The evolution of the job-search process

Well, I will simplify by stating that I am going to focus on the past 100 or so years and not have to explain what happened before then.  Anywho, we find ourselves (Americans) in a thriving farm/agriculture based economy.  The way you found work was to look for it – and I really mean “look for it” – physically and directly.  The process was simple – ‘you wandered around and asked people for work’.

Then we got the industrial revolution + our communication infrastructure got much better.  So now the process had evolved to include ‘looking in the paper’ for a job.  In fact, you can actually look in a formal list of jobs for one that you like/suits you.    Of course, you mostly looked in the local papers for local jobs.  You generally didn’t have easy access to employment opportunities (and stats) from other areas.  Weather they be in the next county or on the opposite coast.

So the job-search process was (1) write a resume and cover letter and (2) look at the job listings in the paper and (3) send your resume and cover-letter to jobs that you want.

As our communication infrastructure improved, job-seekers had increasing exposure to non-local jobs.  And the job-aggregation industry started because now you could get a lot of information from many different places to try to match supply and demand (and make a few bucks in the process).

Then came the internet.

Now we have instant access to anyone connected to ‘the web’

and social networks,

and automated search engines,

and resume builders,

and pretty much everything that a person needs to search for a job in this ‘networked age’.

Oh, and networking is really important because you can access just about anyone through your network.

Which now makes us current.

So now we can see any job that is online (and all jobs are online)  – any job, any place.

And call anyone up at any time (or send them email).

Therefore, the ‘modern’ job search process is:

1) Write a resume and cover letter (with hundreds of fonts, styles and formats thereby ‘customizing’ your communications to ‘best position yourself’ for the role)

2) Email/snail-mail to very specifically researched roles and/or spam every listing that is somewhat close to what you want (or even better, all that contain a keyword)

3) Network with anything and everything.   Why?  Because 80% of all job-changes are through ‘networking’ AND the bigger the network, the better the network.  Why?  Simple, you now have ‘direct access’ to an exponential (lot) number of folks.   So, how do you network?  Well, you join linked-in and then look for everyone that you could possibly add to your network (and do so).

Oh yeah, and social networks, join those too to expand your network.

Now you have access to many, many people and job listings.

Managing these ‘moving parts’ becomes increasingly challenging as you increase the volume.

But we have super-fast computers!   And super-fast computers are, well, “super fast” – so they can do a lot of things very quickly.  And software!  There is software out there for just about anything!

Does this mean I’m famous now?

Bruno Langlais from Intruders.TV interviewed me the other week.

Here’s the link Http://us.intruders.tv/Simon-Clay-Michael-Founder-of-Isabont-a-web-organiser-for-job-seekers_a208.html

Bon Voyage Tiffany

Tiffany over at Magic Pot of Jobs is moving on to pastures new.

“I found my new situation- I’ll be working on web content/strategy for a nonprofit here in DC, and I start next week. “

A big change from recruiter to web content/strategy (but not if you’re a well read blogger already).

As Tiffany said her motivation to move on was a less than “enjoyable” last few months. Having endured similar times in my past, it’s surprising how elevating and a relief it is to take control of your situation and do something about it.

@Tiffany, best wishes, and hoping you’ll still keep blogging.

Graduating from the job search

I always wondered why the term landing was used to denote someone had found a job, as opposed to say graduating.

I always think of the job search like taking a college course!

• You have a curriculum to learn from classes, books, experts
• acquire skills (to be used later),
• practical exercises to display your proficiency in each topic, (resume writing, networking, interviewing etc.),
• continual assessments along the way,
• a final examination,
• and then the letter of graduation (offer letter).

Graduating suggest you move on, but use the information, knowledge and connections you acquired on-going, always using your skills, always learning and adding to your skills and network of connections.

Landing on the other hand seems more final, and suggests you passed and never have to do this again.

Worklife Wizard

I got an email from Dan Tuttle, an intern for the Labor & Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, about Worklife Wizard.

Worklife Wizard is

• An affiliate of the WageIndicator group.
• A collaboration of journalists, Harvard economists, statisticians and the American public.
• A resource center, a salary-checker and a tool for helping American businesses and workers understand more about work life.
• WageIndicator employes a volunteer web survey, running since 2001 and currently operating 35 interactive websites in 17 countries. The section Research Lab has explanatory notes on methodological issues related to the web survey.

