View your present situation as opportunities for growth (and position yourself well for the upturn)

Our attitude to uncertainties posed by the pandemic and how we choose to respond in our present situation are two key factors that will determine how we cope and how we can opportunistically position ourselves for the upturn.

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. (Charles R. Swindoll)

How optimistic are you about your future?

What opportunities and positioning are you creating for yourself now?

These are two great questions to ask yourself, especially during and post-COVID-19 world.

To survive and thrive, you have to create opportunities for yourself and position yourself well for the upturn by:

Developing and implementing strategies to secure and future-proof yourself or finding new opportunities for yourself.
Intentionally building up your professional presence by upskilling yourself.

Positioning yourself for the upturn

Develop and implement strategies that will secure and future-proof yourself especially if you have a job right now.

But if you do not have a job, you need to position yourself for the upturn so that you are in a better position to find new job opportunities when they come.

There will be two key components when positioning yourself:

Strategy — Understanding what you have now and what you don’t have to do the work in the future. These could be gaps in your knowledge, skills, abilities, competencies, attitudes or even contacts or networking groups. Be open to new changes in your life.
Tactics — Your chosen strategy will impact the tactics you adopt. Develop or update the information, tools and systems that will get you into the game and to succeed in your chosen strategy. They help you implement your strategy.

If you are looking at for a job, your tactic will include your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your cover letter, having a mentor or coach to guide you, having a list of people that you can connect with and helping you secure a job, and having a list of targeted employers to work for.

If you are future-proofing yourself because you are fortunate to have a job, then it could be your blog to showcase your writings or knowledge, updating your LinkedIn profile with the latest achievements, connecting with other professionals, attending networking events, and even creating a podcast or YouTube channel.

The key is to be intentional with your time and effort right now to position yourself, no matter what circumstances you find yourself.

The best way to predict the future is to create it. (Abraham Lincoln)

Position yourself for the upturn by creating a strategy that helps you:

Secure and future-proof your current job and career if you have a job right now. This may also be an opportunity to change career or upskill yourself.
Finding new job opportunities if you are looking for a job.
Upskill yourself with new skills and competencies.
Gain more tangible achievements that you can include in your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile.

After you have determined your strategy, then it executing your chosen strategy ruthlessly.

Related articles

135 Challenges faced by employees and workers

47 Challenges faced by young people

How can young people secure a better future? (Your practical solutions)

Challenging times ahead for young people

If you are looking for a job right now, focus and work on it daily

Three questions will decide your fate if you are looking for a job right now:

Tell me about yourself? This is about what value and vision you can bring to the organisation that is going to hire you. You need to assess your soft and hard skills and your professional presence (which I will talk about later). When people have similar hard skills and experience, it will come down to your soft skills and presence which will be your competitive advantage over all other job seekers.
Why do you want this job? How you answer this question and what you choose to say to the hiring manager will determine whether you are hired or not. Prepare a 1-minute elevator pitch that is objective and convincing. You need to be passionately connected to the brand and the targeted organisation, and what they stand for. You should be emotionally connected to their products or services and how they interact with their customers.
Why should we hire you over the other candidates? You need to provide a compelling value proposition and vision that is way better than other candidates or jobseekers including the ability to project a solid professional presence that will seal the deal.

Your job search tactics may include:

Writing or updating your resume and cover letter. Your cover letter contains your compelling story of why are you deeply or emotionally connected to the organisation you have targetted, its brand and products and services. So be passionate about it.
Write or optimise your Linkedin profile for greater impact. Show what you have tangibly achieved, the percentage of sales you have created for past employers.
Get around the ATS by attending networking events and expanding your network. Start making new connections to grow your network strategically. Reach out and connect with professionals who work in the organisations you are targetting. (An applicant tracking system — or ATS, for short — is a type of software that is commonly used by recruiters and employers during the hiring process to collect, sort, scan, and rank the job applications they receive for their open positions before any human intervention.)
Conduct information gathering interviews about the targetted organisation with the people you know or have made contact with.
Write articles to position yourself as an expert in your chosen field or industry. Hence, there is a need to be able to write well.
Prepare for job interviews and start working on crafting your answers to common interview questions including behavioural questions.
Conduct mock interviews by filming yourself and asking independent observers for honest feedback.
Get an accountability partner who will help you keep track of your progress each week.

Related articles

How to secure your job

How to get a new job fast

If you have a job right now, prepare for the unexpected

There are four things you can do today to secure and future-proof yourself and perhaps even preparing for a potential layoff or redundancy without being complacent about your current situation:

Don’t assume that you are not on a layoff list — Even if you are super successful in your current role, there is always a chance you may get laid off during difficult times, which may come. Don’t risk it. Be prepared for the unexpected.
Reconnect with your network sooner rather than later — Don’t wait to lean on your network when you are officially out of a job. Start conversations with people your know now so you can set yourself up for success.
Create a list of targeted companies you would like to work for — This list will help you be intentional with your networking efforts.
Regularly update your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile — Get your materials in order and get their regularly updated. Focus on your relevant skill sets. Be able to articulate and intentionally show your speciality or value.

