I’ve been sitting on this one for six months and now that none of it is fresh in my mind I figured I ought to get down to it 🙃 The actual impetus for this was a friend losing her job yesterday and seeking advice 😢 Luckily, I’ve spoken to a lot of friends and former colleagues on this stuff for the past year and have a lot of correspondence to pull from. I digress…

Oh oh, before I really move on, please note I hope to have a fast-follow with an article on interviewing. I began writing it at the end of this, but things felt like they were getting a bit too long for a single sitting. Tomorrow? Ok, for real, moving on…

My Search

I spent six months job seeking. It was more work than a full-time job as evidenced by the fact I got zero snowboarding days in (this was over the winter). I applied to 120 well-targeted roles (I know many folks apply to anything and everything, but I did not), participated in 46 interviews, and landed what I consider my dream job. I learned a lot and hope I can help you with those learnings.

Get That Unemployment

You’re owed it. You’ve already paid into it. Many states have waiting periods between when you first file (regardless of how that aligns with when you left your job) and when you can receive payment. Even if you receive a severance, apply and submit early; leave it up to the state to figure out what you’re owed.

Even if you don’t need it to get by, collect it. It is there for everyone, regardless of income bracket; recurring expenses don’t stop for anyone when work does.

Remain Patient

Not everyone will have this luxury. Hopefully you have a healthy emergency fund and don’t need to jump at the first thing that comes to you.

I was very close to accepting just about anything, including significant compensation decreases. After some reading on the subject I realized what a disservice this would be not only to me, but any employer who might have hired me. I wouldn’t be happy and would be looking elsewhere at all times. I’d be unable to give the full effort needed for proper job hunting, would be unable to give my full effort to the new job, and would likely be a short timer.

I even read stories where folks had accepted a low paying job and due to the inability to put forth the right effort to move on, ended up stuck at them for a number of years.

That all said, bills happen. Do what you need to do.

Seek Support

Talk to people about your challenges. Seek therapy if you need it. Join groups of other unemployed people. This is a very hard thing and it can really eat you up, especially as bills come due and if there are other mouths to feed.

Not only are you dealing with the stress of finding something new, you’re probably dealing with some fallout related to losing your previous one. This is big stuff; take care of yourself.

Continue Learning

If you’re in my field, Udemy, Leetcode, create an app, contribute to open source, accept short/hobby consulting gigs. Set a reminder to do something like this every day. It will keep your chops fresh, exercise your mind, and provide opportunities for you to showcase your skills to an employer.

If you’re not in my field look to volunteer your expertise in some way. Just because nobody is willing to pay you for your skills at the moment doesn’t mean they’re worthless!

Network

Reach out to folks you know and folks you don’t know. I’ve never met anyone who isn’t willing to help out someone in need. Be open about your situation. You’ll hear “Oh, people don’t hire anyone with an #opentowork ring around their face on LinkedIn.” BS. If anyone were to not consider folks who are openly looking for work they’re not someone I’d want to work for. That the myth that people with jobs are the only people worth hiring is real blows my mind.

Where To Find Jobs

I tried all the tools. The only thing that wasn’t a pain in the ass, had current jobs, and didn’t feel like some shady third party cash grab was LinkedIn.

Seek out quality recruiters. Assuming you’re great (and you are if you’re reading this), they want to work for you. That said, ignore every recruiter message from outside the country and do not share your contact information with anyone you don’t trust to not be a recruiting farm.

How To Apply

Do not attempt to use any of the AI services that claim to intake your resume and then have the ability to fill out any application on your behalf. They do an absolutely terrible job that a) ends up taking you more time to correct than it would have to simply do the application yourself, b) submits with errors, and c) is nothing more than a front to farm your data.

Application Tracking

With so many applications and interviews floating about, you need to stay organized. There are a number of tools for this. Some have very good Chrome extensions (☹️ I’m a Safari person so this was painful), some work very nicely with LinkedIn, some claim to fill out applications for you (don’t!).

I ended up using TealHQ. I won’t claim it is the best (I think I found better, but was already invested), but it works. I was a lightweight user – tracking only applications and people involved in the process. There is a lot more you can do, but I’d question the value.

I also maintained a Sankey diagram (the chart at the top of this post) just for fun at Sankeymatic.

Salary/Role/Company Research

Many roles are open about salary. That is wonderful. It saved me time and it likely saved them time as I simply wouldn’t apply to roles I was overqualified or undervalued at.

For more information on salaries, roles, or the company, Levels and Glassdoor are indispensable.

Never share a prior salary unless you believe this new role will not initially match it, but you want to set expectations appropriately. Did you know it is illegal for someone to ask you for it? It is okay to tell them you’re not comfortable sharing that information. Put the onus on them to share a range and only tell them if that would be acceptable or not. They want to hire you for as little as possible. While that is a losing strategy in the long-term (attrition and dissatisfaction cost money too), it is reality.

Cover Letters

They may be discarded, but I firmly believe in them. This is your opportunity to set yourself apart from the potentially thousands of other candidates. Do not make it generic. Tailor it to the role. Explain why you’re interested in it, how you would fit, and why the company interests you. At the same time, keep it short. This should not be more than a few sentences so quality matters.

Resume

Make it pop. My existing resume had evolved for well over a decade. It was solid in content, but looked so darned drab. I went through 3-4 redesigns over the course of my search, but each felt better and better, and what I ended up with I would argue is actually an attractive thing.

My first two new versions used templates from Google Docs. They’re widely understood to be quite good and easily read by robots – this is important because software will scan and extract important information from your resume. If it can’t see what it wants to see, nobody is giving you a call.

For the “final” iteration of my resume I found a really sweet piece of typesetting software and ran with it. My resume was basically a program and looked amazing because I had a wild amount of control over alignment and placement. Unfortunately, it was code so it was a pain to maintain… So I went about recreating it in Google Docs. The process took a few hours, but it is sexy as hell now and relatively simple to maintain (still have some custom things in there that need minding).

Regarding content, I think Objective is dumb. Your objective is to find a job. I want to know what qualifies you for the job I’m offering – put your skills at the top, make them clear.

Tell me what you did. Watch your tenses because I’m an asshole. When appropriate, show the impact of something you did. Keep everything short and succinct. After you’ve written everything, go back and remove a lot.

Show me that you do things outside of work. I want to work with human beings. Being well-rounded and involved speaks volumes.

Nits: Use periods or do not. Use Oxford commas or do not, but use them. Check your spelling eight times, run the doc through a grammar tool. This is your first and possibly only impression – make it count.

Take Care Of Yourself

You are doing a hard thing. Get exercise, see the sun, go on vacation, take advantage of the freedom of not having to clock in. You matter.