Talagy Blog

I Need a Job!  What Else Can I Do?

If you’ve been out of work for a while, by now you’ve gotten a lot of advice about how to find a job in this economy.  You know that getting a job is a full-time job and you’ve been spending every waking minute looking.  You know how to write a resume that wins awards.  You use social networking sites—and ensure that your crazy uncle does not post that New Year’s photo on Facebook.  You’ve got the interviewing thing down cold—from what to wear to what questions to ask.  But you can’t get an interview, never mind a full-time job.  You’re discouraged and starting to feel a little bit nuts.  You know you’re not alone, but that isn’t really much help in paying the mortgage.  What else should you do?

The thing is, doing all the right things won’t actually ensure you find a full-time job if there just aren’t any available today that match your abilities.  Economists just pushed back their expectations for job growth to the second quarter of 2010.  That means that you—along with all of your friends and neighbors who form the ranks of today’s unemployed—must be open to non-traditional work options you may never before have considered.

So if the clock is ticking on your unemployment checks and you’re discouraged, try a new approach.  After all, didn’t Einstein define insanity as doing the same things over and over while expecting different results?  STOP THE INSANITY on your job search and try a new approach.  Some ideas:

• Part-Time Work:  Put together a couple of part-time opportunities which create multiple income streams that combine to make a living…for now.  Don’t worry about what this will look like on your resume “later”.  I predict that employers of the future will view you as a hard worker for “being creative” during the deepest recession in decades.  Working creatively will demonstrate that you are not someone who just gives up in the face of adversity.
• At-Home Options:  Consider work-at-home opportunities, but be very careful about what you commit to and who you are working for as scams abound.  Try to find jobs in inside sales or telemarketing—jobs that create revenue for companies and allow you to get in on the ground floor and show how good you are.
• Start Your Own Gig:  Evaluate the possibility of self-employment in your field of expertise.  See if you can find others with similar or complementary skills and share networks.  Contact former colleagues and offer to do what you do best as a contractor—perhaps even at a reduced rate initially.  Give them your best work without forcing them to put you on payroll.  Remember that entering the field of contract or consulting work on your own requires you to start a bona-fide business complete with registration, licensing, and insurance – something you will need to ensure is done well on your own.
• Explore Contract or Temporary Work:  Provide those same contract or temporary services via an employment firm like Talagy which will take care of all of the employment legalities for you and even offers benefits after a few months on the job.  These firms have already got great networks and know who is actually looking for someone with your skills to join them on a part-time, temporary, or project basis.  Let us do the work for you!

After considering all of these alternatives, you may conclude that your fastest route to a paycheck is very likely through an employment agency like Talagy.  Why?  As the chart below illustrates, when we enter an economic downturn, the first thing organizations do is release their contractors and temporary workers because it’s more efficient than paying costly severances and unemployment benefits associated with full-time employee layoffs.  Conversely, as soon as the economy picks up the first thing those same firms do is staff up contractors and temporary workers in order to meet the increasing demands of their businesses without adding to their full-time payroll obligations.  They remain apprehensive about adding full-time headcount until they’re confident the good times will continue – which is why unemployment is a “lagging indicator” of economic growth.

Let me share some good news with you, my hardworking friend.  Things in the contractor and temporary workforce are starting to heat up.  Our clients are getting busier, we are seeing some convincing growth in our business, and our phones are ringing.  Hang in there and you’ll be setting your alarm for work again before you know it!

-Amy McGeorge, CEO

 

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