Chapter 9 Step 5: Stay Motivated and Organized and Troubleshoot Your Search

Long-Term Motivation

To retain long-term motivation for your job search overall, you need to take certain actions:

• Pace yourself and move through the process.
• Push past the ups and downs, and do not get discouraged by the inevitable disappointments during the job search.
• Stay focused on the end goal of ultimately securing job offers.

Long-term motivation is the marathon aspect of your job search. If you are experienced at long-term projects, such as big research papers, then you can apply your experience and know-how about pacing and scheduling to your job search. If you are a better student in the weekly exam class model, then you need to periodically remind yourself of your overall job search goals. Select from the specific strategies for maintaining long-term motivation later in this chapter.

A good example of maintaining long-term motivation is the case of Emily G., a class of 2008 undergraduate who was interested in the media industry and had moved to New York City after college in Pennsylvania. Her job search took over a year, during which time she held a series of internshipsA job set up for the purpose of learning or developing the intern. While the employer also benefits, the difference between an internship and a regular job is that the primary purpose of the internship should be the intern’s development. and part-time jobs, all while conducting her search. She graduated during a serious downturn in the economy. She received two offers that were rescinded, through no fault of her own, because the budget for those positions was cut. It took over a year, but her third offer finally stuck, and she is happily employed at a major media company in human resources.

Short-Term Motivation

In addition to long-term motivation, individual situations in the job search, such as a job interview, call for increased energy and focus. For every job interview, you will need to be at your best, regardless of whether the commute to the interview was tiring, whether you woke up feeling a bit down, or whether you stubbed your toe on the reception desk right after you walked in at your appointed time. This short-term motivation provides an immediate and necessary boost to whatever is the focus of your search right now.

There are many instances across your job search where you need to harness short-term motivation:

• Each and every job interview (and most companies will have multiple rounds for one job opening)
• Each and every networking meeting
• Career fairsAn event where companies and organizations exhibit their information and job openings.
• Professional group meetings or mixersAn event set up for the purpose of enabling people to meet each other, to mix and mingle.
• Phone calls to your target companies (e.g., for information, for a status update)
• Offer and salary negotiations

If you are a better student in the research paper class or you like to ease into a situation, then you need to ramp up your preparation for the high-stakes events like job interviews. Prospective employers form impressions very early in the process. You will not have the first five minutes of an interview to ease into it. Your interviewer will already have an opinion of you from meeting you at reception or from the small talk you make at the start of the interview.

A good example of maintaining short-term motivation is the case of K. V., an experienced executive who was negotiating an end to her contractA legal agreement. Most employment does not require contracts between employers and employees, but for very senior roles you will see employment agreements, or contracts. at a major firm while negotiating a new role at another one, all while continuing to do her high-profile management job. K. V. would often have very different types of meetings in the same day, from contentious negotiations with her bosses to enthusiastic sales meetings with her future bosses. She had to maintain composure and advocate hard for herself in a severance negotiation, and then turn around and be cheery for an offer negotiation. She was able to be at her best in each scenario, came to an amicable end with her former employer, and is now enjoying a bigger role at her new employer.

Motivation at Will Requires Deliberate Action

For a successful job search, you need to be able to harness both short-term motivation and long-term motivation at will. The best way to do this is to have a plan and structure in place to deliberately motivate yourself. You cannot rely on sheer willpower or inspiration because that is exhausting and unreliable.

Champion athletes and performing artists are good examples of people who use deliberate motivation. They have well-defined routines for the day of big events and for the long-term preparation leading up to the big events.

A good example of deliberate long-term motivation: One piano teacher at a leading conservatory gave his students very specific pacing for learning the concerto selected for the school’s annual soloist competition. It included finishing the piece several months before the actual competition so that his students could stop playing it entirely for several weeks, and then pick it up again refreshed. A break of several weeks was deliberately built in to give students a tactic for staying refreshed, energized, and motivated on the piece.

A good example of deliberate short-term motivation: A commercial and TV acting teacher gave his students a specific routine and set of guidelines for the days they had auditions. One of the rules was no watching or reading news or dramas the night before and morning of the audition. This was a deliberate choice to keep the students upbeat in the hours leading up to the audition. He also coached his students to focus on one good thing that happened to them in the previous three days—another deliberate tactic to maintain positive energy.

Similarly, you will need a deliberate routine before job interviews and other high-stakes job search events. You will also need deliberate routines built in over your job search to stay refreshed, energized, and motivated. Deliberate motivation-at-will strategies will enable you to stick to your job search, regardless of nervousness, fatigue, or even forgetfulness.

