The Formal Recruitment Process - Does it work for you?

Signs that the normal recruitment process doesn't work for you:

• Your job search last longer than 3 months.
• You haven't received any requests for interviews in over a month.
• You get automated rejection emails before the job posting has even closed.
• You actually think that someone is going to call you 30 days after you submitted your application.

I could write more signs but I think you get the point. The point is that the formal recruitment process isn't for everyone. It is a process that has a specific recipe for success. Some people learn the recipe by working with a seasoned career coach. Others learn the recipe through trial and error. And still, others just have that "it factor" and are blessed to have the skills to communicate it in a way that put their resume at the front of the pile.

So what do you do if the formal recruitment process doesn't work for you? Seek help from a competent career coach asap! You can't appreciate the value of a career coach until you have wasted months on a dead-end job search. And those months have a cost because each month that you remain unemployed or underemployed is costing you money. It is much better to carefully evaluate the opportunity cost of not paying for the services of a career coach. The money you lose by pursuing a recruitment process that is not working for you far outweighs the investment you would pay a career coach.

There are many reasons why the formal recruitment process isn't working for you. But clearly you don't know those reasons or you wouldn't still be job searching after 6 months. So do the smart thing and pay the career coach their worth! As they say in the legal field, "he who represents himself has a fool for a client".

There's Value in the Rejections - Part 1

If you have ever had a prolonged job search, then you know all too well that rejections are part of the game. You can't go into the recruitment game without preparing for rejection. Recruitment and Rejections are the Yin and Yang of the job search nexus. If someone is recruited, then it stands to reason that a whole lot of someones had to be rejected. So what should you do? Do you get gun shy and stop applying to jobs? Or do you stop reaching out to contacts in hopes of getting a job referral?

Well, to put a spin on a popular commercial from Priceline, "Failure, is just success that hasn't happened yet." I say that to emphasize the fact that you gain a lot of value from the rejections you receive in your job search. Each rejection is like a Master Class in what you need to do in order to improve your odds at success on your next application or interview.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." - Lao Tzu
 

"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before." - Jacob Riis

Think of any job search that doesn't result in the outcome you desire as practice and training on how to improve each successive application. It's like a ball player working to perfect his shot, or a golf player working to perfect his swing. Make your own definitions for success in how you measure your job search outcomes. Is getting an offer the only measure for success? Celebrate the small things too! What if you get a response to your application and are contacted for a phone screen? Even if you don't go any further in the job search process, you still have something that you can build upon. If you continue to work hard at your craft and find ways to reinvent how you communicate your brand, you will eventually get the outcome you desire in your job search.

This is Part 1 of the Value in the Rejection. More to come soon!