One of the questions that clients frequently ask me is “how can I conduct an effective job search?”  While some of the tools used to conduct a job search today are the same or similar to those used decades ago, much has changed.

At one time, an effective job search entailed simply checking the employment classified section of the area’s Sunday newspapers and responding to advertised openings.  Today, such an approach seems parochial at best and patently ineffective at worst.

Today’s job search, if one is seeking the right position, is akin to a marketing campaign.  If you were planning a product marketing campaign, you would establish a budget and determine the allocation and mix of media you would employ to transmit your marketing message.  The exact nature and content of your message aside, you would consider all the media channels – print, broadcast, Web, outdoor, etc. – and determine how to structure your campaign to optimize its effectiveness within your budgetary constraints.
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“The Invisible Man” was a novella penned by H.G. Wells in 1897 and popularized to succeeding generations by the classic 1933 motion picture starring Claude Rains as Griffin, a scientist who develops an invisibility theory.  Griffin postulates that by changing a person’s refractive index to that of air, the subject’s body would neither absorb nor reflect light and, thereby, achieve a state of invisibility.  He ultimately uses this process on himself, attains invisibility, cannot return to a visible state, and, as a result, is driven to insanity.

You may be asking yourself, “what does this have to do with my job search?”  At first blush, one might discern no connection between the respective subject matter of the story and that of your job search.  The surprising answer, however, is “more than you can possibly imagine.”
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With age normally come a number of positive personal attributes, among them maturity, stability, life experience, and wisdom.  Yet, for the more seasoned job candidate (and I define more seasoned candidates as 40/50-something or older with 20 or more years of work experience), the process of finding a good job is not simply 2 or 3 times more difficult than for their more youthful, less experienced counterparts, but tens or even hundreds of times more exacting.

I often deal with candidates who have never had any particular difficulty in securing a top position relative to their background and level of experience, but nonetheless seem to hit an obstacle to their job-seeking success in their early to mid 40′s or 50′s.  Speaking with me, they express astonishment that their current search efforts are so far removed from their previous experiences.  They had heard and believed that age discrimination existed, but never considered that it would happen to them.
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From the time of Man’s Fall from grace and innocence, the seeming dichotomy between job and career has been the subject of considerable thought and discussion.  Of course, man – from his prehistoric origins to modern-day – has always been required to engage in activities to sustain his existence and, by fulfillment of his own needs, contribute to the propagation and advancement of civilization.  Presumably, Adam and Eve “worked” at something before they consumed the fruit that made them aware that they were and needed to continue “working.”

Today, virtually all of us need to work – if not to provide us the means to live, then to give us a sense of worth and meaning.  And so, even those classified as “idle rich” require something to occupy their time, minds, and energies; whether that something be gaining a formal education, learning informally via travel or recreation, or volunteering services in support of a charitable endeavor.  In the latter instance, “work” – counter to the common perception – may provide no tangible benefit to the worker.
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