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Redefining the Rules of Resilience to Your Career

I told you a few weeks ago that Gen Z should ignore your Gen X and Baby Boomer relatives‘ career advice. This week is a clear example of how my generation, the epitome of resilience, has amassed outdated experiences regarding career and job-search advice. We have enough evidence from our generation regarding what was right and wrong about what we called resilience and how it applies to our careers.

We can look at the exploits of a hero like Muhammad Ali and the brilliance of his patience and intel in knowing George Foreman was a relentless pounder. The reward was one of the greatest sports victories ever. We can look at the tragedy in the head trauma he survived that left him unable to continue showcasing his colorful personality for the last 35 years of his life.

The fact we’re offering the “gut-it-out” and “you have to play the game” when it comes to our health, wellbeing, and survival in the workplace no longer serves us or our younger counterparts. I am only referencing Simone Biles a single time now because of her recent decision to step away from competing in the team and all-around Olympic gymnastics competition. You can find opinions and commentary all over the place. But that is all I will say about it in this article.

Our well-being is woven into our careers, and it is the catalyst of our job search.

You’ll need to discern who will be the right leader for you. Who will respect what you feel you need, your boundaries, and your aspirations? Initially, only you can make that decision.

Tom Brady chose his boss. I know sport is different. But, he took who his boss was going to be to heart. There is never a perfect boss. There’s a case to find the perfect boss for you.

We have the tools now to know who our boss will be long before we apply for a particular job. There’s intel to collect from people they work with. And yes, the process I described is a lot of work. This is a critical step now to your well-being and success in your career.

I also advocate deep networking. A large network is helpful. A network with many people who introduced you to other people, especially within a single or adjacent industry, can give you opportunities. I see that a lot in my industry with my friends, peers, colleagues, and partners. They will also add to your well-being because of their familiarity and experiences with bosses, colleagues, and intel of the work.

Great work relationships don’t have walls or distance anymore. As I can personally testify to powerful partnerships with those I never met in person. Remote work won’t change the friendship dynamic when choices are limited.

Competition is important for your job search because it’s designed that way. It probably won’t change anytime soon. Each of us has to decide which race we are willing to enter. It’s more important to be well-informed and do the necessary work to obtain what’s important to us. But we’re broken if our mental health is fractured, whether temporarily or permanently. Don’t risk your mental health to chase glory.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Treat Your Career Like Appreciating Property

My wife and I own a building we’ve been redecorating quite a bit in the last two years. There are challenges, and there were updates done that were seamless. There are useful analogies similar to building a future-proof career and the modern job search. Buildings and your career are similar because they require improvements to appreciate and add value. We can argue later how location has to do with its worth, but it does.

We can’t assume there is a solid foundation in both instances, so it’s important to have them tested. The house or building has to be inspected carefully and never overlooked because if it lacks a strong foundation, its worth is diminished greatly. We can assume the training and experience you’ve obtained will continue to add to your foundation for job seekers. Remember, employers, circumstances, and people who want to refer you will test your foundation.

I was recently on the “Who Ya Know” web show where one of the co-hosts, Trevor Houston, used a building analogy I thought would be interesting to explore. All of us, including Trevor’s co-hosts, Foster Williams and Mark Elder, rallied around this analogy. It was my favorite part of the show.

We are currently renovating a kitchen upstairs-intending to replace the Lazy Susan with a new one. Everything went as planned for all other work in the building except for the kitchen. We didn’t make any considerations in measuring the Lazy Susan, and as a result, we failed to finish the kitchen in the timeline we had established.

Your career and job search are similar to renovation.

Let’s keep in mind your career depreciates if you’re not renovating, just as a building loses its worth if you don’t. Renovation is related to buildings, as reinvention or innovation is more relevant to your job search and career. I advocate to constantly and consistently increase your value, so you’ll continually add worth.

The recreation shouldn’t stop overall progress.

When we decided to wait for the right size Lazy Susan for the kitchen, a lot of work still needed to be done in the rest of the building. Similarly, this shouldn’t happen to your job search, but the propensity of most job seekers is to stop adding value to other areas important to impress employers. You can’t allow training or the discovery of new learning to stop your overall growth and career advancement.

You can’t expect growth by doing just enough.

If you’re learning something new, change must follow. Learning itself doesn’t create growth unless applied to test whether it’s true or false. A slight change may be a need for the training to work. Although I don’t do personal training anymore, there is a practice that applies here. Growth is necessary, and it takes time.

