The Tyranny of a Blank Piece of Paper

Writers talk a lot about writing blocks and the difficulty of starting a new work. I’ve seen it referred to as “Blank Page Syndrome” and other names, but the problem is always the same: the writer knows generally what he or she wants to say, but can’t get started. Somehow the challenge of getting the first sentence right blocks any forward progress.

In thinking about it, starting a job search has similar challenges. Personally, I have a general idea of what I want, but in truth I’m not super picky. There are a lot of things that I would find interesting to do. But you can’t call people up to network and say, “well, I want to work at just about anything. Do you have any ideas?” It won’t get you anywhere.

Neither will calling people up and telling them what you won’t do.

So for most of us, we need to fill in that blank piece of paper before we start the search. Luckily writers have a bunch of ideas about how to get beyond the blank paper. Here are my interpretations of some of them:

Start in the Middle: I think this is some of what “targeted company” approaches do for people. They start part way through, with a company they want to work for, and fill in the other stuff (like what can I do for them, what jobs do they have, etc) after the fact. It’s also pretty effective to think about who you’d like to work for. I’ve called people I like working with to tell them that and to brainstorm how I could work with them again.

Tell a Story: Write a story of your career. Start in the past and work through today and into the future. There will be a lot of good bits that you can use both for your resume and to help figure out what you want.

Free Write or Talk: Start somewhere. Find a random job and apply for it. Call someone to network. Do some job-search activity without worrying about whether it is the right thing to do. You will quickly see what’s working and what’s not, and start focusing your time on the things that matter. That’s your search.

Change Things Up: If you’re most comfortable with sending e-mail inquiries, then get on the phone or walk into someone’s office for a conversation. Send an inquiry to a company or person instead of responding to a specific advertisement. Try something new.

Set Short Goals: Who cares if your target is to talk to 5 people a day, if you can’t make that first call. Set a goal of calling one person. Then call.

The idea is to get something going. To do that you need to start somewhere. And sometimes we get so bogged down in doing the right thing that we lose track of the importance of doing something.