Hello!!
Whether you are looking for a job or are a family member of someone who is
- or you are a counselor helping people find work, please enjoy -
no strings attached -
the fourth section of the Job Hunting Tool Kit.
The Job Hunting Tool Kit gives you exercises and lessons to land that job!!
Enjoy...
2I. Fighting Groundhog Day
2J. Boats facing the waves
2K. Moving Your Locus
2L. Spirituality
2M. Sharing Through Volunteering
2N. The Importance of an Interest inventory
2O. Walk with a purpose
2P. Nobody Can Make You
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1. Do not sell this material, share it instead. It is protected by copyright laws
and hey, the idea is to give it away for free...
Groundhog Day
In the great movie
with Bill Murray and Andie McDowell, the star has to relive February 2nd over
and over until he learns the right life lessons before he can move on. Imagine it, folks - one day just like all
the days before. Hey, if you have b0een
unemployed for any length of time, you really
know what that is like.
Bill Murray learns
that by being a more spontaneous and giving person he can finally start each
day as fresh and different. And there is
the lesson for you.
Later the Job
Hunting Tool Kit Series, we will discuss the importance of keeping up your
spirit and how helping others will make you a more attractive candidate. For this lesson, take a good look at yourself
and consider if your life is like just an endless stream of similar days.
Making a change
would make you a more interesting person, add to your resume/application and
would give you references who appreciate you are more than just a resume.
FREE HELP:
If you earn income
and can qualify for the earned income tax credit, you also qualify for the
Advanced Earned Income Tax Credit.
What’s that? You can receive half of the anticipated tax
credit for next year through your current paycheck. This benefit may help make today and tomorrow
easier and different from the grind you face today. Your credit next year would be reduced, but
your paycheck today and tomorrow will be fatter.
Making It Work:
Write down five
things you have wanted to do for yourself or others but you have not had
sufficient time. Maybe it is a skill you
have wanted to move on but life got in the way. What is an age group or activity you want to
share with other but so far have not done anything about?
Make sure that your
list meets three requirements:
•
YOU can do this given your time and financial limits.
•
It is something that you could interrupt if a job came available next
week.
•
It adds to your Oz factor brains, heart or courage.
Personally, I would
lean toward doing something for others because along with getting good
references, adding to all aspects of your Oz factor, it also gives you a good
feeling at the end of the day that someone else’s day is better off because of
you. This can turn any day from the
routine… just ask Bill Murray.
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Boats facing the waves
In order to survive
in choppy water, a boat that steers into the waves stays afloat better than one
with its sides to the waves.
Take a moment and
think through the challenges that you are facing in the hunt. When the unexpected happens are you ready or
will you be ready? Are you more apt to React in response
to events or will you be ready to act from a plan?
Making It Work:
List the stresses
and demands you may face in your job hunt such as the responses you may face in
trying to meet with the hiring manager; the questions you may face in job
interviewing and related tests (see ‘eye rolling’ lesson).
Are you prepared for
how these may affect you and how prepared are you to move forward in this
matter.
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Internal/external
A great differences
between job hunters is between those who think that life happens to them and
others who thing that more often than not, they affect their world even more.
By that I mean there
are people with an internal locus of control (that the changes in your life start with you and
your decisions) and others who have an external locus of control (where the
decisions affecting their lives come from outside forces.)
In these days with
so many things outside of your personal strengths, it is easy to be an external
thinker. As jobs are moved out of your
area by people who sit in corporate offices in another state or time zone, it
is easy to think that the decisions that affect your life are from the
outside.
This lesson is for
you to find the parts of your life where your determination calls the
shots.
Making It Work:
Write
a list of your activities this week, especially as it effects your job
searching. Make it a long list. Now make a mark beside the things that were
your decision to do them, where you had a say in what you did and how you did
it. Go ahead and complete this for the
whole week, I’ll wait.
OK, now review it
and see all the times you did things outside of your control did they have a
higher purpose like caring for a child or moving toward a personal dream? Put a notch beside those.
Was it part of a
routine that other living and breathing people have to do (laundry, sleeping)?
Now make a mark beside them.
Now take a long look
at what remains. Is there any way that
you can changes what is there to make it more your style? Like working on the resume, waiting to see an
employer or filling out an application… think of trying something different next
time.
Do something nice
for the office manager while you wait in the lobby or put yourself more in the
employer’s point of view when writing that next resume or application.
NOW you are just a
little more in control.
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Appreciating Your Spirit
Job
hunters often see work as an issue of self-worth and as a deeply personal
matter.
