PART I
The Psychology of Job Hunting in a Down Market
1.
Yes, The Job Market Is BadâReally Bad!
As of this writing, the United States is experiencing its worst economy since the Great Depression. The stock market just had the largest one-day drop in history and fluctuates wildly based on the daily economic news, which seems to get increasingly worse. Investors have already lost more than 7 trillion dollars, and the shockwaves of the credit crunch are reverberating across the country and around the globe.
Governments are being forced to bail out entire industries and invest directly into financial institutions to keep them afloat. Our very notions of government agencies and private businesses are in the process of being redefined.
Millions of U.S. citizens canât pay their mortgages or are actually losing their homes with an unprecedented number of foreclosures and bankruptcies. Parents canât pay their childrenâs tuition bills. Entire retirement funds are being decimated on Wall Street.
The job market is weaker than it has been in 80 years. The U.S. recession has claimed more than 4 million jobs to date. More than 4 million jobs have been lost in a one-year period. One hundred forty-five thousand positions were recently eliminated in just one week, with nearly 650,000 jobs lost within one month. Unemployment continues to expand with more layoffs and downsizings. As the economy shrinks, debt soars, and the headlines proclaim one financial meltdown after another. Worst of all, it seems that no oneâs hiring!
Perhaps most startling of all, the United Nationâs International Labor Organization estimates that the current financial crisis will add at least 20 million people to the worldâs unemployed, bringing the total to 210 million by the end of 2009.
So let me be clear: if youâre feeling that something is very, very wrong with your quest to take charge of your career, find a job you love, and earn what you deserve, youâre right. But itâs not your fault. We are in the middle of a perfect storm, and itâs almost surely going to get worse before it gets better.
2.
Itâs Okay to Feel Frustrated, Depressed, Afraid, Helpless, or Disoriented
No one knows whatâs going to happen next. For working people everywhere, these are very challenging times indeed. Everyone is concerned, even those who still have jobs. Some folks are terrified, especially those who have been out of work for a while.
If youâre feeling frustrated, depressed, afraid, helpless, or disoriented, youâre certainly not alone.
These reactions are understandable and to be expected. If youâre feeling frustrated, depressed, afraid, helpless, or disoriented, youâre certainly not alone. You might even feel angry or victimized. Perhaps youâre saying things to yourself such as, âThis shouldnât be happening to me! I got a good education. I worked hard. I always did the right thing, and I donât deserve this. I never thought Iâd be in this situation. Maybe this is what happens to other people, but not me!â
Sound familiar? This is what Iâve been hearing from many of my career coaching clients in recent months. Itâs like a nightmare that weâre all hoping to awaken from. Quite candidly, several clients have spent their recent career coaching sessions crying, and my office has been going through a box of tissues every few days. Believe me, I get it!
My clients need comfort and reassurance. My guess is that you do, too. So, let me tell you the same things Iâve been telling my clients. Itâs okay to have all of the reactions listed earlier and any other emotions you might be experiencing. Thereâs nothing wrong with you, and you didnât do anything to bring this fate upon yourself. Youâre still a good person, and you still have all of the qualities, experiences, and credentials you had before. Although it may be difficult to believe right now, this awful employment situation will come to an end, and your career will get back on trackâeventually.
This awful employment situation will come to an end, and your career will get back on track.
3.
This Has Happened Before, and It Will Happen Again
How do I know youâll get back on track? Because Iâve been working as a career coach for many years, and my practice has gone through several economic downturns. Through it all, Iâve helped thousands of people take charge of their careers, find jobs they love, and earn what they deserve. So hereâs a question for you: Given how difficult things are now, how do you want to react, and what do you want to do to improve your career situation?
I firmly believe that you have a choice and that the choice you make will determine the outcomes of your job search. Some people will panic and sit on the sidelines, waiting for the situation to change. Others will remain in a state of denial, acting as though world events canât affect them. Still others will assess the employment situation for what it is, and then do whatever it takes to rise above their circumstances and create success.
Whatâs needed is action, and you donât have to take on the challenge alone. All of the help, support, tools, and resources you need are available to you. Itâs up to you to find and take advantage of them. This book offers you a lifeline. If youâre willing to adopt a new attitude, shift your assumptions, step a bit outside of your comfort zone, try a few new behaviors, and use some new toolsâyou will get the job you want, even when no oneâs hiring.
4.
Why Your Chances Are Better Than You Think
It may have been more accurate to entitle this book âGet the Job You Want, Even When You Think No Oneâs Hiring.â Thatâs because itâs a false assumption to say that âno oneâs hiring,â regardless of how bad the economy and job market may seem. The fact is that every company is hiring all the time, if you can offer precisely what they need when they need it.
