Unemployed and not giving up on your dream job in a recession?

There's a recession, jobs are scarce, you're jobless, but you have a dream.  You have to determin your choices and decide which direction you really want to go.  It's a difficult decision, particularly if you have many non-financial and financial obligations, responsibilities and people that depend on you.  

I think Jack Welch summarized the alternatives pretty well in his recent post to "MBAs without a job."  There are essentially 3 options: (A) to settle for a job, and learn to love it, (B) to keep the dream alive (and keep going crazy), or (C) to start your own company.  

Alternative B is about not giving up on the job that is right for you, right now.  The benefit to this approach, to the extent that you can afford it, is that you would be starting your next job in the "right place" and that you would have experience the "hunger" needed to succeed (i.e. you test yourself again and further build character).  But it all depends on where you are in your career and what you truly feel like doing next.

Another tool that may help in your decision is Suzy Welch's 10-10-10 method to decision making.  In it, she suggests thinking about the consequences of your potential decisions in the following way: the next 10 minutes, the next 10 months, and the next 10 years.  Try it!

When you are in a sinking ship, you are not necessarily thinking about what to take on your next sailing trip (you are thinking survival).  But don't neglect "the tomorrow."  The upturn will arrive - in 1, 2, or 3 years - and the business landscape will be brand new.  Will you be ready?  I suggest you consider your next move with the idea that you are shaping your future today. 

I embarked on option (B) four months ago and crafted a 6-month plan based on six key points of direction.  I'll share them here, in case they are helpful.  

1) Self-assessment.  Write down your value-add.  Take a hard and honest inventory of your most natural aptitudes, skills, interests, and your business network.  Given this, identify where you will most excitingly create value within a team and get rewarded for it.

2) Set a target.  Given the results of item #1, which industries / firms / jobs are the best match?  Keep an organized roster of prospective employers or people you would like to work with in excel.

3) Be known.  Set a plan to get into the firms that you are targeting (weather they are hiring or not).  Be creative and genuine when approaching these firms.  Remember, having connections is not so much about who you know, rather more about who knows you.  Be online (i.e. internet-working).  Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, school career services sites, alumni groups, industry conference organizations, etc.  Build lists of potential contacts in the firms you have identified that might meet with you for informationals.  Have a website and blog everyday -- demonstrate that you have insight, not just knowledge.  Identify and meet with headhunters in the industry and your location, ask them for trends they are seeing and refer them other job candidates.

4) Be current.  Stay up to date with industry news, notice trends and opportunities.  List all the key conventional (and un-conventional) industry news sources and carve-out time every day to browse through the headlines.  Send relevant articles to people you meet in your networking trails.  Comment on other blogs.  Connect people.  Attend conferences and local industry events; offer to speak on a panels where appropriate.  

5) Be the job.  Your full-time job should be to find your dream job.  Truly treat it like a job.  Wake up an hour early every day. Have a plan and track your progress.  Use Outlook to have all industry events and meetings on your calendar, and use Excel to keep a spreadsheet of all the people you are meeting, where they work, who they know, etc.  

6) It's all about attitude.  Hype yourself up everyday.  Go get what you want and be in your element.  Talk to trusted and supportive friends so that you fuel your confidence and energy.  The worst thing you can do when you don't know what else to do, is to not do "a little bit every day."  Also, keep in mind that careers are non-linear in the 21st century.  Keep your "eyes and mind open" to new opportunities that open up in your path.

I'll end with a quote by Michelangelo: "The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."