19. Job Search Strategy - Career Clarity Exercises

Today's episode focuses on job search tips. While most people want to start their job search by updating their resume, we need to take a step back and get some clarity on what we want our next role to be first. Only then will we be able to create a resume to help us get there.  

The journey back to work after being a stay at home mom can leave us uncertain about our abilities and desires. If you aren't quite sure what you want your next career to be, you are not alone. 

I'lI walk you through 3 exercises to help you gain some clarity, including how to use AI to help.  

Grab a Free Resume Template for Stay at Home Moms.
Interested in my 1:1 Career Comeback Coaching program? Let's chat!
Send me an email ---> christina@hernextchapters.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn ---> www.linkedin.com/in/kohlchristina

Transcript

Christina Kohl: 0:04

Hi and welcome to her next chapter's podcast. I'm your host, Christina Kohl. I'm a mom of three and soon to be an empty nester. I'm also a certified HR pro who restarted my career after being a stay-at-home mom for over a decade. I created this podcast to connect with moms who have an empty nest on the horizon and are wanting to redefine their identity outside of motherhood, which might include a job search. On this show, we'll have raw conversations about our ever-changing roles as moms. We'll hear from women who restarted their careers and share tips for a job search after a career break. So if that's you, you're in the right place. Friend, let's get started. Hi, friends, I'm excited for the next few weeks when we are going to be talking about strategies, concrete action, steps you can take if you are ready to restart your career.

Christina Kohl: 1:03

The first thing most people want to do when they're ready to job search whether it's somebody who's currently working, who's had no breaks in their career they've been working the whole time and they're looking to make a job change they're like oh, I'm going to update my resume. For those of us who have been long time stay-at-home moms and we're ready to, you know we're thinking about dipping our toe in, like I want to start applying for jobs. See what happens. I need to get my resume up to date. Right, that was very natural. It's very important. However, it's not the first step that I recommend. So, just like if they need GPS, you're in your car or you're on your phone and you pull up the map of where you want to go. Well, where do you want to go? Right, here you are. You're in one spot. Where do you want to go? What's your destination and really your resume? You're going to be creating your resume with a destination in mind, with a target role, a target job, maybe even target companies or industries. You're going to want to have those in mind when you create the resume.

Christina Kohl: 2:16

It's important to keep in mind that your resume is a marketing document, not a work history document. I know that seems counterintuitive, because the resume is all about me. Right, it's all the things I've done, all the jobs I've done, where I've worked, when I've worked, what I accomplished there, and that's true. However, the goal of the resume is to be read by someone who has a need. Right, they have a problem they're trying to solve, which is why they have a job opening and they need to find somebody who can solve that problem, and your resume should be targeted directly to that to solving that problem and demonstrating how you and your background and your experience can solve that problem. And it doesn't matter that you were a clerk at 7-Eleven when you were in college, unless the job that you want has something to do with customer service and retail and balancing your cash drawer and doing inventory management things related to that job. If you don't want to do any of those anymore, it doesn't matter that you worked at 7-Eleven. So, really, the things that go in your resume and the whole purpose of the resume is to point to that target job that you are after.

Christina Kohl: 3:35

And in order to write your resume, you need to have clarity first on what your target is. Just like your GPS, you need to have clarity about where you're going before you just start driving down the road. So today we're going to focus on that, on some ways to get some clarity and focus on what's next for you. And I promise we will talk about resumes, just not today. Okay, so I have a quick exercise to suggest and if you are driving right now, you're just going to have to listen and maybe do this when you get home but if you're you know, folding laundry or something see if you can maybe just set that aside for a minute, grab pen and paper and do this little exercise with me. So I'm going to call this the 10 by 10. You'll find out why in a moment.

Christina Kohl: 4:29

So what I would like you to do is write down 10 things, write them in a list that you would do if success was guaranteed. And this is where you get to dream, dream big. It doesn't matter how unrealistic, how far-fetched that this you know thing is, but you're guaranteed to succeed and earn all the money. You'll be widely successful, earn all the money that you need and don't worry about being practical. Just you know what schooling is needed or anything like that. Just write down, just daydream a little bit and write down a list and get 10 things on that list. So if you are in a position where you're able to do this now, go ahead and push pause and come back when you have your list finished. I'll wait. Okay, you got your list. Got your list of 10. Awesome.

Christina Kohl: 5:23

Now what I want you to do is go and rank them from things that you are most excited about. They're going to get a number 10. Like, oh my gosh, if this came true I would be living my best life ever. So that's a 10. And go on down the list and rank them, from 10 being the highest to one being like eh, this would be kind of cool. But it's not like amazing, because hopefully everything on your list is stuff that has you excited. But the degree of excitement is what we're looking for, what things would be most passionate about, and put a force in, put a ranking of one through 10, one being like eh, so-so, and 10 being absolutely amazing. You know off the charts. So go ahead and take a minute and rank those and maybe you've done that while you're listening.

