"This Time My Job Search Will Be Different."

SJSA Grade Six - The Year I Rebelled, a photo by Michael 1952 on Flickr.

Okay—so your goal of landing a new job has passed its expiration date. Stating that your job search will be different now is an important declaration, because your job search can never be the same as the ones before. Think about what’s happened since you last looked for a job:

You’re older now.

You have more experience.

You have to explain a layoff or a resignation.

Your career goals have shifted.

The job market landscape itself has changed.

Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity, of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, applies to job hunters as much as German-born physicists. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Instead, add a few nuances to your job search strategy to keep it fresh:

Revamp your resume.  Incorporating your most recent gig into your resume isn’t just about adding an additional page to your cv. Instead of inserting a paragraph of your most recent job in chronological order, add bullets that show off results from your last job. Or you might even consider a functional resume instead.

Ask a trusted mentor to interview you.   Practice how you’d respond to challenging questions about your current and past jobs. You might be surprised to hear that your standard answers no longer resonate. Or maybe they never did. Use your colleague’s feedback to change them. Put a more informative or positive spin on your reasons for leaving previous roles.

Revisit your references.  Have you been routinely offering up your old manager’s contact information for years, without checking in on them yourself? A few of them may have moved on, or their contact info has changed. But consider this as well: you might be surprised that the feedback they are offering decision makers is not what you expect. Time has passed and you may not have been in touch in months, maybe years—and the glowing remarks you expected may have gotten tarnished. Or you might be a a distant memory. If you’re asked to give references, make sure you’ve been in touch with them recently.

Just try something different in your job hunting approach.  For every job search there are a hundred ways to carry it out. Talk to people outside of your industry. Don’t respond electronically to an online job posting—instead, pick up the phone and call someone you know from the company. Find out the Hiring Manager’s name and call them up directly.

I hope by now you’ve eliminated the myth of the one-size-fits-all approach to ajob search. But also remember that once you develop your own individualized plan, it still needs to be fluid. There will be times when you have to push hard and network more aggressively. Other times you need to lay low and be more patient.

Stay flexible and add at least one new method to your job hunt, although I’d recommend more. If you go down the same old path, your results might be good or bad, but they can never be the same as they were in previous searches. Because nothing stays the same.