If you have a bad job, keep job hunting (but don't quit the job!)

In relation to my last post on making sure you always have some sort of job, even if it doesn't match your needs, I figured I ought to point out some of the pitfalls of working in a job that is beneath your abilities.

I have a friend who has a pretty bad job, and doesn't get enough hours to support himself. He has mostly quit job-hunting though, because at least he has a job. He's been stuck like this for quite some time. He did the right thing in taking the job, but then he forgot all about finding a better one!

Basically, if your job doesn't meet your needs and skills, you ought to be spending serious time job-hunting every week. As a corollary, if you are spending 80 hours a week at this pretty bad job, you aren't going to have the time or energy for real job hunting. Overtime at a bad job will just burn you out, and make you unable to get anything better. Cut back to a reasonable schedule any way you can, just to have the energy to find a better job.

I think you should only really quit the job if the only way of keeping the job is working lots of overtime for poor pay, since that means it's interfering with your search for the job you really need.

Get a job, any job

I've mentioned this before, but I figure people might be more likely to believe me if I find more people saying the same thing:

Why Hunting for a Great Job Will Hurt Your Career

Full-time job hunting can be a depressing, long-term experience. Even if you have to take a job far below your abilities (and perhaps way below your income requirements), you should always make sure you have some sort of job. Then you can spend your spare time looking for the perfect job.

• You'll avoid gaps in your resume.
• There may be quick promotion opportunities at the suboptimal job, if you perform well.
• There are better networking opportunities interacting with people at a bad job than sitting at home sending e-mails.
• When you take a job beneath your abilities, you really don't need to treat it like a long-term commitment. Don't feel guilty when a better job comes along.
• Not having even a bad job can easily lead to depression and feelings of worthlessness, which makes it even harder to get a job.
• It's possible to waste a lot of time on the Internet. Anyone trying to spend all day job hunting on the Internet is going to get bored and start visiting sites of lower and lower quality while surfing. At the end of the day, you'll have done 30 minutes of job hunting and 8 hours of web surfing. You might as well spend those 8 hours doing actual work instead - and getting paid.

Remember of course that being unemployed can also be a great time to get additional training - even an additional degree, if you have the means.

Unemployment and Faith

In this article from the August issue of the Ensign, A. Brent Hammond writes about how he and his wife got through unemployment. Things eventually worked out for them, and they managed to do a lot of good in the process.

Faith in the Face of Adversity

New Website for Job Seekers

Our church has created a new website with a variety of resources to help those looking for work. It is free and open to everyone. Visit www.ldsjobs.org.

Adapting Slowly

One thing that I discovered the last time I was unemployed for a significant time (which was thankfully quite a while ago) was that I spent more money while unemployed then I had before! Looking back on it, it still doesn't make much sense to me.
Here's on article on Yahoo Finance that reminded me of that:

Life on Severance: Comfort, Then Crisis

This article details the experiences of various people who lost very well-paying jobs, but did not immediately adjust their standard of living to compensate. Losing a job should require serious "stepping down" in each area of your expenses.

There were a number of other points I noticed in the article:

1. One women was sending out ten resumes a day through Monster.com. Another fellow figured he'd sent out 3000 copies total. Though it is a useful website, it's possible to send out a lot of resumes with poor results. Without networking and a good resume, you can easily send out hundreds of ignored resumes.
2. If you've saved enough before losing a job, it can actually be a great time to work on your education, giving you a chance to get a better job than the one you lost.
3. Identify and track your expenses, so that you know what to cut to make the biggest difference.
4. Try not to worry about what neighbors or family will think when you are cutting back. Trying to "keep up with the Joneses" is foolish enough when you actually have a job.
   

Organizing the Job Search

Periodically, I take a few days off from my job to put some extra time into the part-time degree I'm working on. Sometimes though, those days aren't very productive - it usually depends on whether or not I have a plan of exactly what I want to accomplish, and how I'm going to do it. Otherwise, I just stare at the pages of equations blankly for a while before finding something else to do. It reminds me of the last couple of times I was unemployed or underemployed for a significant amount of time.

The first time, I didn't really have a job-finding plan, nor did I have any other concrete plans for the other things I wanted to accomplish in life (this was around my first year of college). I ended up getting very little done for a few months, besides burning through my savings.

The second time, I did a bit better. I scheduled a bit of time each day to study, and put together a good list of job opportunities and sought them actively. I actually found two jobs, both of which were really flexible around my school schedule, and I haven't been unemployed since. I realize now that a big part of why I've done well since is that I effectively used those couple of months where I was underemployed to make myself more employable.

