THE CAREER DOCTOR CHANCE FAVOURS THE PREPARED MIND IN THE TOUGH WORLD OF JOB-HUNTING

In this extract from his career management handbook Where's My Oasis?, the author introduces the fundamental principles of job-hunting and career management

PHILIP K DICK once said, "Reality is what refuses to go away when I stop believing in it." There is no denying that the business of finding, getting and holding on to a job has become increasingly difficult. The post-war covenant of the 'job-for-life' has been irrevocably broken in the private sector and the papers are full of articles stating that no one can afford to live on a Public Service salary these days. So where does that leave you?

Well, a good starting point is to accept the realities of the marketplace, generate an understanding of how that marketplace goes about hiring, and build your approach on those foundations. Simple as that. Sorry. (You were expecting maybe some rocket science?)

Ugly Fact No. 1: Job security is a thing of the past. Really.

Irrespective of your performance, of how well your department or division is doing; irrespective of the strides taken by your organisation on a local, national, continental or global level, your job can evaporate overnight. Psychiatrists tell us that one of the most fundamental coping mechanisms that human beings use is denial - in fact, most of us go through life denying the one certainty, death. In my experience, too many people apply this kind of thinking to their careers as well. If your expectations are realistic and your approach to the job-hunt is just a little bit more professional than the next person's, your chances will dramatically improve. If you take it up a notch and maintain a focus on your career, instead of merely job-hunting, you will be head and shoulders above the average.

Learn to combine a long-term focus on your career with meticulous preparation and presentation for every aspect of the job-hunting process, and you will be head, shoulders and torso above the competition. Ask anybody you know who has to conduct selection interviews as part of their job and they will tell you that professional, courteous, well-researched and prepared candidates are very rare animals. Interviewers have a tendency to lunge across the table and grab such people with both hands.

Don't job-hunt, career-hunt
You would never take a journey in your car without a clear destination in mind - you would just end up panicking when you arrived at the first junction and didn't know which way to turn. And yet many people take exactly that approach to their working lives.
They drift into something that they can do, or that they have some modicum of talent for, whether or not it gives them any real sense of satisfaction; and they follow the path of least resistance in that job, drifting along with the current, hoping for a promotion.

In the past, you could at least rely on the organisation to not dump you unless there was a very good reason - as long as you were not downright incompetent and the company was not haemorrhaging money, you were reasonably safe. Today, there is no such security. This makes it all the more imperative that you pursue a career that you: (a) are good at, and it would be a good idea if you were very good at some aspects of it - way better than average; and (b) enjoy more often than not - if you are miserable more than half of the time in your work, it is not good for your mental or physical well being.

It is also likely that someone will notice that unhappiness. Happy workers are productive workers and organisations in today's cut-throat marketplace are desperately in need of productivity from their workforces. They will, therefore, want to hold on to the most productive and best-motivated staff if times get tougher and they have to trim the workforce.

A considered approach
My recommended approach to managing your career is very straightforward (still no rocket science - sorry), highly structured and can be encapsulated in these three maxims: (1) Get short-listed. (2) Chance favours the prepared mind. (3) At the end of the day - remember it is only a job.

Get short-listed
If you are not a player, you can't compete. Get your fundamentals - the nuts and bolts of job-hunting - correct from the outset. You don't have to think particularly strategically to do this, but there are pitfalls for the unwary. Where's My Oasis? will provide you with useful insights for every stage of the process and will help you to significantly tighten up your approach.

Chance favours the prepared mind
That was Louis Pasteur's answer to a question on his approach to science and discovery. Thomas Jefferson was a bit more wry: "It's funny. The harder I work, the luckier I seem to get." If your current approach has not been consistently working, starting to think this way will make all the difference.

You may have been getting to interview and even second interview, but just not getting the final call-back. A skimming or tactical approach to the process of landing and keeping a job will only take you so far. Managing your career on an ongoing basis and undertaking job-hunts as required are both enormously demanding activities.

In many cases, the effort involved in finding, researching and securing a job is more challenging and time-consuming than performance of the job itself. Only you can decide how much effort to put into staying on top of your career or any job-hunt and how much exertion that job is worth to you. But I have always felt that it is better to be a little over-prepared and not need it, than to be under-prepared and suddenly find yourself tongue-tied in the midst of a vital interview.

Remember it's only a job
Maintaining a sense of perspective in your career is central to any balanced approach to life. Unless you are working in the medical field or in an intrinsically dangerous environment, it is very unlikely that an error on your part is going to result in anybody's death. So try and bring a 'nobody-is-going-to-die-here' perspective to bear on the process as you go through it.

Every day, people are told that they are going to meet their maker. Despite the great strides we have taken in medicine, doctors still have to deliver that awful piece of news all the time. And I am willing to bet hard cash that no one who has just been told they have six months to live has ever said, "Gee, I wish I'd spent more time at the office." Whether you love or hate your job, whether you live to work or work to live, remember at the end of the day, it is ONLY A JOB!

This is particularly important to bear in mind as you choose the career moves you make, but it is also a valuable perspective to maintain as you job-hunt. That process can become all-consuming, to the detriment of your relationships with your family and friends. It is critical that you learn to prioritise and manage your time, and build in enough leeway for domestic tasks, the hunt, your family, your friends and yourself.

Making an investment
Managing your career is a pain in the neck. You simply should not have to work this hard just to stay afloat - but you do. You do because of the lack of certainty that seems to be the norm in the marketplace now and you do because your competition is getting smarter and slicker with their approach to job-hunting.

You can play the denial game, you can play the bargaining/fantasy game ("Oh, it's not really that bad out there, and I'm doing a good job - they'd be fools to let me go"). It's your livelihood, so feel free. If, however, you do accept the realities of the marketplace, you can either choose to regard the effort involved in managing your career as a pain in the neck or you can regard it as an investment.

If you have an opportunity coming up and you will have your chance at interview - what's the five-year return on that investment? €100,000? €150,000? €250,000? I contend that an ongoing effort to keep your career on track, with a few bursts of heavy activity when you are considering a move, doesn't sound so bad when you put it in the light of that kind of return for the effort involved.

Rowan Manahan is managing director of Fortify Services and author of Where's My Oasis? (Random House). Details from www.fortifyservices.com

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