The Struggles of a Job SearchBy Rebecca Z. Wood

PresidentInternational Association of Workforce Professionals*

IAWP, San Francisco Chapter

After working with hundreds of job seekers for the last five years, I have decided to write about job search as I see it happening in our midst. So let me share with you the stories and anguish of a multitude of customers I have had the opportunity to work with.

Everyone who has read the Bible, either by virtue of his religion or just as a literary piece of work, knows that Job was a man who was a great believer and follower of his God. Very few men had led a life of virtue and truth as he did.

Yet, this God sent him all the pain, heartache, and misery that few men could ever endure. He lost his family, he lost his wealth, was reduced to a pauper, and suffered from hideous diseases. Name it he had it. He lost everything except his mind. Yet he retained that virtue which was spoken of from centuries thereafter- his patience. Thus we always hear it referred to as the Patience of Job. Isn’t it ironic that his name has been given to this elusive, will-o-the-wisp thing that people are constantly in search of?

There is always a litany of reasons why a resume is rejected by a hiring manager or why a candidate is not considered after an interview: the candidate is pompous, needy, or desperate. The guy is overqualified, he will not be happy in the job. We like him but he is not a good cultural fit.

What indeed is a good cultural fit? In a study by Kristof-Brown in 2005, good cultural fit is associated with many positive outcomes. It reported that employees who fit well with their organization, coworkers, and supervisor, had greater job satisfaction, identified more with their company, were more likely to remain with their organization, were more committed, and showed superior job performance.

It is sad to be dubbed “not a cultural fit.” Or is this just a lousy excuse for being 55 years old or over? Well, for this we will never know because no hiring manager or company would ever, ever go outright and tell this to a job candidate. So, the government comes up with nonprofit organizations to help 55 years or older people find a job. But mind you, the most that they can work is only 2-4 hours a day.

The question that remains in our mind is, “Where are the jobs?” Is it an unwritten belief that “not everyone is worthy to have a job?” What do we expect these people to do, then? Are they deemed unfit to survive likewise?

As Charles T. Galloway III puts it in his article, “Trials and Tribulations of the Job Hunt: 10 Things to Remember,” he says that in order to find a job, people have to be patient, assertive, creative, persevering, ready but not over-eager or needy, be open-minded, be like water so you can fill any shape of container, passionate, polished, and above all - be yourself. The foregoing characteristic of a successful job seeker can be described as the quintessence of perfection.

And yet how can you be perfect if you are asked to be yourself? How can you be passionate and not appear too eager? How can you be patient when time is running out and your unemployment benefits or cash assistance is ending?

We in Workforce Services and our reliable Partners do the utmost we can of the available resources we have to hone the job seeker to the ideal candidate that employers like. This is a challenge to us all. We must come up with the “candidate” that is sought for in these demanding times.

We have to constantly renew our skills to make us equal to the tasks at hand. We cannot just go back to the biblical story and tell our customers to be patient like Job, and hope that the reward is not far behind. THIS IS WHY WE ARE IAWP.

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