“I need a job, who has time to think and write?”
I hear this every time I am talking with a client for the first time. I get it, you’re frustrated, angry, teetering on the edge financially.
Still, you aren’t excused from doing the heavy lifting that a job search requires... like anything in life, success requires attention and effort be directed at the tedious, unseen aspects of a thing, not just the fun stuff you like better or are good at doing.
“I need a job, who has time to think and write?”
I hear this every time I am talking with a client for the first time. I get it, you’re frustrated, angry, teetering on the edge financially.
Still, you aren’t excused from doing the heavy lifting that a job search requires… like anything in life, success requires attention and effort be directed at the tedious, unseen aspects of a thing, not just the fun stuff you like better or are good at doing.
Assessment Exercises – these are the tedious things that nobody likes doing… it’s like an essay test, and everyone hated essay tests in school…who could blame you for hating essay tests, after all? Who likes thinking deeply about a given concept, and then writing about said concept (and how it relates to to other concepts) in a coherent manner? Give me true / false or multiple choice questions any day, right?
As is sometimes the case, the most valuable things we are given come in the most unappealing packages. Essay tests actually teach us to think about a subject, and then apply our thoughts to the subject in relation to other things… you guys do this all the time in regard to scientific findings, but when I ask you to do it in relation to yourselves and your career / life plans, the procrastination monster rears its head and then your job search stalls.
Oh, I know you are working hard sending out CV’s, and bugging recruiters to call you back, but how much of your efforts follow a protocol, being truly directed by a guiding principle, and how much are random?
You don’t do random things in the lab, so don’t do random things in your job search.
Eliminate random efforts by actually DOING your assessment exercises…take the time to understand yourself, and then draw up a plan you can follow, based on the exercises… If you are my client and you are reading this, get busy and then call me…if you have a different coach, LISTEN to him or her… if you are self directed and can find assessments online, then go find them and DO them…this is much too important of a step to skip.
Thinking about ourselves isn’t always easy…neither is writing paragraph after paragraph based on those thoughts, and then organizing all of this into a coherent plan… surfing the web for job ads is easy, which is why that’s all most people will ever do.
You will only get out, what you put in.
Until next time, I wish you all the best.
Coach Tom
Thomas Patrick Chuna is a certified Five O’Clock Club job search coach.
The Five O’Clock Club is a nationally recognized outplacement firm with a proven job search methodology that helps job seekers get better jobs faster.
The Five O’Clock Club also provides affordable, humane outplacement services to companies who care about the well being of their employees.
Tom is also an experienced independent recruiter specializing in molecular oncology research scientists & MD’s.
Learn more: http://www.fiveoclockclub.com http://www.patrick-international.net
