And Your Point is…

Job search meetings are intended to talk job search

You’ve been out of work for a while. Maybe your job search isn’t going as well as you would like. Maybe you’re just getting incredibly frustrated.

The good news is that you scheduled a meeting with someone who may be able to help. Could be a former co-worker, or vendor, or maybe it’s someone you only recently met at a networking event or jobs group. Whoever it is, it’s a good bet that they are taking time out of a busy day to meet with you. As such the one thing you don’t want to do is to waste their time.

First things first

First and foremost, you should have a pretty good idea of the questions you want to ask, the points you want to make and your objectives with which you want to leave the meeting.

More than that, the one thing that you don’t want to do is to start sharing your tale of woe. If you believe nothing else in this article, believe this: no one wants to take time out of a busy day to sit and listen to you whine about how difficult it is to look for a job a your age, about how many resumes you’ve submitted, and about any experiences that you’ve had with age discrimination.

Quit your whining. Nobody wants to hear about it.

If you need to download your griping, do it at home. Do it with your spouse. (But not your kids.) Do it with an old friend. Those are the people who will provide – granted, a much needed – sympathetic ear.

Job search contacts don’t have the time or the inclination to sit and listen to you cry in your beer. These are professional meetings. Keep them that way. You’re there to talk business, not to share your sob story.

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