CareerPro

October 24, 2011

3 Habits in :30 for Career Health

The mental challenge of search requires a different thought process. You may make yourself crazy trying to apply an old paradigm to a more difficult solution. Save your career life by thinking differently today and getting a refreshed outlook despite the tough career challenges today.

1. Improve Your Outlook With Vision and Perspective – Every week you should write down five things that you are thankful for if you have a job or not. Document your happiness. In just about every success book ever written starting from the Bible (Habukkuk 2:2) to today’s How To guides you need to write down your “vision” upon tables. But at least weekly you need to stay in a mode of thankfulness if only for the mental health of it. These things that you meditate on can make you happy and create a positive outlook regardless of your circumstances. If you have a problem finding five things to be thankful for then you might want to start volunteering at a homeless shelter, build a house with Habitat or visit for a day a children’s wing at a hospital. Or better yet, take your volunteer heart and serve others while you are seeking to transition yourself.

2. Job Search Is Hard – Don’t fool yourself into believing that you can search for a job the same way you might have five years ago. According to the US Department of Labor and David Altig, Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the numbers it’s a Scary New World. He says: “The unemployment rate is nearly double what it was before the recession, across all education levels.” This means for just about everyone job search remains hard. So if you are looking for a job and unemployed it’s tough. So be persistent, patient and focused. If you are employed and looking you need to plan for your next career move NOW and start taking steps NOW to build new contacts and key relationships in case you need to make a move.

3. Connect and Collaborate – In what seems like their time of greatest client need my most successful clients know what they want but focus on WHAT OTHERS NEED. They often become the best resources for others in transition, position themselves as encouragers, and help find unique ways to build their brand while they are searching. They become “involved” and “connected” and don’t just site behind their computers, pumping applications out. In my interview last weekend in Savannah, GA with Charles Purdy, Monster.com’s Senior Editor, he said that networking is much more than half of your job search and that you really shouldn’t be sitting behind a computer all day. You need to connect to others and find creative ways to network to stand out. All the job boards including Monster have had to innovate and create new content and strategies to stay relevant. So do you.

 

 

 

Image Credit: www.instantshift.com