By Nance Rosen, Forbes.com
Special to Online Career Tips
If you could get the gift you REALLY want, then Santa would eat your plate of cookies after he dropped your dream job under the tree. (If the tree isn’t your thing, just insert whatever symbol of your faith or spiritual practice you’re celebrating).
Of course, when you wrote your gift wish list – you jotted down that job you really wanted, didn’t you? Let’s say it’s your ideal job or career, which:
- Leverages your education
- Rapidly pays off your student loans
- Captivates your imagination
- Continues to train and develop your skills
- Provides a real challenge to stretch you
- Delivers a career path with a solid trajectory
- Sets you among people you like and admire
- Isn’t too bad a commute, and
- Is a blast because there’s free food, paint ball, accordion lessons (or whatever it is that you find fun)
Add to the list and remove what doesn’t thrill you. But, seriously MAKE A LIST of what you want for your next job or to jump start your career!
Why? Because you cannot find what you are NOT looking for. And, if you are not looking for exactly what you want: do you know the consequences? You will not find the job you want. It’s that simple. The job or career you want is out here among the people in your network. Yes, some of us in your network know about that job or career. We just don’t know that you want it – because you’ve kept it a secret. Or you’ve been vague. Or you haven’t taken the time to fill in the details that would help us put the job on our radar.
We – like Santa (or your celebrant-in-charge) – cannot give you what you want, if
- You don’t know what you want.
- Don’t tell us what you want.
- You let us define you.
Tell us the industries or companies, where you yearn to spend your next several income-earning years. Or describe them by:
- Size
- Culture
- Product line
- Geographic location
- Customer type
- Deal size
Or any other locator signals you have.
Need some help defining what you want? Let me be your secret Santa. Send me an email at Nance@NanceRosen.com, with the subject line: Secret Santa.
Author:
Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! & Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen
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