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Author Topic: Need advice  (Read 1375 times)

PurpleTulip

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Need advice
« on: March 02, 2017, 05:56:07 am »
Merry Meet Ladies and Gentlemen!
I'm very unsatisfied and unhappy of my career. I'm trying to find a new job and a career path but I feel like some negativity is blocking me from finding a job and I keep getting turned down. What would you recommend to boost my luck in being successful at progressing onto interviews and hopefully getting a new job soon? Maybe some stones or spells or prayers that could help? :confused:

Jenett

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Re: Need advice
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2017, 09:20:10 am »
Quote from: PurpleTulip;203360

I'm very unsatisfied and unhappy of my career. I'm trying to find a new job and a career path but I feel like some negativity is blocking me from finding a job and I keep getting turned down. What would you recommend to boost my luck in being successful at progressing onto interviews and hopefully getting a new job soon? Maybe some stones or spells or prayers that could help? :confused:

 
I think that what's going to help is going to depend a lot on what you're hunting for - different fields have different priorities, for example.

First, if you're not already reading good solid job hunting advice, that's a good place to start (there's a ton of lousy stuff out there!) I've read Ask A Manager (http://askamanager.org) for years, and there's a great community there with lots of advice on specific situations, fields, etc. (A lot of people are in the US, but there's also a reasonably strong international contingent, and the open threads on Fridays are a good place to ask specific questions about what works in a particular field or country.)

I'd also look closely at the customs of the career you'd like to move into - there's a ton of places where what works for one field comes across very differently in another field. (i.e. stuff that's normal in one may read as way too pushy or aggressive in another, or in one field, explaining specific background may be expected, and in another, it'd be too much detail.)

If you know you want to change careers, but not which one, that may be coming across in applications and you might be losing out to people who are more clear on what they want or already have significant experience.

Divination, meditation, etc. can be helpful as magical actions to help you be able to refine this, and come up with ways to express "I'm interested in moving into X field because I want to do more Y" sincerely (i.e. short things you can say in cover letters or applications that make it clear you've thought about the field, what your existing skills would add, etc. not just that you're applying for random jobs.)

And of course, having a great resume ready to go that was clear and easy to review, but also informative, and figuring out how to write really great cover letters both matter in a lot of fields.

For me, the most successful magic for job hunting, after I got all that together involved the following:

1) Magical working to detail what I wanted and charge that intention.

I did this by doing some ritual art that had words and symbols representing what I wanted in my next job, and then coming up with a phrase that represented the basics (what I did was "right job, right people, right place, right circumstances" which was short hand for 'job in my chosen field that uses my skills, with people who will treat me well and let me grow professionally and do great things, in a place I will enjoy working, and with salary, benefits, and other details that work for me and my specific needs.")

I'd repeat the phrase a lot in my head as I was job hunting, and it was good to have a really basic touchstone to remind me what was important.

2) Some magical work to help me be open to opportunities
I did a lot of practical stuff to make sure potential likely jobs came to my notice (bookmarked a bunch of job pages in my field for different locations I might want to live in, etc.) but I also did some magical work around just being open to possibilities, to paying attention if I heard something, to being willing to take a chance on something that I wasn't sure I could do.

(My current job, which I've been in for nearly 2 years is a really unique position, and not one I would ever have said "that's what I want to do" but it fits all my requirements and then some, and I'm pretty sure the magical work helped me navigate through 'wait, can I do that, it involves a subject area I don't know much about' (I'm a librarian, in a very specialised library, but they were, it turns out, hiring for someone who could pick up the content fast, which I've done, not someone who already knew it.))

3) Magical work to reinforce the me I wanted to present in cover letters and interviews

Mostly, I do this via playlists of music, plus things like meaningful-to-me desktop backgrounds for my computers and phones (not necessarily anything obviously Pagan, just things that remind me.).

However, thinking about things like interview clothing, presentation, in advance etc. is also usually part of this. (That doesn't mean super-corporate, I don't want those jobs, but I pick my interview stuff to read 'geeky librarian who isn't afraid to get down on the floor to fix a computer thing under the desk, but who also can stand up and do a formal presentation without stressing'.) That way, when I've gotten the interviews, it's just a matter of having things clean and ready to go.

This is also a place where wearing a piece of charged magical jewelry can help a lot. My last job hunt went from "I'm sort of idly looking" to "No, I really need to get out of here" rather abruptly, and right around that time, good friends went to New Zealand on a trip and came home and mailed me a piece of jewelry they'd gotten there, and I wore it every day until I got my current job. (If I was at an interview, I looped it around a bra strap and tucked it into the side of my bra, since it wasn't an interview sort of jewelry.) Wearing it both reminded me my friends were really rooting for me (not just them!) but also what my goal was.

4) A thing I didn't do: magic for specific jobs.

