Monday, August 13, 2012

Seek the Job You Deserve, Not the One You Want

Speaking with a forty year-old job-seeker recently, he said in frustration, “I just cannot find the job I want”.
Sound familiar?
We are often envious of certain jobs and professions that are much more appealing, lucrative, or exciting than the one we have or had.  The job we “want” is very often elusive and, frankly, impossible to land.
I suspect a key reason this is true is that “getting the job you want” is not the correct objective.  Identifying and successfully pursuing the “job you deserve” is the more appropriate, and in the end, the more successful approach.
Adopting the latter objective, getting the job you deserve, involves ignoring job boards, head-hunter calls (however rare they may be), friends’ suggestions and endless networking groupings.  These and other sources will confuse and complicate your job search because most provide opportunities that do not represent jobs that you deserve. They are simply not right for you.
Instead, getting that “right job” involves your decision to adopt a proactive job/career search based on a fundamental belief that there are great jobs within thirty or forty miles of your home that you deserve, not just want.  Jobs that are totally congruent with you and your goals and those of the prospective company.
A job you deserve is a job that is responsive not only to your title, salary, location and other traditional job interests, but leverages and focuses on your personal needs, talents, and yes, your idiosyncrasies.  You gain, they gain.  This requires that you really know yourself.  It requires that you understand your true interests (sales, creative, R&D, operations, etc) thoroughly and your needs (team or solo work, close or remote supervision, general or personalized incentives, fast or deliberate decision-making environments, a traditional or non-traditional work environment, etc) in depth.
This additional critical information provides you with insights into what jobs you deserve at companies where, for a range of solid reasons, you deserve to work.  These are the jobs and companies in which you are likely to succeed, rather than just jobs you want or seem cool.
There are many professional assessment and career action plans available through experienced career coaches.  To find the right one, interview local career coaches.  The right career coach will ensure he/she has conducted the right individual and professional assessments that tightly define the characteristics of the right job for you.  Use this checklist to evaluate positions and companies that appear right for you, ones that you deserve.  Then, contact them and link your needs to their needs.  That’s how business works and that is how your job/career search should work.

Seek the Job You Deserve, Not the One You Want

Speaking with a forty year-old job-seeker recently, he said in frustration, “I just cannot find the job I want”.
Sound familiar?
We are often envious of certain jobs and professions that are much more appealing, lucrative, or exciting than the one we have or had.  The job we “want” is very often elusive and, frankly, impossible to land.
I suspect a key reason this is true is that “getting the job you want” is not the correct objective.  Identifying and successfully pursuing the “job you deserve” is the more appropriate, and in the end, the more successful approach.
Adopting the latter objective, getting the job you deserve, involves ignoring job boards, head-hunter calls (however rare they may be), friends’ suggestions and endless networking groupings.  These and other sources will confuse and complicate your job search because most provide opportunities that do not represent jobs that you deserve. They are simply not right for you.
Instead, getting that “right job” involves your decision to adopt a proactive job/career search based on a fundamental belief that there are great jobs within thirty or forty miles of your home that you deserve, not just want.  Jobs that are totally congruent with you and your goals and those of the prospective company.
A job you deserve is a job that is responsive not only to your title, salary, location and other traditional job interests, but leverages and focuses on your personal needs, talents, and yes, your idiosyncrasies.  You gain, they gain.  This requires that you really know yourself.  It requires that you understand your true interests (sales, creative, R&D, operations, etc) thoroughly and your needs (team or solo work, close or remote supervision, general or personalized incentives, fast or deliberate decision-making environments, a traditional or non-traditional work environment, etc) in depth.
This additional critical information provides you with insights into what jobs you deserve at companies where, for a range of solid reasons, you deserve to work.  These are the jobs and companies in which you are likely to succeed, rather than just jobs you want or seem cool.
There are many professional assessment and career action plans available through experienced career coaches.  To find the right one, interview local career coaches.  The right career coach will ensure he/she has conducted the right individual and professional assessments that tightly define the characteristics of the right job for you.  Use this checklist to evaluate positions and companies that appear right for you, ones that you deserve.  Then, contact them and link your needs to their needs.  That’s how business works and that is how your job/career search should work.