Don’t let the fear of job hunting rob you of the chance of having a fantastic career, says our resident career coach Eunice Asante.
One of the biggest mistakes I made in my career was staying too long in job roles I knew were not suitable for me. I stayed waiting for the right moment to go, but in reality, I was feeling afraid and overwhelmed by job hunting again. I’ve learnt the hard way that this never pays off.
Unfortunately, this is something I still see a lot of people doing. They hate their jobs, and their work does not fulfil them, yet they stay ‘waiting for the right opportunity’ to leave for something better.
However, if you never define what that something better is - other than more money – and have no clear career goal, that desire to leave for something better may never come.
Take the plunge
If this is you, don’t let the fear of job hunting rob you of the chance of having a fantastic career. Tightening up your job-hunting process so you can find your dream job is key. Breaking down the job-hunting process into small achievable steps is one way to achieve that. Before you know it, you’ll be on your way to your dream job and will achieve the career you deserve.
Start with the end in mind
To prevent yourself from job-hopping without any clear direction, strategic planning, or even developing fundamental skills, you must start with the end in mind. This is the key to successful job hunting.
Think about what career success looks like for you? Where you want your career to be in the next 10 years, and what would be the holy grail of jobs for you.
Once you have an idea of what this is, you can plan backwards. Start working out the job roles you need to secure based on your goal. Or maybe the organisations you will need to work for to develop the experience and skills required to achieve your end goal.
“Career development requires planning, focus and action.”
This may sound simple, but it amazes me just how little time people spend planning for their careers. Career development requires planning, focus and action. If these things are not in place, what happens is people usually jump from one job to another feeling increasingly unfulfilled or stay in a job they hate ‘waiting for something better’ to come along. Once you have defined your end goal, you can start searching for jobs more effectively.
Break down the process
What the process helps you to achieve
These eight steps will give you a profile of what the right job at each career stage looks like for you. This guide will help you to define what you are looking for, help you eliminate jobs that do not align with your goals, and understand which job opportunities are leading you closer to your end goal.
Gain a competitive advantage
Another key benefit of regularly planning in this way is that it helps you identify trends, patterns and keywords within your industry. This can help you when applying and interviewing for jobs.
Using this information and knowledge as leverage during the job application and interview process is invaluable because being able to speak on industry trends, changes and projections will give you a competitive edge.
More help is available
My intention for this blog post was to take it back to basics.
When I work with clients, I help them think through this process, adjusting the questions above to suit their needs and situations. But you can use this as an initial guide to help you think differently about how you hunt for jobs.
Get in touch and let me know if anything has resonated with you. If you have questions or want to know more, contact me at TheWorkersJournal.com.
Until next time happy job hunting
Your Career Coach
Eunice
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