Smarter than the Average Bear

“Imagine what you could achieve if you knew you could not fail” – Robert H. Schuller

When I was in my early teens, my friends and I would buy whatever fireworks we could. They were illegal where we lived, but if you “knew the right people” you could pretty much get what ever you wanted. Although not technically “fireworks”, one of our favorites were smoke bombs. They looked like small balls with a fuse sticking out of them. Anyway, we would always argue how much smoke they created and decided to settle our argument by “capturing” the smoke. So, we decided to light a smoke bomb, drop it into a jar and close the lid. About 1 second after closing the lid we realized that this was not a very good idea and the jar could explode. We ran for cover. Fortunately, only the lid blew off. We didn’t settle our argument but we did agree it was not the smartest thing we did.

My entire career (which now spans over 30 years), no matter what struggles the companies I worked for went though, I always thought that “someone smarter than me” was dealing with it. Having lived through my share of corporate “drop a smoke bomb in a jar” meltdowns, I now realize that maybe the person running the company is not smarter than me. In fact, some of the fatal corporate mistakes I’ve lived through could have been easily avoided if not for arrogance or over-confidence. So, what’s the point? Underestimating your abilities or thinking that only someone “smarter than me” could be running the company can be career limiting. Much like today’s quote, don’t let lack of confidence hold you back.

Confidence in Your Job Search – It’s okay to think you are the best because if you don’t believe that you will most likely not get the job. This is a great starting point and if you don’t think you have enough confidence, make the change now.

• 17 Ways To Build Confidence While Finding A Job – This article was posted on one of my favorite career sites, Tim’s Strategy. As Tim points out, looking for a job can be very draining, often with many more “you are not the right person” than “you’re hired”. Tim lists lots of great tips to help you build and keep your confidence during the process. From “Take a day off and help others” to “Know thyself”, I’m sure you will find all of the tips useful in your job search. Definitely worth a look.

 

• Boost your self-confidence; it could help you find – Good article, answering the age old job search question – “why am I not getting called back after interviews, is there something wrong with me?”. The article focuses on what yo can do to build your confidence (like thinking about all of your achievements). One of my favorite points – “take intelligent risk”.

 

If It’s Not Working Change It – If you’ve been looking for a job for any period of time and you are not getting any results, you may want to consider changing your approach.

 

• 5 Ways to Fix Your Job Search – Is your job search not working? Need to get some other ideas? This article, posted on USNews.com, provides a few good ideas to help get your job search back on track. From fixing your cover letter to tapping into your network, this article is worth a read if you feel like your job search is in a slump. While you are there, take a look at their careers section (click the link at the top of the page).

 

• How to Choose the Best Resume Format – This article will step you through the process of re-formatting your resume. There are probably thousands of resume formats out there and you could spend weeks looking for the “right” format. That being said, format is important. Readers will not spend much time reading if they are not drawn in. What format is right for you? Take a look at resume samples for your industry or functional background.

 

• CHECKLIST: JOB SEARCH – Another resource from myfuture.com, this provides a pretty good list of the things you will need to do along with embedded links. And, if that’s not enough, take a look at the next link.

 

• Job Search Checklist – A great checklist from Quintcareers.com, it is divided by each major component of the job search with embedded “read more” links for each item. Don’t forget to check all of the related links on the left hand side of the screen.

Good luck in your search.

 

Author Info: CareerAlley

Author Website: http://CareerAlley.com

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.