Most of us have experienced times when we lose our mojo at work. We drag ourselves into work and battle through the day, waiting for the workday to end. Fortunately for most of us this doesn’t happen every day but some people stay in this motivational void for too long.
Here are some steps to help you get out of this unhelpful place:
What’s causing you to be demotivated? It is something at work like your boss or growing boredom with the job? Does it stem from problems at home? Or are the underlying reasons something else like a poor diet and lack of exercise?
Can you change the source of your demotivation and if so, what action will help you change things? Most of the time, we have a lot more influence and control over events than we realise, especially if we call on the help of others when we are struggling. Think broadly and creatively how you can take back control of the situation.
When we lose our mojo, we tend to generalise our dissatisfaction and forget all the positive stuff that’s happening. We get into a negative spiral of despair and unhappiness. Take time to remember what’s going well. What were your recent achievements and successes? What did you do well to achieve these results?
Find solutions to take back control of your situation and regain your mojo. Be courageous and decisive, don’t live with the demotivation. Call on the help of people at work and your friends and family to recover your mojo. Remember that the longer that you stick with a broken mojo, the harder it is to fix as you’ll start becoming consumed by a sense of helplessness. So act now and always remember that it’s your choice to change things for the better.
TalentPredix provides bespoke solutions to help you build a thriving place to work where your people show up motivated to succeed. Contact us for more: info@talentpredix.com
– Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft
Investing in employees’ growth and career progression is becoming increasingly important to retain and motivate high-quality talent. Studies consistently show that career and development opportunities are one of the most important reasons why talented people stay with an organization. Yet, career development is arguably the most overlooked HR and talent priority in business today.
Far too many managers don’t invest time and energy in high-quality career conversations. This leaves people feeling undervalued and undermines engagement, morale, and performance. Some managers even undermine career development and internal mobility with demotivating practices such as hoarding top talent, engaging in favouritism when it comes to filling vacancies and actively blocking the advancement of people they dislike or find threatening.
However, encouragingly, most managers we meet understand the importance of supporting the growth and development of their people. They just lack the framework, skills, and toolkit to provide meaningful and high-quality support. Time is also cited as a major problem by many managers, particularly when top leadership and HR don’t establish career development as a core HR priority. However, the time argument is paradoxical. Without investing time in career development, organizations end up spending a lot more money and time hiring replacements for top talent leaving the business.
So, as the New Year begins, show employees you are investing in their growth and development by applying the following six strategies:
Effective career conversations require time and focus. They should not be reserved for the annual review, as this typically leads to a meaningless tick-box exercise. Rather, you should plan a cadence of quarterly (or at least bi-annual) career conversations that are separate from regular performance dialogues. In addition to these structured sessions, it is important to provide ongoing guidance, coaching, and feedback during your informal check-ins and coaching sessions.
Mentoring involves the transfer of knowledge and wisdom from a more experienced person to a less experienced one. Unlike coaching, which typically focuses on near-term performance goals, mentoring provides professional guidance and insights beyond the person’s current role. As a manager, you play a crucial role in helping employees understand the value and benefits of mentoring. You are also in an ideal position to recommend mentors within and outside the business, who may not be known to the employee.
However, mentoring can be done within the team and doesn’t have to be one-on-one. Peer mentoring and coaching can be powerful ways to facilitate the transfer of knowledge, skills, and insights. For example, you can assign more experienced team members as “buddies” to help onboard new hires. This helps to fast-track their transition into the team and organization. You can also set up small peer coaching groups (groups of 4-6 are ideal) to encourage collaboration, shared learning, and fresh perspectives around priority topics, challenges, or opportunities. These can either be self-managing or facilitated by a skilled external or internal coach.
