Your GPS to Employment Success

How to Find and Succeed in the Right Job

Beverly A. Williams

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781953349972
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

Economies had barely recovered from the Great Recession of 2008 when the COVID-19 pandemic moved swiftly around the world threatening to devastate global economies and their populations yet again. Inevitably, unemployment followed. Anyone looking for employment or a promotion in a mercurial economic environment can find useful tips and information in Your GPS to Employment Success: How to Find and Succeed in the Right Job

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This book is a career resource that contains a treasure trove of straightforward, pithy job search and career advice, 125 tips, and stories from an employment expert. It is a career advancement and networking guide that also identifies inconvenient truths that are not commonly known but are helpful to have in your career toolkit.

Your GPS to Employment Success also addresses:

• The importance of preparing mentally, physically, and emotionally for a roller-coaster job search.
• How to adopt NBA star forward LeBron James's career strategy for personal career goals.
• How to develop a career plan and strategy, and the need to execute a career strategy.
• How to look for employment in a virtual world.
• How a former NFL athlete asked a stranger for help and changed the trajectory of his life.

The author also provides a career toolkit that contains informative, time-saving material.

CHAPTER 1

Prepare…Plan…Persist... Persevere

Many employees realize they will need to switch careers at some stage in their life. Not only has the job-for-life disappeared, but the career-for-life is going the same way.

—Mike Webster, Kelly Services Executive
Vice President and General Manager

Reflections

How you approach your employment journey is crucial. Each day, prepare yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically. Develop a strategic plan and execute it. Persist with your efforts in furtherance of your goals and objectives. Persevere through negative responses, if any, and the absence of responses.

Prepare

TIP 1-1 View and prepare for your job search through a lens that presumes the worst job market ever regardless of the state of the economy and your prospects.

Solely for the purpose of gauging the effort required to achieve the goal of your job search, ignore the ebb and flow of global and national economies and their effect on job availability. Prepare to compete for employment opportunities in the worst possible job market.

If you approach your journey through that lens, you will be prepared to compete for employment regardless of the state of the economy and the job market.

TIP 1-2 List what you want to accomplish each day.

The evening before you begin your job search, make a list of tasks to be completed the following day. Set the clock, rise at the same time each day, work out, and eat breakfast. These daily tasks can be checked off as completed at the end of each day. Decide how you will journal your experience, either on the computer, in a notebook, or whatever facilitates your thinking.

Your list should include reading the morning news and job boards, conducting research about businesses and people associated with those businesses, drafting resumes and cover letters, and networking via e-mail and social media. In addition, prepare a list of personal consultants who can contribute to your job search with informed guidance. Including these people on your daily schedule for coffee, for example, can provide a healthy sounding board for your progress and keep you focused. Such personal consultants should be well-informed friends, family members, and spiritual and political leaders.

Preparation may increase your ability to cope with the trials and tribulations that accompany the negative and positive aspects of employment pursuits. Establishing a routine and committing your daily schedule to writing will help you remain focused. If necessary, conspicuously post the list of tasks and your schedule so it is easy to follow. Nothing must fall through the cracks.

TIP 1-3 Use music to motivate and inspire you and change your mood.

Listening to music may not only be good for your health,¹ it may ease your transition through the ups and downs of your job search. Create playlists that include upbeat music with or without lyrics or both versions. Get started with the Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)² and Roar³ by Katy Perry.

The Climb⁴ by Miley Cyrus is calmer, and perhaps may ease you into the conclusion of your day. Add personal favorites and play them randomly to add an element of surprise to your musical experience.

TIP 1-4 Train like an olympian. (Consult a physician before you begin any fitness program.)

Achieving an Olympic medal undeniably requires single-minded focus and unwavering commitment. Visualize Olympic medalists who train relentlessly. To be successful, they train to condition themselves to compete in rigorous Olympic events.

Although there is no guarantee that their hard work will yield Olympic medals, they nonetheless put in the time and effort. Even the possibility that they will win a medal is worth the sacrifices they make. You are developing rigor for your job search.

You may find that you have more energy at the end of the day if you begin it with physical activity. Outdoor activities, such as cycling, walking, jogging, or swimming are free. If you can afford a gym you can have not only the benefit of physical activity but networking opportunities as well. Listening to upbeat music while you exercise may also leave you in an upbeat mood when you finish.

