Steve Hernandez - The Job Search Manifesto: Turning Job Search Frustration into a Career Long Skill

Praise for The Job Search Manifesto

If there is a job search in your future, then the JOB SEARCH Manifesto should be as well. Great skills wont matter if you cant get in front of the decision-makers, and with so much competition in the market, why leave things up to chance?

This book thoroughly covers all the steps in a job search with insider tips, advice and examples from two of the leading experts in the industry. Take the guess work out of your next job search with The JOB SEARCH Manifesto youll be glad you did.

Dawn Graham, PhD, Author of Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success

Whether youre just starting your job search or need a jumpstart, The JOB SEARCH Manifesto reveals the hidden secrets to marketing yourself like a pro. Its like having your own personal career coach in your pocket.

Robert Carroll:Career and Leadership Coach | Former Technology Executive

The JOB SEARCH Manifesto should be required reading for everyone in todays job market. Its emphasis on the life-long development and use of modern job search skills is one of its key strengths and is a clear reminder that we should always be preparing for our next move. What I found to be especially valuable was the emphasis on building a brand, one that instills confidence and clarity, and that can be woven into all aspects of the job search.

I also appreciate how the authors delineated the importance of networking and how the nurturing of career-long relationships is key to conducting an effective job search.

Mark Guterman, Career and Executive Coach, Author of "Common Sense for Uncommon Times: The Power of Balance in Work, Family, and Personal Life,"

Copyright 2021 by Steve Hernandez and Mike Manoske

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

Crystal Cove Media Hayward, California

The Job Search Manifesto | Steve Hernandez and Mike Manoske.

First edition.

ISBN: 978-1-7370180-3-2 (e-book)

ISBN: 978-1-7370180-2-5 Paperback

Book Design by Yayun Chang Cahill dimsumlove.com

Contents

Introduction

Weve seen it, felt it, and heard it hundreds of times. As recruiters, weve heard it in the voices of the candidates weve worked with: they talk about a job they really want, but they dont understand the process they need to use to acquire the position.

We see it in the faces of students or clients who want to change their career direction but are afraid to take even a first step.

Weve felt it from those who didnt see the layoff coming and were blindsided.

What we experience is people dealing with fear, uncertainly, and doubt (FUD) about their career directionand most immediately about their job search. In many cases, FUD triggers avoidance, where people just dont take action. It locks them up; their unhappiness in their current role is less daunting than the fear of navigating change.

Job Change Is Inevitable

Yet the reality is that job change is inevitable. Heres proof based on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and our over three decades of recruiting and career coaching.

A twenty-five-year-old who works until sixty-five will change jobs every 4.2 years, talk with at least four organizations or more for each job change, and interview with five people (or more) for each job posting they apply for.

This twenty-five-year-old will change jobs ten times in their career, which involves (1):

interviewing with forty companies or more

individually interviewing with two hundred people or more

updating their LinkedIn profile forty times annually, and

updating, enhancing, or restructuring their rsum more than forty times, if done for each role.

The numbers are daunting, even though we were conservative in our estimates. In Silicon Valley, the average tenure is 3.5 years (2), and in certain roles and companies the time is even shorter. The interview numbers come from our experience as recruiters. A typical interview cycle consists of three rounds and involves at least five people: a recruiter, a hiring manager, and three staff members. (3) Theres good news if you are over twenty-five or plan to retire earlier: you have fewer job searches ahead. But the stress and headache will stay the same if you continue to follow the same tired process.

Is This You?

Youre probably ready for change if any or most of these situations exist for you:

your job is unrewarding or boring, or, worse, youve been laid off

your pay is stagnant or even declining

there are no advancement opportunities in your current job

the economy has you deeply concerned about your job and income security

you work for a company and leadership that you dont respect, or you work on a team that is toxic, and/or

you want to make a major change in your lifeget married, move, buy a home, or go back to schoolbut your job doesnt offer the flexibility or income to do it.

If these situations resonate with you, then they will likely trigger you to slowly begin a job search. If you havent done a job search in a number of years, then youre likely to follow a dated, tired modelone that is slow, frustrating, and demoralizing.

The Old, Broken Approach

This is a lot of work to leave to chance, using a hit-or-miss process. Yet many people treat job searches and career changes as a necessary evil, like going to the DMV to renew their license.

So you begin a job search and follow the familiar, well-worn steps. You:

update your rsum (the same one youve used for years)

find jobs and apply online by sending in the updated rsum

wait

react to any incoming reply and hopefully make it through the interview process

nervously negotiate your next salary, feeling powerless and wondering how much you left on the table, and

hope the next job is better than the last.

Or theres potentially an even sadder situation: you stay in a job because you fear the job search process. The above mentioned outmoded job search method is the standard model, and its no wonder people dread changing jobs. This reactive, one-size-fits-all approach leaves you powerless each time you want to change your job or career direction.

The bottom line is that if you dont have a coherent and efficient plan, an effective brand, and a decent network or network-building plan, then changing jobs will be a repetitively painful exercise.

Addressing the Challenge

Weve made it our mission (and our careers) to share the best practices of a job search and career transition to give more control back to the candidate. It was because of this desire to give more power to job searchers that Steve developed the Job Search Action Group (JSAG) program at Whartons Executive MBA Program in San Francisco, where he is the director of career advancement.

JSAG is a seven-session, fourteen-week program that breaks down the job search into a series of easily accomplished steps that build on one another. Steve created the program and invited Mike to collaborate. Since then we have trained hundreds of students in job search best practices while refining the job search steps and methods.