Are There Jobs Out There?

Posted: June 5, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Job Search | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

I am not sure anyone really understands what’s happening with the economy or the labor market. I have a PhD in business and 35 years of experience in human resources and much of what’s happening does not make much sense to me. 

According the May unemployment report form the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is hovering around 6.1%. There were hopes that it would have dropped more, and lots of talking-heads are suggesting why it hasn’t.  But, here is what bothers me.  In February 2020, before the pandemic, the unemployment rate was 3.5% and there were 152.5 million people who had jobs (this number excludes military and farm workers).  That means that the total workforce (working plus unemployed) was approximately 158.1 million workers.

The May, 2021 numbers (6.1% unemployed and 144.3 million working), indicate that the total workforce was 153.7 million workers.  Where did the 4.4 million workers go?  If unemployment should drop to a pre-pandemic level of 3.5%, there will still be over a 4 million workers who appeared to have disappeared.

Rest assured, most of them are still with us.  The overall population is still growing.  The reality is they quit working and stopped looking for work.  Many are Baby Boomers who just decided it was time to retire.  Some are parents who decided to stay home with their children. Others simply just gave up.

But this is a blog about job search, not geeking out on the economy, so what does this mean to you?  It means, there are jobs. In fact, there are likely to be labor shortages in some sectors.  As “unprecedented” as these times are, the economy is rebounding, companies are hiring, and there are jobs. They may not be exactly what you were looking for, but those jobs may still lead to fulfilling and successful careers.

Bottom line: take hope, keep pressing ahead, work your network, tell your story, and you will be successful.  If you need help with your jobs search, try this  https://im-fired.com/about-the-book/.

First Impressions

Posted: May 29, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Support | Tags: | 1 Comment

First, on this Memorial Day weekend, if you are member or veteran of our armed forces, please let me thank you for your service. I would not be able to ejnoy the life I lead, without your dedication and service. Thank you.

Now, I will bet that when you were very young your mother told you more than once, “You only have one chance to make a first impression – don’t blow it.” She was right, but she probably didn’t know how right she was.

Neuroscience has confirmed that we make first impressions within milliseconds, and those impressions are hard to change.  Think about it. As our ancestors were living in caves and struggling for survival every day.  They didn’t have time to interview every new person they met to decide if they should fight or flee. They developed the mental processes to immediately assess if this was someone they liked, or disliked, so they could react and keep their family safe.  We’ve come a long way since then, but we still have much of that caveman brain.

When you meet a new person, the way that they perceive you in the first few seconds will have a huge impact on their impressions of you.  It is even true on the telephone.  Scientists have found that just by how you say hello tells the caller a lot about you, including your trustworthiness.

If you really want to stretch your mind, watch this Ted Talk by Amy Cuddy . If you’ve seen this before, watch it again. The power of body language is incredible and should not be ignored.  Match her advice with this.  (Sorry but I’m going to sound like your mother again).  When you go for a networking meeting or an interview make sure you are neat, clean, well-groomed and appropriately dressed.  Before you walk into the room, follow Dr. Cuddy’s advice.  Then, stand up straight, put your shoulders back, put a smile on your face, look them in the eye, say “hello” in a clear, confident voice and offer them a firm handshake (when we’re able to do that again).  If you can do those things, the rest of the interview will go much better.  If you are rumpled, smell bad, look at the ground, mumble a greeting and offer a limp handshake, then pack up your resume and head for the door.

Regardless of your circumstances, skills, formal training, what-have-you, you can be confident that you are unique. You are a person of value and a child of God.  You have worth, you can contribute, you can learn, and you can be a positive force for good in your community.  You may or may not be ready to be the next CEO, but you can be successful in whatever job you are applying for. If you believe it, they will too.

Your dream job is out there and waiting for you. Don’t let the first few seconds of your interview block your dream.  Make a good first impression.  If you are struggling, this might help.  https://im-fired.com/about-the-book/

The Job Club

Posted: May 22, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Support | Tags: , | Leave a comment

You know, job search can be lonely.  Day after day you are applying for jobs and searching the net. Hopefully, you are networking and meeting people, but those people, at least for now, aren’t people that you know personally, and you can’t really share your fears and frustrations with them.  You need people you can talk to.  Enter, the job club.

In my book, Bob visits the Lakeview Job Club offered through a local church. There he talks with a group of other people who are also looking for jobs. They share leads and success stories. But more importantly, those people get it. They provide community.  They know how Bob’s feeling and the struggles he is facing, because they are facing them too.  He has a support group which he comes to truly value.