That's because I feel about it like I would about magic for a relationship with a specific person: even leaving aside the question of ethics, I want the right job for me, not what I think is the right job for me, based on often limited info during the application and interview process. There are a lot of jobs out there that look like the might be good for me, but actually have factors that would make them anywhere from not-good to actively harmful. I would like to avoid those!

So my magical work has focused on 'help me find the place where I can do really good work and that is also good for me in the ways I need a job to be'.

Related, I'd do magical work for interviews to help me present my best self (clarity of thought and expression, for example), but not to otherwise try and nudge or influence them to pick me. Just give them my best self, and recognise that my best self is not the right fit for many people and many jobs, and that I want to know that before I start a new job, change my life significantly, etc.

I don't view rejections as a problem, in that sense, so much as "Ok, that is not a good job for me, let's go try something else." (Though of course, the practical issues of applying, etc. take a toll.)
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MeadowRae

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Re: Need advice
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2017, 09:45:35 am »
Quote from: PurpleTulip;203360
Merry Meet Ladies and Gentlemen!
I'm very unsatisfied and unhappy of my career. I'm trying to find a new job and a career path but I feel like some negativity is blocking me from finding a job and I keep getting turned down. What would you recommend to boost my luck in being successful at progressing onto interviews and hopefully getting a new job soon? Maybe some stones or spells or prayers that could help? :confused:

 
I second everything Jenett said, and I would also suggest that you do some self exploration. I'm not sure what you practice consists of, but visualization has helped me greatly in finding my hangups and negative influences. Do you feel that this negativity is coming from within or without? Do you feel like you deserve a new job? (A lot of what holds us back is fear of failure.) Do you feel competent, confident, and inspired to take on the job hunt?

I would say to go through this before the interview, as well. What are the possible outcomes of this interview? What is the worst case scenario? Why do I want this position? Answering these questions for myself has helped me be more confident in interviews before.

Good luck, and keep us posted! :)
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ehbowen

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Re: Need advice
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2017, 06:27:56 pm »
Quote from: PurpleTulip;203360
Merry Meet Ladies and Gentlemen!
I'm very unsatisfied and unhappy of my career. I'm trying to find a new job and a career path but I feel like some negativity is blocking me from finding a job and I keep getting turned down. What would you recommend to boost my luck in being successful at progressing onto interviews and hopefully getting a new job soon? Maybe some stones or spells or prayers that could help? :confused:

 
Some purely mundane advice: Back when I was young and (fairly!) desperate I tried my hand as a headhunter for a month or so. I didn't make any money at it...as in, not even one dime...but I did have at least three people I was cold calling tell me that they were interested in hiring ME. So, sit down with the phone book some morning and start dialing businesses in your chosen field. You never know....
--------Eric H. Bowen
Where's the KABOOM? There was supposed to have been an Earth-shattering KABOOM!
Computers are like air conditioning. They become useless when you open Windows—Linus Torvalds.

Plutarch

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Re: Need advice
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2017, 04:26:36 pm »
Quote from: PurpleTulip;203360
What would you recommend to boost my luck in being successful at progressing onto interviews and hopefully getting a new job soon? Maybe some stones or spells or prayers that could help? :confused:

As another poster suggested, you might want to first start with visualization and trying to imagine a scenario where you would find yourself happy with both your life and your career. Maybe make a list of pros/cons to your current situation and then look for areas that you might be able to improve.

There was also a post about fear--the fear of failing and jumping into something totally new. This was an extreme fear for me (and still is), but I was extremely unhappy with my old career, so this is what I did: I actually took online graphic design classes at night and concentrated on learning a new skill (which actually took about 2 years).

Then, I started doing part time graphic design work at night and weekends (after I was comfortable with my new skills) and when the weight of my old job became too much, it was VERY easy to transition into full time, and now I'm much happier now than I was before.

My point with all of this is you don't need to do anything drastic. You can make changes slowly over time, but you need a clear goal to work toward, and this need to be planned out ahead of time, and this is where visualization becomes important.

The ironic part of my whole story is that now, five years later, I'm becoming unhappy again with my job. The money is way better and I'm my own boss, but I hardly have any time to to my self. I used to read all the time, play piano, watch TV and movies. And now I don't do any of that (which, the loss of TV actually isn't all bad lol) and I used to meditate before bed and now, I'm so stressed out most nights due to the amount of work I take on and all the deadlines to meet, that I have a very difficult time clearing my mind and getting into that deep meditative state I once used to be able to get into.

But, for as much as I can complain about my current situation, I'm still grateful. I decided to go out with some friends the other night and during that time, I met these two guys that are currently unemployed and they were both miserable. I left the house feeling like I had a reason to complain about my situation, and came home that night feeling extremely grateful.

So, if you are looking for a prayer, my favorite kind of prayer are prayers of gratitude. I'm not saying prayers of supplication/intercession/etc aren't important.

But for me personally, I feel better when I can count my blessings, rather than concentrate on all that I don't have.
« Last Edit: March 11, 2017, 04:32:07 pm by Plutarch »

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