Job Search Advice, Resume Writing Tips from a Career Consultant

If your head hurts, your muscles ache and the thought of sending out one more resume sends you in a state of panic you might be suffering from job search flu. While we are offered a million ways to live a healthy life-style, few remedies are provided to cure an ailing job search. Check out these symptoms and remedies:

• Job Search Couch Potato - Perhaps this should be called a desk potato or screen potato. This job seeker waits for the job to come to him. Oh he applies on line, posting to job boards and blasting to recruiters (we do advocate these!) and complains because he has no hits. Like a stately royal, the couch potato waits for others to approach him. Then he gets depressed.
  
  Remedy- Use every method of communication. Get on the phone and get out of the house! The more folks who see you and hear you, the quicker will be your recovery... a job offer. The very computer upon which you're reading this should simply be one tool. Don't hide behind it!
  
  
• Drive Though Job Seeker - Much like walking through the snow barefoot, expecting a fast hire is a sure way to catch the job search flu. Job seekers, especially those who normally control their teams and make business decisions, have a difficult time when they realize that decision makers not only determine who gets hired but when 2nd interviews occur and when/if you find out that you're no longer under consideration. To be blunt, job offers are not like to come at your convenience!
  
  Remedy- Never stop searching and wait for any company to make a decision on you. Take charge of your job search and move on! The healthy job seeker knows that the more irons he has in the fire, the better chance a job offer will come... and come more quickly. We can't control the speed at which a company decides upon us but we can control the momentum and persistence of our search.

# posted by Janice Worthington, MA, CPRW, JCTC, CEIP @ 7:07 AM