Ed Note: After reading @TobyDayton’s WTF piece on his blog, DIGGINGS, I wrote the following piece for US News and World Report today. When I was younger, truth be told, I would always came down on one side of an issue like this one. Now, with age, and a bit of experience, I can see that most issues are not so cut and dried. Or simple. What do you think? And, more to the point, what can we all do to help the job seeker of today. And don’t say, “have more jobs.” Sherlock.
Consider this Labor Department fact: the average unemployed person spends 18 minutes a day hunting for a job. Eighteen minutes.
What?
Think about this: You are unemployed, sitting at home, frustrated maybe, angry for sure, and worried about the cable bill. Dr. Phil is in reruns and so is Oprah. But wait, Judge Judy starts in 20 minutes. It’s job-searching time. Head for your computer, send out twenty resumes with the new format. Hurry, hurry: here comes the Judge.
I have some questions about this and maybe you can help.
1. Why is this?
2. Is it laziness?
3. Did the government unwittingly make it simpler to stay at home by extending unemployment benefits?
4. Do job seekers simply lack the requisite knowledge to do a better job at searching?
5. How long should it take each day?
I’m betting there are two schools of thought on this issue. If you have a job, you may think one way about this “lazy” job-seeker; if you have been out of work for six months or longer, you think another way about this “unfortunate soul.”
The truth lies somewhere between the two. Let’s take question No. 4. Most unemployed do not know what to do, even though there are many career advice-givers out here. For example: I think that my company’s website, LinkUp.com, is a terrific new job search engine. It presents only openings found on company websites. Yet, since we don’t have a monstrous advertising budget, it is hard for us to get the word out to job seekers. We keep trying. And, based on effectiveness, word of mouth about our site is gaining momentum. This is just one example of knowledge that could help job seekers.
As you ponder your own questions and answers to the above, throw this in the mix.
There are jobs available in every company. They might not be advertised (70 percent of the jobs on Linkup.com are never advertised elsewhere) and may not even be an opening, per se. But every company has a job or task that needs doing. Companies went through cutbacks, but chances are they did not lessen the workload. There are lots of jobs not getting done. But it takes extra work–way beyond those 18 minutes–to dig those jobs out, to find those managers who are overworked and understaffed.
What do you think?
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GL,
Great post! I wish I could disagree with you, but alas, you’re absolutely correct. And you hit one of the main problems right on the head — job seekers simply don’t know how to properly find jobs.
As you know, my audience is students and recent college graduates. I believe we have to start at the very beginning of one’s career in terms of training and educating them about the job hunt in order to be effective. It really is hard to teach and old dog new tricks.
There are campus career centers, of course, but students don’t utilize them as they should. My suggestion — one I’ve maintained for a long time — is to require all incoming freshman to take a course about job hunting, preferably taught by an “outsider.” But, that’s just my two cents.
Heather R. Huhman
Founder & President, Come Recommended
http://www.comerecommended.com
Good Suggestion Heather. Luckily, they have advisors like you to help them, should they choose to take advantage of the help. Like most things, the advice and help is out there…IF ONLY…
Thanks for the idea.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Paul DeBettignies, topsy_top20k and topsy_top20k_en, My Job Cafe. My Job Cafe said: #jobsearch What Would Dad Say: Are We Sanctioning Laziness in the Un Employed?: Ed Note.. http://bit.ly/6d2Wkp #careeradvice [...]
This doesn’t surprise me: 18 minutes a day, especially if the person has been looking for 6 months to 2 years. It’s called burn-out. You also pose the question: what could we do to help job seekers? Funny, my last two blog posts were about these two topics. One was a rant about how some employed people view those who are unemployed (and have been for quite a while) blaming them for being jobless still. I, ultimately, end with some practical suggestions for them to have compassion (not judgment) and actually help the job seekers they know.
The second post is about, once again, motivating job seekers to keep at it, especially when they think they’ve done everything they can and have been rejected for months, if not a year or more, and then give them specific examples of what to do each day. While I encourage doing at least one thing each day, the point is to get them past the overwhelming, burn-out phase they are in, to one of momentum so they will end up spending at least 3-10 hours a day searching for work. One simple task at a time.
It’s rough out there and yes, as you pointed out, there are resources to be used and, if used properly, could lead you to a job opening. The point is, you have to actually USE them. Whether it is a site like yours, or a resume writing service like mine, or an article, radio show, job coaching service…they won’t help you if you don’t use them and do some work.
