The soaring everlasting unemployment. Shattering dreams and killing souls. It's no longer "breaking news." It's broken news. Here are 10 reasons why:
1. The spotlight is only on creating jobs. Connecting the job and the person is an afterthought. We've all heard it: Just have a good resume and you'll find work. But the way we find work is broken. And without that connection between person and job, it stays broken.
2. We've bought the idea that getting a job is rational and logical. Ask any 10 people how they got their job and 9 will tell you that something unique happened. Something that went beyond standard issue networking, resume making and interviewing.
3. Old line thinking about networking stops us. Simply knowing someone is not enough. I live down the street from Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago. I've chatted with him on his front lawn. Think that helped me find work with the city?
4. We've lost the value of a person's story. With hyper efficient resume screening for key words and the notion of a resume as a data dump, we are screening out people's stories, the stuff that really shows a person's value.
5. Higher purposes have become an afterthought. Words like "mission" and "values" are now clichés. Drowned in a sea of applicants unable to answer the question, "Why can you serve best?"
6. We're ignoring "fit." Top level recruiters all cite "fit" as what really drives success. Fit is amorphous. It changes with every job. It is a judgment call. Recruiters are forgetting that "fit" drives the bus of finding and keeping talent.
7. Preparing for job search has become a stale exercise. Writing resumes, interviewing and reaching out to contacts of contacts on Linked In isn't a bad thing. It's just not enough.
8. We've made job search a one sized fits all drill. Pull the right levers and 1-2-3, the job pops out. But the truth is, the drill is always different every time.
9. We're so busy looking for jobs, even ones that are never coming back, that we've forgotten to look for needs. Jobs disappear. Needs remain. Find a need -- it's the first practical step to a finding work.
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Roger Wright is the author of "Finding Work When There Are No Jobs"
He can be contacted at www.findingwork.org.