8 questions to ask yourself before you begin your New Year Job Search
It’s a new year, and with the new year comes the potential for new beginnings. For many of you, that means it’s time to look for a new job – exciting – and nerve-wracking!
As recruiters, it’s our job to match the needs of our clients and the requirements and expectations of the role with the candidate’s skills and needs. When we review resumes and conduct our interview process, we’re looking at a multitude of factors beyond just capability.
When I think about the hundreds of interviews I conduct every year, the candidates who stand out are those who can confidently (and humbly) articulate who they are, what they do, how they do it, what they want, and are able to connect it all back to the needs of the business and the goals of the role.
I realize this can be easier said than done for many of us, myself included. In this article, I outline 8 questions to help you explore your career strengths and desires more deeply so you can shine in your next interview and land the job you really want.
1) What are your strengths and skills, and what makes you so great?
Yes, please brag about your skills and strengths here. Hard skills, tech skills, soft skills, leadership skills. Whatever they are, be loud and proud.
Why were you blessed with these skills? What piqued your interest? How did you get started? How are you still learning and growing? What do you enjoy about using the skills every day? Where do you see those skills being used in the future?
2) Where do you feel (and know) you can make the greatest contribution and impact to an organization?
Adding on to the strengths question, this speaks to where and how you want to contribute to the needs of the business.
Perhaps you’re a person who thrives on meeting accelerated sales goals and bringing a new product to market by creating new relationships with key decision makers. Or, perhaps your greatest strength is in maintaining relationships; taking great care of existing customers, creating natural upsell opportunities, sustaining renewals and reducing churn.
Being able to articulate where and how you can make the biggest impact, and connect it back to the role, will help you stand out in a sea of candidates.
3) What results have you been most proud to deliver?
If your results have $ or % numbers attached to them, fantastic. As recruiters, we love to hear that and see that on your resume.
Many roles don’t have the same “tangible” results, but their impact is no less important. For some of you, your results may be delivery of a new employee handbook that resulted in greater employee buy-in and engagement. Or, perhaps your efforts as an Admin Assistant made it so that the weekly meetings went off without a hitch, resulting in greater productivity and improved communication across the team.
Think about your results – and definitely add them to your resume! Recruiters everywhere will thank you.
4) What are your core work values?
Your core work values are the fundamental beliefs and principles that guide your behavior and decisions in the workplace. They consciously and unconsciously shape your attitude towards your work, your colleagues, and the organization as a whole.
Some examples are innovation, collaboration, work-life balance, integrity, excellence, respect. (Here’s Brene’s list of values for handy reference.)
When your values and the company values align, sparks fly and angels sing. Well, maybe not that, but work is sure a lot more enjoyable, most of the time.
When there’s a misalignment in values, however, it often leads to frustration, burnout, and resentment over the long term. If you find yourself in this situation, you probably won’t be able to put up with it for long.
Remember – hiring is a two-way street. Take some time to really get clear on your values. This allows you to ask intelligent questions about the company culture and how they live their values to ensure that the company is a match for you.
5) What’s your work and communication style?
Do you thrive in a team and like going back and forth over texts and slack? Or, perhaps you’re a proponent of deep work, blocking off your calendar in 2-hour chunks to get your best work done without interruption.
Whether you’re gregarious, reserved, direct, or somewhere in between, understanding how you communicate and how others receive that communication from you is a sign of emotional intelligence and maturity.
6) What is your ideal working environment?
Is Cubicle Land your idea of hell on earth? Do you prefer to work at home with minimal distractions? Or, do you prefer to work in-office, so long as you have somewhere with a door that can close? Or perhaps hybrid is best, giving you flexibility between the office and home. How much flexibility do you need? What’s your ideal schedule?
Are any of these complete deal-breakers for you or is there wiggle room? Your next company may not be able to offer ALL of it, but knowing what you desire in the long-term brings clarity to your decision-making process.
7) Where do you struggle, or perhaps need additional support?
Look, no one is perfect. Understanding and acknowledging your weaker areas gives you an opportunity to ask for help. In an ideal world, the company will be able to work with you to support your needs.
Sharing freely, I can struggle when I have too many projects going at once AND when I have too few. I have a very busy brain and I like to have a balance. That said, I let it be known that weekly meetings with the leadership team help me to stay on track, prioritize, and review issues. It’s also important to me that they’re available to brainstorm, problem-solve, and strategize when things arise that need creative solutions! Lucky for me, everyone here is super available, supportive, and helpful.
Knowing what you need to be successful, and asking for it, can be a key to fulfillment for many of us. Doing it all alone is SOOOOO 2023.
8) What do your favorite coworkers/customers/leaders thank you for?
This tells you what you do (and how you do it) that is truly valuable to the company, and to the people in it. At the end of the day, we are people who work with people.
Maybe you’re a person who creates SOPs to teach the team how to do something new. Or perhaps you’re the one who is able to spot an error in an Excel file 2700 rows long. Or, maybe, you’re the go-to mentor, someone who is just dang good at making people feel better and finding solutions.
Whatever “it” is, I hope you take ownership of it, and really bask in the goodness of you.
It’s my sincere hope that your answers to the questions give you a renewed sense of confidence and purpose, and that your new year job search in 2024 lands you the job of your dreams!
If you’re tired of trying to approach your career search on your own and need a little guidance, reach out. We offer career coaching, resume support, interview practice and so much more. Our life’s work is helping you find yours!
Be sure to check out our careers page while you’re at it! If you don’t see anything that’s for you right now, you can always submit your resume to our Talent Pool for future consideration.