Many managers make the mistake of providing well-intentioned career advice that falls short of the mark, as it is based on what motivates them, not the personality and motivations of the employee they are typing to help. A vital part of providing effective career support is to understand the unique motivations, values, and strengths of your people. You can do this by asking some of the career coaching questions listed below during career conversations. However, it is also advisable to use an accurate and objective assessment of work-based strengths, motivations, and values such as TalentPredix. This will pinpoint the top strengths of each of your people, as well as what is most important to them at work. Once you have this clarity, you can provide support and stretch assignments that are closely matched with their strengths, potential and motivations. The aim of any great manager is to magnify an employee’s strengths so they can excel in areas where they are particularly talented and energized.
Stretch assignments are one of the most important ways for employees to grow new skills and build confidence to progress in line with their aspirations. But an assignment that is seen as positively stretching by one employee might demotivate or undermine the confidence of another. It is therefore important to pay attention to each employee’s strengths, appetite for challenge and self-confidence. You should also ask them what additional tasks and responsibilities they would like to take on, as well as the support they need from you to succeed. To avoid any confusion about priorities, you will need to highlight to employees that their priority is to perform their core job effectively and any stretch assignment should not interfere with this. Talented employees will rise to the challenge and with your support, work out how to shine in both.
Employees get frustrated and demotivated when they are kept in the dark about career pathways, skills needed to progress and how vacancies in the company are filled. Explain to your employees the skills and capabilities they will need to progress and coach them on how to develop those skills. Create opportunities for them to learn directly from others by connecting them with colleagues in the company doing the jobs they want to do in future. Inform employees about how to find out about upcoming vacancies they may be interested in. Insofar as possible, ensure your vacancies are posted internally before they are filled with external hires. Nothing crushes the motivation of talented people more than seeing roles they believe they can do filled by external hires without being given a fair opportunity to apply for the role.
A key part of your role as manager is to coach and guide your employees to help them progress their career and achieve their full potential. Coaching is a collaborative and supportive relationship involving mutual trust, reflection, and exploration. Through a process of discovery, goal setting, and focused action, it can facilitate better learning, career advancement and well-being. Coaching and supportive behaviours that promote effective career conversations include:
If you want to be a great leader who inspires, supports, and enables people to achieve exceptional results, you need to invest your time, energy, and expertise in helping people realize their full potential. This involves planning and undertaking high-quality career conversations; developing, and honing your coaching, feedback, delegation, and other key people skills; recognizing and magnifying strengths, progress and achievements and acting as a role model by prioritizing and progressing your own development. In today’s modern workplace, where unpredictable and disruptive change is the norm, there are few more pressing priorities than the growth, development and upskilling of the people you lead.
The world of work is changing dramatically, and the pace of that change is speeding up. Career development is undergoing a similar transformation. There are unprecedented opportunities, including new job types, improved flexibility, and the ability to learn in digitally enhanced ways that are personalized to learner’s diverse preferences. However, there are considerable challenges too. Career pathways are no longer straight lines. Steady progression up the career ladder is being replaced by squiggly career paths that resemble an elaborate climbing wall. There are multiple, ill-defined pathways to achieve your goals and initiative, experimentation and constant learning are essential to find your way. Sideways, diagonal, and even downward moves are common. For example, we saw many employees prioritizing lifestyle over ambition during Covid. They downshifted or took sideways moves to spend more time with their families and on leisure activities. But for many, the promise of career thriving still seems elusive, especially in an economy which is slowing and where bills are rising faster than pay. In this volatile environment, here are 7 principles everyone can apply to achieve greater levels of happiness and fulfillment in their career.
Own your career and success
Too many people end up drifting aimlessly through their careers. To succeed and be happy, you need to exercise choice and responsibility over your career. For example, everyone can take initiative by putting their heart and soul into their job to show up and do their best every day. They can commit to doing 5-10% more than what is expected to stand out and attract better opportunities. They can also be a supportive, likeable, and helpful colleague and team player. Each of us spends around 90,000 at work and how we choose to show up and undertake our work is largely up to us. So too is the legacy and positive difference we create. Of course, we can’t control things outside our control such as our boss’ behaviour, the behaviour of our teammates, or the pay rise we get. However, we can control how we respond to negative circumstances, setbacks, and people we interact with. To get the most from our career, we need to take responsibility for it and influence it to our advantage. So rather than being a passenger on the journey, we need to proactively pilot our careers so that we get greater enjoyment from the journey and end up at a fulfilling, worthwhile destination.
