We’re living in tough times and jobs are scarce. Local unemployment in the DC area is at almost 12%, and we're better off than most areas of the country.
While the economy seems to be slowly recovering, jobs are not, outside of the federal government.
As the president of the DC Chapter of the American Marketing Association I spend a lot of time speaking with people who are looking for work.
What I find very curious as I speak with the unemployed is how extremely picky some of them are about the jobs they will consider.
One young lady, recently out of graduate school, with very little professional experience told me she won’t accept anything below a director level job – she’s been out of graduate school and unable to find work for a year now. Another experienced sales executive refuses to accept a position that is 100% commission – he’s been out of work for almost two years. A third is looking to change careers, but has no real experience in the field he wants to enter, so he is competing against more experienced professionals in his field of interest who are also unemployed – he’s been looking for a job for almost nine months.
While everyone hopes to find the perfect job, perhaps now is a good time to set more pragmatic short term goals. I’m not saying one should ever stop looking for jobs that make them happy. But I would think that today, simply paying the bills should be a higher priority. I’m amazed at the sense of entitlement among many who have no work experience or seem to believe that the market is overflowing with jobs.
Now I don’t believe that this group makes up the majority of job seekers. I have come across far more people who simply want to work. For them I will provide whatever assistance and support I can. We all should. I hope I never find myself in their position.
The advice I give to the others, is the same advice I will offer those of you who may be reading this and are unemployed: Don’t stop looking for what you want, but seek out something that you need first – a paycheck.
Focus on your core competencies. Look for a job at which you will excel or that will allow you to pay your bills. If it is not a dream job, try to incorporate dream job components into it in order to hone your skills and become a more valuable employee. You never know; that opportunity may just lead to the perfect job.
Sometimes you have to take one step back before you can take two steps forward.
