-house for over ten years, I have read thousands of resumes. Due to sheer volume of resumes received and all the other things that vie for the recruiter’s attention in the hiring process – scheduling, interviewing, networking, reference checks, client debriefs, and more – the resume review process is ruthlessly quick.
How Do You Score On Employers’ Top Five Desired Skills?
Even if you are happily employed, work environments and priorities change. You want to make sure that you are not getting complacent and allowing your skills to rust. The above five skills are always valued, but the standards by which they are measured change over your career. Maybe you got to where you are now because of superior analytical skills and despite below average communication skills, but now you are a manager.
