(By Dan Simmons)
(Editor’s note: This is the first part in Dan’s “The Difference Between Wishing For and Preparing For a Better Job” series. Additional installments will be published….)
Just about everybody wants a better job. Unfortunately, not everybody prepares for finding and getting that better job. They just wish for it . . . and you know how far that will take you.
When it comes to preparing for a better job, you have to ask the correct questions, specifically the tough questions. These are the questions people often do not like to ask themselves. (Wishing is a more attractive alternative.) However, you’re ready to ask yourself the tough questions, which is why you’re reading this. So let’s start with perhaps the toughest:
Are you really a top candidate?
This means that you’re in the top 30% of your industry. Be honest with yourself and with me. Let me articulate what it means to be in the top 30%. If you’re going to get top dollar, you’ll need to show the following:
- Track record of success—You can show consistent top performance for your employers. Having copies of employee evaluations, letters of recommendation, or copies of awards document this.
- Wise career decisions—Your resume makes sense and your choices propelled you forward to more responsibility or better employers.
- Stability—You’ve shown that you’re a low-risk hire because you normally stay five years with an employer.
- Your income expectations are in line with the value you would bring to the employer.
- You have continued to improve your skills since graduation and can list what you have done, whether it’s reading books on selling, earning a technical certification, or being asked to speak on a topic in which you’ve become an expert.
- Others think you’re great—You have a list of references who will sing your praises and confirm your accomplishments.
- You have a professional presence and can articulate your success with confidence, not conceit.
- You are fun to have on the team.
If you aren’t in the top 30%, then now is the time to stop daydreaming about a better job and change your situation so that you are at the top of your profession. Corporate America wants great talent and is not looking to hire the bottom two-thirds, but the top performers.
Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.
Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.
Is Your Company Looking for Great Candidates? Contact Dan Today!
