Be on fire about your career

The news this week  had a story of not one, but two couch fires in the Chicagoland area. Holy smokes, how much time does someone have to sit on the couch to get it to combust? I actually don’t know the cause of the fires in the stories, but I hope these fires did not cause any additional financial burden for anyone suffering from job loss.

Activity in the job search means that you are out and about, talking and networking with people. Actually the job seeker needs to be on fire about finding a job. Meaning, you need to have a passion about your career, the opportunities and the abilities you bring to the job market.

After a job seeker has many weeks of looking for work under her belt, she starts to lose the expectation that she’ll find a job soon. Doubt starts to insert itself into the job seeker’s consciousness. Doubt can lead to negative thoughts and negative self-talk which start to feed on themselves and the job seeker can soon lose hope of ever finding gainful employment.

Back in 2009 I told the story of being as enthusiastic as a puppy dog when the doorbell rings. <Link> Keeping a positive attitude isn’t easy especially in a job search that seems to go on and on. But, I believe that one of the things that allows doubts to grow into depression is inactivity. Being a couch potato is one of the best ways to kill a job search. Focused activity leads to proficiency of your job search skills,  which leads to more network meetings, which leads to interviews, which leads to job offers.

Note the terminology focused activity: what do I mean by “focused activity?” Not all activity is productive and sometimes can be distracting the job seeker from meeting job search goals.  So, activity for activity’s sake can be counter productive and even destructive. When your activity is focused, it clearly enables you to achieve a short-term or long-term goal... getting you that much closer to landing the job.  

Be on fire about your job search, passionate about your next job and the future you’ll have. Don’t, however, let you the couch suck you into killing your job search and burn up your dreams.

Favorable Impressions Interviewing

Three things to help create a favorable impression for a meeting or interview. 

      If you are interviewing, you can assume that three or more candidates are interviewing for the job opening. We can further assume that you all present relatively the same capability and skill set for the position.  If this is true, how are they going to chose the new hire? I suggest, if all things are basically equal, they are going to hire the candidate they like best. Think about it; your expertise and ability got you the interview, but how you fit into the team will get you the job offer. Simply stated if they like you best you'll most likely be offered the job.

    Favorable impressions are lasting impressions. Here is what you can do to create a more favorable impression in an interview or a networking meeting. Remember that the first five minutes are critical when first meeting someone. Consider these three areas:

• You communicate via body language
• Be yourself
• Don't take control 

Body Language: 
    Management consultant and keynote speaker, Joe Takash says that the most important thing you can do when you meet someone new is smile. A real, genuine smile makes it easy to like someone.  Your confidence is communicated most in your body language by smiling and making good eye contact. Joe goes on to tell his audiences that "SHE is the key" when you first meet someone. SHE stands for smile, handshake and eye contact. If in the first five seconds you accomplish a connection you've made a good first step. Plus, I believe that the more confident you feel the more comfortable they'll be with you.  

Be Yourself: 
    Psychologists call it being genuine; I say be yourself and you'll come across as real. In an interview situation people often feel nervous and anxious. I remind my clients to always be yourself; be prepared and you'll be more comfortable when meeting someone new. Being a little nervous is okay, it keeps you on your toes and gets the juices or endorphins going. When you are yourself and not pretending to be something you're not, you will communicate more calmly and clearly when responding to questions. As you speak to the interviewer use normal hand gestures and lean slightly forward showing that you are composed and confident. If the interviewer is nervous, and this is often the case, your demeanor can help them to relax which makes it easier to like you. However, no one likes a phony person, period! Don't be a fake, they may not know exactly what you're faking, but they'll feel something's not right and then you lose. 

Don't Take Control: 
    Think of the interviewer as your host and you are going to their house for the meeting/interview. Let them be in control. I've had clients say they wanted to show that they were a take charge kind of guy. Right, do that in the success stories you share with them, but let them drive the meeting or interview. Imagine being in the passenger side in a car that the interviewer is driving. You wouldn't reach over and take the steering wheel away from them! Don't do it in an interview either. Nothing turns someone off faster then feeling usurped from their meeting. Be a perfect guest. If they make an offer of hospitality take them up on it. For example, if they ask you if you'd like coffee, tea or water, accept the offer. Do it for two reasons: first, it's good manners to accept an offer of hospitality and second, you don't want to turn down their first offer in the interview process. 

  It is impossible to do over a first impression. And in an interview it's essential that your are liked and viewed as someone who will fit well into the team or department. In sales it is said that people buy from people they like and the same is true here. After all, job search is sales.

Transition: Basic Elements of a System

    Whether you are in a life transition or a job transition there are basically three basic steps to being successful in the transition: Discovery, Action and Achievement.

Discovery

    This is really simple but can be time consuming. First you must take stock of what you have to offer. In business this is a “product analysis” and you are the product. What are your strengths? What do you love? These and similar questions need to be enumerated and addressed. Then you need to ask the question, "What does the world need of me? What can I do that will enrich me?" These are really practical questions that are seldom asked past junior high school. Many people end up in careers not by following a path but falling into a job. Discover what you need to do next.

