Career search is a very stressful and difficult process. This is even made more intense today because so many companies are reducing their workforce. Thus increasing the number of applicants for a shrinking number of jobs.
The competition for available jobs is fierce. Yet, you can beat the competition and actually search and get hired in the career you really want.
Consider these secrets:
1. Discover what you really want out of your work and life.
Discover your true passions, desires, beliefs, and talents so that you can paint a picture of your true work and life goals from your own perspective.
2. Develop and define the job you really want. Design and define the career that will allow you to fulfill your passions, desires, beliefs and maximize your talents.
What you are doing is building your ideal job around what you want as opposed to looking at job opportunities that come along to evaluate. Believe it or not, the career you are searching for actually exists in more than one way and within the personal parameters you set.
3. Find out what companies have positions that meet your ideal position requirements. Look and research all of the possible companies within the geographical area you designated to discover what positions within these companies you would want. Do not worry about whether they have job vacancies or are currently in a hiring mode.
4. Evaluate the companies that have your desired careers. Make sure you would want to work for the companies that have your ideal jobs. They need to have integrity and treat their employees and customers in the manner you would want to be treated.
Determine whether they operate in an industry that you want to work in.
Research about the career you selected. Do not be put off or discouraged if the companies are not hiring. Why? Because companies are always looking for the right employees and will have to eventually hire new employees to survive.
Determine who actually makes hiring decisions, and what is important to them. Many companies disguise this information through HR departments or hiring committees. If possible, try to find out how you can contact hiring decision-makers directly. Get their e-mail addresses, direct telephone numbers, or find someone in the company who can do that for you.
5. Contact the decision-makers and tell them you want to work for them in the specific career you are searching for. Express your enthusiasm for that specific job or jobs. The fewer jobs you designate the better.
You want them to know you can be trusted by truthfully exposing your commitment to seeking your dream job, even though they may not have an opening.
Let them know that you will be very productive because you will excel at the job. That you will be a very grateful and energetic employee because you are doing what you love. You are not just asking for a job so they will pay you, but you have targeted a specific job at that company, and you are committed to contributing in that position.
Employers constantly face the problem of finding and surrounding themselves with the right employees who want to work for them, whom they can trust, and who will be very productive with the least amount of supervision.
You are not the only one searching for the perfect career to come. There are many others who are still on the process of a career search.
Does your career have a worm embedded in it, destroying it secretly, as you perform the tasks you believe will assure success? Nothing makes standing in a supermarket line more enjoyable than reading the tabloids, finding out some gossip on the celebrity of our choice. And it’s so innocent, harmful to no one. As a matter of fact, it seems the more gossip piled on an individual in those pages, the higher the salary they’re able to command for their next project. But you can be assured, this equation doesn’t apply to you. Gossip not only will not enhance your salary, it has the potential to take it away completely.
I’ve seen it all, wherever people gather under one roof for a common purpose. The common purpose is the employer’s. Everyone else is there to provide for their families and themselves. But so very often, these factors fade in importance to issues that are the shame of human nature, the destruction of the other. I’ve seen individuals attempt to create hardship for others and their families because the person reminded them of a past spouse. Though it offers little solace, if you find yourself the target of a sustained, vicious gossip campaign, you probably possess positive qualities your attackers lack. Jealousy is at the root of much of this. Those viewed as inferior are generally dismissed by the gossip channel as stupid or silly, and rarely generate malice. We all know the value of education, but there are those who will orchestrate your downfall because you’ve attained something they envy. It’s much easier to sabotage someone with an education superior to yours than it is to attend classes, write papers and take tests.
Of course, this possibility strikes many as an unlikely outcome. After all, the more educated you are, the higher you’ll rise in the organization, thus finding protection in your academic efforts.
