Complacency is one of the greatest enemies of the mature worker. If you aren’t growing in your role, learning new skills, open to new and better ways of doing things, you can be sure that someone else around you will be. Often people who are caught unaware by a redundancy recognize, too late to save their job, that they have not proactively adapted within their role or have not been attuned to the politics of what was happening around them.

1. Preparing To Search For
NEW JOB

2. Complacency is one of the greatest enemies of the mature
worker. If you aren’t growing in your role, learning new skills, open
to new and better ways of doing things, you can be sure that
someone else around you will be. Often people who are caught
unaware by a redundancy recognize, too late to save their job, that
they have not proactively adapted within their role or have not been
attuned to the politics of what was happening around them.
Conversely, people who want to change their career direction are
often so focused on escaping from their current situation and what
they DON’T want that they overlook the important point of
recognizing what it is that they do want to do.

3. Tony Robbins, the famous motivational
speaker and coach, always asks the
question, “What do you REALLY want?” It’s
a deceptively simple question. Are you
REALLY sure what you want from this next
phase of your career? Take the time to
consider what makes you happy with work,
what you have enjoyed and disliked during
your working life, and what gives you
genuine satisfaction.
For some people, this is the time when they seek the help of a trained professional
career counsellor or coach, while others consult their family and friends.
Family and friends, with the best intentions in the world, are not always the best
people to help you through a career crisis. They know you in a different context, and
they also have pre-formed ideas about what you are good at and “should” do. When
someone tells you “You should do…” – RUN!
What do you REALLY want?

4. Their perspective reflects what they
would choose to do in your
circumstances. That does NOT mean it
is the right thing for you to do. They are
seeing you through their eyes, their
values and their perspective of what
you bring to the world, but no-one
knows you as deeply as you know
yourself.
Appreciate that they are genuinely trying to help you to see your situation
more clearly and they mean well, but also realize that this is entirely your
decision, to meet your specific and unique needs, wants, dreams, talents,
skills and experience.

5. Here are five important strategies (eight really but several of them are variations
of the same strategy) you should consider when preparing for your change of
career direction. If you have kept up to date with the current employment market
then some of these comments will seem trite to you, but you’d be surprised how
many people ruin their chances for the employment they want by not being well
prepared.
1. Know your personal preferences
When I’m working with clients one of the first things we do is establish their
unique criteria for work to be purposeful, pleasant and satisfying. That criteria
then becomes the basis from which we analyze occupational ideas that they have
had or jobs that are advertised.
Give yourself about 30 minutes and work through this exercise.

6. Jot down all the jobs you have had, paid and unpaid, throughout your life. This
may even include work that you did many years ago, or in a voluntary
capacity. Many great clues can lie in the jobs you do when you don't have to do
them, or the jobs you did when you were a young traveller or student. You can start
by asking yourself, “What did I really enjoy about this job? What did I dislike about
this job?”
Do not include only the obvious things such as the sort of work you were doing, but
also the environment, the type of people you worked with, the management style of
your boss/es, the level of stress, the hours of work, and the office culture.
Do this for each job you have had, and soon you will end up with a fairly long list of
preferences. Within that list there will be some patterns emerging. Recognize your
patterns because in them lies the secret to the work that will be right for you.
You will notice that this list doesn’t involve occupational titles, just your
preferences for all the factors that make work pleasant for you.

7. 2. Read job ads from an employer's perspective
Obviously, employers are looking for the best person for their job. Therefore they will
not spend time on applicants who do not obviously meet their requirements. So you
need to become familiar with your local job market advertisements, the language,
keywords used frequently, and how to read job ads to find out what they REALLY
want.
Employers usually describe their preferred candidate profile in their job postings, but
usually what they are really looking for is not directly stated. You need to learn how to
read between the lines.
I suggest to clients that having a pen and a couple of highlighters works well at this
stage of your job search. With the pen, underline the key words, those that really
make you understand what the employer is looking for. Then use one colour to
highlight the areas which match your qualifications and interests, and a different
colour to highlight the selection criteria which match your achievements. If a large
amount of the advertisement is coloured then it is worth putting in an application. If
much of the highlighted area overlapped, that’s even better.

