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Level Up in the Job Market

Hello again, fellow denizens of the Internet! Thank you for visiting again/for the first time.

As I was thinking over this last week about what my next post would be, I kept coming to a road block. In a technical sense, I did not feel I learned anything ground-breaking or revelatory. Additionally, it was a busy time for me in a non-technical way (things outside of work). However, a couple of conversations with friends stirred up this sense of déjà vu; I caught myself repeating advice and conversation topics time and time again. Following the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principle, it was time to turn it into a blog post! Much like Elon Musk's timeline (calling out the Oct 27 - Nov 17 rapidly successive series of headlines), I will stop 'twit'ling my thumbs and get to the topic of levelling up in the job market!

  1. Assess the current-state
  2. Identify opportunities and level up
  3. Plan, plan, plan
  4. Build the habit(s) routine(s)
  5. Execute
  6. Persevere
  7. Summary and Links
  8. Conclusion

https://www.flickr.com/photos/venditti_min_min-venditti/51807778847

Assess the current-state

Levelling up (that's a lot more fun to say than navigating, right?) in the job market can stir a lot of emotions: excitement for new opportunities; sadness for seemingly-lost friendships/environments; joy for escaping toxicity; terror for financial implications; and/or so many others. From my own experience across dozens of different roles and others I have spoken with, it seems people navigate the market for one of two reasons - it is important to understand to which you belong.

  • Urgently: Staying in this job for a day longer continues to put my health (physical, mental, emotional) at risk
  • You may be feeling this way if you're in physical strain/harm from your job, if the "culture" (meaning how the company treats you or behavior it allows/encourages from your coworkers and/or leadership) is detrimental to your mental/emotional health, or if you find yourself a different person outside of work (exhausted from the day, dreading each and every day, treating family/friends differently based on your workday)
  • By Choice: There are aspects of this job that I'm not preferable to and would prefer a more complete match from my employer
  • You may be feeling this way if you enjoy some aspects but would benefit from a change in other areas of employment (maybe your team is great but you feel your compensation is behind the market rate; maybe your employer initially respected your work-week but now steps on your work-life balance; maybe the role has evolved over the years and you no longer enjoy your work)

If you need a quick read, check out the Summary section at the bottom of this article.

Identify opportunities and level up

Help, I need out but I'm not sure where to find my next job!

It is great to know where you stand, but in this day and age (where the most recent Consumer Price Index, or key measure of inflation, rose 7.7%), it can be hard to justify making that move without something else lined up. Continuing from that, how can you know what opportunities exist? A quick Google search of job boards showed me the Betterteam website discussing the Best Job Boards for 2022. Ironically, their top three suggestions (Indeed, Google Jobs, LinkedIn) are also my go-to for my own career ventures:

  1. Indeed
  2. After creating an account and customizing your profile, navigation to Indeed will result in a search bar of "What" (to define the job title, keywords, or company that interests you) and "Where" (allowing options such as a physical location [city, state, zip] or type of work like remote). Plus, most of the page will result in an updated Job Feed (improved by your continued activity within Indeed) suggesting opportunities that should, to some degree, match your interests for employment ventures.
  3. While finding jobs is by far the most known feature of Indeed, they also now include "Company Reviews" (giving you details about the company, employee reviews of their experience, salary submissions by former/current employees, comments about benefits, job postings for the company, and so much more). Another module now existing is "Find salaries"; if you're investigating your compensation to see if it's competitive or are considering a career change, this is a great place to research those details.
  4. Google Jobs
  5. In typical Google fashion, Google allows plug-ins to company sites allowing their jobs to appear in the popular search engine's interface. Similar to Indeed, filters exist for job titles, office locations, date of job posting, and other classifications.
  6. Some of the nice-to-have features with Google Jobs include the ability to save job applications for later review as well as the ability to set custom alerting as new jobs become visible to the tech giant's search engine (all attached to your Google account)
  7. LinkedIn
  8. Out of the three boards listed here, this is my personal favorite. LinkedIn, also known as a [professional] social media giant, enables the use of a Jobs module for both employees (job-seeking) and employers (employee-seeking). As well as the filters mentioned in Indeed and Google jobs, LinkedIn has an "Easy Apply" option where an application can quickly be submitted using your profile details, last uploaded resume, and a potential few questions quickly answered.
  9. A huge advantage of LinkedIn over the others above is the ease with which you can display your skills (in terms of your profile, LinkedIn Skill Assessments, and building a following/network) as well as consult directly with industry-experts and recruiters in your job hunt

I won't be able to get new opportunities... (WRONG)

Personal and professional relationships alike, I commonly hear (and experience) self-doubt in one's skillset or knowledgebase as it relates to their ability to transfer into a job role or at a new company. I'm here to yell at you - specifically, to yell at that voice that's holding you back.

In this Information Age, your ability to progress and move your life forward is mostly dependent on you. Some quick examples... (note, these are only a few of the types of information and trainings available out there. Forums, message boards, and other types of websites can have valuable information; chat with those in your industry to see how others are learning/keeping up):

Regardless of what industry you're in, CU Boulder found common skills that enable success in one's career. If technical prowess isn't where you need to advance, try further developing these skills:

Communication
Problem-Solving
Teamwork
Initiative
Analytical/Quantitative Analysis
Professionalism/Work Ethic
Leadership
Attention to Detail
Use of Digital Technology
Situational Adaptability.

