The Voice of Job Seekers

Mark Anthony Dyson ★ Career Writer ★ Speaker ★ Thinker ★ Award-winning Blog & Podcast! ★ I hack and reimagine the modern job search!

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Summer of 2022 Job Search Looks Different From Here

Summer of 2022 Job Search Looks Different From Here! by Mark Anthony Dyson

With lifted COVID restrictions everywhere, you can expect people will not stay inside unless this latest COVID concern lands in America. Your job search efforts should ramp up if you want to change sooner. The job competition is high now but will die out from June-August. No matter what season you choose to ramp up your search, a new job won’t be a walk-in.

You cannot follow the wide road and do what everyone else will do. Think of how you can tread some uncommon waters in your job search strategy. I’ve always told you job search is a lifestyle. It’s hard to do, but it’s more challenging when looking for a job without a job.

Consider these counterintuitive but unorthodox ideas:

  1. What is it can you do to reimagine your next job? I know it sounds lofty and unrealistic, but the goal is to idealize solutions an employer wants.
  2. Get the discussion off of your resume and into thoughtful dialogue. The employer sees thousands of job candidates with similar qualifications, but how many candidates can recreate possibilities? Show that you’ve done it, and point to how you’ll do it for them.
  3. Agility and creativity win the day. Rigid routines have some benefits, but employers are interested in your flexibility and versatility. Employers ask you how to fit a square peg in a round hole. Will you be the one to tell them how you’ll find or create another hole for the peg to fit?
  4. Who benefits when you’re hired? Show and demonstrate how the team wins, not just you: research and network deeper to find those answers if you use informational interviews wisely. Don’t just ask many questions and mindlessly increase your connections without a strategy.
  5. Be the incessant learner. Those who approach interviews like a consultant have a competitive advantage. You are learning the employer’s needs before you offer solutions.
  6. Lean into strengths and sure up weaknesses. Everyone wants to exploit their strengths rather than their weaknesses. But if a weakness weakens your ability to use your strengths, then anything you do is a liability. A grip is as firm as its fingers.
  7. If it’s too easy, something is wrong. Another good reason to research everything from the company itself to the coworker you will sit next to is to determine if the position is as advertised. Jack Kelly, Forbes Senior Career Contributor, included me in this article about avoiding a job change you may regret. There’s a lot of jobfishing happening. You want no part 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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Filed Under: Career Management, careers Tagged With: Career change, Careers

by Mark Anthony Dyson Leave a Comment

Quitting is Like…Normal Now, Right?

via GIPHY

 

I am exhausted from reading about how quitting is a big deal. It is a staple in our career DNA, like no longer reading an uninteresting book. Once a job peels away at our skin, we need to shed the layers.

Finding out a diet no longer helps us lose two pounds a week. We find out it wasn’t the diet in the beginning. We ate less. I got tired of eating the same foods day in, and day out, so we stopped. The result: Our weight has been the same.

Then, we go through exercising more to raise our heart rate, but since a faster beat doesn’t affect us aesthetically, we stop working out consistently.

The same with quitting. We’re quitting a bunch as Americans. We’re job-hopping to make more money, creating equitable career capital, and understand it’s a part of our journey.

Not just Gen Z. All of ours. 

We’ve cut classes because we’re bored. Does that mean we’ve given up on school? Nope, the class is trash. The major might be too, but right now the class sucks.

Critics interpret this movement as people hating work, companies, and structure are the ones who hate dieting, low-carb foods, and weights. They instead run, walk or step 10,000 times, or use the crazy crunch machine and say “quitters” need to work harder.

Newsflash: Running half-marathons for three months a year and the crunch machine isn’t all that productive. It only looks like you’re working hard. Suppose that’s your goal, cool. But the baby tetradactyl you idolize is ugly. And so is the old model of doing it harder, either.

That’s what people who are quitting or have quit are telling America. 

It’s a norm.

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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Filed Under: Career Management, Job Search, The Big Shift, The Great Resignation Tagged With: quitting, The Great Resignation

by Mark Anthony Dyson Leave a Comment

The One Job Search Strategy for Perpetual Career Advancement

The One Job Search Strategy for Perpetual Career Advancement

I had great mentors during my career, and three of them were bosses, and all of them were women. They leveraged their position to help position me to advance my career. Not only were they meaningful teachers of what they shared with me, but were also practitioners of what they taught me. One of them taught me a significant job search and career strategy you’ll want to use from now on. 

