The Voice of Job Seekers

Mark Anthony Dyson ★ Career Writer ★ Speaker ★ Thinker ★ Award-winning Blog & Podcast! ★ "The Job Scam Report" on Substack! ★ I hack and reimagine the modern job search!

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Excited about #TheBigShift? Read this first

Excited about #TheBigShift? Read this first

Many of us are excited about #TheBigShift or #TheGreatResignation. Before you shift from first to fifth gear, here are a few things to think about:

CNBC reports approximately 4M resigned in May.
BLS reports in May, 559,000 jobs were created, and there were.
9.3M job openings.

Ooooh, and inflation. It’s coming snowballing downhill.

Traditionally, hiring slows down in the summer (thanks for reminding us, Lisa Lewis Miller (she/her)). I think July may be the new Christmas retail hiring rush, as Jack Kelly states things are moving too fast. I believe there is a small window in general. Will we see the “great-rehiring (People laid-off being called to work)?” Who knows?

But, slow or fast, are you #jobsearch ready? People who have jobs or just quit (in the last 90 days) may have the leverage.

That’s the way employers will see it.

That’s the way they have always seen it.

It’s never late to prepare if you’ve been unemployed for six months or more. So whether you’re reskilling or upskilling, I hope you’ve been networking!

Employers will ask:
Why did you leave your last job? How did you handle unemployment?

You will need to craft an answer.
You will need to craft stories to show you are the prescription to the employer’s job description.

Among many other things, you’ll need to ask employers questions too:
For example, how did you pivot your protocols during the pandemic?
How did you show empathy to those with crisis and concerns?
What would your employees say about how well you did?

I think this window of opportunities will close soon. There ain’t no shoulder with a chip. Employers won’t be sentimental about their choices and there ain’t no shoulder with a chip.

This presentation is from an article I wrote about two years ago that I updated. It’s very much related to what I just shared. I hope you’ll find it useful.

 

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

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Is Your Hobby a Viable Career Option?

Is Your Hobby a Viable Career Option?
For most people, it takes time to turn your hobby into a profitable career. They also have to balance their life and career in partition-like ways. Their main job is usually something they don’t enjoy, and their hobby has grown into a love child they can’t wait to explore. Time passes like a flash flood, and it makes them happy.
Why not test to see if it’s a viable career?
And why not test all of your potential career options? It’s a part of taking control of your control career.
Listen to the entire show here.
Instead of surrendering to regret and procrastination, it doesn’t hurt to make small steps to see if it’s a viable business. You can jump right in without knowing the temperature of the water, or, before you go LLC on us, think of what it will look like with small efforts at a time. If you’re unsure of the tax codes and the business side it’s important you understand it:
😎Networking on social media about your process and get some attention on your goals.
😎Get the right feedback as you discover who is helpful and who are just enthusiasts.
😎Partner with people who share your work ethic, your goals and would collaborate with you on parts of your hobby.
😎There are groups, organizations, and associations you can join to keep your finger on the industry and learn new things about the industry’s culture.
😎Since you have complete control of how and when you show up, make the most opportunities to stand out, show your progress or perfection, and don’t be afraid of the white noise. You may not get what you want for a while.
Asking this question to yourself during the “Great Resignation” is the best thing you can do. The competition for jobs has become fierce with the millions who are betting on themselves to find the best possible situation. Hobbies take a long time to turn them into careers, but now is the time for the next step. What that next step is, you may have decided by your actions or inactions toward your goal.
Collaborations are the way to test ideas. Since this is a passion, you understand time is the currency. So, time can be your greatest ally because you can take your time or segment your efforts by doing a little selling in short periods. It will take time to figure out if a hobby is viable as a business. Much of it will depend on what you make of it.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

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Dive Deeper Into Your Job Search Tools For Success

Dive Deeper Into Your Job Search Tools For Success

Within a couple of months of substitute teaching, I subbed for a first-grade class as a regular teacher for six weeks. Despite what most people experience, it taught me valuable lessons about resources and people and today’s modern job search.  By no means, what I’ll be suggesting is scientific. It’s just an observation.

For the first week, I had a mountain of resources thrown at me. I mean, I could have used a different resource for every day of the school year. Yet, I was not offered how to facilitate except through what I could glean through the other first-grade teachers who actually saved me.

In short, the more the kids learned deeply about the few tools, the more engaged they were in my class. If you have ever taught school, you wouldn’t believe how important engagement is to a teacher. It’s everything. I probably broke all of the expectations of what they should have been learning per the curriculum, but my job was easy because I understood the price of getting and keeping the attention of six and seven years old. It expends your energy as much as being a parent with two small kids.

The other revelation was the number of toys, educational gadgets, and stuff in a classroom. It diminishes imagination. The more engaged students only cared about one or two toys. The more distracted students will pull out seven or eight toys to only leave around the room.

I think job seekers succeed with a few tools and resources deeply. Offering a ton of “toys” is distracting and unproductive.

So, the valuable lesson I learned about people…

I get so many requests for help, to answer questions, and suggestions for resources. The job seekers who seem to understand the most about job search and experience use tools and resources they access deeply. The ones who are constantly at work to understand are looking for more tools and resources and lack action. The latter are job seekers who are the kids who pull out seven or eight toys and never use them to their potential.

Results take patience, which you have, but don’t employ.

Start here with tools, resources, tips, strategies you can do more deeply:

  1. Network deeply

My friend Marc Miller suggests the sweet spot is in the 2nd and 3rd-week tie connections. You deepen your network through introductions of people who know other people. It’s never been easier to ask for email introductions or even to introduce yourself on LinkedIn. Just be tactful and respectful.

      2. Research deeply

The job site and the company’s website is limited in gathering information about the company. You find out more about the company in real-time from current employees and even deeper from past employees on the same team.  Even during the interview process, continue meeting employees and gain as much insight about the company, interviewer, or names dropped during the interview. If you are approaching your interview process knowing the problem(s) they want you to solve, the more people will help bring insight into how you would solve their problems.

       3. Question deeply

The deeper you understand the company’s problems, the more value you can offer the company relevant to them. It’s better to ask questions that stem from two or three questions rather than five or six different questions. Starting with questions that start with “how” and “what” goes further than “why.” “How” and “what” in most cases will provide more intel than “why,” which puts them on the defensive. Of course, there are times to ask “why,” but if you’re gathering information initially, the more information, the better.

 

You might be able to add more depth to this conversation as you think about the companies and industries you’re interested in, but this will get you started. If you’re frustrated with your job search, you’ll need to creatively dig deeper and maybe wider. More tools may overwhelm you.

 

 

 

 

 

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.