From what I can discern there’s a survey you can complete, which Dan tells me, will provide “a dataset available only for researchers”, . There’s a salary checker, which uses the “Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2004 State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.” And you can ask a career question of “a Harvard-trained expert”

I took the survey, which could have been structured better, and, at the end, was a little disappointed I didn’t see my answers tallied with others in the US, or from any of the affiliated International Markets either. The Salary checker is narrow in it’s selection criteria as it follows the BLS definitions, and 2004 data seemed too dated for me. And the response from the question I posed was a pretty standard answer and not wildly illuminating.

That said if you were happy to spend 5 minutes going through a survey for no return and for the benefit of academia and some corporations, then have at it.

How to burn 2 networking contacts in one go.

I was chatting with a coach recently, swapping news and stories when she was reminded of a particular horror story that had happened to her recently:

A job seeker, had reached out to the coach using a mutual friend as the connection. The job seekers said the mutual friend was a strong supporter and really good friend of his and he was looking for help and referrals to others. The wording he’d used was a little aggressive, not so much demanding the coach open up her network, but expecting it because of the introduction from the mutual friend.

The coach being a cautious kind when it came to her network, called the mutual friend for some background information on the job seeker.

– Yes you guessed it, the friend had only recently met the job seeker at a large event and other than a couple of conversations, didn’t really know him. Now the coach and the friend know as much as they need to know about the job seeker.

What really annoyed the coach was someone was prepared to misrepresent the connection they had just forged for the sake of a quick response.

I wonder what epiphany will hit the job-seeker first: that networking doesn’t work, or that his way of networking doesn’t work.

Selling to a captive audience

It’s been a while since I’ve been on a flight. My recent trip to Denver the other week was the first domestic flight for about 18 months. I used to fly a lot in my last job, and when it stopped I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent on terra-firma. While I have no problems flying, what I noticed most about this last trip was how some airlines have changed the way their staff interact with you.

Sure the checking / gate agent and flight attendants jobs are pretty much the same, but now there’s an additional skill they’re being asked to perform. These folks are great at cusomer service, so it was with some surprise I noticed, when not doing ultra-customer service, they were flipping into gentle sales mode.

I flew with US airways, and their usual gate announcement includes a sales pitch – upgrade to first class for $100, which was mentioned about four times between the time I arrived at the gate and we boarded.

On the flight, as a captive audience, we got peppered some more; I could get cookies for $3 to go with my small but free coffee; If I spent $400 in the sky-mall catalogue I would qualify for a $30 discount, only available for the duration of the flight; as was the additional 500 bonus miles they would add to the 25,000 bonus miles if I applied for their visa card; Movie headsets were $5 each; as were the meal options. Each sales pitch had a time it was to be run, and was followd up with a cabin walk through for interested takers.

With all those options to spend money, I ended with something for free – a cold.

Job search the Randori way – No.9

Randori (translated as “making order out of chaos” or “grasping freedom”) is an ancient eastern art. Typically practiced in a number of forms of martial arts, it revolves around 20 principles to manage 6 factors: Mind, Movement, Body, Purpose, Communication, Environment. We’ve taken a little “poetic license” but have come up with the job seekers Randori, or the translation I really like “making order out of chaos”

Don’t get involved in busy work, stay focused on productive work

Feigning action freezes your position. When you make a decision it must be committed and completed to a conclusion. Anything less than this and your mind will stall.

Job seeking can be emotionally draining and stressful. It’s easy to become distracted from your goals and spend time performing comfortable activities that make you feel secure but don’t help you achieve your end goal. This may create the habit and false impression that activity is equal to progress.

During your job search, even when you’re focused and productive, be careful to always make progress towards your goals and avoid non-effective activities. Effective actions will add value and fit with your overall goal of finding the next piece in your career development. Activity is anything that generates an appearance that “something was done” while moving you no closer to your goal. An example is filing or sorting your papers. The activity distracts you from the more important opportunities that may be available during a job search.

Set your daily actions such that you accomplish constructive and noticeable movement towards your employment goals each day. When you make telephone calls, search for positions or send resumes, ensure that each activity has value and moves you forward. For example, sending resumes to targeted positions increases your possible employment, sending them in a shotgun manner is more activity but less effective. Effective calls are where you add to your network of contacts, obtain leads to possible positions or supporting another person with their search.

