Why Job Searching Is Like Heating Your House with Wood

I live in the Rocky Mountains at 9,000 feet. It gets windy and cold and very snowy between November and April. That means we have to spend six months of the year heating our home.

Propane is quite expensive, so we rely on wood fireplaces to do some of the heating. I love a warm fire and how cozy it keeps our home. However, it's a lot of work to heat your home with wood - at least the way we do it. We go out to the National Forest and BLM to get our wood - free of charge other than the gas and sweat it takes to haul it home.

Next, we have to cut the wood into lengths short enough to split with an ax or a wood splitter. It takes about a day of work to get enough wood for each month we have to heat our home.

It's gratifying to split wood and build fires because it warms you twice - with the exertion and the heat from the wood.

Our cabin has tall, tall ceilings, so it takes a lot of wood to keep the main living space warm. We use up to 8 cords of wood per year. It requires effort and grit.

• You have to set aside time to go get it, split it, and stack it.
• If you forget to bring wood in before dark, you might be marching through 12 inches of snow to get enough to start warming the house.
• Sometimes the fires are slow to start. If you don't bank the coals at night (cover them in ash to insulate them for the next day), the fireplace will be cold and you'll have to tend to the fire longer to get it going.
• Sometimes I have to bring in a coach (my husband) to help me get a fire blazing.

I liken heating your home with wood to to job searching. It's not easy. But the payoff is amazing.

Here's how job searching relates to heating your home with wood:

1. You have to set aside time to go find contacts and job postings.
2. You have to prepare your marketing materials (resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, etc.) and sometimes you have to cold call contacts to gain some ground.
3. Sometimes the interview process takes forever. You might do a screener and wait two weeks before you speak with someone else.
4. You might struggle to get started or keep going because it's tedious and frustrating.
5. You might think you want to give up and just take the first thing that comes your way.

However, just like heating your home with wood, the payoff is incredible. When you continue to plug away at your search, network, light fires with contacts, and pursue the right opportunities, it's as heartwarming as eating popcorn in front of your fireplace.

If you could use some help lighting a fire in your job search, reach out to me to set up a free resume and strategy review. I'd love to hear how I can help. Stay warm, my friends.