Entries tagged with “job search”.
Did you find what you wanted?
Posted by Mitchell York under Career Coaching, Uncategorized
The PETA people aren’t going to like this.
The Times reports today that the growing armies of the unemployed are sick and tired of sending out resumes and are starting their own businesses in droves. One laid-off biologist is making–and taking orders for, thank you very much– $25,000 jelly fish tanks. An entrepreneurship professor at the University of San Francisco coined this phenomenon “forced entrepreneurship.” It’s what you do when you can’t find a job and you have to pay the bills.
What I like about the forced entrepreneurs is that they tend to do things on the cheap, which is exactly the right way to get going. When I launched a new service to my catering business, I didn’t buy any equipment or product before I’d made my first sale. The equipment paid for itself after two jobs. Starting up with less definitely helps focus the mind.
Many forced entrepreneurs would be happier if they could only get another job in their field after a layoff. But most of them use poor methods for finding a job so they conclude they have no choice but to start a business. The typical mistakes of job hunters include not having prioritized, multiple targets for their job search; spending the majority of their time answering Internet job listings, which account for perhaps 15% of available jobs; not targeting enough positions (not jobs, but positions that are currently filled but which they’d be eligible for); and falsely believing that their job-search objective is to get a job, rather than to get dozens of meetings. For people who really would like a job rather than forced entrepreneurship, I recommend you visit The Five O’Clock Club. It has the best process for job search I have ever come across. Not that you shouldn’t do your entrepreneurial thing if that’s really your passion. Just be careful–those jellyfish stings are wicked.
Posted by Mitchell York under networking
New York Magazine has an excellent feature this week profiling a number of New Yorkers who have lost their jobs in the past few months. The profiles range from a 40-year-old IT director at a financial services firm, to an actress who’s found that commercial work has dried up, to Citigroup’s head of diversity (I guess lofty ideas like a diverse work force go by the wayside when you’re a bank on federal welfare) to an online editor at the New York Sun, which set on Sept. 30.
The subjects talk a lot about the loss of self-esteem and motivation that comes with losing your job. One subject says, “Recruiters call about new positions, but it’s always the same old story. They say you are a great fit, and then you don’t hear from them for days. Nothing pans out. I feel helpless, like a failure. It’s your manhood, you know? I’m the only provider at home.” From another: “My girlfriend goes to job one and job two every day; if only I had so much to pack into a day. I’ll contemplate shaving and getting dressed to go scope out a host position at a bistro, but then I’ll really like that I still have my plaid boxers on and I’ll tell myself I could always go tomorrow.” And another: “My family likes to joke about ‘my vacation.’ ‘How’s the vacation going?’ Not really funny. I fell asleep for 30 minutes the other day and wished it could be like some Rip van Winkle thing, except instead of waking up 30 years later, I’d wake up and have a new job.”
The outlook isn’t bleak for all of them. Some are looking forward to reinventing themselves. Others are glad to be out of a job they really didn’t like anyway.
Something they (and you) might want to take a look at is an organization I’m part of called The Five O’Clock Club, which provides coaching for job seekers (both those who have lost their jobs and others who are looking for new jobs). There’s a real science to job-seeking and most people don’t have a clue how to approach it properly. Knowing the right way can mean the difference between a three-month search or one lasting four or five times as long. The Club offers group and one-on-one coaching and has a system that is very specific, time-tested–and it works. I’d be happy to tell you more. Feel free to get in touch with me at mitch(at)e2ecoaching.com.