Job clubs are usually led by someone with some experience in job search who can also give advice on resumes and tactics.  In a recent blog post Nadine  writes about a phenomenal program she stumbled across that was a job club and job training program online.

If you are looking for a job club, the US Department of Labor wants to help.  Their CareerOneStop website has some great tools to find local services to assist your job search. The Job Club Finder lets you search for job clubs in your local area and provides contact information. The site can also direct you to local community colleges, libraries, and more.

You don’t have to be alone during your job search.  Find a job club, and if there is not one in your area, start one.  I guarantee there is a need, and most likely a local HR professional who can help you get things rolling.  If you are struggling with your job search, this can also help  https://im-fired.com/about-the-book/

I Should Write a Book!

Posted: May 15, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Job Search | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Your job search is slowing down and you’re thinking, maybe I need a different kind of job. Then the lightbulb clicks on, “I’ll write a book.”  Okay, good idea.  But as one who has written a book, knows several people who have written books, and read lots and lots of books, please allow me to give you some free advice.  (Remember, you get what you paid for.)

  1. Don’t plan on getting rich. While Stephen King and Patrick Lencioni are getting by on their royalties, don’t write to make money.  It takes multiple best sellers to truly generate cashflow you can live on.
  2. Don’t do it yourself.  It is now possible to write a book, publish it and have it available an Amazon all by yourself.  But, many (if not most) of those books are bad.  You need a good editor. You need a good proofreader.  You need someone who understands the business and can advise you on content, cover art, etc.  I was fortunate to get associated with Lighthouse Point Press and my book is 10 times better than if I had done it alone.
  3. Don’t think it’s easy.  Good writing is a skill that takes practice.  It is a craft.  You need to write a lot to practice your craft, to find your voice, and get comfortable with the process.  Start with blog and see if you can generate content that people want to read on a consistent basis.  Work your way up to writing a book.
  4. Don’t neglect your competition.  Let’s say you want to write a book on leadership.  If you search Amazon for books on leadership, you’ll get over 60,000 hits.  Books on Job Search – 20,000, Job Networking – 3,000. There is a lot of competition – and again, much of it is bad – but you can’t tell that from looking on Amazon.
  5. Don’t think it ends with publishing.  Finally, the reality becomes that writing the book was the easy part, now you have to sell it, and you will be the one who is in charge of marketing.

I don’t want to discourage you from a life-long dream to be an author.  I did it, I’m proud I did it, I think I did on okay job, and, I’m thinking about doing it again.  But, I’m not getting rich and it was a lot of work.  So, keep looking for your day job, and make time to write in your off hours.  If you are struggling to find that day job, this might help.  https://im-fired.com/about-the-book/

How Long Should My Search Take?

Posted: May 8, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Job Search | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

I understand, really. You lost your job. You have bills to pay. You’re ready to go back to work.  The economy is still wonky. What you want to know is “how long will it take to find a new job.”  You better be sitting down, because you may not like my answer.

Long ago I learned a simple rule-of-thumb. You should be prepared for your job search to take one month for every $10k of annual salary you want to earn.  A lot of things have changed since I first heard that, so maybe now it is one month per $15k, but that math is harder to do.  Be prepared for a search for a $30,000 annual salary job to take 3 months and an $80,000 job could take 8 months.  I’ve been fired/laid off/RIFed/what-have-you six times.  The fastest I’ve ever found a job was about 4 weeks and the longest was 13 months.  

Your search may not take that long.  Some people are in the right place at the right time. If you already have a strong and well-maintained network, you may be able to speed up the process.  But, for the 1-month rule to be a rule, it has to be an average.  That means that for many of you it will take longer.  Unfortunately, recent experience by several of my friends, says the rule-of-thumb is still be pretty accurate.

What this means is that you need to be patient, persistent, prepared.  If you think you are at risk for losing your job, evaluate your assets.  If you have no other source of income and will rely on unemployment and savings, figure out how long they will last.  If you don’t have enough money for the rule-of-thumb, you may want to change your search process. You may need to settle for a lower paying job just to get some income flowing.  You might have to lower your standards, or look in another geographic area.  You just need to be prepared.

If, like me, you have a loving spouse with a good job and you can get by, then be patient and work the process.  Know that it probably won’t happen overnight, but it won’t happen on its own either.  You have to do the work, build the network, and get the system to work for you.

