I work with job seekers in many different fields.
You all are an impressive bunch! You have helped your companies make massive shifts by solving complex problems, unclogging sluggish systems, and making new and fruitful business relationships.
I find working with you delightful and fascinating. You have what it takes to achieve your goals.
But there’s one area where many of you are blind:
You don’t connect the dots between your genius in your field and the job-search process.
Here’s what I mean.
I recently worked with a public relations specialist who was not getting traction with her applications. As we proceeded through our conversation about what she had achieved so far in her career, she focused on the various duties she had been assigned and how she had completed them successfully.
I pushed her to think about how her work helped her employers and their clients.
Then I asked her to consider something else: What if her job search were a PR campaign? What elements would she emphasize? What would she track to keep herself on target? What would her message be?
This was a breakthrough. Our conversation shifted to the ways she could present herself to target employers. What did she need to show them? What could she ask them to demonstrate that her thought processes aligned with those needed for success in her field?
Her enthusiasm about this way of viewing the search campaign—tapping the knowledge she already had—invigorated her efforts. It changed the ways she approached her interviews. She won a great role, and she continues to impress her boss.
I get it.
A job search is not as objective as a work assignment. It’s about you, and there is ego and emotion involved.
Then, there’s the embarrassment. I often observe that the individuals who work with me approach the job search with a sense of either defensiveness or surrender. They are braced for a difficult process and feel almost ashamed that they now have to admit they don’t know what they are doing.
Shouldn’t they know? They’re adults!
Well, not necessarily. But that’s a whole different topic rooted in our conditioning and we can cover that in a different post.
What I hope to help them recognize is this:
It’s ok. You are entitled to your feelings. And it’s healthy to acknowledge them and take time to let them wash over you until you feel settled and ready to move forward.
But your job search is not a task that is alien to you. You are trained in your field and you know how to manage certain processes and create systems that will help you move forward. All of this is within you.
Looking for a job involves the same reasoning, planning, and deployment skills that you have been using for years. It also involves the same networking skills you have honed since you were looking for a seat at the lunch table in the middle school cafeteria.
More About What This Looks Like
Let’s say you are a marketing manager. Your job is to understand brands and then promote them to attract customers. You have a lot of tools in your box to help you do this, and these can help you promote yourself. Because you are in a sense, a brand. Your resume, your LinkedIn profile, and all materials produced to promote your candidacy are part of your marketing campaign. You can produce additional collateral (slide deck about yourself? 1-page networking summary?) to enhance your efforts and use social media (post on LinkedIn? Create YouTube shorts?) to spread your message.
Another example: a project manager. Your job is to keep the work running smoothly, meet the deliverables, and keep the clients happy. Your job search is a project, too. It has a scope, a timeline, trackable components, and a customer—your target employer. You can organize your search just this way, with Excel sheets or another system to keep yourself accountable and up to date. You can make sure you understand what the employer is looking for, and what problems could be part of their processes, and be ready to ask questions that show you how you approach critical elements in this line of work.
If you are a graphic designer, you are probably already thinking, “Show, don’t tell,” and have created a portfolio with a link to share within your materials. But there are other things you can do: design your resume to showcase your artful melding of form and function; create a LinkedIn banner that hints at your unique style; and develop questions you can deploy during your employer conversations that show how you think through design aspects and consider design problems.
I believe that within each of us is the answer to whatever we are seeking. This includes physical reactions that we have to specific situations and patterns of emotion and decision-making that stem from desires we have not stopped to acknowledge.
But sometimes the answer is more basic. It emerges when we ask, “What do I already know that can help me achieve this next goal?”
That answer is probably the expertise you have in your field.
Use it to your advantage.
It just might be the key to helping you feel better about your job search and helping you win that next great role.
Here’s something you can do right now to jumpstart this process: Contact me at ruth@confidentcareersearch.com. Let’s discuss what you’re trying to achieve. I want to help you engage that part of you that can help you get there!
