Increase Your Chances To Be Employed (Part 1)

Job Seekers tend to fall into the trap of thinking that Desire + Action = Result. The missing ingredient in that recipe, however, is Right’ness or being correct in the Desire, doing the right Action(s) and consequently, getting the right Result.

In this installment, before we look at the actual search for employment, we talk about the issue of having the Right Desire to get the Right Result.

There is a saying: before you can decide where you are going, you have to know where you are. The same is true for job search. Before we start looking for employment, we need to know what exactly we want to do and what exactly we are willing to do.

Too many people are just looking for a job, and they will say they don’t mind what they do as long as they can get paid. That mentality works when you desperately need cash or a side hustle as they call it. No problem. Whatever will put money into your pocket is fine. But “I am ok to do anything” attitude is a real problem when job hunting because employers are looking for people who fit into their organization. Companies don’t want people who can just do the job (because there are already, too many of them) because they want people who actually want to do that very specific job. For that specific company. That desire to do that job will help the person go on to do well, and that will make the individual a great employee. That is the kind of person that companies want.

So to consider the beginning of the journey:

(1) Know Who You Are

A small percentage of people have a naturally high level of self-awareness. Everyone else has to be coached through the full process of self-discovery. For our purposes here, we are only interested in starting you down a road of self-reflection for professional value. In the most simple terms then, 1 think about which of the following four personality types best describes you: i) Strategic-Creative, ii) Persistent-Detailed, iii) Communicative-Personal and iv) HandsOn-Operative.

Each personality type is exactly as it sounds but to make sure we are on the same page, Strategic-Creative people are the ones most ideally suited to be Architects, Artists, Creators, they are the Big Dreamers. They think mostly at 30,000 feet. The Persistent-Detailed ones are great as Medical Researchers or Audit specialists, or Crime Scene Investigators because they can work small issues over and over again to achieve the desired results. Communicative-Personal people usually end up great Marketers, Salespeople, PR specialists, or CareGivers. They love to work with people, and they thrive on communication. The HandsOn-Operative types roll their sleeves up and prefer to be involved and in the heat of the work and action.

There are specialist tools to determine which of these you are but a cheap and easy way to figure this out is to ask your spouse or your mother which you are. They are usually about 85% correct which is good enough.

(2) Know What You Want To Do

Half of local job seekers have no idea what they want to do, and this statistic is even worse for fresh graduates. Even mid career professionals often have no idea what they want to do, so they just describe what they have been doing because that is what they are used to. But that is not what they want to do.

Wanting a job to earn money is a given, but that is not specific enough. What if you were offered money to do something illegal or immoral? That is still earning money, but would you accept that? Let’s assume you won’t. And that is the point.

A company in central Africa is offering twice the salary you want, but you have to work there. Too far away? What if the company is in Mongolia? You get the idea. Whatever you might say about not being fussy, we all have preferences for what we want to do and what we are willing to do.

You may be embarking on your first job, or your tenth job, or you may be looking for a side hustle. Whichever it is, you really need to know what you want to do, or what you are willing to do. It is the only way that you can secure a role when competing against others who are also vying for the same opportunity. Your drive will be evident, and in a group of lukewarm applicants, the one who is “hot to trot” will stand out when it comes time to choose.

(3) Have A Realistic Plan About Your Career Progression

Recruiters want to know what your future plans are, out of curiosity if not because they need to know if you are just looking to be hired for a short period before moving on. Because they are constantly meeting hundreds of candidates, recruiters’ radar is extremely sharp so they can tell when people are genuine about wanting to work for a specific company. Measuring ambition is also indicative of what an individual might be prepared to do to rise in an organization. Someone with zero ambition is still useful to a company, but their role will be highly limited. Part II of wanting to be something, or wanting to get to a certain position or rank, is knowing what you are prepared to do to achieve that. Having no plan is the same as having no drive. Again, your appeal as a potential employee diminishes.

(4) Look for People Associated With Your Employment Interests

If you are new to your chosen industry, or you have just left that industry, you have to make every effort to maintain and expand your network. The reality of any local market situation is that there might be friends or family members who can help because they are in the company or industry that you are hoping to be involved with. Expanding your network is about being able to attack your employment problem with more people helping you. You should no expect these contacts to apply for jobs on your behalf but they can – and do – provide leads to opportunities that you would never have known about if you did not know them. If one new contact doubles your chances of learning about opportunities, think about what five new contacts or ten, or fifteen new contacts could do for you! Is this a guarantee of definite access to opportunities? No, but the alternative of knowing no-one is a guarantee of zeo access.

(5) Begin (or Continue) to Collect Company and Industry-specific Information

Knowing people who are in your chosen business is a large part of the employment (or re-employment) effort but keeping up with company and industry current events is also vital. Many of those events may not be in the news media, or if they are covered, they are covered badly or wrongly so knowing the real situation is highly valuable as you work on your approach strategy for the target company or industry. If you don’t yet know anyone in the target company or industry, try and find someone who is and the easiest way is to look up employees in LinkedIn. All this is time-consuming work and it may not even generate the kind of outcome that you hope for. However, this is all about effort and great effort comes from high desire so there is really no choice but to work at it.

Were you already doing one or two of the above things? If you have been doing one or two, that’s a great start! But now you need to be doing all five simultaneously. You have to put in the effort to attain even the smallest possibility that you might get a pay-off. Good luck!