O vercoming Your Worst Job Search Enemy

1. Overcoming Your Worst Job Search Enemy Overcoming your worst Tuesday, January 22, 2013

2. You are your worst job search enemy. (Sorry it’s not more glamorous than this!) Money worries! This makes you feel like EVERY opportunity will financially make or break you. Regardless of the outcome of a single job search, you are no worse off then you were before you applied. Most of us identify ourselves through our careers. If we are unemployed – who are we and why would anyone hire us? Maybe the worst happened. You were fired because you couldn’t do the job. Everyone fails at some point. Walt Disney was fired from The Kansas City Star because he lacked creativity and had no good ideas. He then formed Laugh-0-gram which he drove into bankruptcy before finding the right career. JK Rowling got fired as a secretary before she wrote Harry Potter (She got caught writing about a young boy wizard while at work). Build an arsenal of tools to boost your confidence – here’s one: http://www.businessinsider.com/17-people-who-were-fired-before-they-became-rich-and-famous-2012-3?op=1

3. Obstacles Can become Opportunities Finding a job is not easy. Neither is parenting or being a good spouse, or successfully dieting or doing just about anything in life that matters. Challenges include: Poor job market Biased hiring managers Tough competition: Internal candidates, and other job seekers.   Self doubt. Sometimes you can flip a reality on its head – it hasn’t changed but how you look at it has. Make two columns on a page. Title one Job Obstacle. Title the other – Job Opportunity . In the first column list your perceived obstacles in the second list ways over come them.

4. Becoming Aware of the Problem Understanding that even though outside factors can trigger insecurity and inaction, You control how you respond. “Flip a Switch.” Some days just saying this may be enough. Other days you may need your mother, your favorite Saint, and a late night comedy movie marathon to get yourself back on track. The only thing that can change and lead to finding a great job is your positive activity. And when you are stalled into inactivity you are truly your worst job search enemy. You may have bad days. But you have the control to feel better and get back on track!

5. Obstacles and Responses How can you overcome interview nerves and jitters? Focus-Authority figures scare most of us. The trick is to remember that you are no longer a dependent child but a responsible adult. Someone may approve or disapprove of your actions, but you get to choose what to do about it. Be prepared and then focus on what you’re there to accomplishand the rest is out of your control. When responding to job ads, whether in print or the internet, you know the competition. You going up against hundreds of people who are as anxious for that job as you. How can you move to the head of the line? Network. People who position themselves ahead of the crowd rely on and dedicate at least 80% of their search time to networking. Networking contacts can introduce you to decision makers who get you in the side door without your having to wait in line.

6. How to Stop Undermining Yourself Name Your Behavior Support the Positive Zero Tolerance When it comes to undermining yourself, you are both the cause and the solution. By successfully managing such behaviors, you allow yourself and others to experience your best qualities.

7. Change Identified Behaviors Things To Avoid Don’t Apply to Everything: When you apply to every single job on the internet, you make it harder on yourself and you erode your credibility.  How will you ever be able to separate the jobs you really want from the jobs you’re just applying to because you need a job. Believing You Don’t Have a Chance: If you don’t believe you have a shot, then how will you convince your interviewer?  Convince yourself that you’re fit for the role and you’ll be confident on the interview.

8. Find a Job Search Companion • It is easy to take rejection personally, doubt your own skills, and lose faith in the job application process. • Find a friend, family member (careful) or a fellow job seeker to hold you accountable is one way to counteract that. • Your job search companion will see excellence in you when you don't have much faith in yourself. If they don’t… drop them and find someone else. A good job search companion can keep you on task to reach your employment goals by cracking the whip when you don't feel motivated to keep searching. • Stop spending time with people that make you feel inferior. Surround yourself with supporters. Do something every day that makes you belly laugh!

9. Visualize Success Negative self-talk does you more damage than what anyone possibly could think or say about you. Believe that each encounter you have, each meeting, each interview, is a positive opportunity for something good to follow, and tell yourself so. If you can’t see it, you usually can’t achieve it. Believe in yourself, and say so.

