Finding A Good Job In A Tough Economy

Here is the latest installment for CPU Magazine. It's been a heck of a week, I'm hanging in Seattle currently - on my way to New York next week. What a great week though, amazing U.S. election and there's a ton of buzz happening on the streets of Seattle lately. The economy is still the biggest concern on everyone's mind, and so this month I'm covering job hunting in a tough economy.

After the recent stock market crash, bank shutdowns, and home foreclosures, millions of people are worried about their current and future job prospects. Companies everywhere are in hiring freezes, dramatically shrinking the pool of good, available jobs and making it very difficult for managers to requisition new positions. And not just in North America; this economic slowdown has been a global event, so no one is immune, save possibly healthcare workers and (of course) the very wealthy.

The bottom line is we have been thrown into an employment situation direr than most of us have experienced in our lifetimes and hopefully none of us will have to experience again.

So what do you do if you’re just out of school and you are looking for a job in the technology industry? The answer is quite simple: specialize and differentiate yourself from the pack. The fact is, when you are looking for a job in a field where there are millions like you out there, millions of people who know basically what you know, it’s going to be hard to find the dream career that you can grow into.

In some ways, it’s very much like starting a business in a highly commoditized industry. For years, I ran a small business and took it through many highs and lows. Along the way, we discovered that if we didn’t find some way to differentiate ourselves from the pack, we would be left in the dust in challenging times.

So here you are, a blank sheet of paper. Now what?

The first thing you want to do is figure out what you actually enjoy doing. Take it from me; if you are lucky enough to find a job that involves something that you enjoy doing, you won’t think of it as just a job. In addition, in many cases it may be something that you can excel at without extensive prequalification.

This doesn’t mean if you enjoy playing Guitar Hero that you go out and start your own band. Be realistic; if you enjoy playing video games, you might want to upgrade your skill set by taking some courses on game development. In the meantime, you could find a job in a company that allows you to develop scripts and work with network infrastructure.

The next thing would be to look at what holes you could fill in a particular growth industry or company—and you should also look for opportunities based on future trends as much as possible. There are going to be many opportunities in environmental management and control, healthcare, and other high-tech initiatives. This doesn’t mean you need to be an expert on the environment, but there are companies that focus on the environment that require IT skills. The same goes for healthcare and every other growth sector.

This might require some research, but most likely it’s nothing that Google can’t help you with. In other words, don’t just create a generic résumé and blanket email it out. I can’t tell you how many times people email me their résumés without any correspondence or any description of what exactly they’re doing emailing me in the first place.

Be absolutely sure you make a cover page tailored to the company and the position you are looking for. If you’re unfamiliar with the various résumé formatting rules, it’s easy to find good samples online—there are even companies out there that will draft your résumé for you for a small fee.

Finally, make sure you do some research on a company before you show up there for an interview; few things will make you look worse than being unable to answer basic questions about what the company is or does.