Patience may be a virtue, but when it comes to finding a new job, impatience often is just as important.  If you are struggling, this might help.  https://im-fired.com/about-the-book/

Where Should I look?

Posted: May 1, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Networking | Tags: , | Leave a comment

It’s a question I get a lot.  Where is the best place to look for a job?  Is it Indeed, Monster, Zip Recruiter Workable, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and the list goes on and on.  The good news is that I have a very easy answer for that question.  Everywhere – and more.

As the Internet continues to grow, technology expands, and innovation is in the wind, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of places you can look online to find job postings, and you need to look at as many of them as you can.  Look at some of the biggest boards, especially Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn on a regular basis.  Some sites contain only the jobs posted there, while others are aggregators, collecting links to jobs posted on other sites.  On many sites you can create an account and the site will send you alerts when a job that matches your criteria is posted.

You also need to look on industry sites based on what you do – or want to do.  You need to look on company websites.  You should even look at your state’s unemployment website where they usually post jobs.  I’m sorry, but the short answer is everywhere.  As I’ve said before, if you are out of work, you need to make looking for a job a full-time job, so start clicking.

But, and this is a HUGE BUT, the odds are pretty good that you will not find the job you want if all you do is search the web and apply for jobs that appeal to you.  According to Matt Youngquist, president of Career Horizons, 70 to 80% of jobs are not published.  According to Payscale.com, that number could be as high as 85%.  The first time I heard this statistic was in the mid-1980’s and way back then it was 75%.  While technology has changed, it appears that people haven’t. 

So, if 70% or more of jobs don’t get posted, then how do you find out about them?  Networking.  The cold, hard fact is that if you want to find that perfect job, you need to talk to real people, tell them your story, ask them for help, and ask them who they know that you could talk to, and then repeat that process, over and over.  It may make you uncomfortable, but your option is to spend days and days searching the internet and fighting for jobs against hundreds of other job seekers who are doing the exact same thing.

In job search, almost always, when the question is, “Should I do A, or should I do B?”, the answer is do both.  You need to look online, you need to apply for jobs, and you need to research companies and their openings.  But you also need to network, meet people, and spread your story. 

Your dream job is out there and waiting for you.  You need to look for it on the net – everywhere, but you also have to ask people to help you find it.  If you are struggling, this might help.  https://im-fired.com/about-the-book/

And so was Albert Einstein (or Maybe it was Jane Fulton)

Posted: April 24, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Support | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

In my last post I quoted Henry Ford who said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”  I support this idea and believe you need to believe in yourself and go forth with confidence. But, I suspect that some readers might have felt “Yeah, right, six months ago I would have believed you, but now I’m not so sure.” 

I hear that.  I once had to look for 13 months to find a job. So let me suggest another famous quotation.  “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”  This quote is widely attributed to Albert Einstein, but according to this site the author Rita May Brown originated the line in a novel. Regardless of the source, I believe it to be a true statement.

If your job search seems to be going on and on, and you are not having much success, you need to do something differently. Spend some time volunteering so that in addition to doing good work and clearing you head, you can meet some new networking contacts.  Take a course at the local community college to learn some new skills and meet new people. Consider looking in a different geographical area.  Get a part-time job working retail to give yourself something to do, make some money, and meet new people. Spend more time with your family. Whatever – just change things up.

Sometimes, you get so focused on your search that you lose sight of the bigger picture. Take a step back to examine and alter your process.  Maybe you need to change your goal, or maybe you just need to go about it in a different way. The economy is coming back.  Soon it is quite possible that there will be more jobs than people who want to fill those jobs.  You will find one, and while it might not be the perfect one, it may be the change you need to help you take the next step forward in your career. 

Life does not often follow a straight line.  One of my friends likes to say, “Man plans and God laughs.” None of us can predict the future.  We know what we want to happen, but it usually doesn’t turn out exactly that way.  If you a struggling, change things up. Do something different for a while.  Alter your search process.  Look in in different places.  Hopefully, change is what you need to get things moving in the right direction.

If you are struggling with your job search, this might help.  https://im-fired.com/about-the-book/

Henry Ford was Right!

Posted: April 17, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Support | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

It can be difficult to be unemployed and to find a new job.  It is hard, frustrating work. You have to put yourself out there, swallow your pride, ask for help and take rejection – a lot.  You have to sell yourself.  You have to talk to strangers.  You have to make looking for a job a full-time job in itself.  How’s that for a depressing way to open a blog post?

