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Today’s story will be valuable to anyone who is presently looking for a job, or will be in the future.
Graduates are finding now to be one of the most difficult times to land a job. They need every tool available to convince a hiring manager that they are the right fit.
William Vanderbloemen’s Work How You Are Wired: 12 Data-Driven Steps to Finding a Job You Love offers job-searching readers insights such as, “Who am I? What am I wired to do? What should I steer clear from? These are qualities that job seekers need to be aware of and prepared to articulate during an interview to be hired for work that they are best suited to do.”
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I consider Work How You Are Wired and Vanderbloemen’s Be the Unicorn, which I reviewed in my 2023 article Four Easy Ways to Get Yourself Fired, as the ideal graduation presents for the business major or MBA in your family, or anyone who wants to learn how to be a standout at whatever career they choose. (I wish that they’d been available when I joined the working world. I would have made fewer dumb mistakes!)
Also, if you know someone who wanders from job to job, Work How You Are Wired will help them to figure out why they are stuck in that revolving door and to find work that matches their motivations, personality, skills, strengths and values.
Here are some of the main points that I discussed with Vanderbloemen in our Zoom meeting:
1. Begin your job search by asking, ‘What am I wired to do?’
If you feel you must take any job to put food on your family’s table, or you are hired for something that you are not wired to do, you will most likely end up hating the job. Unfortunately, many Americans do not like their jobs, according to the Pew Research Center.
So the question is: How do you make sure you don’t interview for a position you’re going to absolutely loathe?
The answer to that begins with a journey of self-discovery and figuring out what you are wired to do — your natural abilities.
Most people have one or two “strength zones,” or areas of competence where they excel. The challenge is discovering what they are.
2. Knowing yourself is imperative before that job interview
There are several commercial personality assessment tests that help discover how we prefer to communicate, work and make decisions — in effect, what occupations we are best suited for and will enjoy doing and even what we should avoid.
These include DISC, Enneagram, Myers-Briggs and the Vander Index, which draws on the 12 success-building habits discussed in Be the Unicorn.
Vanderbloemen notes that Work How You Are Wired provides much of the same useful information as commercially available products without the need to take a personality test. He presents objective data that will help refine the search for employment that matches your strengths, personality, habits and values — in effect, how you are wired.
So, for anyone pounding the pavement and perhaps not feeling on top of the world after meeting with hiring managers, Work How You Are Wired is a gift, as it can show the reader how to discover and articulate their strengths and abilities and figure out which types of positions they are best suited for.
3. Determining your ideal work
Vanderbloemen zeroes in on objective categories of data that can point you in the direction of what you are wired to do, including your communication style, core values, ideal work environment and skills.
The book also helps identify what motivates you and your calling or purpose. Do you have a desire to effect change and have an impact? Do you seek recognition? Do you work best on a team or alone? Are you the one who has a plan or carries out the plans of others? Are you a leader or a follower?
These objective data points open a door to finding not just any job, but the right job for you.
Being prepared for AI-directed interviews
Today, when you sit down for an in-person interview, you’ve got to assume that the questions are provided by AI, and the human interviewer will be looking for clarity, logical structure and consistency in the applicant’s narrative rather than focusing on the applicant’s personality and charm.
After reading Work How You Are Wired, you’ll be more self-aware, and it will be far easier for you to explain why your skills and abilities are a good fit for the job.
Over the years, I have read several “how to get hired” books. Wired and Be the Unicorn are the best I’ve found when it comes to providing job applicants with the insights they truly need in order to land the right job for them, the job they are meant for.
Dennis Beaver practices law in Bakersfield, Calif., and welcomes comments and questions from readers, which may be faxed to (661) 323-7993, or e-mailed to Lagombeaver1@gmail.com. And be sure to visit dennisbeaver.com.
