Now What? Blog
The University of North Dakota Career Services blog is designed to provide career development information 24/7. Our goal is to engage students in answering their career and internship needs while also providing a forum for dialogue.
In addition to contributions from our career professionals we will also periodically add guest posts from students and select employers to give our readers multiple perspectives on issues that make a difference to career success.
*Our blog is an open forum for conversation and information sharing revolving around career topics and trends. We reserve the right to delete inappropriate content from our page.
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Thursday, June 7, 2012
Bar None Opportunities
Seeing the same old territory with new eyes is far easier to say than actually do. Consciously changing how we look at the world requires a far reaching paradigm shift. When asked about working for Wal-Mart many of my client’s noticeably fail to get excited at the prospect. Many job seekers fall into the rut of assuming a company like Wal-Mart only hires people to be greeters, where in reality there is an incredibly powerful corporate structure that operates behind the “face” of companies like Wal-Mart.
We create new realities when we take a second look at the world. It is easy to feel like screaming in frustration at the mere thought of submitting another resume, only to receive another rejection letter. Or to be at a complete loss about what to do next in a job search because it seems like every possibility, or even hint of a possibility has been exhausted. Anytime someone finds themselves at such an impasse the chances are good something has been missed and that it is usually a good idea to take second look at opportunities from a new perspective. Go back and review some of the companies that may have been rejected initially, but this time try not to make assumptions about what a company is or isn’t until research confirms or disconfirms any assumptions.
The same idea applies to networking. Bar no-one from a networking circle: allow anyone and everyone in. Job seekers can get hyper focused as desperation sinks in and begin to see networking possibilities in shades of black and white: this person can help or they can’t. Consequently, these folks usually miss out on great opportunities while, ironically, waiting for ‘better’ opportunities.
Take me for example: At one point I wanted nothing more than to work in a bicycle shop. I was tired of the ins and outs of my (then) corporate life and the idea of working in a bike shop was my vision of nirvana. To say that career dream died early on the vine would be an understatement; I wasn’t even able to plant the sucker.
I applied for a job at the biggest and, what I thought was the best bike shop in the area, but I wasn’t ready for an on-the-spot interview and bombed it with extreme prejudice. The failure made me reevaluate my dream of what I thought to be an easy life of working at a bike shop. I gave up and went back to working in an office after the first brick wall I hit instead of applying to other bicycle shops.
Anyone that has been dumped can attest to just how badly rejection can sting, but it really stings when we let it get us down. Rejection can add meaning to our lives, and strengthen us for coming storms. In today’s job market anyone looking for a job is going to face rejection. We can allow it to cripple us or we can change how we view things and see it as a sort of testing and proving ground.
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