I've been thinking about this post for a while now. There is so much I want to say but I don't want to bore you with a bunch of details.

Looking back in the almost two months of the job hunt I can surely see how my energy was depleting. I started by writing two messages every day and a couple of weeks later I was writing one a day then I finally began to skip. The job hunt is full of desperate days and fighting lots of messages that don't encourage you. Now that the job hunt is over, I'm glad I set out to do it the way I did.

What worked?

I think the single most thing that worked was using social media to continue to communicate with friends about the status of my job hunt.  When friends didn't hear from me they would email me or call me and to a point, hold me accountable. The self pressure of writing the Chronicles with the idea that someone out there was benefiting from my writing was also a driving force.

I did alot of things to clean up and adjust my resume. I believe these were all necessary. If anything, as a way to stay focused on what it was that I wanted to do and what kind of company I wanted to work for.

What didn't work?

I hate to say this, early on, I thought recruiters were going to be a hit but I was sadly disappointed.  I should have known better. I have a good friend who is a recruiter and the way he makes most of his money is finding candidates for jobs he lists for his clients.  Therefore, finding a recruiter and getting them to shop your resume around is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Another thing that utterly failed was submitting resumes to job sites. I can't even begin to tell you how many resumes I submitted. I even went through the trouble of writing a special custom cover letter for each resume submitted.  I even adjusted the resumes individually to better match job descriptions and time after time there was NO response.

Having said that, I would NEVER stop from submitting resumes because it is a great way to continue to develop an idea of how you want to be defined.

Final thoughts:

If you are still on the job hunt and you have been following this blog, let me know. Review from Day 1 again and don't leave any stone unturned. Remember to keep all of your friends and acquaintances informed about your progress so they can invest in helping you find your next job. Don't be a loner and don't be ashamed of not being employed. There is a perfect job out there for you so recruit as many friends into your job hunt and watch your efforts multiply. LUCK has nothing to do with your success, it take diligence in your part to continue looking and God's strength and connection to move you in the right direction, where he wants you to be.

Yesterday (Day 32) I had a phone interview with a great company. I was pleased that the interviewer had looked through my resume site (http://resume.bolora.com), went through my samples and read my "virtual" interview. I thought it was a great interview because he asked me very relevant questions and gave me detailed background on the job and thecompany. Among the questions I found three key questions to be very good:

How do you define an information architect?

When did you decide that you were an information architect?

Of all the jobs in your resume which one was your best?

I really liked these questions because they were good in defining me. It allowed me to express what I thought about what I do, how I came to do what I do and what I value in what I do.

On Tuesday I go up to Dallas to do a face to face interview and I am very excited about it. Perhaps tomorrow I will post something about preparing for an interview.

Yesterday I got a message from a friend that she did well on a phone interview. When you are in a long drawn out "job hunt", it is easy to hear the good news of others and get upset that you are not having success yourself.

I say, celebrate their success. The success of others just means success is closer to you. It's also a great opportunity to learn about what they did to get a successful outcome. The last thing you want to do is be bitter or jealous about someone finding a job then bring that negativity to your job search!

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Yesterday and today I received two rejections.  The way I look at it, it is much better than hearing nothing.  So many resumes I have submitted have evaporated into the ether and I never heard anything from the companies. 

First rejection was yesterday from T-Mobile. I'm not sure why I didn't make the cut. Was it relocation, experience, etc.? Their response was that they had other candidates that fit better.  So I replied to the HR rep asking for more details if they could provide them to help me in future submissions.

The second rejection I received today from Deloitte. They said that "they regret to inform me that they were unable to give me further consideration." Not sure that they gave me any consideration. I would love to know how all that really works but I'm sure they are inundated with resume.

I did figure out a flaw with my resume in regards to automatic readers which load resumes into databases.

For years I've had my resume experience formatted like this:

Senior Business Consultant
11/2006 - Present  BearingPoint Inc, San Antonio, TX
Provide businesses the required knowledge to change or create processes for sound user centered web design. Top experience in Agile development methodologies incorporating SixSigma techniques to implement best-in-class quality measures and accountability. Can provide proven wireframe and rapid web prototype techniques that assure the greatest level of communication of requirements from business partners to development partners. Most recently worked with a large client in the telecommunications industry to help build an eCommerce web design team.

What I figured out is that computer resume reader programs would consider the job title belonging to the previous entry.  It appears that they mostly use the line with the date as the separator for determining each chunk that belongs to a particular job. This caused my most current job to be "Information Architect" instead of "Senior Business Consultant"

So I have now reformatted my resume in the following format:

BearingPoint Inc, San Antonio, TX                 11/2006 - Present
Senior Business Consultant
Provide businesses the required knowledge to...

Hope this helps you in your continued search!

Get no action on multiple job submits over a month and that means I should start working on a business plan! That's what I've done most of the day.
 
I did apply for three new jobs. Today Deloitte officially took over a large portion of BearingPoint. So I found a job on their site. Do you think they will consider rehiring me?
 
I guess I'm a part-time job hunter right now while I explore business options. But I'll continue to stay in touch.

