The coronavirus is accelerating career transitions at all levels, reaching an all-time high in November when 4.5 million Americans left their jobs. For some of us, this change was largely driven by layoffs and layoffs. For others, the loneliness caused by the pandemic has revealed a mismatch between our work and our values.
Some people find the job search exciting. In fact, most of us would probably agree that it is a difficult and emotionally exhausting process. As a result, early career job seekers fall into two broad categories: escapers or gatherers.
Overwhelmed by feelings of fear or confusion, avoiders often shut down completely: “I don’t know where to start, so I won’t do anything.” Pickers, on the other hand, react to similar emotions with manic actions: “I don’t know what I want to do, so I widened my net,” or “I hate my current job, so I’m going to apply.” I am.” In service, all g”.
No thinking will lead you to a positive result. In the case of those who live far away, laziness does not lead to job offers. For pickers, the lack of a clear direction leads you to wander in multiple directions.
To find a job you really enjoy, you need to be clear about where you are applying and why. From my own perspective, I created what I call a career and personal manifesto, the framework for structuring any job search. You can also use it.
This way.
Career and Personal Manifesto
The manifesto consists of three phases:
assessment
To attract
to fillAssessment
A successful job search is simple. All you have to do is find a job that matches your needs and goals. The most difficult thing is to determine what these needs and objectives are.
To get started, spend some time with yourself and evaluate your next steps. Let’s take a look at the six categories below, each containing a series of questions, to help you identify the factors that matter most and least important to you in your next role.
In answer to these questions, think about your past and current job or internship, and the aspects of each role that you love (or really hate) the most.
Environment: In what environments, management styles and working methods do you thrive?
Roles: What roles and growth opportunities are you looking for?
Compensation: What is the minimum compensation you will accept and what is your ideal range?
Skills Acquisition: What skills and abilities does your resume currently demonstrate? Do you want to learn additional skills or gain more expertise in what you know now?
Career Story: How Does Your CV Keep You in the Hiring Market? For example, does it suggest that you are someone who cares about social work? Does this mean that you are good at creating, launching and leading new initiatives? Have you collected logos from "reputable" companies?
On the horizon: Is there a meaningful and realistic milestone that you can achieve in the next 18 months based on your answers? For example, are there attributes you can add or remove from the table?Then use the answers to these questions to complete the job search priority matrix. This will help you determine which roles to prioritize as you move forward in your search.
Rank the six rating categories in order of importance:
Required Subjects: Compulsory - Work without these subjects will not be considered.
Nice: Important, but will not create or destroy opportunities.
No Resources: Required - Will not consider any work with these items.
Don't care: Things that don't matter or begin with.For example, if compensation is the most important factor for you when looking for a new role, it should be at the far left of the matrix. To illustrate how to use this tool, I have provided an example matrix that is populated and classified below. This matrix is for a Junior Consultant who is hypothetically interested in getting a job in the tech industry and who puts the skill acquisition and work environment at the top.
To attract
Once you have worked through the questions and completed the metrics, you should have a clear idea of what you are going to do next. Now is the time to take action and reach out to the people in your network. Discussions are a natural part of the job search process, but you should divide the people you interact with into two categories:
Thinking Partners: People who can influence how you think and move forward (mentors, alumni networks, former managers and coworkers, etc.)
Opportunity Sources: People who can help you identify open opportunities.When asking for outside advice, be careful listening to people’s advice, which I call “facilitation advice”, because they are in your class (an easy trap to fall into). Instead, try to step out of your comfort zone.
It’s best to seek advice from people who you admire, b) have demonstrated the skills and personalities you want to learn, or c) want to (or think) do. After all, who can do better than what already exists to show you the way you want to?
Surprisingly, people of all sizes are friendly and love to offer career advice. There are many channels you can use to connect with professionals. The most reliable and trustworthy is LinkedIn, where many professionals have accounts. If you use this channel, include a personalized connection invitation that explains your goals to increase your chances of a response.
The basic structure of your article should be:
introduce yourself.
Establish legitimacy by sharing the context of your background.
Clearly explain the purpose of your employment, including why you want to contact the recipient (for example, a specific job you've identified at their company, an interest in their industry, or to learn more about their career path). Desire).
Ask to meet by phone, video call or in person.
Using the above example of a junior consultant looking to get into the tech industry, here’s a LinkedIn message they can send to a hiring manager at a company they’re interested in:
hi ok:
I am in my second year as a consultant, working with specific cases including educational agencies. I am planning to go into edtech startups and handshake got me interested.
Can you suggest roles that match my skills and interests?
Appreciate whatever you can provide and we look forward to hearing from you soon.Industries such as technology, media and fashion also make heavy use of social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. If the person you want to contact has a public account, you can send them a public tweet, comment on one of their posts, or send a private direct message depending on your comfort level. Huh. Another option to consider is a cold email similar to the LinkedIn post above. (Several years ago I sent a direct message on Instagram to a woman running a UK fashion and luxury retail practice at a major tech company asking to meet her while I was in London – we did and we still keep in touch are in!)
The people you are closer to will result in a higher response rate. They can be high school or college graduates, or people with whom you come into contact with sports, your hometown/state, culture, gender, Greek life or professional society.
Once the meeting time is confirmed, be sure to send a calendar invitation with all the relevant details to the person you are contacting. You want to make it as easy as possible for them.
to fill
At this point, work with the contacts you made in the step above to identify some opportunities that are right for you and the next step in your career. Review your evaluation criteria again and determine how your job prospects compare to each other.
This is where the Opportunity Priority Matrix comes in. Use it to organize the opportunities you come across and prioritize the ones you really want to apply for. This will save you a lot of research time and effort.
The Opportunity Priority Matrix is a loose adaptation of the Eisenhower Matrix.
Here’s how to set it up:
Revisit the job priority matrix. Which two categories do you consider most important to you? Place them on two axes and evaluate your options to see if they rank higher or lower (meets or misses) these preferences.
The matrix has four priority quadrants:
Focus here: The opportunity in this quadrant is "your dream job." They meet the two most important criteria you've identified, so you should spend the most time researching them.
wastage of time. Opportunities are at the bottom of the most important criteria in this quadrant. They may not even be worth contacting.
Be mindful of the timing: These roles meet your most important criteria, but not the second. You too would like to be free to use these posts.
Distractions: Naturally, you'll be faced with interesting opportunities that don't meet your most important criteria. Try not to waste time contacting them.If we use our initial example of a junior consultant interested in entering the tech industry, we know that this candidate is interested in mission-driven occupations and has indicated in his/her job priority matrix that a Maintaining a versatile skill set and a dynamic collaborative environment are the two most important factors for their next job.
Below is an example of how they might meet the Opportunity Priority Matrix if they are considering the following roles in different companies.
You can see above that job opportunities that provide cross-skill development (such as strategy, partnerships and sales, operations) and collaborative team environments fall into this quadrant. Job opportunities with a specialized skill set and a little collaborative environment fall into the distraction quadrant. Since social mission is also important for this candidate, you will see that companies with mission are best for the environment. Similar positions in non-mission-focused companies are considered environmentally unsuitable.
All companies and positions have tradeoffs, so structuring your metrics in this way allows you to focus on only the two most important factors when evaluating opportunities.
Even for the most seasoned professionals, the myriad of career paths and job opportunities have a calming effect on the job search process. By using a structured structure like this to focus your efforts, you will achieve more favorable results and
