Hurry Up and Wait

The mindset that is most appropriate for a job search is very much like my Army experience where we used to lament what we referred to as “hurry up and wait.” As raw recruits, we were expected to arrive at points at a previously appointed minute, whether or not others were ready for us. We would “double time” to ensure we weren’t late and then be kept waiting for what seem like hours and often was. As we used to say: “That’s the Army for you.”

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that just because no one seems to be getting back to you that you have the luxury of time. You don’t. The speed of communications today makes delay your enemy. I hear anecdotally that candidate slates for searches close in just a few hours. There are a lot of qualified folks out there and many of them are sitting at their computers hitting “send, receive” all day long.

As soon as a posting comes in, out it goes, if it is even close. On the receiving end, once they have enough qualified candidates, the late arrivals are either deleted or placed in a folder in case more are needed, which usually means they are never reviewed. Some people are borderline insomniacs and check their email in the middle of the night -- so much for waiting until the dawn of a new day.

You may be the best on the planet, but if they don’t get to your paperwork, no one will ever know. The job market is more like a knife fight, so use the tools you have at your disposal, such as LinkedIn and Google. If you find out about any firm that is hiring, use these remarkable tools to network your way to the hiring manager. I know everyone enjoys a fair fight, but a fair fight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Hurry up and pull out all your stops. Then, sit back and see if you get into the crosshairs of the hiring manager. That’s what I call hurry up and wait on turbo.

Regards, Matt