taking charge™

If you don't want to be dependent on resumes and recruiters and applying for jobs- the old, has been, don't work strategies, what do you do?

Know what makes you special.

Know what growing businesses need your special value.

Find a way to be introduced to the decision maker at the businesses who need your special value.

Is this hard?  

Yes.  Freedom always is.  

But wouldn't you love to stop living in fear and start taking charge of your career?

This holiday weekend, while enjoying barbecues, pool parties, parades, family reunions, and all the other wonderful traditions of Independence Day weekend, connect with your friends and family.  Ask them about their careers.  Ask them how you can help.   

The first step to career freedom?  Helping others.

Happy Independence Day!

Are you taking a lot of heat these days?  From your spouse, your significant other, your parents, your siblings, maybe even a bossy old friend?  

Are they asking you lots of questions like "How many resumes did you send out this week?" 

Or, "how many jobs have you applied to?"

Maybe they're telling you that you should be working full time, sending out resumes and applying for jobs.

They're right about one thing, you should dedicate as much time as you can to your job search.  

Beyond that don't listen.  Run.  Don't walk.  Do not pass go.   If you listen to them, you will never collect $200.

There is a lot of hard work in a job search.   But why on earth would you keep sending resumes and job applications into the ether, hoping for a response, some sign of life out there.  

Spend your time doing the hard work of a job search.  It just doesn't involve sending out resumes and applying for jobs.

If resumes and recruiters can't help you, why not apply for jobs?

First of all, are they real jobs?  Some companies post jobs on job boards, but they haven't funded the job, they aren't sure they won't hire from within, or they just haven't decided whether to fire the person currently in the job yet.

Secondly, why spill your life story to an anonymous company?  How do you customize your experience and interest when you don't know the name of the company to which you are applying?  You can't.  So don't.

Thirdly, remember what we've said about resumes.  Thousands of them for each posted job.   Same with applications.   Thousands.  For every posted job.  

Do you like being lost in the crowd?  Do you think that your fabulous answers in an online form will jump off the screen and make the recruiter fall in love with you?  Think again.

Online dating may work, (although think about all those stories about people who say they're one thing and they're not), but online job applications don't.

You want the hiring manager to fall in love with your captivating personality.  Filling out a job application isn't captivating.  

What are job postings good for?  Due diligence on possible target companies.  Use those posting boards to learn who is hiring, and in what departments and in what cities.   Are they hiring an SVP, a VP, and Directors in the same department?  They're cleaning house in that department.   Are they hiring above, or below, your preferred job level?  Good to know.  Job postings are super valuable intelligence.  Just don't go and apply to one.   

You wouldn't order a mail order bride would you?  Why apply for a job site-unseen?

I have met a lot of women who believe in fairy tales.  Grown women.  Successful women.  Intelligent women.

They believe in Prince Charming.  They can see him, on his white horse, looking fabulous, sweeping in, and rescuing them.   

I know even more men and women who believe in the job search fairy tale.  Grown men and women. Successful men and women.  Intelligent men and women.

They believe in Prince (or Princess) Charming.  They can see him (or her), on his (or her) white horse, sweeping in, and rescuing them.  Giving them the perfect job.   

What is Prince Charming's name?  The recruiter.

One problem.  Fairy tales are for children.  Not for job searches.

Recruiters are paid to help employers find the ideal person for a specific job with very specific requirements.  

Do you have 25 of the 20 requirements that the hiring manager has dreamed up for their ideal candidate? That's not a typo.  I said 25 out of 20 requirements.  If you aren't more than perfect, the job is history.  The glass slipper just broke.

Recruiters are not paid to help you find your ideal job, or any job at all.   

They aren't a match maker.  Their website doesn't say, come to me, and I will hand you the perfect job, on a silver platter and you won't have to lift a finger.  

Stop believing in fairy tales.  Start taking charge.

A long time ago, in a far away land there was an actuary.   The actuary was very good at being an actuary.  He landed all his jobs through a headhunter (aka recruiter).   He believed in the headhunter.  He knew the headhunter got his income from employers, and would only "present" him to one employer at a time.  But, he believed the headhunter was looking out for him.  He had never not gotten a job through the headhunter.

Decades later he tells his adult children, find a recruiter.  If you aren't talking to recruiters, you're not looking for a job.

Oops!  Daddy doesn't always know best.  Now, perhaps in highly specialized fields, like actuarial science, law, medicine, there are inside track recruiters who are your best path to your next job.  

But, for the rest of us?   Who do you want in charge of find your next job?  You, or a recruiter who gets paid by an employer for finding the employer's perfect candidates?

Should you ignore calls from recruiters?  Of course not.  Should you do everything you can to help them, introducing them to possible candidates?  Of course.   Some day, that recruiter just might have the needle in a haystack perfect fit client with the perfect job with your name written all over it.

Until then...

Start taking charge.