HOW THE MOVIE APPLIES TO JOB SEARCHING

The movie Groundhog Day is really a metaphor for challenges many people have in their lives - such as searching for a new job. It is an inspiring story about how most people can very easily fall into a rut of living a life they're not passionate about and how if they actually realize they're stuck in a rut, their first instinct is to just get mad at world or take shortcuts to get out of it. As movie illustrates, building a life that you're excited about takes a long-term effort. It requires a commitment to truly follow your dreams even if it means hard work.

Many job seekers do some of actions that someone looking for a job should do - like sending out resumes or talking to networking contacts. But they're really just going through motions and their perspective is one of someone who's stuck in a rut. If you have no inspiration and no passion, people will see that -- networking contacts, recruiters, etc. It's also easy to forget that people you interact with in job search process are human beings and not just a means to an end. Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day was at first dismissive of Ned Ryerson, an insurance agent who interrupted him on his way to work every morning. In beginning, Murray's character didn't even treat Ned like a human being -- at one point even knocking him down to get past him.

If you're just going through motions in your job search and living like it's Groundhog Day over and over again, your results aren't likely to change. But if you start to live with passion and inspiration and truly connect with people you interact with in your job search, you *will* get what you want. Bill Murray's character didn't need to know how to play piano for Rita to fall in love with him. But learning that new skill created a passion and excitement that Rita was attracted to. Learning a new skill can have a similar effect in your job search -- employers like to hire people who are going somewhere in their lives. At end of movie, all people of town were singing Phil's praises because of all wonderful things he did to help them. This contributed even more to Rita's falling in love with him. If you see people as human beings and use your time to help them, they'll remember and will be more likely to do things to help you in return.

TAKING ACTION

I hope this story encourages you to take action today to inject some passion into your life and really take your job search in right direction.

Get References

If your resume isn't great or doesn't paint a very positive picture of your career background, look for other things which can bolster impression you can create with potential employers. An ideal situation would be to get references from employers you left early. This is where helping these former employers can help you -- they'll be more inclined to write a good reference for you if you help them out. It also helps if you had made a positive contribution at former employer before you left. It would be great if you could get a reference in writing (i.e. a reference letter) which you could bring with you to interviews.

One way to ease process of getting reference letters is to offer to write letter for reference, and to ask them to simply sign their name to it. Of course, they will only agree to do something like that if you have a positive relationship with them. See this article on references for more information: http://www.jobsearchinfo.com/refs.htm

Even if you don't get a reference letter, there's a chance recruiter might know someone there or might call for a reference. If company has positive things to say about you, you'll be better off.

Get Inside Help

In addition to getting references from former employers, references from prospective employer can also be powerful. This can help to illustrate that you really want to work for company, and it can be helpful to have someone on inside vouch for you. You can network thru friends/associates to find someone who works there. Career expert Jerry Crispin goes as far as to recommend people go out to parking lot of a company where they want to work and offer someone who works there $20 to use their name when applying (i.e. I was referred by Joe Smith).

Hit Ground Running

Employers are generally concerned about someone leaving a job early if they have to invest time in training you up front. If you already have all skills needed to do job and understand company and industry BEFORE you start working there, that can help alleviate that concern.

You can visit JobSearchInfo Education and Training page for resources to help with raising your skill level: http://www.jobsearchinfo.com/degrees.htm

Optimizing your Resume Presentation

Professional resume writers deal with presenting peoples' career histories in best possible light every day. You may want to consider hiring one if your situation is especially tricky to present.