How to Get the Career You Want

A Human Workplace Slide Conversation

A lot of people are frustrated at work

Sometimes you have a job that you love, but it doesn’t pay you enough money to live on.

Your work environment can drag you down

Sometimes you know right away when you’re in the wrong job.

Other times, it takes a while to realize that the people you’re working with and for will never value you.

That’s a harsh realization!

When you’re not working, job-seeking is hard

The recruiting process in most organizations is broken. It’s awful!

Job-seekers feel beaten down by the rigid, inhuman processes and communication they run into when they’re looking for a new job.

So what do I do?

How can I get the career I want and deserve when I don’t make the rules?

Here’s the good news!

You do make the rules, when it comes to your own life and career.

You can break the traditional job-search rules and get a great job.

But you have to do something very important first…

You have to decide what you want!

Many people don’t know what they want. You have to take the time to decide what you want in your life and career.

If you don’t do that, then other people will run your career, instead of you! That’s no good!

No one knows more about what’s right for you than you do!

You get to decide…

You get to decide what career path you want to follow. Also, you have to decide! Otherwise you’re leaving your career up to other people – or no one at all!

Not sure how to choose your career path?

First, retrace your steps. What did you enjoy doing when you were little? What are you good at?

The world is big.

You don’t have to keep looking for jobs like the jobs you’ve already had.

You have to pick a career direction first!

Once you know your new career direction, you can brand yourself for that direction. Then your resume will make it clear that you’re supremely well qualified for the jobs you want – even if the jobs you want are not jobs you’ve held before.

Then what?

Once you’ve chosen a career direction to focus on and you’ve branded yourself for it, your next step is to answer this critical question:“What sort of Business Pain do I solve in my work?”

What is Business Pain?

Every company and organization has problems. You are an expert problem-solver! What are the biggest, most annoying and most expensive problems you solve in your work? That’s important to know, because your ability to solve Business Pain gives you power as a job-seeker!

Amelia’s Story

Amelia is an Office Manager. She likes that kind of work, but she hated her last job. Then she got laid off. Amelia asked herself “What kind of Business Pain do I solve?” She had never thought about her background in terms of solving pain before.

“Wow! I solve a lot of pain!”

Amelia realized that she solves several different kinds of Business Pain for her employers. She keeps her CEO’s schedule organized and thus relieves his or her stress and makes sure that high-priority items don’t get skipped. She keeps small problems from getting bigger and she calms down unhappy customers before they get so angry that they stop being customers!

You solve Business Pain, too!

You will talk about the Business Pain you solve in your Pain Letters. A Pain Letter is like a cover letter, but it doesn’t sound like a traditional cover letter at all. You’re going to write Pain Letters and send them directly to the hiring managers you want to reach – through the mail.

The Human Approach to Job-Hunting

When you send your Pain Letters directly to the department managers you want to work for, you’ll avoid the awful Black Hole recruiting portals that drive job-seekers crazy!

Your muscles are growing!

When you decide to take charge of your own career, things start to change in a good way!

You can take baby steps at first. You can think back over your life and career and ask “What do I love to do most? Why can’t I bring that passion of mine into my career? Wait – I can!”

Give me some baby steps!Get a journal and write in it every day!Write about your dreams and what you love to do at work and at home.Tell a friend of yours about your secret plan to take charge of your career!Think about the question “What kind of pain do I solve at work?”Think about what you want in your life and the rest of your career.

What is Human Workplace?Our company, Human Workplace, is on a mission to reinvent work for people.

Our CEO, Liz Ryan (who also draws these pictures) is a former Fortune 500 HR SVP. Liz saw that the way most companies hire, train and lead people is very broken!

We are on a mission to fix what’s broken.

We teach people to take charge of their own careers

We help folks around the world get altitude on their careers and lives, and step into new career paths and new jobs that grow their flames!

How can I learn this stuff?

Learn how to set your new career direction, how to write Pain Letters, how to find your hiring manager so that you can reach him or her directly, and tons more in a Four-Week or 12-Week Virtual Course from Human Workplace!

What are these virtual courses like?

Human Workplace virtual courses are self-paced, self-study programs. Each week you’ll receive a new lesson via email. (You can get all four or all 12 lessons at once, if you prefer!)

You’ll work on your lessons as it suits your schedule best. You don’t need to be in any particular place at any special time to participate. You don’t need to be online, either.

Our new virtual courses begin on Saturday, September 5th!

Here are just a few of the 50+ Human Workplace Virtual Courses that have helped people around the world step into their power and get great jobs that deserve them!

Click on each course title to learn more!

Get the Job You Deserve – a quick four-week course!

or one of two in-depth editions!

Get the Job You Deserve – 12-week Standard Edition or 12-week Advanced Edition!

Not sure about your career direction?

Set Your Career Direction is a fast four-week virtual course.

Reinvention Roadmap is an in-depth, 12-week virtual course.

Don’t see the course you’re looking for?

Download our 2015 Virtual Course Guide here!

Reach us with your questions!

Click here to send us an email message!

Have I really read 29 slides already?

This is the last slide. Here’s our last question: are you ready to step onto your path?