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What A New Place Can Teach You

April 28th, 2008 @ 10:04pm

So many people from Massachusetts have been emailing me about my move to a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, about six weeks ago. "Are you settled now?" and "Is it spring yet?" and "What do you think of your new area?" are common questions. Their inquiries are kind and caring, and I'm grateful for every one of them.

My answer: all is well. Yes, glorious spring is here. Only now do I realize that I was very "up" for this change, not only for moving closer to my stepsons and my husband's new job (he's having fun), but for a more balanced life. The cost of living here is 20-30% less (house insurance, car insurance, even dentists!) and housing, even 15-20 minutes from downtown Minneapolis, can be very affordable. Yet it's a very literate and learned diverse city with, for example, the largest Somali immigrant community in the US. There are many transplants from all over the US and once here, they hate to leave. I've learned why: people are courteous and patient here, like many of us used to be before multitasking shaped us differently. So it makes for a gentler life. A few friends, still stunned that I'd actually leave the Northeast, relish learning about other cultures in the world -- except those located between the two US coasts. And that's too bad because they don't know what they're missing. I sure didn't know myself, until now. This country is amazing to me all over again.

Other pluses: Customer service is amazing. Here, you are invariably greeted with, "Did you find what you came in for?" and if you didn't, they insist on finding it for you. It's so universal I've wondered aloud if they teach "Minnesota nice" in elementary school! However, I still can't find really good thin-crust North End-style pizza and my frustration is mounting. I need to explore "the Cities" more to find it -- it's gotta be somewhere! I miss seeing the Red Sox news on the local channels but I'll be seeing them when they play the Twins on May 9th here in Minneapolis, at a really decent price, and Boston.com keeps me pretty well informed on Manny's pursuit of his 500th homer.

Here, when we chose our power company -- and there's real choice here, among four or five of them -- we could also choose our source of energy. So we opted for wind energy; wind turbines (windmills) are a common sight here because there are healthy wind patterns in the north central US. In my eyes, their sight is a new aesthetic: catching energy seemingly out of the air, they represent freedom from foreign oil or gas, a beautiful thing.

And being able to live within 5-20 minutes of everything is a gift of time. My husband rides his bike to work in 45 minutes, door to door, and my new office is a 15-minute drive. People here view a 30-minute commute as the outer limits for time spent driving to work and one can see why: they want to put that boat on the lake, and they want to take the family out on the many bike trails and walking paths. They balance work and non-work time. It's just expected. And it's good to see -- and to experience.

What are we doing with this newfound time? Sure, I'm doing more networking so that I can better establish the business here. (More about that in another blog entry!) We're each doing more reading. And walking, and just chatting with the neighbors. We've joined a church, since now we don't need to use the entire weekend for "recovery" time, and I'll be doing some volunteering for a Congressional candidate who's vying for an open seat.

So this new place is teaching me that no one part of the country leads in every way. Each part has its allure and I'm happy to discover that here.

Also: that there are other aspects to life than that one track of work. This is a revelation to this workaholic, and a challenge, as I'm thinking about what my life means outside of my work. It makes me realize that home is not a particular place, but rather, that it's far more than a place: it's that part of you that makes a place familiar.

Now all of this is not to say that my life's mission, to help people find and do the work they were meant to do, and live more meaningful lives, is different; that is core to my being. But now I'm seeing what else there is out there that gives me, and others, purpose. And it's teaching me that I need to add more questions for my clients about their lives outside of work. And they, too, need to think about non-work, too.

And that can only make my work with them a better experience -- for them and for me.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Change, | No Comments »

Getting Lost Can Help You Find Your Way

August 9th, 2008 @ 11:08pm

Recently I was using my car's GPS system to get to an appointment in a part of Minneapolis I still don't know well. AlI was going fine when my GPS told me to take the next right. Problem was, it was a one-way street coming toward me, not away.

What to do? After a second of panic, I realized that since traffic wasn't heavy, and I had a pile of maps with me, that I could punt without the help of electronics. So I took the next right instead, expecting that I'd have to pull over and check the map or even circle around somehow. But I just kept going. I had to take a few more turns to get where I needed to be, and found my way, but along the way, I looked off to the side to discover that I was right by the exit ramp to the highway I usually take back to the office from here. I'd discovered a better route than the one I'd taken many times before. Which also meant I'd found a better way to get to this destination.

All because the direction of the street had changed before the GPS database could be updated.

