Don’t make these job-search mistakes

Before John Yocca found his current job, he had been unemployed for seven months. Unexpectedly laid off as part of a major downsizing, Yocca took some time off trying to figure out what he wanted to do.

Now a senior account executive with Stern and Associates in Cranford, Yocca eventually found temporary work in the golf industry, a passion of his, and began exploring the possibility of working full time in the field. After a while, though, Yocca got discouraged and decided to go back to what he knew best. So, he reached out to a recruiter he had worked with in the past. Advertisement By coincidence, the recruiter was working on a search for which he was particularly well-qualified. Within a day, Yocca had an interview; a week later, he had a job. In hindsight, Yocca says he wishes he had pursued his job search more diligently and reached out to his network much earlier.

With the economy losing 80,000 jobs in March, the third consecutive month of rising unemployment, many more people are likely to be facing a period of unemployment in the coming months. Some of those affected may find themselves out of work for an extended period of time. Should you find yourself among the casualties of what will hopefully be a brief economic downturn, avoid the common mistakes that can unnecessarily lengthen the time you look for work.

The most common problem for individuals who have been looking for a job for an extended period of time is “they get discouraged and lose their confidence,” said Julie Kampf, president of JBK Associates, an executive recruiting firm in Engelwood. This can lead them to interview poorly and make bad decisions, such as accepting the wrong job out of fear nothing else will come along.

Here are some mistakes to avoid during a job search:

# Don’t wait to begin the job search. While trying to determine what you want to do next and not simply jumping at the first job that comes your way is a sound strategy, taking a long vacation is not. A few days off to clear your head and re-energize is fine, but then get to work. The sooner you start, the sooner you will find that next great opportunity.

# Don’t apologize for the time you have been unemployed. Let your potential employer know you have been focused on finding the right job and be able to describe the efforts you have made to do so.

# Don’t take rejection personally. Human resources professionals and executive recruiters are bombarded by resumes, e-mails and faxes from candidates. If they don’t get back to you, be persistent, but don’t be a pest. Finding a job is a “numbers game.” The more opportunities you pursue, the better your chances.

# Don’t be embarrassed to ask your friends and business associates for help. “Those are the people who know you best and are the most likely to help you,” says Kim Bishop, vice chairman of the national recruiting firm Slayton Search Partners, who is responsible for the firm’s New York-New Jersey region.

# Never stop networking. Reach out to your contacts on a regular basis, whether that means just checking in to say hello once a month, forwarding articles of interest or simply sending a birthday or holiday card.

“Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, while objects at rest tend to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an external force,” says Newton’s First Law of Motion. When it comes to finding a job, a similar principle comes into play. Employers are interested in people who are active and involved. They want to know you are positive, motivated and energetic. They are looking for someone who has been busy, even while engaged in a job search.

So while you are looking, take courses that will enhance your skills, get involved in professional organizations and engage in volunteer work. This will not only expand your network, but will demonstrate you have been productive during the time you have been out of work. Consulting or freelance work also can be a plus, as long as it doesn’t keep you from focusing on your primary objective of finding a job.

The biggest mistake you can make when you are unemployed is to “rely on someone else to find you a job,” Kampf says. People in your network, career coaches all can help you. They can offer ideas, provide leads and give you advice, but ultimately, you have to take responsibility for your own job search.

A veteran human resources executive, Lee E. Miller is the author of “UP: Influence Power and the U Perspective — The Art of Getting What You Want,” and the co-founder of YourCareerDoctors.com, a website devoted to career success. Mail questions to Lee@YourCareerDoctors.com.

After working 16-hour days for seven years as an investment banker, Rachel Thebault decided to follow her dream: a career in baking. All it took for her to decide to go from banker to baker was a batch of chocolate truffles.

Thebault had been baking as a hobby since she was a child. But the demands of her full-time job gave her little time to bake for fun let alone for a living. That all changed after she cooked up some chocolate truffles for a New Year’s Eve party. Almost immediately, friends began putting in orders of truffles and cakes for their parties and weddings.

In 2004, Thebault decided to leave her job at Bank of America Corp. for culinary school, and now, with the help of her financial background, she has her own bakery. “It was a huge step for me to give up such a lucrative career that I was successful in to go back to school in a new field,” says the 32-year-old Thebault.

Leaving a steady job in hopes of making a career out of a personal passion has its challenges. But leveraging what and who you already know can make the transition easier. Thebault regularly taps her investment-banking skills as she works to build her own baking business. “Being able to understand income statements, balance sheets and how the financial structure of a business works has been very helpful,” she says.

Story continues below After graduating from culinary school, she rented space in a commercial kitchen to make special-order cakes, cupcakes, truffles and cookies as a way to ease into commercial baking. As an investment banker, Thebault spent years working with retail and restaurant clients and had a strong idea about what made the successful ones tick and what doomed the lackluster ones. When she decided to move into a storefront shop, Thebault says her finance background gave her the know-how to set up a business plan and determine her target market. Her previous career also gave her a valuable resource: contacts and colleagues from her banking and college days she could call for tips on marketing and strategy, and legal advice. Using that bridge from her old career, Thebault opened a bakery, Tribeca Treats, in New York City a year ago.

Thebault isn’t alone in taking that big step to switch careers. A study by outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. found that nearly 40 percent of all job seekers in 2007 weren’t just looking for a new employer, they also were hoping to switch to a new industry. And a survey of job hunters conducted last year by Salary.com revealed that nearly 60 percent of respondents wanted to change careers.

