[splitimage]

20 years ago when I graduated from university, job hunting was pretty simple. You had your standard resume, that you probably had printed somewhere, because most people didn't have printers at home. You looked in the newspaper for job ads. You typed up a personalized cover letter, put it in the mail, and you got an acknowledgement of your application. If you didn't get the job, you at least got a form letter telling you you didn't get the job.

I just came out of a 2 day job search workshop that was really good, and definitely challenged me to think outside the box. But here's the catch now to be successfull according to the career coach I need to:

Completely redo my profile on LinkedIn (Being on LinkedIn is a given)

Join lots of groups on LinkedIn and post discussion topics to them.

Have a business blog, linked to my LinkedIn profile, to give people a reason to keep coming back to my profile.

Have a glossy 1 page summary of my resume, with testimonials, that I can link to from my LinkedIn page, use as a marketing tool / leave behind.

Send out a minimum of 2 cards a day directly to hiring managers (a kinder gentler version of cold calling) so I have to research companies and use my network to get names of hiring managers. Oh and I have to create the card as a marketing piece of myself.

Have a mindmap, demonstrating, how I think and would approach a new job that I take to interviews to use as a discussion piece.

Have a Unique Selling Proposition, that I use as my personal branding statement.

Have networking meetings with complete strangers (sends my anxiety through the roof.)

Customize the first 3'rd of my resume to every job I apply to.

oh yeah - and there's still applying to job ads.

splitimage, whose head is still spinning...

I hear you!!! Things were a lot simpler back then in a lot of respects. It seems like it was also easier to get a job back then. The only real positive I can think of NOW as far as finding a job is that you can search the internet to help in the job search. But its all gotten very complicated!!

Not only that, but, having a degree in my town will simply get me minimum wage work....tens of thousands of dollars in debt for a degree and I am competing with others with degrees to get minimum wage work....not even full time. The employers prefer to hire the unemployed instead of somebody working, because the govt will pay 40 - 60 % of the wages for a year. Once that year is up, they let the employee go and hire another on unemployment checks to keep their labour costs down. Meanwhile, I who am employed in a menial job and trying to better myself, am refused. The govt incentives are just cheap tricks for companies and ruining employment for those who want to better themselves.

[okayone]

Originally Posted by splitimage

20 years ago when I graduated from university, job hunting was pretty simple. You had your standard resume, that you probably had printed somewhere, because most people didn't have printers at home. You looked in the newspaper for job ads. You typed up a personalized cover letter, put it in the mail, and you got an acknowledgement of your application. If you didn't get the job, you at least got a form letter telling you you didn't get the job.

I just came out of a 2 day job search workshop that was really good, and definitely challenged me to think outside the box. But here's the catch now to be successfull according to the career coach I need to:

Completely redo my profile on LinkedIn (Being on LinkedIn is a given)

Join lots of groups on LinkedIn and post discussion topics to them.

Have a business blog, linked to my LinkedIn profile, to give people a reason to keep coming back to my profile.

Have a glossy 1 page summary of my resume, with testimonials, that I can link to from my LinkedIn page, use as a marketing tool / leave behind.

Send out a minimum of 2 cards a day directly to hiring managers (a kinder gentler version of cold calling) so I have to research companies and use my network to get names of hiring managers. Oh and I have to create the card as a marketing piece of myself.

Have a mindmap, demonstrating, how I think and would approach a new job that I take to interviews to use as a discussion piece.

Have a Unique Selling Proposition, that I use as my personal branding statement.

Have networking meetings with complete strangers (sends my anxiety through the roof.)

Customize the first 3'rd of my resume to every job I apply to.

oh yeah - and there's still applying to job ads.

splitimage, whose head is still spinning...

phew - now my head is spinning - I now feel like I'm not doing enough to land a job. The good ole days of a stellar resume is just not enough anymore but in this economy you must exhaust every possible avenue. Have you gotten anywhere with all your efforts??????????????

[Koko2]

Yes, the good old days were much better for job hunting. Now, where I live, almost everything is posted through a government agency, and I feel like I'm in the Soviet Union while job hunting. No more door-to-door impressing potential employers. Just stand in line for my turn with a frowning government employee who will print off online application instructions for me, then I never hear back from the potential employers. Those days of form letter rejections are gone. If I walk into a store to apply, they send me home to apply online which always takes a long time with those behavioral profile questionnaires.

[gma45]

Ok my head is spinning big time! Don't know if I will ever find work now. I think I could do the work if I could only get thru the application process.