It's really the same with careers and jobs. We get blocked from what "should" be the next step in our career, by the perfect job that goes to someone else. And we panic: will we ever attain that goal? Well, maybe you're supposed to take a different route than you expected, to reach a different goal than you'd chosen. And you just don't know it yet.

It's been said that life presents us with the same lessons over and over again until we learn them. The person who sees repeated career obstructions as a personal plot against him to reach a chosen goal may miss a fabulous new career path, one that fits better. Another person who won't let go of a stale job in a dying field is yet another example of a person who won't look off to the side to see something that might be more fulfilling and with more future. Keep your eyes open to these pointers telling you, "Check out this other thing". Is it time for you to be open to change? Have you been missing the lessons meant for you?

Consider getting lost what it might really be: a gift. It just may get you to a better place.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Change, | No Comments »

Tears in Minnesota -- and everywhere else

February 14th, 2009 @ 03:02pm

I've been there, on exactly this day in 2003, so I know what it's like: you go through the motions as you put the dinner plates on the table, as you feed the dog, go through the mail without being able to read a thing, knowing that any time now, your spouse will be home and you'll have to say, Today I was laid off.

You will have to watch their face, and your kids' faces, as they take it in. Lost your job? Wow. Lost your job, really? The silence. Then, Are you OK?, to which you lie and say "Yeah."

Later, you talk about the vacation or the lake house and how now we should probably change our plans for the summer, just in case. Just in case. You don't want to say it: Just in case I don't find another job soon.

Yes, you think, I'll be getting unemployment, and they're sending us to outplacement for help with the resume and so forth. We have some savings, but that was for the future, not now. What will I do? I was supposed to retire from there, or at least work another few years there. Now what?

Sure, it's been in the news about layoffs. But you, laid off? At your company, which hardly ever has had a layoff? Isn't this supposed to happen to other people?

You tell your friends in a day or so, and they reassure you that it's not you, it's the times, you can't take this personally. Except you do take it personally, even if 50 or 500 people went with you. After all, it's your paycheck that's now gone.

And once you're gone and someone else is now doing the work they made you leave on your desk, and you are driving past a Starbucks and see someone on line there on a break from work, with their company ID key card dangling off their hip, you feel envy that you no longer have a key card or a company or a job to go to. And you realize you took all that for granted.

There is no way around this pain. And yes, I will tell you although you don't want to hear it, you will go through all the other stages of loss and grief. Someone has put names to them because they are real, and you will experience every one of them. It's necessary. Go with it.

But know this: you will get through it. It won't be easy, and you will be challenged in ways you never knew. But: you will find others in the same situation who have moved through the first steps, and their example tells you that you will move ahead just like they have. You'll find that networking group that fits and maybe a coach to help you avoid the rocks and rapids and you'll meet new people who will be glad to meet you and who you'd never have met if you were still working. And you'll learn about the job market today, and you will begin to burn with something new: a ferocity about what's ahead. And you'll begin to believe it, no matter what the headlines say: that you will find a new job, maybe even a better one than you had.

Years from now, in your new job or maybe the one after that, you'll still remember the date of your layoff, especially if you were at your company a long time. But the pain will have faded. And you will have a good, or very good, or even great new job. You still see friends from back then, who were laid off with you, and they've made it past, too. And you'll get to enjoy the lake house again and at the little shop in the town nearby, the one that sells cabin decor and shoelace licorice and shot glasses with moose and loons on them, they will have one of those inspirational magnets that says "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right", and you will smile. Because you learned you can. And everything is OK.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Change, The job search roller coaster, | No Comments »

The Age Thing, Or the 50+ year-old in job search

April 11th, 2009 @ 10:04pm

I was listening to Public Radio one day this week while driving in my car. The call-in show was about older job hunters and how they're not landing jobs. One caller after another, almost every one formerly a professional with an office, each gave their tale of how they have been looking for a job for years or took a survival job at Home Depot, or how even Home Depot wouldn't hire them. "I don't see others like me in some of these places", said a few.

Fast forward to a couple of days later. I was talking with someone who'd called about my services, and these were his comments: "I'm 60 and no one will hire me. None of my friends of the same age are getting hired. I've done everything imaginable to land a job, with no offers." Yet when I probed about which networking groups this person was attending, he said "None." Networking? "A little". Was he using LinkedIn to see what jobs are posted, and so that he gets found by a prospective employer? "I'm on it, but I don't use it much."