While Thebault’s path might seem long about three years it is quite typical. A career reinvention takes an average of three to five years to complete, says Pamela Mitchell, founder and chief executive of the Reinvention Institute, a coaching and consulting firm in Miami. Mitchell advises clients to stay in their current careers and continue to draw a salary for as long as possible while they develop a clear plan for their next profession.

In some cases, you might be able to use that time to look for experiences in your current job that you can take with you. One client Mitchell worked with wanted to become a full-time writer after a 10-year career in the nonprofit world. “When she looked around at her current job, she realized that she could work on internal projects that would connect her to contacts she would need to know in the future,” says Mitchell.

Finding part-time or volunteer work in your dream career can be a low-risk introduction to a new industry and will help build experience. Nina Storm, 33, always had a passion for causes and wanted to join the nonprofit world. She was working as a casting coordinator for Universal Pictures when she heard about and became interested in Global Green USA, an environmental nonprofit. She joined the group’s new Los Angeles committee as a way to learn more about the organization. “As a volunteer, I formed relationships with the staff, and I became more confident in skills which at that point weren’t represented on my resume,” Storm says.

After volunteering for a year, including working as a planner for the group’s Pre-Oscar Party, she interviewed to be the group’s event coordinator. She landed the job and now, a year and a half later, Ms. Storm is Global Green’s events manager, producing six or more large events around the country each year.

Dipping your toes into a new career while still collecting a corporate paycheck also can open your eyes to a reality Thebault warns of: “When you turn your passion into your career, it becomes a job.” That may mean dealing with budgets, marketing, hiring and firing the less-scintillating aspects of the work that you probably never faced when, say, baking for friends and family.

To avoid a rude awakening, it is wise to look before leaping, experts say. Talk to someone who does your dream job to help determine whether you can be satisfied by being part of the process working to keep your bakery running rather than doing all of the baking yourself. Ask them about the downsides. “Otherwise, doing the thing you once loved will be the worst job you’ve ever had,” says Mitchell.

That isn’t the case for Elizabeth Vianna, 41, who turned a recreational interest in wine into a career she loves. She decided to leave her job as a clinical toxicologist at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center after a particularly good glass of French wine Sociando-Mallet. Vianna had been going to tastings for years when an idea hit her: She could put her background in science to use in making wine. She abandoned her plan to attend medical school, moved to wine country and enrolled in the graduate program in enology at the University of California, Davis, a decade ago. Vianna worked through two internships and held two assistant winemaking positions before landing her current job as winemaker at Chimney Rock in the Napa Valley in 2005.

“Work doesn’t feel so much like work anymore,” says Vianna, who primarily makes Bordeaux varieties for Chimney Rock. “Like any job, there are times when it’s stressful, but at the end of the day, I’m amazed at what an enchanting way of making a living I have found.”

6 Tips for Landing Your Dream Job

Do you have a job that’s just like everyone else’s? Are you looking for a nine-to-five…but wish you weren’t? Do you wish there was another option, one that would lead to an exciting, unique, and fulfilling line of work?

I recently interviewed more than 100 people who currently hold their dream jobs as research for my new book. These individuals who are travel journalists, event planners, fashion designers, forensic scientists, interior decorators, internet business owners and more have one thing in common: persistence.

As unattainable as a dream job might sound, with the right amount of forethought and preparation, you can make the move as well. Here are six tips to get you started:

1. Learn about yourself. Take time to do a self-assessment of your values, how you like to work, and what you’d be compelled to do even if you never got paid. Research careers and industries that map to your skills and interests. Hit the Internet, set up informational interviews, take relevant coursework, and arrange to go onsite at a company in your chosen field.

2. Don’t be deterred by a lack of experience. In developing a resume and other promotional materials for the field you want to pursue, think about how your current skills and talents apply to the responsibilities you’ll hold in the new job. For example, knowledge of project management, client relations, information technology, and sales will take you far in most types of careers.

3. Ease into a new career one foot at a time. Perhaps this means earning a paycheck at your current job while doing a part-time internship in your new field or taking an adult education class or workshop on the weekend. The only way to find out if you’re passionate about something is to try it ideally with as little risk as you can manage.

4. Remember that any progress is good progress. Even confident people stay in unsatisfying jobs because they feel safe, and because they’re afraid of making a bad decision. But in the quest to uncover a source of meaningful work, though, your worst enemy is inertia. Make an effort to do one thing, like e-mailing a networking contact or attending an event that moves you a bit closer to your big picture goal.

5. Start early. Twenty and thirty-somethings have more flexibility when it comes to test-driving different careers. The process of self-discovery is much easier when you’re unencumbered by family responsibilities and substantial financial burdens, and when you haven’t yet reached a level in a career where it’s tougher to turn back. That said, it’s never too late to pursue your passion. More and more baby boomers are leaving the world of traditional employment for alternative career paths that will fulfill them well into retirement age.

6. Have realistic expectations. Even if you’re lucky enough to hold your dream job, there’s no such thing as the perfect work situation. Every job has its ups and downs, and aspects we love and aspects we don’t love. And dream job doesn’t mean “cushy” job. As your mom always told you, anything worth having in this world requires some effort. There will be some days you feel like shutting the alarm off and going back to sleep, but many more where you feel more energized by the prospect of work than you ever thought possible!

This is a guest post from Alexandra Levit. Alexandra writes Water Cooler Wisdom, a career advice blog. Her new book, How’d You Score That Gig? A Guide to the Coolest Careers and How To Get Them, has just been published.