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How to Create Realistic Expectations During Your Job Search

Your job search needs to be dynamic, but based on realistic expectations. We envy those who make it look easy. I liken it to getting and staying married. When I met my wife, it wasn’t “love at first sight.”

Are you ready for an emotional ride of sorts? Are you willing to employ grit and grind? That’s what it will take in 2023 and beyond. There is a lot of waiting, too. This is only one part of the job search because smart and savvy job seekers understand it’s a combination of their network, timing, and a strong personal brand in concert. A big part of it is your understanding of what an employer needs. Perhaps they need you at this time.

You won’t know until you’re willing to be a little bold (which is a realistic expectation).

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Looking at how easily other job seekers get jobs can hurt your mindset. I remember watching other couples, I wanted to be them, but with the right girl. It was going to take time—so will your job search.

Is your job search network friendly? Are you prepared for incremental gains? Will you be persistent and resilient enough to remain the focus for a possible 6-9 month job search? The Bureau of Labor and Statistics says unemployment is below 5%, but people are more transient in their careers. Yes, baby boomers will work until they are 75 years old, but many people are advancing their careers by changing jobs. Right now, there are active and underemployed job seekers on the market, taking advantage of their employability by remaining employed while looking.

There won’t be an easy way to do it either. Today’s job search requires 100% engagement and a wide variety of approaches. The “click and submit” method is not nearly sufficient. I’ve heard other career professionals quote (and I have done so in the past) 80% of all jobs are posted on job boards, but I don’t think it’s true. This article from the Wall Street Journal cites it too from 2013. I do think there’s a chunk of jobs not posted, and more existing because the employer hasn’t met you. Yet.

Realistic expectations don’t come naturally. You must insert them inside your strategy. I met my wife through her best friend, who I was dating at the time. As I mentioned, it wasn’t “love at first sight” for that reason. But her best friend and I didn’t work out, yet, I wasn’t focused on pursuing my future wife.

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Along the way your perspective will be challenged in many ways:

Downtime will challenge realistic expectations.

Dating is best when you have options. So is your job search. More people are searching for new opportunities, and if your job search is your “second job,” you won’t have much downtime. It does say you need to create some, and it’s challenging. Conversely, if you are unemployed, you have too much time and should create a schedule, a to-do list, and employ a multi-level approach. This means to create long-term career plans, not just to get the job now.

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Accountability sets realistic expectations.

Expanding and cultivating your network powers your job search. It is the tool to make your efforts meaningful and holistic. Invite people who are unabashedly truthful but empathetic as part of your team. Ask them to be truthful and reward them for it.

Informational interviews (business conversations) help set realistic expectations.

Interviews with hiring managers fill in the blanks if you’re asking the right questions about the industry, the position, and the skills. When I became interested in my wife (a year removed from dating her best friend), I asked a lot of questions of our common friends. I didn’t want to come off desperate and knew they would report everything. If you go to an employer in a desperate state and ask for a job (that may not exist), you’re in the wrong mental space. Done right, it could enhance future conversations and interactions with other hiring managers, your resume, and your value. It’s intel for future conversations and real interviews unless they invite you to the party.

Continued learning will heighten realistic expectations.

Successful job candidates are perpetual learners. They find ways to add to his or her career arsenal and apply it their work, side hustles, or content. If you’re changing careers, standing out by teaching what you learned is a way to catch the eyes of recruiters or hiring managers since most people refuse to do everything that it takes. I think that was the turning point of my relationship, both of us learning and believing we’ll do what it takes.

Your spouse or partner will set realistic expectations in proper perspective.

Nothing sets reality in like the encouragement or discouragement from someone who intimately knows and depends on you. The beauty of having trust is embedded in your lives together even if they don’t understand completely what you do and how you do it. They will look at your life together and try to envision how it will look. I know many people find this the hardest, but it’s part of the part of the fabric.

Again, realistic expectations don’t happen on their own. There are pieces of the puzzle that must fit together for you to find the right employer, position, and life. After 32 years of marriage, I can tell you there is a constant reset of realistic expectations. We evolve and change as life brings us our next challenges. Your job search similarly will bring you a steady flow of caveats. You can’t do it alone. Plan to reset often.

