12 tips to Staying Power on the Job Hunt

Looking for a job is often a hairy scarey time. How long do you need go without work before you panic? And what happens if, while you are looking for that job which may never come, you are thousands of mile from home, in a foreign country with a limited budget?

Here are ten tips that may help when your courage starts to waiver.

1. Feeling ignored? Go see all the agents you can but don't expect a response from all of them. Some will simply seem to ignore your very existence simply adding your details to their database without any further action. Don't see this inaction as rejection. It's just their way of operating.
   
   
2. Is your CV up to the job? If you are a chef presenting the same resume to a yacht as you would a restaurant isn't the wisest move. Understand what the crew agent and yacht need then tailor your CV to meet those needs. This doesn't mean lying. By describing which of your skills meet the jobs requirements it shows yacht and agent you know what the job is about.
   
   
3. Are you being a pain? Once you have found your favoured crew agents don't become a pest, contacting them hourly or daily. Once a week to touch base is enough. When they find something, rest assured they will track you down.
   
   
4. Are your expectations real? It's the rare person who lands in the country and walks into a job the very same day. If it happens to you, you wont be reading this! For the rest of us it's wise to remember that it can take time, sometimes more time than we'd like.
   
   
5. Have you inadvertantly limited your options? Don't say you are only looking only for chief stew if the market is stagnant. Widen your chances by looking for Chief Stew, Purser or stew.
   
   
6. Are you too eager? We get CV's from crew looking for the position of deckhand, engineer, bosun or captain. One if you consider yourself a suitable applicant for all four postions it tells me you know little about the industry. It also give me the impression that you are desperate.
   
   
7. Don't let rejections get you down. Success breeds success and you are more likely to find a job if you are upbeat and cheerful. The look of desperation is very off putting!
   
   
8. Don't treat an interview as an induction. An interview doesn't mean you've got the job. Don't turn down other interviews and remember to keep looking.
   
   
9. Don't judge yourself on others success. Just because they found a job faster than you is no reflection on your skills or personality. The right job will come along for you.
   
   
10. Remember to be budget wise. Budget for the long haul. If you find a job quickly, brilliant. Now you can celebrate but until you have the job signed sealed and delivered, rein your spending in.
    
    
11. Are you using all the job hunt options open to you? Have you done the dockwalk? Daywork? Is your resume online? Are you networking? Remember your avenues for finding work are not limited simply to crew agents.
    
    
12. Know when to call it quits. When you've stopped enjoying the job hunt, when it's become scary and a little boring at the same time, when the money has run out, when the thought of working on a yacht know longer seems the beacon burning but more like a hassle it might be time to reassess and cut your losses.