Most of the candidates that approach us do so with one question- “Can you help me find a job?”
To which our response is, “What kind of a job do you want and WHY should a company hire you?” The answer to this is usually a series of ‘ohs and aahs and umms’.
Which makes me want to explain the difference between building a career and having a job.
Having a job- Ask yourself these questions:
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How long do I plan to work at the new job?
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How much money do I want to make from it?
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Do I know what the next step is for me?
If your answer to any of these questions was “I don’t know”, “I’m not sure” or “Let’s see..”, then you are looking for a job. Examples- doing food deliveries over the summer, working a cash register, part- time customer service are all examples of jobs.
Building a career- If the answers to any of the questions are helping you to take a step forward toward something beyond the job, then you are building a career. For example, a candidate recently came to us and said “I want to be the head of marketing and lead a small team 5 years from now. Can you help me?”
The first thing we did was to have a detailed coaching conversation around the candidates goals. We found that the candidate was OK to take any job as long as it helped her to reach her ultimate goal. She was building her career.