You know your job is in jeopardy. You’ve either been told directly or you can read the telltale signs. There have been expense restrictions over the past several months: no offsite meetings, a compensation freeze, all contractors were let go, senior leadership is spending more and more time in planning meetings. Now your boss isn’t talking to you as openly. And, when he does, it’s short and to the point. Maybe there’s just nothing to talk about now, and nobody is interested in small talk when the business is in this state. You don’t want to be seen as someone who isn’t critical to the operation.

Time to look for another job. No sense in delaying the inevitable. If your peers are laid off, you will just be competing with them in the job market. It’s best to beat the rush! Besides, why stay? The best case scenario is that you won’t lose your job. Other firms are making profit, growing, even expanding. Why should you just sit on the sidelines?

Now… you are spending all of your spare time at the PC, surfing the web, perusing the job boards, and submitting your resume to open positions. You threw yourself at this task with a vengeance. You have applied to about 30-40 postings and have received… nothing from a real live person. You’ve received the automated, “Thanks for your application” emails and even a letter from one firm. But, not a single hiring manager has called or emailed in response to your job applications. You even called a several of the organizations and got nowhere or talked to someone that told you the company has received many responses to its ad, and that someone will contact you if you are qualified for any open positions.

This is for the birds. You’re tired. No, not tired; completely worn out. You are not getting enough sleep. You’re no fun any more, certainly not at your best. If it is this obvious (and how could it not?) you are just making yourself an easy target. Maybe your expectations are too high. There would surely seem to be more openings if you just lowered your sites a little. Maybe you could relocate. Or you could take one of those traveling consultant jobs.

So, within a few days, you are at it again. You are a job application machine, submitting your resume to almost any position that sounds like something you’ve either done or thought about doing. You’re willing to completely sell out at this point. You have no self esteem left. You are avoiding your friends (your successfully employed friends). You look at people you meet in public differently, wondering if you could do their job better. Wondering if you could successfully hold down more than one job in order to make ends meet. You would be spending less time working than you are working now between your day job and your job search. And you wouldn’t have the stress.

Stop! What’s the problem here? Why can’t you get an answer to your applications? This doesn’t really make sense. You might have overestimated your own market value a few weeks ago, but not this much. Just a few weeks ago you felt safe and confident in your abilities. You were making a significant contribution to your department, to the company as a whole. Customers sent you notes thanking you and your team. You got an excellent performance review last year; you’ve always received great reviews. You’re still the same person, aren’t you? So, what’s different? Why do you feel like you are just putting your resume in the circular file?

Well, here’s the bottom line. The market has changed significantly since your last job search, so you must change your job search. The Internet has made positions so much easier to identify than ever before. Just look at how many postings you’ve applied to. A job ad that might have received 100 applicants five years ago now receives hundreds or more, depending on the position, the location, and how widely they advertise. Every organization has software now that candidate applications. Applications are presented electronically to a screener or the hiring manager before even being printed, and only the best (or most interesting) ever get more than a few seconds of the right individual’s attention.

It makes no difference how good your resume is or how well your experiences match the opportunity. Well, it eventually matters, but if your resume doesn’t get read you won’t get a response. And if you don’t get a response, you won’t get an interview. And if you don’t get an interview… you won’t get the job.

What opens the door is your cover letter! If you have 5-8 seconds to catch someone’s attention, it’s going to be with your cover letter. You probably have a standard cover letter that you’ve massaged here and there for specific positions, but for the most part, you’ve probably been sending out the same average, don’t-pay-any-attention-to-me cover letter for weeks.

A great cover letter has a specific structure and each component has a purpose. If you’re missing a key component, your cover letter and resume are not doing their job, and you are not going to get the response you are looking for. All you want is a chance to talk to someone, to explain the value you can bring. You may still not be the best candidate for every position you apply to (there is a lot of good talent out there), but you can improve your odds to 1 out of 2 or 3, instead of 1 out of 100 (or more).

The choice is yours… stay the course, or try something different. Do you know the definition of insanity?

Check out our website for help on writing an effective cover letter.

MyExecutiveCompass is an employment portal dedicated to helping candidates differentiate themselves in today’s crowded market. Candidates can find advice on how to deal with many job search challenges as well as cover letter templates and resume software to make the job search process easier.

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Tags: career, cover letter, interview, jobs, resume

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 at 2:02 am and is filed under Bodywork Courses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.