December 10- Non Traditional Avenues

#10- Be open to different avenues to get hired! If all you do is post your resume on Monster and apply to CraigList ads, you're probably not going to be seen by all of the decision makers you'd want to see you. Once you've decided you're looking for a new job, exhaust every resource! Get out and network, have coffee meetings with mentors, consider non-traditional avenues (not everyone gets hired through an interview- sometimes you've got to be at the right place at the right time). If you've been on the job search for a while and you're not having the luck you need, maybe you try a different tactic. Sometimes your experience and your goals don't line up enough to convince a hiring manager through merely an interview and your resume. Sometimes you have to prove you're the (wo)man for the job! Often times these avenues require a little more risk; in that you might be looking at "giving it a shot and hoping you actually are right for the role" but if you want big rewards, you have to take big risks. I know a certain marketing professional who is doing just that now. At the start of this year, she was on her way to her career goal- working in the marketing department for a successful tech startup. She found an ideal situation where someone was willing to take a chance on her- where her experience didn't exactly line up to what they needed, they were going to put her in a role where she could put to use her skills from previous jobs, and learn the skills she needed to further her marketing career. Things were going great, until she (along with half the office) was laid off- major Buzz Kill. At this point, she had the actual experience and skill she needed to land a similar job, and to keep her on the same career track, but her resume experience didn't get her into the right interview rooms. After a few frustrating months, she could have given up on her dream and taken a few career steps back, getting a solid job- but it be like all that learning and on-the-job training that she had done for the last year would have been erased. She’d be back at step 1 instead of step 7. But she stuck with her heart and took a risk. She took a contract job at a great company, to try to prove to these decision makers that she does have the skills, and that she will add value, and she doesn't deserve to have to start over. Because of that risk, she is on the cusp of step 10; she just had to take a little detour through the land of the unemployed. In the end, she won, and it’s because she stuck to her guns, took a bit of a risk, and had faith in herself to deliver.