Run to Win: Your Advantage in the Job Race
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This is a collaboration between myself and Richard Andrews from Newton Stanley. We set out to record a second version of the Jobswot.com Module 1 podcast which would be set to some slides. This is the outcome and we hope it might be of some help to someone out there.
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Run to Win: Your Advantage in the Job Race
- 1. Run to Win
- 2. Global economics have left many people needing to change their jobs.
- 3. You want to find a new role that you can enjoy.
- 4. You feel as though the odds are against you in finding a new job.
- 5. You’d like to find a way to beat the odds and get a great job.
- 6. Get ready, set, and goonto win the job race.
- 7. 1 Get control over your emotionsand focus on the things that you can do.
- 8. Accept that the feelings change generates are similar for most people.
- 9. Understand where you are on the transition curve. Acceptance Anger Reflection Shock Self-doubt Resolve Denial Apathy
- 10. Let go of the past and start to focus on the future.
- 11. Move outside your comfort zone and try something fresh.
- 12. Grasp the initiative and choose your path.
- 13. Accept that you alone are responsible for your life.
- 14. Exercise your freedom to choose your response to each moment.
- 15. Focus only on the things that you can directly influence.
- 16. Visualise the results you want to achieve.
- 17. Connect to your values and the things that are important to you.
- 18. Clearly imagine the legacy that you desire from your life.
- 19. Create your mission statement using left- and right-brain skills.
- 20. 2 Create a strategy to give you the edge in a market flooded with job-seekers.
- 21. Start by acknowledgingboth your strengths and your weaknesses.
- 22. Tackle the market in a way which gives you the fastest chance of success.
- 23. Don’t seek any old job, seek the role that you really want.
- 24. 3 Come first at interview as you engage with your future employer.
- 25. Create a CV which genuinely reflects your abilities and achievements.
- 26. Learn to open doors viaface-to-face, telephone, and web interactions.
- 27. Be first choice at interview by engaging with people in a fresh way.
- 31. 1 Get control over your emotionsand focus on the things that you can do.
- 32. 2 Create a strategy to give you the edge in a market flooded with job-seekers.
- 33. 3 Come first at interview as you engage with your future employer.
- 34. jobswot.com
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to our first module.Module 1 includes: this short presentation an audio podcast by Richard Andrews some quick-reference sheets on some of the key points madeIf you like what you see and hear, then we’d really encourage you to return to www.jobswot.com and check out the other material on offer.
- The reality of 21st century life is that things change quickly.Globally, businesses are always looking to streamline and get the most from their people.Many people seek to adapt to the market, learning to change job to maximise their opportunities and develop themselves long-term.Other people are finding their organisations are letting them go.Perhaps their jobs are being outsourced or simply replaced by technological solutions. Perhaps their companies simply need to operate on leaner staffing arrangements.Whatever the specific situation, the trend is towards rapid change and fluctuation in the market.
- Whatever the reason, you want to make a change for the better.Perhaps you are looking to develop your career.Maybe you are facing redundancy.Or perhaps you have realised that you are in a job which you dislike.You want to make a change – and ideally one that you can enjoy.
- Being aware of the market, and hearing the stories of downsizing companies all around, you are likely feeling like the chances of getting a great new job are slim.In the UK, during 2009, there were some two-and-a-half to three-million unemployed people in a market of half-a-million vacancies. This kind of statistic may leave you feeling vulnerable.The odds don’t look good. How can you get the right job?
- Perhaps you need to find work and you want to get an edge in the search.Perhaps you are in a job, but it’s time to move on – and you want to get something better.We like to think of job-hunting as a race in which you just can’t see the other competitors. Many people come a close second or third in the race each time they compete.You could do with an advantage.You want to come first.You want to get a great job, not just any job.
- Jobswot is here to help people like you.Jobswotting is a fairly simple thing to get your head around.It’s a three-step guide, which focuses on giving you the edge you need:Get readyGet setGo!We’re going to tackle the first step in this module.We’ll give you some pointers about steps two and three too.This means we hope that you can get out of the starting blocks today.
- STEP ONEChanging job is rated by many psychologists as being highly stressful.It’s actually up there with divorce, loss of a loved one, and moving home.Fear is one of the greatest enemies we have to face in life.Jobswotting takes the initiative, shifting the attention from your emotions towards action.Whilst your feelings ARE important, we need to ask, “What are you going to do?”
- No matter how you look at it, finding a new job is a big change.Studies into how we deal with change suggest that we all tend to go through some distinct phases, each with a varying intensity.All of us feel these emotions. We each feel them in our own way.The time spent experiencing each emotion can vary.We are all humans with deep feelings, which are all completely natural.How you feel now is understandable.
