In honor of the holiday that celebrates the working man (and woman, forgive the male-oriented language), here are ten tips for actually finding some work.
1. Go high-def. OK, I don’t really buy (or really even understand) this gimmicky concept of creating something called a “high-definition” resume. But I do think some of the tips are good, like that it’s important to use keywords that list specific skills and qualifications, rather than going with vague, meaningless phrases like “team player.”
2. If you’ve been laid off, it’s natural to feel like an angry, desperate mope. But nobody wants to hire an angry, desperate mope.
3. Nobody wants to hire someone who dresses like a slob either.
4. Hire a career coach. Would I ever do this? Probably not. But if you’re going to spend a few hundred dollars (or more), you want to get the most for your money.
5. Hit up your alma mater’s career services and alumni associations for help. You gave the school a lot of money, and now it’s time for some payback.
6. Where are the jobs? You hear a lot about employment in health care and the government. And it’s true: There are expected to be three million more health care jobs by 2016, a field that’s dominated by women, by the way. Meanwhile, the federal government needs to hire 270,000 workers, which doesn’t sound like a lot compared to 3 million. But hey, 270,000 jobs is nothing to sniff at.
7. Duh, um, there’s this thing called the Internet. You can find more jobs there than in the newspaper or a job fair. With the Internet, you can do something called “social networking.”
8. Try “extreme” job hunting, which sounds interesting, but involves doing dorky things like wearing a sandwich board that says you need a job. Perhaps bungee-jumping with the sandwich board would do the trick better. It would at least be more “extreme.”
9. But be warned that bold tactics, like sending gifts to hiring managers or showing up at the office when you’re supposed to have just a phone interview, usually don’t land people jobs.
10. Deduct job-hunting expenses smartly (and legally). Because whether you find a job or not, the hunt can be expensive, with lots of legitimate expenses for the business at hand. Good luck.