How a Father of 3 Survived Job Searching as an Unemployed Digital Marketer

THE UNEMPLOYED DIGITAL SUPERSTAR

SURVIVING THE JOB SEARCH

With a signed employment offer to begin as the Director of Client Growth for Manticore Marketing before month's end, I am armed with a bit of perspective and can now start to reflect on this road me and my family have been on over the last 10 months.

Though hard to fully put into context as we will feel this financially for some time to come, I can attest and empathize that it is extremely hard out there for job seekers these days. Let's face it, it sucks to be out of a job at any time and no one is saying that it has ever been easy to be in the job market.

But, from my experience as an unemployed, experienced and skilled digital marketer in 2024, these times are akin to The Hunger Games.

A giant exaggeration, yes, but, in a world facing enormous financial and global economic questions verging on crisis levels, how do you compete in a stacked playing field?

Companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Tesla and others report record profits while shedding thousands of jobs. People who need those jobs to provide for their families.

Families depend on their parents to be able to provide for them. For longer than I have wanted, we have been relying on one income, and one income plus government assistance is not enough in today's world. We struggle every day to ensure that our kids can have the upbringing they deserve but it often feels like we have no answers.

I, like many, struggled to stand out within a job market with thousands and thousands of highly qualified professionals. Many of those with marquee previous employers like the companies mentioned above. All the while there are countless job postings on the multitude of job sites seeking the perfect candidate making it almost as if you are fighting for your life just to apply for the role you want. You have to hold your breath and hope for the best while expecting the worst.

If you don't have a strategy to approach this challenge, you can be doomed.

Here are 3 tips you can use to prepare yourself to find a job or keep you motivated as you search:

Be true to your North Star.

Control the controllable.

Stay positive, good things are around the corner.

THE LACK OF CAREER BALANCE

Be true to your North Star.

Find out what your priorities are and plan everything that you do to align with those priorities.

The truth is I don't have the answers on work-life or career balance. I never have. But I am putting more of an effort into it these days. I have worked hard and experienced some success in my career.

Viewed as an expert by many in my field providing strategic insight to help advance and grow businesses. From SMBs to enterprise organizations looking to hit important KPIs in need of a leader to guide their strategy. Respected as a key part of the teams I have been a part of and trusted by industry leaders around the globe. Yet, at the same time, I was in a constant tug of war with myself to ensure happiness and fulfilment while attaining business adulation.

As an adult who has always cared more about not missing the moments, or being there for his child's show and share at school than staying late to rush an urgent proposal. The happiness I crave is with my family. In the same breath, knowing I have to provide for my family pushes me back into the need to find something to keep food on the table. Combined with being someone who, when given a task, will work round the clock to ensure it is finished to the highest possible standard.

There have been many occasions when I have beaten myself up inside because I have been trying to push to a deadline and I miss out on family time. Times where I have had a conflict with myself about the decisions I made about work-life balance.

As I have progressed in my career, and as I take this next challenge on, my North Star will be my children. Not missing the moments.

After all, work is not family. Shortly after you leave for the last time at work, whether you get fired or quit, they will forget about you. They will find someone to take your job and make the jokes in the lunch room. Your family, which has been there for you, and helped to support you even when put other things above them, will always be there. I will never say that you should not work hard.

This isn't a public rallying cry for a revolt.

Don't be afraid to say no or ask for help when you think you have taken on too much. Make allies but understand that you are replaceable. Leave work at work. Don't take work home with you. Prioritize your loved ones.

Find the balance. It is easy to want to have it all. It is easy to get distracted from what is important. If you keep those priorities as your North Star, you will not get lost.

THE CONTROLLABLE

Control the controllable.

As a dad, making thousands of decisions and hundreds of new things thrown at us daily, it is a struggle to balance the many things in life. It is easy to suffer from decision fatigue.

Little things like choosing between Lucky Charms or Nutella toast for breakfast or sandwiches or chicken nuggets for their lunches. Or between soccer or baseball for Xavier to play this summer because he can't decide. We ensure you pack the rain boots in your school bags because there is a chance of rain today. With all of the decisions to make, the moving parts and variables of being a dad, you need to control what I can control.

And you can always control your effort.

When finding a job, you can always control the amount and quality of your effort. The same is true about most things. Make sure you put the same effort, care, diligence and thought into what you are doing. Though the challenge of finding a way to provide for your family may be daunting can. No matter how frustrated you get or if things may not be going your way, you can always control how much and how hard you try.

That effort will lead to results.

THE MENTALITY

Stay positive, good things are around the corner.

To survive job searching the most important tip is to have the right mentality.

The truth is, our parents could not prepare us for something they never experienced. I was born in 1983 in Canada, to parents who came to this country after leaving everything they knew and loved behind. They put their lives on the line to start a new life and provide for their families. They took the available work, anywhere, and worked long and hard to have what they had. My father worked 12-18-hour construction shifts over 4 hours away from home when there was nothing available for an immigrant with limited language skills. Or my mother who worked in the sanitation department of a hospital and took any shift you could get to make sure you were bringing money in for the family. All this while raising 3 small boys to make sure they live as normal a Canadian childhood as they could while simultaneously embracing our Spanish roots. We will never know how difficult they had it, and our challenges can never be something we should expect them to understand. Our battles are not something they are equipped to help with.

It is hard on your will when you are looking for a job. Looking at the life my parents had, inspires me to sustain the right mentality. Being mentality resilient and staying positive in adversity is the key.

Never in a million years would I begin to think I would be in this position. They said that when you work, build your career and start to make progress, the experience goes with you. Someone working for more than ten years in a specific trade should have no problem finding work in that field.

It is easy to be discouraged with so much rejection at every turn and want to give in. I was there, I know. Which is why having the right mentality is vital. These are the 3 things I have been telling myself to help push me through this:

Don't take it personally.

Stay positive.

Keep on pushing.

Over ten months of unemployment.

Submitting over 500 applications on every job site and technology platform you can think of. LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, Remotivate, HiredHippo or FlexJobs, etc.

Working with employment agencies and recruiters like Robert Half and Randstad.

Being ghosted at every stage.

Experiencing rejection after rejection.

Dozens of first interviews and phone screenings.

Countless waiting on the next steps.

A few final interviews.

Hours and hours poured into the process. And if you stay true to your priorities, consistent with your effort and positive good things happen.

If you can push through the rejection, the silence, the mental hurdle, you can do this.

Take the power back!

We live in a crazy world today and I am just The Ordinary Dad.