The 5 People You Need When You’re Job Searching

1) Someone who knows your work well. Lucky for me, the someone who knows my work well is my BFF, Claudette. We met 25 years ago when the company she worked for, Avery Dennison, was a client for my consulting business. We worked together there and at a healthcare system.

Writing goals/objectives, strategies, and tactics for marketing plans is our love language. We've used that tool for everything including work, healthcare, life changes, job searching, and even for love (20+ years ago we crafted a plan for how to help me start dating after my first marriage, and 3+ years ago with the help of my other BFF Matt, for planning my wedding and receptions). This process can be crucial for helping you align on what's important and how to execute in a strategic and measurable way.

Claudette and I went through the job search together. We talked about our strategies for applying for jobs and which platforms to use, crafting cover letters, aligning our CV's to the specific role and preparing for interviews. We shared the frustration of the human resources, 3rd party data, black hole that is LinkedIn (I finally gave up on the tool after 565 unsuccessful applications). We lamented the lack of connections with other humans in the process and she, wisely, got to her dream job by working around the system and getting to the people who managed the job. She did the work, prioritized the people, leadership, and mission to meet her goals and knocked it out of the park with a job that feeds her soul and challenges her intellect. I got to my job by doing the things Claudette modeled, making it less about the tech (which, let's be honest, is currently a hot mess devoid of reason and humanity) and more about our communities and relationships (my friend Lindsey had worked there for nearly 20 years).

Additionally, I got amazing help and advice from Worksource Oregon. There were several support programs that helped me with everything from reinventing my CV to better focus on the role I was applying to, to learning about hiring trends in my state, and access to programs that supported getting hired and even retention post hire. I can't say enough good things about the program and the people. (We do a lot of complaining about government bureaucracy, but if you're patient, it is full of helpful policy and humans. Don't believe me? Go read "Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service" by Michael Lewis.)

Find that person (or people) who understands the professional path you've taken and is helping you imagine the next leg of that journey.

2) Someone who doesn’t know shit about your work, but knows about you and what you need to be happy. I met my husband 22 years ago. We went on three dates, then we were just friends for a decade. Then we lived together for 10 years and got married 2 1/2 years ago. Byron and I have a lot in common. We grew up in small farming towns, his in East Tennessee, mine in Central Oregon. We enjoy gardening, cooking, drinking good wine, listening to music, going to concerts, and playing games (dominoes was his families game, cards and cribbage was my families). When it comes to our chosen vocations, we have little in common. He has a passing interest in my work. He was with me when I came back from my work with Publicis in Cleveland as I pursued a job in healthcare and when I moved from that role at an academic medical center to one in a Catholic non-profit system. He's been here for the 2+ years of unemployment and underemployment between that job and my current job.

The only times he weighed in on my work was when things were really hectic and out of balance. During the pandemic when, like many people, my work/life balance lacked balance he said, "I get that you work at home full-time now, but maybe you need to do stuff besides work, like go for a walk." Or when serving as an Interim VP and still performing my duties as a Senior Director began affecting my sleep, "I don't really know what you do for a living. It seems important and you seem to like it, but I know you're not a nurse or a doctor saving lives, what are you doing up at 4 am?"

Whatever your job search looks like, you'll match not just your skills but what you want for your life to that job. Have someone help you who knows what you need to excel professionally and personally.

3) Someone who is fiercely in your corner come hell or high water. I would call my mom when things got really hard. I called her when I was running and crying (yes, at the same time) on my favorite trail to tell her I wasn't sure if I could keep doing what I was doing. She said to quit pushing myself so hard. When I lost my job, she told me they were fools and that I would be just fine. When I struggled to find a job, she told me that she had done a Google search and that there were plenty of jobs for people who went to college, and to go find one. She was proud of me when I did work that didn't align with my experience; Lyft driver, blackjack dealer, UPS seasonal delivery, and concession stand lead at soccer matches. She told everyone to pray for me when I unexpectedly had interviews with three different companies at the same time. She celebrated with me when I got the job I wanted.

