The current employment environment and need for self-evaluation

THE current employment environment is punctuated with a very high level of uncertainty hence there is a commanding need for individual people to ascertain their stand in life. One of the most pressing challenges facing individuals in employment positions as well as those aspiring to become employed is the shrinking space of employability and graduateness. This situation calls on individuals to ask intriguing questions about who you are. What you can offer to an employer as opposed or in comparison with what the next person can offer.

Indeed it is no longer the explanation that you have several years’ experience in this or that position. Show evidence that you are certified to do what you are doing. The comfort of getting legislative support is OK but appreciate that the emerging support is inclusive in that it caters for all the participants in the psychological contract, that is the employer and the employee.

As a potential or prospective or even current employee you need to self-introspect. The selfintrospection exercise should be based simply on a numerical or enumerative tabulation of your strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) rather look at how you can turn the threats into opportunities, weaknesses into strengths (TOWS). Only through that you experience real change in your personal, professional, social and psychological spheres of human existence.

Indeed most people do not want to disturb their comfort zones hence would not dare ask themselves such questions or even see reason in heeding his forward-looking advisory piece.

Instead they would rather dominate their daily conversational discourse with stories which are pretty repetitive in form and content. Such stories have a uniform theme as they narrate who they wanted to be, how they grew up and what stopped them from achieving their (your) career dream.

Some of the stories are really disempowering as they are marked by limiting beliefs hence has the obvious result of damaging or crippling your selfimage and affecting your self-esteem. Kathy Caprino aptly observed that, “People want more, different and better for their lives, but are completely daunted by the prospect of change, so they resist moving forward even an inch to explore it”.

Consequently as people we remain stuck in the “what if” mode for years, as such we ignore the amazing new possibilities which exist in alternative pathways. My life experiences have taught me to heed de Balzac’s observation that, “When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt”. And if you give power to doubt your head is bombarded with the following negative messages, “You can’t do it”, “You are going to fail.”

There are several reasons to explain why as people we often take no action towards improving ourselves professionally. The major ones are that we feel justified to assume that we have limited time at our disposal to do what is supposed to be done in order to enhance your attractiveness in the employment sector.

The unfortunate reality is that time is a limited resource and no one can buy an upgrade on the amount of time, one has to do what is critical in one’s life. Further no one, except yourself, is going to sit down and tell you what efforts you have to embark on if ever you are going to yield the biggest gain in life.

You have to figure this out on your own and seek guidance and counselling on whether your plan can enable to you to achieve what you aspire to become in life. As people we often ignore the fact we have a responsibility over our own ultimate success.

In other words the results you deliver are influenced by the plans you make and execute. I guess we all start off positive in our careers. We might even start to make some progress. Then we get stuck.

I know that there have been plenty of times, especially in the early part of our careers when we felt stuck. You know those times when you feel like you are doing all the right things but not getting past the first stage in the selection process. Maybe you tried and failed early on to get an internal promotion and someone else got appointed.

The truth is we all have setbacks. Yet what I have noticed is that a lot of people start to believe that they are at some huge disadvantage. Some of the things I heard people saying are “I don’t have the right experience.” The truth is that the experience that you have is where you are right now.

It does not mean that you are not capable of acquiring new experience. Some say I got rejected for a role so no one wants to hire me. Every single one of us has applied for jobs, got interviewed and been told that they were unsuccessful.

Often this is due to someone being a slightly better fit for the role. Others allege that recruiters don’t keep in regular contact so they don’t think that I am a good candidate. You have to accept that recruiters often earn based on candidates they place into roles. They have a heavy workload. You need to take control of the relationship and make it easy for them to do their job.

There are people who equally think that they are not good at writing a winning CV. Is this really true? You might not know how to approach this but you can get help and support to do it. Someone gave me this startling observation where he thought no one likes people who sell themselves big time in job interviews. Of course we all feel a bit reluctant to blow our own trumpet in job interviews. The reality is that if you decide not to talk positively about what you have to offer, you make it almost impossible to get the job.

In addition some people think that it is all about your face fitting! Of course employers want to make sure you will fit in. They also want to know that you can do the job, want the job, will deliver and add value. Furthermore, there are people who quickly dismiss themselves hence say in their intrapersonal communication “I am not ready for that next job!”

Have you ever looked at a job description and said that you could not go for it because you were not a perfect match? You will be surprised just how many people do this. Truth is you want to have things in your next role that are going to be a stretch.

So what beliefs are stopping you from getting to the next stage in your career? This is what we will cover in the next instalment.

Herbert Taruwona Mbindi is a passionate career guidance and counselling adviser. His key motivation is to help people make a difference in their lives. Feedback to : email mbindi@ trustacademy.co.zw, WhatsApp 0773616665 or call 0712212179.