One of the challenges we face during our job hunt is the unstated beliefs or stereotypes the hiring person/organization have about some group we are part of. An ugly word for this is “prejudice” and we all have them. We all think we can guess what’s inside the book by looking at the cover; at least a little. In my case, when I turned fifty, I realized my view of “old” was completely haywire. My opinion was based on my five uncles, all of whom were pretty much worn out by their 50th birthdays, so when I turned 50, I expected to look in the mirror at an old man. You know the drill: smoker’s cough, balding, gray hair, pot belly, weak back, bad eye sight, maybe some hearing problems....
But I didn’t fit that stereotype
The guy I saw in the mirror had a full head of dark -brown hair, a dark -brown beard, ran 20 or more miles every week and who was just beginning to gain real traction with his career. I found I needed to completely reinvent my understanding of age and aging! I had no idea I was prejudiced, I thought I was right and that “old” men looked and acted certain ways. It wasn’t until I was a member of this group that I understood how completely I had characterized other men based on the people in my past, not on the people I was dealing with.
Unfortunately, this is how all prejudice develops. We know, or have some experience with people who are categorized by their membership in some larger group and we confuse the path their lives took with some predefined/predetermined trajectory that is assigned to everyone in the group.
How does this impact job search?
Pretty simple, we all belong to groups and we don’t know what the hiring influence thinks about these groups. The challenge is dealing with it. My brother talks of “tribes”, meaning a group of people that identify with each other. Our goal is to portray ourselves as belonging to the tribe of people working at this office.
The first part of “dealing” with it is in our written communications: resume, cover letter, email, on-line presence, etc. The second part is in person, when, for the most part, the groups we are part of become pretty obvious. We have a visual presence: short, tall, black, white, fat, thin, old, young, etc., and those characteristics are pretty obvious in person. As soon as we open our mouths, we communicate what other groups we belong to. It is at this point that our interviewer determines, skills notwithstanding, whether you are someone s/he wants to work with. Of course this might take seven seconds or it might take the whole interview. But ultimately, s/he is determining if you are a member of his/her tribe.
Our written profile is reasonably easy to deal with: Things like a professional “head shot” allow us to choose the physical image we project, then when we write our resumes we portray our real experience with the energy and strength we really have. It is key to play to our own strengths. Check out my earlier posts about writing resumes, I’ve been fairly explicit about how to communicate your experience and current skills. A well done resume allows for a pretty complete focus on how you work and the value you can bring to a company.
Picking up new tools is an additional way to demonstrate your energy, commitment, etc. If you are currently unemployed, it’s an even better idea. Communicating that you continue to be committed to maintaining your currency is a challenge and there are precious few more effective ways than taking classes.
When you get an interview, do your homework about dress. After our physical presence, how we dress is the most important indicator of the “tribe” we belong to. Find a way to spend an evening watching the door to the company’s office – the place you’ll be working. What are people wearing? Is it shorts and t-shirts? Khakis and golf shirts? Sport jackets? Think “plus 1” for your interview clothes. If it’s “shorts and t-shirts” then nice jeans or khakis and a golf shirt or sport shirt, “sports jackets” would drive a suit, etc. If we do this right, we should immediately be perceived (at least physically) as potential members of the tribe of this company.
The point of all of this is to say that effectively countering someone’s possible stereotypes of you can only be dealt with via demonstration. My telling you I’m not like my uncles doesn’t mean anything to you. My describing the creation of Notes From the Job Search at the age of 61 creates the image of someone who continues to be passionate, committed to growth, learning and service… much more interesting.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
NFJS; North Seattle
The Green Bean Coffeehouse has been through an interesting year, but has definitely come out the other side looking very good. They moved again, hopefully for the last time, into the old McDonalds location across the street. The new address is 8533Greenwood Ave N. This matters to NFJS because we are restarting the group that was meeting there with some changes. It will now be Monday's at 11:00 AM. They have an actual room that is large enough to hold us and they are making that available! Starting next Monday Sep 20, 2010!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Creating the "Value Proposition" letter
Coming back to the Value Proposition process.
You’ve gone through Dunn and Bradstreet, identifying target companies. For each of these you have the name and address of the “Principal”. The titles vary a lot, but D&B has a primary contact. For each company you target, more research will be required to get the most current info. Start with the company web page, then look it up on Google/Bing. Do a LinkedIn search as well. After you have done this, your list should be a bit smaller as some of the companies may have moved out of the area, gone out of business, changed businesses, etc., but you’ll know a lot about the companies that interest you.