Build your career around your aspirations and values
In the modern workplace, the problem for most is not a shortage of opportunity, it is having too much opportunity. Unfortunately, this opportunity is still unfairly skewed towards those from privileged backgrounds. However, we all have a growing number of ways we can make a living. We no longer need to stick with a job we hate or one that provides little fulfilment. This is why starting your career planning and development early is important. People who clarify their dreams and aspirations early have more focus and time to invest in making their dreams a reality. By clarifying what success looks like for them, they stand out and have more control over their destiny, rather than allowing external factors to determine their fate.
As well as clarifying your aspirations, it is important to understand our values and the role these play in helping us to thrive in our careers. Values are the core beliefs that are important to you and guide your life and career choices. Becoming more aware of your values will help you find roles, career pathways and organizations that are compatible with who you are and what you believe most strongly in. For example, someone with a sustainability/social responsibility value might find it difficult to work for a tobacco firm. Values also help us to navigate career turning points, challenges, and dilemmas more effectively. By staying true to our values, we can maintain our internal balance, authenticity, and sense of fulfilment.
Discover and optimize your strengths
Every successful person builds their career around their strengths. Rather than trying to fit in, they work hard to shine in areas where they can stand out. As the famous management guru, Peter Drucker said “first and foremost, concentrate on your strengths. Put yourself where your strengths can produce results.” Too many people waste their talent and energy trying to be like others or even worse, attempt to become all-rounders. But this is a futile mission. There are no all-rounders in the workplace. Every employee has strengths, weaknesses, and imperfections. Realizing one’s full potential comes from building awareness of your innate talents and taking action to turn these into standout strengths that produce outstanding results. This happens when you put in the hard work and practice to build relevant skill, experience, and agility in your areas of greatest talent. Of course, we must also learn to overcome limiting weaknesses to improve our performance and prevent failure. The strengths approach empowers us to explore creative ways to use our strengths to overcome weaker areas and behaviours that may limit our success. Employing strengths-based thinking also promotes greater collaboration with diverse colleagues who have strengths in areas where we are weaker.
Overcome self-limiting beliefs and assumptions
To be successful and happy, we need to believe in ourselves. However, most of us have inner ‘gremlins’ such as poor self-confidence or imposter syndrome (i.e., where people doubt their competence and past successes and live in fear of being exposed as a fraud) that can limit our progress and success. Author and performance coach, Tim Gallway, explains the origins of these limiting assumptions and belief using the metaphor of an “inner game” playing out in people’s minds. He maintains that for people to perform effectively, they need to learn to silence their inner critic and channel it productively into non-judgemental awareness and learning. The best protection against limiting assumptions and beliefs is awareness. Once we understand how these inner critics limit our success, we can develop strategies to change how we respond to them. For example, I was taught as a young boy that to become successful, one should work independently. This narrative become deeply internalized in my psyche and led to me trying to do too much myself, without calling on the support of others. Through greater self-awareness, feedback and mentoring during my mid 20’s when I become a team leader, I become aware of how much this assumption was limiting my progress. I realised that if I wanted to achieve my aspirations, I would need to build and lead teams of people who were stronger than me in different areas.
Embrace learning and growth
Too many people stall their careers by playing it safe and staying within their comfort zone. Others inhibit their learning and progress by being complacent, resisting change, or getting defensive when they receive feedback.
