Start looking for work today; if you have time.

November 7, 11:25 AMJob Search ExaminerCurt MacRae

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Today is a cool, sunny day and  Bo is ready to start looking for work.  He's been out of work for four months, but the urgency just wasn't there for those first few months.  After all, he'd been working for years, and taking a few weeks off seemed well-deserved, especially after the way he was "down-sized." 

Down-sized!!  What a nice-sounding term for getting terminated, put out to pasture, cut, eliminated, fired, or sh _ _ - canned.  It wasn't Bo's fault that he got downsized, so he took his time before he started really looking for that next job.

Oh sure, Bo had already joined LinkedIn, and he got his Facebook and Classmates profiles up to date.  In fact, he got in touch with some old friends from high school (hadn't seen some of them in 25 years), and he enrolled on some job boards.  Then, he got his Twitter account, and he spent some time on Youtube and MySpace.  Heck, he had to familiarize himself with all the networks.  He'd heard that in today's world, that's how you find a job now.  This shouldn't take long.

Then, he didn't want to miss Plaxo, or digg.com.    And, what is this adultfinders.com site?  Bo wondered if he should join that.   And, then there was eons.com, which said it was for baby-boomers; he'd have to get into that one.  And mylife, and MyLOL, and flickr.  OMG, there are even networking sites that will organize your networking sites -- that sounds like a real time-saver. 

So, Bo spent his time building his network.  187 friends on Facebook, 240 connections on LinkedIn (maybe someday he'd make LION), just 80, or so on Plaxo (just not quite as popular, Bo guessed), and he checked the job sites regularly.  There was Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed, Simplyhired, and all the individual company sites, and hundreds more.  There was resume rabbit and resume spider, and others, that claimed to send your resume to hundreds of jobs sites.  That sounded like a good idea, and only cost $40.

And, Bo built his resume.  Some said it should be two pages, some said one.  Someone said make it sexy, someone else said to make if business-like.  Functional?  Chronological?  He had 6-7 different versions, along with a customize-able cover letter, so that he could tailor it to each job he would apply for. 

And then, he was told to keep a log of all his application activity, so he designed a spreadsheet that he could update each time he applied.

Oh, and one more thing that Bo was told -- get "branded."  Bo had to build his reputation, his street cred, his publicity, so that those hiring managers would want to hire him before they even met him.  So, he worked on that, tried to publish some information, worked on some technical papers to show prospective employers, and crafted his profiles carefully on all the websites.

Whew!!!  He is now ready.  Today he starts his search in earnest.  He's done the prep work, and today he starts applying; Bo figures he should land a good job by the end of the year.  It didn't even take him that long 15 years ago, the last time he looked.

So, as Bo signs on to CareerBuilder to check the job listings, he gets an email from an old friend.  He'll read that quickly, and jot off a quick response (that's the polite thing to do).  Oops, there's a friend request from Facebook, and it looks like he received a  recommendation at LinkedIn (those are gold).  And, when he opens LinkedIn, he finds that two of his connections are attending a networking group on Wednesday; he better sign up for that, too.  Oh, look.  Two more people are following Bo on Twitter, so he probably should look at their profiles to see who they are.  Should he follow them back?

Bo accepts the recommendation on LinkedIn, and it asks him to reciprocate with another recommendation.  That seems only fair, and will only take a couple minutes.  Oh look, now Monster sent a list of jobs in this area.  Why do they send the legal transcription jobs?  Bo never said he wanted to do that kind of work, or even that he knew how? 

Bo then sees an unsolicited email to work from home and make....   how much?  He better take a quick look at that.  After all, it's probably a scam, but what if it isn't?  Maybe he'll just type a quick response to inquire for more information (he hopes that doesn't spur more spam).

Oh, here's some free assistance in getting Bo's resume to be better than it is, and EVERY hiring manager will want to interview him after he makes those changes.   He better send it in for that "free" review, because you never know.  And, they guarantee results.

So, the day moves on and Bo builds profiles, and recommends, and updates, and tweets, and re-connects, and checks events, and networks, and improves resumes, and rewrites cover letters, and publishes, and posts flair, and responds to surveys, and reads spam, and requests info, and brands, and researches jobs and companies, and attends workshops.....

and wonders where his time went..

He'll start really LOOKING for work tomorrow.

"If I get one more time-saving device, I'll have no time left at all."   Curt MacRae/2009

And, don't forget to read Dear Crabby:  Crabby's  office is always open – email your issues/questions/rants/vents to  crabby@humantransitions.com.  Crabby columns can be found by clicking on the crab to the left..

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