“My job search feels like I set off to walk across town and now I’m hiking Mt. Everest. When did this get so hard?”
While the job search experiences vary greatly depending on multiple factors, I’ve heard this sentiment echoed across industries and sectors over the past two years.
Getting a job right now is tough. It requires:
- Tenacity: Creating a plan and sticking with it.
- Creativity: Finding new ways to forge relationships and tease out opportunities.
- Skill: Excellence in your work.
- Empathy: Connecting your skills with those required by the job.
This is way different from the job search of yore, where you made ONE resume, printed it out, and dropped it off around town.
Now, when you’re job searching, you’re doing two jobs: 1. Finding a job and 2. still doing your job (or preparing yourself to do your job), both of which take distinct skills.
If managing two jobs isn’t exhausting – especially when one has been thrust on you and isn’t necessarily your wheelhouse – I don’t know what is! (Also managing a toddler? Twins? It can always get harder!)
I’ve read that the average time to find a job in 2024 is 5-6 months, but I’ve seen tech sales job searches last for as long as 1.5 years from highly qualified candidates doing everything right.
There’s no way to determine how long your search will take, but here are some things of which I’m certain:
- It’s not just you.
- It’s probably going to take a while.
- Getting the right job favors the persistent.
- Even if you’re not a “networker,” it’s time to become one. Now.
- Creative approaches can increase your chances of being seen, like volunteering at industry conferences and strategically engaging in key thought leaders’ posts.
- Your competitors are telling recruiters they’re suitable for the job by tailoring their resume to the job description; you need to do the same.
Settling for second-best is not the answer: landing the wrong job takes just as long as getting the right one.
Imagine if every time an Everest hiker met a setback, they said, “Let’s just go hike Long’s Peak.”
Nobody would ever reach the summit!
Life – and your job search – is littered with setbacks, including rejection emails. It happens to the best of us.
But you know what happens to people who stick with it?
They eventually get the right job!
It just takes time, mental fortitude, and persistence.
Here’s what happens when you downgrade to a role beneath your abilities:
- Recruiters are skeptical: Why is this person applying for something beneath their skill set? How long before they get bored and resentful? Will they do a good job if they don’t feel challenged?
- Something inside you dies: Now, you’re getting rejected for roles you’re way overqualified for. And when you finally do get a job, it sucks. Is this your life now?
- You become bored and resentful: Once the job search pain fades, you become resentful that your new role pays so much less and you’re underutilized.
- You find yourself in the same predicament 6 months later: Discontent propels you back into the job market, but now you’ve wasted half a year of your life.
How to reinvigorate your job search
If your job search feels like you’re trudging up an endless hill, it’s time to re-think your strategy.
How can you flatten out your path? Here is a list of ideas:
- Establish a search plan and hold yourself accountable to it.
- Build several resumes for target roles to minimize the time you spend customizing.
- Create a list of target companies and network within them.
- Upskill and earn relevant certifications.
- Volunteer at in-person industry events.
- Become a prolific participant in key industry conversations.
Here’s an example of how implementing these ideas might look:
- Schedule 3 hours on the calendar 4 days a week for your job search; dedicate 2 days to submitting applications and 2 days to networking or vice versa.
- Identify the top 3 roles you’d like, and craft a resume for each.
- Each time you apply, select the closest resume.
- Run the resume and the job description through ChatGPT, asking, “On a scale of 1-10, how well does this resume align with the job description? (Paste in the job description and resume with the prompt.)
- Spend no more than 10 minutes using the feedback to tweak your resume and then get that application filed!
- Use industry websites, chamber of commerce listings, and other resources to identify companies you’d love to work for.
- Tell ChatGPT the top 3 companies you’d like to work for, identify the reasons why (culture, industry, products, location, etc.), and ask for a list of 30 similar companies that fit the same parameters.
- Review multiple job descriptions to see where you might build skills and certifications to make you a more attractive candidate.
- Your upskilling need not necessarily be expensive – even self-study can be included on a resume to show initiative, and what you learn could be great fodder for LinkedIn posts, inviting others to ring in on your new ideas.
- Identify your top job-related strengths. Research and volunteer at conferences where these strengths are a focal point. (At the very least, attend and pass around your resume!)
- Find conference speakers who specialize in topics that are relevant to your strengths.
- Visit their websites and social media posts (X, LinkedIn, Discord, etc.).
- Contribute meaningful comments (insights and questions) to stimulate conversation.
- Research other prolific commenters. (Where do they work? Do you want to work there, too?) Proactively build relationships by responding to their comments.
- Generate your own ideas and tag the speaker/commenters.
- Move these relationships to direct messaging (DMs) when the timing feels right.
- After continuing to nurture the relationships via DMs, mention how you’d love to work at a place like theirs. What is the best way to get noticed in their candidate pipeline?
- Research Facebook, LinkedIn, Discord, Reddit, and other discussion groups related to your strengths. Recruiters hang out in those groups looking for promising candidates.
- Use the same strategy as above, posting thoughtful comments and questions to invite conversation and make new friends.
For this moment in time, you need to become the top dog in your job search.
Even after giving yourself a leg up through customization, submitting resumes online has much to do with luck and fate.
The proactive networking and personal development strategies I’ve shared allow you to regain control and power in your job search, moving your needle forward.
Additionally, you can take the accountability, time management, empathy, writing, self-awareness, and interpersonal/networking skills you build throughout this process into your next job.*
Keep applying for jobs online, but instead of letting rejection notices get you down, use them as rocket fuel for the networking part of this journey.
The discipline, knowledge, skills, and network you forge through this process will always be with you moving forward, so you’re setting the stage for success today and in the future.
Also, by engaging in these strategies, you’re establishing a pattern of thought leadership that can help put you ahead of the game during the interview phase, as you share your interactions with notable thought leaders.
Finally, a serendipitous comment could get you a referral into the role of your dreams.
You have nothing to lose.
Dig in.
Do the work.
Get the job! I believe in you.
*These are valuable transferrable skills, and if your job search causes a gap in your resume, you can talk about how the experience has sharpened these skills.
