What secret is the best for getting a job?
It is almost certain that most of the readers on this blog are looking for a “Secret” to finding jobs without stress. In fact, chances are that you are reading this because you are looking for that “Secret”. Marketing professional relish the term secret because it carries a huge sense of mystery and easily entices their potential clientele.
It is interesting because when you do not have something, when it is not in your hands, when it seems like you do not have the means or the way of getting it, then it must be hidden. And if any ‘expert’ could find a way of cracking the code and provide you the secrets to uncovering what you perceive to be hidden, then you can buy the purported solution with minimal objections.
How ‘Lucky’ are you?
Today, many youths are gambling away their futures on sports betting. It is a major daily mind game that is making the proprietors of these types of businesses very rich, yet rewarding very few participants over long periods of time.
When it comes to your career, chances are that you could be playing the gamble. You could be betting your success on luck. Probably, you are hoping that you will be lucky one day, get an interview and when that happens, you are betting that the interviewing panel would have grace and Mercy on you and give you an opportunity.
Who is in Control of Your Fate?
You see, hope alone is not a complete strategy! Grace and Mercy are not in your control. Contrary to popular belief, luck is not something that you experience by chance. No, luck is what you attract and create by a series of focused, sustained and consistent activities.
This brings us to this powerful “P” word. By now you must have guessed it. Let’s introduce you to someone who will mentor us today. He was born in 4BC and died in 65AD in Rome Italy. He was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was a tutor and later advisor to Emperor Nero. His name is Lius Seneca. This is what he said:
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Your key word today is “Preparation”
You see, there are two things about you that a potential employer is looking for:
- Facts about you
- Stories about you
Unfortunately, many people think that just presenting the facts to the interview panel would be enough to get the job. You would be wrong. Facts are things like your age, your academic qualifications, your gender, your work experience, where you live, and so on.
Your Stories are the Difference Maker in Interviews
Stories however are what move many employers to hire you. What are the stories we are talking about? These are your interpretation of facts and the experiences you have created for yourself. The more you have of these, the more it increases your chances and your luck.
The only way you get this is through “Preparation”. Unfortunately, many people think that to prepare for an interview, you need to work on your CV and your presentation skills and so on. Today, Google is giving millions of CV templates for free and anybody can create a good CV in less than 20 minutes (but still we have hoards of people with pathetic CVs).
When you get into a job interview, the interviewing panel uses the facts found in your CV to ask you questions in order to know what kind of stories you are telling yourself and the world. The thing is that our general make-up is not merely of the facts of our lives, but of the stories that we tell of these facts.
So the question to you today is: How else, apart from crafting your CV are you preparing yourself to be lucky?
Here are some thought starters:
- Your outlook on life: Preparation to succeed in life versus preparation to pass an interview
- The kind of person you are becoming: Whom do you see yourself as and how are you showing it up in your life right now? Do you see yourself as a Manager? Are you already behaving like you are a Manager?
- The kind of personal attributes that you are working on: Behaviors that you are expanding, stopping or starting.
- Your Giving: What are you giving to the world right now? Internships? Volunteering? Personal business startup?
- Your Growing: What are you reading? What seminars are you attending? What mastermind groups are you a part of?
The thing with preparation is that you might not see the results tomorrow or even next month. But when your chance comes, people will see that you are ready and that is how you can really get lucky in your job interviews. Over to you.
