Advice on Finding a New Job

I read an interesting article in yesterday's New York Times on how job applicants can cover-up a "job-hopping" history.  I just don't understand why it would matter.

Aren't all the rules pretty much moot by now? 

We're talking about a tsunami wave of employment seekers...thousands more anointed every nanosecond, or so it seems.  They're competing for a shrinking list of available job descriptions, and whatever career paths used to connect one to the other have gone the way of the Dodo bird.

So employers are going to be worried that a candidates changed jobs in the past?  Isn't that kind of like being disappointed that a would-be immigrant at Ellis Island used to live in a foreign country?   

You could just as easily reason that a would-be employee who hasn't changed jobs more than once -- in other words, he or she just got evicted from a comfy corporate la la world -- perhaps doesn't possess the skills required to keep a job in the new reality.

This also brings into question the concept of "personal branding," about which a fellow dim bulber asked my opinion a few days ago.

The job help racket seems to be thriving these days, and the Internet is clogged with epistles about envisioning the job you want 3 years from now and rules for branding yourself.  Etc.  I think most of it is probably as out-of-date as the New York Times article.

We're not as unique as we'd hope our life experiences or Moms would suggest. 

I don't care if you did time in the Peace Corps, had a giant title before you were old enough to drink, can sing the national anthem backwards, or whatever.  In this economy, there are dozens, if not thousands, of job seekers who pretty much claim the identically similar differences.  You can waste your time massaging your past, or imagining your ideal future, but it's just so much wordsmithing on your PC.  Nobody cares.

The one variable that could make a difference, and that’s in your control, is now.  Present tense. 

Act. Do things.  Find a company and consult for them, free if that's what it takes.  Work for your place of worship, or favorite community service.  Take a class, develop a hobby, and do just about anything else that 1) legitimately interests you, and 2) gets you off your email/Blackberry, and interacting out in the real world with real people.

Don't be looking for a job guy; be the I'm doing interesting things guy. 

Think about it.  Looking isn't doing something, it's just waiting only in a more politically-correct way.  But nobody likes dealing with someone who needs something. Your "personal brand" is only as unique (or real) as what you're doing with your life today, not how you massage your past, or profundicate about your future.

Now how does this help you find a job? 

Well, for starters, if you're busy doing things that matter to you/reward you, you're not only unique but you're also interesting.  You have some things to talk about other than your need for a job.  Whatever things you're doing now might suggest to you 1) people with whom you want to network, and 2) a reason to contact them, other than to beg for their help on your job search. 

It might also help you better define the behaviors you want to engage in vs. the inert, static job description you otherwise might have thought you wanted.  It's good practice at making your life meaningful, as it's more than likely you're going to be out of a job again sometime in the future.  Maybe a lot of times.  So start defining your "brand" by doing the things you like to do, not dreaming of some job description that would give them to you.

Finally, there's a good chance that whatever personal branding, job seeker nonsense process you might read about online, there are a zillion other people reading, and ready to follow, the same process.  Doing what you're supposed to do will land you right in the middle of the pack of all the other people doing exactly the same things. 

So I come back to variables again: what can be truly different, and something that you own, is how you spend the rest of the hours you have today, and then tomorrow, etc. 

Your best opportunities may emerge from some activity that you could never have expected to yield a result.  Don't waste your time trying to predict payoffs. 

Give to the Universe, in a macro-cosmic way, and in lots of little, everyday moments.

Skip wasting your time trying to get it to do something for you.

Comments

[Paul Copcutt]

Jonathan

Given your position, book (which I am thoroughly enjoying currently) and general feelings towards brands, personal branding is probably not the term that is going to make you jump up and down with excitement as to the benefits for the active job seeker.

I concur with much of your post. In my experience the challenge for the active, unemployed job seeker is that the 'personal branding' process is too in depth to get them where they want to be in the next 4 weeks- i.e. employed - so they tend to follow the herd mentality and take snippets of the personal branding process - i.e. the more visible ones and go with it and zillions of others may well be doing similar.

Some personal brand promises I have seen are nothing more than these pieces. However key parts of the foundation work that some of us do is in helping clients get clear on passions and values - which tie in much more to your suggestion "doing the things you like to do, not dreaming of some job description (or even company) that would give them to you."

Another term other than personal branding might better suit - and its also certainly not for cattle!

Just my toonies worth

[Milosh]

A fine post indeed and the photo's just perfect... As I see it, the issue discussed is directly related to the capitalist herd-mind syndrome (which sounds just lovely, doesn't it?).

As you aptly comment, Mom's "you're special" finds its dark twin in these turbulent times through the finally perfectly clear "and so is everyone else." You do propose a viable antidote to it, indeed. Yet the problem, I fear, is too entrenched in our society - the glorification of mediocrity which, in so many ways, makes people feel like leaves in a tornado once something shakes them off a well known tree.

In western society, I feel, the horrible pressure on any person to conform to the generally accepted models of "individualness" and materialism, is just not something that most people are ready to achieve and come out of unscathed, actually getting something in return for the way in which they spend their lives in a mature capitalist economy. I believe that this is why the majority simply chooses (unconsciously, believing what Mom says) to adopt an archetype behavioural model and stick to it. There are only so many models out there, though. Which indirectly leads to your point of mediocrity.

We're in an age of heroes, in a way. And one needs to be a hero to break the shackles of unspoken societal norms. One needs to be a hero to go from wearing the company badge on a team-building field-trip to even thinking about trying to find a new career path in breeding Bearded Dragons*. Because breaking presumptions about oneself hurts like hell and takes enormous guts to pull off.

I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion, Sir. Most of the people I know would too. But how many of us have the guts to stray off the yellow brick road?

*Pogona vitticeps

[Craig Fisher]

I love this post. I do think people should be "branding" or "self-promoting" whatever you want to call it. But I like your point about re-writing the past or massaging your experience. If you aren't DOING something interesting and productive now, that past may seem as generic as any other job seekers'.

But I think you should be writing about what you're doing. You can build a network physically in the real world. But it helps if you also generate interest in the virtual world as well. Branding shouldn't be as much about what you've done as how you communicate it. How you tell your story and the non-work things about you, like your tastes and opinions, are what help to differentiate you when a recruiter or employer goes looking for job candidates.

You can't generically "brand" yourself by simply making your work history look good and expect to stand out.