Not All Job Hunting Is Created Equal

Each job seeker is in a different situation. So, tailor your approach to your particular circumstances. For instance, let us consider a 40-year-old and his 20-year-old nephew, a new college graduate. Both are looking for jobs. The uncle is a family man with a mortgage to pay and children in college to support. The nephew is an F-1 visa holder; he has time to find a job and stay in status.

The uncle, well experienced and suited for particular kinds of positions, is under extreme pressure to make some arrangements for the ongoing household and educational expenses. He needs to find a job as quickly as possible, even at the expense of it not being an ideal fit.

The nephew’s first job after graduation, on the other hand, should form a strong foundation for his future career advancement. Additionally, getting a permanent resident visa is a long and arduous process. He risks having to start the process over again if the job he gets does not work out. Hence, more caution and deliberation seem appropriate in the nephew’s case.

So, I advise job seekers to evaluate current circumstances before deciding which job-hunting approach to take.

The Seven Techniques of Effective Job Searchers

Although the approaches might differ for individuals, there are certain common elements. Most of them are appropriate for any economic situation. But some of the following methods are particularly suited for the harsh ones.

Leave no stone unturned - In this Internet age, some people feel that they are done as soon as they’ve submitted their resume to job-posting Web sites. This fire and forget approach is less than one percent effective. You have to tirelessly try every avenue possible to generate leads.

Network, network, and network - This is by far the most effective method to unearth opportunities, and in some cases, even create one where none existed. Some of the most talented people I’ve hired have been through personal references. I tend to place a great deal of initial trust on insider referrals. Use Metcalf’s law to your advantage. The power of your personal network is proportional to the square of the number of people in it. Connect with people you know, the people they know and then the people whom they in turn can introduce. The game Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon is a good model for this exercise.

Find well-funded, growing companies - They are the ones doing most of the hiring as most established companies are either shedding jobs or in a hiring freeze. Some are newly funded and are in the development stage, and some are in the expansion stage. In either case, they are capitalizing on the downturn to hire exceptional people. There are a few ways to find them: again, network, network, and network! Ask people if they know of such a company and if they can provide a contact there. Funding events are publicized on Web sites and in e-mail newsletters. Keep an eye on business news as product announcements or news on hiring of senior executives, etc. This is often a good indication of dynamic, growing companies.

Locate rare positions in established companies - Some companies are in fact innovating and growing in specific areas. To find them, continue to mine your network, inquiring about new developments or positions advertised in internal human-resource applications such as the Intranet sites. Such companies also tend to regularly update the job opportunity section of their external Web sites.

Hook-up with a great recruiter - In lean times, companies in general tend to be loathe to use recruiters since they know that the available talent pool is large. However, hiring managers do tend to have relationships with some great recruiters. You can exploit such relationships if you find a recruiter who has a great track record of delivering hot candidates to the managers.

Use the Internet - The Internet is a great tool to find more about companies and what kind of opportunities they might have. And, it does help to have the visibility that the job-posting sites provide.

The old staples - Newspapers and job fairs can continue to be a good source of leads. The career sections of newspapers do contain some job ads. Job fairs are good places to connect with human resource departments and some hiring managers.

After finding an opportunity, don’t just send your resume and wait for results. You need to find an insider who can personally forward the resume to the hiring manager. If you know of positions in a few different groups, it would be good to get your resume into each hiring manager’s hands. If you cannot find an insider to forward it, you can send it to the human resources department, but be sure to follow-up.

Bend, But Don’t Break

Even if you do manage to find job openings, to actually land a job you may need an attitude adjustment. Flexibility is key.

Do not be fixated on a particular kind of position or be hung up on prestige. You need to have the maturity to accept any position that is within the range of your qualifications and experience. This does not, however, mean that you need to take a position for which you are supremely over-qualified

You can no longer expect the kind of compensation that people received at the height of the dot-com boom. Do not be shocked to receive an offer for significantly less than what you were making in your prior position.

Be prepared to accept a far longer commute.

Be ready to work longer hours and carry many more responsibilities than ever before.

You may have to take a position that is quite different from your earlier career, or your academic training. A career change induced by the loss of a job might be the silver lining in the cloud of despair. For instance, people who have been in an IT applications career for years might join exciting new, growing fields such as bio-informatics.

Until you get full time employment, take up a short-term contract, temporary position, or a part-time position, while you continue to search. Such a position may even turn into a full-time job after a while. Sometimes, this route might even be preferable than being stuck in a full-time job that you do not like. When you have a job in your hand, you can conduct your search with more confidence.

Move to a different city, state or even another country. If you have such flexibility, your opportunity space and probability of finding a good job increases. At present, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and some countries in Africa seem to present many more IT-related opportunities than the United States or Canada.

To sum up, during the current economic storm it is better to bend and survive like grass on a river bank than to stand tall like a mighty oak and be uprooted and leveled.

They Also Serve, Those Who Stand and Wait

What does one do if even the most intense job search has not turned up even a part-time position? A sage once said: “If life hands you a lemon, make lemonade!” Here are some ways to do that:

Become well versed in skill sets that are more in demand. If it is a software skill, such as a new programming language, you can even learn it and practice programming on your home computer. Or, you can learn at training institutes, or even short distance learning courses on the Internet.

There are several technology-rich, but cash-poor, companies who are always looking for easy-on-cash ways to augment their staff. If you come to know of such a company, you could offer to help out for no salary or for very nominal cash compensation. The firm in turn may compensate you with stock, medical benefits, etc. They may also offer to give you a bonus once they receive further funding. Such a stint may eventually lead to regular employment with the same company. But please be mindful of the strict regulations of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as well as IRS tax laws.

This is in fact a good time to consider starting your own venture. Although funding is limited, if you do not have immediate hard cash needs, you can talk to a lot of people, validate your ideas and concepts and take the time to create a strong business plan that can get funded later.

You could take the radical step of putting your career on hiatus and advancing your academic credentials, such as a Ph.D. or M.B.A. degree. Such additional qualification can be a significant boost to your future career.

Take that dream vacation. For those who are not under immediate financial constraints, this is the chance to visit places you have always wanted to see. This hiatus could also be an opportunity to complete some personal mission. If you have the talent, write a book. Or, you can do community service.

In Closing

The uncle/nephew example I mentioned previously came from real-life observations. A person in the uncle situation who had been in a senior management position before being laid off transitioned into a senior architect position at a different company and is thrilled with his new position. I’m confident he will once again become a senior manager someday. Similarly, the new college graduate who could not get an industry job, went back to his M.S. thesis advisor and continued onto a Ph.D. program and is merrily publishing. It may even turn out to be his calling!

Prabakar Sundarrajan is CTO and EVP of strategic planning and corporate development at NetScaler. Sundarrajan has more than 20 years of technology experience in the networking, Internet and eBusiness markets. Prior to joining NetScaler, Sundarrajan was senior vice president, technology for Exodus Communications. Before that, Sundarrajan was a product manager with Transarc Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM. Sundarrajan holds a Master's in Computer Science from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. si