Strategies for Maintaining Short-Term Motivation

Following are some suggestions for motivational routines to follow prior to a job interview, beginning the night before the interview:

• Do something relaxing that keeps you positive.
• Create a summary sheet of key research points you intend to share.
• Review your questions for the interviewer so that you ensure a two-way dialogue.
• Practice your interview responses for the top questions you are expecting.

The morning of the interview, certain actions can ensure a successful outcome:

• Skim the current event headlines so you can engage in a timely discussion.
• Have your favorite breakfast that will keep you full and energized, but not cause your energy level to crash (i.e., you may want to avoid too much sugar or caffeine).
• Pick a specific accessory or other item for your interview outfit that makes you feel good and is a visual cue that this is a special day.

On the way to the interview, you can continue to maintain your motivation:

• Listen to your favorite, upbeat song (remember to take the earphones out of your ears while you are waiting in reception so you appear approachable)
• If you are inspired by quotes, have your favorites on an index card to read, even right before you check in at reception.
• If you are visually oriented, have a picture with you that instantly relaxes you.

These same suggestions can also work for the other job search events that require short-term motivation, such as networking meetings, career fairs, professional mixers, and offer negotiations. For the high-intensity, time-sensitive job search situations, such as sending that thank-you letter on time, consider designating a job search buddy on whom you can call for support. This person doesn’t have to be a fellow job seeker, though that’s one popular approach as you can support each other. Just make sure you pick someone who is encouraging and focuses on action.

Try different things as you go through your job search, and keep a log of what works for you:

• Activities that are relaxing and can easily be scheduled the night before an event (You may love a long hike in the woods, but this might not work for the day before an early-morning meeting.)
• Foods that are sustaining and energizing, including meal and snack options
• Outfits and accessories that are appropriate, flattering, and good visual cues to motivate you
• Songs, quotes, and pictures that inspire you
• People who encourage and inspire you

Also keep a log of what to avoid:

• Activities that put you in a bad mood (e.g., sad or scary movies)
• Activities that you may enjoy but distract you (e.g., Internet surfing)
• Foods that give you heartburn or make your energy level crash
• People who drain your energy and discourage you

Strategies for Maintaining Long-Term Motivation

For long-term motivation, recognize in advance that your search will take several months, so you need to plan for regular breaks throughout each day, during the week, and at various points during your overall search.

High-focus, ongoing activities, such as research or corresponding with networking leads, require breaks that give you refreshment but also don’t derail your train of thought:

• Schedule activities that require concentration for when you do your best thinking.
• Block out uninterrupted time—turn off your e-mail alerts and close down your Internet browser so you don’t jump on and off your favorite sites at every pause.
• Set a specific time, say on the hour, when you will get a glass of water, stretch, or incorporate a different activity for a few minutes. For example, one job seeker scheduled exercise and personal errands in the spaces between job search activities to give herself a mental break.

Each week, you also need a longer break, where you can unplug from the intense concentration a proactive job search requires. Plan for a half-day of a personal-interest activity:

• Museum visit
• Movie, show, or sporting event
• Hike or other physical activity
• Volunteer opportunity

Job seekers who tend to their personal interests are more relaxed and more interesting to prospective employers. Candidates who engage in outside interests tend to have a personality, unique point of view, and balanced approach that will serve them well during crunch times. Taking breaks enhances your search and is an investment in the success of your search.

Use these longer breaks to engage in a hobby or deep interest that might add to your networking. This is not just about meeting people during the times you might be volunteering or participating in an extracurricular class (though this may happen, too). Having genuine outside interests that you actively pursue is also a great conversation enhancer. In networking situations, such as a conference or industry mixer, it’s tiring to just hear about work or the job search.

A good example of staying motivated and contributing to his job search is Daniel K. He was working full time, including lots of overtimeWork above and beyond the typical full-time work week. For most companies, overtime is considered anything above forty hours per week, but some companies count overtime after thirty-five hours per week., at a job he didn’t enjoy, so he was having a tough time staying upbeat and energized during his search. One of his longtime goals was to watch all of the American Film Institute top-one hundred movies. Not only did watching one or two movies during his weekly breaks energize him, but he also had natural conversation starters (the movies) for when he met with people. He noticed a huge difference in his demeanor and the way he approached his job search and was able to identify his next career step (in his case, graduate school).

Your Overall Contact List

Because networking is so important to your job search, it is not just job-specific contacts that you need to track. Family, friends, colleagues, classmates, acquaintances, and any new contacts specifically for your job search all should be cataloged in one master list or database. Even people who do not seem relevant to your search now may turn out to be relevant:

• They know someone else who is relevant (remember the networking 2x2 matrix in Chapter 7).
• They have resources or services (e.g., color printer, copyediting skills) relevant to your job search activity.
• They are encouraging motivators.

