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Finding Your Dream Job: Preparing for “The Long Search”
A while back, my friend Mike Schaffner talked about making a great work environment - something too many employers haven’t read.
And while he was talking to the employers out there, it made me think of a question I have asked to many candidates, usually after they’ve told me horror stories of how they’ve been treated for years: “Why are you working there?”
The answers that I’ve received are a little scary. Most of them boil down to, “Well….I have a job here that was open when I was looking. They pay me.”
In other words, they are expecting great things from their career, but refuse to be in charge of it. Instead, their employers, recruiters, or - even worse - blind random chance are in charge.
I can tell you how to find a better company to work at, but it’s time to take charge of your own career.
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HOW TO FIND A GOOD COMPANY TO WORK AT AND TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR CAREER
Make a commitment with me here today: “I will no longer let blind chance run my career”. Until you make that commitment, I can’t help you.
Now that you’ve made that commitment, however, we can move forward.
It’s time to find a corporate environment that you actually enjoy working in. A place where you could spend many years if things don’t change too drastically. Here’s how to do it:
- Decide What You Want - Have you ever tried to drive somewhere knowing only that you wanted “not to be in Houston”? Most everywhere qualifies. But - and this may be hard for some of you who have experienced a Houston summer to believe - there are a lot of places much worse than Houston (or wherever you’re running from). In order to get to where you want to go, you have to know where it is!
Instead of running away and deciding what you don’t want (ie. “A boss who doesn’t yell at me”, “Co-workers who don’t stab me in the back”, “Less politics”), decide exactly what you do want (ie. “A company that values its employees”, “Challenging work”, “A great benefit plan”, “A company where I can leave a 5pm and spend time with my family”, etc).
- Make It Specific - I have bad news for you: Every single HR person on the planet will at least act like their company is the best company on the planet. So, if you say generic things like, “I want a company that values its employees”, the HR person will say something like, “Well, ThisCo loves its employees more than any company on the planet!”
You’ve got to take some time and figure out specifically what you’re looking for. What does “values its employees” mean? More money? Individualized career attention? Awards ceremonies? Stock options? Company car? Decide what you’re looking for in very fine detail so that you’ll know when you find it.
- Prioritize It - Unfortunately, your perfect dream company might not exist. However, something very close to it might. Take all the very specific things that you’re looking for in a company and prioritize them. What’s really more / more important to you?
- Prepare To Stay Put - You’ve got to be ready to stay in your current job until you find something close (or, perhaps, closer) to your ideal job. If you’re jumping jobs frequently while you’re looking for “the right thing”, it’s unlikely you’ll find it and you’ll also have a hard time being appealing to it when it does come up.
If it helps, think of it like this: As long as you’re letting chance dictate your job moves, you’re probably going to end up in a company as crappy as the one you’re in now. So, you might as well stay put at the crappy company you know while you’re looking for the right company.
- Start The Long Search - You’ve probably heard that a job search will normally take one month for each $10,000 that you make. That’s pretty accurate, overall. But that’s to find a job, not the job. Go ahead and be prepared to double that estimate. Perhaps triple, depending on how long your list of what you’re looking for is.
Settle in and expect to turn down a lot of jobs that seem better than the one you’re in until you find the right one. Also keep in mind that you’re going to be doing an active job search during all of this time, so you’ll have to build good habits (return calls on break times, send resumes from home, etc.) so that it doesn’t hurt your current job.
- Understand It’s Okay To Be Wrong - You may very well be wrong about some of the things that you want. Perhaps you didn’t realize how competitive the environment would be at a company that hands out awards (tied to raises) can be.
The good news is that you’ve got a lot of working years in your life. If you get it wrong, chances are that you’ll still be in a much better place than when chance ruled your career. You can then start “The Long Search” again, knowing more than you knew before.
- Understand That Your List Will Change - As your personal life, career level, and other desires change, your list of the perfect company will continue to change. This is normal and to be expected as you age and ferment a bit.
Keep updating your written list to ensure that you still know what you’re looking for and that it really is what you’re looking for. Share the list with a spouse or a good friend and see if they can suggest things that you might have missed.
- Don’t Burn Bridges - Handle your departures from every company very professionally. Some bosses won’t recognize that you have priorities apart from the company regardless of what you do, but don’t give them ammo to use against you.
What you may discover down the road is that a company you were at a number of years ago might be the ideal company for you now. And you want to have, if not a welcome mat, at least no barriers to get back into that company.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk a little about more specifically how to do “The Long Search”.
Enjoy the Search!
Dan
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Daniel R. Sweet
Owner / Author / Chief Cook-And-Bottle-Washer / Technical Recruiter
FRACAT.com - Free Resume and Career Toolbox
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrsweet
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Photo by: Dave Hogg
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