This article was originally published at Jobs2Careers.com! (Updated)

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Good Grief! Listen Employers and Learn What They Value!

Editor’s note: I wrote this article JobMob published two weeks ago and thought I’d share it here. As a lifelong Charlie Brown fan (at one-time owned 10 volumes of Peanuts books), there was a lesson here that was more of a revelation.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Listen to the Employer and Learn What They Value! by Mark Anthony Dyson

If you don’t pay attention to employers’ needs, they won’t pay attention to yours.

When Charlie Brown said that Joe Shilabotnik was his all-time baseball hero in the Major Leagues, with a horrible batting average way below .200, we can understand why. As grown-ups, we do.

There is a valuable lesson here anyone could be your hero, and it doesn’t matter why it excites us. We know throughout the decades, Charlie Brown would have given up every single baseball card he owned for Joe Shilabotnik’s card.

Value works for us when we’ve hacked into the interests of the other person, or in this case, the employer.

If Charlie Brown is the job seeker and Lucy is the employer, then the benefit of creating value must be communicated. Job seekers go wrong in never demonstrating value when the moment comes. Employers want to win in value more often than in volume. Employers tell you what they need some time by what they don’t need.

Listen closely, and you can discern accurately.

I will dissect Charlie Brown’s approach from end to beginning to show how job seekers miss opportunities to connect with employers in demonstrating their value.

Good grief Charlie Brown, she threw what YOU valued away!

Lucy: “He’s not as cute as I thought!”

Lucy ends this segment by throwing the beloved Joe Shilabotnik baseball card in the garbage. Similar to an employer tossing a resume or at least filing it away with no other intentions to look at it again. Charlie Brown didn’t get that she liked Joe because at the moment, he was cute.

Lesson Learned: If you can’t persuade an employer what you have is valuable, then they will keep looking, sometimes forever (so it seems).

Good grief Charlie Brown, it’s not about volume.

Charlie Brown: (tosses his whole baseball card collection in the air) “For five years, I’ve been trying to get a Joe Shilabotnik! My favorite baseball player, and I can’t get him on a bubble gum card… five years! My favorite player…”

We identify with losers at times. Charlie Brown loved this guy despite his .157 minor-league batting average. My sons like badly-acted late ’80s and early ’90s sitcoms, but we like whom we like. Value is an individual decision we cherish for one reason or another from childhood.

Lucy, at least now, does not care about collecting baseball cards. She cares about one cute baseball player, although it is temporary.

Lesson learned: Charlie Brown didn’t earn attention because he never listened to what Lucy said. Had he mentioned “cute” once or twice throughout his face time with her and the card he desired, chances are he would have obtained her interest.

Job seekers who succeed find ways to understand the employer’s needs. What does the employer’s team or company care about? The job seeker who serves it up on a delectable platter to the employer has their attention, causing salivation and perhaps, career salvation.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Don’t you listen?

Employers test you from the beginning. They want to know you’re listening. Charlie Brown, who is representing the anxious job seeker, wants one thing. He thinks the way to get it is to trade.

Charlie Brown: “How about Nellie Fox, Dick Donovan, Willie Kirkland, Frank Lary, Al Kaline Orlando Pena, Jerry Lulupe, Camilo Pascual, Harmon Killebrew, Bob Turley, and Albie Pearson?”

Lucy: “No, I don’t want to trade…I think Joe Shilabotnik is kind of cute…”

Charlie Brown: “I’ll give you Tome Cheney, Chuck Cottier, Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Maury Willis, Sandy Koufax, Frank Robinson, Bob Purkey, Bill Mazeroski, Harvey Hadoix, Warren Spahn, Hank Aaron, Tony Gonzales, Art Mahaffey, Roger Craig, Duke Snider, Don Nottebart, Al Spangler, Curt Simmons, Stan Musial, Ernie Banks, and Larry Jackson!”

Lucy: “No, I don’t think so…”

Lesson Learned: What are the chances that Charlie Brown could have offered Lucy to pick out several other “cute” players from his collection? Is it possible Charlie Brown owned other cards she desired?

