Are You Still Job Hunting? It’s Time to Build Your Career Instead. Here’s How.

Do you remember, growing up, thinking to yourself, “I can’t wait to get a job!” ?

I didn’t. I wanted to be an astronaut, and a pro soccer player, and a comic book artist, and a lot more. But the thought of a “job” never occurred to me.

When we’re kids, we know exactly what matters: doing something we love, as much as possible. Of course, adult life requires some compromises… or does it?

If you’re not satisfied in your current job, know this:

Job security is a myth – Career security is what you really want

Your job is no more “secure” working at a 10,000-person company than it is working at a 10-person startup, no matter what anyone says. Why?

Jobs are simply a function of a company’s financial success and goals. These in turn are a function of the company’s products and services, market category, defensibility, and more. If a company can no longer justify spending money on your position, you’ll be let go—regardless of how “stable” that company may seem.

What you crave and call “job security” is actually career security. It’s the knowledge that, whatever happens, you‘ll be able to find work. Right?

Here’s the secret:

Got skills? You’re valuable to someone – you’ll find work

When your skills are in demand, you will always find work.

And, if your current skill set is automated or outsourced or rendered obsolete for some other reason, you still have your mind to learn, your inner drive to succeed, and a world brimming with things to learn.

So forget about job security. See the forest for the trees. Transcend the single job, and see the job market as a whole.

Learn what businesses care most about, what kinds of career paths exist now (and will exist in the future!), and roll up your sleeves. Let’s get to work.

It’s time to build your own career security

It’s possible to move beyond the notion of “jobs” and instead visualize your career evolving over the years. Is it a mostly flat line, or a steady growth? When you look back, will you be fond of the memories, or regretful you didn’t try different things or push more?

You can become an expert in your field over the next 5-10 years. You can transcend the 20th-century construct of “employers and employees,” and discover what I call your multicolored career.

There’s no pressure to make a single source of income your full-time. In fact, that can lead to more pressure to keep that one.

A job is just one hue in the spectrum. Freelancing, consulting, hobbies turning into income, building your own businesses are all valid add-ons. If you can do it well, someone will pay you. And you can combine these into a single, full-time income.

Tell me something you love doing, and I’ll tell you three ways you can make money doing it

I used to think, “when I’m old my Wikipedia page will have a bunch of titles, like designer, writer, musician, author, speaker, business owner, …” and I’m building that little by little. You just have to ask yourself: what do you want YourName.com to say about you someday?

This year, our lives have been disrupted more than we could have ever imagined. It’s easy to feel pessimistic, to lose hope. I’m right there with you on a weekly basis.

Then I onboard an ambitious job seeker to Crash, or give a talk at a boot camp, and I remember just how lucky I am to be one of the voices in this world that are urging you to create a career that makes you come alive.

The landscape of career opportunity is truly boundless: Jobs are out there. Every job board is packed with opportunity. Growing companies are waiting to see what you’ve got. And if you’re not sure how to convince them, know this:

Your skills are already enough—your resume just isn’t convincing anyone

What if this article was just a list of bullet points? Would it be nearly as interesting to read? Would it resonate with you anywhere near the same way? Probably not. Let’s see:

  • Reasons job security is a myth
    • Jobs are based on company success, plain and simple
    • You will lose your job if your company can’t keep paying you
    • We’re really describing “career security”
  • What career security means
    • Having skills & being valuable
    • Looking beyond a single job, at the job market as a whole
    • Understanding what businesses will hire for, and why
  • How to build your own career

Borrinnnngggg. Right?

Welcome to a hiring manager’s experience while reading resumes!

Resumes are so flat and boring… it’s hard to get to actually know someone from just a resume. It’s hard to get to actually know someone from just a resume, but that video is great! Our team loved it.

– A hiring manager, to a job seeker on Crash

This job seeker did something different than a resume via a job portal. They created a video pitch specifically for this company—not generic—and they networked directly with the hiring manager. And they’re one of many people winning interviews, test projects, and job offers with this method.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Are You Still Job Hunting?

And here’s what hiring managers say about it:

We started down the normal hiring cow path with less than thrilling results. Only a handful of the 60+ applicants showed any work, specific interest in our company, or even personality that could have easily differentiated them.

There was one that stood out, mostly because she had a “pitch video” and a website showing real results…

I love being able to watch that video – it makes me feel like I KNOW you. Resumes are so flat and boring… it’s hard to get to actually know someone from just a resume, but that video is great! Our team loved it.

You don’t have the experience and qualifications for this role, but your pitch and profile are so strong and show you’re a hustler, so we’re going to give you a shot anyway!

It’s habitual for me to just give up searching for candidates when I use other job posting sites. Crash is a breath of fresh air, it’s phenomenal to see the person behind the resume and what they’re truly passionate about.

Whether you use Crash to create pitches or not, this stuff works. The proof is that jobseekers who go beyond resumes & job boards are getting hired without degrees, for jobs that “require” degrees. They’re showing their ambition and hard skills, and forward-thinking companies are all about it.

It’s time to burn your resume

Job hunting is short-term thinking. Career-building is a long-term strategy. It doesn’t happen all at once, but “how you practice is how you play.”

Job hunting is short-term thinking. Career-building is a long-term strategy. It doesn’t happen all at once, but “how you practice is how you play.”

Executives don’t have a resume, they have results and connections. So can you when you turn off the autopilot. Go beyond resumes and job boards. Discover the hundreds of growing companies that don’t have resources to post on job boards, and that hire through their own networks. Network with those company leaders on LinkedIn, Twitter, and beyond.

Burn your resume and instead build a body of work that proves your ability to create value: this is your own personal Ironman suit.

It’s time to crash your career.

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I design, build, and market brands that aim to dominate a new market category. These days, that’s helping people discover and do what makes them come alive: launching a career with Crash.co and exploring entrepreneurship with GigLoft.com.

I also dabble in a variety of creative arts, from music to photomanipulation, video to what I call curriculum marketing. My favorite sports are soccer, rock climbing, and skiing/rollerblading. I’m a teacher at heart, and an eternal student of life.