Career Resiliency: What Does It Take?

No doubt there are many tough career stories in the naked city. I interviewed a close family friend yesterday about what it took for him to stay in the game. I have to tell you that I was completely moved by his brutal honesty in discussing having been fired four times over the course of his career. Mind you, I am not talking about downsizing or the company going offshore. I am speaking about being let go for politically incorrect behavior on the job. At the same time, what is even more remarkable is the fact that today this individual is an out-and-out complete success in his given industry.

You Want an Edge in This Job Market? Create That LinkedIn Profile NOW!

Why? It’s simply a no brainer. The funny thing is, no matter how many times I read an article or a blog post touting the validity and importance of LinkedIn, I end up befuddled by the resistance of this networking and job search tool. Boomers hide their head in the sand. College students look the other way. And, forget about the people who are trying to transition in this job market. They just fast forward their way to the resume process and don’t want to hear one more word about LinkedIn. Say what?

Image and Your Job Search

You’ve heard that it takes less than 10 seconds for a recruiter to decide if they want to continue reading further. If you think that’s a ridiculous amount of time to review a resume, think about how quickly your image can communicate a message. The truth of the matter is that your professional image is the single, most important non-verbal communication there is.

How to Uncover the Hidden Job Market

The research shows that 80% of the jobs available are never really advertised. This doesn’t mean that you’ll be unable to land a job using the internet. However, if you are proactive about your search and change your approach to target specific companies and industries, you will be able to uncover hiring managers and potential leads for you to penetrate the hidden job market.