Separately, you’ve done your research on what you provide for that company and can very succinctly state how your skill set provides exceptional value. When I look at my own history, I’ve done a lot of stuff and while my design and planning skills are completely competitive, what separates me from my peers is my ability to create very high performance teams that are stable and have exceptional durability.
The next step is to create a letter of five or fewer sentences that highlight what you can do and what the positive consequences have previously been and how those might apply to their company. This letter ends with a sentence stating that you will follow up on a specific date.
Using myself as an example, here’s how I might write a value-proposition letter:
Dear Ms Smith,
Over the last ten years I have had the opportunity to create three teams that support information technology and that have consistent, extraordinary results. In each of these cases, my team exceeded expectations significantly, built exceptionally robust systems and high levels of customer/user satisfaction, while remaining under budget. One of these teams rebuilt a corporate technology infrastructure including development of standards -based computing, increased uptime to more than 99%, and implemented a common “Electronic Client Health Record” across six distinct departments.
I would love to provide a similar level of support for your company and will call you to chat about how I can help on xxxx the xx of xxxx.
Regards,
Stephen M. Paul
www.linkedin.com/stephenmpaul
Call on the date and time specified. Say to the receptionist (or whoever answers the phone), “May I speak with Ms. Smith? She is expecting my phone call”. When Ms. Smith answers, say, “Hi, I’m Steve Paul. I sent you a note last week and am following up to see if you would like to chat about how I might be able to help XXX company obtain greater results in (here have a succinct version of what you are good at) testing blah de blah, or developing a larger customer database, or educating your customers on how to use your product.”
Whatever it is, this is the point where Ms. Smith has gone back through the 7,000 emails and letters she’s received and finally remembers that yes (or no) she is interested in talking about what you might be able to do. She does have a problem that you addressed in your letter. So she says, “Yes, Steve, nice to meet you. And yes, I would like to talk about fixing (something). I’m busy right now, but could you drop by tomorrow at 10 in the morning?”
Or she says, “No, we have a very well oiled testing system (or whatever it is) here and don’t need any help. Thanks for calling.” And hangs up.
Remember that if you get one out of 10 to be a positive contact, you are hitting a good sales percentage.
Selling is what you are doing, so learn to sell the fine brand that you are, so you can get a good job.
You’ve gone through Dunn and Bradstreet, identifying target companies. For each of these you have the name and address of the “Principal”. The titles vary a lot, but D&B has a primary contact. For each company you target, more research will be required to get the most current info. Start with the company web page, then look it up on Google/Bing. Do a LinkedIn search as well. After you have done this, your list should be a bit smaller as some of the companies may have moved out of the area, gone out of business, changed businesses, etc., but you’ll know a lot about the companies that interest you.
Separately, you’ve done your research on what you provide for that company and can very succinctly state how your skill set provides exceptional value. When I look at my own history, I’ve done a lot of stuff and while my design and planning skills are completely competitive, what separates me from my peers is my ability to create very high performance teams that are stable and have exceptional durability.
The next step is to create a letter of five or fewer sentences that highlight what you can do and what the positive consequences have previously been and how those might apply to their company. This letter ends with a sentence stating that you will follow up on a specific date.
Using myself as an example, here’s how I might write a value-proposition letter:
Dear Ms Smith,
Over the last ten years I have had the opportunity to create three teams that support information technology and that have consistent, extraordinary results. In each of these cases, my team exceeded expectations significantly, built exceptionally robust systems and high levels of customer/user satisfaction, while remaining under budget. One of these teams rebuilt a corporate technology infrastructure including development of standards -based computing, increased uptime to more than 99%, and implemented a common “Electronic Client Health Record” across six distinct departments.
I would love to provide a similar level of support for your company and will call you to chat about how I can help on xxxx the xx of xxxx.
Regards,
Stephen M. Paul
www.linkedin.com/stephenmpaul
Call on the date and time specified. Say to the receptionist (or whoever answers the phone), “May I speak with Ms. Smith? She is expecting my phone call”. When Ms. Smith answers, say, “Hi, I’m Steve Paul. I sent you a note last week and am following up to see if you would like to chat about how I might be able to help XXX company obtain greater results in (here have a succinct version of what you are good at) testing blah de blah, or developing a larger customer database, or educating your customers on how to use your product.”
