Opportunities: See – Seize – Create

Being active in a job search requires skills that may be above and beyond your normal every day or even career skills. For one thing, it requires leadership skills. You are the leader who is in charge of the path the job search is going down. As that leader, it is up to you to deal with opportunities when and if they arise – and that requires the ability to see an opportunity, then seize the opportunity, and at times even create an opportunity. Leadership blogger Kevin Eikenberry recently wrote on this opportunity concept, and I wish to look at some of his points here.

When it comes to seeing an opportunity, there are various ways to approach this. First, there has to be a fairly clear and defined goal for which you seek. Knowing what exactly it is you are looking for makes finding opportunities about it much easier.

See: Once the goal is set, begin looking in your normal places, but also be sure to being branching out and expanding your view beyond your normal circles to give yourself a better chance of spotting other opportunities. It is also helpful if you openly enlist others to assist you in watching for these opportunities. This is where having a large base of contacts comes in handy. Just be sure to get the word out and keep the word out often, so that others are aware. In all cases, keep an optimistic mindset. If you go around saying there are no opportunities to be found, chances are you’ll walk right by them when they appear.

Seize: When a hint of an opportunity appears, you must not be “too busy” to stop and pursue it. Make time to seize them when they appear, no matter how insignificant they may appear at first. Then, as you pursue the opportunity, be prepared to go above and beyond the requirements in order to accomplish the opportunity.

Create: If an opportunity is not apparent, sometimes you can create them yourself. By completing the steps above, you may uncover an opportunity that you normally would have missed – and thereby, in a way, you have created a new opportunity for yourself. But, if you branch out further and seek new partnerships with those whose resources are beyond your own, that can lead to creating opportunities previously unavailable to you too.

The key thing when looking for any new position is to be sure that you are leveraging any and all tools and assistance that you can lay your hands and mind on, and always be working with your eyes wide-open for any hint of an opportunity that may come your way. In today’s world of technology, read up on ways new tech is affecting the job market, and always seek to push beyond your present limits and to think outside the box you may normally confine yourself into; that is where new opportunities lie.

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