Today I followed up on several jobs that I applied for.  A couple seem to just disappear! There was one that had no record of me applying. So I resubmitted my resume. The longer this goes the more I know that most job board jobs are already spoken for. It's not stopping me frm submitting but it sure makes me think that I have to employ some other tactic in this job hunt.

I've been going through contacts and trying to connect dots to talk to top level people in places that might be hiring. At the end of the day, a personal reference fromthe inside goes alot further that simply posting for a job.

Thanks for continuing to read, I will dedicate more time to this tomorrow.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I adjusted my searches in the job board (http://www.indeed.com). It yielded several more openings including a very interesting one I applied for.

A friend of mine asked me this afternoon - "Waiting for Day 25, I didn't get a vacation request from you (cracks whip) :D"

I admit, it seems like I'm loosing some steam here. First few days I was writing two messages a day then I went to one and it kept getting later and later.  Last week, I finally skipped a day and people started to email me saying, "Hey, what's up? What's going on?"

It all started last week when I wrote the piece on being frustrated.  Out of my total frustration a business idea began to brew. So I spent the rest of the week focused on that, including today. The problem is that any business idea could have a long fuse. 

This morning I made sure to do some follow up on a few jobs that I had applied for. Two jobs seem to just disappeared. I talked to a recruiter that was working one of those jobs and she told me that it seems to be happening a lot.  She works tirelessly to get someone in the door and then they freeze the job. I've been hearing that a lot.  My take is that when a business puts a job out there, they get absolutely inundated with resume and they are so overwhelmed by the response they pull back.  Another reason might be that many jobs are already spoken for in internal hires and they only post to satisfy policy.

So, I'm I taking a vacation from the "job hunt"? The answer is no.  I have to continue to shift strategies. Continue to shift the way I approach opportunities.  Maybe the answer to my dilema is to create a business that creates several jobs. 

Wouldn't that be a huge win for a "job hunter"?

Wow, time flies.  It's been over a month since I was laid off. It's been 24 work days since I was let go. Here I am, still no job, no interview. Weird!

Well, I still feel like I continue making progress. I continue to contact people every day to let them know I'm still out here looking.  I think that's a really important think when you hit the month mark.  If you don't continue to let people know that you are still on the job hunt, people will assume that you found something. And that's DEFINITELY not what you want or need. So keep it up and continue to get out there with phone calls, emails, networking.

Today I had a friend contact me about a possibility with someone I know. It just shows that you have to rely on friends. I have several other opportunities that are in the hopper but it's just a waiting game that requires diligent follow up.

Today I was also energized by a business idea my wife and I have been talking about.  We did some research and it is quite possible that we launch this idea. Perhaps if I can't find a job, I can create several instead?

So why did I skip yesterday? I was engrossed in my backyard project and frankly, I didn't think about the job hunt until I was in bed and very tired. I debated whether I should post something or not and I finally decided that I was too tired. So I skipped a day.

This weekend is Mother's day and I'm sure it will be lots of fun. I will refocus on Monday to follow up on a few opportunities I've applied for.

Today I did some non job hunting work. I started building a bath/storage house a couple of years ago and never finished out the inside.  So now I have decided to spend at least 3 to 4 hours a day working on it to finish it out.  This will be good way to take a daily break from the job hunting.

This weekend I was talking to someone from a company called Compassion International.  Compassion is a ministry whose mission is to release children from poverty in Jesus' name. When I was talking to this person, I was telling him that Compassion would be my top choice in companies I would like to work in. I like everything about Compassion! I've spent time with their staff at two conferences and loved their enthusiasm, professionalism, dedication to the mission and commitment to ther faith.

Well, yesterday I found a post for a perfect position at Compassion. It's a dream job for me! I contacted a couple people in the company and gave them a heads up then sat down for the next hour or so to fill out the application form. The application contained some "politically incorrect" questions that I loved! The form asked for your "Statement of Faith". It also asked for professional and spiritual references. Wow! I loved that, it shows their high level of commitment to integrity.

So I finally submitted my resume to Compassion, my perfect job.

There is a Bible verse that accurately describes how I have felt today:

"We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed" 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Up until a few moments ago I felt all the negative aspects of this verse. I've been hard-pressed on every side today, 21 days and not even an interview! I've even felt crushed that things don't seem to be working. Been perplexed that everyone I'm talking to seems to be in the same position, they seem to be in the same dilemma. I've felt despair and frustration. I can even say that perhaps I've felt persecution in some way. Even caught myself feeling a bit forsaken and struck down.

But just a few minutes ago, I went back to my top ten list and I thought of my very top pick. In the midst of frustration I even said to myself, why bother checking, they are not going to have anything.

Well, lo and behold, they have something. It is as if they were looking at my resume while writing the job description! And to quickly get me out of despair, I know at least 10 people that work in the company!

The job hunt is tough and it can be a roller coaster ride of emotions. But despite the harsh reality of the verse I quoted above, the important thing to remember is that we endure these things to become stronger.

We may be indeed frustrated, but despair will be chased away when our diligence uncovers opportunities that bring ultimate hope.