Be your own best careers coach…I read a book a number of years back called ‘Be Your Own Best Career’s Coach’. It always stuck with me in that nobody is more interested in you and your career than you! People care (of course they do) and help (of course they will), but they have their own challenges in life that takes priority over everybody and anything else. So, when it comes down to it, you have to make it happen by coaching yourself to realize the ideal in a career that meets all of your values and job criteria. How do you do this?
- Know what you want
- Get yourself on paper
- Get out there and get known
- Learn to sell
- Keep going
Know what you want
What do you want to / love to do in a job or in a career that can generate enough income that delivers on the lifestyle that you want? Invest in psychometric tests / profiles, speak to experts, assess whether you are a people’s person, a hands-on person or a mind person. You cannot go anywhere without knowing where you want to go to.
Get yourself on paper
When you have identified your ideal career, you need to get yourself on paper in the form of Target Letters, Cover Letters, Curriculum Vitae’s (CV’s) and Competency-based Application Forms. These documents need to be tailored around your ideal career, the job you are applying for and the organizations that have these types of jobs. These documents are the prospective employer’s first impression of you; it is your personal invitation to want to meet with them…don’t get turned down.
Get out there and get known
People need to know that you are looking for a job. People that you know need to know that you are looking for a job. You need to get out there and get known. The process is called job hunting. You can job hunt in a number of ways, seven in fact; Work with Recruitment Agencies; Use The Internet; Use LinkedIn; Read Job Advertisements in Newspapers & Magazines; Network and Direct Mail / Cold Call Potential Employers.
Learn to sell
Learn to sell is about how you sell yourself at an interview. A lot of interviews are now competency-based, where they require you to demonstrate your skill, knowledge, experience in an area of the job that is important to their organization. Your demonstration is a story told in six parts – the situation, the task, the action, the result, what you learned and what you would change.
Keep going
Whatever the results of all of the above, you must keep going until you realize and land that all important job offer. You will get many ‘No’s and ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you’ responses. Remember the more of these you get the closer you are to a ‘Yes’. This is a project. It could last one week, one month or six months. The more you put in, the more you will get out.
Do it yourself, make things happen for yourself and work hard at it, staying focused, purposeful and determined not to fail…be your own best careers coach…