Work, success, and meaning at every stage of your career
Retailers are gearing up for seasonal holiday hiring, and people are asking how to convert their temporary job into a long term opportunity. If you’re considering retail as a career, (and many people are after long and brutal searches in other fields) here are the rules for success.
Barbara Sher’s book, I Could Do Anything, If I Only Knew What it Was, is a great read. Sher takes the time to she reveals how to “recapture long lost goals, overcome the blocks that inhibit your success, decide what you want to be, and live your dreams.” Sher has a formula for deciding what you really want to do (which may or may not be related to what you’re doing now.) Then she helps you plan steps to get there.
Paul Tieger’s Do What You Are is one of the best career advice books I’ve used. The book is organized into chapters on each of the 16 personality types of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI.) Each chapter offers a list of what makes work worthwhile for that personality type. The lists work so well because they aren’t specific to any occupation. They focus on what makes your personality type tick and where you’ll find satisfying work and people who understand you. When I coach people on career transition, I suggest that they focus on these concepts rather than salary and duties. After all, you probably know what the job involves already. What you don’t know s what the team is like – and how well you’ll fit in.
Think about all the information that comes across your desk in a given week. Instead of using things up and throwing them away, take the value that is there for you and think ‘Who else would be interested in this information?’
Brad Raney spoke to the WorkSource Professional Network on September 23. He is the author of “Improve Your VOWELS, Improve Your Career! The A,E,I,O,U’s of Finding Your Perfect Job!”
When we talk about “good” communication skills, we often mean a single competency: persuasion. The art of persuasion, if you have it, means that you can articulate your thoughts clearly and win over opponents. You can write better copy or make a better sales pitch. You can become the top candidate for a job.
The key to a successful job search is to make sure you use all available channels to connect with opportunities. “If you focus on just one, like the newspaper, you’re really missing out. Only about four percent of available jobs show up there.” Joiner says that older candidates (we mean you, baby boomers) are having trouble adjusting to social media as serious career tools; many still consider them time wasters and frivolous activities.
Life and career coaching are multi-million dollar industries in the United States. For those who aren’t interested in paying someone else to get their lives in gear, this is a useful (free!) guide with tips about how you can serve as your own career coach.
Even in this recession, it’s possible to pursue and find your dream job; it just may take a little longer. So here is another step to finding your dream job eventually.
Even in this recession, it’s possible to pursue and find your dream job; it just may take a little longer. So here is another step to finding your dream job eventually.
Step Four: Create long and short-term plans for getting to where you want to be. For this discussion, we’ll define short term as “this year,” and long term as “within five years.”
