Do this before job-hunting
Episode 144 - Six questions you should ask yourself before job hunting
Before jumping into a job search, these are the critical questions you should ask yourself. Knowing the answers can help you succeed in finding a new job. Listen to this episode to know my answers to the top six questions I believe will help you design a career that suits your life!
This episode will help you:
Understand what you need to do to progress your career.
Prepare yourself mentally for the important conversations that occur when you are in the job market looking for a new job.
Plan for your future to control where you're heading and what you want out of life and work.
Resources mentioned in this episode
Podcast interview no. 63 with Paul Burrows: How and when to retire
Podcast interview no. 111 with Julia Cookspn: Portfolio career: An alternative path to C-level jobs - with Julia Cookson
Podcast Interview no. 31 with Jacinta Whelan: Me Inc: Opting for short-term contract work
Timestamps to guide your listening
1:11 What is your goal?
3:00 Why are these goals important to you?
5:50 What does success means to you?
8:26 How will you articulate your plans into actions?
11:59 Do you foresee career tipping points in your future?
16:55 How consistent are your plans with your career drivers and aspirations, personal values, and talents?
Transcript of this episode
Hello, everyone. It's so nice to be back here, talking to you about this very interesting topic I came up with. I. Wait to share this with you and help you with your job search. So today, we'll be talking about the six questions. I believe that you should ask yourself before job hunting. Now, when we go job hunting, we tend to ask lots of questions, other people, what I'm.
Suggesting here is for you to take stocks. Do some self-reflection and become more self-aware about where you're going and why. And I believe that these six questions can help you. So question number one for you, what is your goal? You're now thinking about finding a new job either because you want to or you have to.
It doesn't matter. Stake stock can stop and think about what you're trying to achieve, not just in job hunting but for life. You know, our life is not split in half. It's not professional and personal. It's all things together. Your professional life supports your personal life.
That's the income that you generate to do the things you want to do. So list. Those goals are then rank them, prioritize. Are they interconnected? Do you need to achieve some of them before you move on to the next? And if you want to, get inspiration and know more about other people and how they have decided on their career and personal goals.
We have two episodes for you. One episode with Paul burrows and one with Julia Cookson, and they're very different. Paul and I discuss his entire career . And he is interest in it. Early retirement and how he worked towards it, and how he was able to move from sector to sector and completely do a career change later in life.
And Julia, I find, she was one of my guests on this podcast that had a very. A clear vision of her goals and what she was trying to achieve with her career choices. And I felt that that was inspiring for me personally. And it might inspire you as well. So I have links to those two episodes below in the episode show notes.
Suppose you want to learn more and get inspiration on how to achieve your goals and identify them in the first place. Number two. Why are these goals important to you? I always tell my clients, let's ask why three times if they say I want to. Work as a marketing professional in Melbourne.
Why? Oh, because I need a full-time job and I live in Melbourne. Why do you need a full time? Like I always ask why, why, why three times? Because I want you to challenge yourself. I want you to not just go through the motions or do things because other people do or because it's expected of you or because everybody else in, in your society, in your community does things this way.
I want you to challenge your assumptions about what. Is ambition to you. What is important to you, and why are these goals important? Have they been drilled into your brain, or are they coming from inside out? Are you thinking with a future mindset, or are you developing and designing your life and career based on potentially outdated ideas of what work is like? You know, work now is so different, and employers might be asking something different from.
Their future hires are not what you have been thinking in your head. . So it's important for you to expand your horizons and look at the possibilities that exist in the job market and not the ideas that you have in your mind about what your career in the future will be like. And for you to understand more about this sort of new trend in the workplace and the job market in the types of jobs that are advertised, I would recommend listening to the two episodes in this podcast with our guest just in.
So there are two episodes by the time. Let me just think after this episode, which is 1 44, maybe I think it's episode 1 49 will also be an episode with Jacinta. So she's very popular here on the show, but the previous two have been about. Building a portfolio career. What is a portfolio career? What is entering management?
Can this be part of a solution for your need for flexibility, your need for winding, your career in the future now, maybe not now, but in the future, but it could be part of your career plans and understanding, that process of moving from full-time employment? To a part-time or a contract or a mentoring type job is what we discussed in our two episodes together.
So I will have to link to those episodes in the show notes for you as well. And in three, the third question you should be asking yourself before you go. Job searching, go to market, and find, you know, the next step in your career. Think about what success means to you. What do you want to achieve in, let's say, the next two years? What do you want to have achieved in the next 12 months?
