by Larry Goldsmith on June 18, 2010
By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.
Job seekers should consider enrolling in Theater 101. Exploring the mechanics of how to create a scene for a stage play offers unexpected rewards in upgrading your job search skills. What is a stage play but a series of activities design to engage an audience. The audience is not told the outcome of a scene. They are subject to storytelling through the use of staged activities. A successful playwright leaves the audience to think about the outcome and its implications and consequences. An effective playwright uses actors to illustrate a storyline in the anticipation that the audience will leave the theater with an affirmative experience.
Just like the audience leaving a theater, it is hoped too by the job seeker that the employer will have a positive experience from the job search encounter as well. What if you approached your job search from the perspective of a playwright? Every activity (telephone call, a networking event or an interview) is approached as a scene in a stage play. Think of each of these scenes with their own beginning and ending.
Job search is not “improv”. Start by preparing a script on making a cold call to a potential employer. Most importantly, your central point, is remaining true to yourself, your capabilities and future potential. Your purpose is to prepare and present your case. Think what are you trying to accomplish?
- Write a general scenario. [Illustrate your purpose through a picture created with words.]
- Prepare a script [Define the call in your own words. Compare and contrast available alternatives.]
- Visualize the essential elements of your scene set [desk, mirror, résumé, script]
- Create a storyboard like in a cartoon script [sketch your movements]
- Work your script [Define call in your own words / Compare and contrast available alternatives.]
- Walk through your script for wording [Verbalize the scene to develop your rhythm, intonation and choice of words.]
- Block your scene [Blocking is your play by play.]
- Rehearse your scene until you feel comfortable.
Perhaps the most exciting component of writing your scene will be that the actual telephone call or networking experience is not a surprise. You will find by working on staging your search interactions with employers that you are more in control over your job search. You’ve already had the rehearsal dinner. You worked out your kinks. You have a script. You know want is coming. You analyzed assumptions and have alternative solutions to their responses. You are prepared.
by Larry Goldsmith on November 29, 2009
By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.
Employment Opportunities Do Exist.
Keep in mind that Jobs are created by a number of factors. In one circumstance, a job is created when an employee retires and an opening is created. Other conditions that can lead to the development of a new job can include:
- a newly-acquired project
- maternity leave
- company gaining a new contract
- spouse of a current employee being relocated by their employer
- new technologies being developed
Job creations are caused by many conditions. Populations change as a community becomes older, or when new ethnic groups migrate into a community causing changes in everything from types of restaurants to clothing and grocery stores. Other examples may be an increase or decrease in the level of education, changes in consumer tastes, or new business practices. All of these changes have a cause and effect on an area. A wise job seeker takes advantage of these changes.
Begin your job search with a positive view of the job market—don’t be shortsighted. Most job seekers focus only on job openings. Of course you might ask, “What else would you focus on?” Successful job seekers take another approach. They direct their focus on companies and organizations that employ people with their skill sets. Improve your odds by doing the same thing. There are many more jobs out there than advertised job openings. While many position openings are posted and advertised; many more are not.
The most effective job search demands that you focus on finding employers and industries that use your particular skills, and not focus just on finding posted job openings. Seek out companies and organizations in industries that employ people with skills similar to yours, or that hire people with similar job titles to yours. A job search focused in this manner will generate more opportunities, and quite often better quality jobs.
by Larry Goldsmith on October 17, 2009
By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.
Those of us that watch Law and Order (or CSI) know that it is the felon’s DNA that quite often leads to their being caught. It is this DNA that has lead to the downfall of more than one careless felon. Do you know that each of us has a makeup of personality preferences which make up our own learning styles just as each of have our own DNA genetic identification? Even if your personality DNA is not as exacting as your hereditary DNA, it this personality preference or behavior that is guiding your job search.
Knowing the manner in which you take in information allows you to move through your job search by applying the most effective search strategies. Grasping the underlying significance of preferred learning style and adding this information to your job search preparation gives you an additional edge for achieving a healthy exchange of knowledge with potential employers. Haven’t you ever walked out of an interview and said, “That is the worst interview experience I ever had.” Could you have really meant this? “That Human Resource Manager’s interview style sure didn’t match with my learning style”
Oftentimes your failure in an interview might be just that you are not communicating correctly. You may be the perfect candidate. Your skills are an absolutely match. What you haven’t brought into the equation is that they did not understand you because your delivery, and how they receive your message, was a mismatch. The key to your job search might be no more than paying attention to the interviewer’s learning style and to adjust your method of delivery in such a way a connection is made between both of you. Just as one resume does not fit every job it is also true that the same method of communication with each employer does not fit precisely either.
Probably the most recognized personality assessment tool for addressing personality preferences and learning styles is the Myers Briggs assessment instrument. This assessment tool follows the psychological type theory of Psychoanalyst Carl Jung (1875 – 1961). It categorizes people in one of sixteen fixed personality types. Job seekers taking this personality assessment are assigned a specific label. The great challenge with this assessment is people become affixed with this label and don’t focus further on the interpretation of the label.
Another personality assessment tool is called Personal Empowerment through Type. (I am a certified P.E.T. Facilitator) This assessment tool too is based on the psychological type theory of Psychoanalyst Carl Jung. This instrument does not assign a specific label but instead becomes part of an ongoing process of personal empowerment. Personal empowerment is about becoming self-empowered through increased awareness of self and others. The P.E.T. instrument becomes a self-guiding progression leading toward heightens understanding of learning style. P.E.T. allows you to become aware of how your personality preferences influences your decision-making.
It is only by understanding ourselves and others can we empower our success. When you play into the learning styles of the employers’ DNA by adjusting your style, you will reap the rewards of a successful search.
by Larry Goldsmith on October 11, 2009
By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.
Don’t be like Bill Murray in your job search. Remember that movie Ground Hog Day where Bill Murray woke up each day only to find he was repeating the same experiences over and over again? Are you finding that your search keeps duplicating the same experience day in and day out? Could it be that it is not clear to a potential employer what kind of position you seek? Or maybe it is a lack of clarity on your part in not identifying which skills you are selling? Looking for a job or changing jobs is more difficult when you do not have an occupational title. This problem is compounded when you can not state what skills you offer an employer. Employers will have difficulty figuring out where to place you if you cannot provide them with a job title, or at least a description of the skills you can bring to their workplace.
The point is, “How can an employer match you to a position if they can not identify you by an occupational title or at least clarity of the skills you offer?
You can’t search effectively for a position if you don’t know what you are looking for. When you have a job title, you can more easily write your résumé, search for a position. Learn to talk in terms of occupational titles or skills. One of the most important things you can do in your job search is to identify one or more occupational titles related to the jobs you seek. It may even be okay if you don’t have an occupational title, but you can rattle off at least three skills transferable to that particular company. Sometimes providing skills rather than an occupational title might work better for you because you might be associated with other positions in the company where you might be a better fit. If you can at least introduce a skill set when asked what you want to do, the potential employer will have a better chance to identify where you might help their organization.
