How to Job Hunt the Right Way: Use Constraints

We have more stuff today than ever before in human history. More food. More drinkable water. More usable energy. And of course, more Pokémon.

We produce all this stuff with unprecedented efficiency and scale. But we’re still light years away from the science fiction world where everyone shares the benefits of our mega-abundance. So we still use money to decide who starves and who has solid gold toilets, cocaine, and lobbyists.

How do you get money? First and foremost, you inherit it. If that doesn’t work, you might luck into being one of the first entrepreneurs on the ground floor of an explosive new industry. If that doesn’t work, maybe you can invest intelligently. But in the real world, 99.99% of us never make much money except by having a job. And finding a job is no easy feat.

The Paradox of Job Hunting

Job hunting is a paradox. It’s a skill, which means you get better with practice. But getting good at job hunting may be a signal of failure. If you do it over and over, that means you aren’t actually finding jobs that are a good match, so you are just learning bad habits. 

If you find great jobs, then you don’t job hunt very much, so unless you just happened to spontaneously be good at it, you don’t get good at it. As a result, most people who are thrown into a job hunt flail around and don’t really know what to do.

I spent several years doing career and job coaching a few days a month at Harvard Business School and a curious pattern emerged.

4 Criteria of Job Hunting

Four themes kept coming up. These themes limited and expanded peoples’ job searches:

1. Industry. Some job hunters want a particular industry. “I don’t care what the job is, as long as it’s in entertainment.” “I’ve been passionate about video games my entire life. How can I get into the game industry?” “Medicine is my calling! I want to work in healthcare!”  
2. Job. Some people want a particular job. “I don’t care what industry, I just want to do marketing.” “I’m a programmer. Put me in a company and let me program.” “Event planning is my specialty! I’ll do it for anyone who will hire me.”   
3. Geography. For others, it’s all about location, location, location. “I don’t care what I do, as long as it’s in London. That’s the only place I can thrive!” “Being close to nature in the wilderness is what’s most important for me.” “My family is in New York; I have to be in New York!” “My family is in New York; I have to be in Los Angeles!”   
4. Culture or company. And lastly, sometimes what’s most important is the culture, values, or work environment. “I want to work with smart, supportive people.” “I want my pay to be based on the measurable results I produce.” “I want to work somewhere with lots of big windows. And candy. Gummy bears, specifically.”

Freedom is Paralyzing

Some job hunters are pretty flexible. Too flexible. “I’ll do anything where they can use my skills. I’m not really wedded to anything in particular.” “I want a job in high tech.” “I want a job doing fulfillment.” “I want a job with a relaxed work environment.”

With flexibility like this, they may as well put a big stamp on their head that says “I love working the cash register!” because their desires are too broad. No employer wakes up thinking, “today I need to hire someone who wants a job in high tech.” Too much flexibility is dangerous.

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Preferences Can Be a Straitjacket

Caring about too many specific things is dangerous, too. “I want to work in the San Francisco office of Google, the famous high-tech company. I want to design sexy packaging for their latest product with a team of smart people between the ages of 24 and 48.3.” 

Limits help your job search.

Yeah, good luck with that. If you have specific desires for all four, your job search becomes so narrow that nothing will satisfy you. Maybe you’ll find that job. If so, great! You’ll be flying high. 

But if you don’t, your job hunt will be over quickly. And now that we’re dismantling the social safety net, that means debtor’s prison. Next, a stint of ever-more-desperate alcohol-fueled crimes, ultimately leading you to die alone in a gutter, smelling of Miller Lite. Some people say there could be worse fates, but is that really a bet you want to take?

Choose Two Job Criteria (Any Two)

The sweet spot seems to be in the choosing of two areas. That’s enough to help you create a specific plan, but not enough to become a roadblock.

“I want a job in high tech in Chicago.” Now you know to start going to high tech networking events in Chicago. Get to know people, learn what they need, and take whatever job and company culture you can find.

“I want a job designing physical products with a great company culture.” Now you can look through job listings for product design jobs, and then vet the companies using a site like Glassdoor.com to decide where you want to apply.

Make Up a Choice (If Need Be)

What if you genuinely don’t care about location, job, geography, or culture? Pick two anyway. Be arbitrary. Then start your job hunt with those two constraints. It will make things way easier.

After several weeks, if you have worked your butt off and haven’t found a job matching your two arbitrary criteria, then choose two different criteria and try again.

Whether your preferences are heartfelt, or whether you just adopt them to help narrow your focus, limits help your job search.

If you’re starting a job hunt, be methodical. List out your desired industry, job, culture, and geography. If you have preferences for 3 or 4, loosen up those requirements a bit. If you have preferences for none or one, arbitrarily choose one of the other elements to use as a filter.

Once you’ve got two solid decisions made, use those to guide your job search. It will be specific enough to identify next steps, and general enough to allow flexibility. If you put in the effort and don’t have luck, change around the two criteria you use until you find what works for you. Once you’re gainfully employed, you can breath a long sigh of relief. Hopefully, with a good job, you won’t have to job hunt often enough to get good at it.

I’m Stever Robbins. If you have projects that are stalled or taking too long, check out my “Get-it-Done Groups” accountability groups. Learn more at http://SteverRobbins.com . 

Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!