Whatever it is, this is the point where Ms. Smith has gone back through the 7,000 emails and letters she’s received and finally remembers that yes (or no) she is interested in talking about what you might be able to do. She does have a problem that you addressed in your letter. So she says, “Yes, Steve, nice to meet you. And yes, I would like to talk about fixing (something). I’m busy right now, but could you drop by tomorrow at 10 in the morning?”
Or she says, “No, we have a very well oiled testing system (or whatever it is) here and don’t need any help. Thanks for calling.” And hangs up.
Remember that if you get one out of 10 to be a positive contact, you are hitting a good sales percentage.
Selling is what you are doing, so learn to sell the fine brand that you are, so you can get a good job.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Featured in Seattle Weekly!
We are featured in this weeks copy of Seattle Weekly!! :)
A better link is here: Seattle Weekly Article
A better link is here: Seattle Weekly Article
Friday, August 20, 2010
Dunn & Bradstreet's Million Dollar Database
This post was written by Michael Casey. He is one of the folks working with NFJS and a salesman with a terrific track record who has committed to moving into a role that allows him to drive resource sustainability within a company.Note that the rest of this blog would look a lot better if Blogspot supported imbeded tables or allowed me to simply attach a document, etc. but it doesn't. I'm going to try to be as clear as I can without them. If you follow carefully, it will work. When you go to D&B/KCLS you will find it much more user friendly.
From Michael:
Assuming that you have decided to develop a “value proposition” based job search, one of the first steps is identifying potential employers. What companies look like good potential employers?
If you allow yourself to approach this in a disorganized way, it is pretty darn intimidating. One tool that can greatly reduce this is the Dunn & Bradstreet Million Dollar Database. Normally access to this is very expensive, fortunately there are some very convenient ways to avoid the expense. If you are local to the Seattle area, the King County Library (www.kcls.org) provides this as one of their normal services. My assumption is that in other areas, the first place to check is your local library as well. The following description assumes you have a King County Library Card then becomes a “how to” for accessing via the King County Library. Most of this is how to use the DB.
• Go to www.kcls.org
• Click on "DataBases" (top of page, left side)
• Go to "Subject List of Databases" scroll down to
• Click on "Business Economics and Investing" (Note that under this tab, you will see more than a dozen options which may be helpful to you. This is a very comprehensive list of the best tools available for researching companies, so explore!)
• Click on "D & B Million Dollar Database"
Congratulations! You are in.....now go get a cup of coffee or a beer, walk outside and get some fresh air, then return to your JOB SEARCH.
We are going to look for some companies that might help someone who is a CAD designer with considerable talent, and look for metal fabrication companies, who have clients that design and then send their product to be fabricated--they obviously have or need to have CAD people designing their stuff.
____________________________________________________
• Find a company, then put it in the fields and search.
• We will choose a company we know, entering Name, City & State
Company Name: Magic Metals
City: Union Gap
State: Washington
This is what is returned:
Magic Metals Inc
SIC Code: 7692
City: Union Gap
State: WA USA
Locations: Single Location
Annual Sales: $11,887,260
Number Emp 146
We see that the SIC code is 7692....but we want more information, so click on the "Magic Metals Inc". What comes back is more than a page of information specific to Magic Metals including what their DUNS Number is, what they do, who the President is, how many locations, etc.
Now look at their SIC codes, they are listed as 7692 welding repair but also 3440 sheet metal work.
“Sheet Metal Work” is also known as “Metal Fabrication” so we have found the SIC code we will use in the next step.
Now we want to go and look for other companies with the 3440 SIC code, because that may lead us to companies that are similar and these are companies we know will use CAD drafting.
Go back to the top of the page, yellow box, and click on SIC and then type in 3444, then eliminate the city, or keep it local, then put your state name in and hit search...: and we come up with !!!!!! 254 companies. Too many for practical reasons, so let's limit the search and just put a city back in, like Seattle Wa for the search, see what we come up with---i.e., re-enter SIC code 3444, Seattle for city, Washington for state, then hit search and voila; 34 companies, much more manageable.
