It's Not Too Late - Why December is a great month for job searches

I’ve written versions of this post a few times over the years, and while so many aspects of job searching change, this never really does. 

December is a great month for job seekers.

Yes yes, The Great Resignation is upon us, and I can assure you from a recruiter’s perspective it is very, very real. But most of the candidates who are considering a resignation are, at this point, waiting for 2022. That means you have about two weeks to get ahead of the pack. 

Why now? 

Competition is lower 

In a few weeks some jobs will be flooded with hundreds of applications a day. But right now that pace has slowed to a small trickle. You have a much better chance of standing out now then you will in a few weeks when all of the new year’s resolution job searches have begun in earnest. This is especially important if you’re trying to change fields or move to a more senior role. In a few weeks recruiters will be screening as quickly as possible to get through as many resumes as they can as quickly as they can. That means focusing on the resumes that fit exactly with the position parameters. But right now a resume that stands out for other reasons has a better chance of getting us to take a second look. 

End of year budget rush

At some companies there IS a difference between offers that go out in December and offers that go out in January. For companies with fiscal years ending December 31st they can be in a use it or lose it position with specific salary allocations, so they’re very motivated to make a quick hire before year ends. 

Procrastination is real

I’ve seen it almost everywhere I’ve worked, a job lurks on the backburner for months, and suddenly at the end of the year, for no reason other than the year ending, it’s suddenly urgent. Maybe it’s just a sense of wanting to clear up loose ends before the year ends, or recruiters with a sudden bit of free time, but for whatever reasons jobs that have taken lower priority can find new urgency as the clock ticks toward midnight. 

Things are a bit more relaxed 

Think back to the time before Covid when we were all in the office between December 15th and 31st. People come in a bit later, dress codes relax a touch, there are extended coffee breaks and long lunches, lots of catching up and chatting about holiday plans. That sense of relaxation extends to interviewing. If you know you’re someone who struggles with the pressure and formality of an interview situation you can really benefit by interviewing during the holiday lull. For one it’s easier to find things to make small talk about. Are you traveling? Looking forward to some time off? Just excited 2021 is almost over?  Interviewers are also less heavily scheduled. We’ve all been in that interview with a manager who has four meetings right after this one. They’re looking at the clock, keeping an eye on their email, and ready to dash the moment your 30 minutes are up. Right now schedules aren’t so tightly packed and interviewers are a bit more relaxed too. 

Schedules are more flexible  

As a manager you tend to be skeptical of too much time out of office, especially when many people are still working from home. But this time of year it doesn’t raise so many eyebrows. There are errands to run, travel days, pies to bake, gifts to wrap, and countless other tasks that could take you away for a few hours during the work day. Not to mention lots of companies require you to use your PTO before the end of the year anyway. If you’re not fully committed to leaving your current role and don’t want to raise too many red flags, this is the best time of year to schedule a little bit of extra time out of office to interview, research opportunities, or just spend some time revamping your resume to get ready for 2022. 

Why isn't the right person applying to our job? (Part 2)

If you haven’t read part one - start here!

Part 2 focuses more on the application itself. What is the actual process of applying to your job like for candidates? How much time does it take them? I always think it’s a good idea for hiring managers to go through their own application process. Fill out the application start to finish and upload all the same documentation that a candidate would be asked for. Could you save and come back? Did you have to switch browsers? Did the resume scanner import some of your information incorrectly? Starting here usually gives you some clues about where candidates might be getting stuck. 

Here are some of the other most frequent problems we see. 

The application asks for too much detail up front  

If you’re requiring candidates to fill out a lengthy application you might be seeing a high drop off between candidates starting the application and actually completing it. Many candidates aren’t prepared when they first start an application to provide exact dates of old employment (especially for jobs more than a few years old) or they don’t have contact information for old managers, exact pay rates, and other details easily accessible at that moment. So they leave it for later, and other more straightforward applications take precedence in their job search. Even if you do need all of those details eventually (like for a security screen or background check) chances are good you don’t need that much detail upfront. The easiest fix is to shorten the application to just basic contact information. The final candidates can complete the long form version after receiving an offer or later in the later stages of the interview process. 

A cover letter is required  

If you’re requiring a cover letter my first question is always why? Is there a specific question you’re asking candidates to address in that cover letter? Does it carry more weight than the candidate’s resume? For example: would your team interview a candidate who had very little relevant experience because their cover letter was excellent? 

This is about making the process simpler for both candidates AND the team. If cover letters aren’t being carefully considered or wouldn’t sway the team, they aren’t adding value to your process. Even candidates who are actively in search of a new job can be scared off by an application with dozens of questions or a firm requirement for a cover letter. Just like long applications, if they get stopped at a cover letter submission it’s easy to leave it for later and never come back. 

I do understand that cover letters are a great place for candidates to answer questions like - why this particular job? or why do you see yourself working for our company long term? Cover letters can also be a huge benefit to candidates who are changing careers, coming off of an employment gap, or don’t seem like an obvious fit for other reasons - but those are all questions a good recruiter will ask when doing their initial screen with the candidates. 

If there IS a specific question you want every candidate to answer up front, that can easily be a question box in the application itself. This saves candidates time and is more straightforward to review than opening lots of attachments. 

The job description is scaring candidates away 

It’s very rare for a company to hire someone who checks every single box on the job description. Most hires are a compromise in some way or another. But women especially see a long list of requirements and talk themselves out of applying if they don’t meet every single one. If a job posting isn’t gaining much traction it’s worth going back to the drawing board and making sure all the skills you’ve listed really ARE essential to someone in that role. You want to make sure you’re describing the scope and responsibilities as accurately as possible - but you don’t want to add so much detail that the role appears unattainable. From the candidate’s point of view - if you’re trying to focus your search on opportunities where you have the best possible chance of success, the roles that seem most like a stretch will be the lowest priority as you’re filling out applications. 

It IS hard to get your roles in front of candidates, especially in this job market for smaller companies without instant name recognition. But you can take small steps to make the process straightforward for candidates and ultimately easier on your hiring team. The goal is to successfully find the right person as quickly as possible and a simplified application process benefits everyone.

Why isn't the right person applying to our job?

When we’re brought in to consult on a role it’s most often because it’s already been open for some time. Maybe a month or two with no results, but we’ve also been asked to help with roles that have remained unfilled for six months to a year. For one reason or another the right applicant hasn’t come to the table yet, and understandably the company is trying to find out why. It’s usually a very similar story: the job is posted, it’s easy to locate on the company website, but for some reason it’s just not drawing the right applicant. 

Of course every role is different, but in most cases the issue comes down to advertising or process - both of which we can help you address. We’ll focus on advertising first and process in part two. 

The job isn’t posted widely enough 

This happens a lot for smaller to medium sized companies that don’t have a lot of name recognition. Candidates aren’t really looking for your specific company because they don’t know about it. So if the role is only posted to your company website or 1-2 other job boards, you’re just not quite reaching your target audience. Candidates gravitate to company names they know or job boards they hear a lot about. So they might search the Capital One careers page, but they probably won’t think to search for every small financial consulting business in their area to check their career pages. Job boards are a separate but related issue, they seem like a great resource, but even if you’re posting to a fairly popular board it’s easy for your posting to get buried under others with similar titles in your location. Take today on Indeed for instance, on a random August Wednesday there are 12 pages of new results for Software Developer openings in Washington, DC. And it’s only 1 PM. Unless you’re being incredibly diligent about refreshing your posting every day and pushing it up to the top of most recent additions, it’s going to get buried. 