What do you want to achieve in the next six months? What does success look like to you in 30 days? I think it's important. I really like this idea of forward thinking and, and looking at the future and then reengineering the steps back so that you really do get an idea of how long it takes to achieve things.
And what you can expect to achieve. in a month or in six months, you know, sometimes we're very optimistic about what we can achieve. And we may think that we can get a job in 30 days. Let me tell you right now, if you're a white collar worker in a middle management position or above 30 days is not enough.
Okay. Maybe two months is not enough. It could be longer than that. In fact, I have done episodes of explaining how recruitment works, explaining how long it takes for you to find a job and how it's different from the, sort of average weight. the average transition period of most workers, because you're not, Somebody who is working in retail.
You're not somebody that's trying to find, you know, just lost your job job at McDonald's and can go work at Hungary jacks. That's not the sort of worker you are, your positions are not as available as you may think they are. And, you have to account for that and you will also be competing with great candidates and you have to respect your competition and be prepared.
To go through a few rounds without getting a job. And then, learning from those, opportunities of interviewing of job applications, getting better and better at it. And then eventually getting a role. And that can take longer than you think. So what does success means to you as you go through the job hunting process, have you looked at the timeframes and what you want to achieve with this next job and with your next career steps?
Think about those timeframes and what success will look like to you for each of the timeframes. Number four, how will you articulate your plans and put them into action? Oh my goodness. This is so important because wanting and planning in your head, or even planning in paper, which is much better, is not enough for you to achieve your goals.
Okay. First, we do the strategy. First we do the, the desiring. Then we do the strategy and the planning, and then we need to take action and that's when really people struggle to keep consistent and have the perseverance. Now we've discussed grit and a, a past, or we were going to sorry that I have already.
Quoted this episode about grit, which is a mix of passion and perseverance. And it's a great episode. It's coming up soon. I think it's the next one. Do not miss that episode. It's so important to have grit when you're going through job hunting. Right? So, taking action and being consistent with your actions, knowing what actions will be more effective use of your time is actually the hardest.
Part of job hunting. And in fact, it's the reason why I, as a career coach exist. it's so helpful to work with a career coach when you're actually identifying the right steps to take and what those steps are and what sort of actions will, be the best return on your investment of time. Also, of course, when working with a career coach, you should, collaborate on your planning and road mapping.
Some people think that they need to do all the planning and the thinking before they reach out to me. And I think that that's not necessarily the case. I was just on a phone with a, a client who's, going to start working with me next month. And she has a lot of plans and I will challenge her. I was on the phone, explained to her.
I'm glad you have done all this work already, but I will challenge you on all those plans. because I want to benchmark it against. You know, the success rate that I have with my clients, what I know is intelligence, I bring from the market and the trends that I I'm told by recruiters, et cetera, et cetera.
So I tend to be very much the devil's advocate in this beginning of the coaching collaboration. And then we move into articulating the plans and putting them into action and nailing down an action plan that works. Is actually really, really important for success in job hunting. So be consistent with your plan, be patient and use project management skills.
Now, if you're listening to this podcast, I'm assuming you have project management skills. If you, if you're not a project manager, you know, the cabin style or. PostIts trailer boards. I am in Australia and I have just started using hood board. So I would recommend that if you're not familiar, it's a AIE startup.
And I recommend and, yes, whatever works for you, right. write it down and, Make sure that it's not just plans, but it is a do list, a list of things that you actually have to start doing at a specific time and need to get nail down the timeframe so that you are moving forward with your plans.
Okay. Now let's go into question number five of the six questions you should ask yourself before job hunting. And question number five. Is this, do you foresee a career tipping point? in your future, or maybe you foresee more than one, you know, a few career tipping points in your future. Now, what is a tipping point?
A tipping point is a critical point in a situation that is evolving, that leads to a irreversible development in your career, right? Like once you reach that things will change. So some tipping points you can forecast, and those are the ones. Hoping that you can think of others, they just happen and you don't know that they're coming, but you should also, if you're, you know, a good planner, you should also think about what would you do if you were made redundant, what would you do if you were fired?
What would you do if, you have a new boss. Let's say you have a great boss now, but in the future you have a terrible boss and you can't stand work anymore. What steps would you take? That's risk management. We do that for the companies we work for. Right. Have you done it participated in it?
