Find Your Where

Turn the Tables, Negotiate Your Success, and Do Work and Life on Your Own Terms

Rose Opengart

• Publisher: Author Academy Elite
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781640856783
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

Are you unhappy or stressed in your job?

This book will help you find your happy place! Most books about getting a job focus on how to write a resume and how to answer tough interview questions; in other words, how to convince an employer to offer you the job. Instead, this book turns the tables by putting you in control – by putting you in a position to assess where and whether you want the job.

Ask yourself: can you afford to work in the wrong job for the wrong organization? Most heart attacks occur on Monday Morning. Poor management in U.S. companies is associated with 120, 000 deaths every year! Finding Your Where may be the difference between life and death!

Use this book as a tool to identify your needs and then find a job where your needs are met. By using this specially-designed set of questions, you will be excellently placed to analyze any job opportunity in your current organization or another.

Times have changed and the revolution has begun! Take responsibility for charting your own professional future.

Find Your Where, because where you work can make all the difference in the world to your happiness.

Part 1
Introduction

WHY YOU NEED THIS BOOK

Ask yourself: can you afford to work in the wrong job for the wrong organization?

 

Poor management in U.S. companies is associated with 120,000 deaths every year!1 Finding Your Where may be the difference between life and death!

 

This book will help you find your happy place! Most books about getting a job focus on how to write a resume and how to answer tough interview questions; in other words, how to convince an employer to offer you the job. Instead, this book turns the tables by putting you in control – by putting you in a position to assess where you want the job.

 

People are attracted to organizations that match their values and interests. After entering an organization, individuals whose values are incongruent with the organization tend to leave, either voluntarily or involuntarily. When values are congruent and there is a good match, employees have higher job satisfaction and want to remain for the long term.

 

Too many of my coaching clients were dissatisfied with where they worked. Think about this—you spend more time at your workplace than at home! It is critical for health and happiness to find the right fit — to find your where. It is also a win-win for both the employee and the employer, as a content employee is a productive employee. Research from Great Place to Work on Fortune 100 Best Companies indicates that the 2017 list winners outperformed the stock market, beating industry rivals when it comes to talent retention and levels of productivity.2 This means that companies want happy employees just as much as employees want to be happy.

 

This book is a tool to identify your needs and then find a job where your needs are met. By using this specially-designed set of questions, you will be excellently placed to analyze any job opportunity in your current organization or in any other entity.

 

Simon Sinek said, “Most of us live our lives by accident. Fulfillment comes when we live our lives on purpose. Knowing your why provides a filter through which you can make decisions, every day, to act with purpose.” In Find Your Where, I make the same point, but direct people toward their where. Where you work can make all the difference in the world to your happiness.

 

Many people want to have work that makes full use of their skills, challenges and interests them, and gives them a sense of meaning. They want a job that helps with their future and an organization that meets their needs. But how do you get that? The answer is by knowing what you want and need, and then going after that by turning the tables and interviewing the interviewer!

WHY YOU NEED TO INTERVIEW THE INTERVIEWER TO FIND YOUR WHERE

Every person is different. What is most important to you may not be the same for someone else. Some people may not even know what’s important to them, which is why this book offers multiple sets of helpful tools. You’ll find an assessment to help you determine your needs and priorities, a list of interview questions for you to ask, and an action plan to guide and motivate you. The questions are broken down into categories so you can determine which area is the most important to you and then focus on those questions during the interview.

 

This is not to suggest that these questions get at all the needs you have, but it should serve as a broad foundation and a good starting point to evaluate your situation and opportunities.

WHY YOU NEED TO DO WORK ON YOUR TERMS

If you are considering a new position, you need to get to know your potential employer just as much as they need to get to know you. Finding the right job has always been important, but now it is doubly so. Here in the 21st century, employees are discovering the need to manage their own careers more than ever. Increasingly, the right job is the one that offers the chance to grow, to learn, to develop, and to increase the employee’s chances of getting another “right” job further down the track.

