Beyond the Résumé: What Job Seekers Need Right Now – Part One

This is the first post in a two-part series.

Looking for work is tough right now, and we know this not just from the news headlines, LinkedIn posts and labour market data we digest. Our most important source of information comes from the conversations we have with job seekers every day.

Recently, I looked back through some of my coaching session notes, curious about the story these told. Buried among the résumé advice, LinkedIn strategies, interview preparation, and activities to complete before our next meeting were clues about what job seekers struggle with most.

They weren’t just asking, “Where are the jobs right now – why can’t I find them?” (and for them, it really does feel like they are hidden and out of reach). If I explored what was underneath this question, what they were really asking was, “What do I want? Am I qualified? Who can I ask for help? Am I doing enough? How long can I keep doing this?”

Those questions tell us a lot about what job seekers need from us right now. From my client notes, five key patterns emerged:

For clients contemplating a career change (whether they have been restructured or are realizing their current work doesn’t align with their career priorities), there can be enormous pressure to figure out what comes next. And with that pressure comes urgency (in fact, this was a big takeaway for me from CPC’s Certified Future Strategist program). They may be peppering you with questions in their coaching sessions, like “What should I do? What am I qualified for? Do I need another credential? What if I make the wrong choice?” 

That pressure can keep people stuck in their heads, trying to think their way to the perfect answer, or rushing into a decision that isn’t aligned with their career priorities.

Start clients with reflection. Explore what gives the client energy, what drains them, what they want more of, what meaningful work means to them and what kinds of problems they enjoy solving. Then, help them move from reflection to evidence gathering. Encourage informational conversations with people doing work they’re curious about, work with them to examine job postings to understand what the work actually involves, and create small career “experiments” that allow clients to experience an aspect of a potential career before making a big commitment.

Rather than asking, “Is this the right career for me?”, help clients ask, “What can I do to learn whether this could be a good fit?”

We all see it: many job seekers spend most of their search time applying to jobs online. And it’s no surprise: applying feels productive, and it’s a job-search strategy that is familiar (especially for clients who haven’t needed to look for work for a long time). It feels good to submit an application – it’s one thing off the job search “to-do” list.

Relationship-building and outreach are less predictable. It requires reaching out to another human without knowing what will happen next. It feels uncertain, uncomfortable, and clunky for someone who has never needed to reach out to their network to get their resume into the right hands or get a conversation at a company of interest. Yet outreach is the largest part of a job search, unlocking more interviews and offers than any cold application can.

Do a job-search “audit” with your client to examine where they’re actually spending their job-search time, especially if they are frustrated with how their search is progressing. If most of a client’s effort is going toward online applications, help them gradually shift some of that time toward relationship-building. Work with them to identify organizations they want to explore. Look through their first- and second-degree connections together, and help them determine why they want to speak with someone, what they hope to learn and how they’ll make the ask.

To make this activity accessible, start with a first small step: one person, one message, one conversation.

Even when job seekers understand the value of networking, another barrier often appears: thoughts of ”I haven’t spoken to that person in years. Why would they want to help me? What if they don’t respond? I don’t want them to think I’m asking for a job.”Job seekers are already dealing with rejection, so asking someone else for help can feel extra vulnerable and like one more opportunity to hear “no.”

Address the discomfort first, rather than jumping immediately to networking tactics, to help your client feel seen and understood. Reframe networking as “research through conversation,” which can make outreach more accessible (as we have conversations every day, sometimes even with people we don’t know).  Start with warmer relationships, like 1st-degree connections, and move to 2nd-degree connections (and others) once they have developed the “muscle” for these conversations. Help clients prepare and provide context for why they’re reaching out and make a clear, manageable call to action, usually asking for time, information or insight rather than a job. It may help to role-play the first conversation and help them develop questions so they feel prepared.

And a big one: encourage clients to finish conversations by asking: “Who else do you think I should speak with?” Encourage them not to decide in advance that someone won’t help before they’ve had a chance to say yes. I build on these strategies in a chapter of my book Cultivating Career Growth: Navigating Transitions with Purpose.

These are just a few of the challenges job seekers are experiencing right now. Stay tuned for part two, where I will share more challenges and how we can help.

– By Michelle Schafer –

Written in collaboration with ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, based on the author’s original ideas. Image generated using ChatGPT.