Last night I had the privilege of listening to Dick Bolles speak about the difference in doing a basic job search and a sophisticated job search. Dick was speaking to a group at Christ the King parish in Pleasant Hill, CA on the topic, “How to Find Hope and Rewarding Work, Even When There Are No Jobs”, based on his book “The Job Hunter’s Survival Guide.” 

 

Dick emphasized that every person needs to do research on themselves, because many of us do not understand ourselves well enough and it impacts our ability to do a productive job search. When I started this series, I referenced Dick’s comments on lack of effort in a job search as an inability to make a connection. I began this series using the Enneagram to break down the lack of motivation in relation to a person’s social style. In this last article of the series, my intent is to provide some basic tools for self understanding. The Enneagram is easy to understand at a high level, but very deep and complex. I am only skimming the surface, but a basic understanding will help you to understand yourself and the people you are dealing with. You may need to see a professional counselor, if you want to explore your social style more completely.

 

Using the Enneagram to understand ourselves helps us to be self aware instead of self centered. It helps us to understand our basic motivation and detach enough to observe ourselves and others as we develop our job search strategy. What are “Wings” in the Enneagram sense? The concept is this; all of us tend to lean toward one of the social styles.

 

A “Perfectionist” (One) might have a strong Nine Wing. The biggest problem for a Nine (Peacemaker) is that they tend to procrastinate and a ONE must do things perfectly. So what we have is a procrastinating perfectionist: a person who waits until the bitter end to do a perfect task. Can you imagine the pressure that they put on themselves? This social style combination creates a lot of self induced anxiety and underneath the anxiety, anger. With a little help from the Enneagram, this person can learn to be kind to themselves by allowing enough time to complete the job search tasks or give themselves permission to be less than perfect. 

 

If we look at the “Peacemaker” and consider the case where the Nine has a strong perfectionist (One) wing, we can see a strong contrast. The Nine will think about the job search, but their perfectionist wing will insist on doing it in a professional manner. The Nine could easily think that is so hard and takes so much effort that they never get started. Oh, they may clean up their resume and post it on www.craigslist.org, but avoid doing a sophisticated job search. The Nine would rather take the easy way, do the basics and cast their fate to luck. 

 

Dick Bolles made it very clear last night that doing a basic job search is not practical for today’s job seekers. Do you want to gamble with your career? Each one of us is unique. We all have every Enneagram social style to some degree. It is the unique combinations of personality, achievements and skills that make us an ideal candidate for the jobs where we will excel. 

How do you educate yourself, so that you can graduate from basic to sophisticated in your job search? You can start with doing the workshops offered by Our Experience Counts. You can read Dick Bolles’ books. You can join The Five O’Clock club and learn to use their methods and materials. Many faith groups have job support ministries where you can join a group and attend with others who are banding together to become sophisticated job seekers. 

 

We all have “blind spots.” We underestimate our value, we forget our achievements and we downplay our skills. We need others to help us to help us focus on the solution, a professional job search, instead of focusing on the problems. It is my intent to remind you of your value and your uniqueness that makes you the beautiful person that you are: a unique example of God’s art.