The fact is that every company is hiring all the time, if you can offer precisely what they need when they need it.
Iâm not talking about job openings that are posted on company web sites or on Internet job boards. Iâm not even talking about positions that are represented by executive recruiters. When it seems that no oneâs hiring, it is important not to focus just on job openings. There will be few publicly posted opportunities, and the competition for those few openings will be fierce.
Instead, you should work on identifying the particular needs, problems, and challenges that companies face during a serious market downturn. If you can demonstrate to the employer how you would address their issues successfullyâand in the process make their company more productive, efficient, or profitableâyouâll be able to land a good job in any economy. Of course, this approach requires that you take full responsibility for your own career, and that you learn to sell your value in a compelling way. But this approach can also liberate you from the fear of facing unemployment every time the job market shrinks.
So, keep a close watch on your own assumptions. Study this book, and implement all of the strategies Iâve outlined for you. While others are sitting on the sidelines, convinced that there are no good jobs to be had, youâll be out there getting the job you want. Rather than feeling helpless, youâll regain your sense of empowerment and control. What a relief!
5.
The Number-One Secret to Job Search Success
What you are about to read, study, and work on should be taught in schools. But itâs not. We go through 12 years of education, possibly four more years of college, and sometimes even two to four more years of graduate school, and not one day is spent on how to manage your career, find work you truly enjoy, and make sure youâre well compensated for it. Not one day!
Employers should teach this material, too. Itâs to every employerâs advantage to make sure that their people are proactively managing their careers, are doing work theyâre well-suited for, and are equipped to perform at their full potential. But, of course, they donât teach these secrets and strategies either. Not even one day is spent teaching employees these vital skills!
Once you understand and start to use these secrets, youâll have a powerful advantage at every point in your career. This is not just a book to help you get your next job (although it will certainly do that). Itâs a resource to help you always get the right job and manage your career in a much more effective wayâeven in the toughest job market, even during a financial meltdown, and even when no oneâs hiring.
This insiderâs handbook shows you all of the things that are absolutely necessary to know and that should have been taught in school or by your employerâbut werenât.
You might be asking, âWhere did all of this material come from, and why should I buy into it?â After working at three of the nationâs largest career consulting companies for almost 15 years, I saw the need for a new approachâan approach that would combine the methods and resources of large outplacement firms with the personal attention and flexibility of small career counseling practices. This new concept became my proprietary, five-phase career success process called Career PotentialSMâa process that consistently produces outstanding job search results.
Would you like to know the number-one secret of how to get a job when no oneâs hiring? Would you like to know the keyâand sometimes the onlyâdifference between people who are out of work for three months and three years? Itâs simple: Mind-set comes before skill set.
Want proof? In addition to the hundreds of frontline folks and mid-level managers Iâve worked with, Iâve also worked with dozens of very senior executives who earn high six-figure salaries. Regardless of the economy, regardless of the unemployment statistics from the federal government, and regardless of how tough the media keeps saying the job market is, these high flyers are rarely out of work for more than a few months.
Mind-set comes before skill set.
Is it because they are more qualified than most? No. Have better job skills? No. Savvier networking strategies? No. Is it because theyâre smarter? No. Better connected? No. More employable? No, itâs not that either. The reason that many of my senior executive clients land jobs when no oneâs hiring is that they expect to get a job when no oneâs hiring. Their belief system is 100 percent wired to support their success: mindset comes before skill set.
The same thing applies to you! No matter where you are in your career and no matter what your salary level, if you have the right mindset, youâll accelerate your job search and elevate yourself over other candidates in all sorts of tangible and intangible ways. The book youâre holding in your hands right now provides you with both the mindset and skill set to take charge of your career, find a job you love, and earn what you deserve. It was created to be the only book youâll need to get you through this employment crisis, and to help you navigate successfully through the rest of your career.
Starting right this moment, you have access to all of the same secrets, strategies, tips, and tools that I share with my executive clients who pay premium coaching fees for this privileged information. Iâm confident that, by leveraging all of this material to the fullest extent, youâll produce the same kind of breakthrough career results that my clients do.
6.
Tough Times Highlight the Difference Between Your Job and Your Career
For decades, people thought that doing their jobâand doing it wellâwas sufficient to ensure long-term career success, plenty of financial reward, and job security well into the future. Here is what that picture looked like:
In this model, managing your career was only a tiny piece of the pictureâsomething that rarely came into play. You would only think ...