The shotgun approach may hit a few ducks but it won’t land you the best career

OK, so you’re firmly entrenched in a work transition and might even be considering the fact that you will never, ever have another job. So, you take another stab at the job hunt, pull out the 20-gauge, and begin shooting at any job that moves. Interestingly, you might actually hit something and, if the stars and planets align, it could be even be your dream spot. More likely, however, is that you’ll be blasting your résumé off into thin air without so much as even nicking an employer. This is when your critic appears and begins telling you the reason you haven’t bagged anything is, quite simply, because you’re a lousy shot.

Don’t listen yourself!

Great careers don’t just happen by … well, happenstance. Great careers are crafted, molded, and designed. First and foremost, however, they require planning. And lots of it. If you find you’re not making the headway you want in finding the right spot for your unique talents, you will want to check out the The Five O'Clock Club.

Established in 1883, The Five O'Clock Club offers job seekers the tools they really need to source and land the job they want. But understand that landing your best-fit career requires, first and foremost, aiming at the right opportunities before pulling the trigger.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Job or Career: Before You Can Get Either, You Have to Know the Difference

There’s a job crisis going on alright but, for many, not for the reasons you may think.

No doubt there are fewer jobs today and if you are looking for a “job”, you could certainly run into roadblocks. Yes, it is frustrating to spend hours writing cover letters, revamping your resume, and sending it all to recruiters and companies, often receiving little more than a cursory acknowledgment via email. I do believe this is happening and empathize.

I then read Stephen Viscusi’s online article (posted on The Ladders), Why You're Still Unemployed One Year Later and a Q & A on LinkedIn for the question: Are Recruiters still getting 100s of resumes for job openings? Viscusi’s article is an in-your-face dose of reality about why he believes someone may be unemployed for an extended period while the people posting to LinkedIn’s Q & A offer a different take.

Viscusi’s view: If you’re unemployed it is because your attitude stinks.

General consensus from LinkedIn’s Q & A: Many people are applying for jobs for which the HR person or recruiter has deemed you wholly unqualified to perform.

Though, for the latter, and as a contributor to LinkedIn’s Q & A, Jonathan Lome, from Human Capital Management - ACA Talent put it quite succinctly:

I have definitely seen an increase in people applying for open positions, and I have also noticed more and more people applying to positions who completely lack the skills sets the position requires. I think that these days, people are not necessarily looking for a career (although many claim they are), instead they are looking simply for a job to pay the bills, so they apply to whatever they see open.

Pay attention to Jonathan, people, because he hit the nail on the head when stating that many people are looking for a job instead of a career; which may also explain Viscusi’s argument that after a long time looking for a job instead of career your attitude can begin to rot when you can’t find a “job”. The problem, however, is that “a job” and “a career” are frequently considered the same thing. They aren’t. But, if you don’t know the difference, how do you go about finding either one?

Well, for starters, get educated on the differences. Are you looking for something, as Jonathan wrote, just to “pay the bills”, or do you want to become part of an organization where your interests, skills, and talents are exactly what are needed by very specific employers? (Note: No matter how brilliant you may be in one arena, this does not mean you can automatically perform any arena.) This is where understanding a key difference between a job and a career can really help: For a job, you can learn the skills, on-the-job, to perform the work. Depending on the complexity of the job, it may take you days or weeks before you learn enough to make an impact on the company. For a career, it is years of prior learning and honing your skills that will make a near-immediate impact on the hiring company. (For beginning careerists, of course, you often have to take a lot of 'jobs' before your work-life shapes up as a career.)

The second and, perhaps, most difficult thing to get past in finding your right work-life, be it job or career, is trusting that you can get exactly what you want; even in this economy. But you need laser-like focus to achieve this. You must shut-down the internal chatter that tells you all the reasons why you can’t get what you want and trust, simply trust, that what you put your attention on will grow. Don’t believe me? Well, consider the more you fret about not finding the right work, the more you don’t find it. This principle also works in the reverse, in a positive way.

What do you have to lose?

Who said finding your calling would be easy?

I was struck by Daniel Seddiqui's 50 jobs in 50 states adventure. If you don’t know Daniel’s story, he is the University of Southern California graduate who, unable to find a job in his field, set out to do something remarkable – get a job in each of the 50 states and chronicle his experiences. Daniel wrote:

Ever since I graduated from the University of Southern California, I have experienced uncertainty regarding my career path. Interviewing for a position was a full-time job and I wasn't having any luck; failing 40+ interviews. I never received feedback from any employers, so when I was offered a position no matter how irrelevant it was to my field of study, I accepted. I took my first position tutoring elementary students part-time. I knew right off the bat tutoring wasn't for me. I was realizing that I had to find a position that motivated me to wake up every morning.

What were hiring managers thinking?

Daniel lists on his resume, lobsterman in Maine, a surf instructor in Hawaii, a roustabout in Oklahoma, and archaeologist in Arkansas, among 45 other professions, and only one to go. When Daniel first started looking for a job in his hometown, how did hiring managers overlook this kind of initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity? Or, is it, perhaps, that the best of the best actually require adversity, need that testing, to have them find their true calling? What is Daniel’s mission now?

“My goal is to help Americans understand each other’s lives, respect each other’s hard work and stimulate peoples’ curiosity about different lifestyles.”

It appears Daniel has discovered what he had hoped to find at the beginning of his journey, namely, to find work that motivates him to wake up every morning.