Plan, plan, plan

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Why-are-goals-important.jpg

In order to progress with something in a significant fashion (such as the personal and professional development we've been discussing), you need an organized approach to meet these goals. That's where S.M.A.R.T. goals come in. I'll quote Atlassian's article as I don't think I can say it any better:

Goals, be it for landing a new job by "this" date or learning a new skill to do "this" task, should be:

  • S: Specific
  • A specific goal answers questions like: "What needs to be accomplished?", "Who’s responsible for it?", and "What steps need to be taken to achieve it?"
  • M: Measurable
  • A measurable goal makes it easier to track progress, establishes benchmarks/checkpoints, and enables you to know when you’ve reached the finish line
  • A: Achievable
  • An achievable goal is something you can reasonably accomplish. Current-state and end-state as it relates to potential roadblocks are known up-front.
  • R: Relevant
  • A relevant goal clearly answers the question, "Why are you setting the goal that you’re setting?"
  • T: Time-bound
  • A time-bound goal should have time-related parameters built in, so everybody knows how to stay on track within a designated time frame

Build the ~~habit(s)~~ routine(s)

You're doing great - you did your research and you have a plan. That's everything, right? Not quite. Now comes one of the more challenging portions of progressing towards personal and professional goals - building the routine(s). According to Harvard Business Review, don't focus on building a habit, but instead build your plans into your routine. The difference, when examined a few steps away, is clear:

  • A habit is minimal effort and requires little thought
  • A routine involves intention combined with action. Uncomfortable at first, routines enable consistent exertion which, given varying amounts of time (by the goal at hand), contributes to growth.

I'll give you a personal example. I recently started walking twenty minutes a day (working as a data engineer, I felt I have been sedentary for far too long). In order to be successful with this, I've built it into my daily routine. Monday through Friday, I go for my walk at lunchtime (12:00pm MT). Every weekday, no exceptions. If it's cold or rainy outside, my apartment gym is a short enough walk away with treadmills inside that I have no excuse not to go. In my mind, I've engineered it such that there is NOT a universe of possibility that exists where I DON'T go walk. With it implemented as part of my day as much as eating three meals, I rarely miss a walk.

I'm successful with this because:

  1. I've purposefully built this task into my daily routine to ensure it happens. It's done by intention rather than casual remembrance
  2. I've built in alternate solutions (apartment gym treadmill) should the normal approach (walking outside) not feel like an ideal option
  3. I've partnered with my wife to express the importance of this task to her so she can help me succeed in it
  4. Success from her looks like encouragement on the days I don't feel like it as well as respecting this commitment enough to plan lunch where we sit together around this time

While my example is a menial walk, it means a lot to me and is a huge personal success as I "check that box" each and every day. So to can levelling up in the job market or skilling up be a successful and enjoyable venture for you.

Execute

Thus far, we've outlined what it is you want to change, how to find resources to enable the change, and how to plan for the change. The next part, which personally comes easy for me, is just do it! In my case, all the pre-work we've done is the "hard" part. I'm a person of convenience - if it takes notable pre-work and I don't do it, I won't follow through on execution.

For example, when I go through periods of strength training, I keep it simple: where am I working out, what time am I working out, and which plan am I doing (such as Jim Stoppani's 12-Week Shortcut to Size). Because I use the Bodyspace app to enforce/track my effort, all I have to do is show up and execute the plan.

Make it easy for you to follow through and you, too, will execute on your completed pre-work more often.

Persevere

"Hey, thanks for the tips, Dakota! I've done it for a week, so that's probably good enough, right?"

WRONG! This final step is the most often overlooked portion to any goal. Whether you're putting in job applications (ten per day every morning, for example) or doing supplemental skill training (one hour per day from 6:00pm - 7:00pm), you have to do it over and over and over and over. On the days where you feel like it and are enjoying it, it's great that you are continuing on! But the real growth comes on the days where you just want to rest, you just want sleep, or you would prefer to go out with your friends.

By no means am I saying you should never miss a day or you're a failure. No matter your personal situation and goals, all approaches have one thing in common - they must be sustainable. Adjustments along the way are okay, but giving up altogether is not. Pivoting to new goals is okay, but stopping progress towards any goal is not okay.

Summary:

  • Assess your needs - do you need a new job ASAP or do you have time to personally level up?
  • Job boards (LinkedIn, Google, Indeed) are great and popular ways to find new opportunities.
  • Resources to learn anything are out there - just search (or follow the ones I linked, such as edX, Udacity, EventBrite, or OpenLibrary).
  • Set yourself up for success by goal-planning the S.M.A.R.T. way.
  • Build a routine and tweak as your learn about yourself
  • Do the thing (whatever you're trying to change/progress)
  • Do the thing even when it's hard

Links:

Conclusion

This blog post was an interesting one. What started as an article on the job hunt pivoted into one about goal-planning and levelling up in other ways besides changing jobs/employers. I'm deciding to go ahead and publish this one as I feel the two topics are so related that a high-level summary like this flows well; in order to find new jobs, you need a S.M.A.R.T. approach to it and to progress within a career requires the same through uptraining and other means. Some resources I found where new to me and I'm looking forward to referencing them moving forward (such as all the different learning platforms; for years, I've been biased towards Lynda, which is now LinkedIn Learning).

Future topics that I feel I glossed over and could have a post of their own include how to optimize job board searching and alerts, company review research (such as Glassdoor and levels.fyi), the entire topic of resumes (how often to update, what to include, how to pass ATS resume readers), networking (in-person and online), effective note-taking from online learning platforms, and goal-planning/execution. As with the previous post (ending with a question on specific Python versions in virtual environments), these may be topics for future blog posts.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Until the next time we learn something together, have a wonderful Monday!