A resilient job search

Greg Wyatt • February 27, 2024

At the start of unexpected job search, a natural inclination is to go out all guns blazing.

Update the CV, hit the job boards, contact relevant agencies, network, writing content on LinkedIn.

If you are lucky, or the market allows, this can land you suitable employment quickly enough.

But, for many a job search isn’t so simple. It can be long and drawn out, filled with bad experiences no one deserves, and where every rejection can take a piece away from you.

It can be easy to take that on your own shoulders, lose the drive to keep going and even to burn out.

What can we do to reduce the odds of that happening?

Resilience is an odd term - the ability to bounce back from difficult situations.

It’s not a quality we should want to have to have on a personal level.

But at a strategic level, it’s crucial to long-term success, without losing out on short-term opportunities.

How can you make your job search resilient?

I first came across the Stockdale Paradox during the first part of the pandemic.

It’s the notion that we should face the reality of our situation, no matter how harsh, so that we can establish the right plan to get through it, without losing optimism that we will prevail.

Coined by Jim Collins in Good to Great, exploring the life of Admiral James Stockdale, it is a characteristic found in many successful CEOs.

And you are the CEO of your job search.

You can read more about the Stockdale Paradox here.

This principle is the heart of a resilient job search, and it has three components

- Face the reality of our situation, no matter how harsh

- Establish the right sustainable plan

- Keep the faith that you will get through it

Which is what we will look at in the next three sections.

Part 1

“Facing reality” has a number of practical components, with elements you can control and those you cannot.

1/ Your role has been made redundant, not you.

Most redundancies are led by corporate strategy, not because of individual performance.

It’s something that has happened to you - it is not who you are, and does not predict what will happen next.

Career grief is a necessary process, to help you separate from what may be an entrenched professional identity. Feel your feelings so you can process them and find clarity.

2/ The market has a significant part to play in how easy it is secure a role.

For example, while the TA market is improving, there remain a greater number of out of work TA people than vacancies available.

What is the truth of your area of the market, and how should this inform your strategy?

Talk to fellow jobseekers, peers, people with hiring authority, recruiters - anyone that might give you insight into what’s going on in your specific domain.

If there are no jobs to be had, this may be a difficult fact to absorb, but how else can you therefore meet your own needs?

3/ Who are you?

Everyone has a different situation, challenges, financial commitments, aspirations, strengths and weaknesses.

Your career is built from successful roles, their experiences, the part you played and your achievements. Yours skills and qualifications.

Define these clearly and don’t lose sight of them. These show who you are and how you can help, not your situation.

A great reminder is to ask your peers and former colleagues what they think of you. Ask for a LinkedIn recommendation.

4/ What does the future look like?

While we hope a job search is a short term activity, it’s healthy to visualise what may happen if it isn’t.

What does your future look like if you are unemployed in six months? Or even longer?

What are the steps you can take now that reduce the odds of this happening?

If you have a financial crunch imminent, could securing alternative employment in the short-term be a good move?

Make an affordability plan now, and budget out in advance. How can you stretch out your finances?

A mortgage break, jobseeker allowance, universal credit, interest free credit cards - every little may help.

I would have no qualms over stacking shelves in the evenings if it secured my family’s finances a little longer.

Negative visualisation is an important aspect of Stoicism and managing your expectations.

5/ What are the rules of the game?

Employer and agency recruitment is often a disaster zone for candidates in this market.

I’ve had so many conversations with job seekers about how surprised they were about:

  • being ghosted

  • having jobs pulled

  • lowball salaries

  • discrimination

You can probably tell me your experiences.

It’s a shame you should expect that as business as usual, but we are where we are.

Even when you know to have low expectations, it’s helpful to understand how ATSs actually work, how to use job boards effectively, how recruiters work.

That’s what this series is about - check out the archive and subscribe if you’ll benefit.

What are the rules of the game, and what can you do to get those rules working for you?

6/ What are the routes available to you in finding a job?

In the same way everyone is different, so to are the means in which you can find a job.

For some people, there is little point spending time on job boards, it’s all about networking.

If you happen to be in a skill short discipline, they are great, but then you probably aren’t reading this.

These principles, and more, are your reality. Learn the ropes then make a plan.

Part 2

Making a sustainable plan involves a number of principles.

It’s true that looking for work can feel like a full-time job, but it’s more like running your own business. You are accountable for everything, no one tells you what to do, and you have to fit it in around the rest of your life.

Keeping a job search sustainable means you can keep applying the same actions over a longer period of time.

Perhaps you’ll get a job next week, but if you don’t, you have to find a way to keep going.

