Perseverance - the mantra for job hunt

“If you will pump long enough, hard enough and enthusiastically enough, sooner or later the effort will bring forth the reward.”

-- Zig Ziglar

Whatever be the job market today, there are no confirmed statistics available to indicate the number of people who lose their jobs to add up to the already monumental figures of unemployed men and women. Therefore, the very idea of getting a job may appear unpromising But it is not really so. Organizations continue to recruit people; this is indicative of the fact that there are opportunities existing and you can get a job. But you have to be relentless in your job hunt.

You could be busy in your job hunt however, you will still have time. How do you keep yourself engaged in the interim period? You have to keep yourself busy till such time you get a call otherwise you stand good chances to plummet into a condition of despondency. And that will not augur well for you.

If you feel that you are becoming downhearted because of your prolonged job hunt, here are three tips to enable you to remain dynamic:

·   Let the hunt carry on:  You should not slacken your job hunt just because you have applied for a couple of job and are waiting to get a call. This will mean for working over ten to twelve hours daily – perhaps similar to a normal job routine. You may have forwarded your resume to a dozens of setups, but till such time you hear from them, you will have piles and piles of toil to do. Today, a hunt for a job has become relatively easy with advancements in information and communication technologies. Remember that the more you exert, the more number of openings will be there for you to consider.         

·   You must sell yourself:  Most job hunters refrain from embarking on any plan to sell themselves. Self-promotion is an essential ingredient of any job hunt strategy and the fact is that it pays dividends. You may circulate your resume on the net or otherwise, but unless you are well conversant with the use of certain prime phrases or key words that should be tactically dovetailed in the body of it, prospective recruiters will never be able to locate you or discern your skills. In the light of the foregoing, it is imperative that your resume be crafted properly. Joining social media sites will add on to your gains, the most important one being the prospects of linking with prospective employers. Even if you are already employed and not leading a hand-to-mouth life, your efforts to sell yourself will help you find a job of your dreams.

·   Uphold a positive outlook:  You may be persistent in your efforts and could be making endeavours to sell yourself, but still not getting any calls. It is natural that you may get dispirited. You have to guard against any such development and make certain that your enthusiasm does not diminish. Job hunting is a painstaking activity and if you are overcome with a feeling of unemployment, you can safely assume that you will be led nowhere. Nothing in this world is everlasting and therefore, upholding a positive outlook needs no emphasis. You should continue with your efforts and any hearsay about adverse impacts should be discounted with all the affirmation at your command. Simply remember that disappointing talks and news pertaining to the job market may be applicable to others but not pertinent to you. 

Keeping yourself engaged during the period of your job hunt is a necessity; in fact, it could prove to be a job contained by a job. However, if you sell yourself well, remain optimistic and do not give up midway, a good job will come your way for certain. And every new day will be another chance to change your life. 

Remember that the results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply and that nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. After all, anything that is worthwhile will not come with ease – it is your work, hard work and continuous hard work that will bear fruit.

Have a career development plan

You may be just staring your career or have already been some years into it. Whatever be the case, it is important for you to have a line of action up your sleeves to affect development of your career.

The career journey is full of ups and downs on it, making it a bumpy ride at some time or the other. A career development plan helps you negotiate the rough patches and keep your forward move going. Idyllically, you should have one from the time you take your first step on this journey. Some fundamental characteristics of a career development plan are:

·   It gives you direction:   If you intend going on a trek, wouldn’t you need a map to guide you en route? Sans a map, you are likely to lose your way and reach a point other than the one you had set out for. And when you realize that, you are already mired in an awkward situation. In actual fact, you would decide on a job that meets your requirements, apply for it, prepare for various formalities and accept it, if you make the grade.

·   It is not sacrosanct: You should remember that the career development process is not sacrosanct. As years roll by, your career path will also pass through different terrains and be subjected to alterations. It does not suggest that if you formulate a line of action in the first year of your career, it will remain applicable throughout your working span. A career development plan is intended to guide you and help you out if you get bogged down. It also serves as a beacon to indicate the final destination of your journey.

