Why looking at job postings is a bad idea

The main reason is that it is a backwards notion.  Richard N. Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute, explains that the first way a job seeker looks for a job is the last way that employers seek job seekers.

When employers are filling a vacant position, they first look around to see if they know anybody who could do the work. This falls under the “least risk” category which is innate to being a human. Least risk is a survival trait. It also requires the least effort.

If they can’t find anyone that way, they will expand their nets wider.  Is there a former employee who might be available?  Do they know someone who knows someone? 

The final method that employers use is placing an ad.  This is the most risky and the most troublesome.  They never know who they might get; a pile of resumes takes a lot of time, never mind the interviews and shortlisting. 

 This information is very significant for a job seeker.  And it also explains why only 20% of jobs are ever posted. 

And why it will always be true. 

The strategy for job seekers then is to get closer to the inner circle where employers first look.  This is why we hear people say they got their jobs by word of mouth.

What an intriguing challenge!

And one where your innate strengths can help.  If you enjoying meeting new people, attending networking events might work for you.  If you have a preference to having deeper, one-on-one conversations, arranging a meeting might work the best.

The questions to ask yourself before you set out to find job that are not posted are:

• What are my strengths?  To explore yours, check out this article here.
  
• How can I contribute to the organization or company in ways where I am able to make a difference in my own uniqueness?  This means doing some research ahead of time to find out more about the people you are interviewing.
  
• What are some questions that you are curious about?  Make a list before you meet with anyone.
  

This approach works well if you know what you want.  But what if you don’t?

Frequently I see people looking at job postings to figure out what they want to do with their life, what career to choose.

This is problematic for several reasons.  Here's why job postings are a bad idea for career exploration. 

Job postings show some gaps

But they certainly don’t show them all.  In thinking about the 20% rule above, that means 80% of jobs are not on the radar.  If you only use job postings as a way of finding work that fits for you, you may well be missing a big selection that you hadn’t even considered. 

Job postings can be discouraging

When you look at the job boards, you get a distorted picture of the labour market.  What you don’t get to see is the vibrancy and possibilities of a workplace that has never seen such diversity and so many choices of work.  The types of work that are advertised can too frequently give such a narrow view you don’t think there is anything else and you can find yourself disheartened.    

Job postings are only one side of the equation

What job postings show is some of the demand that is available.  But it doesn’t show who you are, what makes you tick, which is key to the other part of the equation.  As a career exploration method, looking at job postings takes you away from where you need to put your attention. 

Knowing the labour market has a place in finding work that fits for you – the idea is to find work after all – but if you only base your decisions on what you see in job postings, your degree of work satisfaction will be hit or miss.

Is there a place for job postings in finding work that will fit for you?  Perhaps in the career research phase.  But they will only be one element. 

When I talk to people about job postings, I tell them to place no more than 20% of their energy in this method – either as a job search method or career exploration aspect. 

Here is another important truth

The labour market is always in a state of flux.  What is in demand varies from province to province and from region to region.  And that state trickles down to the job boards, and in advice about what’s hot and what’s not.

Basing your career decisions solely on an ever-changing labour market is a bumpy ride.

So rather than focussing on jobs in demand, wouldn’t you rather spending your precious time and energy in seeking work where you can use your gifts and talents?

As it happens, that's what employers are seeking. 

8 Awesome Tips to Find Work You Love

Are you perplexed about finding work that you love?  Were you once happy in your work but now the sheen has worn off?  Are you wondering if you really can find work that you love?

In this post, I will share some of the tips to get you pointed in the right direction.

Finding work you love is a purposeful act.  It’s a lot like gardening.  A gardener begins by preparing the soil, knowing that the growth and health of the plant is dependent on this crucial step.  The work exploration begins with a preparation too.   It does come down to some basic idea – looking at yourself.  Don’t underestimate the importance of this step. 

In fact, beginning with your own self is the key.  There lies all of the clues to what your perfect work will be.

