Because I’ve had to do this a few times myself, after college, after a lay off and after a few re-locations—I can speak from a place of experience. The following is the advice I put into practice while looking for a job. I feel strongly that most people  find themselves in a place of struggle because they don’t go about it the right way. Many times, the issues is not talent or capability, but rather a naïvity regarding what it takes to truly be considered for a position. So if you’re finding yourself in need of a paying job that you enjoy, before you stress out, start here.

1. No excuses.

“I’m too old and they will assume retirement is around the corner.” “I have no experience.” “There are too many other candidates.” “I have been out of work for too long.” And,  the list goes on. So much time is wasted making excuses for why it’s harder for you to find a job, or why it is an uphill battle. Instead of making excuses, get down to business. What do you want to do? Make a list, then make a list of companies or contacts that might be able to help. Start talking to people. Start doing research. Start asking for interviews (informational if nothing else.) But stop giving me a reason why it’s going to be tough.

2. No distractions.

Sometimes, people who are job searching are secretly happy that they aren’t currently working. My question is, how bad do you want it? If you are also using your free time to head to the beach, go out with friends, get some “you time” in, then you’re going about this wrong. When you are job searching, your job is to get a job. Yep, that means 8:00 a.m. to at least 5:00 p.m. should be spent focusing on that search. Do research, make phone calls, go visit people, attend networking events, volunteer, etc. This should be your main focus. You can join that Thursday night Bunco club, reorganize your apartment, have movie night with your friends or learn the Spanish language after you have job. This search will be hard. Hard enough that you can’t afford to distract yourself.

3. No fear.

Most people are timid about contacting folks. They don’t feel like they can call someone once a day, or event twice a week. They worry they will bother, annoy and seem overbearing. Now, I’m not giving the green light to stalk people by any means. However, I believe most people can afford to be much more aggressive than they are. At the end of they day your persistence will communicate, “I want this, this is important to me and I’m passionate about the opportunity to work for this company.”  Be aggressive!

4. Be determined.

Be clear about what you want.  You can’t start job searching if you don’t know what you want. Make a list of the jobs you would consider and from there can you determine what your first steps should be. Who should you be getting in touch with, who should you be calling?

I’m not just blowing steam here. I’ve been through this, and to prove it here is my story…

When I made the decision to move from San Diego to Indianapolis, I made a list. From that list I could determine what my next steps would be in my job search across country. Here’s what my list looked like.

• Public Relations Agency – Account Executive
• Non-Profit Organization – Marketing, Event Planning & Communications

My list was only two jobs long, but it gave me a span of hundreds of companies I could reach out to (especially because Indy is a very PR-filled city.) Those were the two things I was interested in doing, so now I had my next steps…

• Reach out to a contact (whether I knew them or not) at every PR agency I could find in Indianapolis.
• Reach out to every executive director I could get in touch with for organizations like American Cancer Society, Big Brother Big Sisters, Muscular Distrophy Association, etc.

From there I developed a list of companies and contacts and I made phone calls every day for at least an hour (I still had a job, so that was about all the time I could spare.) I sent emails in the evening, when it was too late to call, and I rarely waited more than 3 days to give someone a second phone call (unless they asked me to do otherwise.) I kept a notebook tracking when I had spoken with someone, or when I had left a voicemail, and I reached out to an endless number of professionals in Indy. If they didn’t have a position for me, I asked who they thought I might talk to that would be beneficial. I was persistent, I was clear, I was determined. I was doing this across country, with limited time. It took me about 4 months.

No excuses folks. Do you want it, or don’t you?

When I moved to Indy from San Diego, one of the fears I had was that I would miss the sunsets from my parents cliff-side home in Point Loma. By then, after having spent 4 years in Ohio, I knew what I had at home in San Diego. The gorgeous pacific ocean, unexplainable beautiful sunsets, and evening spent drinking with a glass of red wine and family watching these sunsets from the porch.

Now 8 months down the road, feeling settled and… (are you sitting down?) almost at home in Indiana, I’ve truly experienced what it’s like to live in the Midwest. I moved in the midst of winter (yes, I was here for the snow days, and yes I was sliding around on 465 in my Jetta with terrible, no-traction, west coast tires), I’ve seen the seasons change from winter, to spring, to summer. Now as the air is getting crisp, pumpkin spice lattes are back at Starbucks, and we’re trying to fit pool days and camping trips in before the weather gets frigid — I’m realizing I’ve been here a while, and I’m happy.

