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I’ve seen a few people posting that they’ve been able to land new jobs within the comments section on this site, and it really is amazing to see.
Special hat tip to MelKiperSr, as well. He’s a Marine who I came in touch with through this site. Mel got out of the USMC, went to school, completed some out-fucking-standing internships and now has a fantastic job at a great company in his desired location. Truly happy for him and if you haven’t congratulated this Leatherneck on a job well done, please do so. He’s the type of guy who would never ask for recognition even though he deserves it. Don’t thank me for my service, thank him for his. Bromance over.
As cool as that is, there are those who haven’t been able to find success yet. To y’all, I say this: stay hungry.
One of the reasons I initially became interested in the recruiting space was because of my own spectacular failures when it came to transitioning from the military. I took the first job put in front of me that paid well and allowed me to stay in my comfort zone (read: home town). Because I jumped at the first sloppy six that walked up to me, I completely and totally missed the hard ten that came in five minutes later. Before long, surprise-surprise, I found myself completely and totally unhappy and knew that I needed to get out.
Once I was dissatisfied with the six and began aiming for the ten, I found that the ten wouldn’t even give me the time of the day. The company that looked like a 100% fit for me on paper, in what I felt was a perfect role for me, didn’t even respond to my application on their website. This pissed me the fuck off, but I wasn’t completely surprised. The ten had lots of people after it and simply didn’t have the time to tell everyone “no.” Sure, I could have probably gotten an interview if I knew then what I know now, but the anger I initially felt after receiving no response from them or a number of other companies pushed me into the recruiting space. I was determined to both help the job-seeker tailor their resume and pitch, but to also provide them direct and timely feedback into the process. I knew how it felt to not hear back, and I never wanted someone else to feel that way.
As I found myself in my new role with my now second company after the military, I began pushing myself harder and harder. The company that I joined was a direct, yet smaller, competitor for the hard ten. A lot of the actions I took were not only to help Veterans find jobs, but I was also pushing myself to stick it to that ten as hard as I possibly could. Was this company basically me dating the ten’s slightly overweight best friend to get back at the one I really wanted? Maybe. I also knew that I could use this to put up some incredibly impressive numbers to not only make the ten jealous, but to also help a shit-load of former military land jobs in corporate America.
Honestly, writing for this website really helped me throughout this process. I knew going in that I would be a complete and total fraud if I couldn’t use my own advice that I was giving people week-after-week to help myself land a job. I knew that I couldn’t fail and having that in the back of my mind, I pushed myself that much harder in what was going to be my second chase after the hard ten.
After using LinkedIn, I began networking to anyone and everyone I could find who worked for my dream girl. Before long, my direct counterpart over there got me in the interview pipeline and I found myself flying out to the PNW for final round interviews. When I was on the ground up there, I soon found out that I wasn’t going to be interviewing for the job I deemed to be a perfect fit for me nine months ago. I was actually going to be interviewing for a job that entailed training and supervising the hundreds of people doing what I thought was my dream job. After countless hours of research and interview prep into the company, I smoked the interviews and got the job.
I’m not telling you this story as a way of bragging; I could care less about the number of people I work with. But rather, I tell you this story to tell you this: if you stay hungry, you can do way more than you ever thought could be possible. Rather than getting the ten, you can get the ten’s mom AND step-mom.
Don’t use your rejection from a company as a reason to sit around and feel sorry for yourself, use it as motivation to push yourself that much more. If you can, find out why you didn’t get the job you wanted. If you can’t find out from your recruiter or hiring manager, kick your browsing on LinkedIn to private and then do a quick search for people who are in the position you want at that company. Look at what they have that you don’t and then go figure out a way to get where you need to be. It may sound incredibly simple, but trust me, this actually works. 90% of people use their resumes on LinkedIn when describing their work experience (including me). If you can’t get the job, go find someone who did, and look at their shit. Looking at their shit can give you a VERY good idea of what the hiring managers at that company look for on a resume. It could be as simple as changing the wording of your resume to maybe getting an additional certification or two. If you want the job that badly, do some research and then bust your ass.
You can go into work at your miserable job and read PGP all day just trying to kill time, or you can go into your boring-ass job and commit to knocking that shit out of the park. Run up the scoreboard and your metrics a la the 2008 Oklahoma Sooners Football Team and force the NCAA to pick you over Texas (still bitter about that horse shit). Sitting around feeling sorry for yourself over a pint of Haagen-Dazs may feel good today, but if you want that ten to like you then eating that delicious tub of goodness is only going to add more miles for you to run yourself into shape. Throw that tub in the trash, slam some cold-brew, and go chase down that fucking ten.
If you truly want her bad enough, you’ll get her..
Image via Shutterstock
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Kiawah Island Strip Club
I'd rather be golfing. Seattle sucks so I write about that. Also work...ish in recruiting. Shoot your resume to kiawahislandstripclub@gmail.com for any and all job hunt questions.
Thanks for the shouts, KISC. You’re doing the Lord’s work.
Thank you sir for your service.
1. This was great motivation especially since the morning coffee thoughts has since worn off.
2. The stock photo guys nails creep me out.
If a company pisses you off just do what I do. Send a few tweets. Bing bong!
I really needed this today. My job search hasn’t been getting any better and it’s hard not to get discouraged after so many rejections. So thanks for the encouragement.
At least you’re not still scrambling for flare at Chotchkie’s
Underrated comment
Currently in the process of finding a whole new career. It’s all about who you know and your connections and then living up to the standards that you’ve led with. Shoot from the hip.
Good luck on the transition, TRJ. As a former educator myself, you’ll inevitably get the “why are you leaving teaching” question and the best answer is this: “Even though I love the job and working with the students every day, I realized I’m not 100% committed to the work and I don’t want to do that disservice to myself or the kids.”
It allows a fool-proof out without just saying, “The money sucks and high school students are moronic assholes.”
That’s better than “the education system is filled with a bunch of cucks who coddle these kids and pander to the parents.”
Creeping on LinkedIn for your dream job while at your boring-ass job. PGP
Just got a new job after a 2 month search. Keep at it team something will stick
This makes me very happy. Thanks for writing it.
Brb running through a brick wall
Six years in jobs that I hated because HR sucks your fucking soul out. Went out on a limb for a part time job to earn some extra cash, which led to a full-time sales opportunity. I took a pay cut to start closing deals and now I’m in operations and I love what I do.
It never hurts to say yes to an opportunity.