In our culture, finding a job has been billed by society and our media as a stressful time. Over the years, I have interviewed thousands of people looking for work and almost all of them are withdrawn or ashamed when they are conducting their job search. They view it as a negative lottery where the odds of success are stacked against them. It is my hope, over time, that I can change the perception and the attitude of what a job search truly is.
Looking for work has the opportunity to be one of the most exciting and reinvigorating times of our lives. It is the chance to reinvent ourselves and to truly do what we want for 8+ hours a day, moving forward indefinitely. People advocating traditional job searches ask job seekers to send resumes, complete applications, and do mock interviews. And no wonder people are trepidatious about the job search, because those activities are boring!
Instead, I wish people would view the job search with a different mindset; a search implies randomness, almost hopelessness. I use and teach my clients the concept of job acquisition. This is a focused and systematic approach of identifying five companies that the job acquirer wants to work for and getting them in front of those companies. And rather than sitting at their computer and pressing send after a five-page online application, they are in the coffee shops, the breweries, and the charity fundraisers where the decision makers of the five target companies are living, in this exciting and quirky town, we call Portland.
The job acquisition is the chance to spend as many hours as possible conversing with like-minded people that are working in the job that you so deeply desire. Conducted correctly and conducted with passion, performing the job acquisition approach will be one of the most energizing, eye-opening, and fun times of your life.
Some of you may be reading this and saying “I’ve never had a job search/job acquisition like this” and the real key to acquiring the job you want, and making the acquisition process fun, is knowing the exact job you want to acquire. One exercise that you can do to unveil this is when you are frustrated at a current job, or frustrated between jobs, pay close attention to your mind and heart at that moment. Close your eyes briefly in this moment and ask yourself, what job do I really wish I had? It is often in moments of extreme frustration that our true desires are revealed.
The good news is that by narrowing your job acquisition by focusing on five companies you want to work for while having fun meeting decision makers, you will get a job that you like. The bad news is, that you’ll often be working 40+ hours a week, so use this time of unemployment to have fun and truly realize who you are and what you want to do. Think of the job acquisition as a caterpillar/butterfly process. Your time of unemployment is your time in the cocoon waiting to burst out and become a happier and more productive version of yourself.