By keeping all of your contacts in one overall list, you easily can move people into and out of search priority and are always reminded that everyone is a potential help to your search.

Your overall contact list should include, but not be limited to the following:

• Names
• Mailing address
• E-mail address
• Phone numbers (distinguished by home, work, cell, or other)

Your contact list should also be categorized by relationship:

• Family
• Close friends
• Colleagues
• Classmates
• Service providers

You can also categorize each contact by priority. Some salespeople will classify contacts in their database in order of how hot the prospect is—that is, how close they are to buying. You might want to categorize by priority of how much contact you want to maintain over the year:

• A-level contacts are people with whom you want to maintain close contact.
• B contacts are people whom you might contact every month or every several months.
• C contacts are people whom you contact just once a year—at the holidays, for example.

You want to maintain your C relationships, but you are not trying to grow them. B contacts are people you are trying to get to know better. B contacts might become A or C contacts once you have a better sense of the relationship.

When you categorize your contacts, you are able to sort and find people for your exact needs. If you need a favor, you would look through family and close friends. If you have a general professional question, you may start with colleagues. If you are working on networking, you might want to look at B contacts specifically so you can find the people you already tagged as those with whom you want to expand the relationship.

Your Job Search–Specific List

Even though your whole list is important to your search, some contacts will be closer to your search outcomes than others. For these contacts, you need to track information beyond just contact information or category. For the search-specific list, this includes everyone with whom you have inquired about your job search. Your well-connected Aunt Mary is appropriate to your job search–specific list because in addition to being family, she works in the industry you are targeting. Informational interview contacts go on this list. Of course, people who interview you are on this list.

For the search-specific contacts, you will want to track the following information:

• How you heard about them
• When you first contacted them
• The quantity of activity involved with them (e.g., how many phone calls, how many meetings, how many attempts to contact or other back and forth)
• The quality of activity (e.g., what did you talk about, what reactions and rapport were evident)
• The most current point of contact and the date
• Any follow-up required (e.g., send a résumé, e-mail John Doe and say this contact referred me)

Systems for Your Overall Contact List

Some popular methods of storing your overall contacts include the following:

• Paper address book
• RolodexA popular circular device that stores physical business cards in an alphabetized wheel that you can turn to access each card. or business card collection
• Cell phone directory
• OutlookA Microsoft software program commonly used for e-mail that also has organizational features, including address book, distribution list, calendar, to-do list, notes, reminders, and other features. or other e-mail contacts database
• Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media networkAn online community where members of that community can connect to and communicate with each other.
• Relationship management system, such as SuccessHawk for job search or Salesforce for sales leads

For many people, the overall contact system is some combination of the preceding methods. The important thing is that the system supports you. There are ways you will know your system works:

• You can easily find the people you need.
• Information on your contacts is updated or easy to update.
• You can easily skim or search your contacts to discover people you might have forgotten.
• You can categorize people so that your network stays organized as it grows.

Systems for Your Job Search–Specific List

For your job search–specific list, you need a system that can capture both contact information and activity. So it needs to be more flexible and substantive than your overall contact system. You can choose from three categories of systems for your job search–specific list:

1. Paper based
2. Customized electronic
3. Off-the-shelf electronic

Off-the-Shelf Electronic Systems

Salespeople use customer relationship management (CRM) software, such as Salesforce or High Rise, to track candidates and activity. In the job search, you are the product and employers are the customers, so you can apply the idea of sales-tracking software to your job search. One solution already customized to the job search is SuccessHawk Job Search Productivity Solutions.

Figure 9.2 SuccessHawk Home Page

SuccessHawk is a web-based platform that you customize with your contacts and activities. You can import your contacts from your existing overall lists. SuccessHawk supports online e-mail (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail, and so forth), LinkedIn, Outlook, Apple Address Book, vCards, and Internet service provider webmail (e.g., Comcast).

SuccessHawk also has a section for tasks, where you can export tasks from Apple calendar or Outlook, or you can add tasks manually. So instead of documenting in Excel that you want to call Jane Doe for an informational interview, you would Add a Task to your SuccessHawk “My Action Items” section, designating the target (Jane Doe), a description of the task (call to follow up on e-mail request for informational interview), and a target due date. SuccessHawk sends you e-mail reminders of upcoming tasks, so instead of having to visit your Excel spreadsheet and sort by follow-up, the reminders come to you.

SuccessHawk also has other job search-related features built into the platform, including a space for goals, a résumé creator, and advice and research.

