One of the most overlooked aspects of finding a job is that you have to look. I know, it sounds like a kooky thing to say, but true. As a matter of fact, if you aren't looking for work because you have given up trying in discouragement, the Labor Department doesn't count you as unemployed.
At any rate, you have to stay motivated. It involves not just looking in one newspaper, but every newspaper. It means looking up every web-sites and using every search engines. It means putting in time.
It takes twenty sales calls to make one sale. Discouragement can come after ten unsuccessful interviews or even fifteen, yet you're not even in the ball park for failure. This isn't baseball. A .050 batting average in getting a job is good. And this is often either not known or a hard thing to accept.
This means you have to blanket the market with resumes. It means honing cover letters and resumes for different jobs and having friends proofread them. It's also helpful to keep one of my stories in mind.
There are 20 little kids with bruised elbows, and you're a school nurse. With the first child, you dry his or her eyes using a Kleenex with love and care, then you put an ointment on the child's elbow and read the hurting youngster a story until the young one is happy and ready to leave skipping to class. By the last child, you’re tired as an old moon. You slap on some ointment, look at the bruise and almost roll the kid into the hall with a, “Hey it’s just a bruise, quit acting like a baby.”
The problem? The last child is just as hurt as the first. Your job is to heal all of them and care for the last one just like the first. You never just go through the motions.
This is true in job searching too. Day 300 of job search is just as important as day one. The 30th interview is as important as interview number one. You have to stay in the game.
And I know what I am writing about. I have been where you have been. I have taken my own advice. I even once, after I had gotten a job on a Friday that was set to start on the following Monday, saw an ad for a job that paid twice as much the new job for which I had just been hired.
I put my suit back on, went to the prospective employer and filled out an application. I took a test for the job, and I had that better job before the other job started. It was better times, but it still took drive.
On the other hand, and the reason why I wanted to write this blog to you, I have personally seen people lose job chances because they figure they'll just apply on Monday or even tomorrow. Guess what though, a person like me was already out the door applying for the job right there and then.
Finally, having a job is better than no job. Don’t underrate yourself, but don’t go to the other extreme. It's always easier to get a new job if you have an existing job.
What about a two week notice if you start work and get hired for better employment some place else? If an employer doesn’t give you two weeks’ severance pay, salary you're paid if you are let go, you don’t owe that employer a two week notice; an etiquette employers have seemed to have forgotten.
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By Jeffrey Ruzicka
Jeffrey Ruzicka is a retired executive of a small company that specializes in industrial water treatment. He lives happily with his wife in Western Pennsylvania.
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