Today’s fast-changing organizations are looking for people who have a strong growth mindset and are open to learning, upskilling and adaptation. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft refers to these people as “learn it all’s”. One of the keys to career thriving is to develop what Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You, a “craftsman mindset”. This involves asking the question “what can I offer the world?” and continuously honing your skills and capabilities to create value, stand out and remain relevant.
Improving your ability to learn and adapt involves the following 4 behaviours:
Invest in building a strong support network
Who you surround yourself with really matters to your energy, growth, and ultimate success. As we have seen from the recent Football World Cup, nobody can succeed on their own in a competitive performance environment. Even superstars like Messi and Mbappe need a strong team around them to be at their best.
To achieve success, it is important to build what we refer to in our training as a Personal Career Board. This ‘board’ should ideally comprise a diverse group of people (including your manager, partner, peers, etc.), each of whom plays a different role in helping you achieve your career goals. These people should ideally exemplify the behaviours and qualities you are looking to develop and at least some should be in roles you aspire to hold in future. Key roles people on your board can play include mentor, coach, encourager, confidant, educator, counsellor, therapist, etc. We always recommend that people wanting to accelerate their progression prioritise finding a mentor and coach (if their manager is not an effective coach). While the term “mentoring” and “coaching” are often used interchangeably, there are some differences. A mentor is typically a more experienced person who offers wisdom, guidance, and experience to their protégé in a less formal, structured relationship. Studies show that mentoring can significantly enhance rates of learning and career progression. Investing in a mentor and other relationships will provide you with valuable insights, support, diverse perspectives, encouragement, and feedback. By building strong relationships of trust and respect with these people, they are also more likely to throw in a good word for you which will help increase your visibility.
Manage your energy and stress
One of the biggest happiness traps is overworking. People who are ambitious frequently become overinvolved in their work. They invest a disproportionate amount of time in their career at the expense of investing in relationships and their personal care, including setting aside time for leisure, sport, relaxation, their family, and friends. This can quickly lead to high levels of negative stress, undermine their mental and physical well-being, and in the worst cases, lead to mental exhaustion and burnout. It is easier than ever to become a workaholic in today’s “always-on” work culture. To prevent this, it is important to put in place habits and boundaries to protect your physical and emotional well-being and life outside work. Habits that will help you to maintain your energy at optimal levels include saying “no” to lower priority tasks, getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night, regular exercise, eating a balanced, healthy diet, taking regular rest breaks, and reflecting on your successes and good things that have happened at the end of each day. Setting and sticking to boundaries to protect your personal and home life is important to prevent work squeezing out other important aspects of your life, especially in a world where the division between home and work life is becoming blurred because of virtual and hybrid working.
People who take control of their careers and do their best each day to grow their career value are far more likely to thrive at work, and in their personal life. By having a clear sense of purpose and building autonomy, mastery and connectedness with others, you will achieve greater happiness, success, and well-being. You will also build the positive mindset, resilience, and adaptability required to seize new opportunities and successfully navigate a fast-changing world of work.
Watch the video below to discover how TalentPredix™, the next generation talent and strengths assessment system, transforms the way you hire, develop, and engage talent, enabling you to improve talent outcomes and unleash the full potential of your people.
Do you like what you hear? Sign up for our next training program here or request your free trial here.
1. How can career planning help me?
Career planning maps out how you’re going to get from where you are now to where you’d ideally like to be. Having a clear vision and goal in mind will help you to identify alternative pathways and actions you need to take to get there. Career planning also enables you to take stock of your strengths and how you can best leverage these, as well as any critical improvement areas you need to be aware of so you can tackle these areas so they don’t trip you up.
2. What support and resources are available to help me plan and progress my career?
You are the ultimate owner of your career and the choices you make. However, there are numerous resources and sources of support you should call on. In addition to your manager and the HR team, you should also put aside time to put together a “Personal Development Board” or group of diverse people within and outside your organization who can assist you with your careers in different ways including providing feedback, guidance and advice, mentoring, encouragement, etc. You can also search for career resources on the Internet and professional networking platforms like LinkedIn that will provide additional tips and guidance.