So, no, I don’t think we’re sanctioning laziness in our unemployed. However, I think we can have compassion for their situation and offer them support and encouragement but it’s up to them to do the work every day on a weekly basis to find that opening and to get hired. In this case, ignorance is not bliss (on both sides of the coin). Knowledge is power. Next step is to use that power.
As a recruiter I’ve found most of the advice givers, regardless of what they charge, have very little understanding or experience in looking for a job, making them next to useless in advising someone who is looking for a job.
Job hunting is nothing more than a marketing and sales venture – the product, of course, being you. The theoretical marketing and sales taught in universities is also useless. Ask any ad agency how much an advertising course taken by a new hire contributed to their bottom line.
Yes, there are some lazys in this big recession but I’d venture that most are just frozen by in fear by lack of useful knowledge.
Kevin Donlin, a direct marketeer, led me to this site. Direct marketing is looked down upon in some circles but that is exactly what a job search is, a direct marketing venture. Someone like Kevin understands far better than a tenured professor how to find appropriate targets and pitch yourself. No, he’s not paying me but I’ll send my email if he wants to. This can almost be fun once you have the appropriate tools.
Take home on this: If you are out of work then you are in the sales and marketing business. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know anything about sales and marketing even professional sales people can’t sell themselves. So find a marketeer who know and build your own ad campaign.
An interesting and important topic – how much time to spend on the job search. Statistics aside (I never believe statistics), how much time to spend on a job search while unemployed is a very good question. In my experience with clients or prospective clients who are unemployed, most people spend TOO MUCH time on their search, but unfortunately are not spending it on useful activities.
Having open jobs requesting applications (via LinkUp, for example), is really just a small piece of the puzzle. Let’s face it, an uninformed job seeker can spend a few minutes on LinkUp, apply online to several opportunities and be done in just minutes. Those job seekers do not understand the value of personalizing/targeting their materials, but certainly can get applications out in no time at all. Unfortunately, this is all without realizing that they are wasting their time by not focusing on the specific job and how they can build a bridge between what they offer and what the employer wants.
Are some people lazy? Maybe, but I think it is more likely that people just don’t know what to do and are overwhelmed by the prospect of a job search. There is a lot of advice out there, but it is really no substitute for personalized advice and coaching. In my experience, people who have optimized job search materials and specific information about how to approach the market are successful. THAT is time well spent!
I’d say it’s equal parts laziness and not knowing what to do. It might also have something to do with fearing rejection. Our education system does not create problem solvers; it creates workers. What we’re dealing with now are a bunch of unemployed workers without the know-how to solve their most pressing problem.
It’s been said that looking for work should be a full-time job. It appears, from this post, that for the average unemployed job-seeker, that’s just too much work.
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[...] Hoffman’s recent post Are We Sanctioning Laziness in the Un-Employed? asks why the un-employed aren’t spending more time in job search. He sites the DOL figure [...]
Lisa—no question we need to show compassion for the job seeker. More to the point, we need to help them discover and use new tools that will ensure the job search ends up successful.
Tyler–I do agree with you, but a successful job search is not only about selling yourself, first you have to know what to do. I think Kevin has some great ideas and resources. Thanks for stopping by and adding the conversation.
Miriam—Great points. I wish every job seeker could take advantage of coaching like the kind you provide. I have a feeling that if you could talk with every job seeker out there, and give them the benefit of your experience and wisdom…there would be far fewer un employed. Keep up the good work.
Nichole—I think you are right. Your comment stimulated me to write the next post on this topic. I think the job seeker is not ill informed or even lazy. They are ignorant. The more this is told to them, the more likely they might be to get better at job searching. Tools like http://www.linkup.com are out there, they just need to find them.
How strange. I commented on Toby’s page but apparently he hasn’t moderated it yet, then I tried to comment http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2009/12/29/is-the-government-sanctioning-laziness and the request erred.
That said… where are these stats coming from? The Bureau of Labor statistics publishes its data (American Time Use Survey – http://www.bls.gov/tus/ ), and I can’t find it there. The only close match I found was that in 2008, all us adults spent .4 hours per week interviewing and job searching. (That’s not just unemployed people, either.) Which (assuming the 2008 unemployment rate of approx. 10% and assuming that the unemployed are doing all the job searching – both faulty assumptions, but fair enough for rough math) – that means in 2008 that the unemployed were job searching for about 4 hours a day. Which seems commonsensical to me. Did that really drop in 2009 to 18 minutes a day, in a worsening economy? I doubt it.
