| CAREERS NOW 02-27-08 |
| Job Hunting When You're Unemployed |
DEAR JOYCE: You wrote about a new service called NotchUp for which top performers
could register. But the catch is you have to be "happily employed." Why? - J.F.
Hiring authorities may wonder if you're good, why are you unemployed? Are you damaged goods? Managers can't risk
making too many bad hires; they assume that if someone else is paying you, you must be okay. Happily employed,
or passive, candidates are equated with being high performers. Considering the fees involved, it's no surprise
that judgment is championed by recruiters who pirate "sure bet" passive candidates.
A differing view is offered by a leading career coach, Lawrence Stuenkel, senior partner at Lawrence & Allen
in Greenville, S.C. He says those kinds of thoughts are fading into history. (I sure hope so.) Moreover, Stuenkel
insists that a corollary belief that finding a job is easier when you're working rather than when you're unemployed
is a big fat myth:
"In the last 10 years there have been many big layoffs, downsizings, rightsizings and plant closures affecting
millions of Americans, not all of whom were poor performers. While the stigma of being unemployed has gradually
decreased every year, unfortunately it has not completely disappeared. That's why many people start looking for
new jobs while still in their existing employment."
But job hunting is a full-time, daylight activity, Stuenkel explains, pointing out its inherent time drain: "There
are just too many tasks, people to contact, Web sites to browse, follow-up calls to be made and e-mails to be sent
in the evening. The advantage always goes to the job seeker who has the time and uses it wisely."
DEAR JOYCE: Recession survival advice often includes the admonition to come in early and leave late, eat
lunch at your desk and post an updated generic resume without your current employer's name on job boards to see
what else is out there. Do you agree? - M.F
Positive visibility is always good. If your resume is a recruiter-magnet, you've effectively bought a lottery bid
that could be a winning ticket. But there's another side to your issues, one effectively stated by Scot Herrick,
who operates an impressive career management Web site addressed to people who work in cubical offices, www.cuberules.com.
Herrick's take on your three topics:
-- Coming in early and leaving late simply increases your stress. Besides, if your company really has the work
to do, decide on doing the work, not making appearances thinking it will help your cause. It won't.
-- All eating at your desk does is isolate you from the rest of the world - a disastrous career move. Use your
lunch time to interact with other people and build and stay connected with your network.
-- Posting your resume just to see what's out there is pointless. Unless you are consistently updating your resumes
on the job boards, they will drift off into electronic purgatory never to see the light of day. Either go look
for a job and do the work associated with it or don't. You'd be far better off communicating with your network
about jobs than posting on boards.
DEAR JOYCE: I was planning to start medical assistant school in September but the school was unable to tell
me that I would get a student loan for sure. If I don't get a loan I can't afford to quit my job and go to school.
Should I change my plans? - K.M.G.
Not yet. Private vocational-technical schools teach practical fields such as healthcare, computers, culinary arts,
business, and automotive and motorcycle repair. They get much of their funding from student loans so you can bet
these useful proprietary schools are hustling to find new lenders and keep student attendance up. Some commercial
education companies are themselves thinking about funding student loans.
While investor money for private student loans is harder to find, the federal government makes loans directly to
students, the fundamentals of which are explained on www.studentaid.ed.gov.
Some of the private money student loans carry rates as high as credit cards. Have you thought about taking an equivalent
program at a much less expensive community college?
Email Joyce
Sorry, the volume of mail makes personal replies impossible.