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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Redefining the Rules of Resilience to Your Career

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 This week is a clear example of how my generation, the epitome of resilience, has amassed outdated experiences regarding career and job-search advice.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.

 

 

 

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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Treat Your Career Like Appreciating Property

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.

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.