The Best Place to Start Your Job Search

Ep: 186

How fulfilled are you right now on a scale of 1 to 10?

If you answered lower than an 8, then you’ve probably already been actively searching for something new.

But with the average search for a new job taking 12 months, often with a pay cut of anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000, it’s clear that something about the “traditional” method isn’t working.

In fact, this depressing scenario is completely avoidable. 


There is a better way to find work that will bring you more fulfillment and financial gain. 

You just have to know how and where to look for it. 

Today on The Bridge to Fulfillment, Blake answers the most common questions you’re probably asking yourself as you begin your search. She unravels the mystery as to why the typical job search method isn’t really working for you, and how you can avoid compromising financially or giving up on what makes you happy.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to avoid the most common job search mistakes as you look for more fulfilling work. You’ll learn how to dig deeper and understand the root causes of your unhappiness, allowing you to get clear about exactly what it is that you’re looking for.

If you’re ready to ​​transition into work that is more fulfilling while having the balance that you want and maximizing your income, then this episode is for you.

 

What You’ll Learn:
• Common questions that come up when you’re looking for a career change (0:39)
• Why so many of the solutions you find aren’t creating the change you need (1:41)
• The biggest mistake people make when they look for a new job (2:31)
• Unlocking your fulfillment framework (6:43)
• Why it’s so challenging to find clarity on your own (11:19)


Favorite Quotes:

  1. There are so many resources out there that are talking about how to land the next job. But the problem is a lot of it is very cookie cutter. It really isn’t there to solve the root cause of why you want to make a change, it’s just helping you move from one place to another.
  2. We overestimate the level of clarity we have. But it’s nowhere near enough to be successful in our job search and ultimately fix the root cause.
  3. The best place to start your job search is actually with you, it doesn’t start with the tactics.
  4. Being able to get impartial expert advice from somebody who can help you see the path, with a proven process to be able to help get you there, is the key to being able to find fulfillment.

 

Additional Resources: 

Rather than hoping the grass will be greener, identify what the RIGHT next step is. 
We can help you do just that. 

Get clarity on where you are on your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optional paths to get there, and the right next step to take.

Start your complimentary, Personalized Career Fulfillment Plan by going to www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan

Want free resources to set your job search up for success? You can get them by going to: https://thebridgetofulfillment.com/mistakes

Transcript

Blake Schofield 0:05 Hi, I’m Blake Schofield, founder and CEO of the Bridge to Fulfillment, mom to three, USA Today top 10 professional coach, and former corporate executive who got tired of sacrificing my life for a comfortable paycheck. My mission is to expand women’s perspectives and empower them to achieve greater impact at home and work without sacrifice. This is The Bridge to Fulfillment. Where are the best place to start? Is there a particular site companies I should avoid? I just don’t even know where the best places are to start looking for the right type of roles and not just positions that companies keep pushing out. I don’t know the job search landscape well enough, it feels like a black box, I’m not even sure where to start. If these questions resonate with you, and you want to know the best place to start your job search Today’s episode is for you. Because here’s what I see all of the time, most people aren’t sure what to do first. And they end up taking the wrong steps, which leads to either a very long and painful job search, ultimately not maximizing their value and their offer at the end. Or going through this process transitioning into something new, hoping that it’s going to be better hoping it’s finally going to be it only to find themselves back in the same position in nine to 24 months. And ultimately being stuck in what I call the breakdown cycle. Right, never really solving the root cause of why you’re unfulfilled. There are so many resources out there that are talking about how to land the next job. But the problem is a lot of it is very bandaid, very cookie cutter, it really isn’t there to solve the root cause problem of why you want to make a change, it’s just helping you move from one place to another. But here’s the issue. If you don’t have clarity, if you’re not solving the root cause you’ll just keep putting yourself in new circumstances, but continue to carry with you the same problems. It’s why for so many years, I started to think something was really wrong with me that maybe I would just never be happy in my career, maybe I just had to suck it up. And this was as good as it was going to get was because I wasn’t solving the root cause and I didn’t really understand the right steps to take. So today I’m going to share with you a few questions that I ask when people come to me and say, Where’s the best place to start my job search? Or what should I do first? First of all, it all starts with you. This is the biggest mistake people make is they believe that a job search starts by looking externally. But that’s the problem. If you don’t have clarity, and you’re searching externally, you’re spending a lot of time and energy trying to sift through things hoping they’re going to be the right fit or trying to fit yourself into somebody else’s box. And that’s why we end up ultimately unfulfilled and in a process that doesn’t work for us. I don’t know if you know this, but the average job search takes 12 months, 11 hours a week. And when most people are transitioning, jobs are taking anywhere from 20 to $60,000 of pay cuts that were almost completely avoidable. But they did so because they believe that was the only path possible. That’s how I used to be be don’t know how to maximize their value in the job search. And so ended up taking something much lower than what they actually deserve. Or see start looking at their income in terms of an annual basis, what are my expenses versus what they’re paying me instead of actually starting to look at what this will do to me for three 510 years down the road. So we end up making some really poor decisions, because we don’t have clarity, and we don’t have the right strategy. But I want to give you some tools today to help make sure that you don’t fall into that trap. So you’ve got to start with yourself first. And like you to ask yourself this question. How fulfilled Am I right now on a scale of one to 10 with one being a miserable I have the Sunday scaries every weekend, I literally am just going through the motions because I need a paycheck, right? I’m getting up every day going to the shop, but it’s torture all the way to 10 which is I wake up energized, passionate excited every day, I spend the vast majority 85% or more of my time doing work that I’m passionate I feel like is in my zone of genius. And I feel valued and appreciated for the work I’m doing. Answer that for me now, how fulfilled Are you on a scale of one to 10. Now what you didn’t know if you’re any lower than an eight, that is a sign that there is misalignment, there’s some root cause issues that need to be addressed rather than just shifting into something new. Now, if you’re an eight or above great, it may just be something as small as you want a shorter commute or you want to transition and have more growth into a different organization.

