How to find the job you love – don’t go to a pizza place if you crave sushi!

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This week has been all about food analogies! First, I reminded you that it’s not a good idea to order your Chinese food in French. Or, more specifically, to use the language that your targeted employer will understand when writing your resume. Yesterday, I offered tips to help you think about spoon feeding your resume to your targeted employer. Today, another food analogy:

If you are going to have an exceptional resume and successful search, it is very important that you KNOW WHAT YOU WANT! Yes, it’s
true – you can’t have a great resume unless you have an end goal in mind. It’s kind of like planning a trip when you don’t know where you want to go. It would be pretty hard to get there! Ah – but this week is about food, so here it is:

Analogy #3: You wouldn’t go to a pizza place if you are craving sushi.

That is, if you were actually hoping to GET sushi – you would go to a sushi place. What does this have to do with your job hunt? It’s about knowing where to spend your job search time and resources! So, are you doing the equivalent of driving to the pizza place when you don’t even want pizza?

The answer is YES if you:

Have a resume that isn’t particularly clear regarding your goals.
You spend a lot of time online, aimlessly looking for job postings that “seem good.”
You sit down to “job hunt” at your computer, and 6 hours later, you realize that you’ve spent the whole day and haven’t accomplished anything.

So, if you want sushi (a job you love, in this case):

Make a job search plan so you will avoid aimlessly “driving” around online.
Your plan should devote a large percentage of time to networking (in person and online) and to following up and keeping in touch with people you have already met.
Identify job opportunities of interest (you may want to use GreatPlaceJob’s new, free search feature to help with this) and ensure that your materials identify you as someone who is well qualified for the jobs you seek.
Stay tuned to the rest of my “food analogies” posts for more about how to position yourself to compete for the job you’d love to have!

If you are ready for a change and could use some help with your search, follow THIS LINK to learn more about me and how we can work together!

photo by Zeetz Jones