Off to the races.

“The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s how the smart money bets.”
Damon Runyon

I am using this quote to make a point. You are in a race. Very soon nearly two million potential workers will be turned loose into a very stagnant economy. If you haven’t been paying attention the US economy grew at a pitiful one half percent in the first quarter. That is not enough to sustain the jobs that people already have let alone create jobs for this new tidal wave of job seekers. My point is that in a very competitive work environment you will need to take action and stay focused to win a spot at the jobs table.

There is a story that business consultants tell about two hikers walking along a trail in the woods when a large grizzly bear emerges in front of them. One of the hikers immediately throws down his backpack and pulls out a pair of running shoes. As he is lacing up his Nike’s the other hiker looks at him incredulously and says “what are you doing, you can’t out run a bear” to which the other hiker responds “I know, I just need to out run you.”

The point of the story is that in a competition you just need to be better than the people you are competing against. The good news for you is that most of these new graduates don’t have a clue about what it takes to get a job. Many of them will send out a few resumes and sit at home on the couch waiting for a letter that will never arrive or a call they will never receive. Don’t be that person.

If you want to find a job you need to treat the job seeking process as a job. Don’t limit yourself to mailing out a generic resume or posting on a few job boards. Everyone will be doing that. We will describe some strategies you can use in my next post.