Never let inclement weather sidetrack your fitness efforts. Search the Internet and social media platforms for free streaming and online, in-home exercise videos. Join a neighborhood community center, check out videos from the library, utilize exercise videos on cable or purchase them.

In addition to exercise, balanced meals and healthy eating also keep minds sharp and bodies healthy. Given the limited time and energy available in a 24-hour day, focus and staying on task are necessary.

You will likely get from your employment search and efforts to gain a promotion what you put into them. Consistent effort, follow-up, networking, job-board searches, and résumé revisions are a few of the tasks critical for employment success.

Olympian Brendon Rodney agrees that people who are looking for employment should establish a daily routine by:

1. Getting plenty of rest

2. Eating healthy

3. Exercising

4. Planning and organizing daily tasks

5. Remaining focused on completing those tasks and achieving your goals

6. Taking a break periodically to enjoy yourself, and then beginning again

According to Brendon, rest and periodic breaks are important. Brace yourself for the drain on your energy.⁵

TIP 1-5 Stay in shape or get into shape for your health and to enhance your personal appearance.

Weight is a sensitive subject but one that should be addressed. Personal struggles aside, you do not have to be a lean, mean employment-seeking machine. You should know, however, that being overweight may affect your employment success.

It is no secret that being overweight contributes to medical issues. It is also common knowledge that health care premiums (a portion of which may be paid by employers) are expensive. There is no sign that premium costs are going to get cheaper.

If you do not have health issues and you are satisfied with how you look, do not change unless you want to do so. There is more acceptance of diversity in body type, ethnicity, and hairstyles now than in the past.

Be mindful, however, that physical appearance is more important in some industries than in others. Fashion and retail, client-facing sales, and on-air media roles are just a few industries and positions where appearance is client, customer, and viewer driven.

If you decide to trim down, find a workout partner to join you in your fitness routine. It is easier to maintain a program if there is someone to keep you company while you exercise.

Make sure your partner is reliable and committed to achieving results. You could also create a networking opportunity through the people you meet on the track or at the gym.

TIP 1-6 Manage your mindset.

Managing the stressors of life, including the stress that accompanies seeking employment, is not easy. Whatever your employment situation, your mental and physical well-being are critical to your success in finding a job and as an employee. Daily meditation can relieve stress and anxiety by clearing your head and placing you in a state of mind that permits you to concentrate on your job search or efforts to earn a promotion.

Take advantage of online resources, group chats, and networking opportunities.⁶ Explore available online meditation tools and recordings to find one suitable for you. Mindfulness, “the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us,”⁷ may benefit you.

Focus on self-care.⁸ Find videos that offer yoga or guided meditation. You can start with a 10-minute video and increase the time gradually. The goal is to be healthy and ready when opportunity knocks.

Do not be embarrassed if you become overwhelmed or feel blue. Acknowledge how you feel by telling someone such as your medical practitioner or clergy.

Do not struggle alone. Tell someone who will help you get either professional or family support.

TIP 1-7 Manage your expectations.

TIP 1-8 Make sure your expectations are reasonable and realistic.

The pursuit of employment and on-the-job success, especially in competitive job markets, requires managing mental, physical, and emotional health. Thus, it is important to manage expectations. Do not expect all resumes to be acknowledged or to receive responses to all e-mails, texts, and telephone calls.

Depending on your personal circumstances, financial problems may worsen. How you manage these challenges is wholly within your control.

Your job search should be directed toward a job that you are qualified for. You should be able to articulate persuasively the value you bring, and why you should be hired. If you do not overreach for a position the emotional ups and downs of your employment journey should be more manageable.

If, however, you apply for jobs that you are not qualified for and you approach your job search cavalierly, save your time. You probably will not be hired unless you have a ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Description
• Contents
• Testimonials
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• General Information
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Prepare…Plan…Persist...Persevere
• Chapter 2 Inconvenient Truths
• Chapter 3 Networking Is the GPS to Employment Success
• Chapter 4 Who Are You?
• Chapter 5 What Do You Bring to the Table? What Is Your Destination?
• Chapter 6 You’re Looking for a Job ....They Don’t Call It Work for Nothing!
• Chapter 7 On the Job…Don’t Get Shot by a Bullet Labeled “To Whom It May Concern”
• Chapter 8 Lights, Cameras, Action!
• Toolkit
• Career Plan
• About the Author
• Index
• Backcover