One of my Favourite Things – and yes, it has a job hunting angle.

October 29, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
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So yesterday I came across this quote:

“He who rejects change is the architect of decay.” – Harold Wilson

I, for one, reject change. It’s nice when things are comfy. Predictable. No stress that comes from not knowing – fur sure – “what the heck’s gonna happen now?!”

But as you also know, life has this way of jabbing one in the eye if there’s no forward movement.

So if you’re feeling a bit jaded or stale – perhaps in your job, or your job hunt – then here’s what you need to do. And as it happens it’s one of my favorite things to do.

Yes, so the idea is to get a brand new hard-cover exercise book (R8.99 at PnP) (can you hear it “crack” as you open it?) Then you carry it with you wherever you go. And you collect your thoughts.

  • If you’re job hunting, you collect ideas about what difference you make in your present/past company (with a view to transferring your findings to your CV.)
  • If you’re unhappy in your job you collect ideas on what you would really like to be doing, and some ideas of how you can get closer to doing that. Maybe take a course. Read a book.
  • If you’ve just come out of a job interview – you can jot down what you felt went well, and some ideas on what questions you battled with, and how you can improve.
  • While you’re traveling around, or surfing the ‘net, you can jot down the names of companies that look exciting to work for, and your ideas on how your skills could be valuable to them.

Here’s what I find with this exercise:

I always get excited by what I think of. I go to a coffee shop. I sit down. Sit back. Think of a topic. And within 20 minutes I always have a sense of possibility and a few practical ideas of how to move an idea forward. I love it.

And ideas occur to me all the time when I have my book close. It’s like a direct (wireless!) connection to my brain. And it pokes* my creative brain to come up with fresh ideas.

[* poke vb an action of tapping and/or softly jabbing another person using a finger, stick, or similar object to gain their attention, relieve boredom or just to be annoying.]

So although change is tough, and if we don’t do it we’re the “architects” of our own “decay”, it can be exciting. And this little exercise can help – inspiring us to do new things and come up with new ideas.

Pictures of my current black book below here (I have a pile of old ones on the shelf).

One of the many idea collectors.

One of the many idea collectors.

Mind map mayhem!

Mind map mayhem!

Zoe's been busy in my book!

Zoe's been busy here too!

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    Gerard le Roux

    [Updated Nov 2011]

    Hi, I'm Gerard le Roux, a CV writer and job search coach - published in The Star and Financial Mail and heard on Radio 702 and SAfm. I help people get more interviews and job offers.



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