Best Practices - Building a Career & Building a House

Would anyone consider building a house with just a hammer, nails and an idea of what they wanted the house to look like? Of course, no one would. They would be a little short on resources, skills, and the strategy needed wouldn't they?

If you were going to build a house, a few resources, skills, and the strategy required are:

- Learn architecture, if you wanted to design it too
- Learn site selection
- Site preparation
- Permitting
- Construction techniques
- Construction materials
- Possibly contracting, if you were going to enlist others to help
- Construction management so you could properly manage the project
- It might mean learning concrete work, framing, plumbing, electrical construction, heating and air conditioning, roofing, dry wall, painting, carpentry, and other skills
- Landscape skills

I may have missed some other skills and knowledge necessary, but you get the picture. It takes a lot of skill and expertise to build a house you can live with.

The same consideration should be had when you are considering how to conduct your job search. You certainly hope to find a job you can live with, right? It does not matter if you are looking for re-employment or if you are considering changing companies. The same skills apply.

You may feel you are well prepared to conduct a successful search. You feel you know how to put a good resume together (good resume as defined by traditional standards, not effectiveness). You can find companies in your industry. You can probably find the email address for the HR department or maybe a hiring contact.

If you are answering a job posting, you may feel you can determine if you are qualified by the description in the posting. You know how to follow the instructions for submitting a resume and cover letter.

In either case, you send the information off and wait for a response. In the meantime, you use the internet to find advice on interviewing so you can brush up on your skills (or try to gain some). You want to be prepared to respond well when you get the opportunity to interview.

You may look up some compensation negotiation tips, so you can get the best offer. That is very important to you when you have reached that point in the process.

In reality, that is similar to the original analogy of building the house with nails, a hammer, and an idea of what you want the house to look like. It is only some surface information and a lot of good intentions.

I cannot fault anyone who feels the description above is what constitutes being fully prepared for a successful job search. After all, that is what most are taught. But, remember the house. If you are going to build it, you need to learn plenty of skills. You would find a person or a course that would teach you the skills you want to learn to be as successful as you can be at building that house. When you found such a home-building course, you would jump on it! Remember, you want your home to be high quality and you want it to last.

The same should be said for a job search. You want the end result to be the best quality job you can get. You want it to be a long career.

Most are taught what would be best described as the steps to be taken to find your next job. The problem is where to learn effective skills to execute the steps that get results.

Returning to the house, if you were told, prepare the site, make a foundation, frame the house, put a roof on, plumb it, put an electrical system in, heating, air conditioning, dry wall, floors, finish carpentry, etc. Would you feel prepared? Just because you were provided the steps to construct a house, does not mean you have the skills to execute the steps?

Actually, the same is true for conducting a job search. The skills for accomplishing the steps have to be learned to achieve success. In order to get the kind of position you want, it takes skills that few are taught.

Below are the steps to a successful job search. Ask yourself if you have the skill set necessary to accomplish each:

Initiating Your Opportunity Search

- Skills self-assessment
- Create presentation materials
- Develop references
- Research the industries that you know
- Research other industries that you want to consider your qualifications
- Create a script for initial contacts
- Develop responses to objections
- Plan your call performance plan

Creating Interviews

- Execute your calls
- Establish rapport
- Set appointments to follow up
- Develop insights
- Create assessments
- Refine contacts network
- Interacting with 3rd party recruiters
- Perform follow up calls
- Re-assess contacts
- Establish meetings/interviews
Preparation for Interviews
-Pre-Interview actions
- Determining your "Candidate Valuation"
- Working with recruiters to prepare for the interview
- Interview techniques and tactics
- Discovering leverage points and overcoming objections

Post Interview Action Steps

- The Follow up Plan
- Researching position location and needs
- Continued action calls to contact network
- Dealing with alternative interviews and recruiters
- Seizing secondary interviews
- Follow up procedures
- Early negotiation techniques
- Pre-offer research steps

Gaining the Offer & Opportunity You Deserve

- Negotiation technique application
- Managing acceptance/rejection of an offer
- Post offer follow through
- Resignation process management
- Post resignation techniques and procedures
- Starting your new position with your new employer.

It is necessary to learn the skills to each of the steps above to achieve the success everyone desires in their job search.

There are those that may offer bits and pieces of some of the steps but not the complete process. We have found only one that has a complete process with actual skill training. Would you try to build a house with advice from a real estate broker, the person who bought sold some of the materials and another who re-paints houses? The only effective training would be by someone who had managed every step in the home construction process and had been a success at it for years.

I strongly suggest you find training. With the struggling economy it takes solid skills to be successful today in securing the job you want. I see too many needlessly frustrated individuals. I understand their frustration however; they may not understand why their hard work is going unrewarded.

Earn the reward you deserve from your hard work by getting the job you want. Learn the skills that will serve you now and for your entire career. You will build a high quality and lasting career "house."

Yamaha Guitars You Me Blueyonder