In this episode, I chat about 4 big takeaways I've found to be true in my recent L&D job search.
I mention two great resources in this episode:
Connect with Heidi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/ or on my website: www.heidikirby.com
Thanks for listening to the BLOC!
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/
Or check out what I'm working on over at https://www.getusefulstuff.com/
In this episode, I chat about 4 big takeaways I've found to be true in my recent L&D job search.
I mention two great resources in this episode:
Connect with Heidi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/ or on my website: www.heidikirby.com
Thanks for listening to the BLOC!
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/
Or check out what I'm working on over at https://www.getusefulstuff.com/
Hello friends and welcome to the block the building learning and organizational culture podcast. I'm your host Heidi Kirby. And today I'm going to talk about my l&d job search. That's right. A month ago on the date that I'm recording. This was my last day at my most recent role. So I've now been officially looking for work for eight full weeks. And as part of that, I wanted to share with you some of the big takeaways and best pieces of advice that I've gotten along the way. The first piece of advice is one that I often gave other people. But it was one of those things where I wasn't good at taking my own advice until my dear friend and overnight trainer podcast host, Sara konista, told me that I needed to stop applying to every job under the sun and narrow my search. What do I mean by that? What is it you're looking for? What kind of role are you looking for? I talked to people who are trying to get into l&d a lot. And one of the things that troubles me when I talk to some people is that they're like, I'll take any job in l&t. And I have to kindly tell them, Listen, that's a bad approach, because you can't, you know, tailor your resume to any lnd job if you're willing to take any job. And if you're applying to all these different types of jobs, when it comes time to talk about what you want to do in your interview, you may come off as desperate, and you're less likely to get hired if you're desperate. And if you don't have a knowledge of the role that you specifically want to start applying for. So find what it is. And Sarah calls it finding your niche. Find your niche in l&d and find the space where you want to exist. For example, I am looking for an l&d leadership role. Specifically, I'm interested in leading either a learning function, a curriculum or a program. And I'm also interested in leading people and helping people whether they're new to the field or have been in the field for some time, I'd like to have a team or the possibility of having a team one day if I you know come in as a leader to a start up or something like that. So that's step one, for honing your search. Step two, for honing your search was something that my friend Aaron Chancellor, and if you're not connected with her, you should be told me and taught me if you go to the Glassdoor website, and you're filling out your profile, there's a section where you can choose the job components that are most important to you. So for example, they have something like work life balance, compensation and benefits, strong company leadership, career advancement, opportunities, all of those different things. And she told me to go to three that are most important to me. My three are strong company leadership, company culture, and values and compensation and benefits. And by choosing those things, it helps you to remember them not only when you're looking at different job postings and considering what you want to apply for. But it also helps you to focus when you start having the interviews because sometimes what happens is, when you've been looking for some time, you can get a little bit a little bit desperate, right? I've been there where I'm like, this doesn't really sound like a good fit, but I really need a job. So I'm just going to go ahead and keep going. But if I'm I'm seeing red flags that maybe there's not strong company leadership. I need to really look back at that list and ask myself is this really the place I want to work? So narrowing that search, finding your knees, not wasting your time casting such a wide net? That's my biggest takeaway. That's my biggest piece of advice. Because when you cast a super wide net, you're also opening yourself up to what I like to call random rejections. Jobs that you threw a resume out there for willy nilly, knowing that you may or may not get that role still comes with a rejection unless you get ghosted, of course, but still comes with a rejection and maybe they don't sting as badly. But if you apply to five jobs that you're really confident that are a good fit for you. That's five possible rejections if you apply to 100 jobs that you think or myth, kind of sort of in my wheelhouse. That's, you know, increasing the number of rejection emails that can come in your inbox and a rejection is a rejection. At some point, those piling rejections don't feel good. My next suggestion is to network network network. If you are on LinkedIn, start connecting with other people start connecting with people who are in the type of role that you want. Ask them if it's okay to talk to them about what they do and how they landed the job there. Those are called informational interviews. And sometimes they can lead to jobs. Also talk to people in your network because they may have a job lead for you, or they may know someone who you need to be connected with. One of the things that I did was that I reached out and offered just conversations with people. And my schedule has been pretty full since. And it helps to take some of the focus away from that anxiety of waiting to hear back, right? Because you're meeting with people and you're talking to people, and you're talking about what they do, and maybe you're commiserating about the job search. And for me, it's been also giving some people advice, who are trying to get into the field of instructional design, which is helping other people makes me feel so much better about the rejections that I've gotten. I've been able to introduce people to others in my network, I've been able to help people find roles, and it has just been so wonderful. And if nothing else, maybe it will generate a little bit of good karma for you when it's time for you to find that perfect role. So network network network. But I also want to include my third suggestion here, which is don't forget to take time for self care. I had Sabina Sula on my show recently, and we talked about agile unemployment, her wonderful book, but one of the things we