{"id":78647,"date":"2014-08-06T13:45:23","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T18:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=78647"},"modified":"2014-08-05T18:55:02","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T23:55:02","slug":"the-job-search-is-like-online-dating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=78647","title":{"rendered":"The Job Search is like Online Dating"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Clayton Hayes, Senior Assistant, INALJ North Dakota<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Job Search is like Online Dating<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"clayton.hayes\"<\/a>To me, the process of searching for a job is like online dating. Think about it: you search online\u00a0for something that seems attractive. You delve a little bit deeper to see what kind of person they\u00a0are, to see who<\/em> they are and what they\u2019re expecting. Do you fit the criteria that they\u2019ve set out, or\u00a0do you at least fit it well enough to feel comfortable contacting them? Do they<\/em> fit your<\/em> criteria?\u00a0These are just a few examples of questions that can be applied to both situations.<\/p>\n

If you feel that you fit their criteria well enough and that they fit yours well enough, then you\u00a0try to make contact. You use whatever form of communication is specified by them or by the\u00a0platform they are using, you gather up everything you want to communicate to them in an\u00a0attempt to let them know how well you fit their criteria, and you send it out.<\/p>\n

And then you wait.<\/p>\n

Did they get your message? They probably have gotten lots of messages, maybe they glossed\u00a0over yours because it didn\u2019t grab them, didn\u2019t stand out. Maybe it was too riddled with spelling\u00a0or grammatical errors and they threw it out as soon as they saw it. Or maybe you used the wrong\u00a0tone, were too familiar or too formal. In job searching we have a bit more to go on in these\u00a0categories than in online dating, but the principle remains the same.<\/p>\n

You send out your materials and then you wait, not knowing if or when they\u2019ll read what you\u00a0wrote, not knowing if they already have someone else picked out. In job searching and in online\u00a0dating, if you\u2019re doing it right, you don\u2019t put all of your eggs in one basket. One profile or one\u00a0position may seem absolutely perfect, but if that\u2019s the only one you go after, chances are you\u2019re\u00a0letting a lot of other great options pass you by.<\/p>\n

Eventually you start to get messages back. It could be a few or it could be a lot, but either way\u00a0they are interested in speaking with you. They want to get to know you better, to understand\u00a0who you are and what exactly drove you to contact them. It is your first opportunity, too, to\u00a0get to know them a little better. The profiles that are constructed online by an individual or an\u00a0institution are rarely the whole story, and that is something that\u2019s understood by both parties.<\/p>\n

If both parties feel that it\u2019d be worth it, you\u2019ll be able to arrange for a face-to-face meeting.\u00a0Exchanging messages or talking on the phone are both great forms of communication, but it is\u00a0far easier to get a good feel for an individual or institution in person. It\u2019s also very important to\u00a0the other party, as well. Have you dressed appropriately? Are you giving them a good impression\u00a0of yourself? Are you being pleasant and polite, and do you seem like the sort of person they\u2019d\u00a0want to spend a significant amount of time with in the future?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important in both online dating and in the job search to remember that it\u2019s unhealthy to tie\u00a0your self-esteem to your success at either. You\u2019ll probably never know why you don\u2019t get replies\u00a0to some of your messages, but you shouldn\u2019t start to let that affect your self-worth. There are\u00a0a whole host of reasons why it might be the case: Your message or your profile didn\u2019t really\u00a0grab their attention or adequately reflect your personality or qualifications, they had someone\u00a0else in mind all along, they didn\u2019t actually know what they wanted and had to re-evaluate the\u00a0information that they were putting out, the list goes on. It is important to stick with it and to\u00a0understand that, whether in the job search or in online dating, sometimes the timing just isn\u2019t\u00a0right. The best thing you can do is learn from those experiences, let them go, and move on to the\u00a0next opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Clayton Hayes, Senior Assistant, INALJ North Dakota The Job Search is like Online Dating To me, the process of searching for a job is like online dating. Think about it: you search online\u00a0for something that seems attractive. You delve a little bit deeper to see what kind of person they\u00a0are, to see who they…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":60423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,5898,3662,266,4340,6443,6442],"class_list":["post-78647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-clayton-hayes","tag-inalj-north-dakota","tag-job-search","tag-job-searching","tag-online-dating","tag-the-job-search-is-like-online-dating"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/clayton.hayes_.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-ksv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}