Job Search Like a Whale

To hunt for food, some whales dive half a mile into the depths of the ocean. They stay in the depths for an hour, then return briefly to the surface to breath before diving once more to the depths. We job hunters can learn a lot from this behavior.

While in a dive, whales are focused on one thing: hunting their prey. They are not worrying about whether this is the right place to be hunting. They cannot focus on whether they dove too soon, or were "ready" to hunt. They are on the prowl, the pressure is crushing, and they need to continue until they find what they need.

When we are in a job hunt, we should be like those hunters: focused on finding and landing job opportunities that come our way. We shouldn’t wonder if our resume is good enough as we hand it to someone. We certainly shouldn’t apologize or explain it. We should be in hunt mode – positioning our candidacy as best we can.

But the whale comes up for air every hour. We should also come up periodically.

Once in a while we should assess what we’ve been doing, whether we're hunting in the right place, whether our hunting techniques are appropriate and working. Maybe once a week, it’s appropriate to assess our search and make adjustments as needed.

The whale surfaces for air for 10 minutes out of the hour to breath. We need to do our assessment less often, but can take one tip from the whales: we should time limit the time we spend assessing and reviewing. The goal is to see where we are, determine if we need something different, make the change and get back to work.

Note that I’m not advocating sending out cookie-cutter resumes. The whale doesn’t swim to the bottom and swim in a straight line with his mouth open. We are hunting, and need to take that seriously. Our challenge is to maximize our hunting time while still making sure that we are adjusting course as needed.