JobSync

More than just connections

August 23, 2011

Despite the remarkable advances in technology over the last eight decades, modern historians of the Depression and jobseekers from that era insist little has changed in how people should conduct a successful job search. Their point? If you want to land a job, you must work your personal connections.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal discussed the merits of this approach and highlighted the job hunting adventures of Lillian Brownstein Chodash to support its case. Ms. Chodash, a 91-year-old retiree who lives in Florida, recounted how she once rode an elevator to the top floor of an office building during the jobless 1930s and began knocking on doors. As fate would have it, after nine floors of fruitless knocking, she came across a firm working in real estate and insurance that had just fired its secretary. When Ms. Chodash passed the company’s tests for typing and shorthand, she was hired immediately.

Job hunting in that era was a much more public and physical task, and historical critics insist today’s jobseekers spend too much time behind their computers sending out dozens of resumes instead of hustling and creating personal connections. However, marching uninvited into a company today looking for work is not a widely accepted practice like it was during the days of the Depression. And while networking is important, the mistake of today’s jobseekers is not huddling behind a computer sending out resumes but sending out untargeted resumes.

If candidates sent out resumes to companies for which they are a good match based on their experience, qualifications and fit, they could save themselves from a lot of unproductive networking. Not to mention nine floors of directly soliciting strangers for a job. In fact, it may be just the thing to keep them from falling into a depression.

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