The Scavenger Hunt
What’s a scavenger hunt, you ask? If you missed out on this as a kid, a scavenger hunt is a game where you and your friends race to find items (or complete tasks) from a list. It’s kind of like a treasure hunt, where you’re solving puzzles and taking on adventures.
When I’m speaking with job seekers, I always end up sharing the analogy that job seeking and landing is like a scavenger hunt.
As much as anyone would like, we don’t go from point A to point B. It’s always ups and downs, twists and turns, running into walls, catching a break. Speaking with someone who you think will offer you little of no value and learning that her cousin works at your dream company.
It’s all about collecting these precious gifts, these clues, and tracking them. When someone suggests a name and forwards the phone number, email or LinkedIn address, follow up! Call that random person. You never know what it will lead to. Always take that call. Always send the thank you email for the referral.
I recently gave a talk and included the “weak ties” concept, basically our “strong ties” include our network and the “weak ties” will be friend of a friend. Weak ties are crucial to a job search. You need to get the word out to your network so they can share with their network. It offers you new people, new places, new hiring manager faces.
As we navigate out of this soft market and look forward to more cash flow in the economy, we have to be open minded and creative. Look for the signs, look for the clues, follow your intuition and gut. The job search isn’t straightforward. If you do it right, you’ll meet lots of interesting people and learn a ton along the way. This job search is part of your development. Your Linkedin connections will grow, you’ll have new perspectives. You’ll have a bigger picture of the world and how it all works. You’ll see that we’re all interconnected and we’re here to help each other along the path of life.