3. How can I find out more about what it’s like to work in a particular job and/or functional area?
The first step is to find out who is currently doing, or has recently done, the jobs you’re keen to do in future. You can then connect with them to invite them to a virtual or in-person meeting to find out more about their experiences. It is important you prepare some questions to find out as much as possible about the role. Examples include:
4. How can I make the best career choices that take account of my desired lifestyle and personal situation?
[Download full version to read more]
There are many misconceptions about job hunting and how to advance your career. For 5 weeks between January and February this year (2021), I was on my Facebook Page every Wednesday doing live and free coaching sessions, busting one myth per week for five weeks. This was a fun project for me, and at the time of writing over 4000 have watched these videos.
I compiled the best of each of the five sessions to write this article.
Myth 1: The perfect resume and cover letter will get you the job.
The first myth that I discussed and busted is that professionals assume they will get a job if they have a perfect resume and a cover letter. That is not true.
If you have a great resume and hear crickets back, don’t be surprised! It’s not just the resume that gets you the job. A resume is just one of the many things you have to do as a job hunter to progress in the recruitment and selection process.
I have created a free worksheet – The Optimized Job Search Schedule – that you can download RIGHT HERE, where I teach you how to optimize your job search; you will see that there’s a range of activities that you should be doing every day, or every week, to optimize your job search, and move faster towards your next role.
This myth can also be an emotional crutch for you, making you not even looking for work because you believe you don’t have a perfect resume and a cover letter. It can keep you from moving forward or moving faster in your career.
The other problem is making resumes and cover letters that you believe look perfect but are entirely unsuitable to the 2021 job hunting market. A good resume in 2021 needs to be read by humans and by bots. Sometimes a straightforward resume will have better results than a pretty one with a pink side banner and lots of pies and charts, especially if bots do the first reading!
Finally, there is never “one perfect resume” that fits all your job applications. But you can have a master document that will be a framework for you to work from every time you’re applying for a role. You really have to invest time in tailoring and curating your resume and cover letter for the job you are applying for. However, not many people know what exactly needs to be done or how to do that efficiently.
Myth 2: You need to have perfect answers to all of your interview questions.
This misconception is that your job interview starts when you’re sitting at the office or the zoom meeting with the interview panel or recruiter. Nope, not true. Your interview starts from the moment of the first contact.
I’m going to let that sink in for a little bit…
Throughout your career, as you chat to anybody, be it your colleagues, managers, clients, suppliers, neighbours, they will be considering you (or not) for future opportunities and collaborations. Understanding the power of that, how it goes both ways (you have power over other people’s career as well), and how to be responsible and empathetic towards others, as well develop a good professional image over time, is what will make your career sustainable.
But how about the actual interview?
Prepping for a job interview is the most underrated activity of all. Recruiters agree that my consultation service at an hourly rate is a great solution to help professionals when they need it most. But if that’s not something you can invest in, you should at the very least be doing your own interview prep!
And prepping to answer questions in the STAR format will only take you so far. We have plenty of research showing that what comes out of your mouth is only a small percentage of the cues you’re sending out to your potential boss or employer, hiring manager, and recruiter. There’s more you need to train for and get better at doing. Most importantly, it would help if you learned to relax and not let the nerves get the better of you.
Practicing to answer questions in that STAR format takes practice not to sound robotic, artificial, or fake. It would be best if you were ready to adopt a story-telling narrative rather than say something that you’ve rehearsed over and over again because the questions could be slightly different from the ones that you’ve prepped.
Myth 3: You are not ready for a promotion.
The comments that I hear from people that reach out to me are, ‘look; I don’t think I’m ready for the promotion or a new job.’ There have been situations when they’ve been tapped on the shoulders by their managers for opportunities, and they have come to me and said, ‘I don’t feel ready.’ You may be sending mixed messages out there to the world!
