JOB SEARCH MUSINGS: JOB SEARCH SHINY OBJECTS

You’re a garden hose (stay with me). Someone’s aiming you at the plants, you’re watering them, and all is well. Suddenly, they drop you and you flip around, spraying water all over the place (apologies to “spray and pray” fans). That flippy hose has been my job search, seeing that shiny object in one role after another. This is a story about a flippy garden hose and how she’s learning to manage her job search.

?At the end of 2017, after working for a company for nine years, I was laid off. The company was sunsetting our product. I was no longer needed. I’d held roles in support, supervised support teams, trained new clients, written documentation, been an account manager, and contributed to product design. I had a lot to bring to the table, but that meant I could go in several directions with my job search. I had some soul-searching to do.

?I became interested in employee engagement, employee experience, customer success, customer success enablement, customer experience, product design, customer marketing, and customer education, and if it looks like I can’t make up my mind, you should see me with a restaurant menu. Making a decision became a daily agony and months later I wasn’t any closer to deciding. So, I gave up, or almost. I still have a little flame burning for customer education.

?I wondered if all these titles had something in common, and if that something could give my job search focus. Several key skills are shared across these job titles, so instead of agonizing over titles, I decided to change my approach and look for a role that uses my best skills. This isn’t a new idea, but I’m embracing it for real now. Some of these skills are:

?CARING: Caring deeply about customers and colleagues. Being their advocate with internal teams. Getting them what they need. Helping them. (This is also true for my LinkedIn Network.)

?LISTENING: Start with listening. Stay with listening. Ask good questions. Let the other person show you what you need to do.

?RELATIONSHIP BUILDING: …which begins when you start listening.

?SOLVING PROBLEMS: Being a fire fighter and a fixer. Getting rid of the noise. Finding out what matters. Making it happen.

?COLLABORATING: Facilitating. Getting people to talk. Finding consensus and working together.

?WRITING: A LinkedIn “Top Relationship Building Voice” for my contributions to collaborative articles.

?All of the above with a generous side of HUMOR.

?I’m sharing this to encourage unconventional job seekers. If you share my tendency to be a process outlier, make friends with that. At this point, I can’t even promise that it will pay off, but I do know that you have to be who you are. I’m not suggesting you throw best practices out the window, but your process must be your own. Trust yourself. Now that I’ve changed my approach, everything feels better. I feel better.

?Regardless of job title, if you need someone with my skills, let’s talk.

?To the amazing Customer Success and Customer Marketing communities who have been so supportive and encouraging, thank you with great big hugs. I read today that finding a job is the most stressful job of all. Without you, my “road less traveled” journey would be a much different story.