Today at the gym I pedaled backwards on the elliptical machine. (I can hear you saying "So What, Brenda"). Well let me answer your question.
First, some background: I've been doing the elliptical for awhile - I can jump on it and start moving without much thought. But today was different. For some reason, I can't even explain it, except to say I had stopped pedaling for a moment to re-clip my iPhone back onto my hip and then it happened....I just started pedaling backwards. It was hard, I'm not sure why. I had to really concentrate on it - it felt awkward, I couldn't go as fast, I'm pretty sure I was using different muscles and when I added my arms back in, I felt like I was going to lose my balance and fall off. Other than that, it felt perfectly normal. Amazing how one small change can feel so differently. Kind of like job searching: instead of going to your job, how different does it feel to be looking for a job? Pretty different. And your experience is likely the same as what I just described: you have to concentrate, it feels awkward, the process doesn't go as fast as you want, you're definitely using new muscles and it makes you lose your balance. So don't be afraid of pedaling backwards. I'm fairly sure I felt the same way when I first started on the elliptical - pedaling forward. And you likely felt the same way when you first started going to your last job. Embrace backwards. Brenda One of the criteria I coach clients to look at when they're considering applying for or accepting a position is the fit between them and the organization. But I wonder if there's such a thing as organizational fit. I think there really isn't.
I was remembering back to my last J-O-B in Corporate America and was trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who was interviewing for a position in that particular organization. I concluded the following: An interviewee's interpretation of the corporate culture in that organization would be completely dependent on the person they were interviewing with! So, what is the lesson for a job seeker? It's more important to understand the fit between you and the decision maker, than it is to understand the 'corporate culture' (if there is one). So what to do? We're back again, to doing research, not just on the company, but on the person/people you'll be interviewing with. I can think of hiring managers and V.P.'s at my previous company, who, if presented with the company mission statement and vision by the person sitting across from them, would have said..."Yea, right, whatever." Bottom line: Know who you're interviewing with, and if their approach and values just happen to be aligned with the organization's, great, but if not, you better know what the interviewer's approach and values are first. Brenda I recently was reminded of the Whack-A-Mole game where you hold a hammer in your hand and as moles pop up through a hole, you whack them back down.
This image made me think of how many job seekers use basically the same approach in searching for a job:
Note: I am in no way equating hiring managers or decision makers or human resource professionals with moles. It's simply an analogy. ;) Brenda We've all heard this saying: "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should". I recently heard it again, only this time it took on a new meaning as I started to think about it through the job search/career transition filter. If someone had said this to me early in my career and I looked at it through the work/career filter, it might have saved me a decade or two of unfulfilling, joyless and passionless work.
Just because I could be a Purchasing/Contracts professional, doesn't mean I should have been a Purchasing/Contracts professional. Just because you're good at something, doesn't mean it is fun for you to do or satisfying. Are you doing work or looking for work in a certain field just because you can or because that's what you've always done? I invite you to reconsider a new path, one that will make you excited to get up in the morning. Yes, it's possible. Brenda Like most people, I usually start a new year with some resolutions, though I don’t call them that – I dislike that word. But as a good student of personal and professional development, I know I always have thoughts and behaviors that can use some significant improvement. This year I took the plunge, thanks to a friend’s urging, to join a women’s exercise boot camp. What really got me to say ‘yes’ is the weight loss challenge they are doing for 30 days. I finally dumped all my excuses and convinced myself I can do ANYTHING for 30 days!
So I paid my money, got weighed in and measured and am now exercising and on a new food plan. There are so many lessons, already, that I’d like to share:
Brenda Last Sunday, after a nice family breakfast out at a restaurant, my husband took off on his bike from the restaurant with the intention of riding home. About 10 minutes after my daughter and I left the restaurant we got a call that he had crashed and we needed to come pick him up. We quickly turned around and raced to where he was. When we got there he was a bit shaken up and he couldn’t lower (that’s right, lower) his right arm because it hurt too much. We weren’t sure if something was broken or dislocated in his shoulder and I’m not one to take many chances, so I loaded his bike into the car and drove him to the emergency room.
