10 Ways YOU Stop Yourself Getting The Right Job

Have you noticed how the downturn and recession have become the great new excuse for, well, virtually everything.

You may even find yourself using it frequently. If you’re struggling to find a job, it’s because of “the market” - or if you’re struggling to create sufficient career opportunities, “it’s due to the downturn.”

But having been a recruiter in the 2002 financial services downturn (which was similar to the current market) and now working with a number of recently laid off professionals - I can assure you that your level of success in finding the right job will have less to do with the state of the economy and the job market and much more to do with YOU.

You can sit around all day complaining about the market and the recession - but if you’re not making progress with your job search, stop looking at what is happening outside and take close look at yourself. How are you stopping yourself making progress?

Here are 10 ways that you may be stopping yourself - and what you need to do to snap out of it:

1. Your limiting beliefs
I constantly meet people who let generalisations and talk of ‘market conditions’ get in the way of taking major actions. The “It’s a terrible market, there’s nothing out there” mindset (which 80% of people have from what I can see) does a terrible thing.
You are so absorbed in following the news headlines and gloom-and-doom stories that you’re just paralysed into inaction.

Talking about the problems and lack of opportunities isn’t going to help you achieve any practical results.

Snap out of it. You only want one position, one job - but if you’ve convinced yourself that there’s nothing out there, then you have 0% chance of finding anything, because defeatist thinking just makes you retreat into inaction.

2. Hanging out with the wrong crowd
If you’re spending most of your time with negative people who talk constantly about how bad things are, that will immediately stop you making progress. Because it creates number 1 above -limiting beliefs.

Spend time with positive, open-minded people who are generous in sharing ideas and information; supportive people who you can be open with when you’re having a bad day.

3. Perfectionism
I’m seeing a desire for perfection stopping really talented, bright people in their tracks every day - and it drives me nuts because I can see how they are stopping their own progress.

They don’t send resumes because they’re still trying to get them just right. They don’t apply for roles as they don’t seem 100% right. They are ‘waiting for just the right moment’ before speaking with their boss/contacts/recruiters about their careers or asking for help.
Do yourself a favour: focus on being successful, not perfect.

It doesn’t have to be 100% right - 80% is fine, just send that resume, apply for that not-so-perfect role; have those conversations now, not later. That imperfect resume or conversation will give you much more valuable feedback than tinkering with it for 3 hours on your laptop. It’s a competitive market and those 3 hours could well cost you an opportunity because others have beaten you to a position or conversation.

4. Pride
You’ve lost your job and it’s dented your ego. You feel embarrassed to announce it to everyone. You wonder what people will think of you if you start asking for help, so you decide to lie low and try doing it all yourself. Big mistake.

Listen - and listen very carefully - being made redundant in the current market is nothing to be ashamed of. It does not make you a loser. It does not mean you’re a poor performer. You should be telling everyone - family, friends, clients, counter-parties, vendors. They will be the people who help you when the chips are down - the people who will make calls on your behalf. The people you will lean on for introductions, advice and support.

Or maybe you’re too proud to accept help. You want to do it on your own merit. You feel you have a responsibility to yourself and your family to protect your career. Don’t let your pride (or indeed your ego) get in the way. Maybe you’re too proud to take a pay cut or shift into a less glamorous job or a less prestigious employer. We’re in a very different market now - completely uncharted waters in many respects. So, adjust your expectations and don’t let your pride get in the way.

5. Fear
If a basketball player is scared to take a shot at the basket he has no chance of winning. If a footballer is afraid to shoot at goal - again, he will never score. Fear of failure, fear of rejection and fear of looking bad in your job search will guarantee you will not make progress.

But getting rejected, screwing up and having set-backs are part and parcel of job searching - in the same way that missing a shot and looking silly is part and parcel of being a basket ball player or footballer. If you’re not getting rejected, you’re not making progress. You learn nothing about the market and potential opportunities, or yourself, by not having a shot. So go screw up, get rejected and do it with an attitude of adventure and curiosity - that’s how you’ll learn and improve until you find the right opportunity.

6. Being a victim
By this, I mean blaming everything and everyone around you for your situation - the economy, the ‘greedy bankers’, your employers, your clients, your boss, the recruiters and even your computer for crashing at the wrong time.
Being a victim gets you nowhere fast. And it makes you a pain in the butt to be around, so you’re less likely to get help and assistance from people. So don’t go there.
Take personal responsibility by taking a close look at the points in this article and asking yourself how many of these ring true and what you can do to change your own outlook.

7. Knowledge gap
If you don’t know the answer to something - which websites you should be looking at, which recruiters you should be talking to, how to improve your CV/resume, how to become better at interviewing - just do something about it.
The internet and your network of friends and colleagues will have most of the answers you need. You just need to pull your finger out and find out

8. Being disorganised
80% of success in job searching is about successful follow-up. So if your papers are all over the place, you have no record of the leads you’re picking up or who you need to follow up with, your job search will be much tougher as you’ll be losing opportunities all over the place.