Christina Kohl: 6:11

If not, go ahead and pause until that's done and then, once you do have your rankings of one through 10 for your passion or your energy about this topic, the next thing now we are going to get back into the world of reality and be practical and rank them now from level of difficulty in achieving or another way to look at it is how practical it would be. So if level of difficulty is really hard, we're going to do 10 again is like the easiest. Okay, so 10 is like most practical, most realistic. I could do I could start doing this tomorrow and one being like, oh gosh, I probably need to get a degree to do this and I haven't applied to college and it's a completely different schooling and education that I would need. So that would be like a one to be kind of hard, or maybe a one to be well, I want to own my own franchise but I need like $200,000 to get it started and I don't have $200,000. I only have $5,000 or whatever you know the case is. So think of, like the really hard things you're going to give low numbers to. They're not very realistic but they easily get it.

Christina Kohl: 7:25

Things like, maybe, becoming a photographer. Well, I have a camera, I have time to go take pictures of stuff I've got. I like going on hikes. I could bring my nice camera on hikes and take, you know, pictures of wildlife or the scenery. Or maybe, if you want to do portraits, you've got your family members or friends and neighbors that you could take pictures of and just start practicing. Maybe there's a community class that you can take that's $50 to take it to kind of brush up on your skills.

Christina Kohl: 8:02

So photography would be a 10 as far as ease of entry for pursuing that. So photography would be a 10 as far as ease of entry for pursuing that. So hopefully that gives you an idea. And then go ahead and rank them, one being the most unrealistic, impractical or time-consuming, resource-consuming, and on up to 10 being like I could probably start it tomorrow and these don't have to be precise, right? This is just an exercise. Don't worry about being overly detailed and perfectionist about it.

Christina Kohl: 8:37

Okay, so you have photography as a level six for excitement and a level 10 for ease of implementing or getting started on it. You're going to add those together, so the six plus the 10, you have 16. Okay, so you're going to do that for each of the 10 items that you listed and find your highest one. So that's your blend of your excitement and the ease of implementing, and not that you have to land on that or anything. But the top three would be once to maybe pursue, start doing some research and see what it would take and maybe look for some volunteer opportunities in those categories. So there's different ways that you can plug in and that's a whole nother episode.

Christina Kohl: 9:24

I think that's one I did a while back on strategic volunteering. So this is just one quick little way to kind of point you in the direction of some interest that I want to pursue. And then I've got another one for you, and this one takes a lot longer, as, in you're going to have to do it after the podcast is over, or just I guess you could stop and start in the middle. But this one you're going to need a notebook, pen and paper. It works best for me, but maybe you want to use your computer. That's totally fine, but this is a little more involved.

Christina Kohl: 9:58

This is a brain dump where you were journaling, writing about all the job tasks that you've done in your past roles, and you can include volunteer roles and even your role as a full-time caregiver, aka stay-at-home mom. So what I recommend here is just free form writing, and that's why, for me personally, I like to write longhand that way. But, like I said, however, it works for you if it's putting in a spreadsheet or a Word document, email it to yourself, whatever works, and just maybe even one job at a time, because this could be very time-intensive, but take the time to write out all the tasks that you did for that job. For example, in some of my jobs, if I look at one of my early career jobs, I started out doing a lot of critical work Filing, literally the first day on the job. They didn't know what to have me do, so they had me go through all the terminated employee files and pull out all the old ones and box them up so we can send them off to storage. So if you like organizing, that's great. It's kind of boring. So anyway, I'd write that down organizing files, pulling old files out, so this is very detailed and task-oriented. At that job I wrote a company-wide newsletter so I really enjoyed that and I'm learning the software to write the newsletter, getting the information, laying it out, so on the page, and the software getting it printed. So those types of things I enjoyed and then just kind of keep going, just kind of a jogging memory. You don't have to do every little detail, like I gave the example of the filing, the terminated files, but just filing would be fine and maybe you really enjoy setting up systems of filing and record keeping and that's great and that's kind of.

Christina Kohl: 11:51

The point of this exercise is, as you go through job one and writing down all the things you can think of that you did, I would also encourage you to write down your accomplishments, things that not only that you did, but that were like measurable and accomplishments. And then you have those and go back, if you've written it by hand, go back with the highlighter and and maybe green for go is the things that you really enjoyed doing at that job. And maybe you use a color like yellow for like kind of lukewarm, like it was okay. You could take it or leave it, it's. You know, it's part of the job. I didn't love it, Didn't hate it, it's fine. And then maybe pink. I'm just thinking of highlighters that were obviously going with the stoplight theme of green, yellow, red. I think if you did it in red, you'd probably be. You wouldn't be able to see anything but pink maybe, or you know, a red pen, the things that, oh my gosh, I never want to do these again. So I encourage you to go through each job writing these things out and again, this is gonna take some time. This is a kind of a deep level thinking and you'll notice yourself, at least for me, as I do this exercise. I notice, you know, being able to call those things out pretty quickly after I get going of, oh, I love doing that and this one was okay and this one's like please never again.

