Are you frustrated by your job search and feel like you’re spinning your wheels?
Recently, Stephen sent in an email asking a question about his job search as he was getting frustrated because he was getting nowhere with his activities.
He asked this …
“I feel like I am spinning my wheels. I seem to be busy every day with my job search but at the end of the week, I can’t identify one accomplishment. My job search seems to be taking forever and is getting more frustrating every day. I can’t seem to get any traction. What can I do to get my search back on track?”
Well Stephen, I feel your pain.
You can’t control when you will get a job, so it is hard to find something to celebrate until you get a job. It is hard to know if you are making progress and it often leads to a continuous sense of frustration and failure.
As a job search and career coach, I tell my clients that a job search is like a project plan without an end date.
While you can’t control the end date when you receive a job offer, you can control your own activity with a solid Job Search Marketing Plan.
(I say Marketing plan, because you really are marketing yourself!)
Like any project, you need a project plan that breaks this huge initiative of finding a job into bite-sized pieces, with short-term goals. You can celebrate an achievement of a short-term goal even if you don’t get a job that day. This is called a Job Search Marketing Plan.
A Job Search Marketing Plan is not busy work. It is a plan with a goal of finding a job.
Since you design this project plan, you elect which tasks you want to accomplish in any given week or month.
You want to select high-value activities and goals that move you forward.
I like to measure progress with my clients in terms of “coffee goals.” It takes a large number of LinkedIn connections, leading to a number of conversations that lead to a few coffee meetings to build relationships with folks who can help your cause.
We use a daily activity tracking checklist with our clients and students so that they can see what accomplishments happened from their work. Tracking this activity is key to knowing what work you put in to reach your ultimate goal.
The best part of a good job search marketing plan is you WILL have something to celebrate!
- Did you achieve the number of coffee goals you chose for the week? Celebrate.
- Did you send out the number of resumes you promised yourself? Celebrate.
- Did you research and reach out to the number of folks at target companies? Have some ice cream!!
Setting high-value, periodic goals around high-value actions moves your job search forward faster. You get that traction you are missing today when all you want to celebrate and plan for is the end result of this project – the job.
The better way to find that job is to create a plan that helps you see your success and achievements along the way – your job search marketing plan. Having a plan will stop the spinning wheels and help you get results.
If you want more help and guidance with your job search plans, then check out our Bootcamp and join us. Our Job Search Marketing Plan Bootcamp will walk you through a step-by-step system, with a tracking system, along with many other tools to help you achieve that ultimate goal – a New Job.