I have countless friends and family on the west coast who simply don’t understand my move (and some that do… thanks Dad!), and I’m convinced no amount of explaining will do the trick. But as fall comes barreling around the corner, seemingly out of no-where, I was forced to evaluate my last three seasons here. It made me realize once again that my home will also be San Diego, but I love the Midwest and sometimes the sunset can be just as beautiful here.

This is such a fun time of year to stop and reflect and think about all the things that have unfolded in the past year and to be grateful for it all.  Also, to stop and look forward to everything that is to come! (Like the Christmas season, which I can’t wait for!)  For me in particular this is an exciting time and season for me, and I will tell you why…  Over the past year, I’ve been through quite a lot.  I want to take a second to look back and see where life has taken me since November of 2008….

Since then….I was laid off and found myself in a heavy job search in a terrible economy, which while it wasn’t easy was one of the best experience I have had.  I then landed a great new job where I’ve learned so much about the corporate world and what I want out of my career.  Since then, I’ve done a lot of traveling and I feel very lucky to have been able to do that allowing me to visit great friends. I’ve had to say goodbye to best friends who moved cross country. I have been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with family in San Diego.  I took a spontaneous trip to LA to surprise my little sister.  I booked a flight, left work and flew out last minute on a Friday to Indianapolis to see my college roommate.  It was a trip that essentially changed my mind set about staying on the West Coast. I watched my brother, Ryan, marry the love of his life. I took a trip to see New York for the first time.

I went to the windy city for my sister-in-law’s bachelorette and instead of just staying on Michicgan Ave, I did the touristy Chicago thing for the first time including Navy Pier and the Sears Tower. I watched my little sister turn 21.  Over the past 6 months, I’ve taken in the skylines in Chicago, Indy, New York & San Diego with people I love.  I’ve surfed, I’ve spent time running by the San Diego Bay… I’ve apprecaited where I live. I had one of the best birthday’s I’ve had at the Shouthouse in Downtown San Diego with old friends and new friends combined.  I’ve had friends come visit me from the midwest.  I spent time in Newport Beach with friends, I saw Redando Beach and Yuciapa and new parts of California I had yet to see.

I went snowboarding for only the second time in my life and realized I love it. I’ve spent a lot of time considering my career and… coming up on my mid 20′s… allowed myself to reflect on what I want next out of life.  I’ve spent my due diligence figuring out how to get there and make those things happen in my career. Part of that, was making the decision to move around rather than staying in the city I grew up in and so in the past few months alone I have made some pretty huge decisions about my life.  After Christmas I will be moving cross country to Indianapolis. A move that I couldn’t be more excited about! (More details to follow in future posts….)

In short, I am so thankful for the people in my life, the unfolding changes that have come about in the past year and even the tough decisions I have had to make. Erma Bombeck once wrote about the subject of thankfulness, saying that when she forgot to be thankful among cancer survivors, she would hear the voice of a particular eight-year-old named Christina, who had cancer of the nervous system. When Christina was asked what she wanted for her birthday, she thought for a moment and then responded by saying “I don’t know. I have two sticker books and a Cabbage Patch doll. I have everything!”  I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s been an amazing year for me, and the outlook for next year is even better. I’m happy, I’m grateful, and I feel as though I have everything!! Happy Thanksgiving, enjoy your friends & family and don’t forget to be grateful for it all!

It is my belief that traveling, even on a small scale within the United States has incredible value in the way that it adds to your life perspective.  It reminds you there is life out there outside of the small everyday world that you experience.  It changes opinions, perspectives, aspirations, and… if you one who itches to see more, experience more and learn more, then it can change desires as well.

In the past couple of months I’ve had several weekends away from my beautiful home in San Diego… Philadelphia, Washington DC/Bethesda area, Newport Beach, Palm Springs, Indianapolis, New York City… and this weekend I’m headed to Fort Wayne Indiana! (Don’t ask why…haha)

Honestly, from big city to small town, the value of getting away (the way that I have recently) cannot be matched. It opens your eyes to the world outside your own, and to all different kinds of lifestyles. I’m 23 years old, I’ve got nothing that says I can’t pick up and leave for a weekend. No little dog at home to be babysat, no husband and child to worry about (or feed)… it’s truly and incredible unique time in my life, and I’m blessed to be able to take full advantage of the opportunities at hand to get out and travel some! So I’ve jumped back onto Dopplr with the intention of actually using it this time! 

