5 reasons why waiting is a terrible career strategy

Waiting is a terrible career strategy

Waiting is a terrible career strategy that will only lead to frustration and possibly despair.

Most of you are waiting for someone to find your LinkedIn profile or on a:

• job offer
• The recruiter must respond after submitting your resume to a job posting
• Recruiter answering after a phone screen
• HR manager after a job interview

I know, I know you don’t want to be a nuisance or seem too brash. Well… be a pest. Be a polite nuisance – but be a nuisance. Track what you want.

You may have been told by recruiters not to do this. However, we live in a time when you need to do this Throw away the old playbook and create a new one.

Most importantly…STOP WAITING!

Waiting for a job to be advertised

About 80 percent of the jobs are never advertised.

So why are you waiting?

The times when you thought you could get a job through an online application are over for most of us in the second half of our lives. If you were 20 years younger and looking for junior positions, applying online might work.

The hiring process is interrupted at many companies. You will want to read my post 5 things you will never know about the hiring process. Their belief that the system is fair and just is very outdated.

Your next job will come through a relationship. Work on your network, work on your network, and then…work on your network some more.

Your network has never been more important to you than it is today.

Use the Targeted job search Approach by targeting companies and stop chasing “the job”.

Make a list of companies you can hire. Use LinkedIn advanced search to find companies hiring with skills like yours. Reach out to potential colleagues and hiring managers and tell them about the problems you solve.

Stop waiting for a job to be advertised!

Waiting is not a career strategy!

Waiting to hear from someone after submitting your resume

Find a company contact immediately when you see a job posting or hear about a job through your network A large percentage of positions are filled through referrals. Don’t wait and find a recommendation First!

At the same time very aggressive Contact recruiters or HR professionals within the company to find out who is hiring for the position. Your goal will be to speak to the hiring manager.

waiting is not a career strategy.

The strategy of my fellow Launch Pad Job Club board member, Jim Adcock, was to reach out to recruiters and ask, “I wanted to make sure you got my resume. The sexual nature of my last name sometimes gets my resume caught in SPAM filters.”

Yes, this strategy works!

Waiting for an answer after a phone screen with a recruiter

It is common for recruiters to fill up to 60 positions at a time. Call the recruiter 24 hours after the first phone screen. Be polite but persistent. They want to stay on top of their thoughts.

Be a pest, a polite pest, but last but not least a pest.

The important point here is to call them. Leave them a voicemail if they don’t answer.

I know, I know you emailed them and got no response. When people get hundreds of emails every day, it only makes sense to call the recruiter and persevere. If you don’t get a reply, call them again in about a day. Don’t wait a week to call them back. be persistent.

Waiting is not a career strategy!

Waiting for an answer after an interview

Make sure you get contact information for everyone you interview. Ask for their contact information at the beginning of each interview. If they decide during the interview that you are not the right candidate, they may end up not offering you their contact details.

Note: I originally wrote to ask for a business card, but I suspect the days of in-person interviews are a thing of the past. Once everyone is comfortable with video interviews, face-to-face interviews will be reserved for the final candidates.

Much like waiting for a response after a phone screen, you want to follow up quickly and be persistent.

If you don’t hear from them after several weeks, use the Locking technology to go by calling the hiring manager and leaving him the following message:

I assume that you are no longer interested in me for position XYZ. If you have not found your ideal candidate, I would be happy to recommend someone else for the position. Let me know if I can be of any assistance in filling this position.

If the hiring manager is still interested in you, they’ll get back to you quickly. Earlier in my career, when I wanted someone to call me back, I would leave the following message:

Hey Larry, can you call me back about the scheduled gold shipment?

Usually Larry called me back because he supposedly wanted to know gold shipping… which was fictitious.

Be persistent and stop waiting is a great career strategy

The idea for this blog post came from a presentation by Gary O’Neal. He presented at the Launch Pad Job Club.

You might want to listen to my interview with Gary on the Redesign your career podcast called Gary O’Neal on job hunting in the second half of life where Gary talks about how he would approach a job hunt. He would not wait, but take action.

Gary made it very clear that recruiters and hiring managers would like to respond to every applicant. The reality is they have way too much on their plate. There are an average of 180 applicants for each advertised position.

The hiring process is stalled at so many companies. Technology has done it way too easy to post and apply for jobs. There is a flood of information clogging the system.

Stop waiting and start your own business – this is another great career strategy

We live in an age where many of you are being pushed into one unplanned early retirement. That doesn’t mean you should stop working. You may have to wait until this pandemic and find a lifeboat job to get you over. This is a new term that was recently introduced to me. If we are to recover from this pandemic, we may have to Fill the lifeboats by embracing what I have always referred to as survival jobs.

This is a great time to start your own business. The only person you can count on in your career is you. If you must keep working, stop waiting and take control of the future. This could be a building portfolio from part-time jobs, a collection of gigs, or starting a consulting business.

The only person you can count on in your career is you. Now it’s time to take control.

Anyone who wants to continue working and make a living in the second half of their life must stop waiting and act.

Markus Mueller

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