“I wasted this whole year, doing everything wrong.”
That’s the sad comment a job seeker made to me last week as we were leaving a WIND-West job search support group meeting in Westborough, MA. She had been an active participant in the meeting, asking many questions, clearly a well-educated, highly- intelligent, and experienced professional who had been focused on job hunting since being laid off in January.
What I think she did wrong:
She waited a year before attending a job search support group meeting.
Get help with your job search. NOW!
Doing a job search with no coaching or support is akin to diving off a diving board without knowing how to either dive or swim. For most of us, job hunting is a lonely, discouraging process, with many land mines to trip up the inexperienced and/or unwary.
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Since my last layoff 15 years ago, I’ve been studying, teaching, and writing about online job search. I’ve seen first-hand the tragedy that can accompany an extended period of unemployment, and I’ve seen what works.
During that time, I’ve come to three conclusions about why most people seem to “do everything wrong” -
- Most of us do not need to job hunt often enough to be good at it.
- Most of us think job hunting is simple, like going to the grocery store. In reality, it it is decidedly complicated, more like dating than shopping.
- The Internet has changed how job hunting works, just as it has changed many, MANY other things in our culture. We have many new ways to “connect” and communicate with each other which has led to many new ways to mess up.
Why join a job search support group?
Because:
- You don’t know everything or everybody.
- You will discover that smart, capable people are out of work, and that being unemployed is NOT a reflection on your intelligence or ability.
- You will discover that you’re not the only person who has questions about something, from how to use Twitter to how to answer the tell-me-about-yourself interview question.
- You will get answers to questions you have, help with your issues, and/or at least more options to consider.
- Other “sets of eyes” (and ears) helping with your resume, cover letter, blog, phone interview technique, etc. provide you with feedback from another perspective and the perspective is usually helpful rather than judgmental.
- You will be able to help other job seekers which is as good for you as it is for the other person, a chance to feel (and to demonstrate) that you are useful, intelligent, and knowledgeable.
- You will expand your personal/professional network because the members will be employed in the future with a variety of employers.
- Your family members try hard to be supportive, but they can be a source of more stress than help. Someone outside of your family may provide more useful assistance and less pressure.
- Read this Newsweek article about job networking and job search support groups run by churches.
How to make job search support groups work for you
- Attend the meetings. Regularly. More than once!
- Give help.
- Ask for help.
- Don’t give up until you land your job.
- After you’ve “landed,” let everyone in the group know HOW you landed your job, in detail!
- After you’ve found your new job, stay in touch with the group, and help other members with their job search. You’ll also be expanding your network building up a good positive balance in your “karma account” for the next time you need a break.
How to find a job search support group
Preferably, you want a group run by an experienced career professional. A group of unemployed “buddies” can do it themselves, but it’s best if a professional leads it for you. You’ll get farther, faster with professional help.
- Your local library, community center, and places of worship may host a group and/or keep a list of local groups.
- In the USA, check your local Career OneStop Centers for groups or information about them – http://www.servicelocator.org/
- Contact your high school, college, university, or grad school to see if the career center offer help to alums (sometimes just attending for 1 semester qualifies you as an alum).
- Check with MeetUp.com to see if any MeetUp job hunting groups meet in your area.
- Google and Yahoo Groups often are venues for job seekers to get together, sometimes only online, but often off-line, too.
- LinkedIn Groups also offer a way to connect with other job seekers, usually only online, but sometimes off-line as well.
- Margaret Dikel has a long list of job support groups by location on RileyGuide.com -http://www.rileyguide.com/support.html
- Check Job-Hunt’s famous Directory of Networking & Job Support Groups, by state
As with the RileyGuide.com, this list links to the job support groups that have Websites or Web pages, and most do not. - Set up your own buddy group with unemployed friends and colleagues (even family members) using Barbara Sher’s Wishcraft book. She makes it available for free at http://wishcraft.com/ and it’s a great guide to setting up “success teams.”
Groups that are national to a certian degree include: The Five O’Clock Club, NetShare, FortyPlus, and ExecuNet.
What to look for in a job search support group:
- Ideally, the groups are moderated or run by a career professional, someone who understands how the whole process works and has current experience in either successfully finding employment themselves or in helping others to find jobs.
- Usually the cost to attend is low. Sometimes, if sponsored, they are free.
- Avoid the “pity-party,” aint-it-awful groups. You don’t need that – it will bring you down, not help you succeed.
Bottom Line
Finding a job is NOT easy for the vast majority of people. Don’t waste time by thinking that you know it all or that you can’t get help. You can find help, inexpensively if you need to, and you should. NOW! And, building your network now through job search support groups should make that next job search easier – and you will be job hunting again, some day.
About the author …
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter @JobHuntOrg.
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Hi Susan!
WOW! This is a terrific compilation of reasons why you can’t go it alone in a job search, and advice on how to get a foothold.
You’re so right that many people don’t understand today’s world of job search. But so much has changed in even the past few years, it’s no wonder they’re having a hard time.
For instance, most executives I talk with don’t realize that they need to be on LinkedIn and build a far-reaching online presence, just to keep pace with their competition.
They’ve been wasting time posting their resumes to “monster” job boards and fretting over getting no response.
Everyone job-hunting can be helped immensely by taking advantage of job search support groups. You’ve supplied plenty of places and ways they can get going!
Meg Guiseppi
Job-Hunt’s Personal Branding Expert — http://www.job-hunt.org/personal-branding/personal-branding.shtml
[...] Referencing my earlier blog post this month about the woman who had wasted this whole year doing her job hunting all wrong. [...]
Thanks, Meg! Yes, job hunting has changed so much that getting help is more important than ever before.
Susan:
I was struck by your “avoid the pity-party groups” comment at the end.
Years ago, a client invited me to speak at a group he belonged to, but admitted that he had stopped going because he found it too depressing. I joined the group and showed them how to create a killer marketing message, but afterwards confided privately to my client that I understood why he found the group depressing.
The person who led the group was very well-meaning, but allowed the first half of the meeting to become basically a gripe session, with everyone complaining about what was going wrong with their search, and little in the way of constructive comments on how to do better.
Definitely avoid those types of groups!
Yes, job search groups can be extremely helpful. They can be a source of strong encouragement, sharing of best practices, and valuable advice from guest speakers.
I help moderate a group in Basking Ridge, NJ called Career Networking Group (CNG). I spoke there a number of times, and always found it an upbeat and welcoming group, so that when the long time moderator was moving out of state, I was willing to searve on a group to run it in his place.
You can find a host of networking groups throughout NJ and the surrounding areas on a colleague’s website – http://www.landingexpert.com. Go to the Networking menu item.
John
____________________________________
John West Hadley
Career Search Counselor
(908) 725-2437
“Land The Job & Pay You Deserve”
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