Through
the ups and downs of job hunting, remember to appreciate your spiritual side. It helps to know that you are supported when
earlier you were on the mountaintop
as well as in this valley. You have not been abandoned.
Some
people believe in a higher power as that support, others look within themselves.
Either
way works if it gives you a sense that you can make it through the tough
times.
Anyone
can make it through when times are going well; it is only when someone faces up
to tough times that you can find a person’s true character. Hiring managers appreciate that and they
often are looking for the spirit you have in these times.
•
Do
you blame outside circumstances for your situation, or do you take some
personal stake in what you are facing?
•
Are
you focused on what is in your past or what can be in your future?
•
Do
you look forward to that future with the sense that you will be alright?
Your
response to these questions will show on your face and in your stride as you
meet the next employer so make certain to address them before
the next interview.
Keep a
thankful heart and confidence that each day begins a new morning with its own
possibilities. No thing or event can take hope and thankfulness away
from you.
One
great way to see the world as full of possibilities is to volunteer. I understand that your financial position may
make volunteering seem out of place, but for your spirit and your resume it may
be just what you need.
Volunteering
provides help in the following ways:
•
Spirit:
You get a sense that you are needed, valued and productive. Often you can get a sense from watching the
reaction and development of others that they see the future as different from
the present thanks to your work.
•
References:
Volunteering gives you the opportunity to get current references from someone
who appreciates your work and service and they can give examples that are from
right now, not before.
•
Resume:
Someone is giving you responsibilities you are meeting (courage); you are
learning new things and putting them into action (brains) and getting along
with people well (heart).
“Making it work” focuses on ‘the joy of service’ how that will
work for you and reminding you of the Russian sailors saying “Pray, but keep rowing to the shore.”
Making It Work:
This is three parts
–
•
Be honest with yourself, how can you improve your faith and hope for
your personal future? What are ways you
can move forward positively?
•
Make a list of volunteering opportunities you may have in your
community with agencies that would not have political reputations that may
affect your employability with some hiring managers.
•
What do you see as the benefits to you personally in volunteering in
your community?
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Volunteering
You can’t get the
job without experience and you can’t get experience without the job, eh? You
want a current reference, who will praise your brains, heart and courage, but
you can’t land that first job? Each day
ends as frustratingly as the last one ended as you keep looking for that job?
Yes, I talked of it
in the last lesson, but it can also help you out here. It can be the solution to each of the
questions in this lesson – volunteer! Here you have the opportunity to find something fulfilling to do which will
indicate to prospective employers that you have a heart for caring for others
and the best part is you can often call the shots as to your availability.
People having trouble
making ends meet may feel that volunteering is a waste of time. Please look past
this to see that the benefits are much larger than
you may first consider. If you move on
this matter, make sure that it will be something you will proudly describe to
another person.
FREE HELP:
Your local United Way or related agency keeps a
thorough account of the community needs and may have a roster of places in your
hometown who could use a volunteer like you.
Contact them and learn things about your community that you may not know
and also learn how you can be part of the solution to a problem in your own
neighborhood.
Making It Work:
Once you have
figured that you want to volunteer as a way to enhance your skills application
and resume, ask yourself three questions:
•
Do I prefer having a completed ‘object’ at the end of the day, or is
working with others satisfaction enough?
•
Is there an age group or type of individual that I get along with
best?
•
Is it an organization that will not mark me as a certain sort of
person (strong political leaning, negative local image) to someone who does not
know me well?
From these three
questions, get in touch with your local volunteer center or United Way to find
someone who needs your skills and interest.
Yes, you will go through an “interview” before being placed for the
position, but here is an organization that values you for who you are and what you can offer, not seeing if you
meet certain qualifications for a specific duty.
THAT can warm the
heart of any job hunter.
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Interest Inventories
An effective, fun way to focus on what you
would like to do either in paid work, hobbies or volunteering is taking an interest inventory.
It can be helpful and easy but can also be manipulative and sometimes
dangerous. More on that 'dark side' later.
An inventory helps you move from the thousands
of choices you have of possible for work & play to narrow down and
spotlight those you have a particular
interest for. It narrows
by giving you a selected list of dozens of different jobs and activities then
asks you to rank each on a scale of Really Love
to Really Hate to do it.
Inventory results can especially help those at
a 'crossroads' (students, seniors,
and people ready to change careers).
The inventory clarifies jobs or hobbies most in-line with your stated
interests.
Now the bad news:
Inventories are subjective and boy can they be
manipulated! If you start with an idea
of what you want the inventory to say about you, voila! THAT is what it will say.