Christina Kohl: 13:14

And then what we want to be looking for is themes like and also transferable skills. And again, you can write this out for a volunteer role. Maybe you're a Girl Scout leader, or maybe you volunteered with the science committee at school, or maybe you volunteer putting on a big event every year, you know, in the community somewhere, and there's just things about it that you loved and other things are really big headaches. Oh, we'll make them go away, and just so, that's totally fine. Use that, even your mom's skills, if it's. You love to cook and create new meals and new and try out new recipes. But what you don't like is having to go to the store to buy all the stuff, right, so you can think in the context of things around the household and running your family that you enjoy versus what you didn't.

Christina Kohl: 14:03

And again, when you get done going through all of this, you can be looking for themes and the things that, like you, feel that in. For me, I feel it in my chest, or actually in my midsection, kind of like the other little tickle of excitement. So listen to your body too, as you are going through this exercise, like, oh, please don't make me do payroll again. I really don't like it. I can do it, but I really don't like it. See how that feels in your body versus like, oh gosh, leading a group and committee, that we're working on a wellness topic and putting together this event. That is just so exciting and energizing. So look at where your energy is at, even while you're writing things down, and see what you notice.

Christina Kohl: 14:45

And then the other aspect of this that I would encourage you to be thinking about not only the task, but think about the workplace, the environment that you were in. Be thinking about a workplace culture and things that you enjoy the most, as well as things you did not enjoy, and why you enjoy them and why you didn't enjoy them. Think about company size. Like, did you when you worked at a smaller company, were you happier because you knew everybody and you were part of the whole team? Or was working at a bigger company more fun because you had more people like you, like your team? Your immediate team was larger because you worked at a large corporation. So there's 20 of you on your team versus a small company. You're the only one doing your job function. So be thinking about things like that, of what was appealing to you, what feels comfortable and exciting. So your company size, team size do you work independently versus working on a team, or maybe a combination?

Christina Kohl: 15:45

What tools do you use? What software? Like? Are you all about the spreadsheets and like, oh, so exciting to get those numbers to balance, or is it nope? Give me a written presentation every day or something to write about. I don't want to do numbers, so think about those things as well as industry, if there's anything in your history or anything that you're excited about. So we just want to capture all of this and then what I recommend is write it all out. Let it settle. Come back with your highlighters, whether you're doing that on the computer or on your paper. Come back and highlight the things that are like heck yes, I want to do this again, and more of it Then ones that are neutral and the ones that are like. Please don't make me do it again and then start looking for themes and and the other thing.

Christina Kohl: 16:38

So I don't know if you all have used chat, gpt or what your thoughts are about it, but I gave it a try today for myself and the prompt that I gave it was let me go back and read it. Have it right here in front of me, suggest jobs and careers for me to research based upon the following and then I'm just gonna read this. It says I enjoy mentoring others, seeing them have aha moments that affect them deeply and can change their life. I know I'm being all big and woo-hoo here. Let me continue. I enjoy creating and giving presentations. I like working in small groups and I like being part of a team, helping others be successful, educating others. So I just kind of threw out a few things that I was as I was thinking about my jobs and things that I enjoyed About them, and this is kind of what I pulled out. And then I wrote also Things I don't like working in or don't like working with, and that includes this is what I gave to chat GPT.

Christina Kohl: 17:38

I don't like working in spreadsheets, having to balance numbers to the exact amount. I don't like having to worry about compliance, audits, strict deadlines, budgeting, software installation, etc. You guys can probably hear my voice. I don't like those things. So I gave that prompt to chat GPT and again the prompt is Suggest jobs, careers for me to research based on the following so this is what you can do as well from your notes, the themes that you see, coming out with all of your green highlights as well as your red highlights of what you don't like. And surprise, surprise, chat to GPT gave me a pretty long list of things for me to research, the first being a life coach or mentor. I'm not going to read the descriptions, but it does provide descriptions. So I'd encourage you to use chat GPT in that way.

Christina Kohl: 18:28

If you're just kind of stumped, like I know I like doing these things and I know I don't like doing those things, but what kind of job is that? Use, use the tools that you have at your disposal, including chat GPT, and see what it says, and then from there you can go, you can do some of your research while you're there, on the computer as well. So those are some suggestions that I have to help you narrow your target, aka your destination, aka also known as hope that that makes sense and what I'm saying. And then your, your resume becomes that GPS, so like saying I want to go here, I want to become this, and then Everything that's on your resume and all that exercise I just had you do if you've taken the time to write all those down, if you don't have a current resume, that exercise is going to have jog your memory and Help you to actually create your resume, knowing that your target is clear to find what your ideal job is and everything on your resume points to that ideal job.

Christina Kohl: 19:37

And Just a sneak preview to the next episode about resumes all those things that you highlighted in red that are like no go. I don't want to do those ever again. Guess what? No matter how good you were at doing them, they don't go on your resume. Okay, if you don't want to do it again. It's invisible to future employers. They don't need to know that you have that skill unless you tell them. Okay. So that's kind of a teaser for the next episode when we talk about resumes, and I promise we will also talk about the career gap and how to address it on the resume. So stay tuned until next week. Thank you so much for listening today. I hope this episode hit home for you and if it didn't well go easy on me I'm still figuring this all out and if you haven't already, be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn and say hello so I can personally thank you for listening. Until next time, remember, your story is uniquely your own, and your next chapters are ready to begin you.