A concrete schedule can definitely make time looking for a job more effective. There's a recent article about this in the New York Times: How to Turn Downtime Into Job Offers. The article focuses on smart planning of and scheduling of the various job search activities. Based on my experience, I think it's also important to schedule a couple of hours a day for concrete skills improvement, but overall it's definitely a useful article.

Internships

I have a friend who has been struggling to find a job after graduating. Three years ago, his degree would have made it easy to find a good job. Instead, he's had many interviews, but no offers. Finally, though, he was able to get an internship. Internships, if they pay at all, don't usually pay well. They can make a resume really stand out however.

I do a few hours of recruiting and interviewing candidates each month at my job (most of us at the company do). Speaking with our full-time recruiters, they identified internships as one of the top three things they look for when interviewing recent college graduates. There can be quite the difference between the new college graduates who have done internships, and those who have not. For this reason, I congratulated my friend on finding a worthwhile internship where he'll get to work with some of the important people in his industry while continuing to look for a full-time position.

For anyone else out there having difficulty finding a job, an internship may be just the thing to do while continuing to look for something permanent. According to the New York Times, internships are one position where hiring is increasing: Hiring is Rising in One Area

Also, consider an internship an extended interview. According to one survey, most interns are later offered full-time positions by the same company. (NACE Survey)

More internship information:

Internships (About.com)

Working Hard

A great quote from President Monson yesterday, that I hope I remember correctly:

"Retirement is not part of the Lord's Plan of Salvation."

He focuses on how we shouldn't ever take breaks from our spiritual responsibilities - that there is no way to "earn" some time off from serving the Lord.

I also found an interesting (temporal) article about unemployment. It reminded me of something I wrote in June about Volunteer Work.

Hard Work, No Pay

I still think this is great advice. As pointed out in the article, if we work for free, then we have a lot more choices about what we want to do. We can pick opportunities that will look great on a resume and teach us valuable skills - rather than just fill out resumes and field rejection letters all day.

The Value of Mobility

To those who are currently unemployed or underemployed (and this is a lot of you!), it's pretty clear just how bad this recession is. For the rest of you:

The New Joblessness (New York Times)

One point made in the article is about the value of mobility. Many of the recently unemployed have low mobility, because their mortgages are under water, and it is so difficult to sell a house anyway. Job options are thus very limited, since they can't simply uproot and move to a different state.

Growing up, we moved around a lot. Four times, my parents bought a house. Two of those times, we only lived in the house for a year before changes in employment required moving again. Each time, I think my parents had planned to stay for quite a while, but life rarely turns out as planned. One time in particular, I recall that my father's was doing contract work. His contract expired right in the middle of an employment downturn in his industry. He had difficulty finding work, compounded by the fact that we couldn't afford to move, because we'd just bought a house a few months before.

A couple of years ago, we were living in a different state. I'm very glad that we decided to rent while we were there. We could have afforded a mortgage (though, during 2006, who couldn't qualify?), but I didn't like the looks of the housing bubble. It turned out well for us, since after only a little over a year, I transferred to a different team at the company which required a move to California!

In general (though during a housing bubble all bets are off), buying a house works out better the longer you live in it before moving. Renting works out better if you move often, or can't qualify for a mortgage with a good rate.

In the current economy, I don't think it's a good idea to tie oneself down with a house, unless you are quite financially secure. The standard advice to pay at least 20% down and get a fixed-rate mortgage is coming back into style...

You're worth is what you make?

As my father's worldly circumstances were very limited, we were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out by day's work and otherwise, as we could get opportunity. Sometimes we were at home, and sometimes abroad, and by continuous labor were enabled to get a comfortable maintenance.  LDS.org - Joseph Smith's Testimony

When I was a teenager, I had a terrible thing happen to me. I was offered a great job. Though I was a talented student, I had never had an easy time finding good jobs. So I was really pleased about this one. I would be making about 50% more than at my job at a fast food restaurant. I immediately quit the fast food job, and accepted the position. As it turned out, the position I'd accepted was as a temp. Though the pay was excellent for two days, they had no more work for me after that. They promised to call soon though. It took me about a month to realize that they weren't going to call.

The damage was done, however. I now considered myself to be worth $10 an hour, no less. Fast food was now beneath me. I began only applying to jobs where the pay was at least that much.

Needless to say, I had difficulty finding any job that paid that much. In fact, I remained mostly unemployed for the next six months. Finally, halfway through my freshman year of college, I figured things out. I applied at a fast food restaurant, and started working for $6.00 an hour - even less than at my previous fast food job. But, $6.00 an hour is a lot more than $0.00 an hour!

