Attitude Plus Action Equals Results for a New Job Hunt  

I had lunch with a girlfriend recently whom I haven’t seen for a while. After we caught up on all the latest news with our respective lives, she brought up the topic of her job search. During the conversation, I realized that she was making all of the same mistakes so many of my clients have made while they were looking for work. These mistakes left them, and her, disappointed and frustrated by the results.

If your job search is leaving you disappointed and frustrated, take a moment to consider if you are making one or all of the following

job search is her eclectic background. She has done many different things in many diverse industries, so when hiring managers look at her résumé, they have no idea what role best fits her skill set.

This left her frustrated, and she let this frustration show during networking meetings, email communications, and even in interviews. She displayed the classic symptoms of a negative relationship with herself, and kept replaying her discouraging mistakes:

Attitude Isn’t Everything, but it Is the Foundation

One reason my friend is having difficulty in her story like a broken record that keeps repeating.  She didn’t realize she was sinking her own ship with a negative attitude.

The story you believe about yourself is woven into every aspect of your business and life, creating a colorful tapestry of patterns and textures. Each fiber represents an element of your personality, behaviors, choices, and values. When was the last time you slowed down, paid attention to, and were consciously aware of, the textures and patterns of your story?

If you are not intentionally setting yourself up for success, you are unintentionally setting yourself up for failure. You need to be on your A-game when you are interacting with others–all others, not just recruiters, hiring managers, or networking contacts–or else you may be repelling a great potential contact. Check your attitude and invest in the most important relationship you’ll ever develop: the one with yourself.

Be Clear About Your Goal

My friend is accustomed to earning a six-figure salary, and I know what kind of projects she’s worked on; therefore, I know she is highly skilled at creating and implementing major strategic initiatives. So when I asked her to describe her job-search strategy, my jaw dropped when she told me she was just looking at job boards every day. This is not a strategy; it’s an activity, and an ineffective one, at that. An effective career strategy is a goal with a step-by-step plan to achieve it.

The purpose of a job-search strategy is to develop some guideposts and filters to make your search more discerning and less time-consuming. Your job search strategy should include the following:

• • Objective
  • Positioning statement
  • Salary requirements
  • Target market
  • Geography
  • Company size
  • Industry or industries (in order of preference)
  • Organizational culture

When you begin to put your strategy together, you naturally discover some decision-making factors that you’ll use when considering available opportunities. This will help you determine the positions that best fit what you’re looking for.

Figure Out Your Why

So often we set goals–the “what”–without giving much thought to the “why.” My girlfriend was conflicted–on one hand, she said she’s frustrated that people don’t know where to utilize her experience, but on the other, she says she doesn’t even need a job because her fiancé makes enough money to support her. When I asked her why she even wants to work, she said it was about feeling independent, in control, and maintaining her identity as an individual. She needed to recognize this “why” in order to determine her “what.”

In your job search, it’s even more important to identify why you want to achieve your goal than it is to decide what the goal itself is. Clearly articulating your “why” will help you align your actions and behaviors with your beliefs and motivators.

A solid job-search strategy requires the right attitude, a step-by-step plan, and a clear purpose. If you do these things, you will find yourself on the path to the right job for you.