This is often one of the first areas we address when we take over sourcing on a role. It’s our job to identify your ideal candidate and come up with a plan that reaches them quickly and efficiently. We’ll target more niche specific job boards or Linkedin groups, create marketing campaigns with directed targeting, and more. It’s time consuming for sure, but it’s the best way to cut through the noise of the big boards and shine a spotlight on a smaller organization. 

The job is posted too widely 

Many job boards now have a crawling function that takes your posting and plasters it...well everywhere. Every corner of the internet gets a link to your job posting. Most of those links come with “quick apply” or “easy submit” functions that let a candidate use their prefilled profile on that site to instantly apply to your job. When the application is that easy most candidates won’t take the time to read your job description in depth. If you’ve started to see a lot of low effort applications that don’t quite make sense, this is probably why. It’s incredibly frustrating, and usually a waste of your team’s time to filter through those generic quick apply responses. Another major benefit external recruiting support can add is making sure those low effort applications aren’t bogging the team down. We do the first screen with candidates so you can move directly to speaking with only the ones who meet your salary and skill requirements. 

The posting is missing key selling points 

One of the first questions I always ask hiring managers is “tell me about a day in the life of someone doing this job”. It helps me as someone who’s never done most of the jobs I’m recruiting for, but it also helps hiring managers articulate the unique highlights of a role. It’s also a great way to approach writing a job description. Paint the picture for applicants of what life looks like at your company, the day to day responsibilities, challenges, and rewards. Most postings are pretty vague and don’t really give candidates a sense of what the job actually entails, so writing yours in a way that helps them really understand the role will immediately set you apart. 

It’s also true that many candidates are looking for a fully remote opportunity right now. If that’s yours, make sure it’s front and center on the job posting. Things like fully paid health benefits, education allowances, flexible schedules, and unlimited PTO set a company apart - so make sure they’re easily visible! 

The title is too specific to your organization 

Even if your company uses organization specific job titles a job posting typically shouldn’t. A mid level inside sales rep isn’t searching for a job called “Client Engagement Manager” or “Customer Success Coordinator”. That’s just one example, but the basic premise here is you have to think about the job title your ideal candidate is most likely to be searching for. In my inside sales days my actual titles ranged from Client Care Specialist to Training Advisor, to Customer Success Manager, and finally Customer Retention Lead. In all of those roles the basic responsibilities and requirements were the same, and when I was job searching I’d generally look for some version of “Inside Sales”. We can help with this - when we start working on a role we’ll discuss the titles your ideal candidates probably have now and help you optimize the posting so they’ll see your role as a logical next step. 

The Grief of Losing a Job

The last time I quit a job it wasn’t exactly preplanned. I actually had one of those “nope, I quit, right here in this moment, I quit” moments. It wasn’t really as dramatic as you might imagine, my company was acquired, my role was changing, and when they explained the new structure I told them I would be leaving. They took my keys and my company credit card, and that was pretty much it. So what did I do next? First I sat in my favorite coffee shop for an hour calling and texting and trying to get my life in order. Important things you know, like would someone in the office please look after my plant? Would someone else cover my interviews that day?

And then? I went home and cried. Sobbed for hours actually. I was completely heartbroken. Devastated beyond belief. I loved my job. It was a role I’d more or less designed for myself four years prior at a company I felt I’d worked hard to shape from it’s very early days. And just like that in a span of less than 48 hours it was over. One of the most formative learning experiences of my life was just done. There wouldn’t be any more early morning flights to the west coast, afternoon trains home from New York, late night Ubers home silently celebrating a great event in the backseat. And my coworkers. I’d never had better coworkers. In four years we’d had weddings and pregnancy announcements, big moves and breakups, all of the life that happens when most of a company is in their mid 20’s to mid 30’s. I couldn’t even fathom not seeing them every day, and I hadn’t been able to say goodbye to any of them. 

If anyone asked I’d say it was all fine, it was time, it was the right decision, etc. The professional equivalents of “everything happens for a reason”. It felt ridiculous to say out loud how sad I was feeling, what a sense of loss I felt walking away from a job that had, at times, driven me crazy. What I didn’t realize in that moment is that the grief that comes from losing a job is very real, and feels very much like every other kind of grief. We hold so much of our identity in what we do. It feels distinctly a part of us and losing it, especially unexpectedly, sends shock waves. It’s unsettling and disruptive and takes a toll on your mental health just like any other kind of grieving process. I’m writing this as another 1.4 million unemployment claims were filed last week, bringing us to 18 straight weeks of more than 1 million unemployment claims, in total 53 million since March. So many people will be looking for work while mourning the job they lost. 

I think it’s important to let yourself feel the loss. Acknowledging it, naming it, letting those close to you know how you’re feeling, it all helps with moving on. You aren’t just scared, or anxious, or worried about finding a new job, you’re also very actively grieving the job you no longer have. You’re attempting to find closure in a situation you had no control over. Naming those feelings and accepting that there is a grieving process to navigate is important. It’s also important to realize that your need to grieve and take time, your need to process, is as important as your need to find a new job. So often we jump straight into searching for something else and never take a second to pause and reflect on what we’re feeling. 

Get outside, call a friend, walk your dog, but more than anything - know that the emotions you experience when leaving a job are valid. Shock, anger, hurt, sadness, and yes grief, it’s all valid and it’s all important. It’s a real loss and it’s okay to feel it.

Mailbox: voluntary severance packages

My company is offering a voluntary severance option to about half of employees. It would include 35 weeks of pay and benefits and some job search support. I’m not sure I want to take it, but if I do, would it look bad to future employers? Will my job search be harder because of it?

I guess I’m not shocked to be hearing about voluntary severance packages again. But brace yourselves, the last time we heard a lot about these was...in 2008 at the height of the downturn. I say I’m not surprised because it does seem like a natural next step for many companies. If you’ve never heard of this, sometimes when they need to cut costs companies will offer a certain percentage of employees the opportunity to volunteer to leave. The thinking is that instead of being forced to select the unlucky ones some employees will choose to go. Maybe someone is moving soon, thinking about staying home with kids, wanting a job change anyway, or just willing to take the gamble. 

The two biggest things to keep in mind when your company is offering a voluntary severance: if they’re offering, there WILL be cuts, and the first offer is almost always the best offer. 

If the company has gotten to the point where they’re even discussing this, you can feel pretty certain some percentage of the workforce will be let go. It’s just not a step companies take if they don’t need to downsize. But past that, every role and every company is different. You might have a really good idea of where you fall in the pecking order, and how hard it would be for your company to function without you, so you might be able to make a pretty educated guess as to where your job would land. Looking at AirBnB’s recent layoffs, the employees they let go were mostly in departments that weren’t part of the company’s immediate plans to rebuild post Covid. As much as you can possibly tell, what will your company be focused on in the next year? How integral is your team and your role to those plans? It’s not a perfect method, but it can help you start to think critically and objectively about your chances in a layoff situation. 