·   It has to be flexible:  There are a horde of factors that will prompt you to change your plan. The progress that you make in your career also tends to change bearing. And at the point of such a change, you will require to be flexible and fine-tune yourself to connect with the new environment. In case you fail to put up with the changes, the perplexing situation that you will be in will cause you to either stagnate or collapse. 

·   It may need assistance:  The world at large and everything in it, including the environment we live in is being subjected to very speedy alterations. Under such conditions, creating a career development plan is not a very easy affair; and hence soliciting assistance from an expert to devise one for you should not be a matter of hesitation. He would be able to visualize everything that you seek to achieve, join them in concert and put together an appropriate plan for you to attain them.

·   It calls for involvement:  But there is absolutely nothing off beam if you formulate a career development plan yourself. If you are clear what you seek to achieve in your career and life; and also are relatively unambiguous about the means to do so, you should take the weight off your feet and blueprint your map out. You need to imagine your start-point, contemplate on various efforts that you will need to launch to move ahead and decide on the action that you will specifically take to ensure fructification of your aspirations.

·   It has to be realistic:  There are wide gaps between the real and virtual world. A career plan facilitates bridging such gaps. But having one that caters to each and every rough patch on your career journey will not be possible because of your inability to visualize them. Hence, if you genuinely aspire to stand out in your life and career, you have to be pragmatic and formulate an equally pragmatic career development plan.

When a child steps out of home in the morning, he knows that it is his school where he is heading for. Likewise, when you do so, you know that you are going to your place of work. But does the child know where would he be ten years down the line? Similarly, do you know where your career is heading for? You should walk a path that holds personal significance for you. And if you get stuck en route, there is nothing wrong in asking for direction. You need to build up a career development plan and make an itinerary of sorts so that you land up in a position or appointment that you have always aspired for.

Make sound career decisions

Choosing a career is not a once-in-a-lifetime decision. In fact, it is a string of choices exercised by you while passing through various phases of your life and as you gain newer experiences. To a large extent, people display a flexible attitude all along, but are ignorant as far as knowing precisely what is correct and what is not.

It is necessary to know how people falter while making career decisions. It is only then that you would be able to exercise proper choices.  The most common erring actions are explicated below:  

·      Accepting the first available job:  If you get into the first job that comes your way, you are not a good warden of yourself. You should aim to venture into areas where you can put your skills and aptitude to maximum use.

·   According high priority to money:   This error is embedded deep in our culture and beliefs. We accord a high precedence to salary rather than contentment; and this may not be paying in the long run.  

·   Getting impressed by the designation:  Companies have a tendency to give you high-sounding and impressing titles. You should not get carried away by such offers but instead see if the job is your cup of tea or not.

·   Succumbing to management pressures:  If you are already into a job, there is no harm in doing straight talk with your boss to make certain that you find your work interesting. But remember that sometimes, your management may thrust additional responsibilities on you and such scope enlargement will stand you in good stead eventually.   

·   Yielding to parental influences:   You have been created to be distinctive and hence you need to find out that exceptionality to be able to build up your career plans around it. While parental aspirations should not be discounted, you should make it known what you aspire for.

·   Taking a job that you aren’t fully fit for:  You can perform a plethora of tasks, some exceptionally well and some satisfactorily. Every individual has his strong-points and motivational factors. You should take up a job that is in maximum sync with your skills, outlook and ambitions.   

The question that now comes up is how we can make sound career decisions. The under-mentioned aspects, if adhered to by us will help us do the same:

·   Spell out your life’s purpose:  You can do this only if you know your strengths, weaknesses, values and principles. Moving forward based on their cognizance will help you attain what you are cut out for.

·   Uncover your innate talents:  You must not venture into areas that are not in consonance with your innate attributes. Letting such qualities come to the fore in all your actions will facilitate your career success.

·   Identify professions that match you: You must focus on jobs that are prospective made-for-you models. You should make regular efforts to gain better knowledge about jobs that go well with your aptitude contours. 

·   Chart a roadmap:  This could well embrace both company-sponsored training programmes and your own initiatives to improve yourself. You should be able to build up a curriculum vitae that manifests your skills. Aspirations and capabilities.

