(photo from flickr creative commons)
When winter gives you piles of snow every other week and hide-chapping temperatures, you realize how much you love parking in the garage.
A few weeks ago my garage door started bucking and jerking around when I tried to open it…looked like it was going to tear itself apart. So for a few weeks (while I tried to find enough time to research and hire a garage door mechanic) Pearl and I parked in the driveway.
When we needed to park inside, I’d go out and physically lift the darned door, and then put it back back down so we could save ourselves the morning freeze. Not sure, but I think it’s getting heavier than it used to be.
This weekend as I was lowering it by hand (Scott the human garage door opener), I just happened to hear a ‘clunk’ and looked down to the right as the door neared the ground. Something seemed wrong there, so I went over and grabbed the track at the bottom. The entire right-side track was loose. The nuts and bolts holding the bottom two brackets to the wall were just barely hanging on.
I am more or less mechanically declined, but I managed to get a wrench and a screwdriver and tighten them up. Behold, the garage door was fixed…opened up smooth as a whistle.
Is your job hunt bucking and jerking around?
You may not need a whole new job search strategy. Here’s a few bolts you can tighten down that might make it go smoother.
1. Stop talking about yourself. I know, you think it’s all about you. But the people who are hiring think it’s all about them, and since they hold the decision in their hands, you lose. So you MUST focus on them, their problems and needs, and talk in ways that are easy to understand…on paper and in person.
2. Fix the top of your resume. Quit putting generalities and hot air up there. Use that space to bolt yourself to the job in specific, understandable terms. If you have more than two words a teenager won’t understand, re-write it.
3. Manage what’s in your head. You’re a perfectly competent professional. Being out of work doesn’t negate that fact, so stop beating yourself up. Employers don’t want people with chips on their shoulder, sadness in their countenance or quit in their hearts. It’s just as easy to hold a positive thought as a negative one, and you own what’s in your own head. A negative thought launches less-than-optimal action…and gets less-than-optimal results.
4. Cover letters: keep ‘em short. Enough said.
5. Be as different on paper as you are in real life. You’re not a set of skills and buzz words, you’re a real live human being. There are LOTS of reasons why a company should choose you instead of the guy in line next to you. But it’s up to you to COMMUNICATE those reasons. No one is going to hook you up to a machine or hire a tarot reader to decipher your inner appeal, it’s up to you. Stop looking and acting like everyone else.
Go on…you think you’re mechanically declined, but it’s just a few bolts. Get some tools and get to work!
Imagine how much fun it will be to hit the button, have the door go up, and be able to drive inside and park where it’s warm 
Scott