10. Feedback And Relationships One of the biggest reasons job seekers and the unemployed become discouraged is because they take job rejection personally. Cut yourself a break. Of course it’s personal – TO YOU. But it isn’t to those who will hire you. Rejection from a company with which you interviewed is rarely personal. Look at this as an opportunity to build a positive new relationship. Send a polite thank-you note to employers who reject you. In the thank-you note, ask in what areas you could have improved during the interview process. Maybe you can identify what you're doing wrong, but you'll also see that these reasons are not critiques of your self-worth but based on professional considerations.

11. Don’t under-estimate your Connections When you get discouraged about your job hunting and unemployment status, your personal and past professional connections are a great source of encouragement, information and job leads. You don't need to solicit your connections for a job during these meetings, but trading information with connections and talking about your field of interest can help the discouraged feel like they're making strides toward employment by keeping abreast of industry news.

12. Avoid being Paralyzed by Procrastination In searching for jobs, there are a lot of factors that prevent you from getting an interview and getting hired, but none is bigger than procrastination. The danger of procrastination is that most people don’t recognize it. Stop The Excuses (I’ll start applying after I update my resume) The next step in overcoming procrastination is identifying and stopping the excuses. Plan If you want to stop wasting time and start your job search, then you need to plan. You want to identify a clear target of what kind of job you want. Commit After creating a solid plan for your job search, the next step is to commit. Commitment is important if you want to be successful in your job search; without it, your plan will be a waste of time and effort.

13. 5 Ways to Overcome Job-Search Frustration • Help others • When the frustration of a job search reaches your boiling point it can be helpful to focus on someone or something else. Finding ways to help other people,, can help shift your attention and awareness to the world outside your own life. • Get a nature fix • If you’re up to your eyeballs in frustration, try getting out into nature. Nature has a natural grounding effect on people. • Accept the situation • Here’s where you might be tempted to start swearing at me, especially if your frustration level is high. But the cold hard fact is that right here, right now, your reality is what it is.

14. Creating A Strategy If you are planning to find a job soon, and hope to succeed even in a struggling economy, you need a strategy for that success.  A job search without a strategy can quickly become random and non-productive. Applying for tons of jobs, following up on leads without prioritizing, lacking goals and ways to measure progress often leads a job seeker into frustration and poor results.Always remember with a strategy, progress is planned and steady, and good results follow. My favorite: Strategic Activity Begets Results.

15. Creating A Strategy- Elements Update and tailor and customize each job search Set a clear target Know what you want to do Know what you are qualified to do Always incorporate social media Learn where there is demand for your skills in the marketplace Develop thoughtful marketing materials Have a cover letter and basic format ready to customize to each opportunity Have a plan for marketing yourself using multiple channels to generate job leads NETWORK as the most effective way to discover leads Make conscious decisions about how you spend your time Allocate time to learn aboutbest job search practices Brag on paper. Fill your resume with accomplishments and achievements Immediately add new successes to resume Have a system for managing your search Track to dos, leads, contacts, resume versions Implement a step by step plan for executing including measurable goals Make a routine, setting aside space and time for new job searches

16. Humans Struggle without Structure You are employed. Your job is to get hired. Go to Work. Designate a homebased work space or go somewhere where you feel productive and connected. Applaud small successes. Celebrate larger ones publically. Fred Whelan, a partner at coaching firm Whelan Stone, tells CNN Money that job seekers and the unemployed should: "Put in an eight-hour day, every day. For now, this is your job."

17. Lacking results?Rethink Your Strategy Rethink how you plan your search Rethink how you research Rethink how you network Rethink how you use job boards Rethink how you apply for a job Rethink how you communicate with employers

18. Thought Of The Day “ The past cannot be changed, the future is still in your power. ” — Hugh White

19. Contact & Connect Connect with Gretchen via Social Media • www.twitter.com/mgdservicesinc • www.twitter.com/wired4hire • www.facebook.com/mgdservicesinc • www.facebook.com/Wired4Hire www.linkedin.com/in/mgdservices • www.twitter.com/gretchengunnmgd • www.facebook.com/gretchengunn1 • Skype: MGDServices