Job hunting is taxing under any circumstances. But it is made more complicated by the
fact that it often occurs during a time in a person’s life when he or she is feeling anxious,
insecure, and vulnerable.

✔ Be patient with yourself. It is going to take some time to figure out what you want
and to feel comfortable promoting your strengths and (if necessary) discussing your
failures and weaknesses. Try to focus on the day-to-day activities rather than the
end goal and reward yourself (mentally) when you feel that you have implemented a
job search strategy or technique competently.

✔ The Premack Principle in psychology establishes a system of rewards by linking
unpleasant tasks to pleasant ones. To make use of this principle in your job search,
make certain to reward yourself by doing something that you like to do after you
have completed some arguably unpleasant job search task. For example, if you hate
to make phone calls but love to go outside and work in the garden, give yourself an
hour in the garden for every hour that you spend on the phone making networking
calls and setting up interviews.

✔ Learn from your mistakes. Job-hunting skills—like any other skills— require time
and practice. Rather than berating yourself every time you say or do something
wrong, try to look more objectively at what you might have said and done differently
so that you won’t make that particular mistake again.

✔ Don’t take silence or rejections personally. Job hunting, by its very nature, requires
that you suffer through narcissistic injuries on a weekly or even daily basis.
Although it may be difficult not to feel hurt when someone doesn’t call you back
immediately or offer you a job on the spot, it’s all part of the “game” of job hunting.
Like salespeople who learn to embrace the “no” because it brings them that
much closer to the big sale, try to cultivate an attitude of hope and optimism. As
psychologist Martin Seligman has noted, “Pessimists may be more realistic, but
optimists are more successful and have more fun.”

✔ You can’t change the big picture, but you can influence your individual situation.When you focus on the big picture—unemployment rates, labor statistics, and interest
rates—it’s easy to get overwhelmed by bad news over which you have no control.
What you can control is your individual situation. By focusing on the people
who you can influence, you regain a sense of confidence, self-esteem, and control
over your own destiny.

✔ Stay active and involved. Isolation and, by extension, desperation are anathema to
successful job hunting. Rather than bury your head in the sand or slink off into a
corner to hide in shame, push yourself to become social. Not only will this help
your networking efforts, it will also enable you to stay connected to people you care
about and those who care about you. Also, consider joining a support group of job
hunters who are grappling with similar experiences. That way you can support each
other during a period in your lives that may be more stressful than usual.

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Losing your job—regardless of whether you’ve been laid off, downsized, right-sized, or
terminated for cause—is often a traumatic experience. Here are some steps you can take
to help the healing process along:

✔ Acknowledge your worst fears and feelings. Losing a job is almost always a
stressful life event that can fill you with a host of conflicting feelings: anger, anxiety,
betrayal, emptiness, guilt, self-doubt. It usually helps to recognize and vent those
feelings.

✔ Don’t isolate yourself. This is a time when you are going to need the support of
your family, friends, and others. If necessary, seek out the services of a professional
career counselor or psychotherapist who can support you during a potentially trying
time in your life.

✔ Formulate a game plan. Develop a plan of action that will allow you to capitalize
on your situation by identifying opportunities that match up with your skills,
interests, and values.

✔ Familiarize yourself with the skills and tools of job hunting. If you
haven’t already done so, review Checklist 35 in order to identify your weaknesses
and then formulate a plan of action to develop the job search skills you need in
order to be successful.

✔ Try to maintain your perspective. Although your job loss may feel like a failure
to you, it is also an opportunity to learn, grow, and redirect your energies. This
is a time when you need to take care of yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually.
Use your time wisely to get and stay healthy in every possible way.

✔ Cultivate resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from setbacks and
deal effectively with challenges and obstacles. For most people, this means learning
to cultivate a spirit of hope and optimism, connect (or reconnect) with support
systems, and develop new skills and game plans. As has often been noted, what
doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

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When it comes to job hunting, there is no shortage of “experts” to tell you exactly what
you need to do to find a good job. That said, there’s also no limit to the amount of bad
advice you can accumulate in the process of your search. Here is a list of some of the
most common job hunting myths.

Myth #1: There is one right way to find a job.

Although many job hunting surveys point to the power of networking as the single
most valuable job search strategy, an effective job search strategy is much like a wellbuilt
financial portfolio that reflects the value of diversification. In addition to networking,
make sure that you respond to advertised listings, talk to recruiters, contact
potential employers directly, and learn how to parlay contract or temporary jobs into
permanent full-time positions.

Myth #2: If a job isn’t advertised in the paper or on the company’s Web site,
there aren’t any positions available.

Although many employers use classified ads and online job postings to advertise
open positions, many jobs are never advertised. In order to identify these hidden
jobs, you must proactively call companies that interest you and continue to develop
and expand your network of contacts.

Myth #3: Nobody reads cover letters.

As a matter of course, resumes should almost always be accompanied by a wellwritten
cover letter. This cover letter can be valuable for several reasons:
● It targets a specific person and job title as a way of ensuring that your
resume makes it to the desk of the right hiring authority
● It provides an opportunity to highlight those skills and experiences that are
most relevant to your target (regardless of whether they are listed on your
resume)
● It is a clear illustration of your writing skills
● It is the professional thing to do

Myth #4: A resume should always be one page.

