This is the final step in Hannah Morgan’s six step job search strategy: Project Update.
SWOT Analysis: This is another thing to google, if you are not familiar with it. It’s a common model used in business school… you basically do a study on Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. You can do this on a company, or an industry, but in this case, you would do it on yourself. What are your strengths? Are you playing to them? Do they present you with any opportunities? What are your weaknesses? Do you need to work on them, or should you work on your strengths instead? What threats do you have (in your career) because of your weaknesses? This is a great way to get an objective view on how you match up against others who have your same job title.
Weekly Monitoring & Reflection: This might be the hardest thing in this whole strategy, simply because you would do it week after week, year after year. And you have to be, as Jim Collins would say, brutally honest. How are things going? How is the job going? How are your revenue streams? What if you lost your job today… are you ready? What can you do this week to prepare for a job transition? Are you happy? Are you satisfied? What should you do to have the lifestyle you want, or think you deserve? These are the types of questions you could ask yourself each week. Be honest in your response. My suggestion is that you answer them in a journal, so it’s not just a mental exercise of talking to yourself, but you have a record of your ups and downs and growth over the years.
The result of this step is, really, career management. You are gaining more control over your career. When a change happens in your job, you are okay, because you have been doing things for your career management…. branding, networking, etc. This should bring you peace of mind, and the feeling of control is a lot better than the feeling of despair.
