Career Search Strategy

In the various sales, marketing, management and executive roles I have held over the last 35 years I have been employing people for every level of jobs you can think of. And in that time, I've had literally hundreds of people come through my door.

And let me tell you something - everybody finds their next job. Despite the worry and stress; despite the economy; despite the harrowing times we find ourselves in - everybody finds their next job.

You will find your next job. Let me tell you, it is pretty unlikely that you're going to be our "Waterloo" and not find a job. Stick with us and we will see you through. What's important right now is to focus on the basics.

Apply for jobs. I wish it was as easy as just signing up and sitting back to let the offers roll in, but it's not. You need to take an active part in your search and get your information out there to as many of the thousands of Recruiters, Job Boards and HR managers as you can manage. Or use a competent and professional recruitment consultant!

Treat the job search like a job. While you already have a job, this job search is like another full-time job. Yes, I know that it's really difficult, painful and time-consuming to manage a job search, but that is the only way you are going to achieve success. Get dressed as if going to work, look in the mirror to check your appearance, and apply yourself to it. You've got an amazing background and experience and you need to let the world know about it.

You can get your CV professionally written or you can use our experience to help you. Look, if you were launching a new product at work - a new drink, a new mutual fund, a new car - would you write the advertising copy yourself? Really? Of course, you wouldn't; you would leave it to a professional CV writer or you could use the help of a professional recruitment consultant.

So why, when you are selling the most important product you'll ever sell - the next few years of your labour - are you going to let an amateur (you) write the advertising copy? A CV is a sales document, and it needs to sell you. You're too close to yourself to have the detached objectivity that is required to highlight your true strengths. And the subtleties of appealing to three different audiences - the 23-year-old HR administrator that screens CV, the professional HR person or recruiter that determines your fit, and the ultimate hiring manager - is something that you shouldn't be guessing at.

Yes, I know it can be pricey, but they're going to see your resume long before they ever see that nice new £400 suit you bought. Invest in yourself first.

Stay positive. Oh boy, don't you just love this one? Everybody tells you to keep a positive attitude, or keep your chin up, or some such. But they don't know how entirely painful this process is for you. It's such a drag to be putting yourself out there, and you can feel like a lab specimen sometimes, what with all the poking and prodding and questions.

Financial Turmoil and Your Job Prospects

 

The world came perilously close to a complete financial meltdown due to the Pandemic, and, I’m afraid, we are not completely out of danger yet.

So I’d like to briefly explain how this crisis impacts the companies you work for, even if you are far, far away from Wall Street, and then let you know how this is going to impact your job prospects in the months ahead. When large forces beyond our control determine such a large part of our destiny, the sense of uncertainty and unease grows. I hope I can help reduce some of that unease...

Well, you’ve seen the headlines. The bad bets of fancy speculators finally caught up with them, and the losses started mounting. And the problem grew as people started worrying about all sorts of investments related to the bad ones. Write-downs followed write-downs, and the financial health of many investment firms declined.

Extraordinary times, indeed.

Because this “money market” has historically been very, very, very reliable, operating companies had come to depend on it for daily financings of really mundane stuff – buying inventory, financing payables, funding payroll.

So with MMF(Money Market Fund)s draining cash, the real operating companies of the country, from the Times 250 to your local beer distributor, began to find that the funds they needed to operate their daily business were not there, or were priced with ludicrously high-interest rates. As a result, real companies, not just those on Wall Street, were facing a dire situation.

So, what does that mean for you and your job prospects?

Get prepared. If you’re looking for a job – whether you’ve been laid off, are looking for new challenges, or just anxious about the state of your company or industry – the best advice I can give is to get prepared. When economic uncertainty clouds the skies, it can lead us to feel very uncertain, and very worried about ourselves. Information and preparation are the best ways for you to reduce that feeling.

Get your CV together. I have loads of free advice on writing a CV in our Career Advice section. A professional CV really markets your skills, rather than just listing them.