Your Career Path: Are You Thriving Or Just Surviving?

Zombie Survival Guide, a photo by jronaldlee on Flickr.

You might say that the choices we often make in selecting our jobs—or in changing them—are indicators of the economy and the current job market. It’s easy to attribute our lack of ambition to outside forces. In other words, we are comfortable because, simply put, we are working.

This is what survival mode looks like. With a stable job we think we know better than to take a chance on accepting a new one. And so we hunker down.

But does survival mode mean that you should live with the likelihood of never improving your career? Shouldn’t you still try?

Ambition = Good. Mediocrity = Bad?  Believe it or not, this is not a hard and fast rule. If you’re currently out of work, taking a downscaled job that merely pays the bills can be a good option. If you’re good at budgeting your time, you can dedicate some of your week to a menial job while you are networking and seeking out a better job--without the guilt. Paying off a few bills can boost your confidence while you look for your next big career move.

Don’t make reactionary career choices.  In survival mode, you’re working at your current job but your radar is up for new opportunities. It’s very easy to jump too fast into accepting a new job offer. Perhaps the pay is a little bit higher, the commute is a little shorter or the new boss seems a little less toxic than your current one. As you consider your next offer, I’d suggest you ask yourself one important question:

“With this job offer, am I moving toward something I want, or am I escaping from something, instead?”

How does your physical body feel as you consider all sides of the new job opportunity? Are feeling tense, uncertain? Or do you feel peaceful and relaxed?

Accepting a new job to escape is a decision based on fear. Don’t do it.

Moving beyond job survival mode is a selfish act—but it’s well worth it.  If you aren’t working with some degree of passion or satisfaction, doing what excites you, something interesting happens. Even a level of mediocrity will be hard to sustain. Whether you hang out your own shingle and work for yourself, look at new opportunities within your own company or look at roles in new companies, it’s really important to challenge yourself. When you live beyond survival mode, you live with the possibility that job happiness might just be around the corner.

Switching Jobs? Don't Forget Your Personal Brand

Projects & Dreams for 2008, a photo by the Italian voice on Flickr.

By now it’s no secret that our backgrounds are accessible everywhere. I remind my children, as they prepare for acceptance into college and the working world, that our profiles are embedded into the footprint we leave on every Facebook wall and in every blog response. It is inerasable, and it behooves all of us to watch our written words.

But there’s more that needs to be done when you are seeking out a new job. Yes, avoiding irreverent, political or religious rants is a given. But I’d spend more time being concerned with the written and verbal messaging that will actually enhance your personal brand and get you hired.

LinkedIn profiles should exude professionalism—not desperation.  To figure out what you should include in yours, think about who your audience is and how you want them to help you change jobs. You’ll want to be seen as a Subject Matter Expert, whether you’re a junior Customer Service Rep or the VP of Accounting. With a few carefully crafted lines, your profile should demonstrate how you’ve succeeded as you moved from role to role. Even if you had the job from Hell, find something good that came out of it. At the same time, your profile should also exude warmth, noting your career accolades in a soft-spoken but authoritative way.

I’m on the fence about LinkedIn profiles that include any taglines about how they’re looking for a new role. Unless you’re an in-demand Actuary or Engineer, you’re better off omitting this. Believe me, recruiters and Hiring Managers will seek you out if your skills match their needs, regardless of this extra push. Just check off the subtle box that indicates you are open to new opportunities, if you wish. But the body of your profile should closely resemble a perfect resume—a list of accomplishments, where you achieved them and what you're great at. Include Keywords and a few strong endorsements from present and former colleagues, and your personal brand is established. And don’t forget to add a professional photo.

Don’t stop there—branding should include your cover letters, job applications and networking, too.  It’s important for your brand message to be clear and consistent in every form when you network for a better position. When you get actual face time with someone who can help you find a job, be clear with him about what your strengths are. Don’t tell him about your needs—tell him about the value you can add to his company. You can be more vague about what your desired new role is (so you don’t pigeonhole yourself if that role is unavailable at the time) but feel free to tout what you’ve accomplished so far and how you can make a difference to their bottom line. This is especially important during a 1:1 dialogue, but the same message should come through in your cover letters, emails and job applications.

One exception to repeating the same message is on your resume. The resume should be adjusted to the job you’re applying to. You might have five core accomplishments that will appear in any resume you send out, but their order may change for each new role you apply to. There may be emphasis on specific accomplishments over others.

Most people looking at your resume will only give it a few seconds before they move on to the next one. Tailoring a resume to your audience doesn’t change your strong brand; it just makes it easier for recruiters and Hiring Managers to see you as an immediate match.

Inconsistencies in personal brands are common and recruiters and Hiring Managers see them all the time—cover letters that don’t match up to the conversation with a job candidate, indecision over the level of the role they desire, or even worse, a resume that looks completely different from the LinkedIn profile. This tells the interviewer that you might not have figured out where you belong in your career. Or maybe you’re just sloppy. Either way, your message will be lost until adjustments are made.

In your crusade for a new job, make your personal brand a priority. Hack away at the extraneous parts until you've distilled it down to a message that is easy for anyone to find you. Then make sure you are consistent with that message.

Rainy Days and Your Job Search

Rain, Rain and More Rain, a photo by Elizabeth Albert on Flickr.

Not every day in your job hunt is going to hold the promise of a new lead. There are going to be days when the spark of faith in your ability to land a permanent gig seems like a pretty distant flicker. At the same time, tuition bills and mortgages have to be paid; mouths have to be fed.

How do you sustain faith in your ability to contribute again? It’s pretty clear that in addition to creating a strong job search campaign, you have to work equally as hard at not feeling demoralized by your lack of options.

First, choose to focus on your talents and strengths.  Networking conversations and job interviews are opportunities to leave a great impression with others about your approach to your work. Negativity about the economy pervades everyone’s life these days and believe me, the folks you talk to don’t need to be reminded of it. When negative thoughts about your prospects for work pervade the conversation, Hiring Managers and recruiters can smell your desperation.

Instead of letting these exchanges become places to commiserate about the woes of your job hunt, stay on message with your contacts about how you can solve their company’s problems with your talents. Branding yourself as the solution to business problems has a lingering, lasting effect that will help get you hired.

Try a new tack on your job search. All the time.  Recruiters like myself get involved in lots of research. Looking for specific candidate qualifications, I could easily get caught up in look for qualified people down the same path for hours, and expecting a different result would be ludicrous. And so I change threads—looking under different rocks, to use an old cliché, to refresh my search.

Job hunters need to do the same. Try a new thread for your job search. Deviate from your tried-and-true path and look at a different industry, for a change. Instead of focusing only on finding a fulltime role, consider consulting opportunities or contracting yourself for a few hours to different firms each month, capitalizing on your expertise. Modify your resume for each job you pursue—gearing it to the specifics of the position. You will not only raise your chances of finding opportunities, but you’ll feel energized by the process.

Take a break when you feel hopeless. But make it a short one.  There’s a lot to be said about clearing your mind to stay better-focused on your job search. Take an hour each day to exercise. Make a meal for your family. Or pray. Then get back to work.

Faith and Fear over your job search cannot occupy the same space. The day has only twenty-four hours in it--don’t waste this valuable real estate.