Job Search Fundamentals

Looking for work

The competitive nature of securing work. Many experts in the Job Search Training profession agree that too many people do not fully realize the competitive nature of securing work. Competition is obvious if you are in the midst of a basketball game for example but in a very real sense the sport on job hunting is just as competitive. For every position open only one person will win that position. As long as what you do in your job search is ethical, legal and done in good taste you are allowed to do it.

Liberty in securing work

You have greater freedom to look for work than you are probably taking advantage of. Let me share some examples from people that I have talked with. One man’s story went as follows. There was a construction job eight miles away from his home that he wanted to work at. To get that job he went to the job site to talk to the supervisor every day for three weeks, an opening became available and he was offered the job.

Everything else being equal who would you hire? The man that was there every day for three weeks or the man that showed up twice in a three-week period.

Another person I spoke with told me that while she was already employed she contacted an employer every week for three months by either calling or visiting the office speaking to the receptionist and various people having the authority to hire her. An opening became available and she was the first person that was considered for the position and was hired.

In another story a man told me how a friend of his got a job with a large manufacturing company in our area. He had done all of the traditional things he could do such as filing out an application and attaching a resume and he knew a few people in the company that let him know when openings became available etc. One day he went to this company and spoke to the receptionist and said, “I notice that there is a lot of trash that has built up around your buildings. Twice a week I am going to pick up the trash and put it in your dumpster. I just needed to let you know that I am doing this to show how much I want to go to work for you, that I do not expect to get paid for this and to make sure you don’t call the police on me.” Now this was a very large operation and meant many hours of time and effort each week. He did this for three weeks then was hired.

The last story comes from a man that was so inspired by these true stories that the last time I saw him, he told me this story: “Today I went to a fence company looking for work and noticed the semi-truck being unloaded by a crew of men. I decided to help. I worked very hard for about 20 minutes when the supervisor came to me and asked me, ‘When did you get hired on here?’ I told him that I was not employed here and I was demonstrating how much I wanted to go to work. I had a conversation with the supervisor that lasted about twenty-five minutes. He was very impressed with what I had done and although he had a full crew for the job they were unloading the truck for, he said that he would be in touch with me in the future.” That is the last time I saw him. Now I don’t know if he got a job there but I do know that with that kind of effort and attitude it would not be long until he would get hired.

I gave you these examples to demonstrate just how free the individual is to look for work. Some of these examples may seem extreme to you but I use them to make the point that you have a great deal of freedom in securing work. Remember, as long as what you do in your job search is ethical, legal and done in good taste you are allowed to do it.

There are so many ways to jump ahead of the competition it’s not even funny

Most people look for work in very traditional ways. They do not realize just how much freedom they have in looking for work. They do not look at job searching as an entrepreneurial activity. You can be different. You can have an entrepreneurial spirit toward looking for work.

Getting good at looking for work

It is my firm belief that if most people were as good at securing work as they were at performing their jobs that they would not be unemployed nearly as long. Realize that you may have to gain new knowledge and skills.

This means you will have to face the dreaded learning curve. That is you may start out with very little knowledge and skill, not perform well and experience the anxiety that goes with it. Don’t get upset over this. This is the same thing you have experienced every time you had to gain new knowledge, skill and experience.

Let me emphasize that it will take experience. It does not matter how much knowledge and instruction I would have received in learning to drive a standard shift vehicle. I would have gotten the same results when I got in the vehicle for the first time. The first time almost everyone will have a little grinding of the gears and a little hiccupping when starting out in first gear. But guess what, after a little while, once I reached a certain level of mastery, driving a standard shift was no big deal. The same goes for looking for work.

The nature of securing work

You must realize the very nature of the task you are faced with. Most of us accomplish tasks in a very different situation than this. We work and as we work we see that the task is being accomplished. We are given immediate reinforcement for our efforts. This is not true at all in the task of looking for work. It is much more like being an outside sales person selling very expensive equipment who only makes two to three sales a year. When he gets paid he is paid a large commission. He works for months with no sign of results, no reinforcement for his efforts.

Many people become very discouraged in their job search because when they do not see immediate results. They don’t know that it is the very nature of what they are dealing with. Remember that looking for work is very much an entrepreneurial venture.

Mark K. Rovell Sr.