Does your job search feel like a game where the
rules keep changing, or where your chances of
landing the job of your dreams or dud job are the
same?
Creating clarity in your job search and focusing on
exactly what you want is the key to creating the right
opportunities and landing the job you desire.
Here are 4 easy ways to increase your chances of
job search success by establishing clarity about
what you want BEFORE you open any job board app
and start a random and fruitless search:
- Get clear on the job you want. Stop saying you
are open to anything that is a good use of your skills
and talents and create your own job description
based on what you know you do well and what
brings you a sense of accomplishment. Commit to
not settling for less than you really want. Play to win
vs play not to lose. Write it down.
- Identify what your negotiables and non-negotiables are in the job you seek. If working from
home is a must, that is a non-negotiable. If a gym membership seems cool, but wouldn’t impact
your decision to take the job, that is a negotiable. You can’t draw the line on what is not a good
match for you if you have not identified it yourself. Write these down.
- Mine your accomplishments: the number of new clients you brought in last year, how many
junior team members you mentored to promotions, money you saved, revenue you gained, or
what an absolute delight you are to work with, so that people credit you with improving morale
in the (virtual) office. Write them down.
- Get your elevator pitch down pat. This is as important for you as it is for the people you
share it with. Having to condense your “who I am, what I do, what my area of expertise is, and
what I am looking for/call to action” in approximately one minute is empowering and forces
you to weed out the blah, blah, blah that muddies your statement and your head. Write it
down and practice it until you own it.
Physically writing down the answers to these topics can increase your chances of success by
more than 50%.
It may seem as if casting a wide net during your search is the best strategy, but the opposite is
actually true. That doesn’t mean not being open to unexpected opportunities that present
themselves, but in the words of the great Tony Robbins, “energy flows where attention goes.”
Not creating focus in your job search causes you to entertain job postings that are not a good fit
for your skills, qualifications, and values, and wastes your time – and worse – draws you away
from the opportunities that are well-suited to you and your goals. Time is money where a job
search is concerned, so creating focus and only entertaining the right opportunities will save
you time and allow you to begin generating income more quickly.
Can you guess what game we played at my house last week that served as my inspiration for
this article❓❓❓
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