Assessing your employers’ needs will lead you to success in both your job search and your career, so work to ascertain exactly what it is they are looking for. Once you know what your employer wants, do precisely what is expected of you and you will succeed. Determine exactly what your employer is seeking by asking lots of questions in the interview. Those who take the time to understand their employers’ needs are those who wind up with the best jobs.
Complexity is the enemy of businesses and individuals, preventing people from reaching their maximum potential. You must control and minimize complexity before it controls you, and instead sharpen your focus on your career and life goals. Learn to concentrate on the task in front of you and minimize distractions, and you will better serve your career.
In this article Harrison explains why you should never exaggerate your qualifications on your resume or in your interviews. Achievements and what you have done are important, but the most important thing is how likable you are. Come across as someone who tries hard, makes an effort, learns from mistakes, is loyal, helps the company, and who is going to be a stable addition to the company. People are not hired because of some isolated accomplishment from their past. It is very important to be yourself and to present yourself as a likable individual and a team player. Being caught up in a lie or exaggeration is not in your best interest and it weakens your case dramatically in the eyes of an employer.
Want Powerful Career Advice?
Get my free newsletter and strategies that make people successful
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of focusing on your success. If you think about your losses, you will put your focus there and continually be losing. Nothing is more important for your life and career than focusing on your wins. If you do not focus on your wins, you will have nothing to build on. You absolutely must focus on your wins and not your losses. Stay focused on your successes—no matter how small—and do not focus on your losses at all. Forget about your losses and concentrate on what is going right and what you are doing right. Think about this and build upon the things you are doing best.
Use every available asset in your job search, including people; network with your peers and ask them about their own job searches. In doing this, you are taking advantage of the knowledge and experience of others, who have done the work that can influence your own job hunting success. Seek out this knowledge and learn from the experiences of others.
Your mood is a major determinant of success in anything you do. You should never enter an interview or any other high-stakes situation in a negative frame of mind. You can needlessly lose many opportunities simply because you haven’t been “up”. For example, job seekers find considerably greater success when interviewing on Fridays, perhaps due to the fact that people tend to be in a better mood towards the end of the week. When people are relaxed, they are in a better “buying mood”.
Pursue your own dreams and become the person that you want to be, rather than what others might want. Living life according to the wishes of others is meaningless, and will bring you neither happiness nor success. Others do not understand your capabilities, goals, and interests as well as you do, hence their opinions should be your least concern. Have faith in your own potential greatness, and you will develop the confidence to act upon it and be the person that you really want to be, achieving true fulfillment.
You can easily make your vision of yourself more real when you start to do the things the person you want to be would do. Your life is defined by your beliefs and convictions about who you are. You can always change your behavior, but never your perception of who you are. The first step to making a meaningful change is to become aware of your unconscious beliefs about who you are and change them. You need to be able to believe and think positively about yourself and your capabilities and not be held back by negativity. Negative beliefs about yourself will harm you.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of using association websites in your job search. One of the best places to track down jobs which (1) few people know about and (2) you stand good odds of getting an interview if you apply, is association websites. Associations are not experts in advertising themselves, and so the jobs on their websites are far less likely to be found by people looking for jobs online. The people you are competing with in the job market generally are not researching association websites for job opportunities and leads. Employers typically like posting jobs on association sites because applicants from association sites tend to be serious about their profession. If you are in the job market, using association sites for research is highly recommended.
In this article Harrison explains how you can ensure success in your career by externalizing your opponents. Your job is like a game; if you work hard, play by the rules of the company and are seen as part of the team you will be viewed as a valuable player for the company. The most significant part of any game is the presence of an opponent. Don’t look for an opponent among your co-workers. Never speak negatively of your team members. Instead, concentrate on the external opponents. External opponents bring you and the team closer as you work towards a common goal. In order for you and your company to succeed it is important to have an external opponent. Harrison advises people to consistently work hard and not participate in the politics. This is a sure way to score big in your career.
True self-esteem comes from within, not from the acceptance of others. When your sense of worth comes from within, you free yourself from comparisons with others and will enjoy a greater sense of internal security. You will no longer be bogged down by the experiences of others and can become much more self-reliant.
Your greatest successes will come from some of the smallest actions in terms of meeting people. You will cause a “stacking effect” the more you meet and connect with people; conversely, people cannot connect with you when you are withdrawn and nothing will happen. You must do everything in your power to connect with as many people as possible.
A powerful sense of self will make all the difference in your life. You must understand that your sense of yourself and your capabilities come from inside of you, not from the external forces that have brought you to your current place in life. What you feel internally might be completely different from what the world is telling you, and you must learn to focus on the former rather than the latter.
Adopting a positive attitude will always bring you closer to success, as nobody wants to be associated with a losing side. Everyone wants to associate with and hire winners, and avoids losers. Nothing is more important than maintaining a positive attitude, as many employers hire people based primarily on attitude; with the right attitude, everything else will fall into place. You must look like you are on the winning team, even if times are tough; nobody wants to hire a loser.
Everyone tries to maintain a certain emotional state, and learning to control your own emotions will have a profound impact on your career. While everyone allows their emotional states to be influenced by outside events, there is no advantage in basing your own emotions on things that you cannot control. Allow yourself to discover happiness and fulfillment naturally, rather than making your emotions dependant on external circumstances. Your outlook will have a tremendous impact on your psychological health, as well as that of those around you.
Want Powerful Career Advice?
Get my free newsletter and strategies that make people successful