Are You Taking Advantage of Every Opportunity in Your Job Search?

I have a wonderful client I have worked with on two occasions but we keep in touch with emails a few times a year to see how each other is doing. He is an accountant working in the banking industry and understandably came back to me 2 ½ years after he first hired me, to update his resume. We decided to target a broader scope than just the banking and finance industry since it was getting hit pretty hard economically and there were layoffs everywhere.

We updated his resume, highlighted his new achievements and focused on his accounting expertise instead, avoiding terms synonymous with the banking industry.

Three weeks after we had completed his resume he called to say his job search had been curtailed because his father, who commutes between Michigan and Arizona had fallen in Tucson and my client had been out west for the past 2 weeks getting his father settled into a nursing home while he recovered. On his way home to Michigan he sat on the plane with a man who was a district manager from Ohio for a short and long-term healthcare facility, that was in the process of opening 3 centers in Southeast Michigan.

By the end of the flight he had been interviewed and offered a position to set up the accounting functions for the Michigan expansion project. His new position would be starting in one month. Perfect timing, it would give his father time to heal and hopefully be able to be transferred to a recovery facility in Michigan; one to which he would now be working.

Networking and opportunities can show up anywhere and anytime. Make sure you are ready now and always by having a prepared resume, contact or networking cards with your contact information, and be willing to talk with others you meet during your day. Find out how you can be of help to them and how they might just be the contact you’ve been looking for.

Shine On!