Looking for a job for over 3 months? Here are some ideas

If you have been looking for a job for over 3 months and been unsuccessful in your job search, it is worth taking a step back to reflect. It suggests that something in your strategy and tactics is letting you down. There are, of course, so many variables that will affect your results and many are beyond your control, never more so than during the current Covid-19 pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on the job market.

However, there are a number of things that you can always control and influence. Here are my suggestions for what you can do:

1.    Reconsider your target audience: You may be approaching an area where there is little or no demand for new employees. Your chosen sub-sector may be in cyclical or terminal decline, so with the best will in the world you are fighting against the tide and are unlikely to win. It may be an idea to re-think your strategy and find another area which is in growth.

2.    Reflect on your value offer: You may have chosen a good target audience but the skills that you are offering are not needed or even desired. So, no matter how hard you sell your value proposition, you are unlikely to be hired. The market is the final arbiter so ensure that you are tailoring your skills and attributes to what is in demand. If you find yourself unable to do this, then perhaps it is worth reconsidering your audience, looping us back to step 1.

3.    Alter your messaging: Perhaps you have both a great value offer and have chosen a great target sub-sector to go for. However, your value proposition is so poorly articulated that no one exposed to your messaging can readily understand how you can add significant value to their business. Your story is not clear and compelling enough to get your foot in the door. Even if you do get to an interview, you are unable to help the interviewer see the match between what you have to offer and what he/she is looking for. Take the time to become crystal clear on both what your audience is looking for and how you are a suitable match at different crunch points.

4.    Improve your marketing: If you think of yourself as a ‘product’, then you can see that marketing is an essential part of the job search process. If you can make your sub-sector aware of you and your skills before you even engage in a direct conversation, then you will have gone some way to ‘positioning’ yourself. This does, of course, need to be done with care. Few potential employers will be impressed by potential candidates who are all show and no substance. That said, there are ways to gently lift your profile and be seen in a good light.

5.    Broaden your channels: There are many ways to get in front of key decision makers in any job search. Some of them are passive and others are proactive. Others may become relevant only once the potential employer has already made a decision to make a hire. They may reach out to you directly if they already know you. Online advertisements or recruiters might also be used in order to find suitable candidates, requiring you as the job seeker to be reactive. Overall, consider the fact that there are a multitude of ways to reach decision makers who are at different points of their hiring cycle – use these various channels to expand your options.

6.   Improve on your work rate: Searching for a job can be tough and it is easy to allow one’s work rate to drop. Indeed, there is much truth in the often repeated phrase – ‘Finding a job is a full time job’. If you are some months into a job search, you may feel like you are running out of ideas and are reluctant to approach the same people over and over. It may also be because maintaining a high work rate with little or no positive feedback is – understandably – difficult. Again, that is never more so than during a global pandemic which itself can have had a detrimental impact on morale. It is worth keeping a log of performance metrics – even so crudely as on a spreadsheet - so that you know definitively exactly what your levels of activity have been and to give yourself some benchmarks for future efforts.

7.    Reach out to your support systems: Having people around you to support your efforts is vital. This goes beyond family and friends. Getting a job search buddy so that you can spur one another onwards and celebrate each other’s mini-victories is a very powerful way to make progress. Beyond that, you may also consider having a daily routine that involves exercise, fun and rewards.

Navigating a successful job search can be a challenge at the best of times. If your efforts to find a new position have stalled, it may be worth considering consulting a career coach who can offer some thoughts beyond those that you have considered.

If you would benefit from a complimentary coaching consultation, schedule a call here: https://calendly.com/careermentoruk/introductorycall