1/ Zone of control

Separate what you have control over (your thoughts, feelings, messaging and actions) from what you can’t (everything else).

It’s futile worrying about tomorrow (which will come soon enough) or about things out of our control, so why waste energy?

Easier said than done, of course.

But the decisions others make on you are out of your control.

The decision to answer a call, read your application, make you an offer, ghost you - these aren’t down to you.

Instead, focus on the steps you do have control over:

Your CV, which adverts to apply to and how, how you follow up, how you network.

2/ Detachment from outcome

It’s really easy to get hung up on any particular outcome, to the extent it disenables you from taking other action.

Especially in a tough job search.

But outcomes which are out of your control have no say in the steps you should be taking.

If you are waiting for a job offer, that’s the time to put the foot down and use that positive energy with further job search actions.

Otherwise, what happens if that offer doesn’t come through?

All too common I’m afraid, when you have to start from square one with your confidence trampled on.

Besides, anyone who has negotiated will know the best negotiators are those who can walk away because the outcome doesn’t affect them.

3/ It’s about time

Plan your week out ahead - what is the best use of your time, given what you have available?

Don’t lose time to make work - those wing and a prayer applications or pretending that scrolling and commenting on LinkedIn is networking.

Do be intentional and accountable.

Do plan breaks in.

Do replace what was your commute with solitary time, whether a walk, other exercise or a sudoku.

Don't skimp on life's small pleasures either.

Don’t let job search time merge with non-job search time.

4/ Make a plan

Fail to plan, plan to fail. Make a plan at the start, and course correct when you need to.

5/ Job search funnel

Imagine your job search is a funnel where every activity that goes in will eventually come up the other side in the form of your next job.

You need to fill it with an appropriate mix of short-term, medium-term and long-term activity.

The temptation is to focus on the short-term and neglect the others because you need a job now.

Remember that section above about negative visualisation?

If you are out of work in six months, what are the long-term activities you should be doing now that might pay off then?

Do them sustainably now.

Writing content, door knocking, constructive networking, and keeping in touch. These are activities for the future you may regret not doing.

6/ The other bits

  • Eliminate negative self-talk. How you talk to yourself informs how you come across

  • Look after yourself, mind and body, exercise and diet

  • Set up a networking group with fellow job seekers in a similar space. Keep in touch, check in on each other, share stories, keep each other sane, keep each other accountable

  • Can charities help you with any challenge you are facing?

  • Ask for help when you need it

Part 3

Maintain hope that you will prevail.

While we can’t control the outside world, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The market can and will improve, and you might find yourself offered the perfect job next week when you have nothing in view now.

When I do job seeker calls, with a week’s lead time, around 10% of them are cancelled for this very reason.

It’s you who will prevail.

Perhaps your career will look different.

Perhaps you’ll decide to pivot.

Making a choice for the right reasons is a brave thing to do.

You should never be ashamed about your situation or in asking for help.

You don’t have to feel you need resilience to keep going. It’s okay to feel crap about what’s happening, and if you need a break, take it, so that you can seize the opportunities that do come up.

Before I let you go, may I ask that if you find this newsletter or this edition helpful, please share it with fellow job seekers.

Share it in a LinkedIn post or by DM. I’m keen to help as many people as possible, and I’m grateful for your help in spreading the word.

Go get ‘em.

