Here’s the
story of “Tommy” (not his real name), who is making a critical, but common,
mistake in is job search. It’s robbing him of the satisfaction and salary he
deserves.
Tommy first
called me three weeks ago, asking if I could help him write a resume. He said he
wanted a pharmaceutical sales job, but he had no experience in sales or health
science.
When I
asked him why he wanted to enter the field, he said he heard it was interesting
work and, besides, his aunt and a cousin made good money at it.
Fine. But he
said nothing about actually WANTING to do this job. When I pressed him further,
he replied: “Everyone says I should give pharmaceutical sales a shot.”
Tommy is
setting himself up for misery by pursuing a job based on the “helpful” advice
of others, as opposed to his own gut instincts.
Quick
solution: go over to www.hotjobs.com or www.monster.com and search for jobs using
the 3 skills you most enjoy using. Examples: sales, customer service,
management … or training, writing, translation.
See how
many advertised job listings pop up. Are the job titles you see similar to the
jobs you’re hunting? Good – there’s a match between what you enjoy doing and
what you want to do next.
If you
don’t turn up jobs that match your 3 favorite skills, it’s time for some soul
searching. You can refine your skills (change “training” to “teaching” for
example) or search for jobs using entirely new ones.
Let these
job boards tell you what the market demand is for your favored areas of
expertise. But ultimately, you should decide to pursue a job based on what you
LOVE to do, not what you SHOULD do.
Action Step:
Unless you’re passionately committed to the job you seek, you won’t pursue it
with enough gusto to be successful in the long run. Follow your passion.
Compliments of David Perry and Kevin Donlin
Grab your Free Guerrilla Job Search Audio here.
