As someone who really values communication as well as friendships I make a significant effort to stay in touch with my friends, especially those who I know I won’t get to see very often. Fortunately, technology makes this task a lot easier than I could have ever imagined. With Facebook, Texting, Twitter (insert your various modes of communication here) it’s fairly easy to actually communicate with others. However, it still requires focus and effort.
Lately, quite a few of the friends I’ve been in touch with have inquired to me about job advice. Many are at the point where they are coming up on their 2nd or 3rd year “anniversary” of working in the “real world” and are looking to make their next move but aren’t sure where to start. Knowing that I’m passionate and interest in career development, they often come to me for advice, asking if I know of any jobs, leads, etc. After going through this a few times, I’ve come up with a three piece strategy to help my friends decipher and determine the next step in their professional career. Note: I’m a consultant, and infused a little bit of consulting lingo in my strategy. Apologies for my dorkiness, but bear with meJ )
Current State – The first step in the process is to take a look at the current state. Think about where you are now, and the skills, opportunities and experiences you have gained in your current role. A great thing to do is to literally write them down or list them out. From there, begin to categorize them. Some good categories to start include: Strengths, Likes, Dislikes, What I want to keep doing, what I want more of, What I want less of. This current state assessment will help you analyze and reflect upon the entire body of work you’ve done in your current role.
Future State – Think about what you want to do in the future. Based off of what you’ve done in your current job what do you want to do in your next job? What kind of roles or responsibilities does that job have? What kind of environment is it in? Is it in a large company or perhaps a smaller company? This is also a great time to lay out all the types of industries or professions you might be interested in. The future state is a great way to dream up the job that you’d like to see yourself doing.
The Landscape – Combining one and two, scour the landscape to find out what is out there that matches the skills and responsibilities you enjoy along with the areas and functions that you are interested in. There are various “landscapes” to search for job opportunities. Various job posting websites such as Career Builder, Monster.Com are great starts as well as LinkedIn and other social networks. By searching and reading job descriptions you’ll get a better sense of the jobs and opportunities that are out there as well as the ones that appeal to you.
While your perfect job might not come right away, doing these three things should set you up on the right path towards finding that next job. Job searches not only take hard work and thoroughness, but also a deep assessment of where you are, what you’ve done, and where you want to go. It might be at times a difficult and tedious process, but it will ultimately help you find the job that is right for you and for your career.
A Digital Mentor 