Regards,

Greg

Jump the shark. A Recruitment AiDE, pt 13

By Greg Wyatt • January 29, 2026
May 2023 You’ve heard the phrase, I take it – “jump the shark”? It’s the moment when one surprising or absurd experience can indicate a rapid descent into rubbishness and obscurity. When it’s time to get off the bus. Typically in media. Jumping the Shark comes from an episode of Happy Days in which the Fonz does a water ski jump over a shark. 👈 Aaaaay. 👉 A sign creators have run out of ideas, or can’t be bothered to come up with fresh ones. In movies, sequelitis is a good example of this – an unnecessary sequel done to make some cash, in the hope the audience doesn’t care about its quality. Sometimes they become dead horses to flog, such as the missteps that are any Terminator film after 2. It’s an issue that can lead to consumers abandoning what they were doing, with such a precipitous drop in engagement that the thing itself is then cancelled. Partly because of breaking trust in what was expected to happen next. And because it’s a sign that the disbelief that was temporarily suspended has come crashing down. If you don’t believe that your current poor experience will lead to further, better experiences, why would you bother? Once you’ve had your fingers burnt, how hard is it to find that trust in similar experiences? It doesn’t have to be a single vein of experience for all to be affected. Watch one dodgy superhero movie and how does it whet your appetite for the next? You didn’t see The Eternals? Lucky you. Or how about that time we had really bad service at Café Rouge, a sign of new management that didn’t care, and we never went again? Just me? Did they sauter par-dessus le requin? Here’s the rub – it matters less that these experiences have jumped the shark. It matters more what the experience means for expectation. So it is in candidate experience. It’s not just the experience you provide that tempers expectations – it’s the cumulated experience of other processes that creates an assumption of what might be expected of yours. If you’re starting from a low trust point, what will it take for your process to ‘jump the shark’ and lose, not just an engaged audience, but those brilliant candidates that might only have considered talking to you if their experience hadn’t been off-putting? Not fair, is it, that the experience provided by other poor recruitment processes might affect what people expect of yours? Their experiences aren’t in your control, the experience you provide is. Of my 700 or so calls with exec job seekers, since The Pandemic: Lockdown Pt 1, many described the candidate experience touchpoints that led to them deciding not to proceed with an application. These were calls that were purely about job search strategy, and not people I could place. However, one benefit for me is that they are the Gemba , and I get to hear their direct experiences outside of my recruitment processes. Experiences such as - ‘£Competitive salary’ in an advert or DM, which they know full well means a lowball offer every time, because it happened to them once or twice, or perhaps it was just a LinkedIn post they read. Maybe it isn’t your problem at all, maybe your £competitive is upper 1% - how does their experience inform their assumptions? Or when adverts lend ambiguity to generic words, what meaning do they find, no matter how far from the truth? How the arrogance of a one-sided interview process affects their interest. The apparent narcissism in many outreaches in recruitment (unamazing, isn’t it, that bad outreach can close doors, rather than open them). Those ATS ‘duplicate your CV’ data entry beasts? Fool me once… Instances that are the catalysts for them withdrawing. I’d find myself telling them to look past these experiences, because a poor process can hide a good job. It’s a common theme in my jobseeker posts, such as a recent one offering a counterpoint to the virality that is “COVER LETTERS DON’T M4TT£R agree?” Experiences that may not be meant by the employer, or even thought of as necessarily bad, yet are drivers for decisions and behaviour. I can only appeal to these job seekers through my posts and calls. What about those other jobseekers who I’m not aware of, who’ve only experienced nonsense advice? What about those people who aren’t jobseekers? What about those people who think they love their roles? What about all those great candidates who won’t put up with bad experiences? The more sceptical they are, and the further they are from the need for a new role, the less bullshit they’ll put up with. What happens when an otherwise acceptable process presents something unpalatable? Might this jumping the shark mean they go no further? Every time the experience you provide doesn’t put their needs front and centre or if it’s correlated to their bad experiences…. these can prevent otherwise willing candidates from progressing with your process, whether that’s an advert they don’t apply to, a job they don’t start, or everything in between. Decisions that may stem from false assumptions of what a bad experience will mean. Instead, look to these ‘bad experience’ touchpoints as opportunities to do better: instead of £competitive, either state a salary or a legitimate reason why you can’t disclose salary (e.g. “see below” if limited by a job board field and “we negotiate a fair salary based on the contribution of the successful candidate, and don’t want to limit compensation by a band”) instead of a 1-way interrogation… an interview instead of radio silence when there’s no news - an update to say there’s no update, and ‘How are things with you by the way?’ instead of Apply Now via our Applicant Torture Sadistificator, ‘drop me a line if you have any questions’ or ‘don’t worry if you don’t have an updated CV - we’ll sort that later’. Opportunity from adversity. And why you can look at bad experiences other processes provide as a chance to do better. With the benefit that, if you eliminate poor experience, you'll lose fewer candidates unnecessarily, including those ideal ones you never knew about. Bad experiences are the yin to good experience’s yang and both are key parts of the E that is Experience in the AIDE framework. The good is for next time. Thanks for reading.  Regards, Greg

