Accelerate Your Search™ Now

 

 

The answer to that question is simple — at least from my point of view.  Landing a DREAM job always depends on:  you, the labor market and what actions you are willing to take.

I suggest you first define what a dream job is for you.  Here is my view of what a dream job is:

• Delivers satisfaction, supports your goals, and its sense of purpose provides
• Realistic growth and challenge, helps you grow as a human being,
• Energizes you more than not, offers
• Alignment with your values, vision, mission, and unique value,
• Moves you to offer the world your best. (TM)

If your definition is similar, I can help you.  Here is a simple 5-step formula to help you land your DREAM job:

1. Determine quickly the direction you will go.
2. Realistically look at your budget, needs, and wants for the long-term and short-term and set a timeline to achieve your DREAM
3. Evaluate your career, who you are, what you offer and the marketplace.
4. Ask for what you want, be willing to accept ‘”No” for an answer, and keep asking.
5. Move forward with intention every day.  Daily focused action is required to achieve your DREAM job and hear, “You’re hired!”

Does it sound too simple?   It is simple, yet it requires real work.

Landing your DREAM job is not hard.  What’s hard is making the commitment to execute each step in the formula and to take needed action daily.

Those who make a decision and take action do land a dream job.  They land what they want — quickly and with less stress.  What are you waiting for?

For decades I have been working with people, in one aspect or another, helping them shape and build sustainable careers.  As an employee, manager, leader, trainer, human resource professional, and executive coach I have seen and helped guide thousands of people toward their dream job or dream career.

Many in the career-coaching world, including me, talk about and encourage others (especially those who find themselves unemployed) to seek a dream job.

Whether you are seeking a new job because you are unemployed or if you are looking to move on from your current position, I find it valuable to define “dream job” so as to create a common understanding.

What is a DREAM job?

A dream job:

Delivers satisfaction, supports your goals, and its sense of purpose provides

Realistic growth and challenge, helps you grow as a human being,

Energizes you more than not, offers

Alignment with your values, vision, mission, and unique value,

Moves you to offer the world your best. (TM)

 

That is how I define a “dream job.”   What’s your idea of a dream job?

I’d love to know.  Hope you will share your thoughts in the comments below.

The marketplace (and world) is full of noise and doubt.  It can be easy to listen to the voices of doubt.  Sometimes the melody of doubt becomes a song to lull you into inaction.  If this happens you may find yourself sitting still in fear.

Change the beat.  That’s right — have the courage to listen to your REAL call to action and move forward with faith.

Everyone desires success and wants life to be easy.  Me, too!   Yes, doubt can set-in anytime.  When it does, if you listen to the long sad song over and over, you will begin to believe it.  That song will be the only song you sing or hear.  Soon everyone around you tunes into your beat and doubts you, too.

You can’t just keep “dancing to the beat” of fussing with your résumé or filling out online applications and expect someone to call you.  Unfortunately, time is not on your side.  Being out of work for a period of time does impact your value in the market and adds to the doubt you have about your next job and the doubt others have in you.

If you are ready to stop making excuses and be back to work soon, it is time to take action!

Where to start?

First – BELIEVE!  Believe that results will come as a result of your actions.  Have faith that you are enough.  By nurturing and believing in your vision you become a magnet for success and prosperity.

Next, feel CONFIDENT in your values, skills and the job you perform.  Be aware of your doubts and negative feelings or you may miss out on available opportunities.

Then you must ACT!

Begin by assessing your network.  Take inventory of the people you know.  Do you need to grow and nurture your current network?  As in any business, inventory is an asset and impacts your bottom line.  Take inventory now.

Create a plan to connect and stay connected.  Who knows you?  Who likes you?  Who trusts you?  What is the best way to connect?  How will you stay connected?

Execute your plan.  Who will you call this week?  Pick up the phone.  Connect with people.  If you don’t have opportunities for a job in your pipeline you need to change the beat and expand your network.