Here are the 8 tips for finding work you love:

1.   The importance of play

Often when we are considering the career that works for us, a serious hush falls over the room.  We roll up our sleeves to begin the huge task before us.  The pressure is on.  Anticipation is high.  Disappointment looms in the corner.  You have been here before.  You want THE answer.  What has finding work that fits for us have to do with play?  Because work you love will always have an element of fun.   In the exploration we need to tap into that.  The thing about humans is that most of our learning happens when we play.  As a child, we laughed when the toy we dropped into a mud puddle splashed in all directions.  We never thought about the laundry that would need to be done later.  Playfulness engages us.  It raises our attention and keeps us involved. 

2.   Put your considerations on hold, for now.

When you begin thinking about the work that you love to do, you have ideas about what won’t work for you.   “I have to have a job where I am home by 2:30 when the kids get out of school.”   From this starting place, an atmosphere of limitations is being set in place, perhaps closing a door to possibilities that you would not have considered.  There will be a place in the process for all of those considerations.  While you are in the midst of doing career exploration, put those considerations on the shelf.

3.   There is more than one fit for you!

In our culture you have been seduced by the idea that just like a perfect mate, there is a perfect job for you.  You just need to find it.  For those of you who left high school puzzled about what you wanted to do, the world seems to be full of people who found their perfect job. The reality is that when you find out what really makes you tick, you will find that the choices will both be larger and smaller than you think.  Larger in the sense that there are many kinds of work that will fit for you.  Not just one.  And smaller because you will narrow the overwhelming possibilities down to the ones that most intrigue you.

4.   No one else can give you the answer.

There is an appeal to finding the computer program that will pick out our perfect career.  Because of the overwhelming number of choices, you might want someone else to give you the answer.  Ultimately though you will never be truly satisfied by someone else’s idea of what you could do.  The best that anything or anyone outside of yourself can do is to believe in you.  You are the expert on yourself.  That doesn’t mean that you should do this journey on your own.  The navigation through the maze is certainly benefited from outside help.   Ideas, inspiration, other considerations, and encouragement are all invaluable ways others can help. 

5.   If the answer was easy, you would have figured it out.

When you are contemplating the world of work, there is a lot to consider:  paying bills, the effect on family and the rest of your life, your skills matching the marketplace needs, your own personal limitations and more.  Perhaps you have spent some time thinking how your career will fit all of that AND be one that you love.  Has that felt overwhelming?  That is a lot to consider and one of the reasons why the answer hasn’t come to you.  As well, probably you haven’t been able to devote a lot of time to doing the exploration.  Finding work you love requires focus and percolating time. 

6.   Life is a mystery.

The delight about life is that there is so much to learn.  This keeps you asking questions and seeking answers.  What you find out along the way is that the answers come from places where you may never have expected.  You are watching a movie and you think of the solution to that problem at work.  Your real challenge is not to know all the answers but be open to where they might appear. 

7.   If the shoe fits….

Once you do generate ideas for a good work fit, there will be a feeling of ease combined with excitement.  The feeling will be like finding the right pair of shoes.  You just know.  Often people come up with ideas that they may have had a long time ago that they discarded because of life circumstances.  Don’t dismiss these thoughts.  Recognize that nuggets of gold are found in the most unassuming rock.  You just may not be able to see because of your own conditioning about what that perfect fit is.  Too frequently people diminish their own brilliance. 

8.   Begin with the end in mind.

Once you do pick a career that you are excited about, you may feel the anticipation to get the plan in motion.  You are ready.  Sometimes this is when people go to the training institution to sign up.  But there is one more imperative step.  And that is finding enough about the career to see if it REALLY is a good fit. The best way to get the information you need to make a decision is talking to someone who works in the field.   Actually a few people would be a good idea to get a balanced view.  What you need is to get a flavour of the job.  What does a person do on a daily basis?  Ask all the other questions that are burning inside of you. 

Want to move towards doing what you love?  Check out my eBook: 10 Things to Do Right Now When You Are Unhappy at Work and receive the bi-weekly Do What Matters Newsletter.  Find it here. 

