You're only looking for one (job that is)

A participant from the US in last week's free call on Career Management and Job Search issues has been out of work for awhile and I asked her what she'd been doing to find a job.  She replied by saying that there were 'no jobs in (her) industry!' I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 

I wanted to laugh because there are always jobs available.  No matter how bad the economy is, people are being hired every day.  Cry because this is the prevailing attitude of so many people I see.  And as a result, they just give up.  And the saddest thing I've ever seen, is someone who has given up: given up on themselves.  Given up on their resourcefulness. 

I've worked with people professionally for over 30 years.  First as a waitress (Red Lobster and Swensens), then as a Front Desk Clerk in a hotel (The Hermitage Hotel in Nashville), then an Accountant with with a Big 4 CPA firm (pauses for flashbacks), then as a Recruiter with several firms and finally as a Career Coach, Speaker and Trainer.

If there's one thing I've learned from 30 years of working with people it's that they are endlessly resourceful once they put their mind to something.

And, in this economy resourcefulness is just what's needed.

So think of your job search as a target.  Your Bulls Eye is obviously a role in the same industry you've worked in.  But let's say that's not available to you.  Your particular function is being phased out for some reason.  Go to the first circle away from the bullseye.

What other functions can you do within your industry?  No job is strictly one dimensional.  People have been asked to do more with less and have been actively cross training for the last 20 years.  What other skills could you bring to the table doing something that is needed in this economy?

No ideas?  Okay, let's say for arguments sake, that there really are NO jobs in your industry.  For some reason, your particular field was made completely obsolete overnight by some new fangled invention that just hit the market.  That's actually the ONLY way that there would be NO jobs available, by the way.  There may be fewer jobs and they may be in different geographies, but there are always SOME jobs.  You may need to employ different strategies to find them, but they are out there.

Then what?  Time to move to the second circle around the Bulls Eye.  What other industry would LOVE to hire someone with your skills?

Still no options there?  I find that extremely difficult to believe, but okay I'll run with it.  Maybe it's time to think about what you would you have done had you not trained to do what you've spend the last X years doing?  Is that an option now?

How about owning your own business?  Statistics  show that more start up SUCCEED in a down economy than a buoyant one. 

Seriously, the target actually doesn't have to get that big to find a niche you can slide into if you are flexible, persistent and use multiple strategies to source work.  

So, if something isn't working (job search strategies, industries or functions you are targeting) try something else.  And if that doesn't work try something else.  And if that doesn't work, try something else.  See where I'm going with this?

I will always remember the advice I was given as a young accountant (pauses for more hideous flashbacks) looking for my first role outside of the Big 4.  I had applied for a job with Coca Cola. I remember being so excited when I got a call from the recruiter handling the role.  I put on my pin stripe suit and little silk bow tie (hey, it was 1991!) and went to meet him.

He informed me that I was one of 400 people that had applied for the same job and was probably one of the least qualified to do it.  My face just dropped. 

Then he looked at me and said the words I will never forget.  'Don't worry, it doesn't matter how many hundreds of people are looking for jobs.  You're only looking for one.  You may not get this one, but as long as you don't give up, you'll find one that's meant just for you.' 

I found my job within a month.  Those words changed my life because they changed my attitude.  And attitude is everything.  

So don't give up.  Get flexible and stay persistent.  Resourcefulness will prevail.