I decided never to make that mistake again. Since then, I've had a system:

1. If I don't have a job, take the first job I can get.
2. If I don't like my current job, look hard for a better job.
3. Don't ever quit a job until another, better long-term job is guaranteed.
4. Always be prepared in case I become unemployed tomorrow.

This is why during college I had the following series of jobs:

• Fast Food (at two different places)
• Assisting a disabled older fellow
• Elementary School Music Teacher
• Russian Tutor
• Research Assistant at an aerospace company

The last job was a very good job - but importantly, I didn't quit the two jobs I'd held at the time until I had the Research Assistant job.

It is foolish to define one's worth by an hourly wage - especially during a job search. And minimum wage definitely beats no wage.

Competitive Times

You are moving into the most competitive age the world has ever known. All around you is competition. You need all the education you can get. Sacrifice a car; sacrifice anything that is needed to be sacrificed to qualify yourselves to do the work of the world. That world will in large measure pay you what it thinks you are worth, and your worth will increase as you gain education and proficiency in your chosen field.

You belong to a church that teaches the importance of education. You have a mandate from the Lord to educate your minds and your hearts and your hands.
Gordon B. Hinckley, A Prophet's Counsel and Prayer for Youth.

Our state has hit 11.5% unemployment. The competition that President Hinckley spoke of is far more intense now than usual, making education even more important.

Besides, a college or vocational school is a good place to sit out a recession - once one's studies are done, the job market has usually recovered.

Helping Job Seekers

New York Times: Helping the Job Seeker Without Hurting Yourself

I just wrote about how to better network if you're unemployed. You may have noticed that I emphasized to job seekers to network primarily through people who can vouch for them. It is important to network even further out than that, but if you're a person that people try to network through often, you know that you can't help everyone.

I was recently approached by a student from my former university who wanted a recommendation. I didn't know him, but he was apparently under the impression that I'd just recommend him based on our common university background. His resume looked pretty good, though a couple of parts were rather suspicious. I explained that I could only recommend him if one of a list of four professors that I trusted him could recommend him strongly.

As it turned out, he had been attempting to hide some important facts in his resume - and none of the professors were willing to recommend him. If I had recommended him, those facts would have inevitably come out during the interview process, and my recommendations would be less trusted, and I'd be less able to help other job-seekers in the future!

He ended up applying for the job without my recommendation, and was not invited to an interview. I gave him quite a bit of advice about how to improve his career options, and hopefully he'll fix up the things that are holding him back.

The New York Times article above has quite a few more good points about avoiding these types of problems when helping job-seekers.

Networking

Receive him as myself - Paul in the Epistle to Philemon

When I first realized what an effect that networking could have on a job search, it seemed to me a bit like nepotism - the practice of doling out the best jobs and favors to relatives. As I've become more involved in the hiring process, I've realized how little can truly be discovered about a person from a resume and job interview. The place I work has a very thorough job interview process - involving a half dozen (or more) 45 minute interviews with different people. Even with this type of process, I often feel like we don't have nearly enough information.

When the candidate was referred by a current employee of the company, however, the situation is different. The interview can, to some extent, determine their skills in communication or technical work - and the referrer can vouch for the candidates work ethic and honesty. That vital combination gives far more information than either alone could.

Networking can thus be a very valuable way to find ways for the people who know you and your work ethic to express that confidence to potential employers.

It can be difficult to build up the connections necessary to find a job that will work out well - there are lots of resources about successful networking, including this on Provident Living:

Effective Networking

Resumes: Make it Quantifiable

In my work, I get the opportunity to interview potential employees. My primary duty is to make sure that they "know their stuff."

As I've reviewed resumes, I've discovered that the best resumes aren't always written by the best candidates. Many very good candidates have resumes that make me dread the interview. Then the interview goes quite well.

One of my favorite interviews was with a candidate who had put together a resume that made it sound like his last internship consisted of paper-shuffling and coffee delivery. His descriptions of his school work made it sound like he did well in his classes, but hadn't really worked on any really interesting projects.

When I spoke to him though, it quickly became clear that he'd left out all sorts of neat details about his projects. The project that had sounded like shuffling papers turned out to be incredibly complex, and he had been quite successful. He had completely left out the details of quite a number of interesting things that he had done, while filling up his resume with the usual fluff put in by candidates with no real skills.

A resume is not the time to be humble! It's the time to be honest - let the company know why you would make a great employee. Emphasize the successes you've had in your career and education, and point out the interesting and difficult parts of each project. Then find the most exciting items, and put them first. Take the least exciting items, and throw them out.