Be a Difference Maker.

Standing on the precipice of greatness is a little terrifying because, typically, you’re up there alone. Not many care to venture that far or up. It’s scary and exhilarating all at once. If successful, you can stay perched up there for quite awhile, enjoying the view. If you fall, well, it can be one heck of a drop.

Before your climb, you’re going to meet a lot of naysayers. They’ll tell you that your chances of reaching the peak are slim and that the road is difficult. This I always find interesting because the majority of naysayers have never traveled that road to the top. This makes their predictions of road conditions suspect. Even if we tune them out, we still have ourselves to contend with. Being our toughest critics and prophets of doom and destruction, we can make a pretty compelling case for taking the road around the base of the mountain. It may be slower, less scenic, and you’ll have lots of company but, provided you don’t encounter any pile ups (like, the recession, perhaps?), you may get to your destination. And if you do take that route, you may glance up a time or two or ten to the top of the mountain and see a handful of hearty souls ascending the mountain. You may even watch them stop and play a bit, enjoying the sunshine, or taking a nice long nap. It may make you wonder if you hadn’t chosen the wrong path. After all, you had the tools and aspirations to make that climb. What makes them so different from you?

The difference might be courage.

Zig Ziglar, sales master, writes that people with courage are Difference Makers. I like this because it gives purpose to what you’re trying to achieve. When you have purpose, your sites are set on something altogether different than the pitfalls that could be encountered en route to the top. And you know what? There will be obstacles. You’ll hit a spot that doesn’t seem to give way to going farther. You may even backslide. But if making a difference is the goal, even if you stumble, how is that failing? The real failure comes when you stop trying to make a difference. As Zig Ziglar writes, “you will never be really happy until you do something for someone else.”

That voice inside your head knows what it’s talkin’ about.

In the face of adversity, do you dig in your heels or crumble? Does that little voice inside your head tell you to keep going or to give in or up?

The other day, I caught a few minutes of a television show in which a couple was trying to sell a house. Their realtor urged them to lower their price, citing the property’s numerous disadvantages. The owners were enamored with their house, saw the “disadvantages” as a benefit to the “right buyer”, fired the realtor, and proceeded to sell it themselves for far more than the realtor had recommended. Life is a lot like this. You will always find someone who will gladly shoot holes in your plans or recommend a different course of action. How do you tell if you’re making the right decision? Listen to that little voice inside your head.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to partner with a local businesswoman to purchase some land. Our plan was to develop the land, relocate each of our businesses to the new building, and rent out the rest. It was going to cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars, of which I would take out a loan, but everything about this deal flowed so there was no concern. The day we were to furnish the attorney with information to establish the new corporation, I sat in the early morning hours, sipping my coffee, excited about this new venture. From out of nowhere, that little voice inside my head awoke, telling me not to proceed. It was so strong and powerful that I could not ignore it. I called off the deal. Everyone involved asked, incredulously, ‘why’? I couldn’t explain it. I just couldn’t go through with it.

Some six months later, I learned the answer.

The woman who would have been my partner went ahead with the purchase. Because of new homes that had been built on the bluff above this land, she had been unable to clear the land for development. The property sat idle as she tried to find a way around the problem.

I think of the numerous times I heeded the advice of others. As I took different paths other than the ones the voice inside my head instructed, I cannot tell the opportunities missed. But living in fear of what our instincts tell us to do is no way to live. Will listening to the voice always have you avert disaster or, at the minimum, discomfort? It is likely, provided you fine tune your ability to listen. It is sometimes not easy to decipher the messages you receive. Sometimes they are as strong as the voice I heard on that fateful morning; other times, it is only a feeling that something isn’t quite right. Sometimes, it is futuristic. The outcome of the decision you make today may not reveal itself for years to come. Either way, the voice inside your head is a navigation system that has been refined over the evolution of humankind. You would be wise to pay attention.

Do you do what you do because others think you should?

I am fond of Fred Smith, the CEO of FedEx. As most know, when Smith attended Yale, he wrote a paper about an overnight delivery service for which his professor gave him an average grade. The reason I like Fred Smith is that in spite of what someone of stature thought would not fly – no pun intended – he did it anyway.

Great ideas almost always suffer great criticism. You will always find someone, somewhere, who will tell you that your notion is not viable or worth the risk. This criticism isn’t restricted to launching unheard of products or services. You will also find it when moving from a well-seeded career to something you’ve never done before; like quitting your law practice to become a windsurfer instructor in Tahiti. Everyone will think you are crazy.

This makes me think of Ray Kroc, former CEO of McDonald’s. As a milkshake machine salesman in his early fifties, Kroc discovered McDonald’s, an efficiently run outfit on “E” Street in San Bernardino, California. He gave up his job and bought the restaurant from the McDonald brothers for a comparative pittance. I have no doubt many thought Kroc to be nuts. And, when McDonald’s struggled in the early days, I am certain those naysayers were smug in their critique of Kroc’s life choice.

However, there is some real wisdom to be taken away from people who take great risks – even if that risk, by conventional definition, was a failure. Look closely. These people are not satisfied with simply getting from Point A to Point B with the most security or toys. Life is for the livin’, man. Choosing a career because others think it is great is one seriously lousy way to live – especially if your heart is on the tip of a wave in Tahiti.

The important thing to remember is, at the end of the day, you’re the one who lives with your choices. Don’t you want to do what you do because you think you should?