Is getting a new job in the cards for you?
➔ If you’re over 50 and looking for a job, it’s no laughing matter and you know that you’re not playing a game. A job search is serious business and the job seeker typically finds little, if anything, to laugh at.
Likewise, if you’ve ever played in a high-stakes card game, you know the feeling. So when we compare job seeking to playing cards, we’re not joking.
Are you all in?
There are many connections between card playing (and other forms of entertainment), but there is a connection to card playing that is especially important to job seekers.
No matter how much homework you do on a job and/or a company; no matter how well you did in nailing that interview; no matter that your resume is impeccable and that your experience and expertise are perfectuly suited to this opening; no matter all that, the employer still holds all the cards.
You can do everything exactly correct and still be at the mercy of the hiring manager or HR staff. The employer is the one who calls the shots on how and when to proceed. Even after you’ve accepted an offer, you still must wait until the employer decides on your start date.
One of the many frustrations of the job search, this emasculating reality may top them all. “But I’ve done everything right,” is sometimes not enough to slice through the red tape that is wrapped around a job search because, in the final analysis, the employer does hold all the cards.