How Not to Find a Job (It’s Easy)

Newly released information from the U.S. Department of Labor continues to paint a grim picture about the job market. In October, 190,000 more jobs were lost and the national unemployment rate rose to 10.2 percent.

Most people are aware of how tight the job market is—those who haven’t lost their job in this recession have seen friends or colleagues lose theirs. But a new survey from Robert Half International, a staffing services firm that concentrates on accounting and finance positions, suggests that many workers are not prepared to undertake a job search should they find themselves out of work. Though 8 out of 10 respondents said if they lost their job tomorrow they would be ready to begin looking for a new position, surprisingly 44% hadn’t revised their resume in more than a year.

Reesa Staten, Senior VP of Robert Half, advises that you should keep your resume current. The longer you go without updating it, the more likely you will not be able to recall all of your key accomplishments you want to highlight in your resume.  She has a great suggestion: have a ‘personal personnel file’ where you catalog your achievements so you can periodically, and accurately, update your resume.

Robert Half has teamed up with Upwardly Mobile, Inc. (www.UpMo.com) to create an online tool to assess how prepared you are to get out there and look for a new job. And it’s just not for those who may become unemployed. You want to be prepared to take advantage of opportunities for advancement you find in your company or another one. They call the tool The Job-Hunt Readiness Evaluator; you can access it at www.rhi.com/jobhuntreadiness.

Attending job fairs can help you jump start your job search.  Job seekers not only are able to network with potential employers, but they can learn how to make themselves more marketable in this competitive job environment.

Recently CareerBuilder, which has the largest online job site in the U.S., and University of Phoenix, the largest private university in North America, held a Career Makover Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina. A similar event will be held in Chicago on Tuesday, December 8. In what they termed career retooling sessions, experts advised job seekers how to prepare a resume to help them stand out from the crowd, and how to prepare for interviews.

They coached job seekers on how to convey the right image during interviews, and how to make sure your resume is consistent with that image. Another important tool for job seekers is their professional network, and these days social networking websites can be great means to build your network.  A great tip they offered was that you need to have different versions of your resume ready so you can position yourself to be a good fit to different employer’s needs.

You may even want to have a video resume ready to give prospective employers. This can give you an added competitive edge: you can show qualities that do not show up on a paper resume–your enthusiasm, your energy level, sincerity and “winning” personality.

It easy to not find a new job: Don’t have your resume up to date. Don’t hone your interview skills. Don’t have a network in place to alert you about new positions. In other words, don’t be prepared.

Even when the economy rebounds and the job market is again robust, it’s still sound career planning to be ready to take advantage of opportunities that arise. You’ll always have other strong candidates competing against you.

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