Don’t panic. Use your lull time to refine your resume, LinkedIn profile and job search.
Phone not ringing? Time to panic. Absolutely not!
We’ve all been there. The phone isn’t ringing. There is no response from the resumes you’ve submitted. Views of your LI Profile have gone down this week. Even your personal email hasn’t pinged with a friendly note all day. Has everyone forgotten about you? Does anyone want to hire you? Don’t even entertain the thought! Lulls in the job search, in business and in life are common. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong. But how you choose to handle them can impact your outlook and confidence making you more apt to make a positive impression when the phone rings and the email starts pinging again.
Redeem the Time</strong
The good news is lulls are typically short-lived. Instead of thinking about how much you hate how today feels or begin entertaining self-defeating thoughts with no merit – take advantage of the lull and make the best of the time. My mom (a perpetually wise woman) shared the principal she called “redeeming the time” with me when I would complain of boredom. It’s a great principal that can be applied to a variety of situations including a lull in the job search.
Look at the positive
How many times during the week do you wish you had some down time to tweak, investigate, research, reach out or invest time in some self-promotion or professional development? Seize the moment!
A few suggestions for how to redeem your time
1) Go through your LinkedIn™ Inbox and see if there are any outstanding invitations you haven’t responded to.
2) Go through your email inbox and follow up on any dangling emails.
3) Find an expert in the job search or an industry expert or two on LinkedIn™ and read what they’re saying. Experts and people with valuable insight are all over LinkedIn™. They are writing and they are easily found.
4) Review your resume for typos or better ways to format it for more white space. Can you rephrase a couple of bullet points so they have greater impact? Are there any key words missing when you check your resume against the positions you’re targeting?
5) Reach out to the recruiters you’ve established relationships with. Keep top of mind.
6) Practice answers to tough interview questions.
7) Schedule a coffee with a few key networking partners. Again, stay top of mind.
8) Or give yourself a break and leaf through that lifestyle magazine you love or read a chapter in that novel you just haven’t had time to pick up in the last month. You’ve been working hard.
Simple choices like this can easily inspire, open doors to new opportunities and create benefits that will yield results much more than entertaining the enemies of forward movement – angst and panic.