Blake Schofield 4:49 But if it’s any lower than an eight, a seven or below, these are signs that you need to do deeper work to get at the root cause to make sure that you don’t end up repeating the same cycle and you actually are able We’ll transition into work that is more fulfilling, while having the balance that you want, right and maximizing your income. Because if you aren’t clear on why you’re unfulfilled, and you don’t know specifically, exactly what you need to change, you’re never going to be able to do that. So what’s important in this process, if you’re a seven or below is number one, gain control, get in a place where you’ve regained control of your time, your energy and your state of mind. If you haven’t done that, you’re never going to be able to get deep enough to actually get the clarity that you need. Also, you’re not going to learn the skills, boundaries, habits, the things that are gaps for you that are potentially creating some of the stress cycles of burnout or unfulfillment that you’re experiencing. So we have to gain control first, then it’s all about gaining clarity. That’s where you uncover your secret sauce, transferable skills, and you unlock your fulfillment framework. These are foundational pieces that you need. And if you don’t have these, again, you’re not really going to be able to fix the root cause or maximize your outcome. So your secret sauce, transferable skills are not as simple as it may sound, right? It’s a combination of the unique skills that you are energized and talented at, that gives you energy, drive and momentum. But it’s not just understanding the combination of those skills, it’s also understanding your perspective, or your lens on life, your experiences and your natural way of working. And it’s a combination of all of those things together. That is your unique fingerprint for success. Nobody else can say that is your unique way of doing things.

