Job hunting and self-analysis

All activities in life at one time or the other need a little tweaking; whether it is at work or even a hobby you will find yourself wanting to get better at it. If it is golf or tennis you might consider taking lessons from a pro to improve your game and of course if it is at work your boss will let you know what you could be doing better. Self-analysis is important and beneficial especially if you feel that you are in rut, and if you are unemployed than there is nothing better than to do a self-analysis in your job search.


Taking a step back and examining what you have been doing right or wrong isn’t an easy task, but it needs to be done. When it comes to job hunting you may think that you have done it all right and it’s just the economy that is keeping you from work. In this economy you are probably right but that doesn’t say that you can’t improve what you are doing.

Do you like your resume? Are your cover letters boring and too generic? This is a good place to start by looking over once again your resume and cover letter to see what changes can be made.

How is the networking coming? Were you gung-ho at first but since then you haven’t given that much effort to networking. Time to start anew!

Have you done all the research that you can? Knowing an industry inside and out will give you a competitive edge.

Don’t forget to take care of yourself, exercise, eat right and stay positive.

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Job Hunting and life reevaluation

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What is a grey ceiling?

Unfortunately age has become a barrier for some folks trying to find a job in this economy. This really isn’t unique because age discrimination like other forms of job discriminations has been around for quite a while. Why? Because folks who are older are perceived as missing more days due to illness than younger people and there are other reasons such as not being able to catch on to the latest technologies or they will decide to retire after you finally train them. Of course these are all bogus arguments that have no basis in truth. All this has created a grey ceiling which is affected more and more old workers.

What is really difficult to understand is that age discrimination is occurring at much younger ages than before such as the early forties. This is extraordinary because the population as a whole is getting older and so is the workforce. Right now it doesn’t seem possible that we will have a worker shortage due to the present economy but eventually it will come to that and then who will they give the jobs to?

• Older workers definitely have advantages over other age groups.  
• Work experience of older workers can be beneficial to any company 
• Loyalty is a terrific quality for an employee and older workers certainly have that. 
• Dependability like loyalty is a great feature of a valuable employee 
• After years on the job older workers have developed good communication skills. 

Make sure to emphasize the qualities of being an older worker so the grey ceiling would be a barrier.

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Job Hunting in the internet age

You have worked most of your life and it is difficult to think of a time when you weren’t working, probably when you were a kid. You have had more than one job but there were little or no time in between jobs. If you had lost a job or quit from a job you found another one pretty quickly. But it has been a long time since you had to look for a job, years probably. Things as you know have changed greatly not only with you but also with the way you have to look for a job. Radical changes may make your job hunting uncomfortable at first but like time you will change also. Starting over at fifty shouldn’t be a gut wrenching experience, consider it a challenge that you need to be up for.


The last time that you looked for a job you had a good idea what you wanted to do and where you needed to look for that particular job. The home of all job searches used to be the want ads in the paper, preferably in the Sunday paper. You scanned over many ads in your field and you circled the ones that looked inviting. The next thing that needed to be done was to send off a few resumes with cover letters attached then waited till someone called. Depending on what field you were in that might be all that you had to do. Another resource at that time (and even now) is to call some friends and associates that you have met in your previous job, like today this type of networking can be very beneficial.

Of course in today’s world everything centers on the internet. There are massive job sites that have thousands of listings on them no longer do you have to circle what interests you, just bookmark it. These sites are also a great source of job hunting information. You could spend days trying to read all the help that you find on the internet. And it not only major job sites with job listing, state and federal government sites also have listings and job forecasting that you will help in you search.

There are other great resources on the internet in the form of social network sites. Facebook is the largest by far; you can find other folks like you who are unemployed and looking for work. You never know you might just find a job lead. Another terrific site that is all about networking is LinkedIn. This site is specifically for business professional to list their qualifications on the web so potential employers may see it.

You will probably find that once your learning curve is completed job hunting in the internet age isn’t bad at all.

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Do you have a job hunting partner?

There definitely is strength in numbers no matter what the task at hand. Whether it is building or repairing something another person is always great to have. A partner in a task is also important for the ideas and opinions on what you are doing. Most companies assign teams to vital tasks that have to be accomplished. So if your task is finding a job don’t you think that you would benefit from having a partner? Having someone give you advice and feedback would be helpful on many levels.


Who is going to be my job hunting partner?

There are a couple of great candidates for the job, particularly someone who is also in the same situation as you are, that is unemployed. You are both unemployed and you probably have tried many things to find employment why not share what you have done so far. This is a wonderful way to find out about job hunting strategies that you haven’t tried. You can also discuss job searching ideas that you have thought about trying.

Where do you find a job hunting partner?

Job fairs are the first place that comes to mind and of course the internet, particularly on job forums. All this can be considered networking which is always a great job hunting tool.

If you are reluctant to seek out someone to help you with your job search it is always a good idea to at least talk to friends and family members about how your job search is going.

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Bring back the desire in job hunting

Needing a job is very easy to understand, you have bills to pay and you need to buy the essential things in life to get by. And if you are one of many that have been unemployed for a very long time then you need a job really bad especially if your unemployment insurance has run out. But the question is has the emotion and desire of finding something that you want to do, a job, been over taken by the need or necessity of finding employment?


I know that it is difficult to think of anything else when you are unemployed. It becomes high anxiety when the unemployment insurance is closing to an end and you begin to wonder how you are going to make ends meet. But with all that stress and anxiety that you are experiencing it is going to be difficult if not impossible to give job hunting your best effort.

What can you do to bring the desire back into your job hunting?

Start over with a clean slate and begin a new plan of attack. You probably now know what doesn’t work as far as finding a job is concerned so now look at other ways to approach your employment search. Spend more time finding ways to fight stress and anxiety (go to your doctor for advice on this). Exercise more than you have been its good for your mind as well as your body.

The most important thing is to keep trying and keeping your mind open to new ways to bringing back the desire in job hunting.

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