Procrastination, failure and job searching

Procrastination is a problem that plagues most people at some time or the other. You know that you have to get something done but you put it off. You tell yourself that there will be time later and it won’t matter whether it is done or not. When later comes you put it off again continuing the pattern till you forget about the task that you need to do. Procrastination and job hunting seem to go hand in hand. There are plenty of tasks that makes you uncomfortable that you will put off forever if you can. In the end your job search will be less productive because your will to break procrastination isn’t very strong. The question is what stops you from doing certain tasks whether they involve job hunting or not.

 

Probably the biggest thing that prevents us from accomplishing our goals is fear. Fear of the unknown and fear some adverse effect will fall upon you if you try something new. And of course there is the fear of failure which has its own consequences. Unfortunately when some of us fail our mind keeps a record of that failure and you easily remember it when you again try something out of your comfort zone again. Failure is a part of life and it can be a wonderful learning tool. Folks that have succeeded in life will tell you that they had failed many times before getting it right.

 

  

What can you do to beat fear and procrastination?

 

• Change your perception of yourself, don’t put yourself down and consider each failure as a learning experience.  
• Relax and don’t let stress and anxiety control you. A lot of stress can put on the brakes on any activity that you may have in front of you. 
• Consider failure as a step in your plan to achieve your ultimate goal, which is to find a job that you want. 
• What is the worst that could happen? Remember that

If you conquer fear, then procrastination wouldn’t be a problem

 

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What is contract work?

They say that the economy is improving slowly, I agree with the slowly part but it is difficult to see improvement with so many people out of work. And not just out of work for a little while some have been unemployed for a couple of years. If you have tried the conventional ways of looking for employment then you probably have been unsuccessful at finding anything. It is always a good idea when you feel that you are not making any progress to “look outside the box” or in other words try something new. Have you considered contract work?

 

 

 

What is contract work?

 

Contract work or contract jobs are where the employer hires someone to do a specific job for a period of time. It isn’t permanent work and you don’t work for the employer.

 

Advantages of contract work

 

• You gain experience and exposure to different types of businesses. 
• Meeting new folks that can be added to your network of job sources 
• If you become well known as a good contract worker you can become choosier in the type of work you can accept. 
• Tax benefits

  

Contract work isn’t for everyone because there are disadvantages such as lack of benefits and lack of job security but in this economy you need to consider everything.

  

 

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Change non-working job hunting strategies

There is definitely something to be said about staying with a plan through the good times and the bad times. You take the enormous amount of time brainstorming and plodding out what you are going to do down to the smallest detail, so you aren’t going to abandon it when things go a little wrong are you. Well, not at first of course you should always give a plan a chance to work and especially to fail. But the question is, how long should you let it fail before discarding the plan completely. When you are job hunting don’t waste time when you know something isn’t helping you.


Many years ago after college I got the idea that sending out resumes and cover letters to companies across the country was a good job hunting strategy. Did I stop after the first 50 came back with rejection form letters, no and I didn’t stop after 100 or 150 rejection letters? Finally after 200 rejection letters I realized that this wasn’t the way to go about a job search. I had it in my mind that mass mailings was the way to go to get job leads, of course it wasn’t. But I still wasted an incredible amount of time, effort and money trying to make it work.

After that I went on to other strategies that worked much better. I keep an open mind and realized that I had to keep my options open and not depend on one job hunting strategy.

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Job shadowing for older people

When it is time to choose a career, you probably do as much research as possible even though you have a good idea what work you would like to be in. Of course you probably already have a good idea about what skills you need and education that you need, but you might wonder what it is like to do the job all day all the time. How would you get a feel for this type of work? One way would be job shadowing.


What is job shadowing?

The traditional idea behind job shadowing is allowing students to follow and observe someone doing their job throughout the day. This gives them a good idea about the responsibilities and work that is involved in this particular field. While it is great for students researching possible careers it should also be noted that older workers should also give it a try.

Why can't job shadowing work for older people?

The answer is that it can work. Like a young student you should have an idea or ideas as to what you want to do. Pick out some companies and call their HR departments and see if they are willing to sit down with you and possibly set up some time where you can watch someone in a particular field work. Of course it wouldn't work for all companies but there will be some who will be agreeable to the idea.

Last year February 2nd, Groundhog Day was designated as Job Shadowing Day.