Maybe you haven't designed it, but you've been involved. I have done both. I have done both the. Actual risk management plans when I was head of governance or I heavily contributed to risk management plans, in my roles that I've had in my career. But why don't we do that for ourselves? Right. So the things that you can absolutely include, even with a lot of, not a lot of thought, and you can start forecasting with some degree of certainty, are things like, you know, maternity leave or, you know, family plans or.
You want to make a career break? That's part of your plan. You, you know, so many people come to me as clients and they say, oh, you know, I I've always wanted a sabbatical. And I'm like, okay, have you started planning for it? No, They've always romanticized about it, but they haven't planned for it.
But why not? I think now after the pandemic, people are more self-aware of the need to take those breaks. I don't want them however, to take breaks in an emotional way without really thinking about what the consequences are. So you can't really plan ahead to have career break sabbaticals career changes, even, retirement.
Of course. So there, there are those tipping points and they should be included in your plans. And how are you going to include them? You know, think about why, how, when, so that you. You don't miss out on the opportunity to actually go through those things and have control over them. Okay. So foresight and planning, what will change, what sort of financial, changes you would need to make savings plans, career,and networking plans that you can do.
Having, gone through some of those changes myself. So if you've been following this podcast, you already know, but if you're new, let me tell you , you know, I have two kids, I moved countries. I changed careers several times. So, I am graduated on this sort of, tipping point, career wise, but, and I can tell that, you know, even with all the planning, there's always stuff that you really don't expect, to go through, but.
The planning does help. And it gives you, a framework to go back to when something gets out of hand. So you, can review your plans and, and do that continuous improvement that I often talk about. On this podcast. And part of that is of course, researching, ask others how they manage those situations, those tipping points in their careers, the tipping points that, you know, you will encounter.
You know, one of the reasons that I realized that could be a good career coach was because people, friends and family often came to me for advice. Those situations. Renata, you know, I, want to do a PhD. Should I have kids before or after I remember that question and I hadn't even done my PhD. I was doing my, my honors, which is equivalent to a master's overseas.
So here in Australia, we call it honors. you know, kids mat leave, moving countries, moving, sectors. So many times I've really thoroughly enjoyed, but the fact that I instilled in others that trust that they could ask me, made me feel, oh, okay, maybe I can do this. I can become a coach. And they, which I always wanted to.
but find somebody, in your circle of friends, family, or coworkers, that. You have that trust with and and seek their support. Of course. So that's always important to do that research and understand learn from others. None of those situations are new and you don't have to reinvent the will.
you can learn from others for sure. Number six. The final question, I think you should ask yourself. Look, there are lots of other questions, of course, but for the sake of time, and so that we don't talk about it forever. This is the final question. I want you to ask yourself before you go job hunting.
And it is this, how consistent are your plans with your career drivers, your aspirations, your personal values and your talents are your goals and your life in alignment. So many times people have told me their career goals, and I looked at them with a puzzled look and I'm like, your life is really not aligned with that.
Do you know what your career drivers are? are you able to speak confidently about your talents and strengths and how they can be translated into a new organization or sector? This is probably one of the issues that, recruiters talk to me about the most, the fact that people come to them They're not crisp and clear.
they don't have a sophisticated answer for those important questions, which are usually the first questions and a phone screen, or even a face to face interview. Tell me about yourself, you know, why are you here? What are your goals? People, then tend to ramble. They tend to go on and on or feel like the recruiter is actually the coach.
The recruiter is not the coach. You are not their client. They're not there to find you a job. That's not the role of a recruiter. And we will have a podcast in the future to talk exactly about what the recruiter's role is. But in summary, the recruiter's client is the employer and their job is not to find you a job.
Their job is to find the employer. An employee , it's very different. So they may not have in a very busy,job market. Like we have right now, they may not have the time or the inclination. And it's really not part of their job to coach you. Right? You have to understand what your drivers are, what your strengths are, what your values are, so that they can consider you for a specific client that they have now, or in the.
So I would really like you to consider, doing a, a psychometric test it's called a personality test or, a strengths test. There are several out there in the market that you can look at and trying to become more self-aware of those important things that can be part of your narrative and the way that you communicate yourself as a professional with others.
I have personally signed up to be a global partner for one of those assessments, which I believe is the best. And that's why I signed up with them. It's called talent predicts. It's brand new, which means it's the latest possible research. It's fantastic. Designed for professionals like you designed for career development and progression, right?