How to find work that matters

Welcome to the inaugural blog posting for Finding Work That Matters!  I am excited about this new undertaking.  Because work is an expression of who we are, I believe it is important to find the work that invigorates us!   When we find the work that matters to us, we will do our best work, contribute the most and make a difference in others’ lives.

The way to find work that fits is not a straight path for many of us.  Some people, like my son, found his passion when he was a teenager, so curious about the first computer that came into our house that he had to look inside.  And like me, some of us stumble upon it.  I was working as a payroll clerk across the hall from the education department.  I was intrigued by the conversations coming out of that room; I was like a dog who perks up her ears when something captures their attention. 

What I know about the process now from both my son and I is that curiosity was the connecting thread.   The clues for your career will be rooted, too, in paying attention to what intrigues you, what continues to intrigue you and what has always intrigued you. 

One of my key questions that followed my life as a career counsellor was, “What really works in finding our brilliant career?”  I watched as people struggled with trying to figure this out on their own, as they questioned why they couldn’t be happy in the work they were doing since everybody else seemed happy, and their work felt – well, lifeless.  “What was the point in it all?” they were asking.

As they told their stories, I heard deep questioning – Who am I? What am I meant to do?  I heard them questioning themselves, feeling adrift,  and on top of it all, an immense pressure to figure it out.   Does this sound familiar to you?

When I started reading about career exploration, I saw that the experts were saying that the starting point was:  Know yourself.  It made sense.  I could see the frustrations that people experienced by looking at the labour market demand or job positions and using that as a guide – inevitably a good deal of them became bored and disillusioned.  To me, finding work that fits is an inside job.  If we want to find work that is in alignment with who we are, we need to have a good idea of who we are. 

In my work, I spent a lot of time considering how to find the right work fit.  I studied models, completed assessments, read books and thought a lot.  Then I created workshops and tried out my ideas on the participants.  People were ready!  Many never knew that there was a way to solve the problem.  They were inspired, relieved, intrigued and grateful! 

Over time and the experience of working with career explorers, I worked at the framework until it became the model that is the basis for Finding Work That Matters.

There are 8 segments that comprise the model.  Each of those has an overriding question and intersect with each other to give a total picture. 

The 8 segments are comprised of 3 main categories:  The Leading Edge,  Distinguishing Trademarks, and Discretionary Features. 

The Leading Edge

The Leading Edge includes Personality Type and Strengths.  These two components are what make us distinct and gives us an edge in the workplace.  Both of these aspects of ourselves are what we are born with, how we are hardwired.  They may appear to change but as we age and develop more self awareness, we become clearer about who we really are and we see that we have always had these particular strengths or personality type.

The Questions:

Personality Type:  What energizes you?

Strengths:  What makes you feel strong?

 Distinguishing Trademarks

This category is comprised of Values, Vision, Meaningfulness, and Motivation.  Through these components, we get a picture of what is most important to us, our beliefs, and our desires.  All of these elements are a key part of the finding work that is a good fit for us.  Depending our experience and situation, the elements in this section may change or be refined as we grow and change.   As our circumstances change, we may find ourselves drifting to asking questions about values, vision, meaningfulness and motivation. 

The Questions:

Values:  What is most important to you?

Vision:  What vision do you have of your life?

Meaningfulness:  What is your greatest contribution to others?

Motivation:  What drives you?

 Discretionary Features

Skills and Passions are the two components that are in this category.  I like to think of them like electives that we take in school – they enhance the process of work search but they are not the integral part.   Skills are only important if they are what we want to do.  We can be highly skilled but if we don’t like it, we will have a life of misery.  We can always build on our skills and certainly many of our skills are transferrable.  I believe that there is a best time in the process to look at skills and that is when we have chosen our careers and are developing the plan to make it happen. 

Passions are important because they fuel us, but we may not get paid for doing them; some people don’t want to turn their passions into their profession because that may diminish their enjoyment.  As a part of the career exploration process, passions are not a key element.  They can provide an entry way into understanding what about that passion excites us. 

The Questions:

Skills:  What do you want to develop?

Passions:  What enriches your life?

            Now, I will turn this over to you.  I am curious if you have found the work that you love.  I would love to hear from you!