I saw this video on facebook where a guy said that believing in himself is what he needs to accomplish things. I can’t figure out if this really happened, or if it was staged. Either way it is funny:
The proposed formula from the video is (1) make a plan, (2) follow-through with it, and (3) believe in yourself. But what if your plan is bad? What is you can’t follow-through with it? What if you believe in yourself unrealistically?
Many years ago I was trying to figure out what the components of a job seeker’s success strategy included. I do believe self-confidence, attitude, and related things are critical. Back then I only listed three things:
Principle-based strategy/tactics: I spun my wheels for weeks and weeks because I was doing things the way I assumed I should have done them, but they were simply wrong. It’s easy to find bad advice in a job search. If you landed a job today, wouldn’t you take days or weeks, and sometimes months, to study everything about your new job? The same should be true with job search… you should study what the job search is, what networking means, how to implement personal branding, etc. There are a lot of bad assumptions out there, many positioned by people who are either outdated or don’t know, and really are not responsible for you paying your bills. But they’ll preach like it’s gospel, all the while leading you down a path that is fruitless and frustrating. If you want to see my training videos for job search and career management, at no cost, check out this page: free job search videos through Pluralsight
Accountability: I did not get a coach, or hire a resume writer, because I “didn’t have the money.” What I didn’t realize was that I was missing out on a significant part of the overall picture: someone to be accountable to, regularly. Someone who would, at least weekly, say “what are you doing, why are you doing it, do you need to change anything?” The accountability partner can be a paid professional (who should be expert in this role, and understand the current job market intimately), it can be a volunteer at a job club (many faith-based job clubs have staff that would love to help you, at little or no cost to you), or even a friend. If it’s a friend, they must understand their role is not to coddle you, but to regularly hold you accountable for your time and tactics. Your accountability partner should not be your spouse (who is too close to the emotions of the situation and the emotions of the outcome) and it should not be some lug-head who assumes you get a job today the same way you did back in 1980. They must be current on principle-based strategies and tactics.
Real tools: Of course I’m biased here, but think back to 2006. There weren’t many tools for job seekers. Spiral notebooks, Franklin planners and Excel spreadsheets was about as heavy duty as it got. Now, in 2015, professionals are more demanding of software tools, apps, etc. to help them get the job done. JibberJobber has been a pioneer in the job search tool space, and will continue to offer job seekers what we call “industry level” tools. That is, just because you are unemployed, or don’t want to pay, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get awesome tools at your fingertips to help you do your job (of finding a job). I wish I could list a whole lot of other tools, but there just aren’t that many.
So we could go on, and add that attitude and outlook, have an important role, as do perhaps faith and self-confidence… what else could we add to this list?