The job search: Are you a hunter or a fisher?

Not once, but twice now since graduating from Indiana University in 2007, I have quit my job and moved to a new state without any career prospects on the horizon. You may call a move like that intrepid or insane, but in both cases it did indeed lead to new opportunities of varying success.

My first roll of the dice dates back to early 2010, when I walked away from my first broadcast job in Kentucky and moved to Iowa to be closer to my girlfriend, who was in medical school at the time. After two and a half weeks on the jobs prowl, I landed a temporary position until a new spot opened with one of the TV stations in Des Moines.

My second gamble was quite literally a crapshoot. After two and a half years in corn’s capitol, we relocated to eastern North Carolina so my girlfriend could begin residency at a large teaching hospital here. This time, it took me more than three months to land a traditional brick-and-mortar job despite sending out about a hundred resumes to almost every company in a ten-county radius. My education, experiences, career and passions have revolved around writing and communications. My new job? Working at a city park.

This leads me to the question: When you’re searching for work, are you a job hunter or a job fisher?

I may have been rather crass about my new home in my last post here. But when folks talk about North Carolina’s Research Triangle, they’re not referring to Greenville. We’re more of a manufacturing square, if anything. Simply put, there are just not many opportunities here for creative, savvy professionals. After a few fast and furious weeks of looking for communications jobs, I started thinking outside the box. A few weeks later, I threw out the box. A few more nerve-racking weeks after that, I worried I may soon be living in a box if I couldn’t find a job. This went on for two seasons and three months. I want you to look back to college. Remember summer vacation? Yeah, my memories of anything related to college are hazy, too, but when you’re a late 20-something with student loans, credit cards and bills to pay, three months out of work is nooooo vacation.

© Kirk Butts 2012

So what do we do? We scramble. We slowly swallow our pride the longer we’re jobless, and those mundane or embarrassing trades start to sound a bit more interesting. No good jobs that fit your background? No problem! How about human resources? Or sales? Or selling plasma? How about senior management, or middle management, or junior management, or any place that has a manager? How about a paycheck? It may be a horrifying thought telling our friends what we’re now doing or, God forbid, updating our Facebook pages to reflect a new dead end, uninspiring position at a department store, call center or gas station. But the longer those dream jobs elude us geographically, the more we have to face reality. For me, that realization was stark – no longer could I hunt for the job I wanted. Now, I had to reach for that proverbial fishing rod, cast it out using my resume as bait, and reel in the very first thing to bite. And that…is how I’m gearing up for my new assignment as a park attendant, on condition that I pass my background and drug tests.

We all want to be hunters in life, taking what is rightfully ours and making ours that which is not. But the world and its workforce also need gatherers, those people who look for what is already around them.

In my case, this past summer brought me to a new city just one quarter the size of my old home. That meant far fewer places to hunt for work. But no matter how large or small your community may be, there are always pieces to be picked up. Even if that means starting your career over from scratch. Being a park ranger always sounded fun to me as a kid. While I may still be a ways away from that, I’m honestly pretty excited about this new prospect.

My city park even has a fishing hole or two.

© Kirk Butts 2012