But companies seldom adhere to the organizational charts that seem so comforting. There is an informal network of influence that can bring you to your knees through the effects of a thousand cuts. Long term employees, some malicious, some bored and in search of excitement, excitement that will not harm them in the eyes of their employer, have created deep cover channels of gossip. These are capable of ruining a person’s effectiveness on the job without him or her ever gaining an inkling of what has transpired. Those engaged in these channels know their effectiveness is dependent on the subject of their ire remaining ignorant. This prevents any action being taken that can either prove the allegations false or worse yet, the victim going to a higher authority, possibly exposing the members of the channel. I know of a case where a director, who was initially viewed as a star, in the course of a few weeks couldn’t elicit a hello from the janitorial staff. It was only after he was a marked man that someone, after a few drinks, took pity on him. Because his life didn’t provide the information necessary to do the job, lies were freely circulated by a number of enemies he didn’t know existed. He was informed that it was common knowledge he met a female employee a few blocks from work each evening to take her to a motel. He was supposed to be having sexual relations with another female employee in his office.
Gossip is the great equalizer in the workplace. Character assassination can dissolve your degrees and accomplishments in the eyes of others, making you far less than those who didn’t bother with an education. I’m always amused when I read an article by an expert in the field of employment who tells you to carefully assess your faults if you’re experiencing difficulty in an organization. The logic underlying such advice is clear. Companies are pristine environments and if you aren’t fitting in, obviously you have a problem that needs to be addressed. I too am familiar with the types of organizations they’re describing. They exist in the grad school textbooks. I’ve never encountered such an organization outside of those pages. And remember, it’s usually the victim that questions him or herself incessantly. Advising them to continue to do so can have negative consequences. The victimizers seldom engage in such soul searching. Their acts, always self serving, are couched in concern for the good of the organization.
Why would an employer allow behavior so contrary to group cohesion to persist. Believe it or not, it does help create cohesion, at least among those participating in the channel. There are other employers who find the supposed knowledge about someone they see everyday alluring. Since others are not aware of the actual gossip, they develop a negative view of the target through complaints about work related matters. Frequently, the group will take a hypercritical view of the person’s work output, going over it with a fine tooth comb. These are the reports that find their way to the employer. This is the reason the person has entered a period of insecurity. He or she has been devoured, carcass thrown to the pavement. Satisfaction permeates the organization for a while, momentary satiation. But they wait in deep cover, on the lookout for a member of the herd separated from the pack, far from the leaders. But patience must be exercised. Complaining too frequently gets you labeled a complainer. The channel and its offshoots lose effectiveness with overuse
If I have learned anything in my thirty years of being a career counselor, it is that spending your life doing a career that you do not love is a waste of time. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that choosing the wrong career for you could be one of the most serious mistakes a person can ever make. Getting accurate career information is hugely important because of this.
Think about it. You will spend thirty or more years of your life working full time. That is a really long time to spend doing something that you do not absolutely love. The thing I hate seeing most is people who feel like they are tied in to a profession that they hate. I became a career counselor to help solve this problem. I love working with college students giving them proper career information that helps them to make informed decisions about career choices.
One of the most important ways to enter a career wisely is to inform yourself with accurate career information. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you discover the truth about any profession you are thinking of entering. The worst thing you can do is enter a career blindly. So take time and find ways to get career information about the careers you are considering.
One of the quickest ways to get career information is to make a meeting with a career counselor like myself. Meet with someone who is knowledgeable about many careers and who will help you find a career that fits well with who you are and with what you value. Whatever career you choose, it must be connected to something you value. It is a terrible thing to get up for work in the morning and realize that you could care less about your job and that it has no real value to the rest of the world.
You can also find great career information by doing an internship or by visiting different careers that interest you. For example, if becoming a teacher interests you, try helping out in a teacher’s classroom for a few weeks and see if it is something you’d really enjoy. You will be so glad that you took time to try something before you made a commitment to it. After all, you cannot afford to keep changing your mind about careers and end up unhappy in the process.
Get career information and be one step closer to having a career that excites you and that fits your dreams and values. There is nothing better than that.