Job Hunting Chronicles

Happy Sunday 📰  Welcome to another edition of Sunday Snippets. As someone who spent more than 2.5 years looking for a job, I'm offering some tips that may help you get a job, or at least an interview. This is not professional advice, just some things you may want to think about. Today's tip: set a schedule for your job search and (try to) follow it 🧭 When I was looking for a job, I tended to start early in the morning and tried to get it wrapped up by lunchtime. That way, I could leave time for other things that needed to be done: appointments (doctor, dentist, vet, etc.), grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, the list goes on. If I was thinking about my job search all the time (scrolling through job ads and continually refreshing my email, to name two somewhat mindless activities), I felt like nothing was getting done - I wasn't getting interviews AND life around the house needed attention.  Setting job search hours helped create boundaries between my professional and per...

Happy Sunday 📰  Last week, I started a series called Sunday Snippets where I share tips that may help job seekers in their job search. This is not professional advice, just some things that I did that may help others find a job (or at least get an interview). Today's tip: Apply thoughtfully - think quality over quantity 💎/🔢 For me, it was more important to apply to jobs that both interested me and that I was well qualified for, not log a certain number of applications each week. Some weeks were slow but that was ok, other weeks usually made up for the lag. Hang in there job seekers 🧗‍♀️ #TodaysTip #SundaySnippets #JobHuntingChronicles

Happy Thursday 📰 If you know me well, you know I'm a big believer in the gratitude jar. I've kept one for more than a decade and I know it's helped change the way I think (and see things) for the better. I get the current job market is brutal. As a Gen X-er who had been looking for a job for more than 2.5 years, there were definitely times that I doubted I would ever find anything. But I kept freelancing, kept thoughtfully applying to jobs (not mass-applying), and kept writing down one thing each night before I went to bed that I was thankful for (or one good thing that happened that day). And finally, I found a job. Did my gratitude jar make a job appear? Of course not, but it did help me keep a positive mindset even in the face of adversity. I've seen quite a few job seekers on LinkedIn ranting about not being able to find a job. Ranting about companies that don't know what they're looking for. Ranting about interviewers who don't know what they're...

Happy Sunday 📰  An acquaintance asked if I could give him some tips on how to get a job and the truth is, I really can't. I can tell you some things that I did that may or may not have helped, but this job market is brutal and what worked for me, may not work for you. But with his request in mind, I decided to start a series called Sunday Snippets. As time permits, each Sunday I'll post one short tip that may help in your job search. This is not professional advice, just some things I did that you may find helpful. Today's tip: have a strong resume 📄 I never tailored my resume to a job description that I was applying to, 1) because I had no evidence that it worked, and 2) I didn't feel it was worth spending the time doing that. Plenty of people will tell you the opposite and in the end, it comes down to each person's choice. But here's the thing about rewriting your resume for each job you apply to: you have to remember which resume you submitted so that if yo...

Happy Tuesday (night) 📰 Tonight I was messaging with a friend who's been looking for a job for a couple of years and like many others, she's having no luck 🫤 I wish I had the answer to finding a job in this market but I don't (at some point I may post how I got my current job, I haven't decided yet). Some advice I can offer is this: 🔹️ apply thoughtfully (I know it seems like it's a numbers game and eventually yours has to come up, but applying to positions you're not qualified for is a waste of your time) 🔹️ have a strong resume, but don't rewrite it for every position you apply for (somewhere along the way, job seekers were convinced that their resume had to match the job description in order to get past AI - I have no idea if that's true but I do know if you change your resume to match a JD, you're going to have trouble talking about the work you've done because it's not genuine) 🔹️ set a schedule for your job search and follow it (do...

#MerryMonday 📰  One of my page-a-day calendars usually has a gratitude prompt on the last day of the month. I'm a big believer in the gratitude jar and I like to post these kinds of things to help others see the good they have. Yes, I know it's tough right now, especially if you're looking for a job, but if you start to look for the good, you may find it 🌸 What's one good thing that happened to you in August? I'll go first: I started a new W-2 job 💻 #DailyGratitude