Hey there!
Welcome to Work in Progress, a how-to series that's meant to help you with everything from
prepping for a job interview to boosting your confidence or negotiating a raise.
Here's today's question:
Have you been thinking about finding a new job?
Maybe you've stopped yourself from thinking about that because finding a new job brings
on anxiety and frustration that the whole process is going to take too long.
And that pivoting and moving to a new career is just way too hard.
Well, today, I have some really good news for you.
We can actually help you make your job search way more simple and maybe even enjoyable.
We've got four steps that you can follow to find the right company and job that you'll
be super excited about.
Start by assessing your current job and your skills.
Take a look at your current job, and think about the tasks that you really enjoy doing,
versus the tasks that you procrastinate on and you just aren't really energized by.
Let's pretend that you are a marketing strategist, and one of the things you love talking about
or thinking about is social media, the graphics, the captions.
But one of the things you hate doing as a marketing strategist is writing press releases,
or talking to the press.
Those are some areas where you would have your list of things your procrastinate on,
versus things you really enjoy, and you work on right away.
After figuring out what you like doing, take a moment to consider your skills.
What are you good at doing?
What are your strengths that you've been commended for?
What do your coworkers look to you for advice on?
If you're feeling stumped, try asking your close friends or family what they think your
strengths are.
They often give great insight into what's hard to see about ourselves.
Think about the combination of what you like doing, or you're energized by, and what you're
successful at.
You want to find a job that really intersects those two things.
So something you're energized by/like, and something you're successful with.
That's probably what your next job should be.
Take a class.
You can also probably identify some skills gaps.
And if you do find those, the next thing is to maybe find a class whether it's something
you pay for, a free class on a website like Udemy or even a webinar—and Career Contessa
has tons of webinars.
So if you have a skills gap, you need to figure out how to fill that gap.
And a great place to start is by taking courses or a class.
Anything from paid to free will do.
If you're looking to stay in a similar role or industry, and therefore you don't have
any "skills gaps" that you need to fill, the next thing you can work on is really working
on what we call people skills.
So what about your problem solving or productivity or how you run meetings efficiently?
Those are all skills that are relevant no matter what job you go to next.
Send some cold emails and ask for informational interviews.
We're huge fans of informational interviews here at Career Contessa.
Why?
Because it's a great way to try before you buy.
You can talk to people who already work for that company that you're interested in, or
in that role that you think you want to transition into, without actually having to be working
for that company or in that role yet.
And you can ask them, "How did you get this job?"
"What's your career trajectory?"
"What type of skills do you use to be successful here?"
And if they seem to align with what you want long-term, then you know that pursuing this
is totally worth it.
The process for booking an informational interview is pretty simple.
First, you're going to identify a person who you want to connect with.
This is usually going to be someone who either works for the company you're interested in,
or they have the job that you're interested in, and if you're lucky, maybe you find someone
who hits both of those.
Once you identify that person, you're going to send a concise note to them to see if they
can meet with you for twenty to thirty minutes to talk about their career, why you're interested
in it, and answer any questions that you might have.
And just so you know, for a lot of people, they feel all this pressure to meet in person
with somebody.
But it's going to be a lot easier if you give them the option to connect with you via phone
or in person.
So don't be worried.
You get just as much value out of talking to them over the phone, as you do in-person
to learn about their career.
If you want more detail on what this reach out should look like, check out our free networking
templates, as well as our article on how to send a cold email.
Those links are in the description.
Move within your company or industry.
If you really love your current company, but you're just not feeling excited about your
department or your role anymore, now is a great time to go talk to someone in HR, or
even your manager, to say "Hey, I might be interested in moving to another department
or another role, what kind of steps should I take to get there next?"
If you're really excited about the work that you're doing, but not necessarily your company,
it might be a great idea to think about other open positions in your same industry.
So for example, let's say you work in the entertainment industry and you work for a
small tv studio or production company.
And while you really love the work that you're doing, you're kind of done with that company.
Well, you can really leverage the industry insight and experience you have to move onto
maybe a bigger production company or a bigger studio.
And that's a great way to find a new job, is by leveraging your industry skill set and
experience.
Reach out to your current network.
Old coworkers, acquaintances, partners you've worked with, and let them know that you're
beginning a job search.
Utilizing your connections is a great way to get the ball rolling and find positions
within your industry.
At Career Contessa, our ultimate goal is to help you find a career that you feel successful
and fulfilled in.
When you know that it's time to maybe search for that new job or transition, we hope that
these tips will be really helpful.
It will also help you broaden what you think about as a job search.
You don't always have to move to a completely different industry or a completely different
company.
Sometimes, it's just moving roles within your current company.
Whatever works best for you, follow that and stick with it.
If you're ready to start reaching out to cold contacts, or to your network, use our free
downloadable networking templates which can help you draft those emails.
They're linked in the description.