Blog Post: 4 Things To Do To Find Work

Yesterday I worked the Jobing.com Career Expo in Phoenix.  Over 12,000 people attended, the line to get in took an hour, and there were about 125 employers once you were inside.  Assuming each employer was there to fill one job, that’s roughly 1 job for every 100 people.  There’s got to be better odds out there than 1%, and this blog is about better those odds for yourself in a bad economy.  It all relates to doing what no one else is doing.

1) Get on LinkedIn.  I’m sure many of you have heard the term, ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.’  LinkedIn is one excellent way of making contacts at a company you want to work for.  Simply sign up for a profile, start adding people you already know as connections, and then start typing in company names in the search box.  You’ll immediately be able to see if your connections know someone who works at the company you want to work for, or at the very least, you’ll have a name of someone who works at that company you can contact.  You can start by adding me as a contact.

2) Show Up.   Half of the battle is just showing up.  My suggestion would be to put on a suit, get on Mapquest, and spend a day just showing up at companies who have job postings on Jobing.com with a catered resume in hand.  I would politely ask to speak to an HR manager about the job posting on Jobing.com.  And if the receptionist says they’re busy, I would say that you’re not in a hurry, and you can wait.  And I would wait until you talked to someone about the job.    

This worked for one person we interviewed.  He saw a job posting, submitted his application, and did not hear back.  He called and called and called, and did not hear back.  So he went down to the company and didn’t leave until he got the interview.  You can read the rest of the story here. 

3)  Volunteer.  The goal in any job search is to get a foot in the door.  If you can afford to, one of the ways to get a foot in the door is to work for free.  Volunteer, or ask for an internship.  Many people have started their careers at the bottom and worked their way to the top.  By volunteering, you can show the company your work skills and dedication, and after a few months, they might offer you some sort of compensation.    

4)  Give up the job search and create a job for yourself.  One of things I say to people looking for a job is that you are not ‘unemployed,’ but you are ‘self-employed.’  By choice or not, you are responsible for creating opportunities with the goal of finding something that pays you well.  Why not take the full leap and really be self employed?   

Start a business.  Be a freelancer.  Do anything that can start to move you from being unemployed to self employed. 

Brett Farmiloe is the co-founder of www.pursuethepassion.com, a site that offers interviews with people who have made their passion into a profession.  Visit the site and check out some of the interviews- many of their stories talk about creating a job for themselves.  Brett can be contacted by following him on Twitter, by befriending him on Facebook, and connecting on LinkedIn.