Here’s my plan for you, job-seeker, as I have been in your shoes. I’ve been hopeless, broke, practically suicidal, unemployed for a solid year with a family of five to feed. I don’t guarantee you a job if you take these steps, but I will say this: I personally would not hire anyone who didn’t take these steps first, and I’m not alone. These steps are important whether or not you’re currently employed. Do NOT wait until you’re out on the street. There is no excuse for not taking these steps immediately. You’re too busy? I’ve got a family of five to feed, I’m working a full-time job in addition to other work that I do, plus I’m going back to school. Your time management issues are YOUR issues. Enough said on that.
These are prerequisites:
Write your resume.
Sounds ridiculously simple, like common sense. I’ve learned that common sense is far from common. How’s your resume doing? Don’t do anything else before this is taken care of. Whether or not you hire someone to write it for you is your business. Do what you have to do. In the meantime, enjoy the Stone Age. An extraordinary number of people wait until they’re out of work before addressing this. I have never been without an updated resume handy. “Really, you have an updated resume?” I’ve been asked in hushed tones by coworkers, as if someone was watching over their shoulder, just waiting for them to confess that they’ve considered the concept of gainful employment anywhere else. That’s a slave mentality if I’ve ever encountered one. Thankfully, I think this attitude is becoming a thing of the past, thanks in part to LinkedIn. More on that later.
Get your technology together.
Are you one of those “I really should learn Microsoft Word” types? Do you know how to make a PDF file? Come back here when you do. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Do you have e-mail? Get a Gmail account. Are you still on AOL? Good luck with that, and thanks for the comic relief when one of your e-mails hits my inbox. Do you know Excel? PowerPoint? If you’ve answered a solid “No” to any of those, my question to you is, “What exactly canyou do?”
It is now officially your business to know Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Period. If you don’t have Adobe Acrobat and you don’t want to pay to make PDF files, go and download something like PrimoPDF, a free PDF creation tool. There are others which I won’t discuss here. Remember, Google is your friend.
If you really want to distinguish yourself, learn some graphic design software (in other words, the Adobe Creative Suite). Go check out some of my fabulous tutorials elsewhere on this website. I have a family member who is a fabulous artist. In one of her past lives, before personal computers, she was an art director. She has yet to learn Photoshop. She is now officially out of the graphics game until she learns it. She’s been saying this for the past ten years. Does this sound like you?
I would never hire anyone for a paid job who didn’t know these things unless I was hiring them to do my dry cleaning. Granted, my requirements are a bit more stringent since I’m in the design field, but you absolutely, positively, need to know Microsoft Office. If you don’t, seriously, how far down in the sand has your head been buried for the past ten years (please disregard this last question if you’re a Freshman in High School or someone returning to the workforce after raising children)? Why would I hire someone who didn’t have those basic skills?
Picture this scenario: A couple of people at the office are unavailable due to illness, meetings, whatever. The CEO frantically calls the office and gets “Alice” (a fictitious name) on the phone. “Alice, this is an emergency. I need you to pull up the PowerPoint on my computer for me and change a couple of slides.”Pity that poor Alice’s core competencies were organizing paper files and operating the fax machine. PowerPoint was just, you know, too much for her. Wait, what year is this again?
Post your qualifications.
Do you have a LinkedIn profile? I heard this from someone last week, someone who’s been out of work for nearly seven months: “I’ve been meaning to set one up. A good friend of mine has one…” Don’t be that person. Setup your profile (for free – I’m not shilling for LinkedIn here. I can’t speak to the advantages of their paid version, though many people use it). Treat it like your resume, because it is your resume.When you have a profile up there, go feast your eyes on the LinkedIn Job Search. Join some groups. Start connecting.
Now, go ahead and set profiles up on Monster, CareerBuilder and, if you’re somewhat I.T.-oriented (in which case, I shouldn’t have to tell you this in the first place), Dice. Setup your profiles and upload your resume to all of them. Setup job search agents which will e-mail you daily (or otherwise) targeted job listings.
Do not lose focus on LinkedIn, however. It’s only gaining popularity while the others are not. One of its many tremendous advantages is that you’re not working in a vacuum. You have access to everyone else’s profile. Go look at some of them, especially the really good ones. Make yours look good. Notice how I’m not saying, “Make your profile stand out!” Don’t do things like SPELLING YOUR NAME IN ALL CAPS. If you notice your first and last name are reversed, FIX THEM. Don’t use words like “experienced,” “seasoned,” “cutting-edge,” “dedicated,” yada yada yada. Show, don’t tell. This is Creative Writing 101. Be honest. What were your accomplishments? You must have done something all these years. Get recommendations from people. Someone out there somewhere must have something nice to say about you.
Stay positive.
Yeah, kumbaya and all that. If you are going to allow yourself to be defined by your experience filling out online job applications, suicide might actually be a preferable option. Things are being done differently now. Get on board or join the ranks of the unemployed, if you’re not there already. I had to throw the power of positive thinking thing in here. Negativity sucks. I mean, who wants to be around someone who’s negative all the time? Don’t be that person. Please.
Volunteer.
I work for a non-profit. I love it. I’d much rather work with these people making far less money than I used to when I worked for a larger corporate entity where I was surrounded by people who truly hated their jobs, their lives, and, I’m convinced, pretty much everything. What a picnic that was. I still have nightmares. Really.
I also teach. I love doing that. I love helping people. Since getting laid off from the aforementioned corporate job where I had stayed, unbelievably, for nine years, I was unemployed for a solid year before landing where I’m at now, and in the relatively short time that has followed, I’ve grown to be happier professionally than I’ve been in my entire career.
There are tons of people out there that need help. That includes groups of people, organizations, non-profits, they’re out there. If you need to gain some computer skills, why not call up one of those organizations that might even be doing something you care about. See if they need someone to come in and help. Keep calling them. Be sincere. Stop feeling sorry for yourself already. Are you still breathing? Living? If you’re reading this, you’re probably looking at a computer screen or some other device, which implies you’re not lying dead in a ditch somewhere.
Participate! The community is right there, within your reach, and you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your home. Get involved, NOW, or continue to be left behind.
Be social.
There are so many tools available now to connect with other people, there is absolutely no excuse not to be using them. Use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, but be mindful of the strengths of each so you can properly capitalize on them. Do not, for instance, post pictures of your family on LinkedIn. Similarly, do not actively solicit recommendations from your friends on Facebook (unless they’re ok with the intrusion). Follow the rules, many of which are unwritten. There used to be this thing called “Netiquette,” a term coined back when the Internet was this big deal. Netiquette is still alive and well. Pay respect to the community and you are far more likely to get respect in return. Quid Pro Quo.
Remember this: Your online presence is a direct representation of you. Most often, it is what people will see before ever speaking to you or meeting you in person. If pretending to be someone else online is your thing, have at it. Plenty of people get immense enjoyment out of that. If, on the other hand, you have any desire to participate in the real world, get with the program. Honesty is the best policy, and if you can’t be honest, consider refraining from saying anything. For example, I wrote a negative review of a book on Amazon a few years ago, and it’s likely to haunt me forever. In other words, your drunken rant on Facebook the other night just might be called into question at a job interview next year, or two years from now, or ten. That’s your reputation. Whether or not you take it seriously is your business. Don’t dig a hole for yourself that’s so deep you end up having to hire somebody to repair your reputation for you.