Diary of a Job Search: One Man's Journey from Unemployment to a New Career

by Tim Johnston

On January 8 at 3:35 P.M., I lost my job. After three weeks of sending hastily updated résumés into the electronic void, I realize I'm one of eight thousand candidates for almost any job.…Like many Americans struggling through the recession, Tim Johnston was recently laid off. For eight long months, Tim navigated a job market that had changed significantly since his last job search, chronicling his highs and frequent lows in a monthly column on The Wall Street Journal's executive career website, CareerJournal.com.As Tim grappled with such difficult issues as absorbing the shock of losing a job, defining new career goals, and writing an eye-catching résumé, more than 300,000 people logged on to share in his frustrations and achievements, posting their own job-hunting tales on a dedicated discussion board. In DIARY OF A JOB SEARCH, Tim unites with the editors at CareerJournal.com and America's seasoned job hunters to offer creative solutions to today's job market challenges.Whether you're currently unemployed, facing a company layoff, or trying to make a career change, DIARY OF A JOB SEARCH is a sympathetic, humorous, and practical guide to weathering the emotional storms of joblessness and turning economic downturn into new career opportunities.Unique insider's perspective from CareerJournal.com—The Executive Career Site of The Wall Street Journal, based on eight months of job search stories from regular guy Tim Johnston.Features additional advice and stories culled from more than 3,000 CareerJournal.com readers who posted messages on the “Diary of a Job Search” discussion board.More than 300,000 unique visitors read at least one chapter of the “Diary of a Job Search” online column “DIARY OF A JOB SEARCH is both inspiring and practical. It provides chapter after chapter of proven strategies on résumé writing, interviewing, salary negotiation, and much more. I recommend it wholeheartedly.” —Joyce Lain Kennedy, syndicated careers columnist

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and thought it was a very thorough book of advice for middle and upper middle job seekers. The book is a portable support group combined with expert advise. The topic could be one of the most boring on the planet but by adding a real life job seeker's saga the authors are able to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Well, maybe it's not quite that exciting but it will hold readers attention.

If you have an education, are middle class, and know some people you can gain reassurance from this book. You will identify with Tim, the featured job seeker, and all the folks who commented on his blog entries. However, if you are without resources and from a marginalized population or even a fresh grad, I'm not sure you will find this encouraging or useful.

[lady cherise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diary of the Job Search harkens back to the pre-LinkedIn days of 2003, but Tim the Job Hunter's journey was fun (and occasionally hilarious) to read.

I'd like to compare the experience of reading this to staring into a time capsule of what it was like to search for jobs around the time the Internet was starting to take off in popularity. Lots of references were made to the 9/11 attacks and their effect on the job market. Tim regarded the use of the pre-LinkedIn Internet for job hunting with skepticism, and partly because job sites were already being spammed with resumes and sketchy sales opportunities.

Some lessons Tim learned along the way remain relevant in 2015: "feeding and watering" your network, interviews, negotiating one's salary, being likable/showing value in an interview, and being persistent in the job search despite the challenges of morale and unemployment.

I hope Tim is doing well today. He was a likable job hunting protagonist in this book, and even though our life circumstances are completely different, it was easy to identify with him and his concerns and aspirations.

[Lectus · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty much bullshit. Same crap about networking and updating your resume. The difference her le is that the other two authors take Tim's experience as an example.

The only thing I enjoyed about this book is when Tim actually wrote something. The rest is the usual crap advice.