As traditional career ladders have vanished, so too has the one-page resume started
to go the way of the dinosaur. For many experienced job hunters, limiting your
resume to one page doesn’t make sense if that means that you must also eliminate
potentially important information in the process. As a general rule, your resume
should be succinct and well written. Depending on the nature of your experience,
you may need two pages to include all relevant information. Having said that, try to
include the most relevant information in the first page.

Myth #5: If a company likes my resume, they will call me in for an interview.

In a perfect world, this would be the reality of every job search. But in the so-called
Information Age, the reality is that it’s easy for your resume to get lost among the
hordes of paperwork. It is incumbent on you to make sure that your resume gets
noticed. You can do that by following up your resume and cover letter with a telephone
call or e-mail to make sure that the recruiter knows who you are and why you
are so well qualified.

Myth #6: It’s not what you know that matters; it’s who you know that counts.

In fact, it’s both who and what you know that counts. While a good referral can get
you in the door and in front of the right people, if you don’t have the skills and
experience to do the job, the odds are against you. To make sure that doesn’t happen,
take the time to develop a focused job search strategy that really capitalizes on
your strengths and qualifications.

Myth #7: When it comes to sending out resumes, the more the merrier.

Although many people do take a shotgun approach to job hunting, a qualitative
approach to the job market is usually more successful than a quantitative one. To do
this, you must spend some time and effort researching the job market and identifying
specific employers who can benefit from what you have to offer and then
approach them, knowledge in hand.

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Conventional wisdom has always maintained that it’s easier to find a new job while
you’re still employed. Like much conventional wisdom, that’s only partly true. While it
may make it easier for you to pay your bills, it isn’t always easy to find the time or energy
to conduct a good search. Here are some guidelines that you can use to incorporate a job
search into an already hectic schedule.

1. Make your job search a priority. Although you obviously cannot devote entire days
to looking for a new job, you can work every day toward the goal of finding a new
job. If you can find a way to carve out 30 to 40 minutes per day for job search
activities, it will help you sustain your motivation and persist in your efforts.

2. Take time to engage in some meaningful self-assessment before you start barnstorming
the job market. To facilitate that goal, use the checklists in Section 1, take some
vocational tests, and, if necessary, find yourself a good career counselor who can
help you clarify your goals and direction.

3. Write your resume with your job objective in mind. Use the Internet to research
potential employers and identify open positions which match up with your goals.

4. Develop a networking strategy that you feel comfortable with. Because you are still
employed, you need to think carefully about who you can trust with the knowledge
of your job search, as you don’t want the information that you are job hunting leaking
back to your current employer.

5. Use common sense and good judgment. Don’t read the classified ads at your desk
or leave your resume in the photocopy machine. Do bring your cell phone to work
and use it to make and receive calls during your lunch hour and on your break, but
be careful to safeguard your privacy. You don’t want anyone to overhear your conversations.

6. Set up networking meetings and interviews before or after work or during your
lunch hour. However, if you are normally a casual-dress person, suddenly starting to
wear suits to work is going to send a red flag to the people you work with.

7. Don’t ignore your current job responsibilities. They are also a priority. Even though
your heart isn’t in it, don’t develop a bad attitude or turn out slipshod work. The
key is to balance your job search priorities with your job responsibilities so that neither
one suffers too much.

8. Be realistic about how long it takes to move from one job to another. Because you
are still employed, your job search will inevitability take longer than you want it to.
This is the compromise that you accepted when you elected to stay in your current
job. If you work steadily toward your goal of finding a new job and stay motivated,
energized, and optimistic, the process will be less frustrating and ultimately more
successful.

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From an employer’s point of view, there is no greater predictor of success than past performance.

To convince potential employers that you are the best candidate for the job,
you must be able to clearly articulate and sell your accomplishments.

1. Start by writing one-line statements about various aspects of your experiences (in
school, at work, and through community/professional activities). Use your resume
checklists to organize your thoughts.

2. Convert each activity into an accomplishment statement. Accomplishment statements
usually begin with an action verb, describe your activities, and end with a
statement of what you achieved.

Examples:
● Reduced operating expenses by 25% by improving efficiency and
decreasing expenses.
● Selected new vendors for office services, resulting in improved customer
service and satisfaction.
● Generated $50,000 in new sales during first twelve months.
● Created media relations campaign for health care provider, resulting in
story placements in three major metropolitan newspapers.

3. Make your list of accomplishment statements as comprehensive as possible. You can
always make editorial changes later.

4. After you have completed your list, edit the statements to use the most powerful
verbiage and reflect tangible evidence of results.

5. If you are using a chronological resume format, make sure that you list each accomplishment
directly beneath the company where you acquired it.

6. If you are using a functional resume, you will need to group related accomplishments
together under functional headings (regardless of when and where you
accomplished those results).

7. Finally, review your accomplishment statements in the context of your specific job
objective; then organize and present the statements in order of their relevance to the
potential employer.

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