Add volunteering one day per week to your plan.  Do work for any organization that you want and do any kind of work you can.  The work does not need to be in your field or improve your skills.  If it enhances your skills, great, if it does not that is okay, too — you will be dancing to a new beat one day per week.

At the end of the day, the fastest way to stop listening to the beat of your doubts is to decide what results you want and take action to achieve it and dance to a new beat!

This year, 2015, holds infinite possibilities for you.  The big question is, “What will you do to leverage the possibilities before you?”

Will you continue with a flurry of activities with little focus?

Will you continue to do what you have been doing and simply expect different results?

What is your number one goal for 2015?  Have you written it down?

Did you include an “achieve by date” for your goal?

Here is my formula for new job goals:

On or before __<insert date: Month, Day, Year> __ I am happy and enjoying the work I do in my new job as a _<insert job title> __ or better.   I am grateful for this job and the opportunities it provides to my family and me.

It is a powerful tool.  I invite all of you seeking a new job, or a promotion, to use this formula.  Read your goal daily.  Add focused intentional action to find the job you want.  Success awaits you.  Contact me and let me know your results.  I’d love to add you to my list of those who report amazing results.

Accelerate your search, accelerate your success.

Have an amazing 2015!

It’s time to drop the “stuff.”  It’s time to get real, get personal and talk to people.

As you look forward to 2015, no doubt you are assessing what’s ahead, planning how to be more effective and determining what you need to do to land your next position.  And, all that is great . . . however, you also need to drop the “stuff.”  You know the stuff — the time wasters, the excuses and the mask (all those sophisticated ways you are hoping will influence people and help you land a job).

What is the one of the biggest time wasters?  Surfing the web and job boards.  Get started by cutting the time you spend surfing by 50%.

Excuses?  The most common ones include:  a bad economy, your age, or your last salary.  Drop them.  Whatever time you are spending discussing, thinking or worrying about these matters cut the time by 75%.  By doing so, you now have more time to (authentically) talk to people.

Drop your mask and get real with yourself.  Identify your unique value, name it and embrace it.  Then, share your unique value all the time, in all modes of communication.

Next, go where people are gathered and share your value.  Make it your goal to have short focused personal conversations with 200% more people than you did last year.

Searching for a new job can take a long time — sometimes up to two or three years — and many people get frustrated by the length of time it takes.  If you want to avoid this frustration or can’t afford to draw out your search for years you need to –you guessed it — drop the “stuff!”

One of the fastest ways to accelerate your search is to talk to more people.

Bottom line, it takes between 150 and 160 conversations about what you do and your value to land an interview.  If you are only talking to 5 people a week, it will take you 30 weeks to talk to enough people to land an interview.

If you talked to 50 people this week and shared your value and what you do with only 5 people, you missed 45 opportunities.  On the bright side, if you confidently shared your value with all 50 people you shorten the time to land an interview from 30 weeks to 3 weeks.

Want to accelerate your search?  Talk to more people.

How many people will you talk to this week?  Will you drop the “stuff?”

Will you get personal and share your unique value and what you do?

“The most influential person who talks to you all day is you; so you should be very careful about what you say to you.” ~ Zig Ziglar

The Zig Ziglar quote above is one of my favorites.  Age, and what we think it means, is one of those conversations we have with ourselves.  And, that internal conversation can change the way the world sees us.

What conversations will you have about age today?

Will your age conversation center on your schedule, your emotions, or your current stage of life?

Here are a few of the conversations shared with me recently:

• From a new college grad:  “At my age and with a degree I won’t be working weekends in the future.”  
• From women 50+:  “My age, experience and education should allow me the opportunity to not stand all day.”  and “I have always looked old for my age, in fact my youngest grandchild asked me if I was a 100 yet.  Isn’t that cute?”

Yes, there is an “age issue” in almost ever job search — yours.  My experience is that when age is an issue for the candidate, the potential employer picks up on the matter.