Please provide your sources, I’m very curious.
I’m with Miriam. I’m highly sceptical about such statistics and resent the implications.. Who are they asking and how? But what is the point, anway? As you said, it could be that most people who are unemployed don’t know where or how to look for a job. As we all know, this current economy has unemployed who have never faced thi situation before. Also, the unemployment stats cover such a wide range of people and job skills that global assumptions don’t help. There are people who have never had to look beyond their backyard (or the neighbor’s) for a job. There are people who have worked at the same job or industry all their lives. There are people who know that they’re over 50 and told they’re too old. Finally for many, this is so devastating that they are so depressed by what’s happened they’re can’t muster the energy or hope in the fear of more disappointment. And let’s face it. Looking for a job requires sophisticated skills these days that many don’t have.
I work with people whose chronic illness can make holding a job very difficult. People who have lost jobs or having troube keeping them and despair at finding a new one. We need public service announcements, and news articles and more public support that people who are unemployed are not laggards but are facing a tough tough situation. Your article points out that this is a problem. But we’re all just talking to the converted. We need to get this message to a larger audience.
I believe most long-term unemployed are just plain tired right now. Sure, there are some job postings out there, but what if your qualifications don’t fit? Retraining and retooling can take months, if not years. Whose savings can last that long? There are so many more job seekers than job openings that after awhile a job seeker’s energy becomes depleted and overwhelm sets in – not laziness, but burnout.
What’s needed is a mind shift. Job seeker fear that has turned into apathy needs rebirth into creativity and hope. Constant competition wears out the best of athletes. And they’ve trained hard for their marathons and matches. What job seeker has ever really trained for his/her ordeal?
It’s time for the long-term unemployed to consider contract or temp work while preparing for a new 21st century career. The mature worker may need to convert years of experience and skills into entrepreneurial ventures. Let’s face it – many of the old jobs are gone forever, never to return. But that doesn’t mean you can’t earn money.
And, contrary to Tyler C Hill’s above comments, there is no better time than today to hire a career coach who will not only offer ideas and suggestions, but will provide the support and guidance – like that most athletes count on from their own coaches. Marriages and other relationships suffer when job seekers lean too heavily on loved ones.
Over my lifetime of employment, being fired, starting my own business, and raising a famiily as a single parent, I’ve learned that going it all alone is possible, but why do it when professional assistance can speed up success?
Hi G.L.
Great question. And the responses are insightful and spot on, even though they might seem to disagree.
Being unemployed must be hard thing. Fortunate for me, I’ve never been, since I’m self employed for the last 19 years.
My 2 cents: Figuring out what to do, or what you can do then go on a massive self marketing campaign. Be confident and never give up to watching soaps and Judge Judy.
Happy New Year!
David Tinney
My Virtual Business Card
As someone who’s been out of work for most of the Great Recession, I was pleasantly surprised to read many of the responses to this article, urging compassion and education.
Especially when it’s far easier for the employed to look down on us job seekers as being lazy.
I agree with a lot of the posters; while there are a lot of resources out there, that’s part of the problem – there’s so much out there that it’s nearly impossible to figure out where to start! Hundreds of resume tips, some of which contradict; thousands of networking tips, get-your-resume-in-front-of-the-right-person tips; if job hunting is our full-time job, just getting it all sorted out is a part-time job!
And then, if there are 6.7 people for every posting, then even if all 6.7 people are doing what they need to be doing, 6 of them still won’t be getting job offers just yet.
So, compassion ought to be one of the foremost reactions, along with education and awareness – it’s a part time job just figuring out HOW to launch an effective job search, and the stigma of being out of work isn’t that far in the past.
If you’ll excuse me, I’m all talked out now, and I’m missing Wheel of Fortune.
I own and operate two restuarants. It seems to me hiring anyone under 28 plus has been like trying to teach elementry classes. I am not sure if its to many drug babies to re-teach or lack of parental work ethics at home. I have not found to many teens nor young adults who expects to do a fair amount of work for a pay check. I think this new age expects a pay check for showing up do not expect them to work its a four letter word. My opinion is that kids today want to work while going to school need to learn that standing around wasting time will not keep you employed if you want that then seek a government position and a education to sit on your duff and waste tax payers money. small bizz like my own will not waste time with loafers.