A connection on LinkedIn asked me for some ways to land a job quickly.

“Should I just apply for anything and see what sticks?”

“Should I just walk into random places and give them my resume in person?”

“Do you really believe that I should tailor my resume EVERY TIME, what if they never read it. Aren’t I better off sending off a really good to more people?”

The thing is, landing any job, even the ones that suck isn’t easy. The companies who offer sucky jobs know they do. They aren’t looking for lazy people. They want people to help make it suck less.

It doesn’t work out to make landing quickly your objective. Say you land the job quickly, but you:

  • hate the work
  • feel degraded
  • get sick
  • are underpaid
  • can’t get into the work
  • have shame about working there

How is that any better than what you have now?

Your career objective is not to land something as quickly as possible. Finding the long way is worth the time and effort because it’s the best way to get what you deserve. Plan these moves before you need them.

okay. okay. okay. — you need money and so you don’t care how you feel at work. 

First, ouch my heart. And then do this:

  1. Identify your dream job.
  2. If there is no chance of landing that quick, identify what skills you need for that job.
  3. Identify which skills you are lacking.
  4. Apply for jobs that you might hate, but are worth doing because you gain the skill you lack to do your ideal job.

You still need to put effort into landing it, but at least the effort of landing an unideal job has a long-term payoff for you.