Jason Alba at JibberJobber recently wrote about his uber-frustration when people plead with him for that one sure thing they can do to find their next job.
He’s not frustrated because of the economy, recession, or over-abundance of job seekers, but because he doesn’t have an answer.
He admits:
I’d like to tell people the answer is in networking. But that’s usually a long-term strategy. And long-term is not silver bullet.
I want to tell people they need to work on their personal brand and their googleability. But that’s also a long-term strategy, and won’t matter if no one is googling them.
I want to tell people to get on LinkedIn, but once you are there, there’s work to do to really use it in a job search, and it’s not a silver bullet.
Executive job seekers, especially those at the senior level, need to shake free of the notion that there even is a silver bullet. Some will have the good luck to painlessly fall into a new job overnight, but most will not.
If you can wrap your head around the fact that landing a top level job requires hard work, persistence, and time, you’ll be in a better emotional state to deal with the challenge.
I wish I had the magic answer. For someone in the habit of dispensing precise advice, it’s frustrating for me, too. There really is no silver bullet. Building an on-brand search campaign requires research, strategic planning, insight, and foresight.
Related posts:
10 Ways You Sabotage Your Executive Job Search
Top 10 Trends for 2009 Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Management
