Inspiration and Another Story About Volunteering

Another Story About Volunteering
I served as a volunteer at the Women for Hire job fair this week.  When I saw that this event was coming to town, I contacted the organization and offered my services to critique resumes.  After reviewing my resume and bio, they invited me to come on board.  The resume critique process was a bit like speed dating - a new partner every 5 minutes for 4 hours!  Sounds grueling, but it was actually great.  I got to meet interesting women, share my knowledge and support them in their effort to find work.  While I gave a lot, I got even more.  Sometimes it's hard to remember what we bring to the party when we're knocking on doors and not getting any response.  I felt great when the coordinator at the job fair told me that there were women who were actually waiting to see me because others had told them I'd been so helpful.

Inspiration and Some Food for Thought
I got up at the crack of dawn to get into the city to attend the pre-job fair seminar.  Tory Johnson, the founder of Women for Hire, was the keynote speaker and she was inspirational.  Following is a summary of some of the advice she gave that hit home for me and, judging by the number of heads nodding in agreement, most of the audience.  As usual, I've tucked in a bit of my own advice as well.

Attitude and Outlook are Critical
How we present to the world is critical.  As I've said in the past, if you are angry or very sad and it seeps into your job search, you are shooting yourself in the foot.  Tory shared her story about getting fired and locking herself away for the first month.  It's easy to slip into victim mode - they did this to me!  It's easy to stay there and sulk and be stuck.  It's harder to take control and move ahead - what they did stinks and now I am going to go out there and shake up the world!  A bit of 'I'll show them' anger is OK, as long as it fuels your energy and gets you in the game, but doesn't play out as a bad attitude when you're meeting with people.
  
Choose to Put a Positive Spin on Events
I've mentioned that I'm good at reframing.  Actually, it's something I choose to do, not to be a Pollyanna, but to help keep myself on the right track by looking for the positive in every situation. In my early days in the outplacement world we used to tell clients that job search looked like this...
No, No, No, No, No, No, No, YES! 
You can either allow each No to rob you of confidence and defeat you, or look at what you learned from that experience and view it as bringing you one step closer to your YES!  That's what I did recently when I didn't make it to the final round of what would have been a perfect job.

What Makes You Operate at the Top of Your Game?
Tory talked about the need to figure out what makes you feel good when you're fully engaged and happy. What will make you 'the best me' for my job search?  Think about those times when you are fully engaged and feeling good about yourself, whether building something in a woodshop, cooking in your kitchen, or setting up some new systems on your home computer.  Ask yourself what about that activity makes you happy?  What skills does it require?  Make sure these skills are needed in your next job to insure that you'll feel good about your work.  For instance, while you may not find a job in a woodworking shop, you might want to target jobs that require creativity and problem solving, two skills needed to be a good woodworker.

 A Personal Story About Self-Discovery
Shortly after I left my full-time job and started to work as a consultant, I ran for and was elected to our local Board of Education.  One day I realized that I'd been in a great mood since being elected.  Understand that being on a Board of Education is a non-paying, often thankless job, and yet I was happier than I'd been in a while.  In thinking about it, I realized that what had been missing in my life was the collaboration that comes with being part of a team.  When I left my job to become a solo practitioner, I left much of that behind.  Now I was meeting with this new team of 8 other board members, brainstorming on issues critical to our kids and I felt great!

A Success Doesn't Have to be a Giant Leap
Another bit of advice that Tory gave was to celebrate successes.  I encourage clients to celebrate any and all successes, not just that new job you land at the end of the search process.  When you book a network meeting with someone you really want to connect with, you celebrate!  When someone gives you the names of three other people to meet with who could further your search, you celebrate!  You celebrate after attending a job fair, even if the one thing you walked away with was the card of fellow job seeker.  You got up and went to that job fair, so you celebrate!  Celebrating all successes, no matter how large or small, helps you remain positive.

REMEMBER that you need to be your own best friend and biggest fan through this process.  So, celebrate every step of the way! 

For more tips and some great resources on job search, check out the Women for Hire website and Tory Johnson's book, Fired to Hired.