Its 9:15 PM where am I? about to start a 4km run on my treadmill. When most people are winding down, watching TV, sipping a glass of vino perhaps, I'm running....and thinking. The parallels of trying to lose weight and job search amaze me. Why on earth would I push myself to cram in a 4km run at bed time? Because the rewards of losing a few inches are well worth the effort and with a career, three kids and a dog, it's the only time I have, so I make it count. 

You want a job? Work for it! Job search like you mean it. 

Having a poor LinkedIn profile, disorganized resume and no follow up is to the job search process as working out without eating healthy. Running to justify eating a Big Mac is the same as sending your resume to 100 companies without follow up and expecting a job to fall in your lap. It's simply not going to work, at least not well.

You have to put in the work to lose those inches, or get that job. Just because your foot is in the gym doesn't mean you're going to lose weight. 

What does putting in the work mean? 

• It means making sure that you know what type of job you want
• It means doing research on the companies you're interested in
• It means updating your LinkedIn profile, connecting everyday to at least 10 new people to grow your network
• It means checking out various job boards and attending networking events on a regular basis
• It means tailoring your resume each and every time you apply to a firm you did your homework on so that you capture their buzz words
• It means making sure you don't have spelling mistakes or grammatical errors in your resume
• It means sending your resume and following up on it 24-48 hours later if anything to at least confirm receipt
• It means investing the time, each day, every day until you land your perfect job!

As much as I'd love to lose 20 pounds in a week, I have to be realistic and patient!  Even after making job searching your full time job for what can seem like forever, patience is a virtue. The effort is not lost. If you are still not losing inches (landing a job) after a few months, step back, analyze your strategy, and get a second opinion on what you could do differently, realign, get back on that treadmill and then....run again.