Now that is Something to be Thankful For!

This is a season for giving thanks.  I for one am very thankful that all job search clients who have been actively using our services have found gainful employment.  In some cases it is not their "ideal" job, but they pay their bills, and we keep collaborating with them to find a more suitable situation.  In others it seems like the employee and the job/situation were made for one another. 

 I also am thankful that I seem to have finally kicked the sinus infection that has been harassing me for the past six weeks!  Yeah, it has been a nasty one, of course not being the best patient, I probably have helped linger longer than I should have.  Anyway, I once again seem to have my energy back, and am in the swing of things!

 Now, let's talk about some things I am not so happy about.  Recently National Public Radio's (NPR) Morning Edition™ program began a series of pieces on looking at the employment market and it’s current status. They started off with what seemed an upbeat piece of news, more employers are looking to hire, and looking to hire “experienced” candidates. [http://www.npr.org/2010/11/15/131342946/employers-pickier-about-job-applicants-skills]  Those are candidates with education, skills, and experience to be able to enter an organization and begin making a contribution-almost immediately.  The down side wasn’t far behind in that those same employers seem to be getting more demanding about formal requirements, like college degrees.

This is excluding a myriad of the currently unemployed with experience who have more than sufficient experience to have gained all and more than a college degree can offer, but because they lack that “sheepskin”, these employer’s won’t touch them.  Ironically, when the economy was strong, and orders booming, these same candidates as employees were just what the organizations needed to “meet the challenge”. 

Gaining employment via the “traditional” path is out for these suddenly “defective” (read experienced) candidates.  The NPR program actually wound up by stating that many employers seem willing to not fill positions unless they get exactly what they want.

So, my advice?  Don’t skip the traditional job market, but sure don’t invest much time and effort into it.  Better to build (and nurture if you already have one) a strong personal and professional network.  That is those relationships with other individuals you meet and interact with on a day-to-day basis. 

Your network can include personal physicians, and their staffs, barbers, beauticians, and board members.  It should also include your neighbors, family and friends and acquaintances.  Anyone you know well enough to great by name and discuss the weather with should be in your network.

We should be network (relationship) building everyday of our lives, because you never know when you might need a great mechanic, plumber, photographer, or oncologist.  Likewise, you never know when you might find yourself among the ranks of the unemployed, or underemployed, and looking for a hand up to gainful or full employment.

Never assume that just because of what a person does, or does not do for a living, or what neighborhood they live in, that they would be of no value in your network.  The man who taught me that lesson was a living example of that advice.  During one particularly long and tough, he had to run an outplacement center for 800 and place them before starting look for his own job, he stuck to his own advice.  Ironically, it was because he did not fail to maintain and nurture his relationship with his own spouse, that success came his way. 

Because his spouse was clearly and currently aware of his job hunt objectives, and status, she was able to relate them to her newborn’s first pediatrician.  This was on the baby’s first visit to the doctor when he asked “How is your husband’s job search going?” It turns out that the pediatrician was the brother of the one man in her husband’s target organization, with the decision authority over the one open position in that organization her husband was qualified for and wanted to interview for!  Small world? 

That ‘s what happens when you Network.

After weeks of how own networking, his wife accomplished what he had not.  Her husband had a two-hour appointment with the decision maker the next day.  That interview lead to him beginning work in his target job the following Monday.  Amazing?  Not if you have spent much time with true networkers, because these stories abound in the “Non-Traditional Job Market”.

So,  when was the last time you tended to the care and nurturing of your own network?  The process should begin today, and right at home.  Take time to sit down with your husband, wife or significant other, and make sure they understand your job search, your objectives, and current status. 

Don’t leave your kids.  Keeping them in the loop can help them cope with anxiety, and help you.  Your kids have their own networks and everyone in those networks has parents who work somewhere-perhaps the somewhere you want to work, too!

Now that you think about it, that really is something to be thankful for!!!