AlwaysBeJobHunting.com has been running a series of posts about a colleague who turned to Facebook in his quest for a job during troubled economic times. I loved hearing his story when he mentioned it to me over the phone one day in the course of our working together and asked him to send these posts because I thought they would contain lessons for our readers. I was right. What are those lessons?

One is in our book, Always Be Job Hunting, namely that job hunting is a full-time job and that you need to use every weapon possible in your quest. You are at war, fight it as aggressively as you possibly can.

Mark talked about applying for hundreds of jobs, not 10 or 20, hundreds. That’s the reality of the job market today.

He also went beyond just answering ads to create his own Facebook group to help his search. And he offered 10% of a month’s salary to anyone who found the job. Now, neither of those worked, but I think they helped him in the long-run because they made him feel he was doing something very active to find a job. Job-hunting can be so psychologically crippling, making you feel powerless and worthless. You have to fight that feeling anyway you can because you need to remain positive about yourself for when an interview does come along.

Interviewers can sense people that have lost faith in themselves. Who wants to hire a beaten-down person? Would you? I’ve interviewed people like that when I’ve been hiring and couldn’t end those interviews fast enough.

Mark also mentioned taking on part-time jobs while he searched. I think that’s crucial because it provides some income but more importantly keeps you busy and so wards off depression, and it shows a potential employer you weren’t just sitting at home giving up while you searched for a new job.
Thanks again, Mark for sharing your story, I invite other readers to share theirs as well.
—J.N.F.