·   Learn to handle your career:  Your job may place intense demands on you. You should be adept at making adjustments so that your productivity level is not disturbed. In addition, you should also keep abreast with all new developments so that you enjoy the competitive edge. You have to be a lifetime student.

·   Apply midterm corrections:  It is only when you are into a job that you will get to know the specific arenas that warrant perfection and development. Application of corrective measures at any stage is justified.

·   Trust others, albeit cautiously:  Though it is your life, you cannot live it alone. You will need help, you will require encouragement. You must have confidants who could be looked up to for advice. But you need to select them guardedly.

We have a tendency to create a mould that we thing is apt for us and then cast ourselves into it. This is, to say the least absolutely ridiculous because the skills and talents that we are born with are relegated to a position of no-use. You need to identify your intrinsic capabilities and go about using them judiciously to grab opportunities. The future belongs to you if you believe in the beauty of your dreams.  

Delegate work effectively

There is an age old adage that says that something that you do not want to be done correctly should be done by you. But if you hold an appointment that requires you to work as a team, this maxim may not be a sensible proposition. You may have several tasks at hand and dependence on subordinates is thus inescapable. 

Delegation is perhaps the hardest job owner-managers have to learn. Regrettably, a large majority of them never do. On the contrary, they remain adamant on handling many details without realizing that they are working themselves into early graves. There are some who subscribe to the idea rather hypocritically and run a one-man show on ground.

Successful delegation of work and responsibilities is contingent on various factors, notable being:

·   Your knowledge of your subordinates:  As a person who is responsible and accountable, you should know everybody down the operational chain. If you have a big section to manage, you must hold a periodic meeting with those under you; besides introducing yourself, you should speak about your objectives. The aim is to gain a firsthand familiarity about everyone’s job profiles and singular abilities. You will thus get acquainted with the existing hierarchy and also get to know about newcomers and novices. Sans this knowledge, you will never be able to delegate judiciously and may end up creating gaffes. Disjointed efforts that will be put in will lead to failure and eventually your collapse.

·   Your appreciation of the assignment:  You may pretend that you know your work, but your subordinates get to know the truth rather fast. And nothing can be more exasperating for them than to have someone not knowing what and how to accomplish things at the helm of affairs. To be able to execute effectual allocation and entrustment of responsibilities, you should yourself be well familiar with the task at hand – in terms of what is required to be done, what it involves and who can be assigned what.    

·   Your communication skills:  Your role as a manager or a section head is no different from a leader. Orders and instructions that originate from you should be succinct and clearly understandable. While certain aspects are best left to the ingenuity of those delegated responsibilities, details where no deviation is acceptable should invariably be provided. There should be no ambiguity and doubts; and it is always better to check the same to ensure that everybody down the chain has understood issues well and are clear about the larger picture as well. Remember that good delegation is responsible delegation and is just as much fortitude as it is awareness and a readiness to go halves.

·   Your ability to set achievable deadlines:  There will always be time limits and cut-off dates. To delegate effectively, you should earmark some cushion time to cater to unforeseen delays. Such delays could be brought about by people falling sick or taking leave to fulfill pressing domestic obligations. It is important that everybody down the chain knows the tightness or broadness of the timeframe and if essential have a backup or stand-in to take on unfinished work.

·   Your availability to your subordinates: It is all about having a productive relationship at your workplace; and they are best brought about by having regular one-to-one contacts. But this may not be always very viable and hence holding periodic meetings is recommended to ensure that everybody is on the same grid. You will automatically be afforded an opportunity to monitor projects without unnecessary lurking around offices and interacting with people in their cabins. A proficient manager need not get into details of everything; if you meet your subordinates periodically, besides getting to know them well; such meetings also serve as natural opportunities to get feedbacks.

Research has shown that employees, who are restrained from playing roles that have a bearing on them, tend to end up becoming disinterested and eventually quit. If you delegate authority to employees, they become more occupied and enthusiastic.  With raised involvement levels, productivity indubitably registers an increase.  But if decide to do everything yourself, implying no delegation to others, rest assured that you are setting yourself up for failure in a very big way.

If you are wondering how to delegate effectively, remember to treat all your juniors with compassion, staying power and revere. After all, it is only treacle that catches flies and lemon juice would not.