“CHOP” Your Career Defeats

“Defeat is a state of mind. No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth.” Bruce Lee 1940-1973, Martial Artist, Actor and Author

Cool quote. So do you find your self – you know – giving up. Just accepting that a lousy job/career/situation is just something you have to live with. A ‘necessary evil’. Bruce Lee gives a different angle.

What if it were true. There’s a school of thought that says that failures are our greatest opportunity for growth. Easy to say, huh? They feel pretty darn “just-give-up-and-make-the-pain-go-away-ish” at the time.

But if we can manage to take Bruce Lee’s advice here – chop, chop – changing the way we look at our defeats (ie not as conclusive, definitive proof that our goals and aspirations are just plain WRONG!) then instead of losing heart, we gain in knowledge, experience, and determination every time we have a tough situation. We drive through. We change tactics. We persist. We adjust our approach. And eventually we win.

Not easy to do this. But is just giving up really a more attractive option?

What Turns You On?

Bit of market research here. Please help!

Rate your interest in the following articles.

Out of 10. With 10 being “that’s what I need now!!” and 1 being “oh please, don’t waste my time” and reply please or “comment” (“Comments” are on for this one.)

“How to Revitalise Your CV for Unstoppable Impact in 60 Minutes or Less.”

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“How to Easily Answer the 4 Toughest and Most Common Interview Questions.”

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“How to Figure Out Where You Need to Be Going With Your Career – in 60 Minutes or Less”

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“How to ‘Job-Market’ Yourself – the 60 Minute Job Hunting Blue Print that Guarantees Success”

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“Employment Agencies – Friend or Foe? How to Work With Them and What to Avoid at all Costs.”

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“The 1 Page CV – Why it Can Be Your Most Powerful Selling Tool – and How to Write it.”

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“How to Write a Cover Letter for Maximum Impact in 15 Minutes or Less.”

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“Me? An Expert? Why You Should Be One. How You Already Are One But You Just Don’t Know it. And How To Easily Establish Yourself as One”

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This song brought tears to my eyes

It’s a video but just the song no visuals – keeping it light.

Now, I’m not a big fan of the group (Staind), have only ever heard this song of theirs actually.And I’m partial to the song because as you may know I have a daughter named Zoe Jade (sounds like “Jane”, huh). Song is a few years old. But it’s the words that got to me. Reminds one of how often we’re just too busy (actually busy doing stuff, and just busy worrying, stressing etc about life) to really enjoy our kids.

And so often it has to do with our jobs and careers that just overwhelm us. We end up seldom looking deeply at our situation. At our lives. And trying to see how we can make them better – even if it’s just looking for a job closer to home, or a job we’re more interested in, which doesn’t drain all our mental and emotional resources every day.

[By the way ... the "3 Steps to a Great New Job" programme - you may wonder what makes a job "Great" - is it money? sometimes, is it power? sometimes, is it position, recognition, opportunity? sometimes. But you'll probably agree - if a job can allow you to spend more time with your kids, and be a less 'hectic' individual while doing so - that's also "Great". Right. So check out www.GreatNewJob.co.za for a programme that'll help you with getting to grips with who you are, what you want/don't want in your job or career, and how to get to what you want.]

Here are the lyrics:

well i want you to notice
to notice when i’m not around
and i know that your eyes see straight through me
and speak to me without a sound

[chorus]

i want to hold you
protect you from all of the things I’ve already endured
I want to show you
Show you all the things that this life has in store for you
I’ll always love you
the way that a father should love his daughter

when i walked out this morning
i cried as i walked to the door
i cried about how long i’d be away for
i cried about leaving you all alone

[chorus]

sweet zoe jane [x2]

so i wanted to say this
cuz i wouldn’t know where to begin
to explain to you what i have been through
to explain where your daddy has been

[chorus]

i want to hold you
protect you from all of the things I’ve already endured
I want to show you
Show you all the things that this life has in store for you
I’ll always love you
the way that a father should love his daughter

sweet zoe jane [x2]

Question: Is AGE a Job Hunting Problem?

Got this question from a reader:

Is age a problem in the job market?

Age is a problem in the job market – it absolutely is. Somehow it carries a negative perception.

But what older job hunters often do wrong is to re-inforce that negative perception with a CV and job hunting attitude that is not fresh, concise, keenly targeted, and assumes that because there’s lots of ‘experience’ they automatically don’t have to market themselves better than ever.

That just makes a bad situation much, much worse. Older people do well to pay attention to themselves – here are some quick personal marketing ideas:

• Look ‘current’ and contemporary – don’t let your ‘look’ or ‘image’ or ‘personal presentation’ be too outdated, old fashioned or just plain “old artish” – know what I’m saying? Caveat: you also shouldn’t to go to the extreme here.
• Be quick, be to the point. In an interview for example – eg I often had older people responding to the question, “So tell me about yourself” or “So why are you a good candidate for this position?” with a heavenward casting of the eyes  and a comment like, “ooh, where should I start”. Oh please, just get to the point. Give me 3 quick, awesomely powerful reasons why you’re going to be great in the job. Otherwise what?
• Don’t go on and on about yourself. It’s not about you. Landing a job is because you can solve the employers problem. Ask questions till you know what that problem is. And then see the previous point.
• Go ultra up-to-date and concise in your CV. Make your point and move on. Fast. A 10 pager, in an old style, with lists and lists of “duties” and “responsibilities” isn’t the way to counter the age problem.

Age shouldn’t be a problem. But it is. We need to deal with it. By being more entrepreneurial in the way we think and market ourselves. Smarter. Fresher. Showing that we can change and adapt with the times.

