Is Your Job Search
Stuck? Check your Readiness Factor
Perhaps you
lost your job recently. Or maybe you can see a loss in your future. Or maybe
you just want to make a change. For any of these reasons, you may have begun a
job search. You update your resume, you start cruising the Job Boards, and you
talk to friends and family. But you just can’t get around to following up on those
resumes, contacting folks in your professional network or making direct contact
with potential employers.
Judy expects
to be laid off in July and is concerned about getting another job that she
really likes. Each week, she and her coach develop a weekly action plan. Judy
decides how many contacts she will make that week, how many resumes she will
get out in response to openings, and how much follow up she will do with others
in her network. Judy sets the pace and only schedules what she thinks is
reasonable to do in a week. But, more often than not, she does not complete the
activities. In fact, she finds that she accomplishes very little toward her
objectives. Why is that happening?
Judy’s
coach suggests that they assess Judy’s Emotional
Readiness. Using a process developed by Heather Wieshlow, they examine
Judy’s feelings about the job loss, identify existing life distractions and
address interfering issues. As a second
step, they do a Financial Urgency Analysis. The Emotional Readiness score and
the Financial Urgency ranking yield what Heather calls the JSUN – Job Search
Urgency Number.
Judy identified
the cause of her “stuckiness.” She needed
time to acknowledge the loss and to clear away some important life
distractions. Her financial urgency score
gave her a framework for determining a reasonable timeline. Based upon the
findings, Judy and her coach established a workable plan determined by her JSUN
ranking, which provided the incentive to meet her weekly objectives.
It’s a
fact: there’s a direct correlation between the time spent in weekly job search
activity and the number of weeks it takes to get an offer. Weekly
activity determines the length of the search. But, it is clear to me that my clients cannot
participate fully until they have reached a readiness level. It’s my job as
their coach to help them get there. Then, and only then, do they enter the
process with gusto!
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