1: Lighthouse For The Blind Inc
8331 Seattle WA USA Headquarters $37,597,000 350
2: Ellstrom Manufacturing Inc
2431 Seattle WA USA Single Location $11,500,000 85
3: Pioneer Human Services
8331 Seattle WA USA Branch $9,487,600 200
4: Qual Fab Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $6,600,000 45
5: Pacific Aircraft Welders
3581 Seattle WA USA Single Location $5,000,000 10
6: Queen City Sheet Metal
1761 Seattle WA USA Single Location $4,345,596 25
7: David Gulassa & Co Inc
2514 Seattle WA USA Single Location $3,200,000 26
8: Ballard Sheet Metal Works Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $3,000,000 20
9: Pacific Sheet Metal Inc
1761 Seattle WA USA Single Location $2,900,000 20
10: Park North Heating Co Inc
1711 Seattle WA USA Single Location $2,200,000 16
11: Global Inc
3443 Seattle WA USA Single Location $2,000,000 15
12: Central Fabricators Inc
5051 Seattle WA USA Single Location $900,000 10
13: Williams Form Engineering Corp
3444 Seattle WA USA Branch $737,508 6
14: All Metals Fabricators Inc
1791 Seattle WA USA Single Location $730,000 6
15: Precision Fabricators LLC
3444 Seattle WA USA Headquarters $625,000 8
16: B & D Sheet Metal LLC
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $610,000 6
17: Decorative Metal Arts
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $570,000 8
18: Apex Metal Fabricators Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $550,000 5
19: Canopy World Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Branch $491,672 4
20: Mutual Industries Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $480,000 5
21: North Industries Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $410,000 3
22: A Quality Sheet Metal Co
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $270,000 4
23: Whitehead Manufacturing
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $250,000 3
24: Form Factor Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $210,000 2
25: Kenneth A Edleman
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $200,000 2
26: Pacific Northwest
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $160,000 2
27: J R Grantham Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $140,000 1
28: DK Works
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $130,000 2
29: Dockside Repair
3449 Seattle WA USA Single Location $100,000 18
30: McKinstry Co LLC
1711 Seattle WA USA Headquarters 500
Choosing one, say #4, Qual Fab Inc., click on that and once again, we have tons of information: Location, Sales, CEO, start date, etc.
This tool works for any industry and location. in addition, Dunn & Bradstreet is the tool companies use to check out each other, so it is the most up-to-date available (although it can be as much as six months out of date). It will normally provide the name of at least one senior executive; probably the CEO. What you end up with is the address of the company, the name of a senior exec, a clear idea of what the company makes, etc. This is a great start.
From Michael:
Assuming that you have decided to develop a “value proposition” based job search, one of the first steps is identifying potential employers. What companies look like good potential employers?
If you allow yourself to approach this in a disorganized way, it is pretty darn intimidating. One tool that can greatly reduce this is the Dunn & Bradstreet Million Dollar Database. Normally access to this is very expensive, fortunately there are some very convenient ways to avoid the expense. If you are local to the Seattle area, the King County Library (www.kcls.org) provides this as one of their normal services. My assumption is that in other areas, the first place to check is your local library as well. The following description assumes you have a King County Library Card then becomes a “how to” for accessing via the King County Library. Most of this is how to use the DB.
• Go to www.kcls.org
• Click on "DataBases" (top of page, left side)
• Go to "Subject List of Databases" scroll down to
• Click on "Business Economics and Investing" (Note that under this tab, you will see more than a dozen options which may be helpful to you. This is a very comprehensive list of the best tools available for researching companies, so explore!)
• Click on "D & B Million Dollar Database"
Congratulations! You are in.....now go get a cup of coffee or a beer, walk outside and get some fresh air, then return to your JOB SEARCH.
We are going to look for some companies that might help someone who is a CAD designer with considerable talent, and look for metal fabrication companies, who have clients that design and then send their product to be fabricated--they obviously have or need to have CAD people designing their stuff.
____________________________________________________
• Find a company, then put it in the fields and search.
• We will choose a company we know, entering Name, City & State
Company Name: Magic Metals
City: Union Gap
State: Washington
This is what is returned:
Magic Metals Inc
SIC Code: 7692
City: Union Gap
State: WA USA
Locations: Single Location
Annual Sales: $11,887,260
Number Emp 146
We see that the SIC code is 7692....but we want more information, so click on the "Magic Metals Inc". What comes back is more than a page of information specific to Magic Metals including what their DUNS Number is, what they do, who the President is, how many locations, etc.
Now look at their SIC codes, they are listed as 7692 welding repair but also 3440 sheet metal work.
“Sheet Metal Work” is also known as “Metal Fabrication” so we have found the SIC code we will use in the next step.
