You Have One Month to Find a Job – Nothing like Some Pressure

By Harold Webb

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The bills are piling up, and you will soon have no lights, TV or internet; your parents have sold their home, and you have to vacate your free living quarters in the basement; you’ve made an expensive bet with a friend that you can find a job in 30 days. Now is the moment of truth – you can’t put it off for another day. Time to get into 5th gear and follow these sure-fire tips.

Devise Your Schedule

You have 30 days. You are going to have to plan out your time as if you were writing a dissertation with no deadline flexibility. Every day and night counts, so stock up on coffee and let’s get started.

1.    Focus on Reality. Stop tweaking your resume and applying for jobs that are not a fit for you background and skills. This is a colossal waste of time, because totally qualified candidates are applying and they will get the interviews. Conduct your job search scientifically – you can do this by keywords on any clearinghouse site and on LinkedIn.

2.    Send Your Resume to Recruiters. They are motivated to place good candidates in the right jobs – that’s how they earn money. If you are a fit for any opening they have, you’ll get the calls.

3.    Challenge the Robots and Win. You know that when your resume is “out there” it will only get picked up if there are keyword matches between the job description and your resume. Sophisticated software is screening resumes and dumping those without the “right” terms. So, when you read a job description, paste it into “Wordle” and see how often key terms come up. Those that come up at least 2 times need to go into your resume at least 2 times as well. So tweak that puppy for every position.

4.    Get on the company Website. Read the “about us” and the “mission/vision” links. Paste them into “Wordle” and find the key words and phrases. Get those in your cover letter.

5.    Update your LinkedIn Profile. You know those keywords you found? Re-write your profile and stick them in – hiring managers search LinkedIn for those words.

6.    Network to the max. Send out a mass email to everyone in your contact list. Summarize your key skills and background and attach your resume. You never know when that resume might be forwarded to HR by someone who works for a great company. Networking really does work.

7.    Find old friends on Facebook: Message them and attach your resume. If you can find a phone number, even better.

8.    Start every day with a “to-do” list. And that list does not include meeting friends for happy hours. It means that you have more than a full-time job right now and you don’t have time for anything or anyone else. If there is no one to send a resume to, find companies and organizations that are in your career niche, tweak your resume for that organization, and send it “blind.” Brush up on your interview skills. Practice with someone, so that you become completely comfortable. Come up with interview questions that might be asked and prepare your responses so that they flow out easily during that interview.

The real key to finding a job, especially within 30 days, is persistence and energy. You will need lots of both, but it can certainly be done.

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