Job Search 101 - Getting Hired in Today's "New" Job Market

This series of posts discusses the life process of seeking employment.  If your situation is of an emergency nature (ie; you are unemployed, being hounded by bill collectors, and are about to be evicted) you should refer to the post title “Job Search ER”.  However, assuming this is not the case, please read on. – J. Lee Wiles

A lot gets written these days about the job market, and how to get hired.  Advice abounds from any number of sources and not all of it agrees.  So how do you decide what to do? 

Well, first you have to know what your true objective is, and to define your basic core values.  Without knowing what your objective is, you can find yourself flitting all over the map trying to cover as many bases, and as much ground, as possible in the hope something will happen for you.  Starting a job search without a clear objective is like starting a journey and not having a destination in mind-the trip might be interesting, but it can be tiring, expensive, and in the end you will wind up making little or no progress towards your real goal(s).

So what should your objective be?  No one can define that, but you.  There is no one “right” objective when it comes to jobs.  Your age, education, gender, experience, and current situation all come to play in defining what your objective will be.  Also, important will be your core, or basic values-what’s important to you and perhaps more importantly, what is not.  Only once you have defined these, can you get a clear picture of what your objective is, and where your destination lies.

The process begins with an honest self-evaluation.  Too many of us only learn who we really are, and what we really want late in life, often so late it is too late to do much of anything about it.  That said, it is never too late to engage in the self-evaluation process.  While you may not have enough time, or resources to achieve all of your goals, or perhaps your biggest goals, the sooner you stop wasting time, effort and resources on actions that run counter to your interests and objectives, the more satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment you will find in your life.