My encouragement to you….

Go search cheap flights. Go see some friends cross country. Travel is expensive, but the expeirence is worth every dime, (or $100 dollar bill). It changes the way you see things, and it may change the way you chose to live….

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

Success is acheived by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses.

- Marilyn vos Savant (American Journalist)

I have learned lately that as you get further and further into your respective field or industry, some of the most important things you will learn are about yourself. You will realize what your own strengths and weaknesses are and this is an incredibly valuable lesson to learn. You’ll figure out what you’re good at, what you aren’t so good at, what you enjoy, what you can’t stand, what you don’t mind, and what you’re asked to do because your the best at it.

I think it’s invaluable to realize what you want to do in life and in your respective career and what you don’t want to do. It’s also just as important to recognize what you are aren’t great at, as it is to know where your strengths lie.  

I had decided this a couple months ago, as I analyzed my own strengths and weaknesses in the field of public relations, and I was recently given an amazing bit of advice that backed up my own belief.  Many management programs will focus on strength and weaknesses and once you can label what those are for you, they focus you on your weaknesses with the intention on improving you and making you better and more able in those areas. Now – this may sound like a great idea, but this smart and successful woman giving me this advice painted a different picture for me. Why in the world would you categorize your strengths and weakness and what you enjoy vs. what you don’t, only to zero in on what you’re bad at? If you are a great writer, and a great speaker, why in the world wouldn’t you focus on those areas in order to better yourself, and get better in an area where you clearly have talent? If you can think on your feet, and are a fantastic sales person, or pitcher – then why would you sit yourself down and put pen to paper (or typing fingers to mac book air… whatever) and force yourself to learn to be a good writer? Exactly. You wouldn’t, or at least you wouldn’t enjoy it.

It makes very little sense to focus on the negative and/or weakness and beat yourself up for it. The clarity and sense is in focusing on what you love to do, and improving on that skill that you are good at until you can rightfully call it an area of expertise.

I’ve taken this lessons and I am letting it direct the rest of my career. Money shouldn’t lead you, acheiving fame shouldn’t direct your path, happiness and contentment – enjoyment in the workplace SHOULD! So figure out what you love to do – and if you learn to do that well, the money and success will soon catch up to you.

At times, our strengths propel us so far forward we can no longer endure our weaknesses and perish from them.

- Friedrich Nietzsche (German Classical Scholar, Philosopher & Critic of Culture 1844-1900).

I wanted to take a minute to encourage you all to fight that mind set this year. Don’t move your goals inside the box so that they are attainable. Better to make an unreachable goal and get closer to it, than to set one below the bar, and cheat yourself out of that “ah-ha” sense of accomplishment that makes it all worth it.  This new years – set a HIGH goal, give yourself a goal you may never quite reach, and then push yourself to get as close to it as you can. Baby steps are fine, that’s often necessary, and I’m not knocking the reach-able goals but they need to lead to something more, something big this year. It’s 2009!!

What’s something you think you’ll never be able to do? For me it’s run a marathon. Maybe I’ll run a 10K early this year, and if I get really ambitious maybe by next December I can find the time to train for a half. Friends… lets be honest — I may never run a marathon in my life, but if I set that as a goal this year (despite the fact that I’m completely convinced that I can’t) maybe I’ll get a little closer to it than I would otherwise.

This new years, think big! Be forward thinking and postive. Give yourself a good goal this time around, and then lets see how close you can get to it in ’09.  We may surprise ourselves.

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I wanted to add to my “new years post”  after reading a great post by my brother Ryan. He writes about how important it is to acknowlege the lessons that 2008 tought us. I commented on his post by reflecting on the important lesson that I have learned this year, going through a layoff and finding new employment. 

A big lesson for me in 2008: Stay Active- if you’re always doing something, you’ll be doing something right!

I learned that if you remember that you’re awesome  and you keep confidence and positivity close. Keep your “inner drive” going, if you will, then you’ll land in a good spot! I learned so much this year about motivation, about going after something that you want, about how much a mind set can change your situation, and how important it is to stay positive and forward thinking AND moving.  I love to chat about the truths I learned this year, mostly in the past 3 months.

2008 was a good year. Ryan’s post is a great reminder to take it’s lessons with us into 2009!!