Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
We’re here with Ask a Progeek, and the questions keep coming. This one is a bit sensitive – and one with exploring.
When applying for a job, there is sometimes a voluntary section about demographic information (where they ask about gender, ethnicity, disabilities, etc). In practice, is it better to fill that out or leave it blank?
This usually isn’t a concern for us Progeeks, but it’s something that bears thinking about.
Last week I talked about what I meant by going “on offense” in one’s career. I thought I’d itemize my thoughts to give people ideas and directions.
By “Going on The Offensive” in your search I basically mean taking the initiative in a focused, planned way that involves activity before response.
So here’s Steve’s Quick Guide to Taking The Offensive as it were:
HAVE A GOAL: Have a goal for your life and career that you really want and hold onto it hard. This gives you direction, inspiration, and guides you in repurposing events and opportunities.
HAVE A PLAN: Have a plan for reaching your goal. You want an outline that you can act on.
MEASURE RESULTS: Measure your progress. Turn things into numbers. For instance, if you want to make money as an artist, keep track of money you make each month.
HAVE A NEXT STEP: Always know what your next step is and do it – even if the next step is “take a week off to rest.” You should be able to, at any time, take one hour and move yourself forward.
HAVE AN EDUCATION PLAN: Train yourself. Have a plan to train yourself. Do it.
REPURPOSE: Ask how you can use your current job, experience, contacts, etc. to work towards your goals.
CHANGE AS NEEDED: Do adapt – but don’t give up too easily. You’ll need to learn when to change and when not to.
ASSOCIATE WITH SUPPORTIVE PEOPLE: Friends, professional associations, what have you. You need people that keep you going and that you go places with.
STAY UP ON NEWS: Stay up on news relevant to your goals and dreams so you stay inspired and informed.
Note that most of this is being active. It may be a kind of martial-arts like waiting for activity or precise strike, but active it is.
That’s really the key to an Offensive Job search – actively pursuing things in the appropriate way and not giving up.
So how are you going to take things on the Offense?
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.
Ah, job ads. How many times they have instructions that have our heads spinning. Let’s take a look at our latest Ask A Progeek:
If a job posting says that “only qualified applicants will be contacted” and “no phone calls please,” it seems like they don’t want you to contact them after applying. In that case, how do you follow up? (or should you?)
This is a case of a fundamental job search issue – two different principles colliding. In this case the rules of “networking” and “followup” with the other rule of “don’t annoy the people who may want to hire you.” Your job search plans grind to a halt when something like this happens, because where do you go?
Actually you don’t let the problems butt into each other head on – you go around the situation. Just like any obstacle you find away to go around it. You circle around the obstacle.
In this case? The obstacle is the HR department policy.
Now this policy may make sense. As much as it heads off your plans, they may be too busy, too concerned, too careful, or too antisocial to want you contacting them. Ask yourself if you were recruiting or hiring, wouldn’t there be situations where you wouldn’t want anyone contacting you? The answer, by the way, is yes.
So you can’t charge on ahead and bug HR. So you turn around and find another way to follow up.
The big way is networking.
See you can probably find people at the company you want to work for, or find people who know people there. These people, if you know them or can get to know them, can follow up with you personally. It’s not going and bugging the HR department (who are probably overwhelmed), its just good networking
Now this is going to take persistence and can have you running round and round to find the right people. But if it’s a job you really want, then it’s worth the effort to go around the barriers . . . that they kind of put in the way anyway.
A final tip – no matter how friendly they are on followup, give potential employers MANY ways to reach you – phone, email, web page, etc. Make it easy for them to get back to you.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.