And now the second part of this. The hope is that by getting a smaller number of employees to take the first offer, they won’t be forced to make larger and deeper cuts down the line. If they have to make those bigger cuts the package is never quite so generous, because the money has to be spread amongst more people. So, if you think your department or position is at particular risk, taking the first voluntary offer could be a smart move. 

It’s awful, for sure. If you take the voluntary package there is always a chance you weren’t high on the list to cut and your job would have been safe. If you don’t take the voluntary package there is always a risk you’ll be let go later with fewer benefits to go around. 

Circling back to the original question, in my professional opinion, taking the voluntary package doesn’t reflect negatively on you in your job search. When asked about this in interviews you’ll simply say: “My company offered certain divisions of the company a voluntary severance package during the Covid shutdown. As best I understood, my team wasn’t part of the immediate growth plan, and my position would probably have been eliminated, so I opted to give myself more time to find the right next role. It was a really tough decision and I loved the work I was doing, but I appreciate that they tried to be fair in the process and gave me a chance to do that.” 

I suspect we’re at the beginning of a long string of corporate layoffs, so over the next few years  lots of candidates will have been laid off, furloughed, or offered voluntary severance. This answer is great because you’re showing that you opted to be intentional about your job search, while also speaking positively about your last company and role. As long as you handle it that way, I don’t see how any future employer could see you taking a severance package as a red flag. 

Rezi is Free on AppSumo, but does it work?

I’ve played with a lot of different resume builders over the years. They range from pretty bad to sort of fine. They’re more or less just throwing your text into one of a few preset formats available, so the work is still mostly on you to come up with strong, compelling bullet points and good descriptions. Rezi however, is the first I’ve used that does a lot of the same things I would do if you paid me to rework your resume. As a career coach that’s pretty much the highest praise I can give a resume software.

It’s pretty self explanatory to start. Add your name and basics about your field and experience level. That creates a template, so you can add and save several different resumes. That alone is a great feature (how often have you frantically searched your gmail for the last resume you created). 

When you click on that template it will ask you to enter your basic information. This will become the top of the resume it eventually creates. Even though this seems a little “duh” you’d be amazed how often I see resumes that lack basics like email and phone number. 

The next screen will have you write a summary for yourself. I think summaries are super important, so this was the one place Rezi fell a little flat for me. Some of the great checks it has in place for bullet points don’t exist for your summary. 

Then you’ll move on to the experience tab which is really where I think Rezi shines. As you type and enter bullet points on your experience Rezi checks your work instantly. It will flag places where the bullet isn’t long enough, doesn’t include any quantifying information, or doesn’t include punctuation. I was SO impressed by how well this worked. But what really impressed me was how Rezi managed to catch things I wouldn’t expect. It flagged lead words that were too general, use of personal pronouns, and filler words. Normally that’s really where a good resume writer would shine. 10/10 for this function. If you take the time to make sure you’re turning all of those red and gold flags green your bullet points will be super solid. 

I was also REALLY impressed with the finished product. As a career coach I’m picky about what a finished resume looks like. Formatting is so important to making sure your work is communicated clearly and makes sense to the reader. So color me shocked when this showed up.

This resume is perfectly formatted. Honestly, almost exactly how I’d do it myself. I don’t love icons and don’t normally recommend them, but then I realized there’s an “adjustments” tab that lets you turn those off, increase the font size, and change the line height. Getting the formatting down is so time consuming (another reason it’s sometimes worth it to pay a resume writer), but Rezi would make it super easy to get a consistently formatted resume back every time you need to make adjustments. That’s gold when you’re job searching and constantly updating. 

Rezi also gave me the option to switch to this more colorful format. As they also pointed out when you make the switch, it’s pretty but not very ATS compatible and not great for applying at large companies (the two column format is the main issue). Still it’s fun, and might be great to have in your back pocket if you’re emailing a resume directly to a smaller startup or just a company that would appreciate color and creativity. 

TLDR? Yes - Rezi is totally worth it. The AppSumo deal is here. When you sign up it will give you a code you’ll need to input the first time you sign into Rezi. Even if you’re not actively looking I’d take advantage of this deal for the next time you need a resume. A year of Rezi is normally $348, so you cannot beat this deal (again people, it’s FREE right now) and as much as it pains me to say, Rezi could put more than a few resume writers out of business.

If You've Been Laid Off - Position Specific Resumes

If you didn’t read our post on resumes for general job boards, start here! And if you missed the beginning of our series on coronavirus unemployment start here.

Once you’ve perfected your LinkedIn profile and created solid job board resumes its time to really start targeting specific jobs and companies that appeal to you. This is both the easiest, and most time consuming part of your job search. As a career counselor I LOVE and hate when candidates are creating a resume for a specific job. 

Why do I love it? 

It’s the open book exam of resume writing. Instead of taking your best guess about what will appeal to the broadest possible cross section of employers, you know exactly what the company wants. A job posting is more or less a checklist. You can tailor your position descriptions and skills section to check as many boxes as possible and demonstrate how your accomplishments match up. There’s no weighing of priorities, this project or that one, should I mention this certificate or does it take up too much room. You can base everything entirely on what the job description prioritizes. 

Why do I hate it?

Creating a resume for a specific job is just as time consuming as any other resume, with considerably less bang for the buck. No matter how perfectly your resume aligns with a job there is just no way to guarantee your application makes it out of the black hole that is most company HR sites. I don’t want that to come across as overly cynical or negative, it’s just a fact that in most job searches the response rate for submitted applications is very low. 

Many companies have “rolling openings” or job postings that are always up, whether they’re hiring for those positions actively or not. It gives the company a constant pipeline of applicants for high turnover positions, or just positions they have a lot of, like sales or IT support. Most of the time those rolling positions will look just like any other, so you won’t know if a role is really actively interviewing when you submit. Most companies are also required by law or policy to post their positions for a certain amount of time, even if the role is going to be filled externally or has already identified a candidate through a hiring manager's network or an external search firm. 

That doesn’t mean there isn’t a point in doing those applications, it just means you shouldn’t make it a central component of your job search. Make a list of 10-15 target companies, places you’d love to work for, and check their HR site once a week. Beyond that, my professional opinion is that your time is better spent focusing on networking, outreach, and making frequent updates on platforms that get more eyeballs. 

So how do you write this resume without wasting TOO much time? 

• Mirror the company’s language as much as possible. Borrow heavily from their stated values and priorities, especially in your summary statement. Yes, the example below is a REALLY close match, but that’s the whole point. Show the company you’ve both read and align with their values and priorities. 

  • Job Description: You’ll be part of a big group of makers, breakers, doers and disruptors, who love to solve real problems and meet real customer needs.

  • Candidate Summary: Focused on doing, disrupting, and making sites that solve real problems and meet customer needs.

• Treat the skills list as a checklist. At some point in every job description there is a list of desired skills and abilities. Make sure to include as many as possible in your skills section. Of COURSE you shouldn’t include anything you truly don’t know or have experience with, but if the job description listed it and you’d be comfortable talking about it in an interview - include it. 