To the radio show, I found myself yelling at the radio: Ask them what they've been doing in their search! I told the reporter, who was accepting what was being said, without question. Ask them if they've done something new each week! It felt good, but it didn't do anything, except convince me to write this blog entry.

To the caller I was talking to who kept insisting on his age being the issue, I had to interrupt him to disagree with him and tell him he was NOT doing everything imaginable to get a job. Silence.

In short: older workers don't know how to look for a job today. And: many resent that job search methods changed while they were gainfully employed -- surprise!, you were sheltered from reality for a long time. And: because so many I talk to don't want to change their job search methods, it's my opinion that many don't WANT to know how to look for a job today, that some actually want only pity or sympathy and want to complain.

There, I said it.

And I'll say this: during the search, older job seekers often pooh-pooh things like texting or Facebook or Twitter to anyone who will listen, or complain that the interviewer had tattoos, or that the person who would be their boss doesn't speak great English, or want a job just down the street and no further, or refuse to entertain any salary offer that isn't 15% higher than what they used to make. Without realizing it, these candidates are telegraphing their "I don't like the way things are" attitudes. To the interviewer's ears, that sounds like "I don't really fit in and want everything the way I want it." Result: they're not considered further. And they have no idea they have subtly sabotaged their own searches.

It's sad to have to say this, but bias is a way of life. Of course there's age discrimination in the job market against older people. There's also discrimination based on race, youth, weight, status of the college one attended or lack thereof, previous jobs, makeup, hair styles or baldness, cologne, jeans, looks (you look like the interviewer's ex), attractiveness (too much, too little). All kinds of dumb things color the decisions of hiring managers. Hiring managers are human. And humans do illogical things. It's not right, it's short-sighted, it's small-minded. But it happens.

Which is easier to change: that bias? Or your attitude about your search?

It's the candidate's job to 1) get around these hurdles, usually through networking, and 2) have so much activity going on in their search that the loss of an opportunity here or there doesn't stall it altogether.

Author Barbara Ehrenrich, in her book Bait and Switch, decries career coaches who blame the victim, as she puts it. Well, this is one career change and job search coach who says "the victim can spend less time BEING a victim from the start". The 50+ year old whose litany includes statements like "I've done all I can" or "I apply for all the jobs I can but never hear back" or "It's not like it used to be" and then gives up, has only just begun their search. Come on: it's a new age. Get with it. Or you'll be left out. Do you want a job, or what?

Why does this coach challenge her older clients' excuses? Because once the older job hunter sees that they have more control than they think they do, through things like networking and doing more, they will be energized, and will do more to land a job the way they need to work at it today. Doing things the way they need to be done today will get them a good position.

And that's the whole idea.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Change, Job Search, | No Comments »

It's Just a Conversation -- with Purpose

September 14th, 2009 @ 04:09pm

Interviewing is probably when job hunters get the most nervous about their search, and some can get very worked up, as if the interviewer is going to judge them as human beings. Many people either buy books about every conceivable interview question, then attempt to memorize them, making them more nervous than before.

Or, worse, they go into the interview like a good boy or girl, and wait for questions before speaking. That's the part I want to write about here: the good little boy and girl mode.

Unless you are under the age of, say, 12, you are no longer a boy or girl. I don't care where you live and in what culture you were raised, being the reactive person in today's interview -- meaning the one who waits for the other (the interviewer) to do something -- puts you at a distinct disadvantage. Even the hiring manager or recruiter or HR person raised in the same culture will view you as someone who looks good on paper, but who on the job will probably sit and wait to be told what to do next.

So how do you become more outspoken/more proactive for an interview? You don't wait for the interview. You start being more that way in normal, everyday life. You may not want to hear that, but to make it in today's for-profit and even non-profit business world, you'll have to come out of your shell more. Keeping your successes and excellent reviews a secret will not land you the next interview, or the job, today.

Note the operative word there: TODAY. On your last job, where you may have been for 5, 10, even 20 years, you were sheltered and protected from the new winds buffeting the business world. What worked then, and "got you there" then, won't work now. At least the quiet, "don't notice me" part.

So when you go into an interview today, be thinking "I am a peer to this person who's interviewing me...I have something they need...I can solve their problems...that's why they're calling me in to talk. So I'm going to help THEM by telling them what I can do well." That means having a "conversation with purpose"...not just a meandering isn't-this-nice-that-we-have-so-much-in-common, but one that starts off with you telling the interviewer why you're a good match for the job, illustrating why you are a fit with your success stories. And it moves to a back-and-forth exchange of information. And it ends with you asking about next steps.

