There are fish stories and then there are fish stories
➔ There seems to be an endless line of analogies for job seeking. Someone the other day broached the idea of the job search as a fishing expedition.
Just as one would cast a line into the water with the hopes of landing a fish, so too are people casting around in search of another job. While that may be true, the analogy doesn’t end there and the additional connections may be the most beneficial.
You should’ve seen the one that got away
Let’s start with the actual procedure of fishing. If you want to catch the best or the most fish, any fishing expert will tell you that your success is dependent on where you’re fishing. As we all know, most fish move in schools of fish and, for a variety of reasons, these schools tend to stay in certain areas of the water. Obviously, that’s where you want to fish.
Job seeking is the same. If you’re looking for a manufacturing job, midtown Manhatten may not be the best place to look. Despite the millions of people who live there and the thousands of businesses that thrive there, there aren’t a lot of manufacturing plants in midtown Manhatten. If you want a manufacturing job, your best bet would be to look outside of midtown.
Just as critical, you have to ask yourself “Who is helping you look?” The standard list includes alumni, family and social circles, former employers, former co-workers, professional associations, etc. In this case, it becomes a numbers game. The more people helping you look, the more likely you are – not just to be successful – but to be successful in the shortest period of time. The farther you cast your net, the more efficient becomes your job search.
At this point, there is good news and bad news. The good news – as we just stated – is that the better you construct your search, the better your chances at success. That shouldn’t be rocket science.
The bad news is that no matter how well you do, in most cases – according to most experts, you’re probably only going uncover about 50 percent of the available jobs. The silver lining is that, no matter how well you do, there are still jobs out there and the more jobs out there, the more likely you are to find one.
Happy fishing!
Comments