Ready Yourself for Your Job Search – Get Clear About What you Want
by Angela Loëb
“When you are clear, what you want will show up in your life, and only to the extent you are clear.”–Janet Attwood
The 2nd phase of readying yourself after you get clear of the baggage is to describe your Ideal Preferences. In other words, what do you want out of your next career adventure?
In the READY module of the Job Search Boot Camp, there are 3 areas we recommend you examine, each entailing an easy exercise so you get clear about what you want.
1. Do Want/Don’t Want
I discovered this straightforward, but extremely helpful exercise a long time ago when I was in between jobs. I took a piece a paper and drew a line longways down the page. At the top of one column I wrote “Do Want,” and on the top of the other column I wrote “Don’t Want.” Then I just brainstormed away. My previous job had really been rotten, so I had a much longer “Don’t Want” list. It was an important lesson about observing what made me unhappy so I could avoid those factors in the future. Some of my don’t wants became what I like to call non-negotiables.
By the way, maybe you aren’t where I was – unhappy with what you’ve been doing. Maybe you are struggling with being open to so many possibilities that it’s hard to narrow down the choices. If you fall into this category, you might find it easier to list what it is you don’t want, too. For example, if you aren’t sure what industry to consider, you could list the industries you’d prefer to avoid.
No matter where you’re coming from, this brainstorming process is a great place to start.
2. Tangibles
Make a list of the ideal tangible things that you already know must be present for you to be happy as you move forward. Examples might be location, pay, benefits, industry, travel, schedule, etc.
As you can see, the tangible factors are those things that are either there or they’re not. Not much gray area. For that reason, this exercise is probably the easiest to do. You might even scour your Do Want/Don’t Want list to see what transfers well to this list.
3. Intangibles
What intangible factors must be there to keep you happy? In other words, what gets you out of bed everyday? List your intangible priorities using the steps below. These factors are the things that are harder to put your finger on. Examples might be work/life balance, challenge, management style of your supervisor, etc.
After you name the factor, you want to go deeper. Define it and explain what makes it important to you. I usually ask folks to do their top 3 intangibles, but you can do as many as you want.
Again, those steps are:
Step 1 – Name it
Step 2 – Define it.
Step 3 – What makes this important to you?
If you’re experiencing any resistance to these exercises – like you want to just blow them off – I would challenge you to rethink that thought. There’s a solid logic behind doing this inner work.
If you don’t know what you want, how can you ask for it? Even more importantly, how will you recognize your ship when it pulls into the dock if you haven’t even attempted to describe what your ship looks like?
Go ahead, do these exercises today. Get clear about what you want. I assure you – the person sitting opposite you in an interview won’t be able to read your mind and guess.
Next up… Get Clear About What You Have…
[...] your ideal work preferences and create a few questions that will help you make sure you cover what’s most important to [...]