So they'll be asking you questions, and sometimes you'll be asking the question. It's not a two-way inquisition. It's a conversation, with the end goal being, on both sides of "let's take this further".

With that approach in mind, going into an interview loses most of the stress, and your confidence is higher. Now isn't that the way to do a job search?

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Change, Job Search, | No Comments »

No Such Thing as a "Permanent" Job

December 28th, 2009 @ 12:12am

The other day I was reading posts on a job hunters' email list serve, and saw an "I've landed!" email from one member. It's always great to see such good news, so I opened the mail. The person announced his new job, thanking everyone who'd helped him during his search to "land this permanent position after doing several temping gigs".

"Permanent"? Ouch. When it comes to work, there is no such thing, unless you're gainfully self-employed, and even then your business waxes and wanes with the demands of the market.

Author Clifford Hakim was prescient when he wrote We Are All Self-Employed in 1994. He maintained then, and he was so right, that a new social contract now exists: gone was the idea of lifelong employment with one employer. Parts of the country have seen this reality for almost two decades, others are just awakening to it. Which means in regions where layoffs had been rare until this recession, people are still reeling from what they'd imagined was impossible: that they'd actually been let go from a company where they thought they'd be forever.

In short, they were operating as if nothing had changed from decades before. It's tough to be hit with the reality that those days truly are gone.

A client of mine who landed a few years ago at a company doing a lot of defense research told me about the culture there, once he'd been there a while and saw the "self employed" model in action. There, when your project was winding down, you were not assigned to another project. Instead, YOU had to FIND another project within the company which would take you on. So you had to be able to articulate your value to Project Managers. And as a direct result of the culture there, everyone was very interested in everyone else's project: How was the project going? What were the goals? What's the funding? If you found no project to which you could contribute, you were out the door.

Will other companies take on the same kind of approach? Only time will tell. But many are no longer managing their employees' careers. That's up to the employee now.

In that way, Hakim's book's subtitle, How to Take Control of Your Career, is absolutely right. By shaping your attitude -- and your job search-- around the fact that you have to find your market and focus your message, then find your customer (employer), you are taking initiative. Continuing to think of work in this new way will get you as close to "permanent" as you can ever be.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Change, Job Search, | No Comments »

Job Search Networking Groups and Gray Hair

March 6th, 2010 @ 07:03pm

The profile of job search networking groups around the country is the same: people over 40. Largely white, more male than female, almost all with at least a bachelor's degree. "Look around the room", some there say with some anger in their voices. "Notice all the gray hair? What does that tell you?"

Why IS it that most people at many job search networking groups ARE older? The immediate answer from some, especially the ones asking us to look around the room, seems to be "age discrimination". Meaning, employers hire all the young people first, so those under 40 don't need networking groups.

Not so fast. I say, don't give up so easily and yield to excuses. Yes, excuses.

Here are some observations from this, well, 50+ year old career coach:

1) Younger people have what I call "natural networks" -- they usually don't yet have families, houses, etc., so they hang out with friends. They go to parties. They take courses, they do business after hours meetings, professional meetings, they hang out with employed people, etc. Look in a bar at 5:30 near any urban office park or downtown, and the under-40 set is mostly who you'll see. So if they're networking that way, and via social media, they don't think about "official" job search networking groups. They're already doing it. You over 45 or 50 don't do those things nearly as much. So you go to networking groups.

And those who have started families will network with other younger parents. Sure, they'll network with their own parents and their parents' friends. But they'll choose the stands at the baseball diamond for making new contacts over going to networking groups.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Change, Job Search, Networking, | No Comments »

Five Ways to Avoid Self-Sabotage in Your Job Search

June 28th, 2010 @ 08:06pm

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Career coaching, Change, Job Search, Networking, resumes, The job search roller coaster, Your time, | No Comments »

"Seven Career Changes" A Myth

September 12th, 2010 @ 12:09pm

Over the years, my colleagues and I have heard "people change careers seven times over their lifetimes", and looked at each other quizzically. Really - SEVEN times?! I've never known anyone who's done this, save for the very rare career experimenter who can afford to start over and over again at a beginner's salary -- usually at the cost of his or her (I've seen both) relationships.

