Amongst the biggest challenges professionals in occupational transition have a hard time with is simply turning their time and efforts into career search results, or as we say, monetizing your career search minutes.
True, everyone is networking, linking in, twittering, and fashioning elevator pitches but are these initiatives bringing you what you actually need? In reality, I have been actively using LinkedIn for several years and I wager fewer than ten people have indeed ever cultivated my list and asked for references.
As a career coach, I have listened to numerous elevator pitches, and sad to say they are the same aged idea. “This is who I am, here’s what I did, and this is what I want.”
Employers don’t care! They want to know one thing … How will their life be different by having you in it!
Let me ask you, what will happen if you did the basics in your job search much better than anyone else? What would happen if you made certain every single task was targeted at driving results? Would you create more opportunities and close that dream career opportunity faster than your competition?
Achieving success has to do with monetizing your career search minutes. Every single one of them.
Your intro really must delight them, your narratives need to impress them, and most importantly your defining statement needs to display why they need you more than any other person.
This is a job market in which being good simply won’t suffice due to the fact that there are too many good people contending against you!
Everybody in career transition has hard decisions to make and you need to be making them.
Is your CV robust enough to stand on its own? If it is not, then you need to find ways to make the company want you long before they see your resume.
You also really need to question whether you are proclaiming your skills as much as you can. Experts build brands that draw in opportunities for them.
For example, are you standing up in groups and presenting yourself as a compelling thought leader? As I have already mentioned to several pros, an effective career search is undoubtedly a full-contact activity!
Experts in transition must take a hard gaze at every activity they perform and ask if it’s effectively monetizing their precious time? One trap I see happening is folks becoming support group junkies.
They have their Monday session, their Tuesday evening session, their Wednesday coffee club, and the list goes on!
Imagine you chose to just visit one group a week and you took that spare time to attend another networking event where the individuals who can employ you go?
Let’s be honest … there certainly is a moment to assist and there is a time to ask for assistance!
One of the biggest faults I have noticed is that today people do all this assisting, but they hesitate to seek help in return. Keep in mind this is your life we are talking about and there are people out there who can help you if they just know what you really need.
Now, this last recommendation may surprise you … I want you to take some of your time to play very hard!
Career transition is stress-filled, humbling, and for more than a few, it can be wrecking to the ego, so you really need to look for a release.
What do you imagine would happen if you really try for four and a half days and then afterwards cool off by doing something that revitalizes your mind, body, and spirit?
You really need to experience balance, or the stress will show through when you least want it to.
Here’s to your progress!
The Career Network Club (CNC) is a North American Career Coaching Community that offers pay-as-you-go coaching services for mid to senior-level business professionals. CNC is owned by Curt Skene, a former award-winning training manager for Microsoft, and worldwide founder of Microsoft Skills 2000. The Career Network Club is proud to be the home of the ‘Job Offer Guarantee’ so that business professionals like yourself can Get Hired, Quick and Easy!
PS. I established the Career Network Club to help business pros get employed quickly and easily. Check out all we do to guide you for $85 per week.