Week One
When I am coaching job searchers on where to start, it’s always with organization. I encourage them to brainstorm a high-level list of everything they need to do (update their resume, make a list of target companies, practice interview responses, etc.), then break those tasks into smaller, actionable to-dos, and then come up with a rough weekly schedule that they can use to stay on track. Why do this? I talk about this in my post on how to get a job; by using a schedule, you don’t have to think about what to do or when, you just have to do it, which saves your mental energy for more important tasks. It also upholds healthy boundaries, especially if you’re unemployed; if you have a daily goal to research five (or ten, or whatever is achievable for you) new companies, then once you hit that goal, you can move on to the next thing or wrap up your efforts for the day without feeling guilty about not doing more. Rest is important, too.
I mentioned in my intro post that I did a bit of this agenda-setting in early December, but it’s now the beginning of February, so that schedule is definitely out of date. Pro tip: check in, reflect on, and edit your job search schedule at least monthly when in an active search. This helps you notice what is or isn’t working and adjust accordingly.
So, do as I say, not as I do, right?
I’ve been consistently but slowly working my way through Designing Your Life by Bill Burnette and Dave Evans, and had a burst of energy after doing the Good Time Journal exercise, where readers are encouraged to reflect on their present day-to-day experiences and/or their top career, education, and life experiences to find the things that are most engaging. Perhaps reflecting on these good experiences helped me tap into the motivation I felt at the time, but whatever the reason, I decided to capitalize on it.
I edited my “about” section on LinkedIn, which I had been wordsmithing (read: putting off) for the past two months, unsure how to frame my achievements, skills, and goals. The clarity I got from doing the Good Time Journal exercise helped me with that framing. Instead of doing the normal thing where I proofread it 80 times and obsess over how to sound brilliant and unique while including as many keywords as possible, I read through it twice for clarity and grammar, and hit “publish.” Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Since I was already on LinkedIn, it felt appropriate to formally change my status to “searching” and make sure my location and career interests were up to date. This took all of 10 minutes. And since I had done that, it seemed as good a time as any to formally announce my job search with a post. I have been mostly absent from LinkedIn over the past ~10 months, intentionally so, but I felt a little anxious about posting “randomly” after spending so little time on it. What if someone noticed and thought, “wow, how gauche of Kathleen to only come onto LinkedIn when she wants something.” I shook that feeling, and asked myself what I would say to a student who expressed that same concern to me. I’d tell them, a) you’re overindexing on how important you are to people - odds are nobody has noticed your absence from LinkedIn, b) everyone uses LinkedIn out of self-interest, it wasn’t created for altruism, and c) you’ve been extremely helpful to your network in the past and will be extremely helpful to your network in the future, so don’t feel bad about asking for help now.
I got over it, and posted. Within 24 hours, that post had garnered a dozen comments (most tagging people/companies I should connect with), more than 100 reactions, over 3,400 impressions, and several direct messages from people offering help or words of encouragement. A week later, all those stats have ~doubled. Believe it or not, not a single person responded with, “gee, nice of you to show up 🙄”
Other accomplishments:
I sent a few personal emails to folks in my closer network letting them know I’m starting my search.
I uploaded my information to one recruiting site, and plan to do the same with several others. I try to find more specialized firms that cater to the types of companies/organizations/jobs I am interested in, vs the massive ones. This is often low-reward, but is supremely low-effort; why not let other people job search for you?
I started this blog (hi), writing three entries, and laid out a new page for my personal website so I’ll be ready to launch the posts in the next couple days.
Tl;dr and pro-tips:
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. That doesn’t mean submit sloppy work, but if you’ve been agonizing over something for weeks or months, like I had been with my LinkedIn “about” section, you are definitely overanalyzing it.
Making a schedule is great, and I *highly* encourage everyone to spend a couple hours a month organizing their job search schedule, but don’t be a prisoner to it. I made more progress in ~4 hours this week than I had in weeks because I was struck by the urge to do something, and I let myself deviate from my plan. Anytime you get this burst of motivation, seize it!
Ask for help, put yourself out there. The worst that will come from it is nothing. The best is that you could get a lead that will take you closer to your goals. The most realistic outcome is that you’ll get other people to think about you, which is a very good thing when you’re job searching.
If you feel stuck, unsure, or lacking motivation, outsource your creative thinking. I’ve been working my way through Designing Your Life to help me figure out what I want/need from my next job. Most of it is echoing information back to me that I already know, but it spurred an “aha!” moment this week that helped me get out of my motivation rut. There are a hundred tools like this out there, so pick one and roll with it.
Week of 2/6 priorities:
Next week might not be very productive; Lee and I have ~24 hours of international travel on Monday, followed by a day and a half of packing up essentials for our move out to Colorado, followed by three days of driving from the Bay Area to Boulder. I’m going to do my best to chip away at my job search priorities on the flights and in the evenings next week, but I don’t expect to have any major breakthroughs. I also don’t want to do a ton of outreach to people, knowing that I’m only going to be spottily available. That said, assuming I can get wifi on one of my flights, I’d like to accomplish:
Finish organizing my job search tracker - I use Notion’s free template for this, and will include a screenshot once it’s presentable
Start my target company list - will aim for 10 next week
Reach out to ~five more people in my close network over email/text
Sign up with at least five more search firms
Update my personal website with a professional section and these blog posts - I’m currently writing them in the Notes app 🙃
How I’m feeling:
I’m feeling great right now; as I mentioned above, I was struck by motivation a couple days ago, so have found it easy to make progress. I don’t expect this feeling to last, so I’m trying to capitalize on it. Reconnecting with people on LinkedIn and seeing so much positive feedback to my post made me feel really good; most posts like that won’t lead anywhere, but the warm fuzzies I got made it well worth the minimal effort. I plan on continuing to post regular updates about my job search on LinkedIn (these blogs will make cross-posting a cinch!), if only to get the dopamine boost from people’s positive responses. What can I say? We humans are social creatures, and after 10 months of living in the woods and being isolated from people most of the time, my social tank is on E.
