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THE
CAREER DOCTOR
JOB-HUNTING?
WATCH OUT - THE BOGEYMAN IS AFTER YOU! |
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Simple
job-hunting is no longer enough. The bar has been raised
and you need to take a structured, strategic approach to
your career writes ROWAN MANAHAN
It
is my considered opinion that job-hunting is for dummies
and that smart people career-hunt. You would never undertake
a journey in your car without a destination in mind –
you would just panic at the first junction – and yet
that is exactly what the majority of people do with their
careers. They identify a direction in their late teens on
the basis of scholastic aptitude and then follow the path
of least resistance in that occupation.
I
advocate a simple, structured approach to career management
which is mindful of the realities (and horrors) of the marketplace.
Unless you were born with the figurative silver spoon in
your mouth, you will have to face and be prepared for:
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Enforced
job hunts. |
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The
bogeyman. |
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Fanatics. |
ENFORCED
JOB-HUNTS
Data from the United States show that the upshot of all
the mergers and hostile take-overs of recent years is that
you can expect to have to change job up to seven times in
your life. Have to. I’m not talking about the moves
that you make voluntarily to better organisations with better
prospects, pay and conditions, I’m talking about seven
enforced career changes.
Seven
times ploughing through the appointments section of your
newspaper with a red crayon in your hand. Seven times rattling
every bush in your network to find out when a job is coming
up in a company you could just about tolerate working for.
Seven times explaining to your spouse / partner that it
has happened … again. Seven times talking to your
Bank Manager about deferring mortgage or other payments
while you secure new employment …
So
fair reader, irrespective of your profession, education
and brilliance at your chosen job; acknowledge and respect
the fact that you need to get good at this thing we call
Career Management. If you are reasonably proficient, you
will succeed at one out of every four interviews. Rounding
up, that means if you face the worst-case scenario of seven
enforced changes, you’re going to have to get to,
and sit through, around 30 interviews in your career. Get
good at this!
Career
Management is not an innate talent – you have to learn
how. Nor is it a frivolous luxury – it has become
a necessity. Nor is it a one-off investment of time, effort
and money. You brush your teeth every day so they don’t
look, feel and smell unattractive and so that they don’t
fall out of your head. Do you think that you career could
benefit from a more-than-occasional polish and flossing?
BOGEYMEN
The Bogeyman is the person who is better prepared than you
to compete for the job that you so desperately want (or
need). The Bogeyman is the person who has wanted this job
(not just any old job, but this job) for the past five years.
He has been networking, training, educating himself, reading
and researching every day. He doesn’t have friends
– he has contacts. He doesn’t have a family;
just a circle of influence. He doesn’t have a social
life; just more entries in his little black book. His CV
would make you weep. His writing style is so tight, you
wonder why he isn’t making a living as an advertising
copywriter or a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
And
why does he do all this? Just so he can beat you hands-down
for his dream job. He has what my mother used to refer to
as “naughty thoughts” about his dream job. Do
you?
Wouldn’t
it be lovely to walk into an interview with a high degree
of certitude? To know that there is nothing that they can
ask you that you haven’t anticipated and prepared
for. Bogeymen have that surety and the result is that they
are out there, raising the bar and setting the standard
for all of us. Fortunately, Bogeymen are rare; I hope you
never come up against one. More to the point – I hope
that, as a result of refining your approach to managing
your career and any job-hunts you may need (or want) to
undertake, you become the Bogeyman.
FANATICS
The Fanatics that I am talking about are the guys and gals
in the very good suits on the other side of the table. Some
of them used to be Bogeymen. But now they have made it.
And they hold your life in their hands.
The
CEOs and CFOs of publicly-quoted companies have to present
to the financial community and shareholders anything from
one to four times a year. The content of these presentations
tends to be fairly dry and repetitive but the delivery has
to be razor sharp. Every time. I have worked with one CEO
who regularly sets aside 40-60 hours per Quarter with his
team for intensive rehearsal and he might double that level
of effort for an AGM or EGM.
That
CEO agonises over every syllable that he includes
or omits from his speech. We listen to the alliterative
quality of his language, ensure that it is not too sibilant,
pay attention to the rhythm of his phrasing. Then we get
into the pace, the pauses, the emphasis he places on a word,
how he’s going to bridge from one idea to the next
…
Now,
just supposing you are going for an interview as Vice-President-in-Charge-of-Whatever
in that company. Just how well-prepared do you think the
CEO expects you to be? I have conducted interviews with
this Fanatic and let me tell you, he fires slipshod, badly-primed
candidates out of the building using a CANNON!
The
guy is a Fanatic and proud of it. And guess what? He surrounds
himself with like-minded people. So, maybe you aren’t
quite ready for the VP job just yet. Maybe you are going
for a position three or four rungs down the ladder. In that
organisation, chances are, you are being interviewed by
a Junior Fanatic. I hope you are well-prepared for that
interview, because that guy probably has a cannon hidden
somewhere around his office too …
So learn how to manage your career. It’s usually quiet
in the jobs market in the Summer time, use the time and
spend the effort now and improve the choices that you make
for later. It’s better than having those choices made
for you at a time that may not suit you.
Chance
favours the prepared mind.
Louis
Pasteur
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Rowan
Manahan is Managing Director of Fortify
Services, a Dublin-based outplacement and career management
firm.
Original article here