From Job Vacancy to Employment in 7 Steps

You come across an interesting job vacancy – and then what? In 7 steps from job vacancy to employment.

You desire a change in your career, and sometimes you come across appealing job vacancies. You read the job description, but quite quickly, you set it aside. You are uncertain if this is the right job for you or if you meet all the requirements. There’s no 100% match. Should you invest time in it? The thought that it might not work out dominates, and even though the job vacancy lingers in the back of your mind, you hesitate to take action. Sound familiar? This is a dilemma that I see many of my clients struggling with. In this blog, I describe how to handle it and provide a practical step-by-step plan to determine whether it’s worth applying.

Making It Too Big: Roadblocks
A problem with job applications is that many people tend to make it too big in their minds. They feel like they are already leaving their current employer the moment they look at a job vacancy. And that saying “YES” to the job happens when they write a cover letter. That’s not the case, of course. In reality, there are several steps leading up to your decision to accept the job. At each step, you can reflect and decide whether to proceed to the next one. Fortunately, at each step, you gain new information that can help you make a decision. If you can view the entire process as a step-by-step plan to determine if this job truly suits you, the chances of getting stuck are smaller. It becomes more of an exploration from which you can learn and gain insight into what job truly suits you. For more tips on adopting the right mindset for a new job, watch the video of the online workshop I conducted on this topic in June.

Concretely, there are 7 different steps between reading a job vacancy and deciding whether to say YES to a job.

Step 1: Check the values from your work compass
See if the job vacancy aligns with the values from your work compass. In a career coaching process, I always help individuals create a work compass containing five crucial values they want to see in their future work. You can also easily do it yourself by choosing five values from a list that you want to see in your work.

Understanding what is important to you in your work is crucial when looking for a new job. You can only truly thrive in a job if your key work values are present. If, at this first step, you realize that the job vacancy doesn’t align with your values, it’s a significant reason not to proceed. For example, if “sustainability” is a crucial value for you, and you come across a fantastic job vacancy for a content manager at the Ford automobile brand, the role fits well, but you have no interest in cars, especially not in this brand known for lacking sustainability. In this case, you have a good reason not to apply.

Does that mean you should do nothing? No, you can still do something. Even if the organization doesn’t align with your values, you now know that a similar role at another organization might be suitable for you. You can decide to have a networking conversation with someone holding such a position at an organization that appeals to you and prioritizes the value of ‘sustainability’, like Tesla or the NS (Dutch Railways). An action you can take is, for example, checking on LinkedIn with whom you could have an informative conversation at this organization. This way, you expand your network and find out if your perception of the role and organization is accurate. It may also be that you don’t know if a value is reflected in the job vacancy. It’s challenging to assess on paper whether your future colleagues have a sense of humor. That’s something you can gauge after speaking with people from the organization. Then you can move on to the next step.