You’re Hired! Now What?

Did you finally receive an offer for your first “real job” or get that dream position you’ve been waiting for your whole life? Now what? 

First of all, you need to be proud of what you’ve accomplished to get where you are. It most likely took you hours of hard work and persistence to get here. And, maybe some days it didn’t seem worth it. You need to stop for a moment and enjoy what you’ve done. You’ve earned it!

When you get hired, or promoted to a new position, is that the end? No! Maybe it’s the end of one chapter of your life but it’s the beginning! Now the work really begins! Yikes!

What is Interviewing?

If you’re doing it right, interviewing should be YOU checking to see if a company and their opportunity are right for YOUR CAREER. That’s right, you’re interviewing the company just as much, if not more, than they are interviewing YOU!

Why isn’t it always like this? It is for some of you, but why isn’t it for the majority of you? It isn’t like this for the majority of you because you wait to long. You wait until you have to have it! If you’re waiting too long, then you don’t have the luxury to interview a company you’re just trying your hardest not to screw it up in the interview! You need it and guess what? It shows.

That’s why I have said many times - interviewing is like dating – and if you’re dating and your date senses you need it? It’s over. You look desperate. It shows. Believe me, as someone that has been in the professional recruiting business for almost twenty years, the games of dating are very similar to the games of interviewing.

Little Victories = Big Success!

The little victories throughout your life will bring you the success you’re seeking. You must have these little victories to get where you want to go. Many of you think you can skip this step and start right at success. It doesn’t work that way.

As a professional recruiter I review a lot of resumes, CV’s, and biographical data on candidates. If there is one thing that sticks out with successful people it’s the little victories or successful track record they have throughout their careers.

The little victories, wins, promotions, and success you have throughout your life matters. Sometimes at the time these little victories might seem insignificant, but nothing can be further than the truth. These little victories shape you and give you confidence in your ability to be successful in the future. It’s part of your journey to a successful life and career.

Get Organized! Keep Records!

It is critical to keep records during your job search. You must organize everything. It’s important to understand what is working and what is not working for you. It matters! 

If you keep records you will start to see a pattern of what works! If you’re not keeping records it will cost you big time! Start a file immediately, computer file or hard file, it really doesn’t matter how you keep records. Use whatever systems you’re comfortable with just make sure you’re logging everything.

Organize your files with companies, contacts, resumes sent, interviews and results of those interviews, and anything else that might be important to you or your specific industry. Believe me, you will start to see a pattern develop with your job search. Some of the things you might be doing are helping you and some things you’re doing might be hurting you.

Failure Isn’t An Option!

In all of your dealings in life, whether it’s looking for your first job, changing careers, interviewing for your dream job, or even going through something in your personal life, you have to believe that failure isn’t an option!

When believing failure isn’t an option something starts to happen to you, almost immediately. You start to make things happen. You think differently. You don’t want to fail and failure isn’t an excuse for you to use anymore. You’re a winner now!

I know you might be laughing at this, but let me tell you about my own experiences and how this type of thinking has benefited me throughout my life. Like a lot of people, I didn’t come from a wealthy family. I didn’t have anything to fall back on if I didn’t “make it” in life. If I didn’t make it happen, it wasn’t going to happen. Period. I know I am not special in this department. A lot of you come from life situations that are less than desirable. The question is, regardless of the situation, how are you going to handle it?

Shorten Your Path To Success!

Is there a way to shorten your path to success? I’m not talking about a short cut, but is there a way to shorten your path? Yes, it’s called an advisor or mentor.

Being successful is hard work. It takes a lot of hard work and persistence, that’s why so many people give up too soon. Please don’t give up! You must find a mentor, tutor, advisor, whatever you want to call it, but you have to find someone to help shorten the learning curve for you.

It doesn’t matter what you want to do. If you want to a successful barber, welder, mortgage banker, pilot, horse trainer, recruiter, engineer, concrete finisher, teacher, stone mason, broadcaster, musician, reporter and on and on. Whatever it is you want to do with your life, find someone that can help you. Learn from their mistakes.