Time to get serious!
What is it about August that makes us all feel like we’re heading back to school — even if we work year-round and don’t have kids? The end of summer signals the need to get serious.
On that note, in this month’s newsletter, how to take stock of your current role, why you might actually be sick of your job, and how to proactively prepare for your next job interview. Read on.
𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐲, 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐛
A recent headline made me laugh:
“𝘔𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘹 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 – 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥.”
The hero in question, Joaquín García, was a building supervisor for a water treatment plant in Spain. The bureaucratic structure of the local government was to blame for this snafu, with two different departments each assuming the other was overseeing García’s work.
A dubious situation, if you ask me. Who was keeping an eye on water quality?
Anyway, if you can get away with skipping work for years on end and still get paid, more power to you. But I suspect that your goal is, instead, to find a job that inspires you — one where you want to show up for work every day. Aligning job seekers with jobs they want to go to is my reason for going to work myself.
𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐛, 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐞𝐰 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡
• You don’t think you’re paid enough
• Your benefits are meh
• Your commute sucks!
• You’re dissatisfied with your day-to-day work
• You would like more opportunities for promotion
• You don’t have opportunities to develop new skills
• You don’t get enough feedback
• You don’t love your supervisor
• Your co-workers aren’t that great, TBH
Does any of these sound familiar? Most of them? All of them!!?!
Just sliiiiiiightly more than half of people polled by Pew Research say they're satisfied with their jobs. Far less than half are happy about their opportunities for promotion. A scant 34% are satisfied with their salary. Even fewer say they have adequate opportunities for skills development.
Now for the good news. Pew also found that the great majority of people are happy with their relationships with co-workers — and nearly as many enjoy their relationships with their managers. Another takeaway from the Pew Survey is that for the majority of people, their job are important to their overall identity. Perhaps it’s time to ask yourself: Is this working for me?
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
To some extent, all interviews pull from a finite set of questions. When you’re prepping for an interview, you more or less know what answers to have at the ready. For instance, you want to be ready to summarize your career in a concise narrative. You should be able to bring up some solid examples of times you’ve thrived despite adversity and ways in which you’ve made teams and projects better.
You should, of course, also know enough about the company you’re interviewing with to answer on-the-spot questions about how you’ll fit in and what you have to contribute. But I recommend you do some extra homework exercises to ensure you have more material to draw from, both in casual conversation and when answering direct questions. Things like:
✔ What you would like people to know about you as a person
✔ Where your values lie in terms of your work
✔ Where you envision your career ultimately heading
As you wrap your mind around these conversational categories, you’ll walk into your next interview more prepared to present a full, professional version of your best self.
And when you’re ready to get started on a serious job search, I’ll be here. Until then…