by Ella Shorthouse, career guide
I’m willing to do anything, but I can’t find someone to hire me. I just need a job – any job! Why won’t someone take a chance on me? As soon as I get an opportunity, I know I’ll be successful!
The job market is tough these days, but people with limited experience (or no experience at all!) get hired every day, even in the current market. However, there are things I’ve learned in my timing hiring and managing people that show this thought of “I’m willing to do anything” isn’t the most effective in getting people from frustration to success.
- Most people aren’t willing to do anything.
Bookkeeping, commercial fishing, and nursing are fields with entry-level positions that have relatively accessible educational requirements, consistent access to work for anyone who is a reliable worker who does a good job, and plenty of room for growth in the field. However, I have never worked with someone who would both be willing to do all three of these jobs and who would be successful in all three of them. Let’s look at why:
- Bookkeeping, the lowest level job in accounting, is not exciting work. Bookkeeping requires extremely careful attention to detail for the entire working day, as any mistakes when typing, reading, or doing math can be extremely serious for the company.
- Commercial fishing work happens on boats in the ocean, and workers cannot bring their families or pets along. These workers are frequently at sea for over three consecutive weeks at a time with just a few days off in between. Twenty-four hour shifts are common, sometimes with just four hours off between work shifts, and when the crew is actively pulling up fish from the ocean, the work is both physically strenuous and dangerous.
- STNAs, the entry-level workers in nursing, work most commonly in long term care facilities, assisting patients directly with personal care tasks such as showering and using the toilet. This work includes routine contact with bodily fluids, and sometimes patients are frustrated due to their condition and loss of function and may take that out on the STNA.
Each of these jobs is incredibly important, and some people find each of them meaningful and enjoyable. They can all be gateways into long, stable careers. But these are not all of the components necessary for a job to be great for a particular person.
- Different people do well at different jobs.
Success comes most easily when people work at the intersection of their skills, talents, and interests. Eventually, anyone will burn out and want to leave a job they don’t find interesting or enjoyable. Remember that there are people who find each of those example jobs above deeply fulfilling and enjoyable. Everyone has different interests and different work tasks they find meaningful. It is easiest to invest time and energy into learning about and becoming great at a job you already like, or at least tolerate.
We all know people who have never been highly successful at sitting still. These people often do wonderfully in jobs involving forestry, exercise instruction, building construction, pharmacy, and other roles that emphasize and appreciate this basic fact about who they are. These same people might find data entry or underwriting jobs so boring that it physically hurts. The difference isn’t a flaw in the worker or in the job; it is just the job not fitting the worker.
Your outfit should flatter you by fitting you well; so should your job.
- Wanting a job does not make you different from the other applicants
It is easier than ever to apply for a job, especially with features like Indeed QuickApply and LinkedIn Easy Apply. Often, positions for entry level positions – especially entry level remote positions with above-average pay – receive over one thousand applications, sometimes just in the first day after they are posted. This does not mean all hope is lost; it means you need to be strategic in your job search.
The one thing every applicant has in common is wanting the job. Additionally, there is no way for the hiring team to pick you based on how badly you want to be employed; they do not have an interest-o-meter that reveals this about applicants. Instead, they have to pick who to interview and hire based on what they have to offer that is different from other applicants.
The hiring team has given you a guide to what they are looking for in your application: the job description. If you aren’t sure how to update your resume to show how your past experience and qualifications demonstrate how you are a great applicant, schedule a consultation with Career Health Workshop today.
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