Which many of the other assessments aren't and if you go to my website, you will find more about it. I call this service, find my talent and I love the name. All my services have names that are. Really easy to understand, you know, my group coaching program is called job hunting made simple, and you know, now I have one that's called find my talents.
And with that, I want you to explore your talents. I want you to know what your talents are, what comes naturally to you? What makes you. Different from your colleagues and peers. Can you describe how and why you add value to a team? what sort of talents you bring to your leadership style? Knowing these things are super important to, convey to recruiters, hiring managers, employers, as you go to job market, right.
The other thing that you also would benefit from knowing is which talents do you want to optimize? Knowing which talents you have and wanting to find a new job. Is a great combination because there are opportunities in new roles that you can use to develop those talents, you know, those skills or those strengths that you want to focus on.
So having that sophistication in your career advancement in the way that you think about it, not only will put you in good standing front of a recruiter or hiring manager, but it will be so beneficial for your career. So every time that you are going from job to job, you. Advancing moving towards your preferred future, your career ambitions and addressing, bits that you might want to work on, in your professional development.
So knowing this can really help you make better choices about companies and managers that can support you in optimizing those talents that you want to optimize. The other thing that is great about knowing your talents when your job hunting is you can. Overcome your talent limitations. One of the things that I love about the talent predicts assessment report is that it includes a list of situations where you tend to overuse your talents and by overusing your talents, they can be detrimental to your career.
I find that really interesting. So. By understanding this before you look out for another job, you can avoid those triggers, right. And finding what drives your career. and what makes your personal career ambition is really important. So for me, be entrepreneurial is important, but for you, maybe balance is important, right?
So you need to kind of figure that out because it can help you with the choice of sectors that you choose and the sort of, activities you want to, engage in. And you can look for a good fit when you're job hunting and looking for a new employer. When you know your career drivers, it can really help you seek the types of work that you are more aligned with, and it's more aligned with your ambitions.
So that's really the benefit and also understanding your top personal values. So. Company, it has values. You know, they have cultural statements that you can read out, on their websites. And you also have your personal values. Maybe you're not aware of them because all values are so great. Every value is fantastic, but then there are some things that are so important to you that may not be important.
For someone else, like for me, it's self, you know, learning is really important. That's just an example and an opportunity to find a job or work in an organization where learning is. A top value that will allow you to do that is really important. So knowing your values will help you understand what values you seek in a company's culture, in the types of leaders that you engage with and types of colleagues you work with.
You can get your personal uniquely yours report with your personal values, career drivers and top talents. Right now. All you need to do is go to my website, run out to be https://www.renatabernarde.com/talentpredix . There's a link to it in the show notes. So go check it out and then you can invest in this service. It's my most affordable service.
You will receive an email with a link. You will answer a few questions. It will take you about 20 minutes to answer the questions. And then you get the full report. It's 18 pages long. There's a summary report as well. If you're in a hurry to read what you know, what your talents are, and you also get this amazing career development workbook so that you can continue to work on your career.
Plans with that workbook and all the questions that it will ask you, or you can book a session with me, a consultation with me. You can do that on my website and we can work on it together. That workbook it's, it's so great to work with a coach and, it really does, help speed up your self-awareness and prepare great career plans for.
To succeed in your job hunting, but also achieve all your career goals in the future.
I hope that this episode has helped you better plan for your job hunting. And I am here for you and willing to help with this podcast. All the episodes that we have up until now and the ones that are. Coming up in the future.
So please continue to follow this show. And if you want more of me, I also provide my subscribers with a weekly newsletter. You can sign up for it on my website. There's also a link to sign up to my newsletter in this episode show note. So I hope that you do. And that's all for now. Everyone. I will see you next time with another great episode.
Don't forget to stick around for episode 1, 4, 5, which will be about grit and oh, you will love it. I love this concept so much. The idea of passion and perseverance, and I can't wait to share it with you. Bye.
About the Host
Hello, I’m Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I’m also an executive coach, job hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach professionals (corporate, non-profit, and public) the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress.
If you are an ambitious professional who is keen to develop a robust career plan, if you are looking to find your next job or promotion, or if you want to keep a finger on the pulse of the job market so that when you are ready, and an opportunity arises, you can hit the ground running, then this podcast is for you.
In addition to The Job Hunting Podcast, on my website, I have developed a range of courses and services for professionals in career or job transition. And, of course, I also coach private clients.
Contact Renata Bernarde
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