Job Search Strategies: be intentional

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

When I worked as a professional career and outplacement counselor and I helped people develop their career transition skills, I would sometimes hear a client say that they had gone from job to job, that an opportunity happened to come up, that they weren’t sure how they had gotten to where they were now. I helped these people change their approach to their personal story. Here’s what we did.

In most professions planning and execution are important. Having a plan and working the plan are the way to succeed. For example, as a litigator, you develop a theory of the case, you execute by filing pleadings that move your case forward (or defend) and you flesh out your plan with depositions and motions, ending at the trial itself, where hopefully, your work comes to a successful conclusion. In business as well, you have planning, development, execution, and follow up.

Your career search and your background story should follow the same basic steps. How you present yourself when you tell your career story should have the same flow. Your story, as it relates to your work and career, should reveal intention.

Here’s what I mean. Do not say, “A friend told me about this job and I applied and got it.” Or, “I called and was fortunate to get an interview and be hired. A couple of years later I saw this ad for this other type of job and moved to that job.” This type of story telling makes it sound as though you are living your life randomly, going from one thing to another without plan or intention.

Years earlier, as a hiring manager, I wanted to hear that an interviewee had a goal, an ambition, and worked toward that goal and step by step moved closer to her goal. That goal was something she wanted to do and prepared to do and she worked hard towards achieving that objective. I wanted to see that she was not just the ball in a pinball machine, where she went wherever she was pushed, but that she had a plan all along and worked at executing that plan. I think it is just better if you seem in control of your career and are consistently moving towards an objective you have set for yourself.

You are probably thinking a couple of things. One, what if my career has been random like that? Second, what if I started out with a plan and changed it several times for various reasons, some of which were indeed not in my control? It doesn’t matter. You should find a way to tell your story in a cohesive way, demonstrating will and intention behind it.

Work on your career story so that you can do that. Think about the things that initially attracted you to a job (even if it was randomly acquired) that might be constants in other jobs you’ve held. And then, if you have to, push the connection a little. Make sure it sounds as though you are the architect of your fate.

Now you are thinking, is this deceitful? Am I adding intention retroactively where there wasn’t any to begin with? Are you sure? You probably took jobs and made career moves that were consistent with some objective of yours, even if you had never actually voiced that objective, even to yourself. In any case, your job is to get the best job you can, and as long as you do not change the facts of your career or misrepresent your skills, you are good to go, because no one has a right to the contents of your brain.