  • Position Description: You’ll bring solid experience in emerging and traditional technologies such as: node.js, Java, AngularJS, React, Python, REST, JSON, XML, Ruby, HTML / HTML5, CSS

  • Skills Section: Python, JavaScript, Java, SQL, Ruby, C++, Angular/React.js, Node.js, REST, JSON, Ruby, HTML/HTML5

• Use your most recent position to provide evidence for your capabilities. Almost every position description has a list of “You Will”s or “Position Responsibilities”. You want to use your bullet points to demonstrate you can and have done as many things on that list as possible. 

  • Position Description: Work with product owners to understand desired application capabilities and testing scenarios 

  • Bullet Point: Collaborated with the sales team to develop and test the backend features of a new client landing page. Primarily completed in Python and Pandas, data collection features reduced data entry time and increased sales by 25%

To see this resume and job posting side by side check out the video here.

If You've Been Laid Off - Industry Specific Job Boards

If you didn’t read our post on resumes for general jobs, start here! And if you missed the beginning of our series on coronavirus unemployment start here.

Recruiters, like any other profession, work on a budget. In their ideal world any recruiter would have access to every job board under the sun, but job boards are expensive and very few companies have the resources to give recruiters subscriptions to all of them.  Recruiters who work for small to midsize companies probably work on every job. They handle sales openings, marketing positions, tech roles, whatever the company needs. Because their open positions cover multiple fields they usually opt for more general tools like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, CareerBuilder, and LinkedIn, where they can find candidates in any field. The bigger the company the more specialized the recruiters, and the more specialized the resources they use. Recruiters who specialize in tech roles most likely work with Dice and StackOverflow. Anyone in the cleared space probably uses ClearanceJobs, and more and more startups are doing their recruiting on AngelList. 

What does that mean for you as a candidate? It really means that your resume needs to be everywhere. You can’t rely on one job site to effectively market yourself or reach companies who are hiring. It also means that when you’re posting to those niche sites you should expect the recruiters to be more knowledgeable about specific skill sets and industries. It’s also more difficult to stand out there. 

Resumes for niche job boards need to have most of the same things as general job boards - clean formatting, easy key word searchability, and clear contact information. In addition, they should also have a more creative summary, a skills section, and evidence of project successes (that also provides context for your work). 

The summary statement is important because it gives a picture of you at a glance. When you’re skimming sometimes hundreds of resumes a day it’s great to have something to quickly ground a candidate’s experience. Making that statement stand out without too narrowly defining yourself is tricky. You still want to appeal to a range of companies, but you want to give some indication of the types of roles you’re really looking for. “Revenue driven senior sales professional” is a great start. “Revenue driven”, because any company would see it as a positive AND it’s easy to provide figures in the experience section to back that up. It’s also less commonly used than the ever popular, but harder to quantify, “Results Focused”. “Senior sales professional” says in a kind and professional way “Don’t call me with an entry level 0-2 years of experience role”. 

A skills section can feature a lot of different things, but its real value is in making things easy on a recruiter. We probably have a checklist of qualifications, either years of experience or skill based depending on the role. Structuring this section with clear and simple formatting will make your life so much easier throughout your job search because it’s easy to update and add to. As you start to interview take note of the specific skills you’re asked about, questions like “do you have experience with Linux?” If you DO, and it’s just not listed in your skills section that’s your cue to go back and add it. 

Project success also looks different in every field. The key is to figure out how to explain your qualifications and results to someone who doesn’t work at your current company. If you’re in sales for example, reaching your annual quota is great, and definitely something to include on your resume. It’s much stronger though if you explain that you were the only sales rep on a team of 30 that met your quota in 2019, or that you outperformed the rest of the team by 20%. Numbers really matter here, they’re the easiest way to put your performance in context, to show that you don’t just know how to do your job, but you’re really good at it. Even if it doesn’t seem like your job was numbers based, think about processes you improved, volume of work you produced, or the amount of clients you engage with over the course of a quarter.

To see the general job board resume updated for a niche job board click here. 

If You've Been Laid Off - Job Board Resumes

Back to the job search posts this week! If you missed the first several parts of the series start here. 

Once your LinkedIn is up to date and ready to roll it’s time to get your resume cleaned up as well. All resumes are not created equal and not all resumes serve the same purpose. The first question I always ask is “What are you doing with this resume?” 

• Uploading it to a general job board, like Monster, Indeed, or Careerbuilder 

• Uploading it to an industry specific job board, like Dice, Clearance Jobs, or AngelList 

• Submitting it through a company HR Site for a specific job 

• Submitting it to a company HR site for any position 

• Emailing it directly to a recruiter or manager who has asked for a copy of your resume 

A successful resume for each of those situations looks slightly different. I’ll touch on all of them eventually, but to start I’m going to focus on resumes for general job boards. If you’re actively searching for a job and hoping to cast the widest net possible, it’s a solid starting point. BUT! Job board resumes are trickier than resumes you submit for a specific position. You don’t know exactly who will see this resume or what positions they’ll be looking to fill, and you can’t possibly create a resume that speaks to every open position in your desired industry. Job boards also rely heavily on word matching and resume scanning systems that suggest resumes and candidates to the recruiters and companies paying for access.

So, what’s the main point of a general job board resume? You want to be FOUND. Nine times out of 10 you’ll have an opportunity to provide a more specific or detailed resume once you’ve been contacted about a particular position, so this resume isn’t an end all be all, or even probably the one the hiring manager will eventually see. This resume is all about pushing you to the top of the search function in your field. For me job board resumes come down to three main things - Format, Keywords, and Contact Information.  

• Format - Simple and Straightforward. Resume scanners and job search sites are notorious for rearranging resume formats, even if you’re uploading a PDF. Keeping things simple gives you the best chance of having your resume be seen in the format you intended. It also makes it easy to keep updating and adding information without completely revamping your resume every time. Things that tend to work against simple formatting include: 

  • Icons - like the little images of an envelope or phone, trust me if it ends in gmail.com I know it’s your email address, you don’t need the icon. 

  • Graphs - fun bar graphs and pie charts were all the rage there for a minute. While they might look nice a resume scanner has absolutely no idea how to quantify or qualify them. 

  • Photos - I promise, you don’t need a headshot on your resume. 

  • Unusual fonts - don’t assume the system your resume will be scanned by is the most up to date. I don’t actually have strong preferences about fonts at all, but if you stray too far outside the norm there’s a chance the system won’t recognize it and will convert your resume to the closest matching font it does recognize, which can wreak havoc on your format. If you like the more formal look of a serif font I think Georgia and Cambria are good choices. Calibri and Arial are solid options if you like the cleaner, more modern look of san serif. Those are probably the only four fonts I’ve used on resumes in the last 5 years, don’t overthink it! 

  • Page Length - If I’m being honest, I don’t look past the first page of a candidate’s resume very often. That is NOT to say you need to limit yourself to one page, but just realize that the first page is really all you have to make a strong impression that says “read further”. 

• Keywords and the search function: Every site works differently, but in general they’re designed to allow recruiters to submit a job description, and the site returns candidates that most closely match that description. So, your chances of being seen have much more to do with how closely the words on your resume match a description than how good that resume looks or how creatively written it is. Just like with your LinkedIn profile, a good way to get a sense of the words you should be including is by reading job postings. You also want to generalize your resume as much as possible. For example, I worked for a company that called all of their account managers “Training Advisors”. It’s a perfectly fine title, but it was used only by that company and would make it hard for those people to pop up in a search. You also want to think about job titles that are used interchangeably - while there are differences between Software Developers and Software Engineers a lot of companies use the same title for both. Even if your title was Software Developer you’d be smart to incorporate the words “Software Engineer” and “Software Engineering” somewhere on your resume.  