Why does that happen to us? Why is it that we don’t feel ready? The voices in your head saying you’re not good enough, you’re not ready… that’s not you! Those voices in your head are called resistance, fear, inertia, laziness, de-motivation, procrastination, and perfectionism.
Please put all of that aside. Then think about what you really want for yourself. Some people want to advance in their careers. They want leadership roles. Others want a job that pays the bills, gives them security or flexibility. Figure out what you want, and then invest in making sure that people know what you want.
Because sending the right messages about your career goals when you’re working with people who can help you get there, is really important.
And remember: You don’t need to be ready to do the job. But it would help if you were ready to take on the challenge. That’s the difference.
Myth 4: There are too many candidates out there, and this is why I’m not hearing back.
Even before COVID, between 60 to 80% of the job applications were not good enough. The problem is if you’re not cutting through, you’re probably in that pool. And this is what needs fixing. So you need to qualify. And the qualification is your online application.
How do you make your job application stand out?
Myth 5: I’m too young or too old for the job market.
We are living longer and getting healthier, even as we age. So it would be expected that professionals can work longer. If you are over 50, you have a lot of excellent experience under your belt. There will be roles that would need that. These opportunities would be looking at trustworthiness, mentoring, and leadership that you bring to a team. So, how can you best highlight those strengths to make your application stand out?
On the other hand, you may think you are too young for a promotion. But these days, information is so easily and freely available to everyone that if you are an up-and-coming rising star and want to excel and have ambition, you definitely have the tools at hand to learn to develop yourself. You can move faster than others, so go for it, if that’s your ambition!
Yes, there is ageism and bias out there. That’s something we can’t control, at least not in the short-term. But I can help clients overcome those challenges. If you feel like there is a bias – and some biases are stronger in some industries and countries than others – you have to be aware, acknowledge that, and build that risk into your job-hunting strategy or your career plans. Please don’t shy away from it. Don’t leave it out of your plan as the “elephant in the room” that shall not be spoken. No, you bring it to the forefront, and you tackle it:
As a coach, I can’t fix your age. You can’t fix your age! But I can certainly give you tips and ideas that will help you overcome the mindset that keeps you from presenting yourself in the best light.
_______________________________________
Renata Bernarde is a Career Coach and Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. You can listen to the podcast in all available podcast apps. Download Renata’s Optimized Job Search Weekly Schedule to create the perfect job search routine to suit your needs, no matter how much (or little) time you have.
Candidate experience is one of the most important aspects of the hiring process. Organizations with poor quality candidate experience can undergo several challenges, from job offer declines to bad reputation issues. James Brook walks us through the process of creating a positive candidate experience.
Click here to read more from HR Zone.
Donna Burr has been a partner in Watermark’s Interim Management Practice since 2018, deploying senior-level interim executives in both private and public sectors. She focuses on CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CIOs, change & turnaround professionals, senior Finance, HR, Operations, Legal & IT executives. She has completed interim management search assignments across various industries, including Financial Services, Government agencies, Peak Member and Regulatory bodies, Not-for-Profit, Healthcare, Energy, and Utilities.
I interviewed Donna for The Job Hunting Podcast recently (episode 71, which you can listen to in most podcast apps). I asked her the most common questions executives have about job hunting, recruitment, and selection. This is what she had to say.
How to identify your transferable skills?
In Donna’s case, she had a mentor point out to her what her traits or superpowers were, which helped her transfer her skills and develop new expertise. But you don’t need a mentor to do that. Here are her tips for other ways to find out what your superpowers are:
Once you get the answers to these two questions, look for patterns. Your superpowers will be in the answers. Then, you need to develop a narrative and understanding of what they mean in terms of skills you can transfer to a different workplace.
Be ready to accept the answers you will get. Those superpowers might not be what you expected or wanted to hear. Most likely, it will not be “leadership” or anything grandiose! It would be best if you took the feedback on with interest and curiosity. Listen and spend time reflecting on it; it’s what people have seen over a long period of time.