3 Step Job Hunting Formula: Taught by a Dodgy One-Eyed Guy

You know how you get these characters coming to your house asking for work. Yeah, so this guy comes along and asks for work. I look at him – and you know what it’s like – you make a snap judgment based on what you see and what you need at the time. So I say, “no thanks, but here’s 5 bucks for food” (actually because I don’t want you to hold my “NO” against me and come back later with your buddies and steal all my stuff).

Now this guy has an eye problem. He only has one. The other is hidden behind a partly close/swollen/weeping eyelid – and there’s a tear running down his cheek. Have to say it was pretty gross. And he looked dodgy. Just had an expression that didn’t make me want to trust him.

But after 4 days he was back again. Same story. My wife dealt with him though. 3 Days later he was back again. Same story. “No thanks.” (and I hope you don’t come back to rob me blind – ’cause by this time the dogs were wagging their tails at him.)

Another day or two go by. Next thing I see him working in our garden! Flip! What happened? My wife hired him for the day. Now Joseph is a permanent fixture 2 days a week (and we also still somehow have all our stuff).

So where’s the job hunting lesson? Here. And actually there’s more than one.

1. He persisted. He knocked on doors till he got what he wanted. That, that, is an incredibly valuable lesson – in job hunting, in life. We give up too soon. I know I do. For whatever reason – pride, scared of people, we’re not sure that it’s the “done thing”, we’re just naive and believe whatever lame stories HR and recruiters throw at us about being “overqualified” etc., or maybe we just don’t have the need – Joseph needs to eat – not many of us are in the same position.

2. He knew that people change their minds. And situations change. It’s true. And if I look at our decision to hire Joseph – it was driven by 3 things: i) his availability and skills, ii) our need, and iii) our trust of him. In the beginning only “i)” was present. Then our regular garden help guy didn’t turn up as usual so suddenly “ii)” was also present. But it was still not enough to overcome the issue of “iii)”. But give it another week with the garden getting out of control and suddenly we were willing to overlook the trust issue. And because Joseph understood that these things happen, this is how it works, he got what he wanted.

Is it any different with landing a job? No different. Repeat. No different.

It’s more difficult, of course, the larger the organisation/employer is (there’s all that policy, procedure, process garbage to deal with). But fortunately the job market comprises mostly smaller, more flexible organisations. The job market is dynamic. Things change. What’s certain today (like “no opportunities”) has changed by tomorrow.

It’s a classic mistake job hunters make. You know when you ask “Mark” or “Mandla” how his job hunt is going – he says, “Ja, I’ve sent my CV out and now I just have to wait and hope, hey”.

Here’s the thing: If our friend Joseph had taken that approach he wouldn’t have had a hope.

But he was smarter than that. Are you?

This is the formula you need to follow:

1. Identify what job you want to do (that you can do and are reasonably suitable for).
2. Identify what companies need people with your skills/knowledge.
3. Make contact via phone or letter telling them (preferably the decision makers there) that you’d like to work for them solving whatever problems you are skilled to. Do it again and again and again – to the same ones!

Do it. And never give up. You’ll be surprised.

By the way – the steps above are deeply entrenched and built on in a lot of detail in the R50 p month-for-6-months “3 Steps to a Great New Job” e-course. You get it via e-mail. It’ll help you in only minutes a day along the route to knowing what you want and knowing how to get there – unstoppably. So got to http://www.greatnewjob.co.za now (and also read about some personal details of my life (boring) and how I escaped from a job that was really messing me up to where I am now – a job I love and am thriving in) – or get more info via e-mail greatnewjob@getresponse.com

How Your Attitude Can Change Everything – Jack Canfield

Also see www.greatnewjob.co.za

Choosing a Career – Warren Buffet

Also see www.greatnewjob.co.za

“Parachute” Job Hunting Tips

Tip #1 from Richard Nelson Bolles world famous job hunting book – “What Color is Your Parachute?”

[And my irritating comments follow.]

“No-one owes you a job (so don’t sit around waiting for one to come to you, work hard to get it)”

Job hunting is unpleasant. That’s a fact.

But consider this: the business world is more dynamic and more entrepreneurial than ever before. That means lots of change, lots of opportunity, and lots of competition.

And that’s not bad news. But it does mean that we’ve got to be smart about the way we market our skills. We can’t continue to use 70′s or 80′s methods here, almost in 2010.

Here are the watchwords:

Proactive – take initiative

Innovative – find new ways, be creative

Bold – dont’ be shy to ask for what you want

Sell – know what problem you can solve, what solution you provide

Tell – be able to say and write your sales message clearly and concisely

Now this may take a bit of work and prep. Brainstorming. Don’t think you can’t – because you don’t know how. Bull. Ask questions. Speak to people (friends, family, neighbours, colleagues) – ask for opinions, “what would you do in my position?”, think – sometimes the answers are simpler than we think, ridiculously simple, so simple we don’t believe they’re the real answers. So we don’t act. But as a famous quote goes:

Taking action on a poor plan today is better than waiting to come up with the perfect plan tomorrow.

There’s no – repeat, NO – magic genie working for us. To miraculously produce opportunities. It’s up to us, me, you to make it happen. There’s no magic formula – well actually there is, but often we don’t want to hear it because it takes us out of our comfort zone – sitting at home is easier. The magic formula requires we be “proactive”, “innovative”, “bold” and that we “sell” and “tell”.

It’s a harsh fact. But it’s an attitude of mind that’s worth more, much more, than any degree or any work experience.