I was talking with a student of mine yesterday. She has been looking for a job for several months with no luck. She had a positive perspective, was working at it constantly, read “What Color is Your Parachute?” and answered all the questions, yet… still jobless. She’s feeling blue, and her parachute just isn’t opening as she had hoped. She was baffled about what she was doing wrong.
First of all, I cannot stress this enough: this is not just a recession. America is going through a major transition. Everything thing is being turned upside down, inside out, and round about in an effort to straighten it out, and your career is too. So you will have to rely on our intuition more and more.
To avoid the job hunting blues, we need to stop focusing on the form, or the packaging that the job comes in. For example, pre-defining the kind of job you want, like “receptionist” or “administrative assistant”, and scanning for that job name from the want ads with the salary, hours, title, and benefits you think you want. Then, you try to fit yourself into that position or package.
Instead focus more on the content, or what’s inside the package. Concentrate on the kind of experience you want, the enjoyment and satisfaction you want to feel in your job or career.
When you concentrate on the experience and really don’t care what that looks like on the surface (whether or not you get those benefits, hours, salary, or title), your intuition kicks in and gives you new, creative ideas, telling you where to go and what to do to land an amazing job you may have never considered.
I did this with the last job I had. I was offered a position that paid a lot less than my previous positions, no title, and for which I was way over qualified. But yet, I couldn’t get it out of my head. My gut instinct was telling me to take the job and after arguing with my intuition for two agonizing days, I did. About two months after I started, my boss quit and her boss quit within a week of each other. I was promoted quickly and for the next 3 years got raises every 3 months till I ended up making way more than I ever had before. Who knew? My intuition knew that it was the perfect job for me.
What is your intuition telling you? Take Vickie’s quiz, How Often Do You Use your Intuition or Gut Instincts? Contact Vickie Champion for a complimentary coaching and consulting session.