Your job search may be short or long, but find your person who is there to be your hype man or woman through all things.

4) Someone who gets that the work is important to you, but wants you to understand it doesn’t define your worth in the world. My husband, my kids, Marcus and Taylor, and and my counselor were so good at this. I had began my career wanting to be a journalist and I realized quickly that not only did I not love it, but I sucked at it. After staying home for 6 years with the kids, I found my calling in digital marketing two years before Google launched. My first husband was (still is) an economist for the employment department. He recommended a content developer job and that kicked off three decades of a career that I adore.

Not having a job left me rudderless. I struggled to get okay with not defining myself, in large part, with my work. It got really difficult in ways I never imagined. A few months into my joblessness, my son noticed I was spending a lot of time reading (good) or sitting on the porch or in the living room just worrying (not good). One time he told me about tribes hundreds of years ago who migrated often for food and water. Everyone moved together, even if people were ill or unable to walk (as evidenced by skeletal remains with a fractured bone). He was reminding me that, even if we're a little broken, we are valued and loved the same by our tribes. I wasn't going to be left behind, even if I never found another job.

Our work does not define us. With our without it, we are still ourselves and worthy. My counselor gave me many tools for accepting joblessness as just one part of a much broader, wider, interesting, and worthy definition of who I am, with our without a job.

5) Someone informed by hard and soft data - YOU. Your opinion and analysis will be the most important in this pursuit. Your willingness to accept the help and care of others (full transparency, I sucked at that often) and your resilience will be important. Invest in understanding the hard data and don't under estimate the value of soft data (you're own flawed and perfect heart):

• Where is your field today and where is it going? What are trends you can identify? I used a lot of State of Oregon data for understanding these metrics. How many net positive new jobs will be added to the field? How many people will be hired? How many current jobs are there in the field? This data is backwards looking (what is) and forward-looking (estimates). It can be a helpful, directional metric.

• How do you feel about the job? Give this whatever indicator or scale you'd like. I used 1 to 10, 10 being the best and then I added up five categories:

  • Money - it's a big part of why I work. Yes I am passionate about my work, but no I wouldn't keep doing it for free if I didn't have the need.

  • Culture - you'll read about the mission, vision, and values on the website and that may or may not be the culture. Culture = Values + Behavior. Go by your limited experience and the experience of other employees and customers. As Simon Sinek has helped us al understand, if a company doesn't have and embrace their "why" they have little opportunity to live the why. Read Glassdoor (remember we're hard-wired to share crappy stuff over great stuff online). You're looking for trends about compensation, quality of work life balance, and other things only you can define. Also, happy customers often are happy because of how they're treated by employees. It's all related.

  • Opportunity - ask questions about ability to advance or grow the opportunity into things that aren't yet envisioned or included in the role you're applying for. Ask what success looks like in 90 days and in one year. If success only looks like pleasing your boss, recognize that may not be a good fit if you're being hired into a new role that requires your vision.

  • Location - geography, on-site, remote, hybrid, etc. Only you can decide what works.

  • Feelings - don't underestimate this factor. If you don't "feel" great or if there's something that was really off in an interview, pay attention. I had one VP of Sales of a huge company that had just been acquired ask me to make a commitment for 2 years. Like, pinky swear I'd stay. Oregon (and most states) is an at-will state. They aren't obligated to keep us. Asking for me to meet an obligation that didn't exist for the company was a big red flag. Pay attention to how the interview and interviewers make you feel.

Whether you're unemployed or looking to change roles, good luck in your search and never forget that you're the best tool. Some days you'll be great at the job search, some days it will be hard to even Easy Apply (if you're a LinkedIn user, you'll recognize that as a ridiculous and effortless way to search for work while bolstering the metrics of the platform for users who aren't you).

Create big expectations for you and be easy on yourself. Keep doing you, no one else can.