Intrepid Miami journalist

Introduction: When you're a free agent in this fierce post-pandemic labor market, you learn a lot every week about ways to gain a competitive edge as you strive to land a new position.

Closing in on seven months on my journey to my next career chapter, think it's a fine time to deliver 10 key lessons I've learned along the way since unexpectedly leaving the Miami Herald as business editor. Hopefully, anybody displaced by their employers or aiming for a fresh start with a new company can glean something beneficial.

I'm presenting the rundown in no particular order, since each lesson carries meaningful importance. Here we go.

1) Networking is really the engine powering my career-management journey. The conversations and interactions with former colleagues, friends and new acquaintances open doors to job openings and vital communication lines to hiring managers.

If you engage with your professional contacts each week and strive to expand your roster of them, you'll reap great rewards in the form of job interviews and ultimately an offer or two from employers who want to pay for your talents.

2) Push yourself to take smart risks in your quest to advance your career and land at the most desirable spot for your next career destination. By this I mean, among other things, be open-minded and flexible as possible in your approach. A big one today is to be willing to work remotely, part of a week in an office or entirely outside your home -- the customary workplace for most of us before the coronavirus emerged in early 2020.

Also, for certain positions at your most coveted companies it helps to be open to relocating to where an open position is based, whether in another part of the state or country. At the same time, considering contract or freelance work, although temporary with no fringe benefits, can lead to a lucrative permanent position.

Overall, a prudent risk-taker seeks to make opportunities rather than waiting for them to come along.

3) View job interviews as learning experiences, in addition to chances to make your case why you should be hired for particular openings. Remember, every interview you have helps sharpen you for the next one. Don't expect most interviews to necessarily lead to a job and don't think you failed if a hiring manager emails you a note of rejection after a conversation.

4) The art of the follow-up to hiring managers following interviews is critical. This shows your genuine interest in the position and affords you a way to keep adding to the reasons why you are the best fit for a particular role. Plan to follow up periodically once you've scored an interview, until the company eventually fills the open position.

And in some cases, if you're really keen on a particular position and you know the hiring manager before getting an interview, it can do no harm to email that person informing he or she you submitted your resume to the respective company's careers site, you want the job and state briefly how you would add value to the team. I did this a couple times and ended up then getting interviews. In one case, somehow my resume got lost in the black hole of a firm's online careers portal, and had I not followed up with a note to the hiring manager, there was no way I'd have gotten an interview and strong consideration for the job.

5) Think in the broadest sense about the skills, experience and capabilities you'd bring to an employer, when considering whether to compete for an opening. This will ensure you'll likely take action to contend for positions in adjacent fields, rather than only jobs mirroring the ones you've performed in your career.

It's often inspiring and motivating, too. For example, I opted to compete for a senior leadership opening in Miami that clearly was in a different sector than media and communications. During the recruitment, I navigated three interview rounds and a written assignment. Didn't get the job offer, but learned a ton from the process.

6) Remember, there's much more to life than job searching, even when you are unemployed. Maintain a healthy work/life balance, just as you would while working for a company.

As a solo career-management practitioner, it's important to take daily breaks for exercise, leisure activities, meals, adequate sleep and vacation. If you've been following my free agent journey through my written dispatches here on LinkedIn or on Substack, you know I've taken time to visit family up north, to go on vacation and to landscape our property in Palm Beach County.

7) Set career goals for yourself in terms of the open positions you vie for, the companies you'd most like to join. Then over the weeks and months of your search keep evaluating those goals and updating them based on insights you learn from reading about the latest news of your profession, job interviews you snag and new skills you acquire from lifelong learning.

8) Expect certain employers will hire internally, even for roles they post publicly and conduct interviews about with outsiders like you.

It can be annoying, but I've experienced this on at least four occasions after interviews that I thought could yield a job offer. Again, realizing interviews offer prime learning is the healthy mindset to not allow such an experience knock you off center.

9) Rest assured, hearing from a hiring manager, and another, and another, that a company is going in a different direction rather than hiring you goes with the territory. The more you can shake off rejection, know you learned something about yourself in the recruiting process to improve your self-marketing arsenal, the better off you'll be.

Although it stings, a rejection email or phone call does offer closure. That can be better than never hearing any word from a hiring manager after an interview.

10) Don't be afraid to turn down a job offer. After you've carefully evaluated the offer, there can be many reasons why you respectfully say no to the hiring manager.

Could be as simple as you tried negotiating financial terms and working arrangements, but the offer package still was weaker than you wanted. Or the timing might be off, because you have many other positions you've interviewed for or plan to talk to and want to see those recruitments further unfold.

Thank you for reading. Hope you'll continue this journey with me to my next career chapter. Please feel free to connect on LinkedIn or on Substack, or at bombergerpaul@gmail.com to offer your thoughts, suggestions and job leads.

Enjoy the Memorial Day holiday weekend. A special salute to all the men and women who gave their lives in service to our great country. A sincere thank you to everyone proudly wearing the uniform today, ready to defend us around the globe.