Are You a Closet Busy Worker?

Jason Alba, over on the Jibber Jobber blog, has his readers facing reality about their 'chicken lists' ( people you absolutely should call, but are nervous to approach) and 'honey-do'  (home chores that can suck you away from your job search) lists.

I'm going to add one more list - the 'busy work' list. A 'busy work' list is a list of relatively low-effort / low-impact job search activities that are easily accomplished and make you think you're working very hard on your job search.  Wrong! 

Stalling by making busy work is SO prevalent in job search. People get stalled doing things that make them feel productive, but that gain them little in the way of results - they’ll do easy networking rather than work their "chicken list," or they’ll endlessly surf job boards, or "fine tune" a resume that should have gone out weeks before. In fact the list of job search "busy work" is endless. I always call it "low-effort, low-ROI" activity.

Job seekers use the "tweak the resume" stall-tactic a lot - it makes 'em feel like they are giving themselves the best shot, when it is often disguising a deep fear of getting out there and making something happen. Like any unproductive behavior, the best way to stop it is to first acknowledge it,  understand the negative impact, and then adjust thinking.

I always encourage my clients to treat their job search the same way they would treat a high-priority project at work. Adjust thinking by shifting the paradigm and using the same corporate techniques for "Company You." Scope out the project; strategize a plan; determine tactics, resources, and players, and then make it happen, every day.

Just as in a mission-critical corporate initiative, failure is not an option, and momentum, time lines, milestones, and budgets count.  Of course, you won't get a performance review at the end of your Company You project, but you can keep you personal board of advisors in the loop and enjoy their well-deserved praise and encouragement.  And hey, you won't get a corporate raise when you're done, but you'll get something better - a future - a job with good compensation and growth potential.

So to get the right work, get busy doing the right work, not busy work!

Posted by Deb Dib

Comments

[JibberJobber Guy]

Deb, thanks for the shout-out. This is an excellent addition to the chicken list and honey-do list posts... you are spot on!

[Steve]

Deb - I arrived here by way of Jason's post. I really like spin you put on his comments. This is such an important topic that many people don't address. My company just went througb a RIF. I've talked to many of my fellow colleagues this week, and am amazed at how many are exhibiting the very behaviors you descride: "Well, I'm just going to take a few days off to process everything," or "Now that I'm not working, I'm trying to keep up with the laundry and cooking and cleaning and shopping, etc etc etc." I think you nailed it... there is a basic fear about entering the search.

Thanks for the great post.