Many times the professionals who I coach for career transition ask me – it has been years since you have been running your own company; it must have been tough. Right? I tell them that whether it is business or your job search, once you take complete ownership, you can easily manage the crests and troughs which are part of life. A job search needs to be conducted in a manner like you are a business consultant and pitching to develop new clients.
It is only when you take responsibility for your life that you discover how powerful you truly are.
– Allanah Hunt
So start thinking of your career as your own business and take complete ownership and be the CEO of your own job search. Then see the kind of clarity that emerges and you will make great progress.
With my over 3 decades of experience in sales, recruitment & career transition coaching and having guided over 10,000 candidates, let me offer you 7 tips which will help you shift your mindset towards thinking of becoming the CEO of your job search.
1] Objective:
A business owner thinks deeply of what is the objective of his business? What purpose does it serve? Is he/she passionate about what the business offers? How does it add value and contribute to the lives of people it serves? Similarly, you as a professional need to have your career objective clearly spelt out. What is it that employers will find valuable about your contribution and what is your career plan over the next 1-3 years?
2] Target audience:
Like in business you have products and services for which you have your target audience defined and then accordingly you work out strategies. Similarly define your list of target employers where you are seeking a job change. Once your target group of employers is clearly definded then you can start having conversations with them not as a job seeker but as an expert who is doing his / her homework to come up with a solution.
3] Business Pain point:
It is critical to understand what are the challenges faced and what is the need gap or pain points of the target audience. Similarly you find out the business pain point of the job or role you are performing or aspiring for. Only then can you customise your approach which includes tweaking your resume and LinkedIn profile as per the job’s requirement.
4] Unique strengths:
Like in business you identify your services’ unique benefits, you find out your unique strengths as an individual and match them with the job’s requirement. Ask yourself – what is different about you that makes me stand out as a candidate from the thousands of job applicants.
5] Promotional plan:
In business like you use tools to reach out to customers, in your career you will use tools like Resume, LinkedIn profile and so on or in your current job ensure that the end customer is delighted so that your contribution to the business grows. As a job seeker you may want to use professional resume writing or LinkedIn profile writing services to ensure that these are optimised to engage recruiters.
6] Learning:
As a business owner, you also experiment, learn from your experiences, fine tune your approach and then keep moving ahead towards your goal. Similarly keep experimenting, adapting your approach and keep evolving.
7] Branding:
A business owner will ensure that his company, it’s services and he stand for something, which is an area of expertise. So when people think of a service, they will think of your company’s products or services. However that happens when you clearly define your area of expertise. Similarly you as a professional need to clearly have your niche spelt out and position yourself in that segment; so when employers think of a need in a job or role, they think of you.
It remains a challenge for most to take responsibility. Once you committedly do that and use the above 7 factors to develop an action plan, you will experience a dramatic improvement in your job search progress.
In case it interests you to avail of our resume and LinkedIn profile writing professional services or my career transition coaching where we can dramatically increase the pace of your job search, please send me a DM on my LinkedIn profile (35,000 + followers), Instagram (69,000 followers), Facebook (1,77,000 followers) and we will be happy to help.
Best wishes!!
Sarabjeet Sachar
Founder & CEO, Aspiration,
Experienced Career Coach