What is the right job for
your now?
The Impact Executive candidate advice pages are
provided on the assumption that you have entered
the workforce, have accumulated work experience
and have reached the point where you feel that
it is time to take the next step in your career.
When is it the right time or wrong time
to move on?
The right time to move on is when you feel that
you need to develop to the next level needed to
advance your career to your ultimate goal and
you are convinced that the opportunity to do so
is not available in your current company. Alternatively
you may feel that you want to change industries
and/or occupations, seek a ‘sea change’
or move to another state or city for a range of
reasons.
The wrong time to make a career move is when
you are under pressure or you are disillusioned
with your role or company. That is, when the ‘push’
factors causing you to make a decision to leave
your current company have overpowered the career
‘pull’ factors drawing you on to the
next logical and sensible career step.
When you are under pressure to make a move, you
severely limit your choices and your time frame.
Under these conditions you can be forced for financial
reasons into taking the next job available rather
than the right next job for you. Experienced recruiters
have heard many times “I took this job as
an interim measure until I could find the right
role.”
On occasions you genuinely have no say in when
you need to seek another position. Company failures
and restructures force redundancies on good and
loyal employees who enjoyed their job and their
company. In these situations most recruiters and
potential employers understand your position.
However, a candidate in this position still needs
to have a very clear view of what he or she has
to offer as a potential employee, their career
goals and the style of company they would like
to work for. Therefore all the following candidate
advice in this part of the Impact Executive website
applies.
What are the right reasons for taking
the next career step?
Whenever you change your company and your job
you are making a critical choice and an investment
in your future. You are also taking a risk, the
downside of which is that you will spend valuable
time in the next company and position you accept
which you cannot recover; valuable time which
you will spend developing (or failing to develop)
new skills and your existing skills to higher
levels; being trained (or failing to be trained);
and being mentored (or failing to be mentored)
by managers with widely varying leadership and
management skills and with vastly different communication
skills (particularly listening skills) and interest
in their people.
It is therefore essential that you have a clear
vision before seeking a new position and company
that you understand what you are seeking in:
- The type of industry or industries you want
to work in;
- Job type and position responsibilities;
- Company style and culture. Are you seeking
a large, multi divisional company with clear
and proven policies in the areas of staff training,
development and career planning and progression
or a small company with less structure, which
offers higher levels of independence and the
opportunity to build a close relationship with
the Managing Director? Alternatively you may
be seeking to demonstrate your ability to help
a company turn its performance around or to
provide world class customer service in a secure
multinational business for which leading edge
customer service is a crucial;
- Team culture, that is the level of individual
and team interaction;
- The management style and personal style of
the person to whom you’ll be reporting.
Read the Book “What
Color is Your Parachute?”
Whether you are changing jobs or not, one of
the most constructive things you can do if you
are serious about understanding yourself at work
and using your personality, your skills and your
experience to draw the highest possible levels
of job satisfaction and rewards and from the forty
years or more you spend at work, is to read the
excellent publication, “What Color is Your
Parachute?” Be sure to maximise the available
benefits by completing all the exercises.
“What Color Is Your Parachute?” was
written by Richard Bolles in the early 1970’s.
The book has sold millions of copies as it successfully
meets the majority of the needs of most jobseekers.
“What Color Is Your Parachute?” is
updated every year.
Simply put, the book is in two parts.
One part lays out a road map of what to do and
what not to do when seeking a new position. It
does this without being a “quick fix”
by offering endless tips. Rather, it addresses
the various options available to most jobseekers
and helps you plan a much more targeted approach
to seeking employment/re-employment. We believe
that this section is based on the premise “that
it is often not the best person who gets the job,
often it is the person who is best at getting
the job that gets the job.”
The other part is a series of exercises. Unfortunately,
most people who buy the book do not complete the
exercises. The exercises are based on the premise
that what you do best is what you like most, and
what you like most is what you do best. Sadly,
for many of us, what we like and what we do are
too often separate things. By completing the exercises,
you will be in a much better position to decide
whether a company or position is suitable to you,
and if so, be able to quite clearly articulate
to others the skills and attributes of relevance
that you have to offer.
The author recommends that you cease all job
search activities until you have read the book
and completed the exercises. This may be a little
drastic, however we would encourage anybody who
undertakes to read the book and complete the exercises
to set out a timeframe in which they would do
so. In total, you will need 30 to 40 hours to
do both. When you have read the book and completed
the exercises, you will have undertaken many exercises
that are similar to some of the quite expensive
outplacement programs available in the marketplace.
Is the time worth it? Well; many people will
spend 40 hours planning their annual holidays
this year; so is it worth committing 40 hours
that may have a profound and long-term impact
on your career? That is a decision that only you
can make.
The book is published by 10 Speed Press and is
available at all leading bookstores.
