By: CareerAlley
“Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.” – William Shakespeare
So what is the most difficult environment you’ve ever worked in? Everyone has their horror stories. Some don’t seem as bad when you compare them to someone else’s sob story. One of mine (and I do have many) was early in my career when I was working for a company that was very competitive and believed in a competitive work environment (ironically, this company is no longer around). Every year, managers had to fire the bottom 25% of their staff (whether they were good or not) and replace them with “better” staff. As you can imagine, everyone looked for any advantage they could get. This meant highlighting all of the good things you did and trying to put your coworkers under the “hot lights” for anything they did that was not perfect. One night, someone apparently stayed late so that they could make copies of their resume. Unfortunately, they left a copy of the resume in the copier and whoever found it made copies and left a copy of the resume was on everyone’s desk (including the boss). Not exactly the best place to work, but a great training ground for guerrilla warfare. For the poor guy who lost his job because he was not careful with his resume, I’m sure this is not his favorite job search story. What’s yours?
- How I Got My Job – Need some inspiration? This is a great place to start. As you may have guessed by the name, this site focuses on people’s success stories. Browse through all of the stories and take a look (actually, listen via mp3s, just click the link). The site presents success stories via podcasts and there is a new story every week. Visit the “about” page for some background. Do you have a success story you want to tell? You can do that too. There are lots of stories and lots of inspiration. Definitely take a look (listen).
- LinkedIn Success Stories – I’ve mentioned LinkedIn on quite a few of my posts and I do think it is one of the best internet tools for helping you land a job. This article, from About.com, lists four success stories. But the best part of the article follows the success stories. At the bottom of the page are several links for successfully using LinkedIn in your job search (like LinkedIn Mobile, LinkedIn Job Search and more). And, there is more. There are additional related links to get you on your way to finding a job through LinkedIn.
- Two More Guerrilla Job-Search Success Stories – I mention Guerrilla warfare in my intro, and this article mentions a few guerrilla tactics to help you land your job. If you are not finding a job using your current tactics, there is no harm in trying these. There are related links at the bottom of the article as well as related topics to on the left hand side of the page as well as topic specific links on the right hand side to help with aspects of your job search.
- Job Search Horror Stories – Just as important as what works is knowing what doesn’t work (or maybe you just want to know you are not the only one with bad luck). Career expert Alison Doyle provides a number of topics for you to consider (like worst job search mistakes or worst resume mistakes). The article is definitely worth a read and you can share your stories as well.
- THE SEVEN SEARCH TECHNIQUES – This article, from highlyeffectivejobsearch.com, provides some techniques that might work for you. The article is divided into several sections – techniques that work for only a few people, those that work for 25% of people and one that works for everyone. From “Cold Calling” to “Networking” (and all of the stuff between), it is definitely worth a read.
Good luck in your search.
Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.