The reality that job seekers must increase their value by offering substantially more to get one package is imminent.

Remember, employers hold the one card you want. They won’t give it away (or throw it away) unless a perceived value equals or exceeds what they hold. They don’t want to hire, but they could be persuaded possibly by something cute (or perceived by others as cute) as what they hold.

Creating opportunities is what you’ll need to do, but won’t happen by offering what is valuable only to you or what the employer’s competition cherishes. Lucy, the employer, is the one you need to convince.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Are you desperate?

Charlie Brown: “Joe Shilabotnik? Really? You have a Joe Shilabotnik? You have a Joe Shilabotnik Bubble Gum Card? He’s my favorite player! I’ve been trying to get him on a bubble gum card for five years! You wanna trade? Here…I’ll give you Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Robin Roberts, Luis Aparicio, Bill Monbouquette, Dick Stuart, and Juan Pizarro!”

Lucy: “No, I don’t think so…”

Lesson learned: Um… strategy? Yes, Charlie Brown, the job seeker, lacks the correct strategy. He may not need to bargain if Lucy, the employer, was a real baseball fan that trades baseball cards. But she wasn’t. Just inundating her with what he has, without understanding what she wants, is a great way to be ignored.

Employers will respond if there is something they want. Lucy was only interested in “cute” Joe. If Lucy cared about his .157 batting average, she would have given the card to Charlie Brown without trading it.

Thank goodness! What did we learn, Charlie Brown?

Charlie Brown, the job seeker, was only a loser because he didn’t listen close enough to Lucy, the employer, ‘s message. Proactive listening is effective when you listen to what an employer says and doesn’t say. Employers will tell you “nice resume” even when it’s not all that nice. In most cases, the statement follows: “… but we will continue looking.”

If Charlie Brown figured out what Lucy valued, Charlie Brown would have kept all of his cards.

Job seekers will find the right employer only by listening closely to employer needs.
Read the original article at: http://jobmob.co.il/blog/learn-what-employers-value/

by Mark Anthony Dyson

The Worst Thing That Can Happen to Your Job Search?

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The Worst Thing That Can Happen to Your Job Search? by Mark Anthony Dyson

I watched the Buccaneers go 0-14 in a season when I lived in Tampa. It was brutal, but by no means was it as brutal as being rejected for a position after several rounds of interviews.

Sure, some of us can disengage our personal feelings from the process. Some of us handle rejection pretty well.

But many of us don’t. After a job search — especially a long one, especially when you’ve made it far in the interview process — any bit of rejection can feel personal and, possibly, devastating.

Applying and not hearing back. Taking an assessment and never getting the results. Interview and never receiving a call. It all feels terrible.

You can’t control every aspect of the job search. Pain is part of the process. But that doesn’t mean you have to be hard on yourself. You can learn how to handle rejection more gracefully.

There is nothing romantic about today’s interview process, but we are encouraged to act like there is. “Finding a job is like dating,” people say. Hiring managers expect to see a certain amount of passion from candidates about the job, the company, and the company’s values. But it’s unfair: The more invested you get, the more crushing rejection becomes.

There is a song, “The Worst That Could Happen” by Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge, about a heartbroken man who fell in love with a girl who married another man. The marriage was good for her, but for him, it was devastating. I’m being honest when I say I’ve experienced similar emotional lacerations when I’ve been passed up by peers for a promotion or a job. At the time, these things truly felt like the worst things that could happen.

But eventually, I came to terms with it. Eventually, I did get the promotion I wanted, the job I wanted. Not the same ones, but still.

Each of us is resilient. Each of us crafts our own life story. Employers only care about the chapter of that story in which we overcome the obstacles and achieve. That’s okay: When you talk to Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans, they remember winning the Super Bowl, not the winless season.

You may sometimes have during your job search that feel like winless seasons — but you’ll have your Super Bowl wins, too. As a Bucs fan watching them go 0-14, I often felt like the team would never win again. That was the wrong lesson to draw from the experience. You may feel the same about your own career when you are rejected, but trust me: You have won and will win more than you think.