Remember, your career path extends far beyond your next job—your strategy should too. Most people will have at least twelve different jobs over the course of their careers. So, instead of thinking only in terms of your next job, think about the next chapter of your full career.

Your career future: What do you want?

When you ask a child what she wants to be when she grows up, she’ll give you a simple answer, such as “I want to be a doctor.” For a kid, that’s a great answer! But when you’re an adult, “I want to be a doctor” is far too vague. A family doctor or a surgeon? What will you specialize in? Will you join a major hospital network or start your own practice?

This is the first step in planning your long-term career path: Asking yourself what you want, in detail. A career is so much more than just a title or a paycheck, and it can bring you far greater rewards when you approach it with intention.

This means taking some time to really think about your dream career path and what you want from it. Here are a few considerations to get you started. As you consider each of these elements, be as specific as you can. Your criteria may change over time, but the more detail you can list now, the better.

Your Work Environment

Think about the physical space where you want to conduct your work. Do you want a corner office in a downtown high-rise? Do you want to be on your feet in a laboratory setting all day? Do you want to work from home?

Your Colleagues

We spend many, many hours with colleagues over the course of our lives, so it’s worth thinking about who we want these people to be. Do you want to be the manager of a large team? Do you want to work closely with two or three other people on every project? Do you want to work alone?

Your Influence

There are different types of career influence to think about. How much power do you want within your organization? Do you want to be a C-suite leader? Do you want to contribute to high-level decisions without having to manage direct reports?

Also, think about your desired influence outside your organization. Many career paths are virtually invisible to the public eye, existing entirely behind the scenes. Others are highly public and even heavily scrutinized by the media. Which do you want? Do you want to see your name in the Wall Street Journal? Do you want industry accolades? Do you want to remain anonymous?

Your Income

The truth is, your financial reality is often heavily impacted by your career choices, so it’s important to think about them together. How much money do you want to earn? Do you have early retirement plans that require a high salary? Do you want the steady paycheck of traditional employment or the flexibility—and possible uncertainty—of working for yourself?

Your impact

There are many ways to make a difference, and your career can be part of it. How will you live out your values at work? Would you want to manage a nonprofit? Do you want to be part of a research team that’s making a significant contribution to healthcare? Or, perhaps you want to join the board of a high-profile philanthropic organization?

Mapping your career path: What will you offer?

Once you have some clarity on what you want, you need to think about what your contribution will be. You’re not going to meander your way into the role of CFO at your dream company. You need a plan based on your unique skill set.

So, think of your career path as a quest. You have a mission, but you need supplies, skills, and companions to achieve it. Start by making a list of what you might need. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Education

For some career paths, a particular degree or certification may be a strong advantage—or even a requirement. Do your research and ask around. You may find that experience is more valuable than a piece of paper.

Connections and mentors

People are incredibly important to your long-term career plan. A good connection can teach you about a particular industry or role, introduce you to the right person at your dream company, and help you grow. Informational interviews, networking lunches, and other meet-ups can give you a significant advantage.

To do so effectively, use a tool like Career Club ONE to keep track of your connections. You can create profiles for each person, keep notes about conversations you’ve had, and set reminders to follow up, so those relationships stay strong. Career Club ONE works just like a customer relationship management (CRM) database, so you can harness the power of sales principles to get the career you want.

Experience

Think beyond the vague job posting format of “five years of public relations experience.” What skills do you want to hone? For example, if you want to manage an art gallery, you need more than an art history degree. You need to understand sales, inventory, client management, accounting, and more. And plot a career path that will expose you to those skills on your way to your dream role. If you want to start a business, work for a start-up for a few years. Consider the immersive opportunities that will help you grow.

This is another area where a tool like Career Club ONE can help you chart your course. Career Club ONE is integrated with a robust database of companies that have secured capital and are actively growing. You can easily identify and target companies that match the criteria you’re looking for, such as a specific industry, a chance to learn a new skill, flexible working arrangements, a connection to a cause you care about, and more. The result is a directed, focused approach to your next steps.

A sports metaphor: Don’t just be a position player. Be an athlete.

In the world of sports, a position player is someone who performs well in one role—and that’s it. A pitcher who can’t hit, a goalie who can’t score, a sprinter who could never finish a marathon. No matter what kind of professional you are, you need to be more flexible than this so you don’t get pigeonholed into specific roles.

