The "Two-Angle" Perspective on Job Search

If you are fond of doing things in a methodical and logical fashion, then this dsicussion is just for you.

Some Background

With the global economy now showing the most turmoil than it has in decades, an unfortunate consequence we're seeing is that many people have been laid off from work. Now more than ever, no matter what part of the world you may live, discussion about how to find work shows up bigger than ever on the radar. While the Internet job forums and employment discussions teem with advice on specific ways for conducting one's job search, one can easily get overwhelmed with so much detail.

Hopefully the information discussed here will help you to jump out of the trenches and view your job search more from an "eagle's eye perspective". In this case the eagle's eye view is called the "two-angle" perspective. And under these two angles are a hunting ground filled with opportunity.

What is The "Two-Angle" Perspective?

In a nutshell, the two-angle perspective is this: going about things both in a conventional way, followed up with an unconventional - perhaps even unthinkable - set of ways for doing the job search thing.

The First Angle

When faced with the prospect of job loss, most folks turn to conventional (traditional) means as a way to source for new job opportunities. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with this method, you need to understand that this way of thinking may be severely limiting you, and thus keeping you from being able to prospect for even more jobs in a work-scarce economy.

"Conventional" job prospecting methods may include:

- posting your resume on a job board

- printing and passing out resumes

- making contact with headhunters

- applying for jobs online

- buying a newspaper and applying for jobs from there

See what I mean? These are conventional methods, despite the fact that some utilize the best resources that technology has to offer. After having used these resources, you may find yourself still jobless and at a loss for further job-search alternatives. Ultimately you may be frustrated at being limited by what prospects are available and what you can do to find more.

The answer? De-limit yourself. Severely in necessary.

Apply The "Two-Angle" Perspective

The two angle perspective accounts for the de-limited side of your job search. While it is not necessarily something new, it can help give you a handle on what you have done as well as what you can do.

If you have already used the conventional methods described above in your job search, then congratulations! You've already covered the first angle - all the conventional methods. Now it's time to try the second angle - unconventional methods and approaches at finding and securing your next job.

The Second Angle

"Big deal!" you may say. But you'd be surprised at how many people are out there who haven't even thought of being unconventional.

Fortunately there are many things that you can do in your job search which fall under this lesser-known category. Basically, the second angle means this: try anything and everything that you would never possibly think of. Even doing those things you absolutely hate!

From lame to drastic, some of these things may include the following.

Rewrite Your Resume from Scratch.

As lame as this may sound, rewriting your resume is the one thing that might make all the difference between languishing in sorrow or jumping for joy at a new job offer.

Stored away on your laptop or on a musty sheet of paper, you have your old resume that did the job in the past. Well, the times are a changin'! What worked in the past may not work well at all now. Rewrite that resume, thinking about it entirely from your prospective employer's point of view. Shorten, simply, shock, and impress. You'll be surprised at how much you can change. Make sure you do everything that you can to change it. We are talking format, style, delivery - anything and everything - even nothing - that you can do that will catch your prospective employer's eye. If necessary, consult with a professional writer to hammer it out.

Try Using a Targeted Approach in Your Job Applications

If your career reads like the various listings one would find in an encyclopedia, then one may nicely say that you have had a "rather varied" career path.

You know what? This is nothing to be ashamed of. While some folks may look upon your background as showing a lack of focus, use their condemnation of your varied experience to your advantage. Take their implied criticism as a challenge. Choose a job type or specific skill set, and zero in on jobs that match that skill set. When you get that job, then stick with it. Then don't you tell them who's not focused. Rather, you tell them who's flexible!

The best skill set to choose obviously would be the one that you are most interested in. For example, if you worked previously in a rabbit farm, and then later in a office setting editing business communications, identify which one was more interesting for you. Assuming you best liked your work on the rabbit farm, try applying for similar jobs on rabbit farms, cattle ranches, farms, chicken ranches, etc. If you liked your work as an editor, then try your hand as an author, a technical writer, a journalist...

Go with prospects that best match your interest. At the very least, during your job interview you could speak with great enthusiasm. Even if the job you take up doesn't pay very well, at least you would be interesting and you would be able to pay some bills. All the while you would be networking with folks and applying for other jobs.

If this advice doesn't apply to you, then perhaps...

Try Using an Un-Targeted Approach in Your Job Applications

If your career path has seen you prone to developing yourself as a specialist, consider the fact that you may have pigeonholed yourself. Sure, it's great to use a targeted approach in your job hunt, but perhaps this is exactly not the thing you should be doing now. After all, work is work. And work is what gets the bills paid.

De-limit yourself! Try the unthinkable!

Even try those things you absolutely hate!

Take baby steps first. Apply first for work which is somehow related to what you have grown fond of doing. For example, if you have done well in retail sales but cannot find any work in this area, consider the fact that you are a salesperson in general. Also consider the fact that what drives revenues in for-profit businesses is sales. With these two ideas in mind, you can go to work for almost any company.

