The key to success is staying healthy in mind and body
The new buzzword in these bewildering times of economic recession is “Toxic”. The banks have toxic assets and toxic debts, there are toxic mortgages and just about anything you can think of in financial terms may be toxic. And all these are in addition to the regular toxic things in our environment such as toxic waste and toxic dumps and toxic smoke and all sorts of other toxic goings on. And now toxic swine flu! The trick is to stay toxic-free, both in body and mind.
Toxic unemployment
Unemployment is toxic right now as well and the answer to finding a job is an anti-toxin. The anti-toxin is simple – it’s being sane and healthy in mind and body. There is absolutely no point in arriving for an interview in a pair of toxic jeans, the ones with the patches and the holes and that tee-shirt you have been wearing all week and which is now highly toxic.
That fatal first impression
It is almost impossible to undo a first impression. That’s the one that’s engraved in stone. And no potential employer will give you a second chance when the position you applied for has a waiting line that goes around the block.
Take a loan
Do yourself a favor. Take a Personal Loan and go downtown and buy yourself a modest, quiet looking suit, white shirt and reasonable tie, polish you shoes or find a pair that hasn’t got writing and red racing stripes on them and go to your interview looking like a regular human being. Green spiked hair is out, chewing gum is out and cigarettes are definitely out.
Present yourself confidently and lucidly, wear a smile and be one hundred percent honest. There is no point in telling the guy behind the desk that you have 10 years actuarial experience when you don’t know what an actuary does – you will be found out in the first 4 seconds of your job.
Remember the competition
The worse the financial crisis, the tougher the competition is for jobs. I hear in the marketplace that every ad for a job opening brings hundreds and sometimes thousands of responses. Employers become quite brutal in such a market. The price drops and the conditions get thinner and thinner. Perks disappear. The number of vacation days drop.
There is some good news
The good news is that there is plenty of good and free information and assistance available to help you find your next job. The bad news is that it will take time to sift through it all to find what works for you. The place is the internet and you will require some energy for the search. On the other hand you will be sitting in one place and not out in the traffic and trudging from one interview to another.
Another job-seeking resource
This may be the most popular of all job-hunting resources: It is your friends, your school or college’s career center or placement office, members of your church, former co-workers, your local government, your federal government, one of the independent job hunt support groups, career counselors, and/or a job search coach. Any of these people can help you enormously.
They will help you find resources and contacts, keep your spirits up, give you ideas, help you explore your options and give you an anti-toxin shot in the arm when you need one.
