Job Search: Starting From Ground Zero
By Suzanne Berry
The following article by CPABC Career Advisor Suzanne Berry is the first in a three-part series aimed at helping any CPA job seeker find their next employment opportunity—whether they’re just beginning their career, embarking on a mid-career transition, or starting a new life in Canada.
What’s so challenging about a job search? You just apply for a job, get an interview, tell them everything great about yourself, wait for the job offer, and find out when you start—right?
Unfortunately, the process of finding a job is rarely that simple. Before you even start looking for a job, there are a number of things to consider. Assuming you haven’t got an “in” with a company’s recruiter, how do you make your resumé stand out from those of hundreds of other job applicants to land an interview? How do you know if your skills are developed enough to merit mentioning? If you’ve always just done your job well enough to keep it, how do you make an employer excited about hiring you? How do you convince them of your potential value to the company? Where do you even begin?
What Do You Bring To The Table?
In my role as CPABC’s career advisor, I speak to members at various career stages. It’s not just those starting out who seek guidance. Some are established in their careers but looking to transition to a different sector. Others are new to Canada and unsure of our job search methods and etiquette. Some are looking to get back into the workforce. Others are looking for new opportunities after being with one company for many years.
One piece of advice holds true for everyone: There is no better place to begin your job search than within. Without having a clear idea of who you are and what you’re good (or great!) at, your job search won’t have the stable foundation it needs to connect you to the right opportunities.
There’s an analogy that searching for a job is very much like opening your own business, and that couldn’t be more true. Of course, in this instance, you are the product of the business, and you must be your own sales team—consider yourself a “business of one.”1 That means that your ability to sell your product (your skill set and your character) is only as good as your ability to market it. And you can only know what you are marketing if you know who you are. The key, as they say, is product knowledge.
So how do you gain that knowledge? Well, there are different ways to find out who you really are and what you have to offer. Some career experts will suggest doing personality inventories and skills assessment tests. These can be very helpful tools since they require self-reflection, but storytelling is also a powerful means of self-discovery.
1 “Business of one” is a term coined by J.T. O’Donnell, founder and CEO of WorkItDaily.com. The author would like to credit Kristin Vandegriend, career coach and resumé expert, for sharing these concepts in the webinar “What Career Professionals Should Know about LinkedIn,” hosted by the BC Career Development Association, February 7, 2017.
What Do Your Stories Say About You?
Have you ever heard of “narrative identity”? 2 Simply put, it’s a theory based on the idea that the stories we create about our experiences actually shape our identities on an ongoing, evolving basis. Per Current Directions in Psychological Science, “Narrative identity is a person’s internalized and evolving life story, integrating the reconstructed past and imagined future to provide life with some degree of unity and purpose.” 3
If we are, in fact, a compilation of not only our life experiences but also our stories, surely these stories should help us find the answers to fundamental questions such as: “Who am I?”, “What am I good at?”, and “What is my life path?”
We can also use these same stories in our job search. Because employers are interested in the value that a prospective employee can bring to their company and the positive impact they can have, using anecdotes in an interview can be a great way to demonstrate who you are and what you have to offer.
I like to suggest starting with stories that reveal your greatest accomplishments—stories that make you feel invincible when you tell them. In the world of career development, we call them “pride stories.”
If that sounds uncomfortable, start by practising with people who know you well. Get together with a small group of people who care about you and whose judgment you trust. Pick three pride stories and share them with your audience—if your group consists of other job seekers, take turns sharing your stories. You get to decide the parameters—maybe you’ll focus on your current job, your previous job, or your entire work history. You can decide how far back you want to go.
You can also open it up to achievements in other areas of your life, including community involvement and athletic activities, for example. For those who are just getting started, I like to suggest opening up the parameters completely, just to help the creative juices flow and make it easier to tackle this task.
2 The author would like to credit Hongxia Shan, PhD, associate professor in the department of educational studies at the University of British Columbia, for the insights on narrative identity she shared in her closing keynote speech, “Career development as border practices: Constructing identities in the context of mobility and diversity” at the BC Career Development Conference 2018.
3 Dan P. McAdams and Kate C. McLean, “Narrative Identity,” Current Directions in Psychological Science (22), June 2013 (233-238).
Which Stories Should You Share With Employers?
Not every pride story will be worth sharing. If you find that you’re having trouble coming up with workplace pride stories, here are some helpful prompts:
- Did you save the company money?
- Did you deliver more than was expected of you?
- Did you train or supervise anyone or help someone reach their goals?
- Were you ever singled out by management for a job well done? Did you receive an award? Were you promoted?
- Did you do something to make a job easier or more efficient?
- Did you take on a special project?
- Did you find or foresee a new opportunity?
- Did you solve a challenging problem or overcome a difficult obstacle?
Once you share your stories with your test group, ask them for feedback. Did certain character traits, such as compassion, tenacity, or ambition, shine through? Did the stories reflect your core values—values like trustworthiness, honesty, or idealism? Did they highlight abilities that would be ideal for specific jobs, such as critical thinking, mediation, or innovation?
You would be amazed at how clearly those around you can perceive your character traits, values, and abilities. Use their perspectives to help illuminate the blind spots you may have about yourself (and write down everything they say—this stuff is pure gold!). I also encourage you to keep a journal or notebook close by to record your pride stories as they occur—that way, you will not only remember the wonderful things you do, but you will also be motivated to add to your list of achievements.
You can also find useful tools and checklists online to help you organize your pride story process. One resource I recommend is a “Pride Experiences” self-assessment checklist created by the University of Waterloo: pstipanuk.pbworks.com/f/Self+Assess+Packet.pdf.
How Can You Apply (honest!) Storytelling To Your Resumé?
Once you’ve developed your pride stories, it’s time to apply them to your resumé. Transcribe your achievements into the appropriate sections, and be sure to quantify them with details wherever possible. That means describing the challenges and stakes involved, the actions you took, and the results or outcomes.
Including tangible achievements on your resumé is vital in today’s competitive job market. It’s no longer enough to just list job duties, especially when 400 other job applicants have the same tasks listed on their resumés.
Your achievements are what will make you stand out—they enable you to put your own personal signature and imprint on your work. They mark your authenticity.
Trust The Process
Remember, you have everything you need to succeed. As you proceed through your career, expect that you will continue to peel away layers and uncover more of the hidden talents you already possess. Consider using pride stories as a way to access these hidden talents, and use them as the foundation for your self-knowledge.
In my next article, I’ll talk about the next step in the job search process: “hitting the pavement.”
Start Your Job Search On CPABC’s Careers Site
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CPABC’s Careers Site is the exclusive online career resource for designated CPA members, candidates, and students in BC. More than 18,500 members, candidates, and students currently use the Careers Site to advance their careers and find exciting volunteer board opportunities that enhance their resumés.
The Careers Site also provides an excellent platform for employers from all sectors—including public practice, industry, government, and not-for-profit—to connect with qualified finance and accounting professionals. New this year is a feature that enables employers to find talent by browsing through the resumé database before purchasing a job posting plan. That means more eyes on your resumé!
So whether you want to find your next career opportunity or you’re looking for a new hire, be sure to visit careers.bccpa.ca.
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