You’Ve Gotta’ Believe! or What You Didn’T Know That You Knew About Job Search and Career Marketing: A Consumer’S Guide

By Ronald Douglas Bascombe

Youve Gotta' Believe!
You dont know what is going on (or what is going wrong). You have never had such a difficult time finding a new job. You have sent your resume out in response to advertised positions, posted it on job boards and company sites and have done direct mailings to companies that you were sure could use your talents. You've posted on job boards and social media, gone to job fairs, floated your resume out to recruiters and paid for your resume to be mass mailed, emailed or fax-blasted. With all of that effort, you have gotten little (if any) response and you are beginning to think that you no longer have the right stuff to make it in a changing work environment.

Now, if that sounds like you, then keep reading.

Every job seeker has several things in common. We have an infant belief that we can do anything that we see being done and the baby still is within us. Every one of us must make prioritized buying decisions when we shop for stuff. And there are activities that are common to our experiences that can apply to our methods of preparing, developing and sharing our stories in a positive manner. The consumers guide examines our personal perspectives, some of the misconceptions we have about job search and employment and provides a fresh, common sense approach for job seekers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543464986

Ronald Douglas Bascombe

About the Author Ronald Douglas Bascombe is a poet/writer who has been writing and performing his poetry for more than forty years. Born in Harlem, New York, Bascombe developed his early writing skill at Harlems Countee Cullen Public Library in a workshop led by writer and scholar Sonia Sanchez. He performed with the Cosmos Nucleus poetry performance group and served as journalist/editor-in-chief of the Sunday Morning Christian newspaper in New York City. He won first prize in poetry in the 1976 National Ossie Davis/Ruby Dee Write-On Competition sponsored by the National Black Network and has performed his childrens poetry in schools and libraries throughout the New York Metropolitan area. Listed with Poets and Writers, Rons poetry recently has been included in The Great American Poetry Show, Vl.1 and his letters to the editor and poetry have been published regularly in local newspapers. Bascombe was named the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Developments 2011James A. Ware Award for Excellence. He has been published under his own name as well as under Jayne Lyn Smythe and Oronde Lasana.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Ronald Douglas Bascombe.

ISBN:                     Softcover                        978-1-5434-6499-3

                               eBook                              978-1-5434-6498-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 12/04/2017

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

549551

I would like to

acknowledge and thank my friend and neighbor Sandrine Dupiton for helping me with proofreading and to my former colleague, James Franklin Marken who introduced me to career management through which I gained the insights that I share in this book. Thanks guys!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

I Believe We Are Born To Achieve

Wrestling with Misconceptions

Losing a job is a personal matter

Lay-off or Business Closing

Change of Leadership or Business Direction

I’m Outta’Here!

Hard work is rewarded

The most qualified person gets the job

Networking Is Asking People to Help Find a Job

Talking About Yourself is Boasting

Sharing Your Message

Getting Past a Sense of Worthlessness

Got Ketchup

More about our value

Job Search is Like …

Politics

Fishing

Farming

Great, what should I say?

The Three Ps: Preparation, passion, persistence

Introduction

Before I begin sharing, I want to make it plain that I believe that we were made to achieve and that each and every one of us was born to be a winner. And while becoming a winner is not instant pudding, not magic, doesn’t have the same exact formula for each of us, the single determining factor for being a winner is believing that we can be winners. Once it is in our heads, once we decide that, no matter what comes along, that is what we are going to be, then we keep at it (whatever it is that we are trying to accomplish) until we are.

If you want to be a winner,

you have got to see a winner.

You have got to look at yourself and say,

Yeah, me a winner!

And then you have to believe

that you were made to achieve.

You have to believe

that you were made to achieve.

You have to believe

that you were made to achieve

and from the very start

you had the gifts that you would need

to be a winner.

So, be a winner.

(copyright Ronald Douglas Bascombe 1997)

Now that I got that off of my chest and into your eyes and ears, let me paint a picture where you might be.

You don’t know what is going on (or what is going wrong). You have never had such a difficult time finding a new job. You have sent your resume out in response to advertised positions, posted it on job boards and company sites and have done direct mailings to companies that you were sure could use your talents. You’ve posted on job boards and social media, gone to job fairs, floated your resume out to recruiters and paid for your resume to be mass mailed, emailed or fax-blasted. With all of that effort, you have gotten little (if any) response and you are beginning to think that you no longer have the right stuff to make it in a changing work environment.

Now, if that sounds like you, then keep reading.

The first thing that you need to know is that looking for a job is marketing and sales. Sometimes, people hear those words and they begin to get uncomfortable. Marketing and Sales! They feel as though they don’t know enough about the first and don’t like doing the second.

But the truth is that, in a consumer society, we are involved in marketing and sales in one form or another almost every day. And we do it like it is second nature.

We make the kind of buying decisions that employers make, hinging our decisions on our business priorities including need, the price, the packaging, the brand, the reputation, the ingredients, the quantity and whether it is the right time for us or whether the product still has value.

Sometimes, we put ourselves in that last category. We wonder if we still have value to employers. Sometimes, becoming unemployed can take all the wind out of our sails.

You may have been doing a good job where you last worked. But things changed.

Maybe you found yourself under a new supervisor or manager who had a different management style than you were used to. Perhaps, that new leader had a different approach to meeting goals and you no longer fit into their concept of success. Your skills were no longer wanted. You were released.

The company for which you were working, got bought out, down-sized, decided to move somewhere else or just flat went out of business. It wasn’t your fault. You were doing a good job. But the change in their business meant a change in your business. You were laid off.

Perhaps, you realized that you were no longer able to be useful to the business. You were doing the best that you could but, more and more, the work you were doing wasn’t appreciated. You had to find another place where you could be productive and grow. So, you left.

After that, you found it difficult finding a meaningful job. All at once, the