8. Of course sometimes the language used in selection criteria is subjective. When an
employer is looking for a ‘dynamic’ person, what exactly does that mean? It may be
code for ‘young’ or ‘good looking’ because discrimination legislation makes stating
requirements that are discriminatory illegal in most countries. It could be that they
want a dynamic personality who won’t be downtrodden by other more negative
members of staff. Then again, they may simply want a strong vibrant person on staff
for the energy and fun they will bring to the team.
3. Look in all the places that jobs are advertised
You must broaden your search. The days of looking at job ads in a Saturday
newspaper are long gone. In this digital age, internet and mobile technology are
heavily used for job postings. Online sites offer thousands of jobs and such ads can
come and go at any time. Online job boards usually enable you to set up job alerts
enabling you to have jobs that meet your criteria emailed to you. You list the keywords
related to the work you are after and each time a new ad appears in your field it
appears in your inbox. The job ads find you. Hopefully, you are also starting to notice
trends about where and when the jobs you are interested in are being advertised and
the recruitment agencies that specialize in specific industries.

9. 4. Use The Hidden Job Market
Be proactive! Are you aware that more than half of job vacancies are filled without job
ads? This usually happens through internal appointments, people making their
availability known to an organization they would like to work for, and through
networking. Recruitment can be a painful and expensive process so if a good
applicant is available, ready and willing to take the job, the recruitment process is
often bypassed altogether.
4.1 Accessing the Hidden Job Market at your current job
Changing your job may be possible within your current organization. In fact this is one
of the least disruptive ways to change career. You have all the advantages on your
side. You know the ins-and-outs within the organization, and people there know you.
However you need to let the right people know that you are seeking a change of
position within the organization.

10. 4.2. Accessing the hidden job market within your existing network
Networking is a timeless strategy where knowing a person can be to your advantage,
indeed can open doors for you. Let’s say you want a career change, and you know
someone from your sporting club, church, service club or neighborhood that works in
that industry. You could approach that person and discuss your decision to change
career. Just one connection that introduces you to the right people or tells you about
possible opportunities within an organization could be pivotal to your career move.
Of course if you don’t know anyone in your proposed new field you need to spend
time where they congregate so you can get to know them. Join an association, go to
social functions, play a sport or anything that it takes to get to know people in any
industry. Connections with people are often the key to successful career change. So,
network – Connect with people.

11. 4.3. Accessing the hidden job market by introducing yourself
Another alternative is to approach organisations and introduce yourself, in person or
by telephone. There may not be a specific job which they are currently advertising but
if a company gets an impressive résumé from you demonstrating all the attributes
they are seeking within their business, and you have impressed them when you made
contact with them, you could well be the person they call when a vacancy does arise.
However don’t waste your time and energy. Research any company you have
considered contacting to make sure you would like to work for them and you suit their
employment requirements. Don’t send your résumé as an accountant to a firm which
sub-contracts their financial activities. However, if there are companies that
particularly suit what you are looking for by all means make personal contact. Many
managers will file a résumé they like and make contact if a job arises. It’s a win-win
situation because the employer doesn’t have to advertise, and you have an advantage
of them knowing about you if a position arises.

12. When I had small children, before I made my big career change, I decided on the spur
of the moment (it must have been a bad day with the kids!) to send my résumé to
every school in a five kilometre radius of our home seeking a job as a teacher
librarian. I wanted a couple of days’ work each week but didn’t want to travel for more
than 15 minutes as I didn’t want to be far from the child care centre. The very next
morning at a nearby school the teacher librarian carried the Principal’s mail into her
office as she arrived for a meeting to hand in her resignation. She discussed her
pending resignation and left the office. The Principal opened the mail on her desk and
there was a résumé from an experienced applicant – me! Good timing!
4.4 Accessing the hidden job market through LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a wonderful way to develop your network, to connect with people who may
be able to assist you with information, to find out about jobs that are available, and to
raise your profile for employers and recruiters. You are very welcome to download my
guide LinkedIn: How To Crack The Hidden Job Market to assist you with this process.

13. 5. Don't over-reach or use the scattergun approach
Only apply for those jobs for which you are well suited, qualified and genuinely
interested. It seems harsh to tell you that you shouldn’t apply for some jobs,
especially if you are feeling rather desperate for work. However if you are not suited to
a particular job why apply for it? Don’t waste your time!
Always tailor your resume and cover letter for every application you are making. If it is
worth applying it is worth making sure the application is the best it can be. If your
application doesn’t show that you are appropriate for the job it will be rejected at the
first read. You will have wasted time in making the application and a rejection can chip
away at your self-esteem.
In summary it is vital that you prepare for any job search, particularly if it involves
some element of career change…..a new industry or a different role in the same
industry. You deserve to give yourself the best possible chance, so take the time to be
fully prepared.