Author: You Can Get The Job You Want When No One's Hiring
By Chris May
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The job market has still not fully recovered from the Great Recession. It can feel like no one's hiring. So how do you get the job you want? Not through resumes and not through online listings, according to an award-winning career coach we talked to.
Beth Sinkus of West Chester was raising a family and working a high-powered job as a corporate vice president. Then out of nowhere, she was laid off.
"It was traumatic," she said. "Thinking about making the mortgage payment, saving in the event of an illness, it was frightening beyond belief."
"People make a mistake," says career coach Ford Myers of Career Potential, LLC in Haverford. "They go out looking for job openings. They try to see where they're going to fit in. Bad idea."
Myers wrote Get the Job You Want Even When No One's Hiring. He actually tells clients, don't look for a job right away. First envision your dream job.
It's important to write down your ideal day. Why?
"You've got to get crystal clear in your own mind about exactly what you want," Myers said.
That's what his client Beth Sinkus did. "It made me think about job responsibilites and what part of sales and management I love doing, versus what I didn't like doing," she said.
Also write down what Ford calls a "work proposal." Explain how you bring value.
"Almost position yourself more like a consultant than an applicant," Myers said. "Here's what I propose if I were to come and work for you."
And reach out to everyone you know. In his book, Myers says that networking is not as important as you think it is: "It's way more important!"
Beth gathered everyone she knew and built a spreadsheet, about 1,200 people. "I must know somebody who knows somebody that works at a job at a company that I'm looking at," she said.
"You start with your inner circle," said Myers. "Then they know people. Then they know people, and it builds and builds and builds."
Beth said it was easier than she thought. "People had little snippets of advice and ideas and things they had gone through, and it helped me realize, okay, I'm not alone," she said.
Don't be afraid to seek help. Practice your interview skills. Update your personal image: hair, clothes. Be early for interviews. Finally, be patient and persistent.
After three and a half months, Beth found a great job, a senior vice president of business development. She is even able to occasionally work from home in West Chester, finding both the career and the work-life balance she wanted.
"It's a position I would never have envisioned me doing this early in my career," she said. "Here I am, six weeks in."
WATCH: WEB EXTRA: An Extended Interview With Career Coach And Author Ford Myers
You can find out more at http://www.getthejobbook.com/