Strategy #37: Sharpen Your Axe

Imagine that we’re sitting in your favourite café. You’ve asked me to give you an hour of my time in which to offer you the best advice I can about how to find a great job with an ideal employer. You’ve followed each of the preceding 36 work-search strategies so you understand the outline of the job-hunting process that I recommend. Therefore, you know what to do. You now want a few tips on how to do it as well as possible.

The questions you have for me are these;

• What are the specific job-search strategies I’d use if I was in your shoes right now?
• What would my game plan be?
• Are there any between-the-lines suggestions I’d offer you?
• Is there anything that goes beyond the basic techniques you’ve already learnt about?

Our drinks arrive, you take a notepad and pen from your case and we begin. This is what I’d tell you in that hour.

I want to offer you a few ideas that should help you achieve your job-search aims as comprehensively as possible, things that address key elements of success in your next job search. Some of them are pretty obvious but others perhaps a little less so. I’m going to start with an essential strategy that I put at the very top of my list of recommendations, and that’s to sharpen your axe before you start chopping down the tree. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, wait until the end of this piece for a reference to this famous expression.

So, the very first thing I’d do, the opening strategy I’d use if I was in your position right now, would be to ensure that I was totally, completely psychologically ready for my upcoming work search. Let me be honest with you. Anyone who wants to find a different job will inevitably face a range of challenges and pressures, whether they use a traditional method of looking for work or if they choose to use my strategy. And at the top of this list of job-hunting stresses is invariably what’s going on inside your head.

For this reason, If I was about to embark upon an important job-search, Vocation Master-style, I’d prioritise my psychological toughness ahead of anything else. I’m not a doctor or otherwise medically-qualified so I’m not dispensing advice from a clinical perspective. Instead, I want to share my personal views about this subject, based on what I’ve experienced as a job searcher myself, and going on my observations as a professional interviewer, trainer and coach.

Straight off, a few caveats. I’m not suggesting that sub-optimal mind management is a universal problem and I’m certainly not implying that everyone following my programme will have difficulties in this area. What I am saying is that when bumps occur along the road with this type of proactive job search, it’s more often than not because of attitudinal issues rather than with the practical steps I’ve introduced you to.

The mechanics of my work-search system are relatively straight forward. So long as you’re disciplined enough to follow each part of it in a methodical manner, you’ll be sure to succeed. If you falter, it’s either down to not sticking to the programme or because you haven’t got your head sorted out. Very commonly, these two factors are connected which is why I put this strategy in first place.

You may be an outlier, someone who’s got total control over your emotions and thoughts, a person who never wilts or weakens when the pressure’s on. But I’m prepared to wager that even if you believe you’re one of these people, there are times when your inner strength dips and you start to question yourself and the strategy you’re trying to implement. It might not happen very often but I’m guessing it does happen from time to time. You wouldn’t be human otherwise.

By the very nature of a job search, your reserves of inner strength tend to become most depleted when you’re in front of someone you desperately want to impress. Unsurprisingly, you don’t usually feel the nerves kick in when you’re inside your comfort zone, such as when you’re in the planning phase or doing research from the comfort of your kitchen table. Instead, you find yourself experiencing the wobbles as you enter the interview danger zone.

If you’re like many people, you might notice a perceptible dip in the quality of your presentation. This is what’s called performance anxiety, and it can be crippling. If it happens to you, your chances of success become instantly compromised so I recommend you prioritise a strategy that eliminates this possibility as much as possible. Fortunately, there are several reliable ways of doing this, throughout your job search but during the interview above all.

I believe that the main problem is a lack of confidence, in yourself and in your ability to implement the job-search strategy that you’re following, during important hiring meetings in particular. For sure, there might be a range of other psychological factors that impede a great interview performance, but a failure to achieve the degree of success you aspire to frequently comes down to experiencing reduced levels of confidence.

So, if my first overall strategic decision was to get myself psychologically prepared for my job search, my specific focus, the detailed aspect of this preparation, would be to develop some rock-solid confidence in my ability to do what matters, and to enable me to do it when it matters most and that’s when I’m pitching myself for a highly-desirable job in front of a hiring decision maker. 

I don’t have the time or space to go into the theory of this in any detail so I apologise to anyone who expects a back-to-basics primer on building confidence and psychological strength. Besides, there’s a pair of much better-qualified people who can explain why confidence and mental toughness are so important in high-pressure environments, including crunch interviews.

I’ve previously mentioned Nate Zinsser and Steve Peters. That was back in strategy #34, so I won’t repeat my advice from there. All I can say is that if you’re serious about achieving the kind of success that the highest-level job hunters enjoy, you absolutely must get to grips with this.

Therefore, my unequivocal advice is to develop confidence and mental strength before you do any other job-search activity. If you already feel fully equipped in this respect, that’s great, but I’ve rarely come across anyone who wouldn’t benefit from a review of their head space. Even the strongest, most resilient and supremely confident people can become compromised at unexpected moments, sometimes in ways they couldn’t previously imagine. This isn’t a weakness, but a recognition of how things are in life and during job hunts.

So, to recap. My principal strategy would be to boost my confidence levels and general mental wellbeing before I did anything else. I’d devote plenty of time to this activity and wouldn’t move on with my job search until I felt that my mentality was as sharp as possible. And this brings me to the title of this particular tutorial. This is Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote in relation to preparation:

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

OK, that’s about it for the first of my suggestions to help you nail your next job hunt. I’ll be back with another one in the following strategy article when I look at the importance of focusing your efforts on the things that matter most, which is all about maximising your job-search return on investment, so make sure you check in for that.

Until then, I hope you find time to look at the two books I recommend. They’ll undoubtedly help you, whatever your current state of mental preparedness, I’m confident of that.

Neil Grant, Vocation Master

If you have any comments, suggestions or questions about the issues I raise here, I invite you to contact me personally. Please get in touch via LinkedIn;

LinkedIn/VocationMaster