Six Simple Steps to Successfully Game Your Career
A gaming strategy matters to vie for your dream job. Here is how you get to it.
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I know the pain you feel when the perfect job eludes you. The rejections that come back after you have submitted your finely crafted application, or perhaps even worse, stumbling on the day of this important interview.
Just imagine. At the interview, you find out that you are competing with four other candidates that vie for this dream position. What started as a nerve-wracking yet exciting day turned into disaster and deflation. Not qualified, not prepared, out-competed. It feels like you have lost the game.
Ever considered your career a strategy game?
In my experience, a career is a strategy game. We construct narratives, reason about career moves, establish our motives, and find opportunities. Unconsciously, we develop (simple) strategies to reach our aim (find a good job). If you agree that this is the case, this can only mean one thing:
A well-thought-out career plan will unlock exciting new opportunities and give you the edge over your competitors.
Here, I will explain six steps to building a robust strategic game plan and prepare you for a successful career move. A bonus is that this simple strategy can make the hunt for future jobs (more) fun and increase your chances of success.
At the end of this article (and as a bonus), I will tell you why having a career strategy makes job hunting more fun.
Six Steps To Create A Strategic Career Plan
- Collect and Collate. You need an open mind here. The more you think out of the box, the more helpful the overall exercise will be.
- List all the job adverts you encounter, and document (list) the people you think have interesting jobs or do things you like.
- Go through the newspapers; look at job sites. Take notes whenever a fresh idea enters your mind.
- The idea or job can be daft or not even exist! Just write it down. Take notes.
When you make your list, try to write down why you like the job or role.
