By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.

It is Grammy night in our house or it seems.   Lori’s Mom Shirley, (all 84 + years) is doing her own version of ‘pants go down’ while swinging to the Grammys on her wide screen.  At dinner tonight Shirley was even sharing with Lori and me the similarities and differences between Beyoncé, The Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West, and Lady GaGa.  This is happening while Lori is focus on her work with the HR Florida 2010 conference and I am making final preparation on choosing which videos I will select to welcome my students back at the local community college.

In the vein of the Grammys it is equally difficult to choose what job search issues I would select as my nominees for the biggest barriers to employment search success.  I thought maybe I would share with you my nominees for poor performer of the year in the job search category.

Will the five nominees, in no particular order, please come forth.

First is the failure to recognize how your personality affects your decisions.   Each of us as individuals has a natural preference for our personality and our behavior.  It is like which hand do you prefer?  Is it your left or right?   Not knowing your orientation in assimilating this information places you at a big disadvantage in your job search. Understanding how you make your decisions or how you take in information  can give you a whole new outlook on the approach you use to seek employment.

Next we have Poor Preparation.  A job search is much more than just the distribution of your résumé.  For example do you carry a networking card?  Have you prepared a top-notch voice mail message to leave with a potential employer?  How effective is your 30 second marketing message?   Have you created a list of 50 contacts to begin your networking?  Great athletes don’t just step on the field and perform at maximum efficiency.  They break records because they prepare and prepare and….

Third is failure to launch.  What is your plan?  What will you do each day to conduct an effective job search?  How many contacts do you need to make in order to achieve a specific number of interviews each week?  There are many ways to seek employment.  Here are some suggestions: Networking, Social Media, Collaboration, Personal and Professional Contacts, Recruiters, Online Job Boards, Employer sites, Business locations, Cold Calling and Job Fairs. 

Here is a plan you can implement if you do not have anything in place:  Don’t look only for job openings.  Look for companies that hire people with your skill sets or occupations like the ones you seek.  And if you really, really need to move quickly – follow this direction for reaching out to potential employers:  READY, AIM, FIRE.  In other words find ways to place yourself in the ‘eyesight’ of the decision makers (lots of them) fast.  Get yourself out there.  

Lack of an occupational title is our fourth nominee.  There is no job called anything.  You will end up somewhere else if your job search is void of an occupational title.  Define yourself.  Seeking employment is difficult if you cannot wake up each day knowing what kind of position you will seek today.   (It does not have to be an occupational title.  It can be two or three skills that are transferable to a variety of occupations and industries.) 

Lastly our nominee is that many résumés are career obituaries.  They speak to the past and do not make the jump to the future.  In other words, the résumé does not focus on what the employer is seeking.  The majority of résumés are a chronological list of work history with the focus mostly limited to company names, dates of employment, and job titles.

Employers are not mind readers. Your résumé must make it clear how your skills match what they seek.  Be very careful not to make your résumé a recollection of things dead and gone.  Make it a living reflection that points out how you can fix your prospective employers’ problems.

PS  One résumé does not fit all.  How could it match the position completely if your résumé is written before the ad is posted?  Your résumé must be tweaked to fit each position you apply. 

So who is my winner this Grammy season?  Who will go home with the trophy?

It is YOU!  You are the winner because you can integrate this information into your strategic plan which will lead you to your desired outcome.  You will achieve results by improving your effectiveness, which in turn will increase your opportunities.