Oh, Job Search Isn’t Like Trick or Treating?

With Halloween less than a week away, what better way to help job seekers than by drawing lessons from this unusual holiday.  Below my post, you will find the posts of many resume writing and job search experts, known as Career Collective.  We ban together once a month to provide varying insights on a specific topic.  I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I do.  There will certainly be nuggets you can take away from the collaborative effort.  Many thanks to Miriam Salpeter of Keppie Careers and Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter of CareerTrend for initiating this project, now celebrating it’s 12 month anniversary.  Save and share this post!

Kids love trick or treating almost as much as Christmas. A bag full of candy in one night plus it is all yours! How good is that?!

Some children plan what they will be well in advance.  These are the inspired costumes.  Hours go into planning, researching and securing the right items to assemble the costume.  These children also tell all their friends and every adult they know about what they will be, usually with great enthusiasm.  Either by coaching or their own excitement, they want to try the costume on…a lot.  It isn’t just the costume they want to test, it is the character they want to try out as well.

Then there are other children that are non-c0mmittal.  They change their minds 5-6 different times between October 1 and October 30th.  One day they say they are going to be a ninja, the next day they say they are going to be a pirate.  When asked what they are going to be, you are never quite sure what the answer will be. The pressure mounts as the big day draws near, they begin to panic which generally leads to frustration if  they feel the right costume cannot be secured.

I hope you see the parallels between these trick or treaters and job seekers.

The idea of pretending to be someone or something else and aimlessly walking door to door hoping for a choice piece of candy is nothing at all like job search. Smart trick or treaters know which houses to visit for the best candy and the best entertainment.  They carefully plan the stops along their route for the optimum result.

Have fun this Sunday whether watching from a distance, dishing out candy, or escorting your Cinderella or Batman!  It is the small pleasures that bring us the greatest joy.  Savor the moments!

Here are the posts from the talented experts of Career Collective!

• Where Are the Wild Things, Anyway?, @WorkWithIllness
• Is Your Job Search Making You Feel Like a Smashed Pumpkin?, @DebraWheatman
• Hiding in Plain Sight, @WalterAkana
• Don’t make these frightful resume mistakes, @LaurieBerenson
• How Not to Be a Spooky Job Seeker, @heathermundell
• A Tombstone Resume:Eulogizing Your Experience, @GayleHoward
• The Top Ten Scary Things Job Seekers Do, @barbarasafani
• Oh, Job Search Isn’t Like Trick or Treating?, @careersherpa
• A Most Unfortunate Resume Mistake No One Will Tell You, @chandlee
• Oh no. Not the phone!, @DawnBugni
• Halloween Caution: Job Seeker Horror, @resumeservice
• Boo! Are you scaring away opportunities or the competition? @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes
• Your Career Brand: A Scary Trick or an Appealing Treat?, @KCCareerCoach
• How to avoid mistakes on your resume, @Keppie_Careers
• Sc-sc-scary Resume Mistakes, @erinkennedycprw
• A Flawed Resume is a Scary Prospect, @KatCareerGal
• Job Search Angst: Like Clouds Mounting Before a Storm, @ValueIntoWords
• Does Your Career Costume Fit You?, @expatcoachmegan