Find Work in Today’s Job Market: Two Approaches

For those of you who don’t know…

There are four ways of finding work in today’s economy. That’s right. Just four ways.

Today, I will share the first two with you. Here they are, along with my recommendations:

1. Traditional: This is how most people look for work. They write up their resume as a history of everything they’ve done and put it out into the marketplace, hoping for a reply. A reply that never comes. And, they wonder why.

This method doesn’t work, for several reasons. First of all, if you are writing your resume as a history of everything you’ve done, you are expecting the prospective employer to take the time to translate what you’ve done into what they need. No one has the time to do that. Your resume will land in the trash. It’s not strategic.

Secondly, if you are not targeting what you have in your resume to the job specs, you will never get hired. The job market is way too competitive. Companies can afford to hire exactly what they are looking for. If they want to hire an owner of a three-earred hamster, they can. (I’m being facetious, but you know what I mean.)

Finally, if you are just putting yourself out there, applying everywhere, hoping that your resume will stick, I can tell you, it won’t. You have to be very strategic about where you are applying in order to be seen above the fray.

2. Targeted: This option is where you get very focused and targeted about how you present yourself. For example, if you are looking for a copywriting position in the advertising industry, you will know exactly what the companies are looking for at your level, and include examples in your resume of how you demonstrated the important skill sets.

It may sound counterintuitive, but the more focused your resume, the better chance you have of getting it read. This flies in the face of what most people want to do. Most people want to make themselves as broadly appealing as possible so as to be considered for the widest number of jobs. Sounds good, but in reality, this strategy produces the opposite result. The more broadly appealing you make yourself, the less chance you have for finding any job.

Be bold, take a stand for what you have to offer, figure out who needs what you have, and make your case of providing value to them.

And, if you need help with this, you might want to set up a strategy session with me. Click here to apply.