Now we want to go and look for other companies with the 3440 SIC code, because that may lead us to companies that are similar and these are companies we know will use CAD drafting.
Go back to the top of the page, yellow box, and click on SIC and then type in 3444, then eliminate the city, or keep it local, then put your state name in and hit search...: and we come up with !!!!!! 254 companies. Too many for practical reasons, so let's limit the search and just put a city back in, like Seattle Wa for the search, see what we come up with---i.e., re-enter SIC code 3444, Seattle for city, Washington for state, then hit search and voila; 34 companies, much more manageable.
1: Lighthouse For The Blind Inc
8331 Seattle WA USA Headquarters $37,597,000 350
2: Ellstrom Manufacturing Inc
2431 Seattle WA USA Single Location $11,500,000 85
3: Pioneer Human Services
8331 Seattle WA USA Branch $9,487,600 200
4: Qual Fab Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $6,600,000 45
5: Pacific Aircraft Welders
3581 Seattle WA USA Single Location $5,000,000 10
6: Queen City Sheet Metal
1761 Seattle WA USA Single Location $4,345,596 25
7: David Gulassa & Co Inc
2514 Seattle WA USA Single Location $3,200,000 26
8: Ballard Sheet Metal Works Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $3,000,000 20
9: Pacific Sheet Metal Inc
1761 Seattle WA USA Single Location $2,900,000 20
10: Park North Heating Co Inc
1711 Seattle WA USA Single Location $2,200,000 16
11: Global Inc
3443 Seattle WA USA Single Location $2,000,000 15
12: Central Fabricators Inc
5051 Seattle WA USA Single Location $900,000 10
13: Williams Form Engineering Corp
3444 Seattle WA USA Branch $737,508 6
14: All Metals Fabricators Inc
1791 Seattle WA USA Single Location $730,000 6
15: Precision Fabricators LLC
3444 Seattle WA USA Headquarters $625,000 8
16: B & D Sheet Metal LLC
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $610,000 6
17: Decorative Metal Arts
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $570,000 8
18: Apex Metal Fabricators Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $550,000 5
19: Canopy World Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Branch $491,672 4
20: Mutual Industries Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $480,000 5
21: North Industries Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $410,000 3
22: A Quality Sheet Metal Co
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $270,000 4
23: Whitehead Manufacturing
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $250,000 3
24: Form Factor Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $210,000 2
25: Kenneth A Edleman
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $200,000 2
26: Pacific Northwest
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $160,000 2
27: J R Grantham Inc
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $140,000 1
28: DK Works
3444 Seattle WA USA Single Location $130,000 2
29: Dockside Repair
3449 Seattle WA USA Single Location $100,000 18
30: McKinstry Co LLC
1711 Seattle WA USA Headquarters 500
Choosing one, say #4, Qual Fab Inc., click on that and once again, we have tons of information: Location, Sales, CEO, start date, etc.
This tool works for any industry and location. in addition, Dunn & Bradstreet is the tool companies use to check out each other, so it is the most up-to-date available (although it can be as much as six months out of date). It will normally provide the name of at least one senior executive; probably the CEO. What you end up with is the address of the company, the name of a senior exec, a clear idea of what the company makes, etc. This is a great start.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Value Proposition Campaigns
Pretty much all of my posts so far have been about how to get a “job”, as in an existing, defined role in an existing, defined company. You know the drill, create resume, find an opportunity, then apply or try to identify who the hiring influence is etc. A second process would be to work your network until someone tells you about an opportunity that hasn’t been advertised and follow up with the person who needs the new help. Both of these can work and for many roles those are the two most effective ways for finding a new job. There is another approach and for some kinds of opportunities it’s especially useful.
Smaller companies, say less than $20m in yearly revenue, simply can’t afford hiring one of the big search firms to find their most senior executives, and frankly putting an ad on Craig’s List for a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is pretty tacky and simply not going to net an interesting candidate. So how is this new CFO found?
There are a few ways, but only one of them is the subject of this post. This isn’t especially original, but it seems difficult for people to do; it’s the creation of a “value proposition campaign”. Using the above example, you are a Stanford MBA, CPA and have the requisite experience. For whatever reason you are now looking for your next opportunity and your target is CFO of a medical manufacturing company with between $5m and $20m in revenue.
