Ronald L. Krannich - The Quick Job Finding Pocket Guide: 10 Steps to Jump-Start Your Career . . . and Life!

Most people would love to land an exciting job that leads to long-term career success. But in a fast-paced, disruptive economy that sheds thousands of jobs, and in communities with limited employment opportunities, thats wishful thinking. How, for example, did you survive the suddenly sinking COVID-19 economy of 2020? If you became unemployed, perhaps you found a lifeboat job. It wasnt the greatest job in the world, but it helped pay the bills and came with some modest benefits, such as health insurance. Perhaps that ill-fitting job also had a silver lining opened your eyes to some new opportunities you never thought about. You learned more about what you both liked and disliked about work.

If you want to land a job within 30 days and within 30 miles from home, be sure to use the unconventional and innovative job search techniques outlined in The Quick 30/30 Job Solution: Smart Job Search Tips for Surviving Todays New Economy (see page 59). It may well change your life! But, first, lets identify who you are and where youre going.

If youre fresh out of school with a newly minted diploma, certificate, or degree and with little work experience, you need to sell yourself as someone who will become an invaluable assetyoure smart; you work hard; you take initiative; youre responsible; you have drive; youre a team player; youre positive and enthusiastic; you dont screw up much; and you wont quit within 10 months (like many other new graduates). You need to understand the two basic economic needs of most employers (1) make more money and (2) save more money. Above all, they want to minimize the risk of hiring an unknown. Attitude, enthusiasm, drive, and loyalty are everything when youre starting out with little experience or scant proof of performance. If you lack a clear pattern of performance, create value in what you say and do. Become likable!

Thousands of people lose their jobs each day. If you lost yours during the 2008 Great Recession or 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, you experienced bad luck. In the first few weeks you probably experienced the classic seven stages of grieving shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and acceptance. Hopefully, you quickly got to the acceptance stage where you began taking positive and purposeful action from putting your financial house in order (filed for unemployment, tightened and cut spending, secured backup funds, renegotiated payment terms, budgeted) and rearranging your daily schedule/routines to launching a well organized job search or starting a business. Doing this took time, and you may have experienced many rejections and some depression.

Millions of people voluntarily change jobs and careers each year for a variety of positive and negative reasons. These people engage in various degrees of risky employment behavior. Some quit their jobs and go back to school full-time with the hopes of re-emerging with a certificate or degree for starting a new career. Others make the transition while working full-time with an employer. They set a date, do their homework, and quit when theyve secured another job or launched a business.

Each year millions of individuals re-enter the job market after a lengthy absence transitioning military personnel, Peace Corps Volunteers, retirees, nontraditional students, ex-offenders, homemakers/mothers, world travelers. These individuals may be relatively "job dumb" dont understand how to best find a job, from using the latest technology to preparing for behavioral and situational job interviews. In addition, they need to explain questionable time gaps why theyve been out of the job market for so long and present marketable skills. The time issues are especially critical in the cases of ex-offenders, retirees, and world travelers who may lack a clear sense of what they can do and what they want to do in the future. For transitioning military personnel, ex-offenders, and people with difficult backgrounds, please see these three books on pages 58-59: Military-to-Civilian Success for Veterans and Their Families, The Ex-Offenders New Job Finding and Survival Guide, and Job Interview Tips for Overcoming Red Flags.

Owning and operating a business under the best of circumstances can be tough. Indeed, most businesses fail within the first five years. Others become victims of major business downturns (2008), massive restructuring (2020), or excessive competition. Youre joining thousands of other entrepreneurs who gave it their all but couldnt make it long-term. As an entrepreneur, you bring very valuable skills to workplaces that need people who understand how to move the bottom line through increased sales and savings. At the same time, you need to convince potential employers that you are not too independent and that you plan to stay around for a while rather than conduct your own business on the side. Becoming an employee may be a big challenge for someone who is used to calling all the shots and having the freedom to set his or her own work schedule. Nonetheless, you should be of special interest to entrepreneurs who need to hire more individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Millions of individuals work more than one job. Finding a second or third job makes economic sense. Many people look tor high-turnover jobs with flexible hours to supplement their income. Waitressing, retail sales, customer service, cleaning, and security positions, which also tend to be low-wage hourly positions, especially appeal to such individuals.

If you find yourself in any of these six situations, the remainder of this book will help you jump-start your job search... and your life!

Youve just lost your best friend your job. If you really loved that job, youve also lost a loved one and a great family of people who you worked with. Now youre out in the cold. You miss going to work, seeing co-workers, and feeling productive. Youre probably grieving, starting with shock and anger!

Dont take it personally, After all, you and millions of other Americans experience job loss each year. Trust me this, too, shall pass, and perhaps for the better. Indeed, you may soon discover there is a silver lining in this job loss experience. Like many other people who have suffered similar losses, someday you may look back and say this was the best thing that ever happened to you, especially if you took time to re-imagine your future and made smart decisions that resulted in a job that also launched a new and very productive career and lifestyle.

But in the meantime, youve got lots of work to do in order to get through this seemingly difficult period in your life. Indeed, being very busy helps overcome the grieving process. Most fired people survive and eventually thrive in new jobs. In some cases the job loss was their own fault got fired for legitimate reasons, didnt see the warning signs coming, quit their job without having another one lined up. But in most cases, they lost their job because of workplace changes beyond their control reorganizations, off-shoring, internal politics, technology, or major economic downturns (2008 and 2020). Most such people go through a grieving process, which includes bouts of depression and anger and then resignation and realization that they are really unemployed and need to do something quickly!