Avoid Rejection in your Job Search by Sticking With What Works
If you’ve been looking for work lately, you’ve probably been inundated with advice: “Sit tight, don’t risk moving unless you have to.” “There’s so much change, now is a good time to look for opportunities.” “Do this!” “Don’t do that!“ “Hack your resume to beat the algorithms.” “Never mind the internet, work your real network.”
Actually, I don’t often see that last piece of advice. It isn’t entirely accurate but it is in fact useful. I have been assisting people to land jobs since the late 1980s, and the tried and true advice still works, updated for this time of algorithms and bots. Job listings and formal applications have moved online, but it’s still essential to spend a good deal of your job hunt offline, connecting with real people.
Here’s my advice on how to make your efforts count both online and offline:
Start with yourself.
Describe the type of work and working environment in which you will succeed and grow, which will bring out the best in you. Be as specific as possible, so you know how to recognize a good job for you at this stage in your life and career.
Consider what you want to do on a daily and weekly basis.
What skills are you exercising?
What skills are you learning or developing?
Who are your colleagues?
Where are you in the org chart?
Who are your customers, clients, or students?
Is your workplace an office, lab, studio, workshop, forest, or classroom?
What are your hours (including whether any of your work is remote)?
Know your strengths, talents, and gifts. Learn to describe them specifically and clearly, both in writing and orally. Your goal is to help people make mental pictures of the value you bring. While it’s true that algorithms work with keywords, especially nouns and verbs, humans need stories. Write mini-stories for LinkedIn and your resume, and prepare to expand on them in conversation and in interviews.
Translate your strengths into what potential employers need. Use their language, their nouns, verbs, and concepts to help them understand the value you can bring to them.
Practice describing your strengths out loud. Rehearsal helps you find accurate and vivid language to evoke those mental pictures. It also helps you find a good balance between bragging and excess modesty. Notice what feels comfortable in your body and what feels fake or generic. If you find that you shy away from speaking positively about yourself or worry that you are boasting, remember that employers need truth in advertising to be reassured that you know your stuff and want to do the work.
Know your dealbreakers. What are the signs of a job or employer that simply isn’t for you? It might be the industry, the size of the organization, its mission, org structure, work schedule (including commute time and remote or hybrid options), compensation, etc. There’s no point wasting your time targeting work you don’t want and in which you won’t succeed. Of course you need to be flexible about details, but be clear about the handful of serious issues which signal that an employer or a role won’t suit you.
If all this makes you anxious, write down your worries, including the old familiar ones, such as “No one wants me,” “I’m a failure,” “I’m too old,” “I don’t have the right experience,” “I didn’t go to the right schools,” “I should have listened to my parents.” Then set those worries aside for later. The fact is, job search is hard, and self-reflection plus unpredictable results will push anyone’s buttons. The most useful course of action is to build a plan for having as much influence as possible on your professional future.
Remember that your description of your target employer or position is not set in stone. You will revise and refine it as you learn more. Your big advantage is to be truly informed and prepared before you apply for jobs, so you don’t waste time spinning your wheels or going down blind alleys.
Now turn your attention to what’s around you.
Take a look at industries, roles, companies, and organizations that might be right for you. Explore employer websites for clues about what it’s like to work there. Some of those clues are on their “Careers” page, but others are in their reports to shareholders or donors or in their advertising material. Look for what they’re proud of, how they describe their people, whether they are clear about what they do and how they do it.
Once you’ve got some basic information, ask yourself, “Do I want to know more about these people?” If you do, look beyond employer websites.
Seek out articles in the trade or professional media, and check reviews on Glassdoor.
Look up their principal officers to see whether they have been interviewed or have published anything.
Find out whether they are active in industry associations.
For smaller or local employers, look for reviews on Yelp or NextDoor or for blogs or articles about local businesses.
You’ll be getting to know a little more about potential employers and fields, and you can start forming your own opinions. Remember that your public library likely has both specialized resources and local connections. Librarians love to help you find what you need.
If you still want to know more about an employer or a role, it’s time to reach out to specific people for more information. This may involve asking friends, colleagues, and acquaintances whether they know anyone with experience at the specific organization or in the industry. You can also connect through LinkedIn to people who work or have worked there. If you’re employed, you may need to do this discreetly, perhaps by telling people that you are doing some research on the future of the industry or simply by telling them you are looking for information.
You may realize by now that what I’ve described here is a classic sales funnel from the point of view of a jobseeker. Your “product,” in a sense, is yourself, your experience and capabilities. You’re looking for “qualified prospects” to be your next employer. Qualifying prospects means that you build a template that helps you
identify likely prospects,
decide whether they are truly qualified for your attention, and
develop strategies to inform them of how good you are.
This may seem like a lot more work than scattering your resume far and wide or applying to every job posting you can find, but your odds of success and satisfaction are much greater if you focus on a relatively small number of excellent prospects. Your preparation also sets you up to make a good impression, and you will be learning more and refining your offering as you go along.
A key question to ask yourself at each stage, right up to when you receive a job offer, is: Do I want to know more about this employer and this role?
There are of course no guarantees, especially in such a volatile economic and financial climate, but long experience tells me that these techniques do pay off, both in terms of finding your next position and in minimizing anxiety and frustration along the way. They also help you take care of yourself. It’s undeniably tiring to be putting yourself out there to be “rejected” or ignored by people who know almost nothing about you. It’s harder these days because you often don’t even know whether it’s a human or a bot ignoring you. Make sure you get real feedback from people you trust, such as past employers or colleagues plus friends who know you well.
Even when the news is full of layoffs and job freezes, there are always jobs out there and employers who need you. Focus on finding them, getting to know them, showing the value you can bring them, and you will find the next steps in your career.