discussed was the importance of extreme self care as Sabina calls it. And this is so incredibly important. And one of my other friends on my network specifically told me to stop doing job search related things on Fridays, because not a lot of forward progress is made on hiring decisions on Fridays. It's just kind of the nature of things. And now that I've kind of taken a step back and looked at it, I'm like, Yeah, you know what, actually, I think I get the most rejection emails on Friday. So I've now started taking Friday's off, and I've now started taking off, you know, stopping doing whatever I was doing that day when my son comes home from school around like 330. And my time becomes his time. And we spend time together. And it's so important, because if you are narrowing your search, and even if you are networking, you want to make sure that you're not spending 40 hours a week trying to find a job because if you really are narrowing your search and let's say tops, you apply for like five really solid jobs a week that you really feel are, you know, a good fit for you. You can't possibly spend 40 hours applying to those five jobs and following up on those five jobs, right. So you've got to take some time for yourself. If it means that you have to read a book or watch a movie something escapist to escape some sort of gut punching rejection that you've gotten, do that. If it's doing the thing that you always said you do. If you had more time, whether that be exercising, cooking more, cleaning out your closet, whatever, fixing up your garage, fixing the roof, you know, building a tree house, whatever it is, take the time that you have now to do those things to keep yourself busy while you wait. And my last suggestion is probably the most important one for me. And that's avoid toxic positivity on social media. I love the LinkedIn platform. LinkedIn is the social media platform I use more than any other. I have deactivated my Facebook account and I really don't interact on many other social platforms. But LinkedIn is a hotspot for what I like to call toxic positivity. It is positive slash inspirational posts that mean well, but are either misleading or are actually kind of insulting to people who have been at the job search for a long time. I'm talking about the posts that say things like, you know, the it's not your fault, it's the ATS, or it is applied for the jobs where you don't meet 100% of the qualifications, because if you're a good person, they'll take a chance on you anyway. And some, some of the posts like this are misleading. And if you follow some really great recruiters out there, Amy Miller is one of the recruiters that I suggest everyone follow because she debunks all of kind of like the hiring myths that are perpetuated on LinkedIn. But a lot of times, basic requirements are basic requirements for a reason on a job posting, and companies won't consider you if you don't meet those basic requirements. And sometimes there's a legal reason for that. So continuously applying to jobs that you really have no shot at, can be not always, but it can be a waste of your time. And if you know somebody, or you're connected with somebody for a job where you don't meet 100% of the requirements, then yes, sure. Go for it, try it out. But be realistic with yourself and be kind to yourself, because a lot of these toxically positive posts are posed by career coaches who mean well. But they're not necessarily being realistic, this idea that you aren't original enough, or kind enough, or trying hard enough. And that you need to be grittier or try harder, or, you know, do something differently than what you're doing is starting to get annoying to me, quite frankly, because I've done the job search many times, and I've done the job search successfully for many times. And I have a lot of people in my network who are helping me. And so this idea that I'm just not quite gritty enough, is starting to get really frustrating. And so what I've done is I've started to turn off that toxic positivity. If I see someone who's posting a lot of that, like, you know, pick yourself up off the floor, wipe your tears, blah, blah, blah, you know, something that's not allowing you to feel your emotions of disappointment and frustration. I hide those posts on LinkedIn now. I don't have time for them. Because going back to number three, self care. I am allowed to have a day where I feel depressed and annoyed that after three rounds of interviews that I thought went really well, I get a generic canned email that I didn't get the role was no other explanation, then they went with another candidate, right? Yes, I'm allowed to have a day where I feel disenchanted or discouraged. It's natural. But also yes, you should try to stay somewhat positive, and move on. And again, network with people have people that check in with you and make sure you're doing okay, and all of those good things. And what I like to just always try to remind people is that if you haven't found the role yet, and sometimes it takes a really long time. But if you haven't found the role yet, maybe it's just that you haven't found the right fit yet. And I see people who found roles really quickly, who've been terribly unhappy. And I've seen people who've taken a really long time to find roles that they end up very happy in. And of course, I've seen the opposite as well. But everyone is different. And this idea that we can all find this role that's crazy. That we're crazy unqualified for is just kind of silly to me. So to recap, narrow your search, figure out what it is that you really want from your next role because it will help you to apply better to tailor your resume better and to be able to speak on it better during your interview process. Network network network, you never know who might help you find your next role. Take time for self care, it is okay to have a day off. It is okay to spend more time with your kids after all, that is what this whole time is For right? Once you find that new job, you're gonna be hitting the ground running. So clean out your closet, exercise more, take a bubble bath, watch a movie, do all those great things. And last but not least, avoid the toxic positivity that is making you feel less than because you're not being optimistic or enough or trying hard enough or being ex enough, right. And please connect with me. Please tell me how your job search is going. I'd love to hear about it. I'd love to talk to you about it. I'd love to commiserate about it. And I hope that this helps you a little bit. And good luck in your search. Thanks again for joining me on the blog. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and review us on your favorite podcast platform. I hope you'll tune in again soon.