Hope Is Not A Plan!
During the month of May, I had the pleasure of going on vacation to Nashville, Tennessee, and surrounding areas with my wife. We experienced an excellent vacation. My wife has already encouraged me that we need to return sometime in the future, which is likely, as we have relatives in the area that only live about two hours away. In early August of 2023, my wife and I have a wedding of the niece of some dear friends to attend in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California, (an area that I have not travelled to in 16 years, and my wife even longer).
Earlier this week I was talking to a networking friend from southern Florida, who I have had the pleasure of knowing the last three years. We make sure to connect with each other on a regular basis, (ideally monthly), to just catch-up on what is going on in each other’s professional careers and life. She knew of my trip to Nashville, and asked me immediately after discussing that, what was next for my wife and me. While she did not know about the wedding we were planning to attend, she said to me, that knowing me that she was not surprised I would be planning our next get away, and that I would be the one to work out all the logistics. I was touched by her confidence in me, although I must admit the California trip is still in the early planning stages and I have had some apprehensions about the logistics involved.
This month’s quote on the Absolute Transition’s website is all about planning. Admittedly, some of us have a knack for it, while for others it is not as easy a thing to do. Certainly, within my own marriage, when it comes to logistical and administrative type tasks, especially those for any new ventures, I am the one to do them. My wife from the moment I met her made it clear that administrative tasks were not her favorite thing to do. Even as a school teacher, she relished the fact that her teaching career revolved around tutoring individual or small groups of children in the public school system where she worked. She was never in her career a “classroom teacher.” Classroom teachers are required to develop lesson plans, share those with department heads, have them evaluated, etc. That just was not something that appeals to my wife. If she must plan repetitive tasks like paying her bills on a regular monthly schedule, or even the individual lesson for a student she is tutoring that works well for her. However, the more logistics you bring into the picture, the more it turns her off.
A job search process is a planning process. For both those that are planners by personality and for those who do not care for planning, learning the right steps of the planning process is essential. Among those steps are first assessing what they may want to do next in their career. Then comes the research of job roles and industries identified, seeing which skill sets one may need in the areas they have identified. Targeting of places to work is next. Are those organizations within their immediate geographic area? How far are they willing to travel for the role? Are they willing to relocate for the job role, or in the current world are they interested in performing the job in a remote manner? (If they would choose to relocate, would the companies where they are looking to work be willing to pay some of their relocation expenses?) Capturing the information gathered during these steps of the process are done in such documents as a resume, a Linked In profile, a Marketing Plan, in cover letters and on one’s own private tracking documents, (spreadsheets, computer files, phone tracking tools, etc.).
As I indicated earlier, developing, and working a planning process comes easier for some than it does others. For those that planning is a regular part of their life, perhaps all they need is to read about such tools or be introduced to them in classroom or webinar sessions. For those who do not care to plan, perhaps they will need assistance with such a process. A job search buddy, a career coach, a trusted mentor, or accountability partner should be considered as colleagues in their search planning process.
While one may hope that they can apply to several jobs, hope to hear back from those jobs to which they have applied, be interviewed, and hope they are selected for the job role, remember, Realize that envisioning what it is you are looking to do going forward, having a mindset of the steps you will take, being flexible if circumstances change along the way, and realizing you have become familiar with what may happen and not happen, gives you the best chance to succeed in your job search and in your life’s activities.
