Change your perspective: look from another angle

Back to the berry patch!

You may have read my 4th of July reflections while raspberry picking. Well, the berries are not going away. I have been helping to pick my father-in-law’s (Bob) patch since July 3 and am barely keeping up with the crop. The patch is important to him and since at 88, he can’t get in there any more to pick, I am helping my husband try to keep up with the overwhelming and rapid growth of berries.

I am a big fan of fruit smoothies so the berries are the main ingredient in my smoothies right now and that keeps me motivated to keep picking.

All that time in the berry patch gives me plenty of time to think.

Today I was remembering Bob’s advice to not forget to look low. When I was younger, I tended to pick rapidly and not always listen to his advice. The look low advice meant crawling around and finding the hidden fruit. At this point, I am being more thorough and really checking for the low-hanging but hidden fruit.

Where are the jobs?

As job seekers, it may seem that all the jobs should be out there on Monster or Career Builder or the dozens of other job boards out there. I do still have several boards I recommend to clients, Indeed.com says it has 915,107 jobs in the last 7 days and LinkUp.com is known to be one of the purest job boards out there. G.L. Hoffman, the serial entrepreneur who created LinkUp makes sure it is up-to-date.

Ignite your job search with Informational Interviewing

But even using those sources is still gathering from the higher branches. If you are looking for low-hanging or hidden jobs, you need to be informational interviewing with people from companies that you believe fit your qualifications and you need to be clearing your head of the traditional places to look and changing your perspective.

I tell my clients to think about what they would really like to do, not necessarily what they have been doing before but jobs that they would enjoy and they have the skills to do. Then look for those jobs. Using LinkedIn’s search engine can lead to companies you may not have thought of before.

Spearhead your search by using the back door

I spoke of back door job searching before but it is so important to keep talking about it. Job seekers seem more and more disillusioned even though we are seeing recovery bit by bit. The current generation hasn’t seen this level of frustration in the work place before. The generation that lived through the Great Depression spent the rest of their lives wondering if there would be another one.

Even though current generations lived through recessions before, the global economic challenges have never hit home quite as broadly as this particular challenge that started in late 2007. Many job seekers are tired, disillusioned, and frustrated.

Create a spark by using #HireFriday

They look for hope and technology innovations like #HireFriday, give them another avenue but even there the frustration is evident as people keep hoping that their posts will catch the attention of the next employer.

Pushing through the disillusionment, fighting the depression, and looking for the hidden fruit will end up with a reward. But it takes perseverance to keep going. See if you can find a way to change your perspective and look from another angle, this might yield your next position or role.