- Where are you right now?The Transition Curve helps you to get a handle on your emotions.The intensity of Shock.The slump as we Deny the reality.The roar of Anger.The decline into Self-Doubt, then into Apathy or Depression.Our rising sense of Resolve.Our growing energy as we Reflect The heights and calm of Acceptance.Wherever we are, naming and expressing our feelings is a powerful tool.We can start to manage our way through the transition.
- Once you have accepted the reality of the change, you can let go of the past.You can’t change the past. It’s done and gone.You can learn from it, however.In his novel, “1984”, George Orwell wrote that:“He who controls the past controls the present. He who control the present, controls the future.”Focus on where you want to be.Once you have accepted the lessons of the past, you can apply them today.Once you start acting today, you can begin to mould your tomorrow.
- Doughnuts are a great comfort food.They are also a useful metaphor.You sit in the nice safe hole in the centre, insulated from the scary stuff outside.Our jobs can be like that – a good, safe place.Better the devil you know, some say.Yet the doughy lush niceness around you is a barrier too. It’s protecting you from the things you perhaps fear.It is holding you in.Out there, alongside your fears, are opportunities.Something fresh might be just what you need.(Like a nice salad!)You’ll only know once you give up the doughnut.
- In his, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Covey talks about the habit of Proactivity.He defines this as: Taking the initiative Being responsible for our own lives Accepting that our behaviour stems from our own decisions Accepting our own “response-ability”The core truth is that we are not at the whim of conditions around us.Between every stimulus and our response is the freedom to choose what the response will be.It’s what separates us from animals. It’s part of our human capacity.We can choose our own response.The path we walk is within our power to choose.
- Where you are today is the product of the decisions you made yesterday.This is a hard thing to accept. I know in my own life that it was far easier to believe that my misery in the job I did was caused by other people. It was HER fault that I felt miserable because she’d always be on my back.It was HIS fault that I couldn’t do that task because he’d never trained me properly.And there was some truth in those conditions.Yet I was forgetting that between HER being on my back and the misery was a decision. Between HIS poor training and my poor performance was a choice.I could choose the misery and the low performance.OR I could choose something else.I could stop accepting the bullying behaviour.I could go back and ask for more help.And if that didn’t solve it, I could make alternative choices.It is in our own power to choose how we live our lives.
- Let’s look at that again:Between each stimulus and our response is the freedom to choose.Freedom of choice is like a muscle.The more you exercise it, the stronger it will grow.Today I am going to decide to get out of bed when the alarm sounds.I may feel tired and warm. I want to stay in.But I choose to get up.Tomorrow that choice will be easier.Eventually, that choice will be a habit.Once I can manage getting out of bed at my chosen time I can choose other things.I can choose to cut down my chocolate.I can choose to go for a walk each day.I can choose to say no to that annoying colleague.I can choose to ask my boss for some help.And I can certainly choose to go out and find a better job.Exercise your freedom.Choose.
- One of the other useful ideas that Covey teaches is the difference between what we worry about, and what we can affect.We live in circles – imagine all the things you could possibly worry about.Draw a circle around them – this is your “Circle of Concern”.In that circle will be everything, from the gas bill to the threat of global war.Covey suggests that, although it’s relevant to be concerned about global issues, the trick is to focus only on the stuff that you can actually influence.He suggests focusing on your “Circle of Influence”. This is usually a smaller circle.You can always influence yourself – make the choices that exercise your freedom.You can’t control anything else, but you might be able to influence other people.It’s people, after all, who make their own choices and change themselves.Your sphere of influence is largely defined by the people you know. The more people you know, the more influence you can potentially wield. This principle puts your decisions at the core and your influence over other people right next to it.You may not be able to stop global warming, but you can choose to turn the light off.
- Top athletes report that they visualise the outcomes that they seek to achieve.By doing this, they say, they find themselves more likely to succeed.Architects design buildings long before any contractor gets to go to work on construction.In life, using the power of our proactive decision making, we have the ability to become the architects of our own destiny.If you can create a clear vision of what it is that you want to achieve, then you are a good part of the way to getting it.In the job search, the important thing is to visualise the job we desire.What will we be doing?Where will we be working?What will a day’s work look like in this new job?The clearer the picture, the better.
- What is important to you?What are your values?Are relationships worth more or less than your earnings?Do you have a family you want to care for?Do you have ethical values that you want to preserve?When we are visualising our future job role we need to weigh these values.Are we REALLY prepared to sacrifice honesty for more money?Do you want to be home in time to put your young son or daughter to bed?It’s your decision.