For example, if I was 'cooking challenged'
(word is that I am) but want others to
think I should become a chef, from my 'votes' an overall picture of interests
is developed and gosh darn it, says I should be a chef!
Big
bold letters and everything... just couldn't prove it to others -- like the guy at
the pizza shop who says 'Pepperoni, extra cheese again, George? Your night to cook, eh?”
The inventory measures interests, not
skills. You can fool the inventory; just don't wind
up fooling yourself. A danger
can arise if you live your life according to test results. Hey, if you want to be an artist, but the
inventory, your wallet or job prospects say something else, enjoy artwork as a
hobby because “interests” need not mean a career.
Go after your desires and avoid the regrets of
a dream never chased. As the great
hockey star Wayne Gretzky said, “you miss 100% of the
shots you never take.”
Making
It Work:
Visit your local 1-stop employment office or
go online and take an interest inventory; answer questions from your gut,
quickly. And have fun.
From the results, make a list of work, hobbies or volunteering related to your
listed interests. Follow up on these
prospects with a list of places to pursue your interests and enjoy finding your
true interests.
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Walking With a Purpose
In
working at placing people through an employment service (or as a job hunter
yourself) it is REALLY important that you understand
the kind of person that the employer wants.
Although there are many insights found in the JHTK series, this one is
special.
Let us
go back in time to one particular employer I went to meet and learn of the kind
of person she wanted as an employee. I
had been warned that this one hiring manager was nicknamed “the female Darth Vader” the ruler of
her own empire, the Personnel Department.
Through
our meeting, she talked on about the people “who just did not work out”. When I asked her to describe the kind of
person who DOES work out, she abruptly stood up and said “follow me”.
She quickly walked
ahead of me, pointing out this machine and that warehouse dock, not introducing
me to anyone. As we sat back in her
office I repeated my request, “describe the kind of person you want.” She looked at me with the withering stare
Darth would have she said,
“I am looking for
someone who walks with a purpose, someone who when they tour the plant walks with that
purpose.”
THERE was the lesson
– and I have seen it in every employer hire ever since. From the employer’s Point Of View (POV), you
want someone with conviction in their demeanor and their stride. People can hide part of the personality with
practiced phrases, but put them in a position where they have to show real
confidence and that is where you find the people who stride.
As I have heard many
times before – “you can’t teach drive.”
You either have it or you do not.
Making It Work:
Take a walk. Do not be self-conscious about it, but try to walk with a
purpose. Similar to the
Cheeseburger voice where you talk with purpose, put that into your stride.
What is your purpose
in that walk? What is your purpose in
getting the job? To make new friends –
provide for yourself and family – build something special?
Take a few moments
and just people watch for a moment in your hometown. Now pick out the people who walk with a
purpose and those who do not – it is not hard to tell the difference.
Write down the
purpose of your walk and remember it so it will show in the way you walk. Tap into your inner Luke Skywalker or
Princess Leia and walk.
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Nobody can make you feel inferior
Eleanor Roosevelt
spent most of her public life talking about empowering the people who did not
feel they had power or respect. Like her
or not, the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was certain of what she was
saying. One of her most famous quotes
goes like this…
“Nobody can make you feel inferior
without your consent.”
Think
about that for a moment.
Other people and
their biases, difficult circumstances, challenges that you face – especially
self-inflicted problems such as substance abuse – each of them can conspire to
make you feel “less than” other people.
“How can I measure
up to other’s expectations?” “What would
they think if they knew ‘the real me’?”
“How can I compete with people who are younger/faster/
stronger/skinnier/etc. than me?”
You KNOW
you can because you are the most important person and have the opinion most
important to your success.
FREE HELP:
If you are the
victim of harassment or abuse, there is an agency or maybe more with staff who
are there to help you. You do not
deserve to be intimidated into silence or the feeling that you are ‘less than’.
Do not wait,
folks. A brighter future begins with a
call to your Social Services office or house of worship. Ask about your nearest ‘sanctuary’.
Making It Work:
In what areas do you
feel ‘less than’ your competition in the job hunt?
List them and be brutally honest
with yourself.
Now review the list
and consider if each one (one at a time, folks) is a realistic reason for being
considered ‘less than’- or not? Is there
some where you are allowing yourself to feel inferior when in fact you are
not?
Is the reason
someone else’s (a friend, a parent, society) bias? If it is realistic what can and will you do
about it? Share your answers with
someone you respect and every so often, especially at the end of a long day,
repeat Eleanor’s quote. Out loud.
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