On the plus side, off-the-shelf electronic systems have several attributes:

• They are prebuilt so you can get started right away.
• They can be interactive and give you extra support (e.g., the reminder feature in SuccessHawk).
• They can be synchronized with other resources you already use (e.g., contact lists, task lists).
• They can be backed up.
• They have additional features and resources you wouldn’t get on your own.

Off-the-shelf systems also have a downside:

• You may have less flexibility if you are very particular about how you organize data.
• You have to buy the system or pay for a user account.
• You have to learn the ins and outs of the system.

Key Takeaways

• You need to select a system to get and stay organized.
• There are three main choices for organizational systems: paper-based, customized electronic, and off-the-shelf electronic.
• Each choice of system has its pros and cons.
• You want to select a system that matches the way you naturally work.

Exercises

1. How have you been tracking the information and contacts developed during your job search?
2. If you haven’t already selected a system, experiment with paper and electronic. Pick five friendly contacts and try to schedule meetings with them so you have something to track. Create a paper folder or binder system to track your efforts and build a spreadsheet to track your efforts. What data and fields did you include? Which system did you prefer?
3. If you already have a task-organization system, are there additional fields you will track for your job search? How will you change (or not) your organization of your search based on the information you have learned?
4. What do you wish you could track better, or where are you stuck in your organizational needs? What resources might you consult to get your organizational needs met?

The Identification Stage Problem: You Are Not Getting Enough Interviews

If you have been submitting résumés or asking people for exploratory interviews for more than thirty days, look back and see how many people have asked you to meet with them. You want to meet with several people per week (five to ten if you are working on your search full time or one to four if you are working on your search part time). Are you not getting invited to meetings or interviews?

The Interview Stage Problem: You Are Not Moving Forward in the Process

If you have been getting meetings or interviews, congratulations! Clearly, your marketing is paying off. Now, your focus should be getting more meetings and interviews:

• More networking meetings that can lead to job interviews
• More first-round job interviews with additional companies
• More second-, third-, and fourth-round interviews with your existing targets

Look over your latest thirty days and note the types of meetings you’ve been getting and the steps that follow. Are you getting lots of first-round interviews, but are not getting asked to return for more interviews? Are you getting referrals from your introductory networking meetings to actual jobs or additional possible networking leads?

The Hiring Stage Problem: You Are Not Getting Offers

If you have been getting interviews and getting called back, then clearly you are doing something right because prospective employers are interested. But if there have already been several companies where you have been the bridesmaid but never the bride, then there could be a problem during the later stages of interviewing that is hindering your ability to close. Hiring is subjective, so if you lose one or two offers, that is to be expected and may be through no fault of your own. But three or more lost offers, especially if you went far along the process for all of them, could signal a problem.

Three Reasons You Are Not Getting Enough Interviews

You may not be getting enough interviews for the following reasons:

1. There is a mismatch between what you are targeting and who you are.
2. Your marketing is incomplete.
3. You are too passive in your outreach.

Three Possible Reasons You Are Not Getting Called Back after You Interview

You may not be getting called back after your interviews for the following reasons:

1. Your interview responses do not convey key message points.
2. You spend the interview telling without showing.
3. You aren’t at your best during the interview.

Three Possibilities That Might Keep You from Closing the Offer

You might not be closing the offer for the following reasons:

1. You encounter job search fatigue.
2. You do not follow up enough and employers forget about you.
3. You aim for the job, instead of the offer.

Strategies to Troubleshoot Your Overall Job Search

The key to troubleshooting your search is having good data to review but also being honest with yourself about where you are. Remember that the stage where you are stuck—whether it’s not getting interviews, not moving forward, or not getting offers—is not a reflection of the quality of your candidacy. It is a reflection of your job search technique. You might be an amazingly qualified candidate, but have poor job search technique. Remember, you can learn good job search technique and adjust what you are doing to improve your search going forward.

There are very good reasons great candidates get stuck in their search. Career changers, on-rampersA colloquial term referring to candidates who are returning to the workforce after family leave or another long gap in employment., or international candidates needing sponsorship are just some examples of candidates who may have trouble getting interviews. Employers prefer people who have done the job before (sorry career changers), or people currently active in the market (sorry on-rampers), or people who are easiest to bring on board (sorry internationals). All three of these candidate groups may have exceptional candidates, but they are coming with preexisting red flags that need to be overcome. Therefore, don’t see an ineffective job search as a poor reflection on you. Just acknowledge that something isn’t working, try to identify it, and fix it.

Build in time for regular troubleshooting, at least every thirty days. Schedule time for job search review in your calendar at these regular intervals, so that you automatically save the time when it arises, and you don’t have to rely on your memory or discipline. Regular review ensures you identify and can stop problems early.