But, people do it every day.  You have probably done it more than once already. There are lots of harder things you have done and will do in your life.  While challenging, the job search can also be a great learning experience, and if you do it right, you’ll come out at the other end with not just a new job, but with step up in your career, a number of new network contacts, and hopefully you’ll even learn something about yourself.  You will know that you stepped up, met the challenge, and were successful.  To sound like Polly-Anna, every cloud has silver lining.

I enjoy words.  I love songs more for the lyrics than the melodies.  I like to hear how someone can turn a phrase and make a complex idea simple, or provide that brief shot of motivation.  One of my favorite quotes is from Henry Ford.  Ford said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” This quote is all about attitude and confidence.

Looking for a job can be hard work, and if you get up each day thinking, “I can’t do this – I’ll never find a job – no one wants to hire me,” then Ford would say “you’re right,” and you should probably go back to bed.   But the fact is, you’re wrong.  There are jobs. You have skills, and you can learn new ones. There are people who are willing to help you.  The opportunity is there for success.  Grab it!

But it starts with you. Think, “I can.”

If you are struggling with your job search, this might help.  https://im-fired.com/about-the-book/

Where are you aiming?

Posted: April 10, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Job Search | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

When I network with job seekers, many are more adept at the search process than I was when I first had to do it.  They have good looking resumes; they know how to network; and they are getting better at being prepared and doing their research.  But most still have not prepared one of the most important job search documents.

If you are job seeker you need a Target List.  This is a list of 20-25 organizations where you think you might want to work.  You may not know if they have job openings, but they are organizations who might be a fit for you due to their industry, location, size, reputation, what-have-you.

Inevitably, during a networking meeting you ask, “Do you know anyone that I should talk to?”  All too often your host says, “No, I can’t think of anyone.”  The prepared job seeker then pulls out the Target List and says “Here is a list of organizations that I’d like to know more about.  Do you know anyone who works at any of these?”  Now the conversation can begin anew.

That list of companies will spark some potential contacts, “Oh, my next door neighbor works for XYZ Company.”  You may also hear, “You don’t want to work for that company; they’re a sweat shop.”  Whatever the feedback, you’ll have more information that you did at the beginning of the conversation and that’s what networking is all about.

Target Lists should be updated continually, adding new organizations and removing those that aren’t the fit you’d hoped they were.  Format the list to look like your resume – same headers, fonts, paper, etc.  You want this to be a professional looking document that has the same feel as your other search related papers.

If your networking is not yielding the success you need, add a Target List into the mix.  I guarantee it will make your networking sessions more productive and speed you on to that next career adventure.

If you are struggling with your job search, this might help.  https://im-fired.com/about-the-book/

Hunting for Easter Eggs

Posted: April 3, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Networking | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Tomorrow is Easter.  Spring is here, the pandemic appears to be waning, and there is an atmosphere of hope in the air that we haven’t felt for a long time.  Hopefully, you will be able to spend some time with family and friends this weekend, and maybe you’ll get to hunt for Easter eggs.

In my family there is a tradition of hiding plastic eggs in and around the house, supposedly left by the Easter Bunny, and then allowing the children to hunt for those eggs.  Inside the eggs might be candy, money, small toys, or maybe stickers.  For me, the best eggs had chocolate in them, next came those with money (pennies and nickels), and then toys, and way at the bottom of the list were stickers.  I never was much of a sticker kind of kid.

Networking can sometimes feel like an Easter egg hunt.  You race around, looking in every corner, under every branch, and under every rock, hoping to find an egg (a new contact).  And then you find someone who is willing to talk with you and you arrange a meeting.  In your mind, you hope that when you open this contact they will pour out a mountain of chocolate eggs (new contacts).  It will be glorious!  But, when you finally crack open that egg, you find a wrinkled SpongeBob sticker.

Networking is a process. Every contact you meet will not hold the key to your future. But somebody does. If you work hard enough, there is a high likelihood that someone that you meet will lead you to your next job. Somebody will introduce you to somebody, who will introduce you to somebody, who has been looking for a person just like you. So, if you happen to open a whole carton of eggs filled with stickers, don’t stop.  Your chocolate egg is still out there.  Keep hunting.

I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing Easter Weekend.  If you are struggling with your job search, this might help.  https://im-fired.com/about-the-book/

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