Unemployed for Six Months? Use these Top Job Hunting Strategies

You've been unemployed for more than six months and now you're toe tapping thinking when are you going to get that traction in the job search that you were expecting to have at this point? It may be because you were laid off in there. Maybe it's because you were fired, been there too. Or maybe you took time off from your job or left your job and now you have an employment gap. Well, this video is to help you diagnose your situation, to figure out what's going on and then provide a solution so that you can land your next role faster and stay to the end. Because you'll learn the single biggest distinction between a job seeker and a job shopper that leads job shoppers to land roles twice as quickly. If you're new here, why hello, I'm Madeline Mann. I am a job search strategist and human resources leader who turns job seekers into job shoppers. You may recognize me from being a top job search coach and instructor on Spotify and LinkedIn learning, and you may have also seen me on ABC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, and more. Be sure that you are subscribed so that you can get these videos to elevate your career. Now please step into my office. I am your job search doctor. Or you can just call me Job Doc for short. Let's diagnose where you need to focus in your job search after being unemployed for for more than six months. The first thing I'll say, which is totally unlike WebMD who basically tells you that you have a tumor if you have a toe cramp, is that maybe nothing's wrong. For skilled roles, the median time to land a job is often cited at about six months, with many people landing jobs sooner and also later than that. So you are now teetering on the later end. But know that job searching is does take time. So if you do find yourself regularly landing interviews, regularly making it through interview processes, and then those processes simply take a really long time or they get to the very end and then decide they're not going to hire anyone that isn't necessarily your fault and in that case you just gotta go back out there and go get em. And I'll also provide some tips in this video that will help you to close more offers. If that doesn't sound like you in your situation, no problem. Let's consider the components that when changed, lengthen your job search. The first is industry. If your job search involves pivoting industries, that is likely to make your job search a bit longer than previous ones. The second component is role. If you would like to secure a role that is a completely different function from your previous job. Not just moving up a level, but totally different function. Your job search will have some additional complexity. Do not worry. Though so many of my clients are career changers, you can still change jobs quickly with the right approach. Such as Todd, who changed his role and industry quickly from a band teacher at a high school to a Scrum master in a technology company.

I got my first real offer about three months into the program and it was in the exact role that wanted in terms of the industry and the in the job title and the type of work that I wanted to do. Four weeks into it I got a call from another company that I had started to talk to earlier and they were just slower to move. I guess it was like a month after the first offer. I got another one for the job I'm in right now and it nearly doubled the salary I had a year ago. You know, it's just a quality of life upgrade is really what it is.

And that role plus industry change combo is the most ambitious in the job search. So let me know in the comments. Are you looking for your next job to be in the same industry industry or different the same type of role? Different role? Let me know in the comments. I'm very curious to see who's staying in the same field versus changing it. The next thing that extends a job search is if you are looking to land a job at the executive level. These roles open up less and are not often posted online and the interview processes are so darn long. So you want to use strategies beyond applying online to have any sort of reasonable timeline. I also meet a lot of job seekers who are committed to to landing remote roles now. Remote jobs are more common now than ever. Personally, my company, we hire all remote employees and it has been phenomenal. But know that if you're going for remote roles, those are the most competitive. Why? Because these companies are selecting from a pool of everyone in the country or everyone in the world. So you got to bring your A game. You will want to amp up your job search strategy if you are going for remote roles because that can take a while. And so I will link a class on job shopping below which is all about standing out among candidates, which is for sure a necessity for remote jobs and can drastically shorten the amount of time you are job searching. So as you're diagnosing yourself, it's important to identify if the issue is simply the job search is a hellish blend of timing and compatibility and your Patience is required or if something is wrong, something is wrong in your job search. If you aren't landing interviews as about 15 to 20% of the companies you're interested in. And another sign is if you're interviewing with companies, then landing the offer rarely or never. This is especially true if you're going for roles that are fairly similar to your most recent role. If you aren't landing that percentage of interviews, there are a few things that you will want to address. First is the outreach strategy. For too many folks, their strategy is to apply online, which is so slow it's one of the slowest ways to land a job in today's competitive job market. So avoid this mass applying online strategy. Second is not being contacted for opportunities from these companies. One of the most common ways that my clients land job interviews is by companies finding them online and asking them to interview. Such as for Kyle, for example, the.

LinkedIn I updated my job search. I mean updated. I have a new job. I was getting like 10, 15 like reach outs like every single month like for the right position that I was looking for.