• Contact information is key. At a minimum, the top section of your resume should include your full name, phone number, email address, and (maybe) city. Whatever you do, your essential information should NOT be in the header section of the page. Headers frequently get cut off by resume scanners or website uploads, and it’s just better to be safe than sorry. I say maybe about the city because it depends where you’re searching. If you’re definitely staying in the city you’re currently located in, seeing a city on your resume confirms for the recruiter that you’re already local (no issues in scheduling interviews or with relocation down the line). I do however always recommend using the most general version of your location (Washington, DC, not Bethesda, Arlington, Reston, etc). Commute bias is real and a lot of recruiters won’t reach out to candidates who aren’t in their immediate area. 

For an example of this kind of resume you can see a mock job board resume with my notes and key points here. It’ll download a zip file to your computer, so check your downloads! If you’d rather listen we did a quick video rundown of the same resume on loom.

Welcome To My Office

Welcome to my office.

We had to creatively engineer a second office space into our one bedroom condo a few years ago and learned a lot in the process. Now that so many people are working from home for the first time (and in small spaces like ours) we thought we’d share the best things we found along the way.

1. A small desk - If your coffee table is just not cutting it this Ikea option is perfect. It’s inexpensive, takes up very little space, and looks really nice. If you need something to get you through quarantine, it’s a super solid option that you can totally assemble on your own. 

2. A Portable Monitor- The number one thing I missed from my office is my second monitor, but the small desk above doesn’t give me tons of space for a big monitor and I don’t always need it. This one doesn’t need it’s own outlet (it works off of your computer power) so it also really helps minimize the outlets needed in a small desk space. Once things return to normal this is also a great buy if you spend a lot of time traveling or in co-working spaces, Ben sets his up on the Amtrak all the time. 

3. Noise cancelling headphones - It happens all the time, one of us is trying to focus and the other is on a phone call. If you need a budget option these are great, comfortable, and have paired well with everything. Benjamin swears by this Jabra pair if you’re on the phone a lot (they’re definitely on the pricey side but you can get 40% off your first purchase from them). I love my Apple pros too, a lot more than I thought I would, but if you just need a budget pair to get you through this, the first pair I linked is your go to. 

4. A Coffee Warmer - Hear me out here, this is the best $10 you can spend to keep your home coffee budget in check. The specific model we both have on our desks is out of stock, but this one looks close to what we have. When we first started working from home our coffee budget got way out of hand, these help make sure we’re not putting cold coffee down the drain. 

5. Travel Power Strip - I originally bought this when I was traveling a lot for work and staying in a lot of boutique (ie: budget) hotels that tend to be low on outlets. This is small, can change directions depending on the space you need it to serve, and has two USB ports. I still love them for travel, but they’re awesome for making the most of one outlet at home, too.

6. More Lighting - If your small space is also low on lighting I love this desk lamp. The flat base means it doesn’t take up much real estate and you can set other things on it. I currently have this cute dinosaur phone stand on my lamp, so my phone is always propped up, out of the way, but easy to see. 

7. The other Lamp is an older version of this tried and true Target staple. It’s great because it also takes up very little space, but adds some extra shelving and storage. Most of which I’ve taken up with books, shrug, I am who I am. 

8. Folding Chairs - When we first put the second office together I wasn’t working out of it full time, so I wanted a desk chair that looked nice and went with the desk, but could also store away. Target has carried various versions of this over the years, but it’s great for my small desk space, and easy to put away when we don’t need it. If you’re looking for something a little more “office” Benjamin has this one, it’s budget friendly and we did not hate putting it together.  

9. Photos You Love. Besides the desk, probably the thing I get asked about the most is the photos. Fair, I LOVE these. They were super easy to make and I just really like having some of our favorite places featured on my office wall. It takes this from functional to a happy place I enjoy. 

10. Flower Subscription. Since it’s in the picture it only seems fair to link it. Benjamin got me a subscription to Enjoy Flowers a few years ago and it still makes me so happy to get a flower refresh delivered once a month. I fully realize this is not at all necessary, but it does make me happy, especially right now when we’re spending SO much time in the house.

If You've Been Laid Off - The First 10 People You Should Connect to on LinkedIn

This is part of our series on Coronavirus unemployment. If you’re currently looking for a job starts with parts one, two, and three!

Now that your profile is up to date and ready to show the world, it’s time to start using it. Some of these messages will feel easy and familiar, and gradually they work up to messages that will push you further and further out of your comfort zone. Identifying these 10 people will also help ensure you’re doing all the right things to get noticed on LinkedIn (participating in groups, commenting on articles, and engaging with thought leaders in your space). 

1. Your Last Manager. If it’s possible, have a frank conversation with your most recent manager. Make it clear that if there is a place for you, you want your old job back. You probably have a better chance of getting a straight answer if you’re working for a smaller business, but it doesn’t hurt to try regardless. My suspicion is that a lot of businesses will start with their recently laid off workforce when they’re ready to hire again, and you want to make sure your manager knows you’re committed to coming back. Even if you’re thinking “of course my boss knows I want my job back”, don’t take anything for granted or assume anything right now. 

2. A Solid Reference. When you find that new job you’ll most likely have to provide a reference (or three to five). If you haven’t been in touch with your references lately this is a good time to check back in. Let them know you’re looking and ask if they’d still be comfortable providing a reference when the time comes. 

3. A Former Coworker. Not just any former coworker - someone who has moved on to a company you’d also like to join. A lot of companies offer great referral bonuses to their employees, so people are inclined to help. A lot of this messaging depends on how close you were to this person, but letting them know you’re looking and you’d be interested in their current company is a good place to start. 

4. A Recruiter You’ve Worked With Before. Recruiters move around a lot. Think back to the recruiters you worked with for your last few positions and see where they’re working now. If it’s been a few years chances are good they’ve moved on to another company (if they’re a corporate recruiter) or have new clients (if they’re an agency recruiter). Let them know you appreciated their help before, enjoyed working with them and would like to again now that you’re on the market. 

5. A Recruiter You’ve Never Worked With. You’re going to have to start getting out of your comfort zone a little, and recruiters are a fairly innocuous place to start. Go to the company page for any company you’d like to work for, and click where it says “X employees on LinkedIn” Find a recruiter who seems to fit your area of expertise and say hi. Do your best to make sure it’s someone reasonably likely to be able to help (ie don’t contact a technical recruiter if you’re in sales or marketing) and keep your first message straightforward and to the point. “Hi Alyssa, I’m a sales professional with five years of b2b experience and I’m actively looking for a new position. _____ is one of the companies I’m most interested in working for and I’d really appreciate having a conversation.”

6. Someone who looked at your profile but didn’t get in touch. Bonus points if this someone is a recruiter. If they were on your profile they’re searching for candidates, so reach out! Everyone knows their profile views are public, so there’s absolutely no harm in saying “I saw you viewed my profile this week and wanted to reach out because I’d be really interested in working for ______”. 