Get yourself a simple Excel spreadsheet, A4 pad or little black book and religiously record every lead you get. Then be thorough and persistent in your follow-up (for the perfectionists amongst you - it’s about being ‘organised enough’ to get the work done - not about building the most advanced database system).

9. Having all your eggs in one basket
You have one great job opportunity that you are confident will come off, so you take your foot off the gas and stop looking. Or maybe you’ve been promised an internal move and so don’t see the need to look at anything else.

But relying on one (or two) opportunities is very dangerous in a tight market. This is a market where decision-makers who seem secure one minute can lose their own jobs, banks like CitiGroup that look unsinkable need saving by the government the next month. So you can be assured that their vacancies go on hold, and internal candidates are preferred to external applicants.

So focus on building a pipeline of opportunities. And wait until you have at least a written offer in your hand before you stop looking for alternatives.

10. Hiding behind your computer
Technology is a great aid in the job search process. Using job sites, career blogs, articles on the web and social media platforms such as LinkedIn to help your search should be a big part of your week if you’re looking for work.

But technology is also a great excuse for sitting at your computer for 6 hours a day, telling yourself that you’re working really hard at job searching. Telling your partner, friends and family that “I’ve been working so hard and I’m still getting no interviews” may well convince them, but it does not convince me.

You and I know that you’ve spent much of that time on social emails, a few catch-up calls with ex-colleagues, some random internet searching and maybe some time on Facebook, if that’s your thing. But you’re doing exactly what everyone else is doing - the easy thing - looking for work online. So you’re getting the exact same market intelligence (which isn’t intelligence, as everyone else knows it) and applying for the same roles as hundreds (maybe thousands) of people - and so radically diminishing your chances of getting an interview.

Finding a job in a tough market requires you to come out from behind your computer and get out there, meeting people face to face: recruiters, ex-colleagues, friends, family - anyone who you have a relationship with. And doing it consistently, tracking and following up leads. The quality and depth of your relationships with people (not computers) will dictate how successful your job search is. You do that by getting out and meeting people.
The same thing applies if you’re still working - hiding behind your inbox won’t progress your career. Getting out, engaging face to face with your boss, your peers, internal clients and your own network is far more productive in protecting your role and helping create new opportunities.

It’s very easy to think that you have no control over your destiny in the current market. But that’s really not the case.
 
You’re not a jellyfish being thrown around by the tides of the economic current. You can very often control where you want to be and where you want to go by taking charge of your job search and your career. You do that by taking control of those elements above that you can control. Alternatively, you can choose to just sit back and be washed around by the market.
 
What are you going to choose to do..?

By Sital Ruparelia, Cross-posted on the 6 Figure Career Management blog

Comments

[billiesucher]

Sital, I love this post! Outstanding points you make. I especially like these four words "snap out of it!" :-) Very, very good! Happy Holidays! ~ billiesucher

[Mirage]

Superb points about ego being dented. I completely agree that many people may get dis-heartened on being fired and are unable to gain control on their confidence again.
~Mirage

[Julie O'Malley]

Wow! If a job seeker would take even half of this advice to heart, they'd be head and shoulders above the competition. Great post!

I'm thinking of needlepointing the following statements onto pillows:

...getting rejected, screwing up and having set-backs are part and parcel of job searching

...Being a victim gets you nowhere fast. And it makes you a pain in the butt to be around

...80% of success in job searching is about successful follow-up

...wait until you have at least a written offer in your hand before you stop looking for alternatives

...The quality and depth of your relationships with people (not computers) will dictate how successful your job search is

Love it!

~Julie O'Malley

[Louise Fletcher]

So true Sital!

Actually, a lot of what you wrote applies to small business owners too. Food for thought on a day when the economic news has me down.

[Sabrina]

Great post - great advice! Make things happen for yourself - don't wait for it. If you are the only one with a positive attitude guess who gets the positive attention! Thanks.

[Sketchee]

Great post! Especially nice to hear something positive when most articles are focused on the negative numbers. Forget the unemployment rate, you can still succeed and be among the employed. Be positive and work hard!

[Louisa]

Great post! This economy and job market can be so depressing, espcially for job seekers. I work as a recruiter in Boston for Hollister (www.hollisterstaff.com/?=451) and have so many discouraged clients right now. I love your advice about hanging around with the wrong crowd, and to surround yourself with positive people. I think that can make all the difference in your outlook! Thanks for such a great post!

[Sital]

Wow - thank you so much for all the comments – you’ve made my day ;)

@Louisa I totally empathise with you - I was a recruiter in the 2002 banking downturn in London. It's a awful an experience

Just remember to do 2 things.

1. Keep reminding yourself that the experience will make you a much better recruiter. If you can cope in this market, you can cope any market. That's what i used to tell myself - if only to keep myself going. But looking back it was so true -I can consult on recruitment and advise on careers BECAUSE of that experience. The downturn was my training programme to step up to a bigger job

2. Keep being of value to clients and candidates. Use the ideas on this blog and share them with whenever suitable. In addition to helping them in their search, you create loyalty, leads, referals and new business for you. It's a win-win

[Chandlee]

Great topic, and well said.

