Increasing your job search success

We know of a fellow who did not want anyone to know that he had lost his job. Each morning he got up, put on his dress shirt and slacks, and pretended to drive to work. He'd hang out at Starbucks and would discretely look for a job online, figuring he'd let people know he'd been laid off when he secured another job.

This is NOT something we'd recommend doing.

Yes, it's awful when you are let go from your job. But let's face it, it's commonplace these days. It's hardly something of which to be ashamed (unless you were fired in a spectacular fashion with cause, because you did something socially unacceptable, in which case hiding out at Starbucks until the smoke clears is not a bad strategy...)

The reality is, the best way to find a job is by talking to other people. If people do not know that you are looking for a job, people can't help you find one. So here are some ways to use your existing social network to find employment:

Update your status on LinkedIn. Let people know you are looking. This might be hard to believe but recruiters are looking for talented people looking for new opportunities. Nothing tells us that you are keen to talk to us like seeing that you are "between successes," so to speak.

Update your status of Facebook and tell people what you do. I recently heard of a fellow who had dated a woman for the better part of a decade and had no idea what she did for a living. People are pretty wrapped up in their own lives and may not know that you were the best marketer of brass widgets in the Tri-state area. Tell your network you are looking for work and tell them what kind of work you seek. It's amazing what your network can do for you. We're not telling you that you need to get a mega-phone and shout about your job status wherever you go. Then again, we aren't telling you that you don't need to do this.

Get out and about. When you are laid off, you go through a grieving process. It's normal to want to den in and watch Game of Thrones for a month. But the jobs are out there, not in your living room. Go out, talk to people, let them know you are looking. That's how things happen.

Have an elevator pitch prepared. Be able to summarize the kind of job you want and your skills in about 30 seconds. You never know who you might meet when you are out and about and you don't want to be trying to figure out what you want career-wise on the fly. Have a couple of lines about you at the ready so when someone asks what you do for a living, you have a good answer.

Happy hunting!!

Nancy