Action

    The next step begins in preparation and planning. What do you say to friends or family members when you are asked questions about what you want to do? Answering this takes a lot of prep work and this is very important work. For example, if you are taking a driving vacation you need to know where you want to go before you start driving. In a life transition or looking for your next job you need to plan the transition which includes setting goals and targets. Write this down, like a new business needs to write a business plan, write it down.

    The second part of this step is doing the work of transitioning. Namely, networking, following up and staying positive. We’re going to spend time on the specifics of networking in later blog entries, but for now: Networking makes the world go ‘round!

    Once you’ve talked to people it is essential that you follow up. I once heard that only 30% of people follow up after an interview by sending a “Thank You.” Really, can you believe that?

We’ve already discussed the importance of being positive in other blog entries but it is essential that you stay positive and maintain a can do attitude. Enthusiasm is contagious.

Achievement

    The final piece in the transition process is achieving the goal. However, this is not always crossing the finish line. Sometimes it happens in smaller milestones. For people in Job Search it may be getting past the fear of talking to people and asking for their help. Then getting the first interview and then a second is an achievement. Maybe a smaller achievement will be receiving a NO and getting on the phone to make another call and scheduling a new networking meeting. In time doing the little ones will result in the big one. When you’ve transitioned into your new role, position or job you’re then beginning the whole process again. Discovering the new job or role’s needs. Planning and taking action. Then the next achievement.

Transition: What I am becoming? (part 1)

My brother, a survivor of job loss, recently asked me if I had seen the movie "The Rookie" starring Dennis Quaid. I had and he reminded me of a point in the movie where the star realizes that sometimes you need to do what you were meant to do. What an insight. So often people are in careers because they simply ended up doing the job they do and not because they always wanted be a “fill in the blank.” (Clerk, doctor, engineer, Indian Chief, teacher)

Many of my clients reported this to me as we talked about their career. They share that they

really didn’t have a passion for the job but simply did it because it was the job they had. Often they felt trapped because they rose in the salary structure and couldn’t afford to change. But

now that the job is gone they now had the opportunity to ask the question: “What do I want to do?”

It’s a question of vocation: What was I meant to be? Sometimes, if I have nothing to loose, then I have everything to gain. “I cannot do this anymore so what can I do?" is the question many are faced with. I would ask my clients what they wanted to do when they were teenagers. What keeps us from focusing on the dreams we had as teenagers? The answers to that are as numerous as there are people being asked the question. What’s important to realize is that job transition is the perfect time to ask the question.

One of my heroes is Joseph Campbell, an authority and a life long student of myth and mythology. He once told an interviewer he believed that a success in life comes from following one’s bliss. Doing what you love or what you are best at will lead to success.

As children, we will do what we want, play with the toys we like and ignore the things we don’t enjoy. Then in adolescence things change and we feel like things we do are wrong or don't quite fit… no matter how hard we try to please people we feel inadequate. Somewhere along the way someone says to you… “Grow up, do what you need to do.” "Be an adult!" How sad... However, imagine what could happen if the child heard, “You need to do what makes you happy and makes the world a better place.” Today a person in transition needs to ask themselves, “What can you do to be happy and make the world a better place?” and if Campbell is right success will follow.

So if you find yourself in transition between jobs or another life transition, take a moment to think about what you wanted to be when you were a kid, what really makes you happy and what are your talents. We'll discuss this more in part two.

"Why Me?" Just isn't Important in Getting a Job

There seems to be a common frame of mind in my clients who are going through a prolonged time in transition between jobs. If fact, this actually affects the vast majority of people going through any kind of transition from being let go from a job to retirement.

Over and over people in transition find them selves stuck and growing depressed because they have lost confidence in their ability to achieve a goal. Whether it is finding the next job or learning new role in life, their confidence is shaken and their thinking becomes filled with doubts.

Face it, transitions are difficult. If you were let go from a job, the natural question is, "Why me?" Many of my clients would tell me that they couldn’t understand why they got canned when someone else is still there. I can think of a story from one person who brought in and closed a $4.5 million deal and a week and a half later got the ax. In another client’s story their whole group was released while there was all this work that remained to be done. It doesn't make sense to the person in transition.

It is common for humans to see the world in terms of ourselves. Why me? Add to this the condition that self doubt is a natural element in transition or any kind of change. This becomes a problem when self doubt becomes stagnation especially when coupled with depression.

The sad truth is that most people are laid off for reasons they’ll never know. They lost their job because there number was picked or they were in a department that was believed to be expendable. After talking to thousands of people over the years, I come to the conclusion that nothing you did or could have done would have changed the outcome. Often a person can cite a series of corporate decisions that led cutbacks and layoffs. "Why me," if it was someone else's fault.

I have often told my clients that they were probably right, but that doesn’t matter… it’s in the past and you need to focus on the future. Do not focus on what happened, but focus on what you are going to do to be successful in your transition. Simply, "Why me" thinking leads to anger and/or depression. This leads to all kinds of negative behaviors which will negatively impact your job search.

Dropping "Why me" from your thinking will make a difference. Be positive and let go of the negative thinking that will hold you back. Do the things that will help you have a positive frame of mind which people will see and take note. Focus on your goal and leave the past behind.