If you’ve sent resume after cover letter after email in response to every online job posting you can find, it can start to feel like no one is hiring. No one in the whole, world, in fact. Take a deep breath and seize hold of your common sense.
Of course someone is hiring, and why shouldn’t they hire you? It’s just a matter of effectively getting your mondo-impressive resume in front of the right people.
Like any other important undertaking in life, finding a job requires planning, patience and a good process. If your search is beginning to feel like a lost cause, it may be time to reassess how you’re going about it.
Here are five steps our team has found can work wonders to turn “no one’s hiring” into “I’m hired!”
1. Save DIY for home improvement, not for your job search.
Going it alone can feel downright lonely when you’re out of work and looking for a job. Get help – there’s plenty out there. A career coach can help you move your search along faster, give you valuable feedback on your resume and interviewing skills, and help guide your search. Plus, you’ll feel a lot less on your own when someone else is watching your back.
2. Take the time to make a plan.
Of course you want a new job right this very minute, but it will happen sooner if you have a plan that addresses key questions like “What kind of job do I want?” and “Where do I want to work?” not to mention “Where do I see myself and my family in five years?” A career coach can help you answer those questions, define your goals and create a plan for reaching them.
3. Set targets – they’re not the same as goals.
A career goal might be that you want to hold a management position with a leading company in five years. A target defines what industry and what geographic area you want that job to be in. Targets help you narrow your job search to manageable parameters so that it doesn’t seem too overwhelming.
4. Take control of your interview experiences.
The best, most productive job interviews are the ones you run for yourself – but let the interviewer think he or she is in charge. People who are hiring don’t always ask the right questions to really allow you to showcase what you can do for their company. You’ll need to find a way to bring your strengths and accomplishments into the interview. Before the interview, jot down your “selling points” on an index card and commit them to memory so that you’ll be ready if the interview lags or goes in the wrong direction.
5. Be a polite pest.
If you got as far as an interview – or even if you haven’t – keep following up. The interview isn’t your end goal, a job is, so you may have to make contact with the interviewer or someone even more senior again and again. Be polite but persistent. Following up not only reminds the interviewer that you’re interested, it can help you find out how interested they are in you.
