Unemployment rates remain high and I hear experts say we will be at 9% or higher indefinitely. The underemployed numbers are staggering. How we get a job, who will land those jobs, and how we will work has all changed. We are in a boat, you and I, with a clear message coming from all directions that things are not getting better anytime soon. The storm has not passed. The skies remain dark.  The admirals of this fleet seem to continue to ignore the maelstrom before us. The very winds of our lives have changed and, for those of us on this boat, panic is the most likely response. Shipwrecks of legend are created from this and many lives are at stake.  But as annoying as this analogy might be for you, there is a purpose. In this storm you have a choice to make and a reality to create.

 

Your choice is simple. You are either a deckhand or you are the captain.

 

The reality is equally simple. You cannot change the wind; you can, however, adjust your sails.

 

For those of you who have just grabbed your head, screaming that another motivational speech has the equivalent value of impacted wisdom teeth, I get it. But there is a strategy here that can turn it around for you. Remember, we are all in the same storm. Companies are also making the same choices and adjusting to this new reality as well. The rules have changed on both sides of the job market, but in that chaos is the opportunity to find the loopholes. Consider these simple dynamic changes:

 

There is no such thing as a standard resume (if there was, there would be no resume writers or “Résumé’s for Dummies” books).

 

Linked-In is considered almost as important as your lungs in some circles.

 

The strategies for successful interview processes are as varied and numerous as Tiger Woods’…well, you get the analogy.

 

It’s all changing and no one really knows where it is going. (Unless you are a consultant trying to justify a $900 an hour fee or pushing a book proposal…and even then they don’t really know more than you do) So let’s adjust our sails and take the helm. Let’s dare to call someone who might know someone who knows where your next job is. Lie to the receptionist to get a hiring manager on the phone and make your pitch. Ignore HR’s desire to funnel everything through them. (They are getting laid off in the next round of reductions anyway) Have no fear to say that you are the best and be prepared to prove it. Offer to work for free for the first week. If you are a finance analyst, stand at the entrance to the corporate headquarters in a suit with a cardboard sign that says “Will Balance Your Books for Food” or even more subtly “I Am Your Next Great Hire”. If that does not work, go to another company, do the same thing and invite the press. THEN ask the reporter who he knows that knows about jobs.  (Remember, you are paisley proud of it*) Ask for testimonials and post them obsessively on every profile you have.

 

Do everything with a smile, good humor, and a neurotic aggressiveness that would make even congress proud. Blow the horn of your ship, trim and pivot as the winds change. Fighting the wind is as useless as paying a computer to spam your resume and equally as damaging.

 

Own your future or be swamped in the maelstrom. Remember, a ship in the storm requires the complete focus of the captain; there are no coffee breaks when the waves push thirty feet and the wind is gale force. This is what companies are doing, so should you.

 

Adjust your sails, be the captain, and ride out the storm. Make such a journey that stories, songs, and legends shall follow it.

 

(*Note – If you don’t know what being paisley is, check out http://jobcastradio.com/blog/article4)