7. Someone who authored an article you liked. Again with the getting out of your comfort zone thing. Commenting on and responding to LinkedIn articles is a great way to get noticed, and engaging with articles written by other smart, thoughtful people will keep you sharp and interview ready with lots to talk about. This message doesn’t have to be anything huge, just “Thanks for connecting, really enjoyed your piece on ____ and look forward to reading more of your work”. LinkedIn works on degrees of connection, so connecting to a thought leader in your field opens your profile to more people. 

8. Someone you connected with through a group. I’ll be the first to admit LinkedIn groups vary widely in quality, but there are some very good ones out there. Focus on your industry and your location and you’ll find groups with creative contributors. Like anything else you’ll have to join and participate in a few before you find the one that fits your skill set best. 

9. Someone with a title you want. Type your aspirational job title into the search bar and take a look at the people who pop up. Connect with one and personalize the connection request - you’re currently an Operations Associate hoping to work toward a Director or Chief of title one day. Is there an article or book they recommend for people on that career path? You’re using this time for professional development and would really appreciate recommendations. Especially in a downturn, companies want to hire people who take initiative for their own learning. 

10. A CEO. Shoot for the moon right? Especially if you have your eye on smaller companies or startups, CEOs have a big say in hiring. Keep this message short, 200 words or less, but choose them carefully. Similar to the recruiter message, let them know you’re actively looking, but also include one or two super specific sentences about why their company would be the dream job.

No matter what, do NOT get discouraged. I guarantee you will not hear back from everyone you reach out to, it’s normal and entirely to be expected. However, continuing to work through this list and pushing yourself to connect and communicate with new people is the fastest way to grow your network and set your job search up for success. 

If You've Been Laid Off - 10 Steps to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

This is part of our series on Coronavirus unemployment. If you missed part one start here and check out part two here. 

If you’re suddenly finding yourself looking for a job, don’t start by updating your resume, start by optimizing your LinkedIn. Nine times out of 10 I find candidate LinkedIn profiles sort of lacking. They’re created out of necessity, but mostly ignored between job hunts, so they tend to be out of date or just not very thoughtfully done. That means if you do this right LinkedIn is an ideal place to stand out. It’s the first place most recruiters look, and the easiest way to get their attention. I focused on making the most of your profile aesthetically, as well as making sure your settings are optimized for maximum visibility, but LinkedIn adds new features all the time and you want to be constantly editing and enhancing your profile. 

1. Make sure you have an up to date profile picture. Obviously this isn’t the time to get a new professional headshot taken, but if your picture is out of date you can still get a solid replacement right now. Natural light is best, go outside if you can in front of a neutral background. If you can’t get outside, use the best window you can. Parks are good, some city blocks work well too if you can get out without coming into close contact with other people (Benjamin’s LinkedIn is a good example of this). If you can’t get someone else to take a photo for you, Amazon has great options for cheap, portable phone tripods. This one can hook to almost anything, perfect if you’re trying to take your own headshot. Crop to focus on your head and shoulders and use an app like LightRoom or Snapseed to optimize the lighting or get rid of anything distracting in the background. 

2. Customize a banner for your profile. Canva has some great professional looking options here: https://www.canva.com/templates/search/linkedin-banners/ Have the banner include a short summary of you “Experienced Data Scientist seeking new opportunities in the Washington, DC area. Skills include: Machine Learning, Algorithm Development, and Natural Language Processing”. Include your email and phone number in the banner too. Recruiters have a limited number of LinkedIn messages they can send per month, so including your direct contact info makes our lives much easier. 

3. Focus on the “About” section. I would also include your phone number and email in this section (again we’re all about making it easier for recruiters to get in touch). Only a few lines show as a default, so it’s super important to include a “Click here to Continue” or “Click to Read More”. Bullet points are awesome and a great way to summarize your experience in a way that’s easy to skim and makes it easier to grab attention. 

4. Job postings are an easy way to get a sense of the particular words and phrases that will grab attention in your field. Pick a few companies you’d ideally like to work for and go to their job sites. Read through those job descriptions and borrow the parts you like. The closer your profile matches the jobs recruiters are working on, the easier it will be for them to find you. It’s not that recruiters don’t dig deep on LinkedIn to find the perfect candidate, it’s that they start with the ones who were easiest to locate.

5. The best part of your “About” section should become your tagline. That’s the quick, two line summary under your name. “Creative and Experienced Data Science Leader” is better than “Data Scientist at Capital One”. The second one answers most of the questions I have about a candidate right away, without opening your profile. The first one however would be more likely to make me open your profile and read in more depth.

6. Update the information under each of your past positions. This is the time to really build out the details. Use some of the phrases you liked for your about section, but also include all of the numbers and quantitative measures you can. Things like “Reduced application processing time by 50%”, “Finished Fiscal Year 2019 at 150% of quota”. Specifics help give your past work context and define your capabilities for people who aren’t familiar with your work. 

7. Take a Skill Quiz. You’ll find them on your profile under “Skills & Endorsements”. These are really geared toward technical skills (Git, Bash, Python, etc) but there are few creative skill sets in there too like Photoshop. If any of those apply to you it’s a quick way to get skills added to your profile without waiting on others to endorse you. If you don’t pass it won’t show on your profile, so nothing to lose here. 

8. Once you’ve updated all of the text and skills sections https://www.jobscan.co/ is a good (free) resource to see how your profile maps to the jobs you’re looking for. Using some of the job descriptions you already found, it will score your profile on how well it matches to your ideal job title and industry. It’ll also suggest updates and places where your profile could be further improved.

9. Under “Settings and Privacy” go to “Job Seeking Preferences”. Make sure “Let Recruiters Know You’re Open to Opportunities” is changed to YES as well as “Signal Your Interest to Companies You Have Created Job Alerts For”.  Wait what’s a job alert? On the top bar of LinkedIn click on the little briefcase with “Jobs” underneath. It will suggest jobs based on your profile, but also give you a bar to type in your desired title and location. You can set different alerts based on your parameters and LinkedIn will let you know when those jobs show up. Really the more the merrier here. LinkedIn crawls other job search sites, so it may be pulling from Monster, Career Builder, or Indeed, so yes you’ll see repeats, but some companies exclusively post to LinkedIn and you don’t want to miss those opportunities.

10. Make sure people can “see” your views. From a hiring perspective - I’ve never had an issue with a candidate checking my profile before an interview. If anything it just shows me they were doing their homework, being intentional about the conversation, and preparing for it. If you’re set to private you’re also missing a key data point - who has viewed YOUR profile. If you’re not sure what your current setting is this is under “Privacy” and “How others see your profile”. 

If You've Been Laid Off - Getting Your Head in the Right Place

This is part of our series on Coronavirus unemployment. If you missed part one start here and check back soon for additional posts. 

When I was laid off in 2015 I found out via text message on a Sunday night. I wanted to jump right to my laptop and start filling out applications, but my now husband made me promise to wait. “Take a few days, a week, whatever you need, give yourself a break.” He told me to take the dog to the park, go to the museums, sit in a coffee shop and read, just take some space for a few days. When he lost his job a few years later we were actually already on vacation, but he said the same thing, “when we get home I’m going to take a week and be mad about this”. 