 

So, how do you go about finding your where? How do you get to know the potential employers as well as they get to know you? How do you determine what it will be like to work for an organization before you make the crucial life decision and join them?

 

Find Your Where will help you:

• Determine what is most important to you
• Learn how to put yourself in control of your job choices
• Find a boss you want to work with
• Negotiate your worth
• Help make you feel more prepared and confident for your interview

HOW THE BOOK IS STRUCTURED

The book is structured into five parts. Part one is this introduction, explaining the purpose of the book and how it can help you. Part two provides the self-analysis questionnaire tool for analyzing what you want and need from your work by exploring what “right” looks like for you. The Job Characteristics Tool will measure your needs within each of those categories, and then you can focus your interview questions within these categories.

 

Part three offers tools for comparing your current job against your “right” job. This is useful for finding out what you need to know about potential new jobs and new employers.

 

Part four is the heart of the book, with over 50 questions that are organized into categories. Each question includes an explanation of why the question is important and what type of information you will learn from asking it. Each section is a different category of questions with tips and additional questions at the end of the category.

 

Part five helps you pull all you have learned into an action plan for getting the right job. Finally, a list of useful other resources is provided in the appendix.

 

Although you can dip in and out of the book and use it as a reference, it is recommended that for your first read-through, you read it cover to cover. This will make it less likely that you miss an important step and will help you to be more confident about your final action plan. Don’t worry about time: this book is written in a direct, concise style. You will probably want to spread it out over several days to allow you the time to think through each stage and figure out your needs.

NERVES

For some people, the idea of asking questions in an interview makes them very nervous. Merely thinking about an interview may be enough to make some get a stomach ache! If this is you, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. By asking these questions, you are taking control of your life. Having some control should help you feel more confident and relaxed.
2. A good way to reduce nerves is to practice. Role-play your interview. Do this with a friend or a family member and have them play the role of the interviewer. Ask them if they have any advice for you and what you can do better. This practice will make you feel more prepared, confident and relaxed.
3. It is fine to bring notes into an interview. If you want to write down the questions you plan to ask, or some points you want to make sure to say, bring in a “cheat sheet.” This is perfectly acceptable and will likely reduce nerves knowing that you don’t have to memorize these items and that you will not forget them.
4. Remember that they want you! That is why they brought you in for the interview. I will share a story related to this. In my spare time I do some acting. Once when I was feeling very nervous, my acting teacher said that I should not be afraid to see a casting director. “Why?” I asked. He explained that they really want me to be successful. They want to find the right actress. He went on to say that they hope each audition is great, and that they are cheering me on! My perception of the casting director changed from an enemy to a friend!

This is the same situation as with a job interview. I can tell you, having been the Staffing Manager responsible for hiring for an organization, that I wanted to find the right employee. I was hoping each one who came in was the right one. I was rooting for them! The recruiting process is tedious. Know that the interviewer is not there to try to make it difficult for you or to try to trick you. They want the recruiting process to be over!

Part 2
Analyzing Yourself

Let me tell you about Lucy (name changed for anonymity). Lucy was 35, a veterinarian, and did not enjoy her work. Veterinary school is hard, and she had been employed for seven years. She was unhappy but did not want her education and the resources that went into it to go to waste. Yet when I asked her the reasons for her unhappiness, she could not identify them. Nor did she know what she wanted to do instead; she only knew that she was hesitant about letting go of her advanced education and training. I conducted assessments with Lucy to help her, including a personality test and interest inventory. One might assume that someone who is almost age 40 knows herself, her personality, strengths, and weaknesses. This is not necessarily true. Many of my clients are in their 40’s a...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• Part 1 Introduction
• Part 2 Analyzing Yourself
• Part 3 Analyzing Your Current And Potential Jobs
• Part 4 Interview Questions
• Part 5 CREATE YOUR FIND YOUR WHERE ACTION PLAN
• Notes
• You have read the book. Now it’s time for the experience!