Before training anyone, an assessment is needed to prescribe the correct exercise program for each individual. For most people, squats are the most challenging yet rewarding weight exercises to perform and add muscle. I couldn’t prescribe weighted squats to someone who cannot hold their balance when squatting without weights. It’s as important- someone trains safely or consequently injures themselves. The goal is for them to perform squats, but it will take a series of small and progressive training to get someone to weighted squats safely and effectively.

Similarly, career growth occurs after assessing whether you need to do more. Then you determine if smaller steps are best to grow. Discomfort is certain at some point, but the process shouldn’t hurt you more than the change itself.

It costs to renovate and to redecorate a building or a house. It also costs to assess, and if smaller steps are needed, time and cost are a factor. All of these could discourage you from finishing a building, house, or career. You don’t want any of them to be an excuse not to finish. Remember, your job search and career are much like property. Continual changes and upgrades will bring value and appreciation. No changes or upgrades bring down the value and depreciation.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Don’t be a Desperate Job Seeker in 2021

There must be some way for you to find your truth and not get swept away by broad sweeping headlines of millions of job openings. Whether you’re unemployed or employed, hearing people land jobs right now when there are lots of job, when you haven’t yet, can trigger feelings of desperation. You can appear desperate without meaning to appear that way.

It has already ready started:

From a CEO:

“I interviewed 12 candidates this week… 60% are looking for new roles because their current company is asking them to come back to the office 3+ days/week”

It’s happening

— Chris Herd (@chris_herd) July 3, 2021

It’s sexy to have left your job in May because you wanted to take this job and shove it. You’re not the first. But if you didn’t go without having another job lined up, then you might be feeling anxious and a little desperate. Somewhere at the intersection of your ego, pride, and taking a McDonald’s job is where logic should kick in. You were caught in the spirit of “The Great Resignation” but realize that’s not the spirit you were ready to be baptized.

If you didn’t interview well before you quit, and didn’t take any steps to improve, then it’s likely you still don’t interview well now. A movement where there are many available jobs doesn’t mean employers will be “wowed” by your performance.

If your resume sucked before quitting, unless you received help to correct your grammar, employers would just trash it now.

More available jobs never mean forgiving the lack of basic skills such as interviewing required by the employer.

If you’re feeling desperate at this moment or you’re experiencing intermittent anxiousness, there are a few things you can do to find some sanity and balance. Money is often at the root of anxiety. But that’s not always the case:

Ask for emotional support from professionals with counseling experience. Please don’t take this lightly because people commit suicide more often than most of us think because of employment. It could go up if people are not connecting with opportunities when job openings are plentiful. My good friend and mentor, Damian Birkel, wrote a book some years ago about the emotional wave unemployed job seekers feel. It might be worth your time to purchase it for less than eight dollars.
It’s time to productively connect with people who can help you find a job. It’s OK to get a job that’s temporary or contracts. You don’t want to ask for jobs. Ask if they know someone who can connect you to the right person. This way, your network for now and for the future. New relationships can potentially introduce you to potential hiring managers.
If you need food or physical resources, dialing 211 is an excellent resource in some states, and in other states, the service is not active. You can try searching for help at 211.org. The most active organizations in providing food and other resources in many cities are churches.
There are times when volunteer work becomes paid. You never know until you ask questions. I know someone who worked for non-profits organizations but started by volunteering for years. And get this, they never needed a resume because they made great impressions at past organizations.
Let’s go back to temporary work. There are apps like Wonolo to connect you to temporary work that turns into full-time jobs. Wonolo encourages interested candidates to simply head to the App Store (iPhone) or Google Play Store (Android) and search for the Wonolo app to download. Open the app and submit all your relevant information in a matter of minutes. You can get working as soon as the next day.
Right now, the restaurant industry is universally short-staffed. There are many resources with hot industries hiring now, but consider these as bridge jobs until you can find what you believe is desirable.
Career One Stop has a Worker ReEmployment program to train you for new skills and pay you for training. Each state has different requirements for participation, and they have thousands of resources if you feel hopeless.

There is no quick fix for needing a job tomorrow. There is no one-fix-all strategy for a job seeker feeling desperate. What’s hard to hear, yet, true: stay engaged and keen on potential opportunities even when you have a job.