It’s An Employer’s Market

It is no longer an employee’s job market – it’s all about the employer. In this crazy economy, employers are laying people off in record numbers without a whole lot of thought and certainly no guilt or compassion. So, for those of you who are job seekers, looking for a job, hoping for a job, you have to understand that unless you can differentiate yourself from the competition you will be in the job market for a while. Unless you can market yourself as a problem solver for someones organization, rather than a problem – you will continue to be looking for a job.

I met a young lady earlier this week at the job fair I worked. She was there, wandering through the various rooms and stopping at the tables, looking rather bothered to be there, because she needs a job. Yet she was emitting all over the place. Her body language, her glare as she spoke to me about doing what I was doing, shouted “I don’t want to work”, “I don’t want to be here” and “I don’t want to be with people”. Yet, there she was in desperate need of a job.

As she allowed me the opportunity to review her resume and speak to her about her job search, I knew she was unemployable in this market. I told her to her face, “no one has to hire you. And no one will hire you as long as you emit to the world that you don’t want to work.” She has an excellent resume, strong skills, but her disdain for employment was evident. She was dripping.

It is no longer an employee’s market – it is an employer’s market! As a result, employers don’t have to hire bad attitudes, arrogance, terminations for cause, and the list goes on. If you fall into one of these categories, it is your responsibility to demonstrate your marketability. The young lady I met wants to be an entrepreneur. Period. She doesn’t want to work for someone else, and she doesn’t want to be around people. These are her words. If that is how you feel about being in the market for a job right now, I will tell you the same thing I told her, No One Has to Hire You!

If you need to work but you don’t want to work for someone else, than you have work to do within yourself before you present yourself to a hiring manager. Get your head on straight. Get your hear right. Make a decision to go back to work – not under duress, but because it is what you need to do right now for yourself, for your family or for whatever reason motivates you. Give yourself a time frame for working so that it doesn’t feel like the decision is forever. If you need to go back to work for a season, make that clear in your head before you begin pursuing any job opportunities. Give yourself fully to the job search once you are ready to do it for the right reasons. Otherwise, be prepared for a long search and lots of questions about why people aren’t hiring you. It starts with the person in the mirror. Attitude matters today along with skills and abilities.

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