A reader writes:
I graduated from college last year and quickly found a job in my field of study (journalism). It wasn’t my dream position, but I enjoyed it. I was unfortunately laid off, without very good reason. That was about two months ago and I have been job hunting since.
My parents thought I should see a life coach to help me figure out my next steps. (I had been considering leaving my last job for a while and had begun the job search, but wasn’t planning on leaving until I made it at least a year. I was only there 10 months.) And I haven’t found her help to be completely helpful.
For one, she constantly spouts the figure that “80% of jobs are unlisted.” She doesn’t think online job listings are the best way to get a job and thinks instead I should be contacting people in my field (who I don’t know) to ask for to meet them. I don’t think this is bad in theory, but it doesn’t seem like an easy way to get a job.
Two, personality tests: she had me take one to see whether my “personality” matched with my career choice (it did). And while the website does give in depth detail about each job, I didn’t think it was a great way of determining where you should go.
Three, she thinks my headline on LinkedIn ought to be more engaging and that I need a more interesting background pic. I don’t really understand this bit at all.
Some of her advice has been kind of helpful, but very little of it has related to my job hunt and instead has related to other parts of my life that I needed to get together. I’ve been following your blog for awhile and it seems a lot of her advice contradicts what you say. I wanted to give her a chance, but I just can’t seem to mesh well with her.
I’m still job hunting and have only had one phone screen interview despite applying to 50-plus places. I had another, but the interviewer had to reschedule and hasn’t gotten back to me with a new date. A few other places have contacted me to see if I’m still looking but not to schedule interviews, yet.
I’ve done some freelance in the meantime, but that’s managed to fall by the wayside since some things have come up. I don’t think my resume is the issue. It managed to get me plenty of interviews out of college. I’m not really sure what to do and I want to scream.
Yeah, do not take further career advice from her. This is the classically bad advice you hear from people who have no idea what they’re actually taking about.
I don’t know if her non-work, non-job-search advice is any good, but based on the job stuff, I’m skeptical about that too.
There’s really no evidence backing up the idea that 80% of jobs are unlisted, but it’s a myth that gets often repeated — usually by people who have a financial incentive in you believing that, since if you can’t find jobs through job postings, then job searching is a mysterious process and you’ll need their advice about how to get leads. It also gets repeated by people who don’t have a lot of experience hiring and thus don’t recognize how off that number is.
It’s certainly not a terrible idea to network in your field — it’s a good idea, in fact — but you’re very right that asking to meet strangers is not an easy way to get a job. Asking to meet with strangers to broaden your network is more of a long-term strategy; it’s not the thing most likely to get you a job right now. The thing most likely to get you a job right now is (a) applying to job postings in your field, and in your case, sending writing clips, and (b) talking with the people who are already in your network and thus most likely to help you.
I don’t know what your headline is on LinkedIn, but unless it’s something that’s actively off-putting (like “will work for cocaine” or “I eat children”), making it more engaging isn’t in the top 20 most important actions you could be taking for your job search. And a more interesting background picture isn’t something that’s even going to register for employers. No one cares if you have a background picture or not. The fact that she thinks they do is a really, really bad sign about her understanding of what gets people hired.
Which leads us to … what exactly are her credentials in this area? I’d bet good money that she hasn’t done significant hiring and instead is basing her advice on things other people have written, without the ability to rigorously evaluate it, separate good advice from bad, know what’s outdated, judge it against her own experience, or apply it with nuance.
Please don’t keep paying her (and don’t let your parents keep paying her, if they’re doing that). She’s basically running a scam, and I’m sorry you got caught up in it.
I think my life coach is giving me bad advice was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
from Ask a Manager https://ift.tt/2LVLKZ2
via IFTTT
कोई टिप्पणी नहीं:
एक टिप्पणी भेजें