It was October 13 – my birthday. I was seated at a candle-lit table at the rotating restaurant in the Calgary Tower with my beautiful mom and a view of the entire city. The next day she would be dropping me off at a huge trade centre, where I’d set up a booth and spend 2 days introducing myself and my employers’ services to potential customers.
At 23 I was already travelling across the country as part of my work. I had found a job that was exciting and where I was really passionate about my work.
A blessing right?? Well, yes … but no.
Why was this job not the blessing I expected? And what does this have to do with using the phone to find a job?
In November, one short month after the excitement of Calgary, I left what I thought was the job of my dreams. A job that had initially been filled with passion and drive, started to drain me of energy and deplete my confidence. But it taught me an important lesson.
The work environment is as important as the tasks and challenges the job entails. And the environment at this company wasn’t healthy for me. When I began my next job search I was thankful to have the knowledge that I wasn’t just looking for a job anymore.
I was looking for an environment. A place where I was comfortable and could grow into the most successful version of myself. For me, that means working with like-minded people, people who feel passionate about communication, supporting growth and developing strong soft skills; a place where I am valued for the value I bring.
To find this job, I had to add research to my job-hunt list … and pick up the phone!
I stopped looking only at companies that had a position available. When a company interested me, I went through its “about” page, searched who worked there on LinkedIn, what they did and studied their profiles.
Now I realize that I wasn’t only looking for the “best fit” position for my personality and abilities, but also giving myself the best possible opportunity to land a great job.
When I did contact a company, I called the person who would be my direct report, the person with plenty of knowledge, not only about the business but the specifics of the position and the goals and values of the company.
Finding out all this information required me to use my best active listening skills during my phone conversation. I’ll share my strategies with you in my next post, scheduled for August 19th.