What to do when you don’t have industry experience?
What happens when you have been working in an industry all your life, and now you find there are not many jobs advertised in that industry? You need to start looking for jobs in industries and companies unfamiliar to you, but the job title and the responsibilities are within your skills and experience. How do you position yourself to compete with other candidates who have industry or sector experience?
Donna reminded us of something we have heard before in previous interviews of The Job Hunting Podcast “Never answer a prospective employer and tell them, ‘I can do anything.’ This is not helpful. The Tighter you can be about your strengths or superpowers, the more likely it is that people will be able to help you, and an employer will be able to see where you could potentially fit.”
Dealing with ageism when job-hunting?
There are two ways to address ageism when job-hunting:
“Renata, your optimized job search schedule is gold dust!”
Donna and I discussed the importance of a great job-hunting routine to speed up results. If you’re an executive or a job hunter in transition, be disciplined about your week. You need a reason to get up in the morning, a rhythm to the week. It would be best to read the news, map out those sectors you’re interested in and who you need to connect with. You should be looking at your digital profile, your resume and seeking the help that you need. You should be getting out and speaking to people, be it virtually or in person, if possible. Be disciplined about it. There’s no short, quick, fast way to do this.
To help you understand what tasks you should be doing each week to optimize your job search, and choose the best routine for you, download for free the Optimized Job Search Schedule.
For some, the job market is still very competitive. It can be frustrating and demoralizing when you’re getting knock-backs or just feeling like you’re not making progress. Still, be patient, keep the discipline, believe in yourself, surround yourself with people who will help and support you. Donna and I firmly believe that if you do focus on all those things, you’ll start seeing conversions, leads, and opportunities coming your way! You have to put in the hard work. No one’s more interested in you finding a job than you. It’s not the recruiter’s job; it’s not your friend’s job; it’s not your network’s job to find you a role.
________________________
Renata Bernarde is a Career Coach and Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. You can listen to the podcast in all available podcast apps. Download Renata’s Optimized Job Search Weekly Schedule to create the perfect job search routine to suit your needs, no matter how much (or little) time you have.
Whether you’ve been job searching for months or you have just started, I encourage you to press reset, sharpen your focus and go through the list of key success factors below. Make sure you are reviewing and addressing them every day during your transition. I hope that by being strategic and building a healthy job search routine, you will – like my clients – have a shorter transition that leads to the best possible outcome for you in 2021.
Regardless of the magnitude of your career goals: be it finding a similar job or making a bolder career change, the strategies below will help make your pitch crystal clear to recruiters and hiring managers:
1. Understand who you are as a professional and what you offer to employers.
Find out what your strengths and transferable skills are. Even though different sectors require different expertise, they need common essential skills, such as communication, analytical skills, people skills, etc. Please write down your transferable skills and include them in your job search materials, not as a jumble of words, but as the most relevant competencies applied to you. Whether it be an interview, your resume, or your profile, ensure you can speak confidently about the skills you listed and that you have robust examples to back them up.
2. Ask yourself, what industry, sector, and organizations do you want to work for?
If you are unsure where to go next and curious about industries and companies you don’t know, investigate. You can read about them, and most importantly, talk to professionals who work there. Draw on your network, or start building one. For example, you can tap into your university’s Alumni, former colleagues, and friends. Think outside the box, talk to people from different areas and sectors. Then make sure you make these decisions before you start your job search. Yes, you can revisit later. In fact, you should be reviewing your job search strategy constantly. But sharpen your focus on the industries, sectors, and companies before going to market. Otherwise, there’s a great chance you will feel overwhelmed and pulled in too many directions.
3. Once you identify your preferred industry, find out what knowledge, qualifications, experience, and skills are valued by the hiring managers.
