It’s hard to believe two months have passed since I issued the 90-day job search challenge in late March. But we are just past the 60-day mark, two-thirds of the way into a goal for re-employment by June 20.
Now is the time to check your progress and decide whether anything needs adjusting, including the original job goal.
If you’ve been following along, you know that the rules of this hurry-up job search are simple: 1) Don’t think too much or you’ll delay action. 2) Create a schedule emphasizing daily productivity. And, 3) Search five days a week.
The process is equally straightforward: Choose a target job title, identify at least 50 companies that might use someone in that role, and ask department managers directly for a meeting to explore the possibility of working for them.
Once the initial job and company targets have been identified, this plan relies on sheer numbers and persistence. The more people you contact each day, the more meetings you will set and the more likely an offer will ensue.
It all looks so good on paper -- what could go wrong?
In concept, not much, but in reality, lots of things can snag the process. The easy problems to spot are a lack of outreach and follow-up. If a job seeker isn’t making much contact or isn’t connecting back with employers, the results will suffer. Likewise, a poorly written resume can hold up the show, as will a job target that turns out to be unneeded in the target companies.
Sometimes the process is fine, but the market is slow to respond. Whatever the reason, if you find that your search is not producing meetings by now, it’s time to consider a Plan B.
Although the foundation of the targeted job search (the root of this 90-day challenge) is the pursuit of a specific job, it’s critical to have a fallback goal to ensure you meet your chosen employment date -- even if the fallback is less desirable.
In this situation, I prefer underemployment to unemployment because underemployment can generally be improved. But unemployment is a black-and-white situation: Either you have a job or you don’t. And if you don’t, your family and your finances will be held hostage to your search at the same time as your enthusiasm for it is likely to wane.
Here are the steps for a Plan B search:
1. Check Plan A once more for evidence that it might be worth pursuing. Have you been the runner-up for at least one opening, or learned that your former boss is searching for your phone number? If nothing concrete tells you things could change soon, it’s probably time to set Plan A aside.
2. Halt your active Plan A outreach. Don’t tell people you’re no longer interested; just stop making new contacts. You need to convert your resources of time and energy to the new job goal.
3. For your new target, choose something you can get quickly that might also be plentiful -- perhaps a call center job, or using a past skill such as bartending.
4. Make a new resume focused on the Plan B work. For example, an electrical engineer returning to earlier work as a landscaper would use four-fifths of a one-page resume to note the equipment operated, the ability to manage projects and teams, and a strong back and work ethic. The last fifth says, “Other work: Electrical engineer, 10 years. Able to repair electronic equipment.”
5. Hand-deliver the resume to remove all doubt about your seriousness.
6. Push hard. Remember, your goal now is to be employed by June 20. Not to be ideally employed, but employed as best as possible given the timeline. If your Plan B goal doesn’t accommodate in-person contacts, you’ll have to work the phones as if you were a telemarketer.
7. Prepare for likely questions, such as, “Are you giving up your first career?” And, “How long will you stay if we hire you?” The answers will vary depending on your situation, but the trick is to be optimistic without overpromising.
The final tip concerns your mental preparation for this change of course. It can be difficult to let go of a Plan A when it means pushing your true goals further back on the timeline. Of course you’d rather work in your field than in a fallback position. But at some point, you have to ask, “Am I enjoying being unemployed?” and “Can I afford to be unemployed?” If the answer is no, then it’s time to move forward on this new path.
Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com or at 626 Armstrong Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.