Here are 3 things to consider as you embark on your job search:

1.  Age is a perspective.  If you think it matters, it does.  At least it matters to you.

What is your perspective?  Is your age an asset or a liability?  The primary reason others will focus on your age, as either asset or liability, is that you do.

2.  Age as a requirement for the job.  Yes, there are jobs that have age requirements.  However, only a small percentage of jobs have such a requirement.  When a job does have an age requirement, it is usually very clear.

When I hear someone say, “I did not get the job because of my age,” my first question is:  what was the age requirement? My second question is: how do you know?

The answers are very telling.  Often a candidate will share they interjected age into the conversation during the interview.

How do you bring up age?  Why do you view your age as relevant to discuss?

3.  Age is a process of life.  All things age.  The aging process does not ensure experience, knowledge, or skills.  Nor do your strengths or wisdom show up at a specific age.

Age does not guarantee the achievement of results, personal fulfillment, a look or energy level.  At any age you may seek opportunities to gain experience and learn to leverage all that is unique to you.

Telling others you have XX years of experience rarely helps someone leap for joy and assume you can do the job.  It simply states you held a job for XX years — nothing less, nothing more.

If you want someone to value your skills, make sure they know you unique value.  Craft your stories to share the information others need.  Include:   your results, what you have done, what you learned, what goals you want to achieve and how you can help them achieve their goals.

Stop hiding your value.  Be found and be visible.  Focus your conversations on what matters — to you and the potential employer.

You are the most influential person in the room when it comes validating your value.  How do you convey your value?

What conversations are you having with yourself and others?

Every person on earth is unique.  You have talents and skills that lead you to do things in a way that no else can replicate.Embrace who you are.  Stop being plain vanilla.

So many of the people I work with or connect with at workshops make it their goal to simply blend in.  Why?

Blending in will not get you hired or change your career situation.  It will not help you soar, be satisfied, or earn the paycheck you desire.  No risk means no reward.

Why are you choosing the safe route?  What is holding you back?  Is it something you don’t know?  Is it support?  Are you more concerned with the risk or the reward?

If you are creating a resume, bio, LinkedIn profile or webpage it can feel risky to be anything but plain vanilla.  Honestly, sharing my unique value felt uncomfortable to me for a very long time.  After all, telling your story puts you out there in the world.  It opens you to judgment and rejection.  Yes, it makes you vulnerable.

What will people say or think?  Questions will pop up.  Here are some that popped up for me:

• What if they think I am bragging?
• What if no one hires me?
• Will I be among the long-term unemployed?
• What if I can’t find a job except for flipping burgers?
• What will happen to my family? My home?  My pride?  My value?

Yes, telling your story is scary.  But . . . telling your story (and being vulnerable) ALSO created powerful connections.  It helps you share and realize your unique value.

So, what is your story?  How do you share your unique value?

Are you like my client whose “special sauce” is finding substantial ways to reduce expenses while still building a more reliable fleet of trucks?  When he was finally ready to share how his unique experiences shaped his integrity, work ethic and budgeting prowess, he was no longer just another candidate, he was the person the hiring managers wanted to interview.

Yes, sharing information has risks.  Yes, it means being vulnerable.  Yes, it can lead to great reward — personally and professionally.

Still on the fence about personal branding and sharing who you are?  Not sure about branding your resume, bio and online profiles?  Firm that you want to remain in your comfort zone, continuing to be plain vanilla, allowing you and your resume to blend into the pile of 80-100 resumes all seeking the position you desire?

Do me a favor — take these three actions, then decide.  Deal?

1. Ponder this quote by Brené Brown, author of Daring Greatly:

  “Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”

2. Watch this Ted Talk by Brené Brown:  The power of vulnerability

3. Make a list of 3 things:

• The two worst things that could happen if you stopped being plain vanilla.
• The one good thing that could happen if you shared your story and your unique value with a potential employer or recruiter.

If you are ready to stop being plain vanilla, let’s talk.  If you need help or support contact me.  Or if you’re ready to brand your resume get started now.