I want to share with you something I’ve noticed this time of year for the past 11 years that I have been in this business. To be honest, I see it nearly every day, all year long, but more frequent as the holidays creep up. I usually fill these blog posts with specific strategies to boost your search results, but today I want to share with you something I feel is more important.
Let me start by saying that everybody wants more control. If you take all your personal, career, financial and other goals, everything you think you want out of life, and distill all that down to a single, overriding objective, it is the desire for greater control. Greater control over your finances, present and future. Greater control over your time and lifestyle. Greater control over your kids, etc., etc.
Ironically, as much we desire greater control, we are the ones who give it all away. Every time we say…
- It’s the economy
- It’s the season
- It’s the supervisor who has it in for me
- It’s my co-worker/partner/spouse
- It’s the way I was brought up
- It’s __________________
It’s my opinion that this painfully-arrived-at formula has profound importance. Here it is:
CONTROL = RESPONSIBILITY, RESPONSIBILITY = CONTROL
You see, each and every time we say an “it’s the…” We really DO two things simultaneously: one, we push away a small “weight” of responsibility, and that temporarily makes us feel better, but, two, we give up an equal-sized amount of control. Whenever we deny responsibility, we give up control. Get rid of a “pound” of responsibility, lose a pound’s worth of control.
The Miracle Formula in Action:
Why Does One Person Find a Job in Weeks,
And Another in Years?
Why Does One Person Find a Job in Weeks,
And Another in Years?
I happen to know two people who are very much alike. They happen to have been searching for the same job. One is a past client, and one is someone who came to my speaking engagements off and on, but regularly enough that I am very familiar with his circumstances. My observation is that they are equally skilled in the technical and administrative aspects of their jobs.
The second man, Peter E., who attended my workshops, struggled to find a position. He had little, if any, hiring activity from employers or recruiters.
He kept coming to see me speak off and on for over two years.
The first man, my client Robert L., had interviews even before I finished writing his resume. I was so busy coaching him through interview processes and negotiating for him that I barely had time to squeeze in all of the other skill-building and training I needed to provide him (on networking, finding the right people in the right companies, etc.). It won’t be a surprise to you when I tell you he was hired in about 5 weeks for a senior level position.
Going back to Peter E., when I would talk to him, I would always hear a lengthy discourse on all outside influences that negatively affected his job search; the economy, the job market, the political administration, competition from other job seekers, HR Managers and Recruiters that wouldn’t return his call, etc. The list went on and on. Every time I talked with Peter, I would hear the same list. A broken record playing over and over again.
I acknowledge, by the way, that these factors do exist. I am frustrated by some of them myself. But the issue is not the existence of these factors. The issue is how much control Peter let them have over his job search. Every time Peter recited that list, he shuffled responsibility for his situation, and that temporarily made him feel better. But with the responsibility goes the control.
When I talked with my client Robert, these matters only occasionally came up. Instead, he talked excitedly about the innovative strategies we were putting together to keep his job search fruitful regardless of external factors. He exhibited healthy curiosity and quizzed me about strategies I’ve used or discovered recently that might work for him. And he’d say something like, “I really screwed up that networking opportunity. Let me tell you about the base I missed and what I’m doing about it.”
Robert accepted all of the responsibility for his success or failure, his errors and his achievements, and because he did, he retained all of the control over his job search. And I suppose he still does (even though he’s very happily employed).
So the question I pose to you today is, how much control do you have over your job search? Are you planning to slow down your search activity during the holidays? (Which is a mistake.)
If you ever feel depressed about your search, or feel out of control, the best thing to do is take action. Any action, as long as it is moving you forward. Job searching can be scary or intimidating to the best of us, but
if you assign yourself one small task to accomplish every single day, you will move forward toward that better job that will appreciate your talents and pay you what you are worth.
If you’d like help with your search, you know we’re available here at CRC. Just call our office at (816)600-2478 or email me directly at Tammy@beyondjobsearching.com .
Make this a very productive week!
