Like any good marketer, I always try to understand the pain points and needs of the audience. When I’m looking for a job, I try to put myself into job search personas to help me prioritize my time and strengthen my focus.
Knowing where I fit here, and revisiting it, helps me to continually hone each of the creative assets that back my experience when I seek something new.
Job Search Personas
Rapid Rabbit – Pretty much will take any job that fits at the moment, in a bit of a rush about it. For whatever reason, a job is needed yesterday. That’s ok. Skip the A, B, C list. Move straight to the Emergency Job Seeker Toolkit.
Your immediate goal is to get a job as quickly as possible. Get your resume as shiny as you can and get moving to Search Mode. There does need to be some consideration, but quick action as well.
Methodical Magpie – Need to get something sorted, but want to do it in a methodical manner. Start with the A, B, C list and spend the next week or two with the findings. Get your resume together, and take some time to understand keywords, approach, and the market. Your immediate goal is to understand what companies/roles you’d like to focus on so you can hone your approach, and share your collection of shiny things when you like an opportunity.
Strategic Squirrel – Not in any rush to land a new gig, just trying to keep an eye out there. Take a stab at A, B, C list if you don’t already have one in mind or organized, and keep it up to date about every 3-6 months, in the same cadence as Resume refresh and LinkedIn updates. Your immediate goal is to keep informed, and as you run across the ability to, you are looking to make the right connections in your A list over time.
Knowing where one is at in a job search is essential to being able to focus on the right thing to get you to the right goal.
Put a Name to your own search
Ok, so I’m a (insert persona type), I don’t want to be called that, or even be that.
Now that you know where you are at with how quickly to search, it probably still seems overwhelming and a bit silly to be in a bucket like that.
But it all helps land how to save you time and heartache. No one likes an assigned name. So let’s rename you. From here in your job search, and forevermore, if you’d like, pick your job seeker persona name. Pick a name that helps you embody what you want to see from where you are at in your search.
Busy Bruce not doing it? I get it. How about Captain Kickass? Pick something fun that you can use during the time you search, to help you craft the ‘you’ that you show the world, and carve out a schedule for that superhero to achieve goals.
My job seeker persona when I’m doing something difficult is definitely a superhero
Sometimes putting yourself in a different persona to get out of your comfort zone helps. I would know, sometimes I go around to farmers markets and parades dressed like Wonder Woman. In that costume I'm not 'me', which is helpful when there's a lot of attention and energy needed to be in a situation. It's fun, but exhausting. I use that mindset often to pull myself into 'wonder mode'.
When I do that, I can adopt a different mindset, and push myself a little more to interact with people than I normally would, which is essential to success in networking, interviewing, and searching. You'll need energy, focus, and consistency. Putting on a mental persona to do that as part of your day, then be done with that mindset when it's time to rest will help you set boundaries, keep energized, and compartmentalize your time.
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