That’s probably the best bit of job advice I have right now. Take a break. Trust me on this, you need a few days. You need some time to process, to grieve, to worry, to be angry. You have to feel all of those things to start moving on in a healthy way. Allow yourself a set amount of time, whatever seems reasonable to you, three days, five days, a week, and do not job search. Decide to take that time and actually take it without any guilt about what you aren’t doing right now. Take walks, read that book that’s been on your shelf forever, let yourself sleep in, play video games, do a coloring book, whatever you want. The goal here is clearing your head, as much as that’s possible right now. Don’t watch the news all day, I promise it’s not changing and if it does, someone will let you know. Try to stay off of social media too, seeing others work from home won’t make you feel better, and will just reinforce some of the angry and hurt feelings. This break is so important because trying to job search before you’ve taken some time to clear your head is both really difficult, and usually really unproductive. Job searching requires your focus and dedication, two things that most people who’ve been recently laid off need a few days to rediscover. 

Managing expectations is also a huge part of caring for your mental health in unemployment, especially this particular kind of unemployment. Everyone wants to know how long this will last and what hiring will look like when it’s over, but we’re all in uncharted territory here. I have no idea how many companies will move to rehire workers immediately, and how many will take their time and bring employees back slowly through the fall and winter. My professional opinion is that things will tend toward the later, and that’s where I would set your expectations. I know that doesn’t seem like a very helpful thought, but I truly don’t mean for it to be a negative thing. By getting comfortable with the idea now, that your job search may take longer than you want, you can free yourself up from some of the feelings of guilt and failure that inevitably sink in later. You knew this would be hard, and you were ready for that. At the same time, expecting this to be a difficult search from the beginning means you know right now that you’ll have to work hard. For all the things we don’t know right now, I do know one thing for sure - the first people to find jobs will be the ones working hardest to find them. 

Setting boundaries is an equally important part of protecting your mental health in a job search. Boundaries can mean a lot of different things - how much time you spend on your job search every day, how much time you’ll spend talking about your job search with other people, and how much you’ll share with those people. You know you best, for some people having an outlet and sharing every aspect is super important, for other people discussing their job search in depth, even with their spouse or best friends, just makes them feel more anxious. Of course the people closest to you will want to help and will want to know how it’s going, just realize that it’s okay to let them know when you don’t want to talk about it any more. As far as your personal boundaries, I would decide now on some specific blocks of time you want to allocate to job searching. Especially now, when none of us are really on any particular schedule, it’s easy to let your days turn into long stretches in front of the screen where nothing really happens. Decide when you’re most “on” and block a few 2-3 hour stretches during that time to commit to working on the job search. Outside of those times, allow yourself to do other things. Imposing some time boundaries will help give you feelings of a deadline and deliverables, but also make sure you don’t feel guilty about taking time to walk the dog, read a book, or whatever else helps you decompress. 

Lastly, go easy on yourself. This is a really hard and scary time and a lot of things are really uncertain. You’ll have bad days or bad moments, that’s to be expected and it’s 100% okay.

What To Do First If You've Been Laid Off

First and foremost - I always think it’s important to reiterate that there is no right or wrong way to feel after a layoff. There is anger, fear, grief, frustration, and a whole host of other emotions that are unique and individual to every person going through this. However you feel, those emotions are valid, understandable, and perfectly okay. A lot of us in HR and Recruiting are struggling our way through this like everyone else, but most of what I would tell someone newly laid off hasn’t changed. Treat this as your checklist of sorts, a to-do list for your first few days of unemployment. 

• Off-boarding Paperwork: Complete all of the off-boarding paperwork as soon as you can. The paperwork should outline what (if any) severance you’re going to receive and should also have information on COBRA (or at least tell you when and from where that info will come). Especially important right now is making sure you’re clear on whether you’ve been furloughed or laid off. Employees who have been laid off are permanently terminated and eligible for unemployment. If companies have furloughed employees it means they fully intend to bring them back to work as soon as possible. Furloughed employees often retain their benefits and some portion of their salary. 

• Find a second reader: I always recommend recruiting a second set of eyes. It’s (understandably) a really tough time and emotions don’t always make the best, most detail oriented readers of us all. A second reader can point out anything you might have missed, or any red flags you want to follow up on. 

• Ask Questions: Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Human Resources gets a bad rap, but they do play an important part here. You might need to advocate for yourself or follow up multiple times, but don’t be afraid or feel bad for doing so. If any part of the paperwork you’re required to sign is unclear or if any of the terms don’t match what you were told when you were let go, you’re doing the right thing by following up. However - and this is a big one, the golden rule is never more true then when you’re leaving a job. Treat your HR rep the way you would want to be treated. I can almost guarantee you they are not the one who made the decision to let you go, and I have never, ever in my life, met an HR manager who enjoys terminations. You can ask questions, you can follow up, and you absolutely should if you have any concerns, but you can do so politely. 

• Severance Payments: Make sure you know how your severance will be paid. Some companies issue paper checks for an employee's final payment. Some will do direct deposit, but on a different schedule, and some handle it exactly the same way they would your normal paycheck. Either way, you want to know what to expect. 

• Company Property: Make sure you return any company property. Such as: your laptop, keys, second monitor, company credit card, files you have at home, basically anything of value that belongs to the company even if they didn’t specifically list it or ask for it. Your offboarding paperwork probably has a deadline for doing so, and being late can delay your severance, or the company might take the cost of whatever you didn’t return out of your last check.

• Check your Access: In the digital age sometimes property means access. If you were ever an administrator on a company Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or any other platform, make sure you sign yourself out and remove yourself as an admin as soon as possible. You’d be amazed how often the company forgets about this. I once discovered weeks after leaving a job I was still an admin on my old company’s LinkedIn page. I removed myself as soon as I knew, but I was shocked they hadn’t done so first, and SO glad I hadn’t accidentally posted an update to that page. 

• File for Unemployment: File for unemployment as soon as you’re able. If you’re in a multi state situation (like working in DC but living in Virginia) you might be able to choose which state to collect unemployment from. In that case it’s in your best interest to go through the process in both places so you can evaluate which would pay more money. Keep in mind that with unemployment nothing is immediate and you might be waiting a week or two from filing to actually start receiving money. 

• Evaluate your Insurance Options: Insurance is a tough one. Before saying yes or no to your COBRA coverage hop on healthcare.gov and see what your coverage options and costs look like there. Losing your job does count as a qualifying event, so you’re eligible to enroll through the exchanges even if it’s not open enrollment time. COBRA coverage can range from totally reasonable (or at least consistent with what you paid as an employee) to ridiculously expensive, so it’s worth at least exploring your other options. Just make sure you double check the last date you’re covered under your current insurance. 

I know, nothing on here about finding a new job. I’ll get to that later this week. But first things first, and the most important thing in the early days is to make sure you’ve handled all of the above as thoroughly and thoughtfully as possible. Making sure you’ve taken care of all business related to leaving your old job is essential to setting you up for your next one.

Should you fear a candidate that “jumps”?

“Too many jobs.” 

It’s not the top reason hiring managers give me for not wanting to speak to a candidate, but it’s pretty darn close. For some understandable reasons, and some more unfounded ones, hiring managers are notoriously spooked by candidates who’ve “jumped” jobs too often. That mindset has gotten through to candidates too, and a lot of them now seem firmly convinced that one year is a sort of magical barrier - stay that long and you can’t be accused of moving too often. 