Sure, I've known people who've changed once or maybe even twice. But even those who come to me to determine if they should change careers almost always decide to do a career shift rather than a careerchange: someone in pharmaceutical sales, for example, shifts to medical device sales. Or a hospital CTO becomes the CIO of a large medical practice.

A career change: A college career counselor (yours truly) becomes a sales rep for a computer division of Xerox -- a real change yet the similarities in needs assessment and then applying solutions were so close that they landed me the job and got me started in 10+ years in sales.

A career change means that not only does the work itself change, but the customer/client changes, the organizational culture changes, and so forth. A career shift is as explained above: you step sideways but you're still in a very similar culture and dealing with very similar customers. And a job is one piece of the flow we call a career. The word "career" as a noun means "direction" or "course" (as in direction).

I can say that in the 20 or so years I've been doing this work, after working with literally thousands of people while in outplacement, at career centers for dislocated workers, and at colleges with older students, that I have seen perhaps 1-2 people change careers more than 2-3 times. I suspect that using one's life to experiment with careers, rather than working with someone who can help you determine a valid direction, represents a deeper problem, such as Peter Pan Syndrome ("I don't want to grow up..."). But I'll leave that to the psychologists to determine. In short, it just doesn't happen with 99.9% of real people.

So where did this "7 career changes" story get started? No one seems to know. Evidently it's just been repeated so much that people assume it's true. The statistic has been attributed to the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Now The Wall Street Journal's Carl Bialik (9-11-10) says the BLS does not track the numbers of career changes, but they keep track of the numbers of jobs in a lifetime, not the same statistic at all. So he, a statistics lover, asks the question "Where does this 7-change number come from?", and ends up saying a few different things, including that people who do what I do keep the myth alive so that we can get more customers! (You can't hear this: the sound of me suppressing a loud laugh). More on that in a moment. But thank you, Mr. Bialik, for finally questioning this statistic.

I do think that the terms "jobs" and "careers" often get confused by researchers or those interpreting researchers' numbers. Bialik also says, "No one knows for sure the true average numbers of careers". That's how I see it, too.

Over the years, when I've done workshops or have sat with an individual client and get asked about it, I've said "That's what 'they' say but I've never seen it".

Just re-reading my first two paragraphs would tell you that I've never believed in the "7 career changes" myth myself, so needless to say, I'm not promulgating the myth, yet it hasn't affected my business.

Do I tell clients that they need to be ever ready for changes and shifts? You bet. Do I tell those laid off that chances are they will get laid off again, so don't stop networking and don't stop planning their next step? You bet. Do I emphasize that whatever career they choose, they think of it not as a job but as a long-term commitment that they need to enjoy AND invest in? Absolutely.

Those aren't myths at all.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Career coaching, Change, interviews, Job Search, Uncategorized, Your time, | No Comments »

Conquer those Monday morning job search blues

September 25th, 2011 @ 10:09pm

Whether you're IN a job or between jobs, Monday mornings during job search can be tough.

You're in a job and can't wait to find a new one. So Monday mornings are a reminder you're still stuck where you are.

You could be a new grad who's overwhelmed and doesn't know where to start, and each Monday means you're wondering where to begin.

Or you're between jobs and Monday mornings remind you that there is no office to go to. Especially if you're a manager or executive, your energy has nowhere to land for the day. The sense of loss is profound and can be powerfully dispiriting.

This is Monday Morning Syndrome. Or the Monday Morning Job Search Blues.

How to beat the blues? Here are a few ideas.

- Get out of the house! Getting out of your house or apartment, and being at the library or local cafe, will reset your energy. Bring your laptop or tablet and make a list of target contacts for the next week or two, or do research on companies, for example.

- Schedule networking meetings for that time slot. Make good use of Monday morning; don't use it to start planning your week, something you should have done last week. You'll have that to look forward to instead of an empty, lonely morning.

- Meet with a job search "buddy" at a coffee shop, each with your own set of goals set from the week before. See how you each did with your own goals, and how you rewarded yourselves for meeting your goals.

- On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, send invitations to contacts to do networking meetings this week. As a client of mine, Jim, says, "The replies will come in on Monday, making your email that morning full of replies, and many will be 'yes'. It's great!"

- For those IN jobs who are always struggling with inadequate time for their search, working with a job search coach can keep you on track will give you a sense of "I'm doing something for myself and my search", instead of you having yet another week slip by.

What about YOUR ideas?

