You don’t want to hire a career coach, fine. Taking it from this career coach, looking for a job without the support of another human being, other than a family member, can feel as bad as going through a divorce.
So many job seekers go it alone, slowing an already painful job search
Seeking a job is such a lonely process. Therefore, it demands a strategic plan as I described in a recent blog Your Strategic Plan.
You might even keep your job search to yourself since:
- You may feel embarrassed you really hate your job
- An impending layoff or possible impending layoff has made you scared
- Unemployment or underemployment has depressed you
In the end, you might have two young kids running around the house when you are trying to get your life back on track.
Recruiters are great people; however, they work for the company that hired them, not you. Applying online and being ghosted will kill the most positive attitudes, as I have written about in Job Boards Will Kill You. The minute you think you are alone in your journey, you are in trouble.
You learned in kindergarten the value of a buddy
What if you don’t want to hire a career coach or resume writer? How do you keep your spirits up, learn about the marketplace, and figure out your next move?
Finding someone in the same field as you but seeking a different role can help leverage both of you and speed your job search. You can share so much with a buddy if you schedule weekly calls and risk vulnerability.
What can a buddy do for you?
- Relieve the fear of being alone
- Learn from each other’s successes and failures
- Keep each other on a job search schedule
- Assign each other job search exercises
A friend of mine was out of work and had been searching for a year
My friend did not want to hire me since money was an issue. I told him we could work something out. Too proud to take my time and resources, he ventured forth into a sea of job search loneliness.
He had spoken to almost every contact he had, but no luck. Once a million-dollar year banker on Wall Street, he was fighting with his wife and his 3 kids under the age of 10. Depression and anxiety came crawling in.
He was considering driving for Uber just to pull in cash and avoid the boredom of unemployment. The single most important ingredient in job search, confidence, left him.
I suggested he find a buddy to tag team their job search
Coming from Wall Street and all the layoffs over the past 5 years, he found it pretty easy to find a buddy who was not a banker but a trader, also out of work.
They committed to each other, putting a plan in place including:
- Speaking at 10:00 am every Thursday morning for an hour
- Coming to the discussion with written accounts of what they learned that week
- Each suggesting 5 new people each should call for networking
- Holding each other accountable for a 3 times a week exercise plan
Slowly they picked each other up, regained faith in themselves, and got back to networking.
It took 3 months for one and 5 months for the other to find fantastic jobs. They credit their success to the power of their buddy.
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