Richman: Give your job search urgency
Richman: Give your job search urgency
If you really need to get serious about your job search, make it your highest priority. When it becomes as urgent as it is important then you are no longer content with complacency or self-pity. You get off the coach, lace up your shoes and kick yourself into gear. You have work to do.
Start with your résumé: If you have one but don’t trust your ability to know if it will help or hurt your chances, get someone who hires people to check it out and tell you if it’s too long, too short or just right. They can tell you if you’re not selling yourself enough or are overselling, if you’re writing in circles or nailing it, and if you’re making points or missing them. When your job search is your highest priority you’ll find the courage it takes to ask meaningful questions, get honest feedback and make course corrections that advance your search and probability of success.
If you don’t have a résumé, you need one. Do something about getting one. There’s help out there for you if you’re willing to find it. Go online, go to the library or the bookstore and ask for help. Ask the person who lives next door, down the street or even the person sitting in the chair 5 feet away. Whether you write your résumé or hire someone to write it for you, you’re the only one who knows your work history, duties and accomplishments. You are the only one accountable for its contents, so don’t wait. Start it now and set a quick deadline to get it done. Make it as urgent as it is important.
What do you want to do and who do you want to be? Where do you want to work? What do you want to accomplish? How do you want to add value? You’re ready to begin your job search when you have answers to these questions. So get a pen and paper and write your thoughts down so you can see them, organize them and craft them into your sense of purpose.
If, despite your best efforts, nothing is coming to mind, pick up the phone. You need help and now’s the time to get it. Yes, you can call a career coach, but you can also call your non-judgmental, candid, fair-minded, non-controlling friend, and ask this wonderful person to ask you questions, listen and probe you until find your way to your answers.
Know this: The answers are within you. They may be stuck in a box of forgotten memories and long-ago experiences, but they are within you, and you need to draw them out and shine them up.
When you can articulate the “What’s next?” in your career, you can write it on your résumé and on your cover letters. You can speak of it when you network and when you interview. And you can make all this happen by giving your job search some urgency.
Joyce Richman is a speaker and career coach conducting seminars and workshops throughout the United States, and the author of “Roads, Routes & Ruts: A Guidebook for Career Success.” You can reach her at 288-1799 or JERichman@aol.com. Watch Richman’s latest career advice Wednesdays at 6:35 a.m. during “The Good Morning Show” on WFMY News 2.
