Work, success, and meaning at every stage of your career
Building skills on the job
We toss around the term “dream job” casually, and most people seem to think they understand what it means. You should enjoy your work, use your strongest skills, and be paid well. Even in this recession, it’s possible to pursue and find your dream job; it just may take a little longer.
So having a significant gap in your employment history puts you in good company, and doesn’t reflect poorly on your skills or work ethic. Does that mean you should just wait and hope that things get better? There is one sure way to keep busy, expand your network and close up that employment gap.
If you’re in a job search in this competitive environment, you may be feeling the accumulated stress of months of emotional ups and downs. Uncertainty about the future brings its own brand of stress, and having to make do with less as you adjust your family budget to your current reality brings even more. Here are some tips to help you cope and maintain your energy as your continue your search.
Follow up is both an art and a science. Jobseekers who want to get hired work hard at following up on leads and interviews. Here are some tips for effective phone follow up.
After you’ve been job searching for a while, your confidence takes a beating. You may feel invisible; especially if your job search is mostly online, you may feel like no one knows you’re there. It may be tempting to go for comfort over style when you do venture out. After all, who cares what you wear to the grocery store, right?
One of the keys to a successful job search is networking, which can be defined as meeting people you don’t know to ask for something you don’t have. If you’re by nature a shy person, networking can be agonizing. When biologists and zoologists use the term shy to describe animals, it generally means “tends to avoid human beings.” Career coaches define it the same way.
Organizations like WorkSource are there to help with funding education for demand occupations. But that’s not your only option. Many top universities offer free courses online. Education Portal.com ranks several of the best free university courses available for people who want to enhance their personal knowledge or advance in their current field.
In Think and Grow Rich, published in 1937, Napoleon Hill speaks of persistence as an essential quality. He writes, “Without persistence, you will be defeated before you start. With persistence, you will win.”
In Think and Grow Rich, published in 1937, Napoleon Hill spends many pages on discussing your subconscious mind. Hill believed strongly in the power of visualization and your ability to influence your destiny through positive thoughts. He also believed that you must engage your subconscious as well as your conscious thoughts if you want to succeed.
If you are considering a career change, you might want to consider jobs that are brand new. Positioning yourself as a worker in an emerging field has several advantages. Here are three to consider.
Your Work, Your Way 