I’ve been feeling a bit nostalgic lately. And it seems that many discussions with job seekers lately tend to slip into the topic of yesteryear. Of old memories. The freedom of being a child.
And everyone says the same thing about their childhood freedom:
“I left in the morning and came home when it was dark.”
For me, it was when Mom rang the old bell on the side of the house. Growing up in Marin (SF Bay Area), the vibrations from that old bell crashed through the open space through the hills above our house. And eventually found me.
You also hear about the joys of pick-up soccer, baseball and football games. No organization, just “everyone meet up at the park”.
I think that as job seekers, we feel a strange sense of freedom during transition. We feel a bit guilty about it at times. Or at least I did. Because while you are technically free (of a regular job), it is not the same as those wonderful summer days during childhood.
I think that’s why the conversation ends up there. There is a yearning for that kind of freedom. Agree?
So if we “left in the morning and came home when it was dark”, what did we do during all those summer days?
Well in the hills above our Terra Linda home, there was grass. And big oak trees. Streams. And stones.
We explored all of it.
And our mission on some days gave me a thought for you during the job hunt.
What stones have you turned today?
If you didn’t grow up around lots of stones, let me tell you what treasures you can find:
- Snakes
- Scorpions
- Pill bugs
- Spiders
- Centipedes
And, as a kid, that was pure treasure.
So “turning stones” seems a good way to think about identifying new opportunities.
What is the benefit of turning stones?
Well, the benefit is that it gets us more curious about what our network can do for us. You might say: “Hmm, I wonder what happens if I do this?” Every stone turned leads to something. Or nothing. But the knowledge that you have done it. That you’ve poked and prodded your network, may perhaps provide you with some of that freedom each day. It pushes us to fully investigate the possibilities. It gets us asking more questions.
What are some examples?
Examples include trying to schedule the following every week: one informational interview, five coffees, fifteen phone calls. All with the goal of learning something new about your network and how it might be able to help you. If you need help identifying these, you can get some ideas from the PlateWorks tool available on the free downloads page.
It also can include more impulsive stone turning. Driving down the street of a commercial business park and walking into companies. Are you hiring? Make friends with a nice receptionist and you never know what you’ll find.
What might we find underneath?
Well, let’s see.
[CONTACTS AT TARGET COMPANIES] If, while turning stones, you are ready with a very specific set of job search objectives, you may find that your network has many great ideas for you. Ideas about who you could be calling at your target companies.
[HIDDEN JOBS] Yes, the ones not found on Craig’s List or Monster. Jobs that perhaps haven’t been listed yet or are so new that you can be in before the other 500 resumes arrive.
[RESOURCES] Sites offering great new tools, recruiters, resume experts, career coaches, career ministries are out there and, believe me, there are some that can help you. Ones you have not found yet.
So at least as a provoking thought, put it in your head that next week you will keep your eyes peeled. Be unusually curious.
For stones. Unturned. Undisturbed.
Stones that may be sheltering a key treasure to help you find success in your job hunt.
And when that bell rings. Or when darkness falls. You can hustle home to a warm dinner.
And some new ideas.