26 Feb 10 The hardest part of your job search

What is the hardest part of your job search?

Is it finding contacts to one of your target companies? Is it building a list of companies you’re targeting? How about preparing for interviews?

For me, the hardest part of my job search is also the most important part.  What I’m about to say is echoed time and again from people I’ve interviewed for the How I Got My Job job search success stories podcast. I believe it’s the most important part and most often the hardest. Because it requires so much work up front.

The Hardest Part of Your Job Search

The hardest part of your job search is finding out who you are, what you have to offer, and communicating that value to others in a clear manner. One of the most common qualities of successful job seekers is Authenticity. These are people who understand themselves and have communicated it in such a way that matches what hiring managers are looking for.

Why It’s Hard

In his latest book, Linchpin, Seth Godin talks about “thrashing.” In my own words thrashing is that emotional and even physical unrest we experience to some sort of change. It’s the body’s way of trying to protect itself from harm, part of the survival instinct that craves routine.

When you find yourself out of work and needing to reinvent yourself, this thrashing occurs. Someone has said that they don’t need you anymore, and it’s not surprising that you find yourself in an emotional tailspin.  So you thrash as you work toward finding out who you are and what value you have to offer.  It’s good that it occurs, actually, because you need to work out the emotions to get to the other side of the process.

(Re)-Discover Who You Really Are

I’ve been thrashing over the past day, weeks, and maybe even months, working on identifying what I have to offer. I’ve spent the past 14 years primarily doing paid work in information systems, in application development.  But over the past 8 years I’ve also developed some great expertise in social networking, so much so that others routinely ask me for advice and have even hired me from time to time to help them.

I’ve also gone through the StrengthsFinder assessment process and have learned that I have the following top 5 strengths:

1. Woo: winning others over; connecting easily with others
2. Positivity: seeing the best in people and situations
3. Strategic thinking: seeing things from the 40,000-foot perspective, ability to make the complex simple and easy to understand
4. Communication: expressing ideas in oral and written form, especially through stories
5. Activator: kick-starting projects, getting others excited about ideas

So maybe I don’t fit the profile of a typical application developer. But what to do with this experience and background? And how can I work that into a marketing document for myself?

The Resume Exercise

I agree with Dan Miller, the author of “48 Days to the Work You Love” and “No More Mondays,” that the exercise of putting together a resume is important, whether we’re planning to go to work for someone else or doing work for ourselves. The act of being able to authentically communicate who we are and what we offer to people who can hire us is of course important to them, but it’s equally important for us.

And yet this is where I’ve thrashed. Hard.

I think I’ve experienced what Cincinnati author Andrea Kay, in her book “Resumes That Will Get You the Job You Want,” calls “Rigid Resume Syndrome” (RRS). It’s this ideology that resumes must be a certain format or have a certain number of pages, and so forth. Different people tell you different things. The best resume is the one that gets you the interview, though, right?

I’ve had a technical resume that focused on what I did at my last job.  I’ve also put together a functional resume that highlighted my experience in the social networking space, but I was wasn’t really satisfied with it.

A Cause for Urgent Thrashing?

Yesterday I got a phone call from the co-owner and President of the company who was our primary vendor at my last job. He asked me to interview, based on a recommendation from former coworkers. And he also wanted me to email him my resume.

So I thrashed. But I eventually overcame the resistance I’d felt and was finally able to put together a resume I feel brings out the combination of skills, strengths, and experience that make up who I am and what my unique value proposition is.

In typical social media fashion, I’ve uploaded it to my Virtual Business Card page where people can download it.

Parting Thoughts

In a world where many of us are continuing to build our digital footprint in the online space, it’s easy to expect it to be enough for people looking to hire us to seek us out that way and that resumes shouldn’t be required. I’ve wondered why hiring managers have continued to ask for my resume.

I see things differently now. The experience of creating the resume has further distilled my personal marketing message, and I feel better equipped to talk about who I am and what I’m looking for to others.

Your Turn

What about you? I’d love to hear about your experiences in this area. Feel free to leave them in the comments below. Or, if you’d like to discuss privately, you can get in touch via the Contact page.

Note: I’ve included affiliate links to books mentioned above because I’ve found these resources helpful and believe you might as well. Also, this post was inspired by this morning’s Google Buzz update. More about how I’m using Google Buzz.

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• Are You Afraid of Success? (jibberjobber.com)
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• How I Got My Job as a Director of Client Services – Jeremy Anderson (howigotmyjob.com)

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Tags: 48 Days to the Work You Love, Employment, job hunt, Marketing, Seth Godin