One of my mentors and bosses was Eileen, who, from the day she became my boss, assured me she would prepare me to take her position when she moved. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but her preparation took me to the next step. To this day, there was one thing she told me I wanted to share with you. It aligns with my mantra of job search being a lifestyle. 

I shared with Fast Company several months ago (reprinted by The Ladders) that Eileen told me once no matter how well or not so well things were going in her current job or career, she interviewed once a year with another company. I thought that was crazy at the time, but I remembered it but did NOT practice at the time. But it did come in handy later in my career, especially as I shared this advice with past clients and job seekers over the years. 

Many of you are still fighting the idea of managing your career closer than you have in the past. Here are the benefits you’re missing:

  1. Unless you are actively involved in an industry organization (and every job has its industry), interviewing is the only you’ll find out how the landscape is changing. Today, most industries and jobs evolve because of tech upgrades, making things easier, faster, bigger, or stronger. You may think that you work the cash register, yet you’re in the retail or department stores industry if you work at Best Buy. You can start by checking the list of organizations at Job Stars. By default, you may consider joining a customer service organization (or name a logical association with your profession) such as the National Customer Service Association. 
  2. Job interviewing is a skill, and there are trends constantly changing in all industries. You’ve heard much about video interviews are becoming a staple in screening applicants and job candidates before meeting with a decision-maker. You probably didn’t know some industries use panel interviews and require the candidate to engage in more than five rounds of interviews. Those are important if the last time you’ve interviewed was two years ago. 
  3. Your ability to adapt will be tested either by the process itself or within the interviewing process through questioning. If you fail to articulate your challenges during the pandemic through trials or transition, you may not resonate with a company that has endured multiple challenges from the beginning. 
  4. Interviewing more often will challenge your knowledge of emerging technology. Companies prefer someone who is tech-ready from day one. Others may train you, but it helps to know what’s trending. You can decide if you need to invest in updated training or add value to your current employer by mentioning what the industry is using.  They may ask you to make suggestions. There’s no need for me to tell you what that means to every employer. 
  5. Interviewing each year could increase your network when you are getting referrals if you’re thoughtful in creating great conversations. Let’s say you don’t get a job offer from the company you meet with, but you ask them to connect with you on LinkedIn. By maintaining that relationship opens many possibilities to get other referrals or interview again at a better time when you’re a better fit. 
  6. You’ll get used to customizing your storytelling abilities to each employer. No one tells a story, a joke, anecdote the same way each time. As you understand the industry at large, you’ll appreciate each interview will listen for a resonating narrative. 
  7. Industry terminology also changes, like the direction of the wind. I’m sure if I told you to “cool out,” you’ll think I’m a Cro-Magnon man. Similarly, if you use a term, you think it sounds like you’re knowledgeable, and it isn’t changing the way an interviewer sees you. 

The more frequently you interview while you’re employed, the better you’ll prepare yourself for when it’s time to change jobs or careers. I didn’t discuss in this article how this practice can help you bring more value to your current company or provide you with additional intrinsic motivation. You can also decide if there is a future in the industry and decide it’s time to explore other options. Over time, you control the pivots and advances and are caught unready for economic or sector crashes. 

 

 

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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Filed Under: Career Management, Interview, Job Search Tagged With: career advancement, Job Interview, Job Search

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I offered the NTD News audience options to their pandemic unemployment benefits ending 9/6/21

What a differeListen to my third appearance on the NPR podcast “Jazzed About Work” with Beverly Jones 6/2/2021

WOUB Digital · Episode 108 : Mark Anthony Dyson, "The Voice of Job Seekers"

See my #GetHired LinkedIn Live with News Editor Andrew Seaman 5/24/20

Making the job search a lifestyle on “Dr. Dawn on Careers” on SiriusXM Channel 132, Wharton School of Business, University of Penn 5/13/21

Watch my appearance on the web show, “Who Ya Know” appearance 07/21/2021

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