Are You Unconsciously Incompetent In Your Job Search?
Recently, I was the keynote speaker for a large job search conference where there were roughly 1000 participants who had been trying to find a job for 6 months to a year or longer.
Very few job seekers in the entire conference were conducting an effective job search, and many had lost hope in terms of finding a new job.
The theme of the job search conference was JOB SEARCH HOPE. My opening remarks were along the path that HOPE comes from conducting an effective job search. A lack of HOPE stems from not knowing what to do next in your job search.
I proposed to the attendees that there are hundreds of job search activities that everyone should be working on daily and weekly in their job search. Unfortunately, many of the participants were stuck with one or two activities, such as calling on a couple of network contacts or answering job board ads. Many had put their proverbial “job search in one basket”. Have you made this mistake?
Why didn’t they know about all the other job search activities that could be doing – activities that would overflow their daily capacity and generate an abundance of job leads and referrals.
I call this the job search unconsciously incompetent syndrome.
If you’re a fan of Steven Covey, you’ll recall he puts forth a 2×2 matrix in “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. In this 2×2 matrix, Covey puts Consciousness-Unconsciousness on one axis and Competency-Incompetency on the other.
One of the intersections is the Unconsciously Incompetent – translated to a job search – it means the job seeker is not aware that they are incompetent – they don’t know what else is available, possible, or useful. How can this be?
The job seeker has not taken the time to:
- Research best practices in job search
- Read job search blogs from well-known experts
- Purchase job search books from outstanding authors
- Download FREE materials from job search publishers
I’m confused.
Maybe you could help me.
Why wouldn’t you devote every opportunity possible to exploring how to conduct a better job search?
Most job seekers are still conducting their job search as if it’s the last recession 5-10-20 years ago.
Why do most job seekers believe they can “go it alone”, they don’t no stinking help from someone else, or “no one can teach them new tricks”?
I am shocked to my core, that most job seekers are unconsciously incompetent in their job search – in spite of extraordinary material available that is either dirt cheap or FREE. Much of this material could help the vast majority of job seekers to cut their job search time by 10%, 25%, or perhaps even, 50%.
I’m looking for your comments to help me understand this dysfunctional syndrome of ineffective job search.
I’ll close with this thought – until you make the committed effort to “master” a job search through learning what it takes to conduct an effective job search – you’ll be stuck between luck and wishful thinking.
Barry Deutsch
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Tags: free job search resources, Job Hunting, Job Search, job search information, job search knowledge, job search plan, Job Search Preparation, job search research
Job Search Mistakes, Job Search Preparation | Barry Deutsch November 2, 2010
About the Author
Barry Deutsch is a founding Partner of IMPACT Hiring Solutions, co-author of "You're NOT the Person I Hired", and "This is NOT the Position I Accepted". Barry is an award-winning international speaker, retained executive recruiter, and expert on hiring and retaining top talent, and executive job search.