If you want a little more realistic idea than the one stated just above, consider this. Seeing that you have worked previously in retail sales, have a look at industries that are extremely sales intensive. These would include insurance, real estate, consumer-based telecommunications services, or even retail in an industry that you have never worked in before.

The idea is to find possible job prospects that lie in areas adjacent to where you normally worked before. Get the idea?

After this...

Try Opening up Your Own Business

Fed up? Tired of working with folks who don't care how the work is done -just so long they collect a paycheck? Assuming you've gained a significant amount of knowledge in a particular industry, you may want to consider going into business with yourself as your own boss. There are at least two ways to go about this.

The first method is to open a conventional storefront and dive into the business that you know so well. This takes planning, capital, and a serious dedication to keep your business afloat.

A second method is generally associated with lower risk - but likewise offers less reward if you don't stick with it. This would be to offer yourself as a consultant to your former employer, or even competitors of your former employer. If they are in any way foundering or are having a tough time, you could show them the ropes on how to run their business correctly. Even if they felt they had a good grip on the business, you could offer your services as a contract sales rep covering a market niche or geographic area that they formerly were not able to provide service to.

The idea here is to look at what their business is lacking, translate it into a possible revenue generator for your client, and then offer yourself as the solution to that hole in their business.

If this doesn't sound good, or you're just sick of your old job altogether, then...

Try Changing Careers Altogether

Let's say you've absolutely had with the real estate business. Well, don't quit just yet...

In your spare time, do some research on some other trades that interest you. Read about them, make appointments with managers and workers who thrive on that trade, "shadow" them, and even do some volunteer work for them if you can. At least you can say whether you like it or not.

And while your foot's in the door, maybe they'll like your work and ask you to work for them!

When you're ready to make that jump, then don't hesitate! If you want a backup plan in case it doesn't work out, try your best to keep the road back to your old job open.

Move!

Get up and move to a new town, county, state, or even country! Do a good job of it and stir it up good!

Do the Impossible!

On the farther end of the spectrum, you can take my story as an example.

By trade I am a writer. However, just like any other profession, it can have its ups and downs. After a long and grueling contract stint, I chose to take a break doing some no-brainer work that paid the bills and cost me almost nothing to operate. However, when weeks turn into months and months turned into more than one year, I began to feel it was time to get back into another comfortable writing gig.

As luck would have it, it was my no-brainer work that provided me with an "in" to my next writing contract. Only this time -- it was writing plus!

On my way back from a business trip, I met two gentlemen at the airport. Like me, they were queued up to take a shuttle from the air terminal to the car park. I struck up a conversation with them, asking them what their trade was, what they did for work. Their answer was that they ran a factory that manufactured large industrial fluids centrifuges.

A bell rang in my head, and my next line of questions is what led up to me signing on as a contractor with them.

I asked them whether they sold centrifuges for the biodiesel industry? They answered yes. Then I asked them if they jobbed out any of their manufacturing processes to overseas countries such as China? Again, they answered yes.

Because I made biodiesel for my car, I used a small centrifuge as a part of my biodiesel-making process. Likewise, because I had lived formerly in China and had learned how to speak Chinese fluently, I saw a further fit to their business needs.

I explained to these two gentlemen about my knowledge of biodiesel, centrifuges and the Chinese language and culture. I told them that if they required assistance in developing their business into the budding biodiesel industry, I was their man. Similarly I told them that if they needed help with their outsourcing issues in China, I was also their man.

I had their rapt attention.

An Unconventional Interview

A few days later I met them in their office, and we talked things over. Aside from what skills I could offer them through biodiesel, centrifuges, and the Chinese language, I also told them that I was an expert writer.

At the end of that meeting, we had lunch. At the end of lunch, I had my next job.

Embrace that Second Angle in the Two-Angle Approach

I had never worked in "hard-core" industry before, let alone sold myself as an industrial consultant. However in the months that followed, I learned more there than I had at almost any other job I had held previously. And the pay wasn't bad either.

The lesson here is that by keeping one's eyes open, one can turn in an everyday situation - like standing in line - into the next pot of gold.

By embracing that "second angle" - that open, fluid space where nothing (or everything) seems to exist all at once - you may find opportunity for the continuation of your ongoing career, or opportunity to begin a new career altogether. It can arise from circumstances that you would have thought otherwise impossible to manage.

*****

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Melendez is a freelance writer reporting on technology, the environment, sustainability, alternative energies and "green" issues. John Melendez is a writer for hire. To email him, go to http://www.emailmeform.com/fid.php?formid=19595

© 2009 John Melendez / Cibola International - All rights reserved worldwide. Duplication in part or in full is prohibited. Violators will be prosecuted.