How dialed-in are you on your job search?
➔ We hear a lot about being focused. Companies are focused – on the bottom line; on new products; on cutting expenses; on their employees; etc. Employees are focused as well – on a promotion; on a raise; on the new assistant; on their plans for the weekend; and some are even focused on doing their jobs.
Focus surfaces in many walks of life. Students are focused on grades; or on finals. Ball players are focused on the next game; or the playoffs; or the championship; or a personal milestone. Governments are focused on… whatever it is that government does.
Job seeking requires a special kind of focus
Not last, and not least, job seekers are focused as well. In this case, the 600-pound elephant in the room is the job seeker’s focus on getting a new job. That’s the easy part.
Any you knew that a more difficult part was coming. Are you focused on cleaning up your resume? When that focus has been accomplished it makes far easier to move on to other things – things that may actually go directly toward landing that job.
Do you need to focus on your networking skills? Some people sweat this a lot more than they should, but for some it may be a necessity.
Do you need to focus on developing a quality list of targeted employers? That’s a toughie. Maintaining your focus on that activity will rise and fall as does your active list. Let’s be real. That list you have of target companies will be changing constantly. Companies may drop off for any number of reasons. Regardless, as your job search progresses, you may need to stay focused on keeping that list active and vibrant.
Some claim that a goldfish has an attention span of only nine seconds. Maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t. Regardless, you’re not a goldfish. It is imperative to maintain your job-search focus despite all the distractions that cross your path on a daily (or maybe even hourly) basis.