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Should you target small businesses for employment?

If you even slightly follow the economics news of the past few years, especially the news concerning the employment picture than you know how important small businesses are. More than any other sector small, private companies hire the most people. It may seem strange because of all the large companies out there that have thousands if not hundreds of thousands of employees, like Wal-Mart. But in fact according to the Small Business Administration the small companies hired 65% of all employees between the years of 1993 and 2009 that is a net of 15 million jobs. The SBA estimates that there are 27 million small businesses in the United States.


So maybe you look for employment opportunities with small businesses.


Probably the one thing that most folks think about working for small businesses is the lack of benefits, which is probably true. But in these economic times being employed might be the only benefit to consider. Another positive for working at smaller companies is that your work will be recognized faster. At a large company you can get lost among thousands of workers.


The biggest advantage to working at a small company is that it may inspire you to start your own business. You will learn firsthand how things get done when you have limited resources and a very tight budget.


Of course you shouldn’t discount any company when looking for a job because of their size but don’t miss out on the opportunities that small businesses have to offer.


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Jobs that will stick around

In this economy most unemployed workers, especially the long term unemployed, want a job, any job, they aren’t concerned with things that people usually are when looking for a job. Such things as, will this job be here in 5 years or will this job be outsourced or will technology eliminate the need for this kind of work. These are desperate times but you should still be concerned about the outlook or job security of any type of career. If you can, try to hone in on jobs that wouldn’t be gone in a few years.

Jobs that will survive

• Your car eventually will break down and it will need someone to fix it. Unfortunately your plumbing will also have problems that will require someone to come out and do the necessary repair. Skilled labor jobs are a safe bet for the future. Although some people wouldn’t consider certain skilled jobs, these types of careers can be very successful, especially if you work for yourself. Just think about how much it costs for plumbing repairs! 
• The medical field especially nursing has been and will be hot career field. You can’t outsource a hands on job like nursing. Although some education is required you shouldn’t have to worry about finding a job. 
• Truck drivers are needed now more than ever! With all the shipping that is involved with the internet you need someone to haul the merchandize. 
• Last but not least is working for the government, whether it is state, local or federal. While local and state jobs may be shaky right now the federal government will continue to hire. 

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Finding a job through the stock market

You probably remember how the stock market took a major hit in 2008 and you probably also remember how your 401k fund took a hit also. This was about the time when the unemployment rate began climbing higher and that is understandable because a beaten down stock market results in job loss. Well, it is a couple years later and as of December 2010 the unemployment picture is still bleak while the stock market is recovering. Why, because unemployment is always the last thing to recover in a recession. Companies are hesitant to hire workers till the economy is robust again. But that doesn’t mean that you should ignore the stock market when considering companies to target for employment.


Find out which companies are in a position to start hiring

This job search technique requires some research and a little bit of a learning curve. Luckily there are many big websites that cover the stock market extensively; probably the easiest to maneuver is yahoo finance.

You can pick preset screens which are listed on the left side of the page. This will give you a general idea of which companies are growing right now.

Msn also has stock screener that you might want to look at.

Once you find a company or companies that you want to further research go back to the home page of Yahoo finance or MoneyCentral and type in their stock code. Or you could even type in the stock code in Google search.


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When is the best month to look for a job?

When is the best time of the year to look for a job? If you are unemployed or you just want to change jobs then the best time is right now, no matter what month it is. But from a point of view of folks that have studied such things the answer varies from September and October to June.




Why September and October?

While you would think that most companies, especially now a day’s, only hire when they have to and it doesn’t really matter which month when it occurs some companies, like retail and shipping need workers trained and ready to handle the holiday season. Not only are the seasonal workers helpful in a busy time this also gives these companies a change to look at them and see if they would like to hire any full time. In other words seasonal workers are auditioning for employment.



May and June

It used to be when the economy was growing that early spring companies would sort through all the resumes of the recent college graduates, hoping to find some that would fit into their companies. Of course things are particularly like that now. It is very difficult for recent grads to find work as it is anybody else, maybe worse because they don’t have any experience.



Something else to consider when looking for a job a lot of folks take time off during the holidays especially the Christmas season. This might be an advantage to you because there will be less competition out there, so keep that in mind if you are thinking about taking December off from job hunting.


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