Blake Schofield 6:33 Understanding this really opens doors and helps you understand why and how you’ve been successful and where to spend the vast majority of your time, in your roles and in your work. The second thing you need is to unlock your fulfillment framework. Those are the things you need in your career in life in order to truly be fulfilled in the long term. Again, if you don’t uncover these things, you’re gonna keep doing small changes that you see, hoping they’re gonna be better only to find it’s more of the same or worse. That’s definitely the cycle I found myself in for years as I would identify certain things I needed work life balance, this type of collaborative boss versus a micromanager and I kept making changes based on those things. But ultimately, I would find myself back in a cycle of being unfulfilled again. And that’s because I hadn’t unlocked my fulfillment framework. clarity on what you want to need is critical. Now, one of the things I’ve noticed is that we overestimate the level of clarity we have, one of the things I used to do is say to people, how clear Are you on what you’re looking for, in terms of your role, and in terms of what you need for the company and what that might look like. And a lot of people would say to me why, like I have some pretty good clarity, I’ve uncovered you know, XYZ thing. But when I would dig deeper, on average, I would say the people I talked to have anywhere from about 10 to 25% of the clarity that they need, nowhere near enough to be successful in this job search and ultimately fix the root cause. We are way over estimating that. Now, let me give you some examples to maybe help you see what I mean when I say 10 to 25%, of clarity. So I had somebody recently come to me, and they shared with me, I said, Well, instead of telling me how clear you think you are, tell me what it is exactly that you’re looking for. What does that job in that company look like? And they said to me, Well, I know I really want to influence the direction that the company’s going, I want to feel like my voice matters. I want to feel like it’s an environment where I can collaborate and have insights to share. I really love coaching and developing people. So I want to be able to do that. And I want a company where they really want to hear what you’re saying, and not just go through the motions of telling you that they care. But it doesn’t really happen. That right there is about 10% of the clarity that you need to really unlock the right opportunity for you about 10%. Because that was it. I’ll give you some other examples of lack of clarity or lack of breadth and depth of clarity that’s needed. I had a woman come to me recently, and she was actually thinking about potentially starting her own business, she could actually find what she wanted in corporate. And I said, well tell me a little bit more about what you’ve uncovered. And she said, Well, what I really am covers, I’m really passionate about creating things. I want to be in a circumstance where I can help build something from scratch, really see it come to fruition, I really want to have leadership to be able to grow and move that forward. And I know I’m really passionate about helping people about doing things that are really making a difference in the community. And so she said to me, so I felt like I have what I need to move forward. And the real true honest answer is no you don’t. That’s sitting at about 15% of the clarity that you need. It’s wonderful that you have uncovered those things. But there’s nowhere near enough depth to take that and really be able to identify what the right next steps are. To be able to really understand and match that with the right opportunity. There’s so much work that goes from this high level understanding of what we think we want and need Due to actually being able to create that opportunity, and that space in between the breadth and depth of clarity is so critical and important. And so I hope these two examples have helped you understand a little bit more about what it takes and where you may be making the same mistakes that I see all of the time, which is believing you have enough clarity to actually really achieve what you want, when in fact, you’re at the beginning part of the stages, and you need more breadth and depth because here’s the truth, the level of clarity I just shared with you. Right, that 1015 20 25% of clarity. What happens when you’re at that stage is and you don’t have clarity in the race strategy along job search, moving into a job that’s more of the same or repeating the same pattern, not actually fixing the issue, and ultimately coming back to the same circumstances nine to 24 months back through that breakdown cycle. So what I want you to understand is the best place to start your job search is actually with you, it doesn’t start with the tactics. And this is where almost everyone gets it wrong. But here’s the problem. You can’t start with you if you get stuck in fight or flight syndrome. That’s what happens when we’re under repeated stress, or when we’ve tried to solve a problem on our own multiple times. And we’re just not finding the answer. Also, one of the biggest challenges to this, you can’t see the label from inside the bottle. We all have blind spots, we all have things we can’t see about ourselves. And so it can be extremely challenging to get clarity on our own. And often we’re going to the wrong people to get clarity, we’re going to friends or family, people who have a biased opinion. And they’re invested in what the answer looks like for you. And so they can’t see clearly and they can’t help you shift and see differently. Being able to get that impartial expert advice, somebody who can help you see the path, someone who has a proven process to be able to help get you there is the key to being able to find fulfilment, have more presence in your life, protect and maximize your income, feel valued and have growth in your career. Now, this complexity of being able to get to the right level, the right breadth and depth of things is why we consistently end up having people come to us after they’ve already tried so many other things counseling or therapy, going to work with a resume writer going to traditional career coaches doing the cookie cutter tactics, or after taking a lot of personality test. Because those approaches just aren’t holistic or deep enough to address the root cause. But I want you to know, the good news is that there is a proven path and undeniable results, six steps to transition into the fulfilling career and life that you want. And if you need help, I encourage you, you’re on this podcast for a reason. And encourage you to sign up for a complimentary personal career fulfillment plan, where we’ll help you identify where you are in this journey, where you’re headed, optimal paths to get there and the right next step. And you can do that at WWW dot the bridge to fulfillment.com forward slash plan because ultimately what I want you to know is it is possible for you to move into a more fulfilling career and be more present for your family and in your life. It is possible to do more fulfilling work and actually make more money and have a more fulfilling career. It is possible to wake up energized, passionate and excited about the work you do without having to compromise or sacrifice. And that’s what we’re all about here at the bridge to fulfillment. So if you today are struggling unfulfilled in your career, and you’re not sure, the best way to actually transition into that right next step, I encourage you reach out. We’d love to talk with you help you understand where you are in this journey, and what the right next steps are for you. And until next time, have a great week.

Blake Schofield 13:57 Thanks for joining me today. Rather than hope the grass will be greener, identify what the right next step is. We can help you do just that. Get clarity on where you are in your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optimal paths to get there, and the right next step to take. Start your complimentary personalized career fulfillment plan at www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan  Again, you can get your personalized career fulfillment plan at www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan Thanks again for joining, and have a great week ahead!