Spinning Your Wheels In Your Job Search

Urgency is high, the will is strong, persistence shows up every morning and drives you to continue your search to find that new job.  It’s been 6 months since the layoff.  And you still haven’t found that position you so desperately need.

So, you’re working hard, but you don’t have much to show for it.  Click, click..the picture isn’t very clear right now. Why after all the work isn’t it happening for you? Spinning Your Wheels?

This list partially represents why candidates feel they are not getting anywhere in their job search. Do you recognize any of these 1-12? Any chance you’re guilty of any of them?

1. Bad Attitude- moaning and whining about how hard it is and how nothing is going right.
2. An open ended plan
3. To heavily invested in the internet
4. Making the job search part-time
5. Writing mistakes into the résumé
6. Exiting the interview, meeting, without a follow-up
7. Fixing the wrong things
8. Networking in the wrong places, or just wishing you could network
9. Leaving staffing firms and recruiters off your target lists
10. Interviewing poorly
11. Remaining invisible to the hiring authorities, recruiters, and friends
12. Hiding

I didn’t put urgency on the list because lack of urgency indicates low enthusiasm.  That means the wheels aren’t really turning at all. These 1-12 mostly are actions that aren’t going anywhere.

The 3 “C”s to Change

Confluence, Commitment, Courage,….

“Simple, I’ll just quit and find a new job.”  Often easier said than done, especially in these times. Taking on a new direction, like a major change change of jobs can be one of the scariest, and especially difficult to get rolling.

Let’s say you’ve been teetering over the idea of making a change in your CAREER. Each week, the urge gets stronger.  Your sleep has been affected. Your work ethic compromised. Your  attitude is taking a hit, turning real crappy.

CAREERS rest almost at the dead center of our life’s components. Careers dictate your daily, weekly, monthly schedule. It’s the center of your financial well-being, relationships, health, socialization, etc.

Debates over what drives someone to do what they do for a living has been raging for ages.  We won’t go into that debate here and now.  But we do want to know what it takes to make a meaningful change in a job, or a career transition or simply get out of the rut. It’s safe to say, it ain’t always easy.

So, let’s say you’ve decided to move on it. The stage has been set. You know you need out of what you’re doing. You need another work environment, a place you’ll wake up and feel excited to go to to make your living.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have new friends to work with, better pay perhaps?  Whatever it is, satisfaction hovers around the top of the list.

You’ve mapped out where you need to look, send your résumés, pray for an interview.  You know what companies, locations, products and services are agreeable to you.  The time has come.  Time to leave the current petri dish behind and start fresh.

So, let’s say it’s Sunday evening. Realization that you need to move on.  But, things change Monday morning; here come the cold feet. You’ve slept on it.  Courage has wilted, the commitment isn’t there as it was over the weekend. “Foolishness,” you call it.  ”What was I thinking?”  So you pack up your lunch, jump in the Mazda and arrive at your cube right at the bell.  Another day comes and goes and the pain and suffering continues.

Why? Who knows why. But whatever the reason, whatever you decide to do, however you decide to do it, you need to line up three pieces of self-determination: the three “Cs” of beating down the demons of fear and bust out to find that new job:

1. Confluence – A place where things come together. In the case of career change, the coming together of the stream of need, and the stream of willingness is the confluence necessary to launch the process of change. The inner life is the need to get out of where you are. The outer life are  the skills, attitude and willingness to follow through on your plan to change.  The two should meld, come together and turn into commitment.
2. Commitment – A Pledge to do something in the future. At first when we begin to think about a better life, we are wishing and wanting.  If, over time, the emotions continue to linger and grow, and the need is real, we will decide to change. That’s when we begin to think about the details of action.  Commitment is action. Commitment is most difficult in hard times, yet best proven during tough times. When the money dries up, and the benefits go away, this is when it’s easiest to compromise your commitments. This is when the real test comes.  And it takes something special to keep the pledge alive.
3. Courage – a spirit that enables you to face danger without letting fear wreck your action. Danger is what tests the pledge of commitment. Courage consiste of doing what you said you would do even though you don’t want to. In the face of danger you decide.  Your pledge to do something (commitment) or the feelings of exasperation and helplessness and the need to crawl back to your comfort zone.

The 3 “Cs”… Confluence, Commitment and Courage.