There are different standard formats for resumes - find the one that lets you highlight the interesting things you have done and learned the best. I, personally, use a chronological resume that focuses on my biggest projects and accomplishments. Check out some of the different formats here:

Resume or CV - Getting Noticed by Potential Employers

I especially like the quote on that page:

“Neglect not the gift that is in thee.”
1 Timothy 4:14

Resumes - Get Help

I wanted very badly to work at an aerospace company near the university where I was a student, so I sent in my resume every time they had a job opening. I was never even telephoned.

One day I discovered that the university had people who would assist students with resumes for free. I met with one of those fellows, who helped me out quite a bit. Honestly, looking at them side by side, I could hardly tell why the new version was better than the old. And the new resume was still a correct and honest representation of my abilities and experience. I sent it in to the aerospace company, as well as to another small aerospace laboratory. Not only did I get interviews with both companies, I was actually able to negotiate my starting wage up by about 25% because of how well the interview went.

If you are looking for a job, even passively, don't waste time sending in resumes that haven't been appraised by someone who knows what to look for.

If you are in school, there are probably people paid to help students improve resumes.

If you are being laid off (and not for performance reasons), many companies are quite willing to offer job-finding assistance. Find one of the HR people from the company to help you spruce up your resume.

Otherwise, find friends who are tasked with looking at resumes on a regular basis. Talk with the ward employment specialist to find people who are skilled in the area.

Getting a resume looked at, and an interview scheduled, can be very difficult. A polished, accurate resume definitely has a bigger effect than I'd expected.

More resume and job hunting tips:

Provident Living: Tips to Get You Hired

Focus on Family Finances - Education

The June, 2009 issue of the Ensign has some great articles on family finances and preparedness. One article brought up one of my favorite ideas about handling unemployment, right at the beginning.

In Focus on Family Finances, Allie Schulte from Welfare Services writes about a family that had become unemployed. They turned this into an opportunity to go back to college and finish the Bachelor's degrees they'd started. Because of that, their job options became far better than they would have without the extra education, and their now on solid financial footing.

An education is one of the best and least risky investments one can make while working towards self-sufficiency, especially if one has recently become unemployed. Consider:

1. An education pays off. Check out this US Census report on financial benefits of education.
2. When a recruiter sees a six month period (corresponding to six months of unemployment) missing from a resume, he or she is concerned. Replace that time with work towards more education however, and it can only make a resume look better.
3. If you've been laid off, maybe the work you were doing wasn't a great fit - maybe it's time to learn some new skills, or branch out into an entirely different area.
4. By taking more classes now, you'll have a more up-to-date education than others working in the field, and more experience than many of those just graduating.
5. Networking to find employment is more effective while taking classes than while surfing job posting websites.
6. Prophets of the Church have advised us to get as much education as possible: Seek Learning, by President Hinckley

There are many different flexible programs available. I actually take part-time classes at the local university, just to make sure that my skills stay up-to-date and that I keep my career moving in the direction that I want. If I get laid off, I'll just switch to being a full-time student again, and work towards an advanced degree.

(Stanford University and the University of Washington are pictured above)

Volunteer Work

Behold, I say unto you that it is my will that you should go forth and not tarry, neither be idle but labor with your might— Doctrine and Covenants 75:3

There are few things I hate worse than job hunting. Looking back at times when I was searching for a job, I've tried to think of different ways to make job hunting more effective and less painful.

I do know for sure of a few things that don't work for me.

I've tried doing a job search 100% of my time before. It gets very depressing, and increasingly ineffective to send out so many resumes every day. The amount of time I spent actually looking for work decreased, and my idle time increased. There is also only so much yard work to do, and it is difficult to be self-motivated when studying without a class.

So, find some volunteer work! The job interview process for volunteer work usually isn't very stressful, and there are many different organizations always looking for volunteers, be it local Church-run canneries or farms, or other non-profit organizations, or the local government.

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. Mosiah 2:17

For me, more important than any other consideration is the impact that this can have on the lives of others. There are always people with greater needs than we have. As is usually the case with service though, there are plenty of other benefits for yourself.

1. Service looks great on a resume - service I have done has been specifically mentioned when I have been hired at multiple jobs.
2. It's often possible to find service that utilizes our skills effectively.
3. It's easier to stay motivated and upbeat during a job search if you are meanwhile doing something valuable.
4. In many cases, the people with whom we serve may have great leads on jobs - and will likely be willing to recommend us.

A job search can either be a depressing, difficult time - or a chance to grow and analyze our direction. I definitely prefer the latter.

Hard Time

The LDS Public Affairs channel on YouTube has been putting up some great videos.