Today or jobseekers radio we answer your questions. We really enjoyed getting questions from you we feel like were engaging with you in ways that we can. Just buy broadcasting as you are listening to our podcast and you are going to the job seekers
radio.com to find out more or to leave feedback. We want you to ask more questions because this is probably the favorite activity that we have and it gives you an opportunity to get to be personal. Or selfish selfish selfish or what is selfish if you want your questionnaire. Have a question it’s likely somebody else so you’re helping someone else so it’s not totally selfish there’s a little bit of altruism.
That brings us to our first question for my college senior how can I find my passion and where do I begin. There are on whole bunch of responses that you will get from that question many of them are true. But they feel because you hear them so often they’ll be a little cliché, where I start without us what do you enjoy doing what dreams you energy, that you enjoy or how we want to describe what did the things that get you fired up. I guess where I would start that conversation with someone is to get them to understand that you probably have more than one passion don’t limit yourself to just one. Open your mind to anything that brings your enjoyment because that’s only the first step of a longer conversation or a longer journey in finding what you enjoy doing. that will earn you a living so sometimes that’s not Just one off. I hear this question what’s my passion I would encourage you to actually look up the textbook definition of what passionate want to change that word usage or use a different word to describe it. I’m hearing most of the time is what it might go down or what would I be good at doing. I would suggest at a college senior should probably go through some assessments will that be a Myers-Briggs or some of the other assessment like StrengthsFinder or StandOut. Excellent point and not many of these fuck about the break talk about style preferences but also each one of those is going to be measuring something a little bit different. And so if you take several of them I wouldn’t go with too many of the free online assessments because they generally don’t go deep enough. But you may not have a budget to actually pay someone to take you through the professional assessment so that certainly understand. For aptitude test or did the testing that they do to try and help place you were in vocational training that sort of thing can be really helpful and they are state subsidized so you don’t have to pay for them to stay covers the cost in terms of other resources that I would suggest at a college senior lean into that would be the crew center at university the alumni network that you have access to to help you understand what other people who maybe have your same interest actually did with their degree so that you have a bridge between College Inn and workforce the other thing I would recommend and I really got a lot of value out of this was reading what color is your parachute and this is an a lifelong book in and sad to hear of the death of the author died a couple years ago but they’re continuing on Frankie build a legacy through that book that helped millions of people again that’s a stylus preference based concept that he developed and it’s really quite helpful I remember when I read No they’re going to be other things when you think about that the tasks that you had maybe was a research project that you did that you really enjoy doing or on the other side of it the way you deliver it to the outcomes of that research that’s the part that you really enjoyed that will give you some insight as to the kind of work it may be really good for you to pursue because you arty know you enjoy doing it and I don’t want to under estimate the power of that sense of passion I totally agree with you Andrew that maybe we use a different word and the job search arena because finding your passion has sort of become a cliché but there still value to that approach so don’t not think about what you’re passionate about and don’t limit yourself allow whatever brings you enjoyment to come into your conversation about what you want in a career that brings us to our next question how do you handle privacy for job search online Already employed somewhere and I don’t want nobody knowing about it that I need to be careful what I shared online in that perspective on the other side there’s a lot of nefarious people on the Internet that you want to protect yourself from I would caution you and sharing any personally identifiable information maybe even in this is why I encourage people to also eliminate the month of service in your jobs so when you’re at your experience section C on LinkedIn you’re not saying hey I went for January 2014 to February 2016 in this job that’s giving somebody with the ferry is at 10 the exact timeline if your employment there are a number of things that you can do I don’t think we can go into a lot of detail about how to protect your privacy here there are a number of resources that get her out there and LinkedIn if you do a search for the articles that are published there you can get a lot of information about this but generally speaking when I am thinking Are looking for work go to this website and I can help you I would ensure that that is an actual company website I never clicked on a link that is in so I I checked out the other thing is if it there if it looks like it’s coming from a company that I am interested in I go to the company website to do a search for that position before I respond to the email again you want to be really careful about that the other thing is there’s a lot about me that’s already out there online so the chances of being truly private are pretty low anymore but their somethings that I simply will not share with other people connections to family members or other people that that are very close to me I don’t generally share information about them certainly not my children or others that may be put in a vulnerable situation but also things I never get that out except in an official job application if someone asked me for that I will tell them that that is available though I will make that available when I apply use your best judgment I think it’s the main answer there is a best practices for your own safety I would suggest if you’re going to be logging into different sites for the job search that you use an email and a password not login with Facebook or login with some answers lewdly because those services it now been known to be Bonable yes the next thing I would suggest is if any of these platforms have two factor authentication that you use those two factor of medications on all the platforms that you’re logging into it so there’s I don’t know how many I’m teen platforms are used a login with Facebook because it make it easy but now they have access to all my information I don’t do that anymore I have to go into to their instructions and do it step-by-step because it’s not easy there’s a reason why it’s not easy they don’t want to lose those connections because they’re making money off of it in many cases they will do a