This article comes from Pete Leibman, an Ivy Exec Contributor.
Right now is the best time in history to get any job you want. Seriously.
Before discussing why this is true, let me address the first objection you may have: the economy.
You don’t need me to bombard you with stats about the recession. The media has already done more than enough of that. All I will say is this: How many jobs do you need to get?
One job! Not 1,000 jobs, not 100 jobs, not even 3 jobs. You just need one job. That’s it.
As obvious as this is, many people seem to forget this. If you are struggling right now, I’m not trying to make you feel badly. I understand that many talented people have been thrust into difficult situations in this recession due to circumstances out of their control. However, I want you to keep the economy in proper perspective. You don’t need to fix the economy. You just need to get one job. That’s all you should be thinking about.
Now that we got that out of the way, let me give you three reasons why right now is the best time ever to get any job you want:
- The world is more well-connected than it has ever been before. Facebook has over 800 million worldwide users, and LinkedIn has over 150 million worldwide users (both as of early 2012). By using these web sites, you can easily keep track of your personal and professional networks and even get automatic updates when people change jobs or careers. You can also access anyone’s entire employment history online and learn where they have worked in the past. Perhaps most importantly, you can see who your contacts know. Think about that for a second. You can literally see someone’s professional rolodex on LinkedIn. (As long as someone has not set their connections to private, you can click on the word “Connections” on someone’s profile summary, and you will be brought to a page that shows you everyone he knows.)
- There is more “insider information” publicly available than ever before. Through social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and You-Tube (among others), it’s easier than ever before to take an inside peek at employers, fields, and industries. For example, LinkedIn has over 1 million discussion groups. Through these information-rich sources, you have access to all prior discussion archives where you can gather industry insights that will prove immensely valuable during your networking or interviews. You can also connect with people all over the world (for free) in any organization, field, industry, or career path you could possibly imagine. In other words, you can literally become an “industry insider” without ever having worked in an industry.
- It’s never been easier to stand out (in a good way) as a job-seeker. There are no barriers to entry in being perceived as an expert these days. You can brand yourself as a valuable, proactive, unique candidate (again, for free) by demonstrating your knowledge or expertise through a blog, through You-Tube, through Twitter, through LinkedIn discussion groups, and so on. In addition, over 89% of employers used social media for recruiting purposes in 2011, and that number has surely increased by now. In other words, people who have the power to hire you (or refer you) are all over these web sites desperately looking for top talent. Job-seekers who embrace these tools can connect with and impress decision-makers who would have been virtually impossible to access just a few years ago.
Will it take hard work to land the job of your dreams right now? Of course. Is social media a magic bullet? Of course not. It’s just a tool that must be used correctly. However, there are unprecedented resources available to job-seekers who embrace the opportunities currently available.
I’m not the only person with an optimistic outlook. Here’s an abbreviated quote from the blog of Darren Hardy, New York Times Best-Selling Author and Publisher of Success Magazine.
“… the sea of changes we’ve experienced over the past few years have unearthed possibilities unlike anything ever seen before…everything — I mean, everything — is up for grabs. This, combined with recent technological innovations, has changed the game forever. Today, we are all wired directly to each other… The world has been made flat, and so has the playing field of opportunity. Fifty years from now your children and children’s children will look back with envy — wishing they were you, right here, right now, in 2012, when this new frontier was still unclaimed.”
You have 2 choices right now. You can join the masses and blame the economy if your career or job search is not where you want it to be, or you can embrace the opportunities in front of you due to recent technological innovation. Which perspective will you choose?
Pete Leibman, Founder of Dream Job Academy and Author of “I Got My Dream Job and So Can You,” has been featured on Fox, CBS, and CNN. For a free video series from Pete on how to get any job you want, visit http://www.PeteLeibman.com.
