Your Days Are Numbered

When I was but a lad, somewhere in the last millennium, I was told that you could expect maybe four or five jobs in your chosen career. Today, the experts suggest, you will experience as many as nine full career changes. The average person changes jobs every three years whether they like it or not.

Like death and taxes, changing jobs will be a guaranteed event in your life. Finding your next job isn't always an easy task. Times have changed since the days of just walking in and filling out the application form and starting the next Monday. You'll need to know the basics of finding employment in the 21st century. That means learning how to network, writing a good resume and performing well in an interview. These are skills and like any skill, they must be learned.

Yes, anyone can write a resume. Just like anyone can pull out a tooth but in both cases if you want the job done well it pays to go to a professional. It's been said that for every 1,470 resumes an employer receives, one person gets hired. Do you want to guess who probably had the professional help with their resume?

Experts argue as to the length of time you can expect your job search to take. Michael Farr, in his book The Very Quick Job Search, claims the average job search takes 19 weeks. Martha Smith, the Director of Career Development at Huntingdon College advises that you can expect duration of 6 to 9 months. Another source suggested it would take one month for every $10,000 in salary you are seeking. Another source claimed that 70% of all statistics are made up! I suggest that you ignore the statistics and put all your energy into finding new employment.

Step One. Develop the skills that will make all the pessimistic predictions meaningless. Do yourself a favor and attend classes designed to teach you the most modern and effective methods for finding employment. A quick Internet search will turn up some government sponsored workshop to help you acquire the basic skills. If you're looking for a salary with at least six figures, then connect with a professional for the best promotional materials possible.

Step Two. Really understand how to make the numbers work for you instead of against you. Let's imagine your goal is to get three job offers. You've found out that the average person will do five interviews for every job offer. Simple math would tell you that you would have to generate fifteen interviews to get three job offers. We'll say that you are getting one interview for every ten resumes. (In my opinion, this is a clear sign that you need to talk to a professional to improve your resume.) This means that you will need to circulate 150 resumes to create three job offers. If you're committed to finding a great new job in three months then you know that you will have to contact 50 employers each month with your resume.

Step Three. Keep it all in perspective. Should you get frustrated or discouraged when you haven't tasted success after sending out your two targeted resumes today? No, because you know you are taking the steps that will get you a job offer. A week later you may have received three rejection letters, and no interviews. Are you discouraged? No, because you're on target. You're developing the quantity to get the quality. If you want a job in less time, then simply double the number of resumes you are sending out. You will experience less stress when you understand – it’s a game of numbers.