Case Study: Melanie is a woman with a powerful personality capable of adjusting her persona to fit each situation. There have been many professional positions in her past employment. She is presently unemployed for over a year, overwhelmed and unable to focus in any particular direction to continue her job search; there are mounting obligations weighing on her.
Her self-made resumes are not up to par and are mediocre at best. She has an excessive amount of paperwork that continues to clutter her efforts as she goes through them one-by-one recalling her past employment. Setting priorities seems to be an issue and she is unaware of how her behaviors can result in a cause and effect approach playing into her life and career.
Main Concern: Inability to receive a job offer or obtain many interviews.
Through discussion, it is evident that there is a strong need to vent frustration before pursuing a future. Without conscious awareness, it is possible to carry past behaviors into the future that will sabotage successful efforts. Many times an individual will continue the same old patterns totally unaware of how to change them. Melanie was unaware that the experiences life has provided would be playing out in negative venues through her thoughts, actions, and communication.
Melanie's mindset when beginning and ending an interview was complicated further by the negative image she had been portraying. It was her body language, the choice of wording and her inability to stop and listen, preventing her from picking up on cues during the interview process.
As long as past experiences seemed to creep into her communication style, she was most certainly going to struggle through interviews without success. There was a cycle taking place that seemed to always begin and end the same way. Through self-awareness, Melanie began to realize that she could no longer replay negative patterns and she would need to replace them with positive reinforcements. She would go into an interview believing in her worth with confidence and no longer expecting a negative outcome.
Melanie needed to focus on goals that would help her to move forward with positive growth throughout her life, both personally and professionally.
Goals
* Make a list of emotional experiences that are negative and put them to rest.
* Work on communication skills to foster a connection with engaging conversation.
* Create a list that would include accomplishments both personally and professionally.
* Determine a starting point, by clearly focusing on what is important and necessary to accomplish future goals.
* Begin organizing a career strategy by eliminating unnecessary documentation, create a portfolio and hire a professional to create a resume that represented her career experience to eliminate a mishmash of information.
* Increase confidence, build on strengths and implement a positive image.
Although this is not the end of Melanie's journey it will provide for her a starting point. As she continues towards the path of success, she will be able to use her listed goals as building blocks used to create a solid foundation.
The increments of our lives are intertwined and complicated, with boundaries becoming blurred at times as we try to distinguish and separate what is important and valuable. It is feasible that negativity will be carried into the interview and our career if we allow it. We all need good communication skills so that we can speak in a clear concise manner in addition to being a good listener. In the interview you will need to respond to the stimuli in the environment, listen and watch for the communication style being used by the interviewer as you work towards making a connection.
Are you sabotaging your employment opportunities? Perhaps it is time to do a self-evaluation to determine if changes are in order. Success is measured by every building block that will help you to reach your goals.
Carolyn Lee, CEIP
Senior Consultant
I.A.M. Resumes
www.IAMresumes.net
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