Is the Job Landscape that Spooky?
Where has all the optimism gone?
Bombarded by newscasts, newspaper articles, tweets, posts and friendly chatter about unemployment as well as underemployment running high for many professionals and a backdrop of civil unrest and countries going bankrupt: one must ask where has the optimism gone?
Is your home a sanctuary?
Sometimes I think back to those cold November days as a child and getting home from school to find my mother in the warm kitchen baking cookies and preparing supper and all my sisters fighting to see who would get to lick the beaters clean. I never worried about food or if I would have a warm place to sleep, all I had to do was open the fridge and grab whatever I wanted. I never had to worry if the lights would stay on or if I would have a lunch the next day. I was and still am an optimist but I am also saddened by the frequent calls I get from desperate professionals seeking work who are on the verge of having the lights turned off on their kids and also losing the nice cozy warm safe beds for their children. Living with anxiety is not a great childhood. Don’t let job loss ruin even one childhood.
Career Professionals not prepared?
Professional engineers and scientist are ill prepared for job loss and job search and that conclusion can also be extrapolated to most professionals. The tragedy is that frequently the unemployed are eating up all their savings and in some cases even losing their homes as they conduct futile job searches. Why are these job searches futile? Because many professionals still rely on the job boards and job postings to find work and these only work for commodity jobs (inside sales, customer service and other similar type). The landscape has changed forever and professional engineers and professional scientists and all occupational specialists and professionals need to wake up to the new job search and consider creating a professional image that attracts attention and respect online and marketing that image.
Get Found, Get Hired
When is the best time to start a job search marketing strategy? When you are employed and barring that RIGHT NOW! You must develop a professional image online not a personal brand and you must promote your keywords and link them to your identity. When it comes to ProfessionaliBranding a LinkedIn profile is a good start but it is not enough. You need to develop a job search strategy that attracts employers rather than having to push yourself on employers, in other words you need to be a candidate not an applicant! Forbes.com claims there are many jobs available but professionals lack the skills necessary to do the jobs. Hog Wash I say Professionals in job search do a bad job of promoting their competencies and try too hard to “fit in” rather than promote what is a “good fit” for them.
Paul Hill, job search expert has had over 25 years in the job search trenches and is an award winning international recruiter, and creator of Get Found, Get Hired. A transformational coach, author and speaker recognised as an expert in polishing the images of individuals’ and their reputations online. He is the Founder and Chief Instructor of Transition to Hired. To find out more about how to get your ProfessionaliBrand working for you, visit Get Found, Get Hired. Love to hear from you if you need any help or would like to chat E-mail me .
Tags: engineers, job scientists, job search, job search expert, jobs, jobs engineers, keywords, linkedin profile, occupational specialists, professional brand, professional branding, scientists
