Job Search

Why We’re Bad At Networking #2: The Basics and Incoherence

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Last week thanks to a Twitter conversation, I decided to wade into a subject near and dear to my heart; why a lot of us aren’t that great at Networking.

This is not to saw I’m awesome, of course. I think I’m pretty good at it, though my goodness level is a bit erratic as it were; I think I could improve in several areas. But I do feel I do it well enough to be able to analyze it and give advice – if only because everyone else is bloody well asking me questions about it.

Last week I noted we got tired of being told to network and told how to network, drowned in hearing about it constantly, lost in details or generalities, lost in BS. We were overwhelmed with being told about it, and we tune it out – rather understandably.

Networking got buzzworded badly.

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Decide What Not To Do In Your Job Search

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Whenever I coach people on job searching, they usually feel overwhelmed.  They have many options, many possibilities – and many things to panic about and be terrified of.  There’s so many things to get done and so many potential problems to head off that they freak out, shut down, or burn themselves out.  Sometimes they manage all three (in about that order).

We’re taught more is always better.  More of this.  More of that.  More apps.  More memory.  We miss that more is not always good, better, or desirable, but I think that’s a larger cultural/economic issue to discuss another time and another blog.

So here’s a very important piece of advice for you in your job search – and indeed your career.

Decide what not to do.

No, I’m serious, you can’t do it all.  So you have to make strategic decisions to say ‘no’ to something and mean it.

Sure, you can probably do anything.  You’re a geek like me and the rest of the Justice League of Weirdos here.  You’re smart, talented, wired, and probably charged up on caffiene.

But still you can’t do everything.

If you try and do everything, you’ll miss the important things.

If you try and do everything, you won’t do the important things as well as you should.

If you try and do everything, you’re more likely to waste time.

If you try and do everything, you can’t keep track of it all.

If you try and do everything, you will burn out.

Trust me on this.  I’ve seen it.  I’ve heard of it.  A few times, I’ve even done it.  This is why last job search I set boundaries on my time and kept an appropriate focus.  It kept me very sane during a crazy period.

So when you look at your job search strategy, you need to decide:

  • When something isn’t working or appropriate – so you can stop.
  • When a piece of advice, technique, tool, or job board isn’t worth it – so you remove it from your plans.
  • Why you are not doing some of these things – so you don’t keep going over it in your head.

What you don’t do is just as important as what you do in a job search.  To give you a few examples from my own life:

  • When I had decided to move out of a particular area, I identified specific regions I wanted to live in and targeted them.  It made sure I was focused, could learn where to move, got to know markets, and didn’t have to worry later if I wanted to live some where.
  • I have excluded given companies and industries from my search as I have no interest in them.  It’s not worth my time for something I know I wouldn’t like.
  • I have excluded certain websites from job searches as they didn’t help.  Better to miss one opportunity than waste an hour better spent.
  • I had to decide on what networking to do since you can’t meet everyone.

Decide what not to do.  The lack of things will make what you are doing much more likely to succeed.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

 

Be Ready For An Irregular Job Search

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For those of you who hadn’t followed along, you all know I lost my job last month, which also led to me delaying my job search book, written during my last job search.  Once I swam to the shore of the irony sea, I got back onto it, did a job search, and got a new job.

I also had a valuable, painful lesson to share; the search for a job is not a regular thing, but we can miss just how many factors can influence when a job posts, when hiring is done, when interviews occur.  As I’d lost a job at early in a quarter, before a bunch of holidays, at the end of the year it was rather insightful.  As I talked to more people, I got a better picture of all the factors that make the job search and hiring so irregular.

There’s a lot more than I’d thought of.  Here’s my list of what to look out for that will make your job search chaotic, irregular, and a bit confusing.

Holidays: Sure, yes, we know this.  But remember that how holidays are handled varies by industry and by region.

Other Holidays: Diwali is a far bigger holiday out here than, say, in Chicago.  It affected many companies (and indeed, some people I knew directly).  You can miss holidays that aren’t part of your culture or how they affect.

Holiday-Related Efforts: Black Friday.  Duh.

Weather: Storms, snow, floods, etc. can be disruptive.  Think about that in Winter (heck, out here in Silicon Valley we get backfires set to avoid wildfires).

Cycles: Every city, megaregion, state, and country has its own cycles.  When I lived out east hiring was dead for Q4, but I found a job in Q4 in a few weeks in Silicon Valley.

Local Trends: This is one I became painfully aware of; titles are changing in my profession of Project Management.  This has been a relatively recent local trend, and it made my job search a little weirder (for instance, what’s the difference between a Product Manager and a Project Owner?).  Local trends that may not be reflected in the big picture can still affect your job search’s results.  This may be a one-time thing, but still . . .

Region Leaping: Sure a holiday, weather, or other factor may not affect where you live – but how many other offices around the country or world play a role in your hiring?  One holiday, one storm, one power outage can affect your hiring unexpectedly.

News Cycles: Publicity, news cycles, trade shows, really do reflect what people do in hiring.  Being aware of these trends – or one-time occurrences – can be very helpful.  I’m pretty sure one set of leads I had evaporated in the news cycle.

The job search is not regular, postings are not regular, results are not regular.  Keep those cycles in mind will make it a bit easier on you.

So, what cycles, trends, and other disruptors have you found?

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.