Work-Life Integration, not Balance
Understanding Job Search as a Dating Game
Do you feel that you have job security, or does job security have you? Can we do what we love and find security in that, are the two notions mutually exclusive?
On the contrary, true security can only come when we are doing what we love. The chaos and economic uncertainty nowadays does not afford us the luxury of equating security with life-long employment the earlier generations once enjoyed. The upside is many are presented with the opportunity to discover their true passion, and ways in which to integrate work into life and vice versa.
In a nutshell, genuine security means knowing that one is going to be OK in spite of the external circumstances. This is a very encompassing statement, as it would include, in the least: knowing what one is passionate about doing, understanding one’s values, keeping up with the learning in one’s chosen field, knowing how to market and present oneself effectively, keeping abreast of the pertinent industrial knowledge, cultivating a healthy network of contacts, developing positive influential behavioral skills and maintaining a high level of physical and mental health! Would you like to be ready?
Work-Life Integration, not Balance
There are huge volumes of materials on Work—Life Balance, it is something that appears in surveys, Leadership programs and countless office meetings. The problem with imagining we need to balance the two is that it seems to suggest they are on opposite poles, needing to somehow counteract each other. Ideally, we should feel that our work is so much inline with how we want to live our lives that it becomes meaningless to distinguish the two; hence we have Work-Life Integration instead. We spend most of our lives on our work, either doing it or thinking about it, yet most people spend more time planning their holidays than learning to manage their careers!
Career management is no less than Life management, as it involves self awareness, relational skills, behavioral competencies, personal leadership, emotional mastery and so on.
So often we allow ourselves be defined by our job title, so the least we should do is to make sure we are proud of it!
Understanding Job Search as a Dating Game
If you want to understand the game of career management, look at it like a dating game.
Before you got out meeting anyone, you would already have some ideas in mind as to what you want your ideal mate to look like, to sound like, what interests they would have and other little things that make them very compatible with you.
In job search, therefore, have some ideas in mind as to what you want the job to look like in terms of type of company, type of business, your role and responsibilities, and many other little things that are important for making them compatible with you, such as environment, company philosophy, general attitude and so on.
With the image of an ideal match in mind, you would then find ways to meet people who are potentially a match for you. Most of the time you are introduced to potential partners by friends or family, some people go to dating agencies, many meet at parties.
Similarly, in the job market, most jobs are gotten through networking – recommendations by friends and contacts; many sought help from job agencies and some meet their prospective employers at conferences, career fairs and so on.
We come across so many people everyday, but we automatically reject most of them as potential partners; the clearer you are on what type of person you are looking for, the more likely you are to spot them when you see them. It is important to be able to articulate what you do want and like and focus on that.
There are huge volume of jobs in the newspapers and internet, and you should be able to automatically reject most of them; again, the clearer you are on what you want, the quicker and more likely it is for you to home in on those opportunities that match your criteria. Therefore, it is a case of looking at what’s out there that is potentially good for you, instead of opening up a newspaper and seeing where you might fit in. If you do this, and surprisingly most people do, you will find yourself feeling lost and directionless very soon.
When you have identified someone who is potentially a match, a meeting would then take place for you to get to know each other a bit more. Prior to the meeting, you would know a little about each other already. Following the meeting, you will decide whether to see him or her again. This goes for both sides.
If you and the prospective employer agree, an interview would take place for you to get to know each other better. Prior to the meeting, the employer will have seen your résumé and you will have done some research on them too. Following the meeting, both sides will make the decision whether to take it further.
You may decide to meet with your prospective partner again and make a commitment to be each other’s regular partner. Following that, you continue to learn about each other and hopefully, everything works out just fine. If not, then you will part company and the search begins again.
The employer may invite you for further meetings and this may result in you making a commitment to each other in the form of an employment contract. Following that, you will continue to learn about each other and hopefully, it is what you are looking for in each other. If not, then separation will happen and the search begins again!
We spend more time with our jobs than with our spouses so, if anything, we should work even harder to ensure we are in the right role with the right company for us. The most important realization in all this is that the power is equal on both sides throughout. A good company will attract many good candidates and good candidates will have a lot of companies interested in them. You can reject employers just like they can reject you and at the end of the day, it is in the interest of both sides to make sure they are right for each other. Just like dating, job searching is riddled with many factors beyond our control, it is hardly a rational and logical process; it is at times challenging and frustrating, but it can be fun and exciting too. People commonly argue that a lot of “luck” is involved. This is probably true, but depends on how you define “luck” – what you will find is that the better you are at preparing the grounds, the more positive your outlook is, the “luckier” you will get!