Think seriously about interim job

In every job search, there comes a time when you have to ask, "Is this working?" And, depending on the answer, perhaps, "Should I be looking for an interim job to tide me over?"

As a job-search strategist, I'd like those reflective moments to come more often than they do. I often meet people who have "stayed the course" with their job hunts, to the point of near-bankruptcy. Very often, they have good goals — they are looking for jobs that match their skills and interests, for example — but unlucky timing.

The net result can be disastrous. These seekers receive a steady stream of positive encouragement from people in their fields, but no substantial leads or offers. Like gamblers at the slot machines, they sustain themselves on hope and the promise that the next conversation or meeting will turn the tide.

Ironically, this is actually a very effective job-search method. It's much more productive to stick with a goal and to build the relationships needed to make that goal a reality than to skip from one idea to another in the hopes of hitting on a field with immediate openings. The problem is that most people simply can't afford to suspend their earnings while they "grow" their next job offers.

The solution is both practical and strategic: The job-seeker needs to take an interim job.

We think of this as a "lesser" job — the one we didn't really want but took for financial reasons. That's a fair definition, but it's problematic when it comes to the actual job search. When you approach a job hunt with the idea that you don't want what you're looking for and that it's only a pause between two other things, how successful are you likely to be?

Nor do you want to underestimate the skills needed for the interim job. Many people have told me — usually with some sense of entitlement or even outrage — that they were turned down for jobs at places like McDonald's. We've developed a cultural myth that jobs like these are dead-end and unskilled. The truth is that every job is a career position for someone.

The challenge for the interim job-seeker is to drum up as much enthusiasm for the place-holder job as for the career position. Just because the job is "lesser" to you doesn't mean it holds that status for the employer. The last thing you want to bring to an interview is an aura of being better suited for something else.

That said, managers know that much of their work force will be made up of people just passing through. Even so, they apply hiring standards to all candidates and turn down those they feel aren't serious about the work.

I recently spoke with a financial services professional who picked up a job at a coffee shop because she likes the shop and she can earn fully paid health benefits for part-time hours. Those are her reasons for wanting the job; why would the manager want her?

Some of her primary selling points were things that most of us would not bring up in a higher-level interview. She is rock-solid reliable and never asks for time off. If you think that's not attractive to coffee shop managers, you need to see the requests they juggle from part-time workers asking to change schedules. In addition, this candidate has terrific customer-service skills and a warm personality.

To pick up an interim job, you need to know what you want from that position in terms of hours, duties and pay. You also need a strategy that will cover points such as "Why should we hire you?"

- Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com or at 1071 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, MN 55102.