Out of work man gets back into the game

Part I of three

It’s not important how you came to be unemployed. It’s how you work your way back to work.

Although I’d like this to be a how-to-get-a-job article, unfortunately everything I’ve tried hasn’t worked.

To be blunt: I’ve been extremely successful at not finding work. What follows is an introspective look at my job-seeking journey. In my case, it’s a story waiting for a happy ending.

The saga began on April Fools’ Day in 2004. I said farewell to the advertising agency I worked at after I founded Westlake magazine in 1980.

After a brief, ill-fated attempt to produce a local television show called "HomeLife TV," my joblessness finally set in. I turned to the place every desperado turns: monster.com, or what I call jobfor somebodyelse .com.

There is no shortage of up-to-the-minute job postings on the Internet. However, I chose to complicate my search by taking a new path.

I did this even though I realized I was doing so 20 years after everyone else had.

My "quest" was to take my marketing communications experience and put more focus on the client side. In other words, I want to take an ad agency "in-house."

I wanted to do something that I had expertise in, but I wanted to do it for one company. Does that sound reasonable enough? Apparently, not so.

As it turns out, advancement is one thing. Lateral moves? OK. Ladder climbing? OK. New direction? Not OK. Reinventing yourself? Why it’s tantamount to effecting a career change. It’s illegal in most states.

You see, the thing is, employers want people to do what they’ve always done. They want to witness the recycling of workers, company to company, from one team to another.

A worker doesn’t really change positions. True, Alex Rodriguez did for the Yankees (a rare case, but they lost). No, whether you are a utility player or a failed CEO, you are what you were.

The problem is that most jobs are for other people. Somehow, this makes sense. If you found it, they found it.

By the time you locate a job, which is now instantaneously, it’s often too late. There appears to be so many more appealing candidates than you, even you wouldn’t hire you.

   Monster.com is so thorough and easy, nobody is not using it. You should know this by now.

   If you don’t hear back immediately—maybe hours to three days max—it’s not going to happen. And don’t be soothed by the promise that your résumé will be kept on file.

   Beware the e-mail saying they’ll contact you if something else comes up matching your "skill set." You can bet they won’t.

   After you send your résumé again—just in case—be assured they’ll toss it right back where they put it the first time.

I’ve learned that job-searching is a process of elimination. There are so many résumés flying around, it’s hard to blame the human resources staff.

Imagine the task of the prodigious résumé recipient. Exactly what are they trying to do? They have a list of candidates and they need to narrow it down.

They’re selecting through elimination—like dodge ball. You get the job by being the last one standing.

Picture this reality show. It’s "Survivor Job market." Whether you win or lose is how you play the game. What’s revealed is that this game is a game of chance.

Contact the Bill Martin Job Hotline: Call (805) 358-2319 billymartin5@sbcglobal.net