by Coach John on April 17, 2013
Attack your job search with a three prong approach. Your time and effort should be dedicated to (1.) search & research, (2.) production, and (3.) follow-up.
Search & Research might involve the use of specialty job boards, meta-search sites, the Careers/Employment page of company websites, job boards linked to professional associations, your alumni association(s), and networking (person-to-person + e~networking sites).
Production involves getting your personal marketing materials out the door, in response to job leads. This includes snail mail, email, fax, via job boards & uploads…and activating your network. Your resume needs to focus on strengths, areas of expertise and achievements. Develop templates for a standard cover letter and letter of introduction. And remember that your resume and letters are business documents – so make sure they’re focused and concise. During each week of your job search, make a commitment to respond to several qualified job leads.
And don’t forget to Follow-Up! This can be the most challenging and frustrating part of the search process. This step forces you to deal with obstacles, barriers, dead-ends, and rejection. But if you’re willing to be a bit tenacious, this step will allow you to gauge which leads are getting warmer (and deserve more attention) and which have gone cold. So track your weekly job search activity (use a simple spreadsheet), get tough… and complete those follow-up calls and emails.
Decide how much time you can realistically dedicate to your job search each week. Then follow an organized, three prong approach to finding your next career opportunity.
by Coach John on March 22, 2013
I invite you to explore and experience the website for psychologist Dr. Paul T.P. Wong’s International Network on Personal Meaning (INPM). You will find a broad scope and depth of resources, organized by theme and subject. Two areas of the site that I was most drawn to included the page for Meaningful Living and the INPM Links Section.
The Meaningful Living page offers material under eight headings, including the Meaning of Life Course (MOLC) and the Worthy Lives Gallery. The MOLC is offers four content rich modules of self directed learning aimed at challenging the reader to explore and seek out answers to some very basic but enduring questions. I browsed through the content in each module but could easily spend months pondering and digesting information that seems philosophical, spiritual and practical all at once. Module one delves into 5 Basic Questions: Who am I?, Why am I here?, Where am I going?, What is the meaning of suffering and death? and How can I find significance and happiness? These were far from 5 simple questions, as each one offered a rich list of sub questions aimed at dissecting the core question.
As I truly enjoy biographical information, I was drawn to the stories presented within the Worthy Lives Gallery. This is a wonderful collection of concise biographies on a variety of historical figures whose lives and work have had a positive impact on the world. I was quite inspired by the list of people on the web page, while also being a bit awe struck by the scope of rousing contributions represented within this gallery.
Under the Links section, was an inspiring subsection called Positive News. This area includes links to content such as News for the Soul, The Optimist and Upbeat Positive News, just to name a few. What a brilliant alternative to the daily barrage of negativity that hits us on the radio, television and Internet, disguised as information that some producer decides we need to know.
What have I learned from all this material? I guess it would be that a person’s journey, their struggles, triumphs and engagement in the world around them, is what creates meaning. And each journey is unique, each creates ripples and some of those ripples become incredible waves for genuine goodness, growth and positivity.
Attack your job search with a three prong approach. Your time and effort should be dedicated to (1.) search & research, (2.) production, and (3.) follow-up.
