Let’s face it: job searching can be a lonely business. Like model builders, or mimes, job seekers spend a significant proportion of their time in isolation. (Though, mimes and model builders are driven to two different sorts of isolation, I’d imagine.) Sat awkwardly on a moderately comfortable economically-priced swivel chair, elbows dug into the desk in front of him, arched forward, the dim light of his computer monitor reflecting off his face—creating soft halo of light around his head—can be found the job seeker. At some point, we are all this person, sitting quietly behind a desk at home or in a coffee shop, staring penetratingly into the screen in front of us, eyes searching line after line of text.
Of course, as I suggest above, job searching can be a lonely business. Job searching doesn’t have to be a lonely business. If you see yourself in the rather grimly colored portrait I paint above, realize this: a job search is something that should be conducted outside of isolation—without the slate blue painted walls of your dining room.
Here are a few tips, each of which is intended help open the eyes of the weary job seeker to the vast resources—human and online—available to him. Ultimately, the discovery of these job search resources resources requires that he approach his job search not as something pursued in isolation, but a team sport (of sorts).
- Friends and family. The application process is not a level playing field, so why treat it like one? Although it is important to temper any impulse to exploit friends and family by remembering that they do not exist solely to indulge each of your whims and fancies, through your friends and family you have potentially and innumerable number of professional contacts available to you. An endless number of professional networks, each of which have discernible points of contact—like an endless string of interconnected spider’s webs.
- Recruiters. Although I do not have much to say about recruiters (or, at least, anything more than has been said previously on the Career Services Blog) it is important to underscore the relative importance of ‘rubbing elbows’ in a job search. Searching for a job is a bit like a marketing campaign. While word of mouth advertising campaigns are nice, blanketing potential consumer with propagandistic adverts—passing out your resume and speaking with recruiters at network events and career fairs—seems like a more effective and economical means of getting your product out.”
- Online resources. Admittedly, the process of distinguishing between reliable and untrustworthy online resources can be somewhat headache inducing. Remember the three R’s: research; referrals; and read.
- Research: Investigate each of the resources you use—the fact that very few (reputable) websites link to the resource may be a cause for concern. The Career Services website provides lists of reputable resources, categorized by tool, and sponsored by our institution, which include outside resources for Veterans, General resources, and then Disability resources.
- Referrals: While one ought not to blindly believe what others say, the value of any given resource is tied to its relative merit—whether users find it useful or beneficial. In short, explore those resources to which you are referred, and then decide whether you find them useful (i.e. whether your valuation of the resource is congruent with how others have valued it).
- Read! Carefully read career blogs, visit career-oriented website. Career gurus are fanatical about new career-related resources, information about which often dominates their writing. Just remember, however, if a resource seems fishy, or the advice seems less than apt, it probably is!
- Your university career services office and website. Aside from a career website that boasts a rather large inventory of reliable online career resources, your career services office has an invested interest in ensuring that you do not have to face the perils of the job application process alone. Whether you are seeking some friendly advice, or a responsive ear, or a second set of eyes to review your resume and cover letter, contact us!
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