Treasure Hunting
Once in a while something appears that reminds you of what you always knew, but brings it home again. When I least expected, I found a video that did that for me this morning. Come back after checking it out here (It may not work if your company has blocked Youtube).
Notice how quick people were to write Susan Boyle off before she had even fully walked on stage. Even the ‘experts’ who really should, by now, be use to finding hidden talent were in shock. But we weren’t in that audience and you probably knew that it was going to be something out of the normal average because of the way I introduced it.
However, for the sake of discussion, let’s consider our job candidates. We work with them daily, we spend so much time minimizing their barriers. Let’s not forget, as I’m sure I have done before, that their is a rich treasure to be found in everyone of them. Susan Boyle was unemployed. If she had told you as her career advisor that she wanted to be a professional singer what honestly would have been your response? I like to think I would have checked it out but on my bad days I’m not so sure.
Let’s remember to be open to our candidates’ dreams, to explore their skills and strengths, to take the time to look a little bit deeper past humility, shyness, lack of formal experience, etc. Not only will that be immeasurably helpful in their job search but after being unemployed for some time you may be one of the few left who will see that treasure at this point in time.
A kind of mentor for me, Graham Cooke, says “Look for the treasure, Speak to the treasure. What we speak to in people is what rises up in them.” We need to talk about barriers to employment to find solutions but today I’m reminding myself to also see their potential and that the difference between treasure and wealth is that treasure needs to be searched for and brought out from hiding.
Anyone else joining me in treasure hunting today?
Some other sites of interest this week were:
Erase your fears daily – This is a great concept. I really like this. In most of our offices we probably couldn’t do it in this way and still make candidates feel safe but I’m sure with a little creatively and adjustment this could be a great concept. Definately check if you work with the difficult to place.
Worldclock – A little site that lists some amazing facts about our world
Twitter job search isn’t for you – There is a lot of buzz about twitter and its uses for job search. This is a great article that looks beyond the hype on why in general its probably a good alternative for our candidates.
10 ways to bomb and Interview – Sometimes you have to choose your messenger. Another source can help candidates feel the information is valuable.
Generation Jones – A good article left in last week’s comments about Generation Jones
Photo by Jan Tik
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treasure, positive, strengths, belief, job search, employment