retard what happened and not all of these websites I would say even most of them don’t have bad intentions involved but the fact is they are trying to make money and they are using me of my information to do so I can except it for what it is but I still need to protect myself so be mindful of how much information you’re sharing what kind of information you’re sharing if you were the type that you bury your soul on Facebook then I would never ever use Facebook to login or to create an account with another website you are opening yourself up to trouble that brings us to our next question is it cool to apply to a job I don’t mind but definitely could do I would generally say no and it’s not because you shouldn’t practice yes you should but you want to be transparent if you’re going into an interview if you don’t really want it and you have a good interview if you’re if you don’t intend to take it you’ve just wasted that person’s time it would make me feel that you’re not ethically on the same plane and I I just really don’t think that’s a good idea however if you see an opportunity to have a conversation with the hiring manager of the recruiter who ever does is performing the interview I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying I don’t know that I am really interested in this position but there are things that I see that that I do find it interesting could I come in and have an informational interview about your company now you’re resetting setting the expectations so they know that you have a modicum Yes come in for an interview information interview because they may take the approach they want to talk you into it and now there’s a benefit for both sides the motivation for this question really would determine how I answer it OK and so if the motivation is all I have to apply for this because… I want to get my employment or… I want to feel like I’m doing something or or whatever and then I would say no I don’t think that’s a valuable activity however if you just want interview practice I would say yes by all means I would be cautious of my mindset when I go to that interview that I don’t want it so it’s going to impact my performance on the interview I would take the flipside of that I would say yes go on the interview but treat it like it’s the Super Bowl like to eat there’s no job you ever wanted except this one because if I treat the one I don’t want that way how am I going to perform when I get the one I really want short short I have to treat every interview like it’s the most important thing in the world and that Remember to that these people know others and so if you’re putting out there that oh yeah I want this job in Bend no I actually don’t that also is going to make that the rounds well anyway I was gone I actually believe everything I read on the Internet here’s the thing is that you could apply for that job and you get the interview and you get there and it’s not anything that they are very true if I should just simply answer this I would take that apply for that job to get the interview so you can get the practice but just treat it like it’s for real and I would also say yes but be genuine that brings us to our next question Scott which is I have a boss that made promises for advancement but won’t pull the trigger what should I do great question has a whole bunch of caveats involved it really is going to depend on In most cases most companies they approach this as this is business they are looking out for the company’s future not for the future of the individual to make the company’s future so I know that sounds pretty harsh in a lot of companies make a great deal of effort to say oh no we actually do care about you but again just by their actions not by the words I’ve been a message ration I am sure Andrew has been in that situation where this is normal so remember you can be honest about it but your yourself you will in what let’s be clear that each situation is totally different and if you look at this situation so wherever this question is coming from I would have some questions back how long of you been in the room when did they make the promise what did they really promise you right how did they make the parade and there’s a lot of questions that remain an answer that you maybe Like that the next step of the process is to then have a conversation with your boss not just about the advancement but what does that look like in terms of the skills that you need the experience that they are expecting you to have before you move up what does that look like and then set a time frame on it you can go online to find out about what a smart goal is exactly how to set that up the first step of that is to make sure it’s a specific goal so if you are looking to move up to the next level and in my company we go from a specialist to a senior specialist and what does it look like what is it that the differences between what a specialist does senior specialist and that’s also true of the other type of user that it Vance sure that mature in that investiture and it is a leadership team in identifying those drinks and whatever that title looks like the idea is identify what those differences look like Or hate you’re already doing the job of a senior versus a regular I just don’t feel like paying you for it when is it what is the motivation of the boss or the manager and you don’t maybe those conversation shouldn’t be about hate remember what you promised me every conversation you’re having a starting that way about making demeaning your boss for your own benefit but this also may be a situation where your boss doesn’t realize just how much you’re doing and of the higher level of these are good questions to bring to your boss they are it’s a really good conversation to have but once you put this into a smart girl and now your boss has very little to say oh no we can’t do that now they may still say no it may be that for budgetary reasons it can’t happen right now it may be that they are hit or other exigencies within the company that you know there are other things happening in life happens You’re performing well on your boss makes a promise is a promise until the next fiscal year budget for that right now there’s some other things that are outside your bosses control that they don’t wanna let you know about because I don’t want you to feel bad about it again that’s the time when you have a conversation with the boss about what’s going on remember that the behavior put out comes back to you so if you are open with your boss the chances are better that your boss will be more open to you no guarantees there but generally speaking that’s what ends up happening if you communicate you’re interested in staying with the company but did you need more your boss has a certain amount of responsibility to respond appropriately and positively to that information so be sure that you’re communicating your needs in an appropriate and responsible way it takes practice let me know if you’re if you haven’t had those conversations with the boss before To respond to your questions directly and then will also have some links in our show notes to resources that are available to you some of them may be the podcast.
