It's been a long, ugly stretch for workers.  The ones with jobs kept their heads down and concentrated on staying under the radar.  The ones without jobs struggled to get noticed among the hordes of available candidates and lived on a steady diet of rejection.

Amid this election year noise about additional plant closures and outsourcing to Asia, there are signs of life in hiring.  Kind of like the first crocuses that signal the coming of spring.  They're popping up here and there, though there's every chance that freezing temperatures will come back and stay for a while.  We all know it will get better, but we don't know when and we're pretty damn tired of it all. 

We're cranky and glum.  We have no patience.  This is not a good mindset for job hunting.

Spring Cleaning

I called this column "Fear and Loathing" because I'm seeing so much of both from jobseekers.  Let's start with fear.  There's lots of fear about whether or not people are going to keep the jobs they currently have.  This is valid. 

Nobody has airtight job security any more, and there's really not much any individual can do about it, except to do the best job possible.  And that's no guarantee.  But there's also no guarantee that you won't get hit by a bus, though you don't spend a lot of time worrying about it.  I recommend you do the same about your job. 

However, I don't recommend that you live in a little bubble and ignore conditions in your department, your company and/or your industry.  If the Magic 8-Ball in your gut is saying, "Outlook not so good," you should pay attention.  And take action to be ready to make a change, should it come to that.

Fear During Job Search

I find that one of the biggest barriers to creating a good resume is fear.  People want to believe that there's one magical "right" way and some of them write to me so I can tell them what it is.  They think all that's required is to find the perfect format or phrase and every problem will be solved. 

Nope.  Wrong.  No amount of wordsmithing can ever result in the perfect resume, because every opportunity (every reviewer, for that matter) is different.  And since there's no way to see into a recruiter's head, it's pretty much a crapshoot to identify precisely what will trigger "bingo, this is the one." 

It's obvious that obsessing over the right action verb is a manifestation of fear.  The longer you work on polishing a resume - a legitimate job search activity - the longer you put off the possibility of rejection.  It's a delaying tactic that doesn't do you any good.

Any time you find yourself taking longer than ten minutes to decide about one word versus another, remember that the typical duration for a preliminary resume review is 30 seconds.  Your goal is to get into the "Yes" pile and it's your experience and capabilities that will land you there, not your way with words.

It may be a surprise to learn how quickly reviewers rip through resumes.  Software does it even faster, matching pre-specified keywords and patterns.  With much of job search now conducted over the web, speed has become a major consideration in the process. To make it past the first round, potentially qualified people have to be fast and lucky.

Loathing

This makes jobseekers angry--very angry.  Their anger (and fear about not getting a new job) gets expressed as hostility towards potential employers.  And sometimes that anger is carried into the interview situation when they do make it through the first cut.

Since they expect rejection, they're ready to hear it everywhere.  Even the most innocent questions can be colored by misperceptions, let alone the ones that trigger defensiveness, like "Why has it been so long since your last full-time job" or "How come you're considering a position several levels below your former one?"

Most interviewees can control the urge to punch out the interviewer or snap back some sarcastic wisecrack.  But they may be unaware of the hostility that seeps out in their tone of voice.  Interviewers do pick up on it though, and factor it into the hiring decision. This is how fear and loathing in job search becomes self-fulfilling. 

It's a good idea to try role-playing interviews with friends or colleagues to see how you perform.  You may be giving the right answers, but they may not sound right when they come out.  Encourage the tough questions and get honest feedback.  Practice until you can maintain your composure and not crack even under the most difficult probing. 

The search process is a long, frustrating haul for everyone.  You may have the right to some attitude, but you need to check it at the door when you talk to prospective employers. Both anger and fear are deal-killers.  There are plenty of fully qualified applicants out there and Interviewers are looking for the most energetic, positive candidate they can find.  No matter what your true emotions are, be relentlessly upbeat when you get to an interview. 

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Jamie Fabian spent more than 15 years as a human resources executive before changing careers to become a senior project manager for a growing IT consulting company.  Now in management consulting for a large Pharma company, Jamie would like to be seen as a hybrid of Tom Peters, Tom Jackson, and Tom Wolfe, but spends too much time working, driving carpool and watching mindless TV to write more than this column.  You can contact Jamie with questions and comments at jamie@jobcircle.com.