Optimize your online presence to attract employers. I'll link a free LinkedIn profile checklist below for you to start attracting opportunities with your profile. And third, it could be your resume. Okay, maybe you are being considered for these opportunities without applying online. Maybe even companies are contacting you asking you to interview. And then after you send them your resume, you never hear from them again. Your resume could currently be ruining your chances. The issue many people run into is that they view their resume as a summary of their career and as a list of their best accomplishments. This often shocks people, but companies don't actually care about your career story. They don't actually care about the details of your background. They care about whether you can solve their problems. Yet how were we taught to write resumes? Oh, as a summary of what we've done in the past and all the best things about ourselves. This is the wrong way to think about it and we need to get in the mind of the employer. So I will link a free resume workshop below that will help you edit your resume to only focus on on the key compelling information. If you're having a feeling that that could be the sticking point for you, one big huge mistake you could be making right now is when we get to that six month mark in our job search, a tinge of desperation sets in. And again, I will repeat a job search taking six months is considered normal and nothing to have shame around. But it's also highly uncomfortable and exciting, expensive. That's where the desperation can come into play. Job seekers then begin to go for a variety of jobs. The jobs that are below their skill level, jobs in different functions, different industries. Their search is all over the board. One day they're applying to a financial analyst role, the next day it's a marketing manager role. It's absolute chaos. This scattered approach is going to significantly lengthen your job search. In a job search search, focus wins and companies can tell if you're too open to different opportunities. This is scary for companies because they want to hire you for the role that you are interested in and highly skilled in. Not a role that you don't exactly want or is below your skill level that you're likely to leave when the job you actually want comes up. Yet no one is talking about how tough it is to pick a lane. You're multi talented and multi passionate and there are a lot of different jobs that you could do. There may be some fear around picking one. That fear is valid, which is why I need you to go through a systematic process of uncovering what your right next career move is without actually taking a job to see whether or not it's a good fit. Just like my client John did.

In terms of like the major impacts the and turning points that the program had for me, the first was really being really clear with what I wanted and what my career vision was. That was by far the biggest impact that the program had for me. When I joined the program, I basically stopped applying online. I was outreached at least a dozen times. I was extended six different offers and I ended up landing a role I'm in today. And the best part is I just, I feel like I have solid footing, I know what I want. And regardless of what happens in this role with this organization, I am extremely clear in terms of what I'm looking for in the next role and the role after that.

The reason you need to see John's story is that the clarity he built around his next career step and his ability to land seven job offers are directly related. One would not have happened without the other. So I urge you to get clear. Your direction is more important than your speed and you often have to slow down to go so much faster. Now I'm talking in riddles, so I'll just drop a workshop on job shopping strategies below to help you with this. So many folks misdiagnose what is wrong with their job search. I'll tell you what it's not. It's not the applicant tracking system or the ATS scanning your resume. And you need to come up with a complex and clever way to beat the bots. No, there's just two reasons why you're not getting interviews. One, your resume isn't being seen in time. It's lost in this applicant tracking system because they're overstuffed like a turducken with resumes and a human wasn't able to get to your application. Or number two, your application isn't good enough. The second thing I hear people blame their job search on is outside factors. Oh, the job market is terrible. Oh, there's so many people applying to all these jobs. No one wants me because of my age. No one wants me because my laugh sounds like a malfunctioning espresso machine. I hear these all the time. But. But the biggest thing that separates job shoppers from job seekers is that job seekers see challenges in every opportunity and job shoppers see opportunity in every challenge. What's so important in the job search is to focus on what you can control and ignore the rest. And that's what I'm getting to is it's so easy to blame the process and blame the world, but in the end, we have got to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and pull ourselves up by the bootstrap. Level up our strategy. Strategy, experiment, iterate and then get your head in the game. Troy, the company needs to hire someone, so why wouldn't they hire you? So we've talked about a lot in this video about figuring out exactly what your challenges that is extending your job search and you heard solutions and received a bunch of resources. And here is a review of some of the strategies that we talked about. Get that great resume. It's making an impression both when you're trying to land the job and then sets the tone for every interview you have with that company. Next, move your focus away from applying online. Sure, you can send some online applications, but focus your energy towards faster means. Third, have a testing mindset. Don't simply do the same thing over and over again in the job search if that is not yielding results. Fourth, make sure you are getting clear on exactly what you want. Clear is how you are going to move faster and land more offers. And finally focus on only what you can control. You will go absolutely crazy otherwise. You have so much to offer. You have incredible skills. Go out there and absolutely dominate in the job search. If you got any tasty marshals from this video, be sure to hit a like on it. And I'm pretty sure you're already subscribed, but if not, make sure to double check and make sure you're subscribed. You've got this WI Fi. High five.