Your Inability to Find a Job isn’t the Economy’s Fault
So you can’t find a job. That sucks. Guess what sucks even more? Apparently you do at finding a job. Here’s why…
The job market, for the most part, is a giant game of creativity, deception and hard work. I know these things don’t normally sound like they go together but when you think about everything you need to go through in order to find a job, actually get the job and keep the job it’s a combination of these three items. Unless you’ve been handed a trust fund, you’re in the same boat as everyone else. Not a single person just “walked into” their job. Sure, maybe it was setup for them but whoever set it up did so for a reason which is probably a result of that work that the newly employed fella did. Everything that happens to us happens because of something we either did or didn’t do. Okay, now that we have the theory or relativity worked into this let’s apply it to you and opening the newspaper in search of a six-figure job.
You’ve got to be creative. ¬†Everyone out there who thinks that just posting your resume on Criagslist is a good idea, you should really pay attention here. Turn the tables around. If you were an employer who was going to shell out your desired salary + 25% for employment taxes, wouldn’t you want someone who’s willing to do more than just post a PDF online? Get your lazy ass out there and come up with a creative way to get noticed! Fly a hot air balloon over the financial district holding a banner with your name and phone number on it. Sure, you may get some creepy calls but you’ll get noticed. How about you do some serious digging online or social engineering to find the name of the manager responsible for the¬†department¬†you’d like to work in? I’m not saying that it’s easy, but it is possible. You could figure out where the executive management goes to hang out for lunch. Make a point of bumping into them and buy a drink. This stuff isn’t rocket science people, it just takes some creativity and a set of brass balls.
I recently received an email from a woman who was looking for a position as a copywriter in the marketing industry. She did her research and found my direct email address. Then she took a bit of time and actually read through the company website. In the process of that, she found a typo. When emailing me her resume she mentioned that there was a typo and pointed out that her job is to avoid issues like this in the future. I really don’t care what her resume says (it’s probably B.S. anyway) because I already know that she’s qualified for the job and has the determination to drive herself given that she found my direct email address.
Then we get into the argument of the economy and that’s why you can’t find a job. Okay, I’ll agree that the economy is tough right now, but that just means you need to be tougher. If you can’t figure out how to position yourself above the rest of the crowd, then you truly don’t deserve the job. There’s a reason you’re failing and rather than pissing and moaning about failing maybe you should change your strategy.
I hear on a regular basis about how lucky I am that I work for myself and don’t need to search for a job. To everyone who believes that: go f- yourself. Nothing I have done is based on luck. Everything in my life is the result of the big three above: creativity, deception and hard work. Sure, maybe some combination of those three have lead to opportunities in my life but they weren’t the result of luck. You don’t need luck either, just put your nose to the grindstone and quit complaining about not having a job.
So, at the end of the day, the only reason you can’t find a job is because you’re not applying yourself correctly. Maybe it’s in the wrong places, maybe you’re advertising the wrong qualities or maybe you’re not advertising at all. Regardless of the reason please drop the broken record complaint about the economy. If you can’t cut it, then you need to look to yourself rather than placing the blame elsewhere.
As a bonus piece of advice, you should probably¬†reevaluate¬†what your skills are actually worth. Sure, you might have been paid $60k per year to answer the phones in the past, but are you really worth that? If you just got out of school, don’t even bother looking for something $30k or more. Nobody cares that you were stupid enough to drop $100k on school, that’s your problem. You still don’t have the necessary experience or real world skills to justify that six-figure income. Search for a job with income requirements that are actually realistic to the work you’re looking for. It’ll help, I promise.
3 Comments
Let me back you up a moment, first and foremost the older generation knows what a job is worth and are willing to withold and make the most of it as they should. Secondly the world population continues to rise and immigration status is approved so they get a visa and are willing to work in America and not give the opportunity to a citizen. For these reasons it has made the unemployed undesireable and we cannot compete with that. American infrastructure has always been, “lets see where the best deal is and persue it” overseas don’t seem to have this problem, where is America going wrong. Everyone likes a deal, but to make money you have to have an opportunity and an opportunity sparks ambition that’s what is lacking in today’s society we have everything we want we don’t care where its made. I would like to see America be self sufficient
It sounds like you didn’t understand the point of this article. I’m not arguing the value of a job, rather I am pointing out the process that one could follow to find a job in nearly any market. As the population rises, domestically or internationally, the job market expands as well. More people means that more services are needed, in general. A shrinking population works exactly the same way.
“America does not give opportunity to a citizen” – this is where you’re fundamentally wrong in your expectation. America has not ever, and should not ever give opportunity to a citizen. That’s called a handout. What America does provide is the freedom for a citizen to take advantage of an opportunity. It sounds subtle, but makes all the difference in the world.
Again, I disagree with you that there’s a lack of opportunity in today’s society. I work with small business owners every day and they are constantly churning out hundreds, maybe thousands of ideas to take advantage of opportunities. No country is self-sufficient in today’s global economy. It’s simply not possible to thrive without having an international role.
Sorry for the misunderstanding