by Terrie Osborn, CPRW
“How’s the job market?” new clients frequently ask. The underlying question is: How quickly do you think I can find a new job?
Those might seem like tough questions. Here’s another one: How is it that many people move swiftly from old positions to new, while others get stuck in between indefinitely?
The answers are that the job market is as good or bad as you decide it’s going to be, and you can change jobs very quickly if you decide to do so.
There are lots of reasons why people leave jobs. Sometimes it’s voluntary – they’re exercizing their right to move on. Some clients leave jobs under less than perfect circumstances—they were, for example, ‘let go’ for whatever reason. That can be devastating! Even so, here’s the thing: It’s not what happens to us that determines our level of happiness or sadness, it’s how we choose to respond to it.
Lounging on the couch all day in pajamas watching TV is certainly an option, but chances are high the new job won’t simply show up at your door and you’ll never leave the living room.
Using time between positions to research—on the internet, at the library, by talking to others, through a self-evaluation such as is available in the book “What Color Is Your Parachute?” or just by listening to the song coming from your own heart—will begin to magnetize a new job to you. Put the energy out there, and you’re sure to create what you want. Treating the job search as a full-time job—even as a part-time job—at which you spend 20, 30, 40 hours per week, will rapidly bring you and your next employer together.
Like everything else in life, jobfinding is what you make it. It never ceases to amaze me how often people are deep down not surprised that they’ve been let go from a job. They could see it coming, but maybe ignored it. Or they didn’t like the job/boss/industry anyway, so the shock of having been let go is mixed with a great sense of relief.
I’ve also come to believe—from watching happen over and over again—that there’s ALWAYS a new/better job awaiting those who need to (or want to) change jobs. That’s why the old one ended, because the new one became ready for you to make your way to it. You do have to make your way to it, though.
You can track the gloom reports in the news and resign yourself to the couch, or you can approach jobfinding as a great adventure. Choose to believe that what you want IS out there for you and make up your mind that you're going to find it. It's possible that the new job will exceed even your wildest expectations - why not?! It happens to other people, why not you!