Clearly, you've been observing the same sense of job seeker frustrations and self-doubt in London that we're seeing across the pond...

Here are two general comments that may be of use to our readers:

On being organized: You recommend a simple Excel spreadsheet. Two additional resources I recommend are

1. JibberJobber (www.jibberjobber.com) is a CRM designed specifically for the job seeker (it is a virtual desktop designed to help you manage your search and your relationships)

2. SocialMinder.com also allows you to strengthen relationships through integration of your accounts (gmail, LinkedIn) and suggestions on content to "feed" your contacts

On hanging out with the positive crowd:

A new study shows happiness is contagious...
http://tinyurl.com/5gxrbs

I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts. As a fellow newcomer to Career Hub, I'm inspired--you are setting the bar high!

Best,
Chandlee Bryan

[Sital]

Hi Chandlee - welcome!

Many thanks for your comments. And thank you for sharing the excellent links - I'm familiar with JJ, but haven't come across social minder.

[Paul]

awesome post, good read for us external locusts of control type of people :)

[Carol]

Good tips. There’s also some very useful job hunting and career advice on this site: http://www.spherion.com.

[Ace]

Yes, anyone can look at recession graphs all day and be handicapped by the panic. Or you accept it and keep chugging along with your own efforts.

[Greg]

RE: #3, to apply for a position if you only have 80%, not 100% of the qualifications

I thought recruiters say they're so irritated to get resumes from people who aren't qualified. If today we start at 80%, what if we slide down to 70%?

I've sometimes not applied to jobs because I thought it wouldn't be fair to somebody else who was more qualified. So much for karma, the thought that other jobseekers would leave open positions for which I had more qualifications.

I loved the days of snail mail where you had to be very selective of who you sent your resume to. Now with the Internet, anybody 80%/100%/20% qualified can copy, paste, and mindlessly click the Send button.

Sometimes the Internet is the worst thing that ever happened to job hunting. Representing people as paper was bad enough. As bits and bytes at least more than 80% more dismal.

[Greg]

I did find your comments about rejection extremely helpful and enlightening. To some professionals, this is the very first time they'll encounter rejection on a mass scale like this.

Some of these professionals have had stellar upward rising careers. All of a sudden they find themselves out of work. It can be very devastating when for many years they've been used to hearing "Yes" and now in their 30's, 40's and 50's are hearing "No."

They grew up hearing that if they applied themselves, they would succeed. They did everything right, went to the right schools, got internships and landed plum assignments after graduation. They probably applied themselves very hard at school, gave up chances to go dating and made their career their all-time focus. They weren't supposed to be rejected, only the losers and the undedicated were. Now some who were former Straight A students are completely dumbfounded. No company has ever turned them down before.

I only hope more of these top decision makers experience rejection for themselves because they have given a lot of rejection to other capable people in the past. They haven't opened doors for others, and I hope they get a taste of their own medicine.

My favorite forms of executive rejections include:
* the Hollywood mogul who said Lucille Ball would never amount to more than a B-movie actress
* the HP boss who said Steve Jobs couldn't work there because he didn't have a degree
* author J.K. Rowling being told by Britain's publisher there was no market for Harry Potter

So employers, reject us -- we love it! And we'll reject some of your undesireable workplaces in return for companies that do have their act together.

[mike]

I just happened to stumble onto your website today.I have been let go recently and have found myself doing exactly what your refering to.I found it to be extremely uplifting,thanks.

[Elizabeth Johnston]

The number one factor accounting for double-digit increases in the average length of unemployment is the reliance on job boards.

[Genevieve]

Excellent advice! I am going to pass this information around because people need to hear it! I especially agree with your comments on being organized and following-up. It is very, very important! You can't wait for someone to take your hand and lead you along.

[www.rightitjobs.com]

Your piece of advice is really something! I like it immensely. These are the problems the majority of people come across after they have been laid off or something. Some people may feel so embarrassed, they won't tell even their dearest ones.

[used computers]

I think talking about the problems and lack of opportunities isn’t going to help you achieve any practical results.

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[Rose]

Well,

I pretty much am already following all of this advice - sometimes I get slightly frustrated, but then remind myself everything will work out in the end. My problem is there are really very few jobs out there open for managerial accountants (an accountant who has very little experience in an accounting dept.) since engineers and others can do our job (albeit not as well) in a pinch. I have really good A/R experience also, but what companies seem to be looking for right now, is collectors - and when I interview for these, I have great reconciliation experience, but they want to know how much experience I have in difficult collections - and I have to try very hard to come up with something - and it is not convincing (my experience has always been in corporate collections). I am staying positive, and keep in touch with all of my ex-colleagues (the ones who will answer the phone), etc., and I am with six agencies who keep telling me there is nothing out there for a person with your qualifications, sorry. Hopefully something will happen soon.

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