5 Keys to Get a Great Job in 2 Months

Today, we’ll examine the 5 keys to get a great job in 2 months The 5 Keys include:

1.  Define your dream job with an employer description.

2.  Adopt the how can I help attitude.

3.   Ask questions to discover organizational wants and needs.

4.  Prove that you are the solution they are looking for

5.  Make your tens: 10 contacts a day and 10 meetings a week

We're going to briefly describe each of them and go into much more detail in the later posts.

Define your purpose and passion in a written Employer Description.

The majority of people, especially high performers, are unhappy with their jobs. Many times, dissatisfaction occurs because people have not taken the time to identify what they really want to do, or they don’t describe it in enough detail to make it real. Identifying and pursuing your purpose, passion, and calling provides criteria to evaluate your options. This is done in three parts. First, discover your calling. Second, explore your favorite skills. Third, writing your ideal employer description.

First, let's talk about identifying your passion and purpose. The six essential elements of a job. You need to decide are you going for a job, a career, or your calling? To do so. Every job has six essential parts: 

1. The skills and responsibilities you love to do. 
2. The industries that interest you. Industries change the nature of the job changes. For example, a manager in a manufacturing company, a bank, a fast food service. You have the same job title, the same kind of responsibilities of boy is the job different.
3. The size of the organization. Do you want to work for a startup, a smaller organization, medium, large or global? 
4. Who owns the organization. Stockholders, private yourself, we the people or no ownership. That's nonprofits. 
5. Location, both the geographic locale (country, state, city). Locale means metro, urban, suburban, rural or virtual. 
6. The most important and the most overlooked element of the job is the environment you want to work in, the physical, cultural, leadership style, and more. It's the environment that usually impacts our happiness on the job and it's the one we do the least to prepare for, identify and verify.

Adopt the How can I help? attitude

Next, you need to adopt the "How can I help?" attitude. This involves stop saying stupid stuff, maintain your professional identity, and then look for people you can help.One woman described a job search as the most demeaning experience in her life. She said, I felt like I was standing on the corner holding a sign saying "Will work for food". But it was worse than that. I had to chase the cars down the street shouting. "Pick me, pick me".

Now, contrast that with Vick who is an aviation flight test engineer. When he adopted the "How can I help?" attitude, he said (two weeks into his job search) "I am having so much fun on this job search!"; two phrases that usually don't go together. But because he was working to help people achieve their goals, he not only had fun, he had a great job paying 15 percent more in four and a half weeks of being laid off.

Ask questions to gather information about wants and needs

The third step is to gather information about wants and needs. Remember, you ask questions to identify the organization's goals or challenges that  you can help them achieve or resolve. You do that in three ways:

1.  Review the literature on their web site, annual reports, press releases, LinkedIn or professional association articles.
2. Ask people general questions. These are the people who aren't doing the job you want to do, but they work in organizations that may have do the work you do. Ask how the organization they work for does what you do, what they do well, and what the could do better. Also ask who else you could talk to gather more information.
3. Ask people technical questions. Those are the people who are doing the job you want to do or related to it. These questions can be more detailed about projects, goals, and objectives they are trying to achieve; problems or challenges they are encountering; industry trends and news, software platforms and upgrades.

Prove you are the solution they need

 Once you've gathered the information and found those people who need and want help, your next task is to prove you are the solution they need. You prove this in phone calls, interviews, meetings, reconnecting after interviews/meetings, and in your written materials. Prove you are the solution they need because you can 1) do the job they want done, 2) you will fit into their team, and 3) you are going to be a great return on investment.

Provide specific examples (including #, $, %s) to prove you are the solution. We suggest

• Present your dessert tray of hobbies, civic service, education, work experience, words that describe you, and home run statements
• Prepare 36 statements based on a ball diamond: 1st base=where you worked, 2nd base=what you did, 3rd=the results your work generated, and home plate=a question that applies the example to their organization ("Are those the results you want?")
• Reframe their thinking about your weaknesses or negatives
• Ask questions to gather information to be able to answer the questions.

Make your 10s: 10 Contacts a day and 10 Meetings a week

Make your tens and that means 10 contacts a day, 10 face to face meetings a week. Remember, we're not talking about only contacting job opportunities. We mean contacting people by phone:

• 4-5 of the 10 conversations you will ask the questions you've prepared to gather information
• 2-3 of the 10 contacts will be to schedule face to face meetings
• 2-3 will be to reconnect on prior context or meetings that you have already had.

The 10 face to face meetings a week will involve

• 5-7 to gather information
• 3-5 to impress decision makers you can help them achieve their goals or solve their problems

In a future blog, you will learn how you can find all 50 of these people just two hours each Monday:

• 10 people from your phone or email contacts
• 20 from your LinkedIn, Facebook, professional associations and directories
• 10 following up on previous contacts for meetings
•   7 from advertised job opportunities
•   3 from other sources.

That's 50 people a week, 10 contacts a day. We know that this system works. We're going to share successes on how it works. We hope you enjoy these blogs.

Surviving Poor Management 3: Cross-Directed Information

This continues our series to help all of you working under poorly management companies
Michael spent 20 years employed in the same division of the same company. During the last four years management made a major change in strategic direction. Michael and several managers warned that the change would reduce productivity. Three years later, upper management investigated why half the branches decreased productivity and half the branches did not. They discovered that the half that maintained productivity had ignored the change. So, they reversed themselves returning to the original strategy. Rather than admit their mistake, they blamed Michael and the other managers saying that they had misunderstood  the directions.

Importance of Clear Communication

Companies and organizations require clear, consistent directions and strategy for sustained improvement. Major leadership authors such as Peter Drucker, Stephen R. Covey, and Jim Collins emphasize the importance of clear, sustained directions.
Clear, consistent directions with easy to observe metrics stimulate better implementation. Key production indicators share what the company expects employees to produce. Other indicators direct employees in the processes that will lead to successful results.

Consequences of Mixed or Cross-Directed Messages

We recognize occasional realignments or major strategic shifts occur. However,

• Frequent changes or confusing communications distract or deflate employees
• Staff cannot successfully implement confusing or misdirected orders
• Reversing direction compounds the distraction and loses time and money
• Verbal communications allow for more confusion than written ones
• Electronic communications provide easier opportunities for updating and modifications
• They may be distributed quicker and less expensively
• However, updating electronic operation’s guidelines without informing staff of changes enhance the chance for further confusion
• Unclear official communications loses time and money because employees recognize  the need for unofficial lines of communication and verifying tactics

Compensating for Unclear Messages

You may compensate for miscommunication or misunderstandings or even reversed directions in several ways:

• Ask your network of contacts within the organization to clarify and support one another
• Restate verbal communications to verify your understanding of what is being said
• Frequent refer to electronic and hardcopy communication and policy

Monday we highlight problems that result from poorly defined or unrealistic expectations
This blog will improve as you submit comments, questions, and experiences. We will answer your questions in future blog posts. Please submit your comments and questions so we can answer them.