Your research will provide you with important clues that you should use to draft your cover letters, resumes, LinkedIn profile. It should also guide the way to interact with recruiters and even which recruiters to interact with. Good sector analysis will help you learn the sector’s language so you can better explain in writing and conversations how your strengths and transferable skills can support your new career transition. You will feel more confident about your prospects at this stage.
4. Find a coach to support your transition or at least a mentor.
It is not easy to shift sectors, and having a mentor can help access information to support the transition. And learning how to play the game and win as a job candidate in a sea of highly qualified peers is a steep learning curve. Investing in help at this stage can shave off weeks or months of unemployment, as well as keep you operating at high performance and low-stress levels. It is a competition, and there’s no way around it. The top players usually have top help. Be one of them.
5. Know your values.
What sort of culture and what kind of organization brings out the best in you? For example, do you work better in an organization where there is a lot of autonomy? Or do you work better in an organization where you’re part of a team? Use the interviewing process to learn more about the organization, the same way they are using it to learn more about you. Values alignment will make a difference in how long you stay in that organization. Don’t just take the first thing that rolls up along the aisle because it could be a disaster. Transitions can be stressful, but you don’t want to regret your move a few months down the track because you took the first offer, and now you’re miserable again. I’m assuming you can have the privilege of making the most out of your transition period. However, if your situation requires you to find a job quickly, then it may have to be first in best dressed. In that case, don’t forget to keep working on your future career steps and don’t take too long to move again.
Keep in mind: success occurs when opportunity meets preparation!
____________________
Renata Bernarde is a Career Coach and Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. You can listen to the podcast in all available podcast apps. Download Renata’s Optimized Job Search Weekly Schedule to create the perfect job search routine to suit your needs, no matter how much (or little) time you have.
Every candidate knows they are going to be asked about their weaknesses. Yet, this line of questioning still provokes deep fear and anxiety for many. They are unsure of how to respond well without exposing their deepest vulnerabilities or coming across as inauthentic. Below are some tips to help you ace this question, ensuring it doesn’t undermine your chances of securing the position.
Be straightforward
Don’t be caught off guard or act surprised by this question. I have interviewed dozens of job candidates over several decades and the worst examples of this I have seen is when people say something like “I can’t think of any” or “Ummm, now let me think… I can’t recall anything specific off the top of my head.” My alternative tip is to prepare for the question and to answer it in a straightforward, authentic, and assured way. Remember that everyone has vulnerabilities and weaker areas so you don’t need to “act surprised” or even worse, beat around the bush or try to water down your response.
Be honest and specific
One of the traps people often fall into is to be dishonest or vague about their weaknesses. They use clichés like “I don’t spend enough time on my self-development” or “I’m a real perfectionist” to disguise their real performance risks. Instead, be specific and totally honest about your one or two biggest performance risks and explain to the interviewer how you’ve learnt to mitigate these risks offering several examples by way of illustration. The interviewer will value your self-awareness and honesty which is what most interviewers are looking for. You will also avoid getting bogged down in the traps of being guarded, vague or defensive or even worse, telling ever-bigger lies to cover up if a savvy interviewer decides to probe your response.
Talk about your overused talents
When your greatest talents are overused, they can lead to unintended negative consequences that undermine your performance and relationships. They also become viewed as weaknesses by co-workers and others around you. Recent studies show that overused talents and strengths are a greater source of performance problems for people than more obvious weaknesses and shortfalls in competence. For example, when overused, understanding others and empathy can become overinvolvement, positivity can become overbearing excitement, creativity can become idea overload and decisiveness can become recklessness. By being aware of your overused talents and sharing these with the interviewer in response to the weakness question, you will be showing excellent self-awareness. Tell the interviewer how you’ve learned to recognise the situational triggers of these overused behaviours and mitigate any negative risks associated with them. This conveys excellent self-awareness and should impress most interviewers who may not even have this level of insight themselves.
Final tips to prepare for this question
For more details on how to design and implement effective job interviews, contact us at info@talentpredix.com