“Be unstoppable. Refuse to give up, no matter what. It’s the best skill you can ever learn.” ― Charlotte Eriksson
I love that quote.
It reminds me of my friend Don I told you about.
If you missed that message, here’s a quick refresher:
Up until now, Don worked in the trust department of a bank. Now that his kids have left home, he wants to move on to a new field. He chose affordable housing because it would be more meaningful to him and he could leverage his 25 years of experience.
So, a few weeks back, he landed an informal conversation about jobs and careers with the CEO of a housing association.
The conversation went well, and he got some excellent insights, but for some reason, he didn’t get invited back for a formal interview.
When Don told me about this, he also said he was so frustrated with trying to land a different job, he was considering giving up on the idea.
I told Don I understood how he felt.
A lot of folks have felt that way.
But, I said I thought giving up would be a big mistake.
Why?
Because, in my experience, landing these kinds of informal conversations is an excellent strategy. It’s a kind of shortcut for landing jobs through the “inside door” – especially if, like Don, you have a lot of experience you can bring to the table.
However, as useful as this strategy can be, it doesn’t always produce immediate results.
In fact, it usually takes around ten of these conversations, on average, to land an interview.
This raises a critical point:
The best job seeking strategies usually take time and persistence to pay off.
It’s kind of like losing weight: The results don’t happen immediately. Instead, you first need a clear strategy to follow, and then you need to persist long enough to see the results.
You also have to have full confidence that the strategy will actually work. That way you’ll keep moving forward and refuse to give up if results don’t happen right away.
