I am what some people refer to as a ‘helping professional’. For whatever reason - intrinsically - I care about how others do. So what does this mean to you? Helping professions form an umbrella of
terminologies most often involved in making people feel better, be that physiologically – e.g. osteopaths,
physiotherapists and massage therapists, or psychologically
– e.g. performance coaches, NLP practitioners, psychotherapists and
hypnotherapists. As a Career Development Coach, I dare say I fall into a
slightly separate camp: sociological wellbeing. A field where I help people fit
into society more comfortably; to instil clarity in how a person might make
their contribution to their community whilst drawing upon all of their career
attributes. It is almost certainly impossible to exist without a sense of
livelihood and meaning in one’s life and it is because of this that ‘career sustainability’ and a true sense
of conviction of purpose sustains us over the long haul of a modern-day career.
Every person I have ever worked with has their own
demeanour. They emit a very individual signal to the outside world. They
transmit all of their innate faculties on a particular wavelength that is
utterly unique. Every person we ever meet receives this hidden signal. They
then make a judgement on the basis of the signal they receive. This happens
whether we like it or not. It is part of human nature that we assess people and
situations as we arrive at them. This instinctual reaction is an important
component in our self preservation reflex. We are all hard-wired to ‘fight or
flight’. It is just the way things are. Selling ourselves effectively relies
heavily upon our accepting this fact.
It is for this reason that I wanted to share this blog; in
order to not only help people understand their own transmissions, but to help
them tune in to the fact that we are all transmitters – we smile, they smile/ we frown, they frown. Alongside this self-preserving life skill I also wanted to transmit another, equally important,
signal: when landing a job, what is the path of least resistance? In the
context of career planning ‘the path of
least resistance’, a subject I have written about previously, means:
How do we land our next job in the most timely, painless and
efficient approach available?
You may have seen the excellent animated movie ‘Happy Feet’; a film about a baby
penguin who cannot find his voice in a society where singing is accepted as the
only way to make a contribution. As it turns out, the central character,
‘Mumble’, is a dancer. As Percussionist, Evelyn Glenny, hears through her bottom, Mumble 'talks' through his feet. No penguin has ever danced
and not sung. Without spoiling the plot for you, he endures a painful journey
as an outcast before making a dynamic impact and making his mark in his penguin
community as his inner rhythm comes to the surface.
He has tuned-in to his own, deeply personal and utterly
unique identity. In so doing he has learned how to resonate in society and be
accepted by others. Ultimately, he constructs his self-esteem from within to
integrate himself into society. The trial is that first he had to discover
himself; to uncover where his true skills lie and the put them out to the rest
of the world in order to be accepted. A similar question befalls each of us.
Tuning in to the answer is nothing short of your personal meaning of life! At least, why
each of us, as individuals, are here. ~ Don’t kid yourself this is a question you
don’t have to answer.
In terms of the basic building blocks of society we have all
got to identify where our skills lie before we are capable of selling ourselves
to the rest of society and making our own contribution. To do this effectively, we have got to audit ourselves:
·
What are we capable of?
·
What are our ‘career
attributes’?
·
What kinds of knowledge do we have a preference for?
·
What are our work-related values?
·
How does our personality impact upon our career
choice?
·
What fields am I passionate about?
Once we’ve completed this
foreboding personal evaluation – bear in mind this will be a lifelong task -
we’ve got to learn to package our personal attributes in such a way that other
people will buy-into them quickly, with crystal-clear clarity – just like
tuning-into a music station on the radio. When job-seeking, this can mean the
difference between success and failure and therefore forms the basis of the
most efficient route to market; or, in other words, ‘The Path of Least Resistance’.
Let’s take a look at the radio metaphor again. Radio signals
move in squiggly lines called waves (they’re one form of electromagnetic
radiation on a broad spectrum). The better our radio is tuned into these
varying wavelengths, the better our reception; the more crisp the sound will
be. When we’re on the labour market we are giving-off our own signals in the
form of transmissions, exactly like a radio mast does. We’re radiating our
inner energy outwardly and a tough fact of life is that we ought to feel good
about the signal we transmit!
In the complex landscape of the employment market the more
crisp the signal we transmit, the easier hirers will find it to recognise our
suitability for a particular job. Put simply, if you are failing to get hired
you are either: failing to transmit a clear signal. Not putting enough positive
energy into transmitting your signal. Or your transmission is going in the
wrong direction. Workers in so-called “dead-end”
jobs seem to be the people who haven’t got to grips with their ‘Straight Line’. They given-up on
self-determination. They don’t see the point. It’s in their body language. They’re
not prepared to meet life head-on. They don’t see the greatness that lies
within all of us once we’re tuned-into our innate career attributes. At least,
yet!