My opinion? Especially for younger candidates, those jumps don't indicate a lack of commitment or focus, often it's the very opposite. Motivated employees seek out new challenges, even if that means they have to find a new place to work. Sure, some people are trying to outrun a bad work ethic by moving around as much as they can, but I truly don’t believe that’s as common as we think. We’re also in a unique moment. 

In 2010 half of workers 20-24 had been with their employer less than a year. Some attribute that to a millennial tendency toward using your 20’s to “feel out” different careers. But I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. The generation of college students that graduated in the middle of the economic downturn of 2008 is just now in their mid 30’s. The youngest employees were the ones hardest hit by the downturn - they were the newest at their companies, and thus the first out the door. Or they graduated and took a job, any job, to get started. Basically I’m not sure there’s a lot to read into the number of job changes someone in their mid 30’s made when they were in their mid 20’s. More or less, it’s just a reality of the economy they graduated into. 

From age 22 to 32 I had six different jobs. I also moved twice, finished grad school, was laid off once, and had a position eliminated when my company was acquired. By a lot of hiring manager’s standards, I’ve jumped quite a bit, but in only one of those situations was it my decision. I don’t think I’m all that unusual. 

A former co-worker who is also my age has worked for three now defunct companies and one museum that shuttered. By conventional standards her resume would probably spook most hiring managers. SO many jobs! But she’s hard working, super smart, and really wants to work somewhere she can start a long term career. 

I interviewed a sales person last year who was looking for her third job in three years. She’d started fresh out of college at a government contracting company that lost their biggest contract and with it, let her go. She moved to a small consulting firm where she worked as a receptionist, answering phones, scheduling meetings, ordering office supplies. She said it was fine, but it wasn’t challenging and she really wanted to be pushed. They told her she could move into consulting when a spot opened up, after a year and a half it hadn’t so she moved on. She took a sales job for a small start up because it seemed to fit the bill, but was back on the market six months later because it folded. 

I guess what I’m saying is that I think it’s time to shift our thinking from assuming candidates are running FROM something to asking what it is they’re working toward. As the graduates of the economic downturn move into the middle of their careers their resumes will be quite a bit more complex than those of their older co-workers. They’ve had to work hard to forge a path and piece together a career in an economic climate that was strongly stacked against them. Maybe we don’t focus so much on the number of jobs they’ve had, and instead focus on what it represents - a whole lot of hard work and hustle. 

Why Anger Can't Fuel Your Job Search

Before I moved full time into recruiting I was a career counselor and coach. Basically instead of working with companies to find candidates, I worked with candidates to find companies. I’ve loved making the switch, but I do miss coaching. The start of a new year tends to be a big time for job searches, so check back over the next few weeks as I put my career coach hat back on with a series I’ve been working on for candidates. 

A few years ago I was sitting in a routine weekly update meeting. I ran through some revenue figures for my department and my boss responded with “that’s IT?”. Almost instantly I felt my cheeks go red, and I sank a little lower in my chair. On one hand, he had a point, we were behind, very behind, on the projections we’d outlined for Q1. On the other, this wasn’t new information. Less than 24 hours before we’d talked privately about the numbers and discussed a plan moving forward. He’d been fairly level headed about it when we’d talked the day before, so his public frustration was the cherry on top of a bad week, and I was furious. I stormed back to my desk, searched my email for the most recent copy of my resume, and fired it off to the first 10 jobs I found on Indeed. After 30 minutes or so I’d calmed down, and went back to work. I’m leaving, I told myself, I’m officially looking now, and I’m outta here. 

I’ve been in the career coaching and recruiting world for almost 10 years now, and that’s how about 80% of the job searches I see begin, just like mine, full of righteous anger and indignation. People stroll out of the office that night thinking “ha, I’ll show them, I’m really done this time.” And they might keep that energy and that anger for a few days, or weeks, and might fire off a few more rounds of easy applies on LinkedIn or Indeed. And then whatever the thing was that triggered their job search fades into the background, along with the immediate desire to leave. I should know, just like so many of my clients I repeated that cycle for almost two years. 

I don’t see many of these job searches succeed - because the thing fueling them is anger. Anger at a particular person or situation that doesn’t feel fair, or anger at feeling stuck in a project or position that doesn’t really serve you. That anger though, doesn’t sustain a job search. Not the right kind of job search. Anger makes you feel justified in leaving your job, but it’s a pretty inconsistent feeling, and consistency is everything. 

Even the not so drastic emotions derail a job search. We’re all emotionally attached to and invested in our jobs in some way. You might not love the work, but you probably do like the people, or value the security, or just appreciate the routine and predictability. It’s the whole “devil you know” argument. There are lots of things that make the prospect of leaving a job an emotionally fraught endeavor. It’s why I see so many candidates who are “totally ready” to make a jump languishing in their jobs 12-18 months after I first talk to them. The anger that fueled the initial search comes and goes, and the more positive emotions connected to their job stick around. 

That’s usually where coaching someone through a job search starts - accepting that finding a new role isn’t personal, and detaching the new job you hope to find from the one you no longer like. A job search requires consistent sustained action, not the kind you get when you let your feelings spin your job search up and down. Once you’ve committed to leaving, we aren’t going to talk about how you feel about your current job any more - in the most unfortunately blunt way, it doesn’t matter. Changing your job means coming up with a plan. A plan isn’t going to be dictated by the thing that made you mad today, and a plan commits you to constant activity, even when you’d rather be doing something else, or your emotions about your job (good or bad) kick in. That’s why a career counselor or coach is such a good idea for many job seekers, it’s our job to hold you accountable. 

Of course that’s harder than it sounds, it’s hard NOT to have feelings about a place you spend 40 or more hours a week. It’s a complete mindset shift . You are a business of one and you have to protect that business. You have talents and skills that make you a valuable part of any team, and your job is to find the best place to put those skills to use. There is nothing personal about that decision, and there is nothing selfish about prioritizing your professional growth.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to dig in more on when it’s time to make a plan for your next role, how to formulate a plan that makes sense, and how to turn your plan into action.

2020 Goals

We have quite a few goals for 2020 - but one of the things we’re especially focused on this year is sharing more of our expertise and experience. We’re always talking to clients, friends, people we meet at our Co-Working space (hi WeWork Rosslyn!) and really anyone we meet about recruiting, hiring, and the things we’ve learned along the way. But this industry and our business are always changing and evolving and we’re committed to putting more of what we’ve learned down on paper in a slightly more organized fashion.

Alyssa is going to kick off the year with a series she’s been working on for candidates. If you’re looking for a new job in 2020 you’ll want to come back to see what she’s written about putting together an organized and intentional search for your next challenge.

Later this spring Benjamin will take over with tips for companies. What works, what doesn’t, how the candidate pipeline has changed, and how you can stay ahead of it.

We’ll continue to share articles and resources from other outlets we like on our social media pages (head over to Facebook and LinkedIn and give us a like and a follow if you haven’t already!) but we’ll be focused on using this space to tell our story and share our experience as a small business. We’re glad to have you along for the ride!