With job searching being so stressful, assess your options to find those activities that will make effective contributions. Each has to stand on its own merits: a new contact, an interview, a networking session that increased your information or contact base or taught you a new search technique. Within a brief time you’ll easily discern constructive activity from those that absorb time without any returns. Start forming the habit of focusing on progressive contributions. Making your available time work for you is an investment that pays dividends.

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Other articles in the Randori series: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Greg, an expert Aikido practitioner, had taken these Randori principles and applied them to a business setting, and we thought they applied equally to the job search itself. You can learn more about Randori and Greg at Randorimind.com

Job search the Randori way – No.6

Randori (translated as “making order out of chaos” or “grasping freedom”) is an ancient eastern art. Typically practiced in a number of forms of martial arts, it revolves around 20 principles to manage 6 factors: Mind, Movement, Body, Purpose, Communication, Environment. We’ve taken a little “poetic license” but have come up with the job seekers Randori, or the translation I really like “making order out of chaos”

Breathing

Control your breathing, this is the metronome of your rhythm, pace, movement and thought.

Nearly every aspect of unemployment and job searching is stressful. Under stressful circumstances you may tend to rush your thoughts and actions and miss valuable cues or opportunities. Have you been in a conversation with someone who’s very flustered? Their eyes darting everywhere and not focusing on you, breathing is fast and short, their sentences are confusing while they meander from one point onto some tangent or another before completing the last thought.

There is a way for you to remain emotionally balanced and focused whenever you choose, it’s by simply breathing properly. Balanced breathing will restore your sense of emotional balance, re-establish the pace of your speaking, help clarify your message and allow you to think clearly.

When you find that you’re becoming tense, take a few minutes and balance your breathing in the following manner. Exhale and during the next inhale count, 1, 2, 3 etc. Whatever number you end at, make that the same ending number when you’re exhaling. For example, if you have inhaled to a 4 count and exhaled to a 3 count, on the next exhale do it slower so that you can arrive at 4. Once you have established this balance, maintain it for at least 4 complete breathing cycles. On the fifth cycle (you don’t have to be exact, it could be the 7th) add one to each count. So, in this example, you slow your breathing and exhale and inhale for a 5 count. Continue this for a few more of the longer cycles to comfortably reach your new balance point.

With your breathing resettling yourself, resume what you were doing. You’ll perceive a difference in your pace and sense of personal control and focus. You’ll no longer be reacting to circumstances but closely observing or directing them.

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Other articles in the Randori series: 1 2 3 4 5

Greg, an expert Aikido practitioner, had taken these Randori principles and applied them to a business setting, and we thought they applied equally to the job search itself. You can learn more about Randori and Greg at Randorimind.com

Job search the Randori way – No.5

Randori (translated as “making order out of chaos” or “grasping freedom”) is an ancient eastern art. Typically practiced in a number of forms of martial arts, it revolves around 20 principles to manage 6 factors: Mind, Movement, Body, Purpose, Communication, Environment. We’ve taken a little “poetic license” but have come up with the job seekers Randori, or the translation I really like “making order out of chaos”

Apply your Assurance and Skills

Establish and maintain a calm mental demeanor. Focused tranquility expands your perspective and allows you to work within your current environment. Calmness brings situational control to you.

Having practiced and refined your inner confidence and calm assurance you are prepared to demonstrate your abilities at every opportunity. Networking and interviewing are two activities of job searching where you will get the most benefit.

A great way to start each meeting is at the outset smile; an inviting, warm, sincere and honest smile; by doing this you are projecting your assurance. Be happy to meet somebody new who can assist you in your career. Every person that you talk with about employment could be the perfect person to help you land your ideal position; show them who you are. Networking gives you a great opportunity to showcase yourself and your skills better than a resume can display.

By entering into networking situations with calm assurance you will remain at ease and conversational, easily making connections with people. You will always make a distinctive first impression and leave people with the sense that you are a professional that they want to speak with again.

During the interview process you are at the very core networking, you are plugged into the network inside of the firm where you want to work. This is precisely the circumstance to show not only technical competence but also the skills to work within cohesive groups and in their environment. Hiring managers and peers are always seeking candidates who would perform well on their team.

You should practice using your inner confidence in different circumstances. Once you become comfortable using and demonstrating your new abilities, you will find that opportunities will occur and that you will engage people’s attention and they will listen to you.

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Other articles in the Randori series: 1 2 3 4

Greg, an expert Aikido practitioner, had taken these Randori principles and applied them to a business setting, and we thought they applied equally to the job search itself. You can learn more about Randori and Greg at Randorimind.com