The theory is very straight forward: Identify the 2 or 3 things you are sure will be needed by every company in this sector and that you have done well and look forward to doing again, write them down (on paper) and snail mail them to the CEO. Follow up 2 or 3 days later asking the CEO if you can sit down over coffee to discuss how this might benefit his/her company. Pretty simple, right? Unfortunately, the devil is in the details.
Trying to cover the various parts of this process in a single post is pretty hopeless, so I’ll break it into parts:
• This is the intro (of course) and covers the concept and what to expect the next few entries to entail.
• Market research/identification, how do you find the companies you want to send these letters to? What about the name of the CEO? What about whether a company even has a CFO currently?
• Creating the letter
• Getting the interview
• Asking for the sale
This is going to be interesting.
Smaller companies, say less than $20m in yearly revenue, simply can’t afford hiring one of the big search firms to find their most senior executives, and frankly putting an ad on Craig’s List for a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is pretty tacky and simply not going to net an interesting candidate. So how is this new CFO found?
There are a few ways, but only one of them is the subject of this post. This isn’t especially original, but it seems difficult for people to do; it’s the creation of a “value proposition campaign”. Using the above example, you are a Stanford MBA, CPA and have the requisite experience. For whatever reason you are now looking for your next opportunity and your target is CFO of a medical manufacturing company with between $5m and $20m in revenue.
The theory is very straight forward: Identify the 2 or 3 things you are sure will be needed by every company in this sector and that you have done well and look forward to doing again, write them down (on paper) and snail mail them to the CEO. Follow up 2 or 3 days later asking the CEO if you can sit down over coffee to discuss how this might benefit his/her company. Pretty simple, right? Unfortunately, the devil is in the details.
Trying to cover the various parts of this process in a single post is pretty hopeless, so I’ll break it into parts:
• This is the intro (of course) and covers the concept and what to expect the next few entries to entail.
• Market research/identification, how do you find the companies you want to send these letters to? What about the name of the CEO? What about whether a company even has a CFO currently?
• Creating the letter
• Getting the interview
• Asking for the sale
This is going to be interesting.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Sustaining your job search
What does it take to continue something when you get no feedback? No complaints, no compliments, no objections, no heckling, nothing. I ask this because that’s what happens with 90% of your job search. It is also true if you are a blogger. So while I’m not looking for a job, the thing I’m most responsible for (this blog) has at least one element that is the same. I have to admit that I struggle with it. I want someone to comment and tell me how effective and smart I am and how my blog is the very best on the whole web. Having a PBS crew show up to do a special on my blog writing would be pretty cool, too. And it makes no difference at all that intellectually and emotionally I know my wish is both based on false assumptions and impossible.
When you are looking for a job, the problem is really similar. You send out one or two or three applications a week, you set up one or two informational interviews a week, you go to the “networking” events, but no job offer ever seems to appear. Heck, it’s like there is no reaction at all. Most weeks you don’t even get an automated response from the applications. And then the “informationals” feel mostly like you’re just talking to people and the “networking” feels more like a middle school mixer than anything else you can remember!...
How to sustain? What I finally did was join a group of reluctant bloggers. We meet once a week and exchange ideas and support each other’s efforts. It’s a way to get feedback. A little skepticism would be fine to go with this, I get better faster when people tell me what isn’t working as well as what is, but at least I get feedback.
If you are in the Seattle area, there are a variety of groups around. We have the two NFJS groups, look up Job Club at http://www.meetup.com/ etc. The point is to find some support. I really don't know of a tougher job than Job Search, so allow youself to find that support. Allow yourself to learn how to get better.
When you are looking for a job, the problem is really similar. You send out one or two or three applications a week, you set up one or two informational interviews a week, you go to the “networking” events, but no job offer ever seems to appear. Heck, it’s like there is no reaction at all. Most weeks you don’t even get an automated response from the applications. And then the “informationals” feel mostly like you’re just talking to people and the “networking” feels more like a middle school mixer than anything else you can remember!...
How to sustain? What I finally did was join a group of reluctant bloggers. We meet once a week and exchange ideas and support each other’s efforts. It’s a way to get feedback. A little skepticism would be fine to go with this, I get better faster when people tell me what isn’t working as well as what is, but at least I get feedback.
If you are in the Seattle area, there are a variety of groups around. We have the two NFJS groups, look up Job Club at http://www.meetup.com/ etc. The point is to find some support. I really don't know of a tougher job than Job Search, so allow youself to find that support. Allow yourself to learn how to get better.
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