PRACTICAL TIPS IN SECURING YOUR DREAM JOB OR CAREER MOVE

David Adeoye, CFA

David, ex-Accenture, ex-Phillips Consulting, is the Team Lead, Transaction Advisory Services, MBC Capital Limited. He is a graduate of economics from Obafemi Awolowo University

In the past few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of speaking with two groups of young people with a common interest: they need to decide what to do with, and in, the next phase of their economic lives.

The first group, ‘intending job switchers’ is made up of three persons who completed their first degrees an average of 8 years ago. The second group, ‘prospective job seekers’, is made up of undergraduates in the final and penultimate years of their first degree program in three first generation universities in Nigeria.

One characteristic both groups share is that they are not idle at the moment. They both have some time to learn, plan, and work towards their next career move. The question is this: what should the individual do during this ‘waiting’ phase? At times like this, some practical steps might be meaningful in your search to secure a dream move.

#1: Discovery
In your search for a fulfilling job, you need some constructive sense of awareness: both self-awareness and situational awareness. What are your strengths? How do you perform? What are your interests? What type of rewards do you value? If you’re an intending switcher, what specific factors make your current role unpleasant, unrewarding or unsustainable? Are the economics and/or demographics of that industry in your favor? What transferable skills or knowledge have you developed? What constraints do you face? Time, talent, family, or geography?

#2: Exploration
If you have evidence that your current job or role is not your best deployment, don’t allow fear to hold you back. Set out on a course to find out what your options are. What sector or industry should you consider and in what capacity? Owner, partner, contractor or employee? What growth paths are available? Who are the key players in your sectors of interest? What are the economic prospects? What can you contribute in the industries you are considering? How does the demographic profile (population and age structure) of your country affect those industries. Ask the deep but simple questions. Talk to people. Do your research and as much as possible, document your findings.

#3: Decision
With the awareness you gain, you need to decide what industry you want to deploy yourself, in what role and why. It’s all too common to find people who just want to get a job that will pay them good money. Yet businesses are not just looking for who to favor or splash money on. Rather, they are looking out for contributors. When your capacity to contribute matches an employer’s performance gap, you have a much brighter chance of being the man or woman who will clinch the job. Even if you are going to work for yourself, you still need to make a broad decision and many specific choices so as to survive and thrive as an entrepreneur.

#4: Planning
Following an informed choice to go into a particular sector, it is imperative to sit down and commit into writing what needs to be done for your decision to become reality. Do you need to go back to school? Would you require new qualifications? Besides paper qualifications, what knowledge do you need to acquire? What skills do you need to develop? Who within your network can be of help? Get concrete answers and draft a workable program of action.

#5: Preparation
Like a coach preparing a team for a tournament, your plan is targeted toward some primary goal: results. Now you have preliminary results (like group stage matches), intermediate results (second-round to semi-final games), and the final result or trophy which is your desired job, change of job or your own new business. For each skill or competence you discover is critical, seek practical ways to develop those skills in yourself. For every relevant piece of knowledge, study hard and build your own content. Where possible, begin to interact with those who are in the role and sector you desire.

Building your knowledge base and your problem-solving ability is vital. If you’re a consultant or auditor seeking a role in Private Equity or Corporate Finance, get a good book on financial modeling and with the aid of Microsoft Excel, start building your own spreadsheet models. Learn how to develop pitch books. Buy/download case studies from the Internet and develop an appreciation of the key issues. These are early stage results but they will become more vital as you approach major decision points.

#6: Engagement
The engagement phase is really where the prize is either won or lost. Going through the processes of discovery, exploration, decision, planning and preparation may be quite demanding and time-consuming.

Yet it comes with two powerful advantages: it helps you to take maximum advantage of opportunities to engage with employers in your target industry. More importantly, it enhances your ability to perform on the job and make visible impact from a business perspective. With every opportunity you have, seek to know and connect with people who can be useful during the engagement phase. Write a CV and cover letter that showcase the knowledge you have acquired and the skills you have developed in the past 6-15 months as the case may be. Be modest, practical and specific.

Just a word of caution. I do not suggest that the steps outlined here are the only means to secure a first job or make a switch, I have simply taken the view that a few practical effort can have a significant impact on your success in the search for a new role within or outside your current industry.

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