Plain and simple, you've got to say yes to opportunities to be able to make "what's next" happen. But can you spot the opportunities? Are you #opentoopportunities?
From noting the incoming and ongoing mindsets of the clients I work with, I can confidently say "openness" is a big indicator of how quickly you'll find a job and how quickly you'll find the right job for you.
This concept has been in my head, though, long before I started working with clients on their job search and career growth.
When I went through law school, we were taught to issue spot. How to look at the facts and identify the different scenarios that could arise. Then evaluate the different potential outcomes from those scenarios based on laws, rules, and precedent. If I haven't bored you completely, hear me out. Just as lawyers have to constantly issue spot, job searchers and career builders have to constantly opportunity spot. Opportunity spotting is how I progressed my career, seamlessly moving from one function and industry to another. After law school, I practiced family law and knew I needed to do anything else but that. I dug deep into my network to learn about what others were working on. I spotted an opportunity to leverage my advertising background and ability to issue spot to get my foot in the door doing marketing at not one but two start-ups.
From there, I was asked to set up a call with a recruiter, just to talk. I saw an opportunity to take all the skills I built up from wearing all the hats in a start-up to help grow another start-up. This time taking the opportunity to move out of marketing and into business operations. Last, as I recruited, hired, onboarded, and provided executive leadership support, I noticed an opportunity with the market changing. There was a need - an actual title - for people who helped others thrive in their careers. A Career Coach!
I took this opportunity to again leverage the skills I had built up, but this time to cope with burn out, help as many people as I possibly could get a better job faster, support new managers to expand their skills, and build something for myself. So, what if rather than looking for issues in why you can't get the job you have your eye on or why you can't start looking right now, you instead started being open to opportunities? To look at every interaction, new piece of information, and moment of self-reflection as an opportunity to organically bring you towards what's next. Because when you're open to opportunities, they become much easier to spot.
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