How To Network For A Job - Jobseeker Basics XIV

By Greg Wyatt • January 26, 2026
The following is Chapter 42 in A Career Breakdown Kit (2026) . In a sense it's a microcosm of how any commercial activity can see a better return - which is to put the needs of the person you are appealing to above your own. It feels counterintuitive, especially when you have a burning need, but you can see the problem of NOT doing this simply by looking at 99% of job adverts: We are. We need. We want. What you'll do for us. What you might get in return. Capped off by the classic "don't call us, we'll call you." If you didn't need a job, how would you respond to that kind of advert? In the same vein, if you want networking to pay off, how will your contact's life improve by your contact? What's in it for them? 42 - How to network for a job Who are the two types of people you remember at networking events? For me two types stand out. One will be the instant pitch networker. This might work if you happen to be in need right now of what they have to offer or if mutual selling is your goal. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this but it’s a selling activity pretending to be networking. If you want to sell, go and overtly sell rather than disguise it with subterfuge. Lest we mark your face and avoid you where possible in future. The second is the one who gets to know you, shows interest and tries to add to your experience. You share ideas, and there’s no push to buy something. They believe that through building the relationship when you have a problem they can solve, you’ll think to go to them. It’s a relationship built on reciprocity. One where if you always build something together there is reason to keep in touch. And where the outcome is what you need if the right elements come together: right person, right time, right message, right place, right offering, right price. Job search networking is no different. The purpose of networking in a job search is to build a network where you are seen as a go-to solution should a suitable problem come up. In this case the problem you solve is a vacancy. Either because your active network is recruiting, or because they advocate for you when someone they know is recruiting. It is always a two-way conversation you both benefit from. Knowledge sharing, sounding board, see how you’re doing - because of what the relationship brings to you both. It is not contacting someone only to ask for a job or a recommendation. A one-way conversation that relies on lucky timing. That second approach can be effective as a type of direct sales rather than networking. If you get it wrong it may even work against you. How would you feel if someone asked to network with you, when it became clear they want you to do something for them? You might get lucky and network with someone who is recruiting now - more likely is that you nurture that relationship over time. If your goal is only to ask for help each networking opportunity will have a low chance of success. While if your goal is to nurture a relationship that may produce a lead, you’ll only have constructive outcomes. This makes it sensible to start by building a network with people that already know you: Former direct colleagues and company colleagues Industry leaders and peers Recruiters you have employed or applied through Don’t forget the friends you aren’t in regular touch with - there is no shame in being out of work and it would be a shame if they didn’t think of you when aware of a suitable opening. These people are a priority because they know you, your capability and your approach and trust has already been built. Whereas networking with people you don't know requires helping them come to know and trust you. Networking with people you know is the most overlooked tactic by the exec job seekers I talk to (followed by personal branding). These are the same people who see the hidden jobs market as where their next role is, yet overlook what’s in front of them. If you are looking for a new role on the quiet - networking is a go-to approach that invites proactive contact to you. Networking with people who know people you know, then people in a similar domain, then people outside of this domain - these are in decreasing order of priority. Let's not forget the other type of networking. Talking to fellow job seekers is a great way to share your pain, take a load off your shoulders, bounce ideas off each other, and hold each other accountable. LinkedIn is the perfect platform to find the right people if you haven't kept in touch directly. Whatever you think of LinkedIn, you shouldn’t overlook its nature as a conduit to conversation. It isn’t the conversation itself. Speaking in real life is where networking shines because while you might build a facsimile of a relationship in text, it's no replacement for a fluid conversation. Whether by phone and video calls, real life meetups, business events, seminars, conferences, expos, or in my case - on dog walks and waiting outside of the school gates. Both these last two have led to friends and business for me though the latter hasn’t been available since 2021. Networking isn’t 'What can I get out of it?' Instead, ‘What’s in it for them?’ The difference is the same as those ransom list job adverts compared to the rare one that speaks to you personally. How can you build on this relationship by keeping in touch? Networking is systematic, periodic and iterative: Map out your real life career network. Revisit anyone you’ve ever worked with and where Find them on LinkedIn Get in touch ‘I was thinking about our time at xxx. Perhaps we could reconnect - would be great to catch up’ If they don’t reply, because life can be busy, diarise a follow up What could be of interest to them? A LinkedIn post might be a reason to catch up When you look up your contact’s profile look at the companies they’ve worked at. They worked there for a reason, which may be because of a common capability to you Research these companies. Are there people in relevant roles worth introducing yourself to? Maybe the company looks a fit with your aspirations - worth getting in touch with someone who may be a hiring manager or relevant recruiter? Maybe they aren’t recruiting now. Someone to keep in touch with because of mutual interests. Click on Job on their company page, then "I'm interested" - this helps for many reasons, including flagging your interest as a potential employee Keep iterating your network and find new companies as you look at new contacts. This is one way we map the market in recruitment to headhunt candidates - you can mirror this with your networking The more proactive networking you build into your job search, the luckier you might get. While you might need to nurture a sizeable network and there are no guarantees, think about the other virtues of networking - how does that compare to endless unreplied applications? I often hear from job seekers who found their next role through networking. This includes those who got the job because of their network even though hundreds of applicants were vying for it. While this may be unfair on the applicants sometimes you can make unfair work for you. It can be effective at any level.