_______________________________

Shake the blues: talk with Joanne about how you can manage your search so that YOU are in charge, not your emotions. Contact her today at www.TheJobSearchQueen.com.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Career coaching, Change, Job Search, job search strategy, Networking, The job search roller coaster, Your time, | 2 Comments »

Rip Van Winkle Would Be Shocked

October 28th, 2011 @ 09:10pm

Today, I spoke with a woman who was referred to me, who has not held a corporate position since 1999. She was raising her daughters, then taking care of her aging parents. Now she wants to -- and needs to -- return to a salaried position.

Her career, until she left it, clustered into two areas.

Certainly re-entry is doable. Even with the 12-year gap, networking is key to her landing. But she has much work to do first.

So as I spoke with her, I found myself saying things like:

"Sure, you could return to either of your former fields, but as you may know, salaries have contracted...you may not get near the pay you once had." (Her answer: "Really?" Then silence.)

And --

"Technologies have changed a lot since 1999." (She knows only parts of Microsoft Office.)

And --

"Are you familiar with the current issues in your field(s)? The trends, what people are talking about?" (Her answer: no.)

I was afraid to go on, out of fear that my answers would discourage her from even trying to get a job.

I recommended several activities for her, including a variety of sites where she could learn about salary levels today. But I asked her to also talk with at least 8 people currently in her former fields. "Ask them about the field, the industry, what's happened over the last 12 years, what is the technology they use today, what are the salaries, and so on."

She needed to do this to get somewhat caught up, and to get an orientation to 2011, and 2012. So she agreed.

Today, even two or three years away from your career is huge. The speed of change keeps accelerating.

But 10 or 12 years away? I wondered if she felt like Rip Van Winkle, waking up to overwhelming change.

No books or even web sites can update you. People who've been in the field a while can. If you're aiming for a re-entry, they're the people to talk with first. Check local professional associations, for example, for local members you can have coffee with. Keep them as part of your network and when you're ready with your resume and other job search marketing, connect with them again.

If you can show them you've done some homework, they'll be willing to help.

______________________

Have gaps? Want to re-enter the W-2 world? Contact Joanne.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in career change, Career coaching, career shift, Change, | No Comments »

Five Truths About Job Search

February 11th, 2012 @ 11:02am

Valentine's Day prompted the founding of my business nine years ago, when the software company I worked for was bought by another and our division was shut down. More about that another time, because here I want to focus on what I've observed over the years about job search. There are just certain truths, and here are a few.

1. About 85% of the time when there's a problem, it's candidates themselves who hinder their own job searches. You must get out of your own way. Must.

How do they mess things up? They become untrue to themselves. They start out with goals that fit and are real for them, and which their successes support. Then in mere weeks they relent: They talk themselves into a job at that company where no one ever gets promoted, or the company where they always have layoffs, or they apply for the job that demands they use skills they don't like using - in every case, because "it's a job".

This happens over and over and they wonder why they're not happy in this track record they've created for themselves, and how is it that others seem a lot more satisfied in their careers. So give your goals a fighting chance - don't get in their way.

2. Job search (i.e., career) success comes from trying things that are scary because they're out of your comfort zone. So, for example, I tell candidates, "Throw your hat in the ring just to SEE if it's what you want." Meaning, too often job descriptions are poorly written and it's not until the candidate is actually talking with the employer that they get the real picture of the job - and they might like it and want it far more than they did by just what the job description said in the posting. I've seen this happen more times than I can count.

3. "No one method or idea in job search is always right, no one method or idea is always wrong." So says Richard Nelson Bolles of What Color is Your Parachute? fame. It's true.

4. Sometimes in job search, it's a certain, concrete, predictable step that's next. But often job search is "You'll make it up as you go along". In other words, sometimes it's a science, and even more of the time, it's an art.

Putting it another way: Sometimes you can see the job search "road" clearly ahead for miles. But as E.L. Doctorow said about writing, job search is "like driving at night in the fog - you can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way".

5. The search is something you have to do for yourself - a coach or recruiter or marketing company or parent can't do it for you, regardless of whether you are Gen X, Y, Z, or boomer. Like driving or managing your finances, it's a skill you need to develop because you'll be using it again. And while parts of it will remain the same, parts will change.

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Thoughts? What "truths" have YOU experienced in your search? Please comment!

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in career change, Career coaching, career shift, Change, Don't settle, Job Search, job search strategy, | 4 Comments »