Common Sense for a Successful Job Search

It is crucial to keep your wits about you as you go through the job search process. Many times people can forget or neglect the basic truths that made them a success in their previous positions once they have launched into the grind of a job search. Better, then, to keep these commonsensical principles at the tip of your mind.

1. Manage your expectations: Never take counsel of your fears and concerns and let them run wild during the emotional roller-coaster of the typical job search. The easier you make it for the reader to connect the dots and understand what you have to offer, the more positive impact you will have.
2. Don’t try to be “Marvin the Mind Reader”: Avoid the real temptation to try and guess what may or may not be in the mind the potential resume reader or employer. You must be confident that the resume reflects who you are professionally. Besides, it is literally impossible to get into the mind of the employer enough to guess absolutely what they are looking for.
3. Create a Job Search Campaign: Build a search “harness” that you can put on each day as you push out into the day’s developments. Set up a contact tree to follow up, talk to recruiters and see what they have open, research and post your resume online, go to local career clubs and meetings, even check the want ads of major national newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal and National Business Employment Weekly.
4. Always work the process: Do whatever you have to do to keep up your focus and energy levels – work out, eat better, whatever. Deploying a coherent job search campaign will, at the very least, give you a solid sense of traction and movement. This is essential to keep up morale and cover new ground.
5. Only focus on the variables within your control, not on those outside your control: Keep in mind that, on the spectrum of things inside or outside your control, you can only control how hard you work the job search and distribute your resume. The biggest variable outside your control is Timing; you can’t guarantee time and place.

Following these suggestions can help you maintain your sanity in the typical job search, when you are in a very vulnerable place. You must be prepared to send out as many resumes as it takes in order to get the right position. The brutal truth is:  the best resume is the one that works.