Let me recap: The straightest line between where you are as
an unemployed person, and your getting hired, is all about connecting your
clear signal with the hirer’s ‘receiving
dish’ via the shortest possible route.
In the stampede for jobs you are competing in a vicious
marketplace, of that there can be no doubt. I have been there. Job seekers need
to be seen to be conventional, well-balanced and capable workers… at the same
time as being seen as outstanding in a pile of CVs amongst a shortlist of
candidates. This can be a deeply frustrating balance to find for any applicant.
What wins results in my 15 year experience is your passion,
enthusiasm and charisma. Like it or not these are all essential signals to
give-off if we’re going to stand-out in a shortlist. They are all forms of
energy. Visualise yourself transmitting passion, commitment, conviction of
purpose and a real intention to win and you will prevail in the battle to land
yourself your next job. I’m afraid we all need to accept that this process is
all very Darwinian. It is down to “the
survival of the fittest”. This is not intended to be an elitist point,
merely a fact of life that is worth pointing-out.
Beware of going to market prematurely. The job market is
obviously not a bottomless pit of opportunity. We cannot afford to squander job
openings by being ill-prepared. Therefore, don’t go to market until you have a
convincing signal to transmit. Don’t go to market until you understand it
yourself. If you haven’t bought-into it, who will? Self-belief is both your
keystone and your watchword; without it your apparent fear will be a contagion
shadowing your every move.
Carry out ‘due diligence’ on your market sector and seek to
obtain as much information as you possibly can by talking to people in your chosen
field about the work they do.
·
What kind of skills do they possess? What do
they particularly love about their job? What do they hate about it?
·
Which companies operate in the industry that you
want to work in?
·
What kinds of job titles do people working in
your chosen field use to describe themselves?
·
Do these words appear on your CV or covering
letters? Are they obvious?
·
Have you made it easy for The Hirer to visualise
you in post?
·
Have you connected-up all of the dots before you
go to market?
·
What are your ‘unique selling points’?
·
What is your proudest achievement to date?
·
Which are the Top 3 companies you would most
like to work for?
·
How will you answer the Number 1 interview
question: “Tell Me About Yourself?”
·
What is your personal portfolio of success
stories?
·
How will you answer the question: “What is your greatest strength and your
worst weakness?”
·
How will you ensure you build positive rapport
with your Interviewer?
·
How could you shortcut the whole hiring process
and land a job that you love?
·
How do you write a speculative letter to your
dream company which makes sure you get to meet them?
·
What are the ‘insider tracks’ to the hidden job
market?
So, tuning in to your Straight Line is about looking at
yourself and making sure you are damn good at selling yourself before
you go to market and damage your chances of landing your dream job. Your ‘Straight
Line’ is about transmitting important signals confidently. It is about
side-stepping and short-cutting the agonies of orthodox job search techniques.
Preparing your self-marketing material before you go to market takes a huge
amount of the pain out of job search. Rejections are hard to take for anyone.
By tuning into your ‘Self’ and understanding what it is that you do best and
packaging those qualities in a way which makes people want to buy those career
attributes can draw the straightest, shortest line between where you are now as
an unemployed person and landing your perfect job.
My final piece of advice would be a warning: none of the
above are easy. Introspection and self-understanding is an excruciatingly
challenging life task. But every one of us has to do it. Every one of us can
help other people with their toughest life decisions and help others piece
together there self awareness. But as soon we turn the cameras around on
ourselves, it can be like watching a blank screen. The excruciating irony is
that this forms part of the Human Condition. Self-understanding and personal
audit is possibly the most challenging life task we will ever carry out. This
is why using a Career Development Coach can be incredibly helpful in
short-circuiting this very arduous task and easing our way forward.
I go and see Osteopaths, Sports Massage Therapists, Swimming
Coaches, Golf Coaches and Structural Integration Therapists to get my body
performing efficiently. I go to NLP coaches, hypnotherapists and, on occasion,
Psychotherapists to get my mind working at peak performance. I know that aligning
myself is a difficult challenge to do alone. In the same way, integrating
oneself into a vastly complex and ever-changing labour market can often benefit
from specialist information, advice and guidance.
Whatever you do, tune-in-to who you are before you expect
anyone else to.