If you are looking for a total career change, here’s how to practically get started

Always keep your skills current and close any gaps

Things are moving so rapidly with technology and innovation that no one can afford to be complacent about themselves.

Be clear on what skills, abilities and competencies you currently have and what else you need or require to position yourself to be able to continuously create and give value to people.

If there are gaps in your skills, abilities and competencies, you have to intentionally embark of courses or professional development work to close these gaps and upskill yourself.

This will then flow into your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile. The strategies you adopt will fully support the tactics you need to embark on to position yourself.

Proactively target which organisations you want to work for

You must have answers to this key question, Tell why you want to work for us?

Intentionally connect with people who can help you get your foot into these targetted organisations. These are tactics that you need to develop and implement ruthlessly.

This is the future of job hunting.

It bypasses the traditional methods of submitting resumes and cover letters online and be screened by a computer. It also avoids the spray-and-pray method of a job application.

The proactive strategy, on the other hand, is about branding yourself, building up your professional presence, clearly understanding what you are going to say about yourself (your brand) and what tangible value you are going to bring to or create for the employer.

You need to develop the confidence and humility to present yourself even if there is a gap in your working history due to layoffs, etc.

Identify fears and mental roadblocks that are holding you back

In developing and implementing your chosen strategy, you must identify your fears and mental attitude and roadblocks that are holding you back.

Write them down. Be honest about it.

Questions to ask include:

Are you happy with your current situation?
What you do hate about your current situation?
What do you want or need out of your next job?
What is holding you back?

You could be saying to yourself:

I’m afraid, I’m going to be rejected for jobs because I was let go, so why bother?
I’m scared. I will choose the wrong job and mess up my career.
I am worried that I will land a job that I hate.

Don’t be a victim of your circumstances. Overcome your limiting beliefs.

Related article

My beliefs

Knowing yourself

Know your personality type. Know your strengths, weaknesses and preferences to succeed.

Use a test like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) personality inventory — you may have other preferences, just use it.

Then leverage on your personality and value proposition to position yourself for the future.

Key skills and attitudes that will determine your presence, brand and identity:

Composure — Employers will be looking for people who are solid, not angry, measured, not emotional or overly stress out. or even emotional.
Be focused — Don’t focus on your desperate situation or even your own life. It is all about your future employer!
Vision — Organisations will hire people who can give them fresh ideas, who can think strategically about the future, and who can see opportunities (to make money or safe money for them). Many employers will have challenges and they are looking for qualified people to solve them.
Practical wisdom and knowledge of how you have grown as a person — Employers want to see how you have grown and applied your knowledge — good and bad — into situations, which can lead to a powerful experience for them.
Humility — Don’t look desperate or intellectually superior. Show resonance, emotional intelligence and reliability. Work with them and understand the problem. Find solutions. You may not have all answers, but you have the experience, ability and skills to develop solutions to solve problems. Show that you are not perfect but is excited to work as a team to create and give value to them.

How to increase your income with your personality

Clarify your speciality or niche

Generally, employers don’t want generalists. They want specialists or specific people who can bring value. They want people who can save or make money for them using your specific skills and experience.

Establish your credibility using your specialised skills and competencies. Earn respect and trust. Ensure that people can have a believe in what you can do or contribute.

Develop your brand statement. Mine is as follows:

As a strategy execution specialist, I help corporate executives and individuals execute their corporate strategies and personal plans to get breakthrough results and lasting impact using contemporary strategies and tactics. In the future, I like to bring my skills and expertise to an organisation that is focused on the technology industry since I am also passionate about innovation and artificial intelligence.

Identify your transferable skills

Identify what tangible skills you have that will value add to the job. List these out and quantify them.

“Hardworking” is not quantifiable. It is just opinion of yourself. Instead, give tangible quantifiable skills by others or what you have delivered in the past.

Show them how you have increased sales by 10%. Don’t tell them you can increase sales without any evidence of your achievements. This evidence must be verifiable as employers will call your referees to verify what you have said.

As a professional or expert, you must demonstrate thought leadership and tangible achievements. Employer hire for outcomes not opinions. You must show, not tell.

Create a list of organisations you want to work for

Research and target organisations that will be a good fit for you and your career goals. Use sites like LinkedIn.

Be super targeted. Do not use the spray-and-pray approach.

Ask questions like:

Do you like their values, vision and mission?
Do you like their products and services?
Do you like their branding and what they are known for?
Do you like working with the people there?

Pages: 1 2