You know the job hunt. Get up early and turn on your computer, march around your apartment in your pajamas, sit down with a cup of coffee and scroll through Craigslist postings until your wrist hurts. Tweak your résumé and actually respond to said listings. Send out a tweet or two to build your stupid personal brand that everyone keeps talking about. And then…you wait. If this is your routine, then the Wall Street Journal has news for you: you’re doing it all wrong.
If you have yet to hear back from an employer, chances are you may have a clue that something is wrong. But instead of griping about your situation all through happy hour or wallowing in puddles of personal incompetence, the WSJ has offered some revolutionary advice: go outside.
The article suggests making genuine connections instead of just networking, which is good news because networking always seemed nerve-wracking and disingenuous anyway. To help you along, they’ve got tips, like telling you to join a professional trade organization if your chosen field has one. Or mentioning your job struggles to people other than the barflies at happy hour, since your friends just might know someone who knows someone. Of course, that assumes that you either have friends who are doing well, or that you share a lot of spaces – like tango lessons – with folks who are doing well. And maybe you are. If so, why are you still jobless?
What the WSJ really seems to want us to do, though, is to put actual time and effort into finding a job, which of course is so like “ughhhh,” but they might really be on to something. It’s an old cliché being held over college grads’ heads that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, but in the end, it’s probably still true.
But, of course, if there ever comes a day where you need a break from tango lessons, we’ve got some jobs for ya right here, buddy.