- When you get to the end of your life, will you have wished you spent more time in the office?Sure, we want to work, and earn our way in the world.Yet, so many people sacrifice their dreams and families to do so.At the end of your life, what will your legacy have been?Make sure that your job is a means towards achieving that legacy.Anything that isn’t taking you forward in the right direction is clearly going to be leading you away from your goals.Every one of us aspires to different things.Work out for yourself what your goals really are.
- Western society is very good at being analytical, logical and reasonable.We are, as a culture, very bad at anything else.Our brains have two key hemispheres – the influence of the left- and right- sides.On the left lies this reasonable mind.You need logic and analysis. It’s important.You also need the right-side.This part of the brain emphasises emotion, intuition and creativity.Don’t suppress this part of your being. Tap into it and see what it can add to the mix.How do you want to feel in your job?What things promote those emotions?What do you enjoy?What feels right for you?Is there something you want to create and share with the world?Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” is a brilliant book for discovering more.Tap into your whole mind.
- How you approach the job market will determine how quickly you succeed.We’re not suggesting that without our help you won’t get a job.We are, however, convinced that there are a few things you can do that will speed the whole process up.We have to admit that we don’t have as much time right now to get into the detail of the next two steps. That said, our other modules will give you that detail should you seek it.
- First of all, you need to get to know yourself.There are several self-analysis tools that you can dip into which will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.This is critical in helping you to understand yourself as an asset that others will want to invest in hiring.Module 2 has the details.
- You also need to think about the market you are in.Are you going to follow the path of most job seekers? Apply to adverts? Register with agencies? Upload your CV to the various online job sites?Did you know those are the three least effective means of finding a new job?Will they really deliver you the career change you would choose for yourself?There is another way.Module 4 will discuss approaching the market.
- One of the biggest mistakes that many people make is to apply for jobs until they land an offer.Do you want just any old job, though?What about that ideal role? Don’t you feel you can achieve it?With a little more effort and a properly directed search, you CAN do it.Why on earth would any one settle for second best?Focus your eyes on what you really want.Pursue it. Be relentless.And when you get it, celebrate.
- I remember, when I was made redundant, that the bane of my life was coming second at interview.My CV was moderately successful at getting me invited to that interview.Apparently, I was told repeatedly, I interviewed pretty well too.Yet... I was consistently coming second.Other people – people I couldn’t see and never met – were out-classing me.Looking back on it, there were some very good reasons for this.Those reasons were rooted in my communication style.There are some very real things that you can DO to improve your chances at every step of the process.You can write an effective CV.You can develop telephone and internet skills.But most of all, you need to develop your skills interpersonally.You need to learn how to ENGAGE.
- Remember all that introspection we talked about?You need to turn that information into a CV that genuinely reflects who you are and what you have done.You also really should write the damn thing yourself.It’s just a door-opener. It’s a brochure for the real product – you.Yet it is vital.We really can show you how to make the best of a bad CV.Module 3 focuses on this.
- Many people are afraid of the telephone.Other people really don’t rate tools such as email and the internet.Yet, these technologies can be used to give you a better chance of opening doors to your ideal job.Skills can be taught and learned.Perhaps you’ll take us up on our offer to show you a few things that might be helpful.Whatever you choose, however, remember this:The phone is a tool anyone can learn to use.The computer is your friend.
- Engage.Connect with your interviewer. Build rapport. Listen and respond appropriately.We wish we had more time right now to get into this in detail.The interview is the critical moment. It’s the point in time when your destiny gets decided.It’s not all out of your hands.You really can learn to nudge people into choosing you over everyone else.It’s all just a matter of learning how.Modules 5 and 6 will focus on the interview.
- Let’s recap: is this you?Are you feeling like the chances of getting a great new job are slim?
- Perhaps want to get an edge in the search.Remember, job-hunting is a race in which you can’t see the other competitors.Many people come close second or third in the race each time they compete.You could do with an advantage.You want to come first.You want to get a great job, not just any job.
- Jobswot is here to help people like you.Jobswotting is a fairly simple thing to get your head around.It’s a three-step guide, which focuses on giving you the edge you need.We’ve tackled the first step in this module.You’ve got some some pointers about steps two and three too.You can get out of the starting blocks today.
- Get ready.Take control of yourself.Be proactive.Focus on your circle of influence.Modules 1 and 2 will help you get ready.
- Get set.Work out an effective plan to help you tackle the market.Don’t follow the crowd.Stand out and you’ll discover how to come first.Modules 3 and 4 will help you get set.
- GO!From CV through to interview, and out into negotiation, you can learn and improve.Work with Jobswot to improve your communication skills.Modules 5, 6, and 7 will help you run the race… and win.Whatever you choose...We wish you the very best of luck!