The Morning Blend: A Real Fairy Tale about 3 Little Job Seekers

“The Morning Blend” is a weekly column featured on JobsDirectBlog.com written by Author and Career Motivator Brad Raney. Check back every Monday for a new blog post from Brad and tips to help you get hired!

Everyone knows the fairy tale about the 3 Little Pigs. It’s a classic tale about three individuals who are sent out into the world to seek their fortune. They leave their comfortable and safe existence with their mother to venture out on their own.

At first, their journey is one of contentment and joy – they have a world of opportunity in front of them and their future seems bright. Then, reality sets in and they find out just how tough it can be in the “real world”.

Why are we talking about a fairy tale today? Last week, I spoke to a job seeker group called the Work Source Professional Network in Jacksonville, FL. These folks are C-level executives, entrepreneurs, high achieving sales professionals, and upper management with pedigrees from some of the largest corporations in the world. They are high dollar earners, decision makers and leaders, and they now have found themselves in the position of looking for their next great opportunity.

This was a tremendous group to speak with and I have had great dialogue with many of them since I did my keynote for them a few weeks ago. I have had the pleasure of getting to know about a dozen of the attendees, and have spent personal one on one time with six of them. From these conversations, it became apparent that there were three distinct subgroups at play in the methods and actions that were being taken in their job searches. In essence, these groups materialized to me as the 3 Little Job Seekers and set up so similarly to the fairy tale, which I had to write about it for you.

The first group – the Straw Seekers – has one goal…to get the job search over as soon as possible. They invest a decent amount of time in their search but only in activities that are easy to do – clicking through job boards, sending hundreds of emails, and occasionally showing up at workshops and networking events like the Work Source group. Their search is a “house of straw” and any real setback blows away what they have achieved so far and they have to start over. If they get turned down for a job, they tend to blame the interviewer or recruiter and seldom take any of the responsibility for improving themselves – it’s always the “Big Bad Wolf” that keeps them from their dream job!

The second group – the Stick Seekers – is a little more organized and seems, at least on the surface, to have a plan to find their next job. They do some research on which companies to target, but they rely on recruiters or HR folks to handle their information too much. They get interviews, and in some cases get many interviews with one company – they seem to be on a good path toward success. But, the “Big Bad Wolf” steps in front of them in the form of personal relationships. In general, this group has none of them – they know many folks in an industry or company they want to target, but have not created a true network that can help them get the offer. They believe that “knowing people” is the same as “having a mentor or champion” inside an organization. As a result, they get to the finish line in second place on many hiring decisions.

The final group – the Brick Seekers – is very organized, highly analytical, and they carefully research everything they can about not only the companies they want to target, but the individuals inside who will be making the ultimate hiring decisions. They lay out, by category, the companies they want to work for – they don’t wait for job postings because they know that almost 90% of the positions hired now in America never hit a major job board. They understand the human element of the employee selection process and they use social media, Google, and hundreds of hours on the phone or in person networking with specific individuals who can and will help them succeed. The Brick Seekers not only keep out the “Big Bad Wolf” (in this case negative thinking, self doubt, ignoring the lessons of a loss), they trick him into jumping right in their pot and feast on their rewards! These folks have an amazing plan and work it, work it, work it until it bears fruit.

Here’s the question – which pig are you? Are you taking short cuts and “working hard” but only on the easy parts of your job search? Do try to plan things out but get easily dismayed when they don’t happen right away? Or are you fully engaged in a positive, thought provoking search for your perfect job? I hope you are a Brick Seeker – if not, we should talk.

Sincerely,

Brad Raney

Brad Raney is a motivational speaker, life coach, author and sales trainer. He has over 25 years of experience in sales and sales management within the broadcast industry. Brad developed the VOWELS program in 2009 and the success it brought his sales team has spurred keynote speeches, workshops, seminars, a website, and his first book “Improve Your VOWELS, Improve Your Career!” which was released in July 2010. Click here to order “Improve Your Vowels, Improve Your Career! The A, E, I, O, U’s of Finding Your Perfect Job!” — Available Now!

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