PSG Of Mercer County - Our Blog

CONSIDER KARMA

Author:  Craig Jez  (Submitted by Richard Pawlak for repost)

             

This may be a reach, but let’s try another view you can consider implementing for your job search. Consider Karma.

To me, good Karma is a combination of the Golden Rule, patience, and time well spent.

We all know to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Regardless of your beliefs in religion or social justice or goblins, a good turn done for another person makes you feel good and, I believe, starts a chain reaction. There’s a current TV commercial that shows that if you open a door for the person behind you, the person will return the courtesy to the next person, who will in turn be courteous to the next person, and so on and so on. Movies have been made about paying it forward. People remember people who are unselfish in offering simple acts of service. Maybe that’s another definition of networking.

Patience is an attribute you all exercise every day. Patience consists in responding to the woes of bills due and still smiling at the job interview. Patience consists in replacing unemployment depression with acts of volunteer kindness. Patience consists in doing for others as a PSG committee member despite your own need to find a job yesterday. A PSG member who recently landed defined patience as “the positive energy required daily during a 17-month transition period.”

Time well spent goes to focus, planning, and persistence. At PSG orientation, I asked you to focus. Get your job bucket together and utilize the tools from Getting Started to either begin or reinvigorate your job search. Planning your time should include active networking. Persistent and effective networking is important because you never know whom the person you’re networking with knows. It’s like an adult game of Whisper down the Lane. PSG has experienced a growing history of happy coincidences whereby spontaneous networking conversations developed contacts that led to an interview that culminated in a hire. The Karma part lies in the ebb and flow of relationships evolved from networking. PSG members are constantly surprised by who steps up to help them land at the bleakest moment.

For those who need specific karmic examples, consider the following scenarios.

Close to home, check out the Landings list posted in the PSG room. Statistically, most of the names on the list coincidentally were also of service in PSG committee work. That committee activity and constant marketing/networking translate to a worthwhile answer to the interview question. What have you been doing since you were terminated? Those on the list were out in front of adults in the social and business communities. They added value to conversations and were ultimately recognized for their employable skills and for being good human beings.

Another concept surfacing in the market is relationship recruiting. Sounds like a cousin to networking, but let me explain. Say you interview with a prospective employer, but it doesn’t result in a job offer. There’s no fit, or you’re not a match for the corporate culture, or for some other reason, it’s just not going to happen with that company. To keep the corporate contact, you of course thank the company for spending time to meet you, and you express your enjoyment of learning about the organization. The extra step is in connecting the organization with a candidate from your networking pool. The hiring manager might appreciate the gesture or might be inclined to return the favor by connecting you with others in the same professional network. The maximum response would be a referral of your credentials to other hiring managers as future, unadvertised positions open up.

I think you catch my drift. Whether you call it Karma or making your own good luck, positive things will happen when you get out of the house, get active, and help somebody else every once in a while. If you’re already doing that now, do it more. If you’re not doing it, get out and try it. I know all of you will get hired.

Craig Jez is the Business Services Manager for Mercer County at the One-Stop Career Center and he connects motivated jobseekers directly with business owners across Mercer County. Craig is also the former NJ Dept. of Labor facilitator for PSG of Mercer County, and worked as a tireless advocate for professionals in transition.