Hard to believe, but I had never been in an emergency room before. Sure I have seen them on ER and Grey’s Anatomy, but I had never been taken to one or needed to take anyone else there. Unlike the picture in my head, it was fairly low key: no team of Dr.’s and nurses racing around pumping chests and inserting tubes. After my husband was checked in at the reception desk, we were calmly led to a bed a few steps behind a glass door and we propped up his arm with a stack of pillows. 10 minutes later they inserted an IV into his hand, gave him some saline and a pain reliever. 15 minutes later an ER Dr. came by to ask him what happened, explaining he wanted to x-ray his shoulder. Nothing was broken was broken or dislocated. So after 2 1/2 hours they basically sent him home with a sling, a prescription for a pain reliever, directions to ice it and see an orthopedist if it didn’t improve. Now I give you this background, because while I had never been in an actual emergency room, I have served as an emergency room for many a desperate client, who has been bleeding out, having trouble breathing or whose job search was almost DOA. Doing first what I have been trained to do and what I know works, I first stop the bleeding, get the patient (client) breathing and stabilized. In my ER, the worst cases are those who have let their condition deteriorate to the point where stabilization is going to take much longer than it should. It’s not impossible to recover, but it sure takes a long time and the lingering, maybe permanent, effects won’t easily heal. How does this manifest itself in my ER? The job seeker:
Any of this sound familiar? If so, please ask for a ride to my ER (www.Career3D.com). I’ll even come pick you up. So back to my husband’s story, you may have wondered how the crash happened. Well, it was quite simple: he looked back…yes simply looked behind him while riding his bike forward – he thought he had missed a turn. That simple, quick action of looking behind him caused him to swerve and go off the bike path which took him down to the pavement. Lesson learned: to avoid a trip to my ER, stop looking back, keep facing forward, don’t lose concentration on what you’re doing, for even a moment. And if you’re concerned about the direction you’re going or that you may be ignoring more serious health signs, then I’m here to support you. Just like an ER, my doors are always here to help get you stabilized. Brenda I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely feeling the Dog Days of Summer. I’m not a fan of the heat, I’d prefer to sleep in everyday and some chores just feel like too much. I know I’m not the only one, as some of my clients have been hard to locate the past few weeks.
While my lazy self speaks to me in one ear, I’m also feeling the anticipation of what’s to come: vacations coming to a close, this season ending, school starting and the renewed focus the fall brings. Much of the anticipation for me is about cooler weather when I naturally feel more energized. There is a natural rhythm that starts around September. For many people it becomes a time to “get going”. But if that’s what “everybody else” will be doing in a few weeks, what if you got an early start on shaking off the dog days? There’s so much you can get accomplished in the next few weeks that can give you a jump on your goals. So how about it?
A successful job search is often the result of doing something different from what everybody else is doing. So let’s shake off the ‘dog days’ together – let’s enjoy the sandals weather while we can AND put one foot in front of the other to take some much needed action! Brenda Sometimes I come across job seekers who act like a 2-year-old. Because I’ve been through the ‘terrible twos’ I see these job seekers using ineffective strategies, not to mention, needing a personality transplant. (Yes, I have my judgmental moments just like you!) What behaviors do these 2-year-old job seekers exhibit?
So while I don’t recommend the above behaviors, there are some 2-year-old behaviors I recommend you embrace for your job search:
So don’t be afraid to utilize your effective inner 2-year-old behaviors and as any parent of a 2-year-old knows, this too shall pass and at least you don’t play with your food anymore! Brenda In the past few weeks I've had several new clients come to me because they are not performing well in interviews. This is actually a good sign. In previous months, clients have wanted help with their resumes or networking or positioning themselves to get a response. But now the trend I'm seeing is further down the job search pipeline, which is a good thing. If you're getting interviews, that means you're doing a lot of things right: your networking, your resume and your targeting are all being done correctly.
But then....you're blowing it in the interview. And as we all know, you can't un-ring a bell, or can you? Interviewing is simply a pass/fail proposition: either you're moving on to the next phase of the hiring process, or you're not. If you've rung a bell you didn't mean to ring, most times the interviewer will automatically file you in the 'no' category and there's no going back. There are several factors why this is: 1) The caliber of candidates is high 2) Candidates are well-prepared for a 'normal' interview process 3) Organizations and hiring professionals don't have the time to give candidates 'the benefit of the doubt' 4) Hiring professionals believe they are going to find the 'perfect' candidate and... 5) The interviewer is willing to wait in this economy for the 'perfect' candidate to show up However, there is one BIG caveat to the above factors: these factors only come into play when there is no real connection made during the interview conversation. If there is a connection made between the interviewer and interviewee, i.e. the interviewee has positioned them self as 'likeable' in the eyes of the interviewer, then there may be several bells the interviewee can ring without automatically going into the 'no' pile. So, the only way to un-ring the bell is to make a connection with the interviewer and be likeable. Am I suggesting you don't prepare properly? Absolutely not. Try not to ring the bell in the first place, but if you do, know that all is not lost, unless you fail to make a connection. Brenda I recently had a conversation with a client who I had worked with a short time - we had gone over some of the foundational work of a job search regarding direction, introduction statements and resume work. She came on our last call and said she had a conversation with someone who asked her about the kind of work she was looking for. As she characterized it "I sounded like a babbling idiot." Then she said to me: "I now understand why you asked me to prepare and practice this statement."
Aahh haah, the light bulb moment - I love it! Don't get me wrong, I don't like having clients say they sounded like a "babbling idiot", but I DO like having a teachable moment regarding my mantra: It's not about the information you have, it's what you DO with the information...the action you take. So, my question for you is: What information do you have that you need to take action on? It's great to have light bulb moments, but not at the expense of risking an opportunity. Luckily, my client's conversation was not with someone who had an actual job possibility for her. So don't risk it! Take the action now and save your 'light bulb moments' for some other non-job-search lesson! Brenda |
Brenda CodyJob Search and Career Strategist who hopes I have written something you'll find useful. Archives
August 2014
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