Is Your Career Trapped in the Matrix?

This is another post in a series of monthly advice posts made in association with the Career Collective, a group of professionals who collaborate to provide guidance for job seekers and careerists. The questions topic for June is "Heating Up Your Job Search."

I know that with the shape the economy is in, people who are looking for a job are really feeling the heat. The reality, though, is that frustrated job search has been a long-standing concern, even in better times. Part of the problem, it seems to me, centers in job search methods. They are traditional and passé.

I’ve been thinking this for a long while, and planned to do a post to offer some new perspective. As I was about to write, I stumbled upon a great post from Chris Brogan, “Avoid the Many Versions of the Matrix.” He raises the question, “Job security= being employed by a stable company. Matrix or no?,” and concludes: “There’s what we think is real; there’s what we observe as real: and then there’s what we can change.”

In reading the post, it occurred to me that many of us career coaches foster being trapped in a version of The Matrix. No, we don’t take the role of Agent Smith, the relentless villain who pursues Neo and other humans. Rather, we more often function as Morpheus, offering our clients the blue pill of illusion or the red pill of reality. And not raising too much of a fuss if most choose the blue pill.

The fact is, we more often support a matrix-like view of how people can be successful in getting a job. You know the one. Prepare a sharp resume, strong cover letter, network for job leads, and sharpen up your interviewing skills. Add to this, the propensity of many job seekers to rely on “applying for the job,” and you can see how this leads to a situation where people operate inside of what they “think is real.”

So, what is real?

Well, putting aside the truth that “there is no spoon,” one view of reality is this: for years, insiders have had the edge in winning job offers. And the evidence for this is the vaunted “hidden job market,” which fills an estimated 70 – 80 % of jobs before they’re posted. If you think about it, the candidate who wins an un-posted job most certainly has an inside track of some kind. Either they are an internal candidate, or have a relationship with a company insider.

None of this is to say careerists should abandon traditional job search methods – they still seem to be successful 20 –30 % of the time. It is to say, however, that your focus needs to be not on heating up job search, but in pursuing the “cool” status of someone “in the know.” In short, you need to work at becoming an industry and company insider. And this does take work. Yet, today, we know what matters and have the capacity to do something about it.

What to can you do? Here are just a couple of ideas.

Start by unearthing your personal brand. It’s the foundation for your success. In the process, you can achieve the clarity that helps you articulate what you want to achieve professionally, the unique value you offer, and who needs to know about you. Your personal brand establishes your point of view and provides a platform for engaging others inside of your brand community.

Cultivate relationships with people already in your brand community, but also work to expand it. You probably already know lots of professionally relevant people. In fact, if you attend professional meetings, you likely share drinks and stories with them. Still, there is real benefit in growing your brand community beyond geographic boundaries. Today, via the magic of social media, you have unprecedented access to people globally. And among them are the industry and company insiders you need to meet and start “hanging out” with.

The new reality of successful career management is that you must gain visibility and credibility – and connection – with the insiders who can be important to your professional success. Today, web presence not only provides that visibility, but also drives relationship building. Consider LinkedIn. It has grown dramatically to become a robust tool for engagement. Sure it is, and has been, great as a resume, Rolodex, and job search engine. Today, however, features like Answers, Groups, Status Updates, and a host of application, including Google Docs, Twitter, and SlideShare help you to bring your profile to life.

Even more, these are tools of attraction and connection. Not only do they invite people to learn about you, but allow you to learn about others. They also give you a basis to start conversations that lead to genuine relationships. So, the real value of social media is in your ability to find people as well as information – and then engage based on what you find. Over time, you gain the reputation and connections that drive the perception of you as an insider. 

There is, of course, a paradox here. Once, online connections were looked at suspiciously. Online relationships were not seen as a real relationships, but as fragments of virtual reality, kind of like the Matrix. Yet, increasingly, a heated up social media is driving an ever-increasing range of “real world” mass-mingling events. The game is changing. You now have the tools. And today, if you want to move ahead, your best choice is the red pill.

How did members of the Career Collective respond to the June question? Follow us on Twitter with our hashtag #careercollective and read these posts:

Turn Off The Computer, Tune Into What’s Happening, & Heat Up the Job Search, @chandlee

Heating up the Job Search-How to Stay Motivated During the Summer, @erinkennedycprw

Light the Fire Under Your Feet, @careersherpa

Cool Job Seekers Heat Up Their Search in the Summer, @barbarasafani

Some assembly required, @DawnBugni

Summertime, Sluggish Economy Provide Strong Motivation for an Updated Resume, @KatCareerGal

9 Ways to Heat Up Your Job Search This Summer, @heatherhuhman

Getting Out From Under Chronic, @WorkWithIllness

Upping Your Job Search Flame; Be ‘Needed, Not Needy‘, @ValueIntoWords

Put some sizzle in your job hunt – how to find a job now, @keppie_careers

Summertime – and the Job Search Ain’t Easy, @KCCareerCoach

Heating up your job search. 5 ways to dismiss those winter blues, @GayleHoward

Hot Tips for a Summer Job Search, @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes

Heat Up Your Job Search: Avoid Job Boards, @JobHuntOrg

Heating Up Your Job Searching Skills: Networking 101 and 102, @GLHoffman

Treasure Hunt—Yo-ho-ho! Heat Up Your Job Search, @resumeservice
 

Comments

[Career Sherpa]

Yeah Walter!

You've pointed out some really super ideas and concepts! Most importantly, that creating and disseminating a brand/expertise/unique value, whatever you want to call it, has never been easier.

Understanding how to use tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter and even Facebook (along with the others), truly provides an outlet for communicating, relationship building and marketing.

Being and insider or knowing an insider will absolutely increase the odds of landing a job sooner- as long as you have the right brand!

[Walter Akana]

Hey Hannah!

Thanks for your great feedback! It really *is* amazing how social media tools make it much easier to find and connect with the right people. In fact, used well, these tools provide a gateway to people you need to know, facilitate building relationships with them, and becoming seen, in "Trust Agents" authors Brogan and Smith’s words, as “one of us.” Put another way, you can make yourself an industry and (virtual) company insider!

Having the clarity that comes from defining your brand is certainly a big help. Knowing what your goals are as well as what you have to offer increases your credibility – and attractiveness.

So, in many respects the formula for career success is visibility, credibility, and connections. Now, that’s hot :-)