15 Tips to Improve Your Odds for a Job

If you are unemployed, you are probably feeling desperate. Your lifestyle is threatened. You are reevaluating your spending, where you shop and comparing prices on private-label food products.

Even if employed, many Americans been living paycheck to paycheck, and they are fearful about unemployment. In addition to spending all they earn, millions have been victimized by those predatory 38 percent interest rates and exorbitant fees charged by some credit card companies for frivolous excuses. With the negative-savings rate, the U.S. has been piling up consumer debt – published reports indicate at least 36 percent of Americans’ expenditures are regularly made with borrowed money.

So, countless others have problems, too.

If it is any consolation, before becoming The Biz Coach with prior experience as a manager, I also endured trials of unemployment and involuntarily helped coin the phrase, “corporate downsizing.” I worked for companies from the Fortune 500 to small businesses and I was laid off 14 times. So, I write from experience.

Here are 15 strategies:

1. Lean into your pain from being laid-off or being under-employed. Understand grieving is part of the process for growth and it takes time to heal. The three stages of healing: Shock-denial, anger-depression, and understanding-acceptance.
2. Get out of the house daily. Continue to exercise and perform community service. Both will increase your morale. The reward of high morale, alone, is worth it.
3. Assess your strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to analyze your interpersonal skills, too. Employers prefer teamwork and soft skills.
4. Market yourself effectively. By building on your strengths, you will be prepared to tell prospective employers how they will benefit from hiring you. They want to hear how you will save them time and money while helping them to make a dollar.
5. Polish your resume. Your contact information should be at the top of the page and then followed by a realistic objective, and a summary of why you’re qualified. Think like a recruiter – why should someone hire you? Employers want to know your skills, experience, and successes. Mention specific achievements that would be important to your prospective employer. Subdued, easy-to-read font on white or off-white, good quality bond paper is preferable.
6. Hone your career-management skills. Make a list of people to see and include your public officials at all levels. They are great centers of influence and are cognizant about economic development efforts. Personally visit each office to make an appointment. Seek the opinion of managers two levels above your skill level. They are not intimidated if you have great skills and your worth. If they hire you, they likely will take you with them up the employment ladder. As a college student and disc jockey, I once called the program director of a TV station seeking career advice. He immediately invited me to audition for an announcing job. Be sure to treat each receptionist with maximum respect. You’ll be amazed by the power and influence of a receptionist. (And make networking a lifelong career practice.)
7. Be open-minded and consider all options. If you are mobile, consider working abroad. In this age of globalization, future employers will be impressed that you know how to conduct yourself in a foreign country.
8. Consider a new field. The best available jobs include information technology, medical and retail sectors. And great employers can never get enough good salespeople. I went from being a disc jockey and broadcast journalist to sales, marketing and management in multiple industries.
9. Make it easy to contact you. Take advantage of wireless e-mails at coffee houses and libraries, but be security-minded. Don’t use a device containing personal information and make sure it isn’t ever connected to your computer with sensitive information. Forward calls to your cell phone.
10. Use the Internet. Get online – not to search job boards, but to go on offense. Applying at job boards is probably a waste of time. The competition is too great. Create an edge by building a Web site, blogging, and leveraging social networks from LinkedIn to Twitter.
11. Consider temporary employment services or freelancing. If you can avoid collecting unemployment, take work either at a temporary service or freelancing gig – you will be better off emotionally. Not to be gauche, but standing in line at the unemployment office will only put you in a position to network with other unemployed folks. Benefits will include networking, building your resume, maintaining your work ethic and best of all – earning a paycheck. Even after a college education and broadcasting experience, I once worked between jobs for a temporary service as a day laborer. It was a lot of fun getting exercise and having a place to work in fresh air. A short time later, after I landed on my feet as a newscaster, I won two awards.
12. Accept any opportunity until you get the right job. You will attract options you never thought possible. Once, when out of work, I called a former colleague who became the director at a state agency. She shared about her problems about coping with malingering union employees and getting enough funding from the state legislature. So we met over coffee and I was able to share my experience in similar circumstances. Unexpectedly, one day after returning from a six-mile run, there was a telephone message for me: “We want to hire you to solve our problems.” 
13. Get a mentor. Find someone who has the success you want for personalized one-on-one strategies.
14. Body language. When you land the big interview, remember the employer thinks you’ve got the necessary tools. It is your opportunity to assure the company that you will solve its needs and that you’ll fit into the culture. You only have a few seconds to make a favorable first impression with a warm voice, direct answers, a smile, and good body language. To err in being too formal is preferred over being too casual. Sit erect, feet on the floor, comfortable hand-placement in your lap, and maintain good eye contact.
15. Attitude of gratitude. A well-written thank you letter will help you stand out in a crowd. Write anyone who helps you. Mail a thank you letter immediately after each interview so that the employer hears from you the next business day. Mention a specific topic from the interview and include a bonafide compliment for the company. Reiterate the benefits of hiring you. Thank the interviewer for her or his consideration. Prevent buyer’s remorse by reassuring the reader you will provide the necessary results the company expects. If you have not heard from the employer, it is businesslike to make a follow-up telephone call in five business days. Your odds will be enhanced once the company has had five positive contacts or interactions with you.

Being unemployed is not easy, but as long as you make an effort to stay productive and keep open to new opportunities, you will be fine – you might even come out stronger.

The moral: Layoffs are really stepping stones as opportunities for personal and professional growth.

From the Coach’s Corner, if all else fails and if you always wanted to be the boss, consider entrepreneurship. Some people are destined to be entrepreneurs. Start a business by filling a need.