Those First Few Weeks
The job search process can be called many things. The term I often use with my clients, and the one that I learned from my training as a Five O’Clock Club career coach, is that it is “a research project.” While some clients find that hard to accept, (some hope to find their next job immediately, and are not prepared for the steps a thorough job search process entails), just about every client that starts working with me soon learns that a lengthy search is a difficult fact to escape.
I currently perform coaching services for an outplacement provider named Careerminds. Careerminds promotes their services as providing a “branded resume” for each one of their clients to assist them in search for their next job opportunity. As part of that process, the client is asked to complete two forms before having Careerminds work on their resume. One is a Branded Resume Questionnaire. The questions on this document are what I would term, “forward looking.” They are centered on the type of roles the client is looking to target, the job titles of those roles, industries that they would be looking to explore, etc. The other document provided is a STARS Worksheet. The term STARS stands for the words, Situation, Task, Actions, and Results. In their career to date, the client has had significant accomplishments. Those accomplishments helped to solve a problem for a client. They may have helped the company for which they worked meet its goals and expectations. Whatever the accomplishment, its purpose was to meet the needs of others.
While many of my clients are asked to complete the forms when assigned to me, (and admittedly some do and some do not), several clients have said to me, even if they feel the new resume they receive may not replace the current one they have, the exercise of going through the process, has been beneficial to them. It has gotten them to think of what they want to do next in their career. It has opened their eyes to look at their past work not as only a series of tasks they have performed, but makes them aware of the problems their skillsets provide. It also gives them messages as to what type of work they enjoy doing, and which type of work they would prefer not to do any more.
Long before my work with Careerminds, which began in 2023 as the result of a company merger with a former outplacement provider for whom I worked, GetFive, I was quite familiar with this process. GetFive defined it as part of a 5-step process of job search. Their steps included Assessment of what you wanted to do next, researching who may need those talents and skill sets, targeting those industries and job functions, and their location as to where one wants to perform that work, doing a good deal of conversation or interviewing with prospective employers or those who may know of opportunities, and ultimately consistently following up on opportunities. While some of my most memorable clients followed the process to the letter, and found it worthwhile, not all felt they had the time to devote to it. Those who did not take those first few weeks of their search to get their act together, usually either suffered long searches, or just jumped at any opportunity and soon found themselves unhappy with the career and job choice that they had made.
Certainly, if you are facing a job search, but I would even go on to say, facing a major decision point in your life, look to set it up as a Research Project of what is right for you to do next. It may seem early on that the time you are spending is keeping you from learning of opportunities and is holding you back. However, the better you get to learn yourself, be able to express who you are and what you may provide in terms of benefit to those who need your talents and skills, the more worthwhile you will see that the time that you spent on preparation was for your long-term benefit. Again, it all goes back to those “first few weeks.”
