Jobseekers: Treat Your Search like a Full Time Job
Losing a job or getting laid off is without a doubt one of the more emotionally devastating events that most people face. Unfortunately, in these troubling financial times, many more people are likely to face this likelihood than any other time in recent history.
However, if you lose or have lost a job, it is important to keep your situation in perspective and realize that it isn’t the end of the world and that there are things that you can do to find a new job! Having said that, like most other things in life you will have to work hard to achieve that goal! This will require organization, commitment and dedication to the job search. And, the best way to conduct a successful job search is to approach it and treat it like a full time job! To that end, attempt to divide each day into manageable list of tasks and allocate sufficient time to accomplish them—just like you would at a full time job. Also, since time is usually no longer an issue, you can spend some of your time researching new opportunities, networking with others or finding new contacts who might be able to help you get your foot in the door at a prospective employer’s company or organization.
Sitting in front of a computer all day, applying for online jobs on company websites and job boards isn’t going to cut it—mostly because you won’t hear back from most of the places where you submitted online job application. In fact, I think that the online approach to job hunting almost guarantees that you will become dejected, depressed and hopeless.
In my opinion, the best approach to a job search (after losing a job) is to recognize that anything less than full time commitment to finding a new one likely won’t be successful. Based on my own and other’s experience, a successful job search consists of a mixture of focused and disciplined online and IRL activities. Developing and implementing an ordered and strategic job search provides jobseekers with organization and a “structure” that will likely help to ward off feelings of confusion, dejection and hopelessness experienced by most people who have lost jobs. For more ideas and suggestions on how to transform your job search into a full time job please check out this excellent article by Phyllis Korkki.
Until next time....
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!
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