Sunday, July 8, 2012

Let's Go to MAUI to Land a Job

A common question in an interview is: “Are you willing to relocate?” What’s the right answer? Say, “I’d consider it.” Then once you have a job offer, you have a choice to relocate or turn the job down. I told this to one client, Mark who was really struggling to get more than a series of temp jobs of three to six months. All along he told me he wouldn’t relocate and I kept telling him to say, “I’d consider it,” which he did. That was when the offer came in for a temp to perm position in Maui, Hawaii. For the right offer, we might all relocate, even to a hell hole like Maui.

So how did Mark get to Maui? Actually, Mark made Maui part of his job search. Yes, that’s right, Mark employed, Momentum, Activity, Urgency and Intensity in his job search. Job seekers like Mark have all kinds of obstacles in front of them. Some are so daunting that they start to feel that there is no job out there for them. In Mark’s case his industry had taken a real hit and there just wasn’t enough jobs to go around regardless of how good he was in his profession.

Momentum: The job seeker has to start to do the things job seekers do, every day with consistency. Always improving in the job search skills and continually moving forward with the expectation that something is going to pop just around the corner. Like a snowball going down hill there is a point when nothing will stop it.

Activity: The job seeker needs to do the right things and that activity will dictate their outcome. I’m not talking about activity for activity's sake. For example, going to a job seekers’ networking group once a week is a good activity, going every day isn’t the best use of the job seeker’s time. However, going to 10 different professional and industry networking events in a month will most likely produce the most effective connections. Mark became highly effective in his job search activity.

Urgency: The momentum and effective activity becomes even stronger when a sense of urgency is added to the mix. When goals are made, with dates attached, and then told to those who can help, the goals take on an expectation for completion; a sense of urgency. Often things linger in the background ⚊ nothing moving forward and then someone says it has to be done now... and all of a sudden, it gets done. If you doubt this, ask any tax accountant if there is a difference in getting necessary paperwork and receipts from clients in February as opposed to April.

Intensity: Many job search professionals agree that intensity is the critical element in a productive job search. With momentum, activity and urgency as part of the job search it takes on an intensity of its own. It cannot be denied. This intensity with a positive attitude is a force to be reckoned with. Even if the job seeker stumbles, she is still moving forward, creating her own luck, often turning a negative into a positive.

So let’s go to Maui and employ momentum, effective activity, a sense of urgency with intensity and see what happens.