Just as you need to hone specific proficiencies, you need to think about your general professional skills. Agility, creativity, curiosity, and strategic thinking are incredibly valuable in virtually any job and can give you a much greater professional range. Start pushing yourself now to develop these skills, and make sure your career strategy includes opportunities to master them.

With the right skills, a clear plan, and a powerful tool for managing your relationships, you can pursue your career dreams—short and long term—with greater confidence.

The post The Essentials of a Successful Long-Term Career Strategy appeared first on Career Club.

Looking for a job online can feel like a never-ending churn: Hundreds of listings, resumes, cover letters, and spreadsheets—and nothing to show for it. The internet is rife with tips and hacks for maximizing what is essentially a broken process.

Here’s a hard truth: The behind-the-scenes odds of a successful online job search are stacked against you.

We pulled together a few statistics that tell the real story of how online job hunts work:

On average, there are 250+ applications for every job posting.

That translates to a 0.4% chance of getting the job. And that’s not the whole story: Artificial intelligence filters out a huge chunk of those applications before a human being even looks at them. Of course, you can try to hack your resume with keywords, but there’s no guarantee you’ll outsmart the algorithm and get a fair shot.

Thankfully, you can bypass the system altogether by connecting with someone inside the company who can advocate for you and connect you with the hiring manager directly. In other words, if you want to work for a particular company, your most valuable asset may be your friend or a new connection who works in their marketing department or is on the board.

Millennials spend an average of 2.8 years in each role.

Let’s do a little math here: 2.8 years is about 34 months. The average job hunt takes six months. That means most Millennials will spend over 600 days of a given decade looking for a job—and the numbers aren’t much different for Gen X.

Give your future self a headstart on the next job hunt by making connections and building relationships now. Even if you’re happy with your current role, invite people to meet you for lunch or connect with a quick phone call. Build a strong network, and when you’re ready to start thinking about your next step, you’ll have lots of people to call to see what opportunities are out there.

Only 20% of jobs are filled through online applications. Only 20% of job openings are posted online at all.

The vast majority of opportunities are inaccessible via the traditional internet job search. If combing through online listings is the only job hunt method you’ve ever learned, these numbers can feel discouraging—or downright bleak.

Here’s the brighter side: 80% of jobs are landed through connections. You’re far more likely to get a job thanks to someone you know. The key here is to communicate with your network.

Start with a list of fifty people you know, and reach out to each and every one to share that you’re looking for a new job. The key is to be specific about your career goals.

Let’s say one of your professional contacts works for a fast-growing startup in your industry. If a leader at that company mentions that they’d like to hire someone with your exact skills and your friend knows you’re looking, they can mention your name right away. Your friend’s endorsement is more powerful than sending dozens of resumes into cyberspace.

A single coffee meet-up is not enough: A successful job search is the result of 300 networking touches.

It’s easy to get excited about one or two job leads and then have to start all over again when they fall through. This is a common and devastating mistake in the job hunt.

Instead, think of networking like a sales funnel. Instead of going after just one or two jobs, you start with a lot of leads, knowing that some will naturally drop off. You focus more and more energy on your strongest leads over time, and end up with a solid pool of real opportunities at the end.

For example, let’s say you make 300 connections, and 25% of those people say they might know of an opening. That’s 75 leads. If 20% of those leads end up being real opportunities, then you have 15 strong prospects.

It’s a numbers game: More calls will result in more leads. And strong leads will lead to better job opportunities. Of course, some people will say that applying for jobs online is also a numbers game, but think of it this way: 15 real connections with real people are far more valuable than 150 applications to online job listings that will never get back to you.

Connections are the key to getting a better job.

Here’s the good news: These numbers don’t have to be scary when you know how to beat them. And the way to beat them is clear: Connect with people and build a network. Simply put, your network is made up of the people you know, and a rich network can open more doors for you faster.

Building a strong network takes effort, and you may want a little help to organize your connections. Thankfully, you don’t have to rely on a clunky spreadsheet—or your own memory—to keep track of all the details.

Career Club ONE is an easy-to-use system that does it all for you.

• You can create a profile for each of your connections and keep notes about important details.
• Career Club ONE integrates easily with Gmail, so you can see your email history with each person at a glance.
• You can even set reminders for yourself to reach out, schedule a meeting, or follow up with a call or email, so those connections stay strong.

See how it works > link to video

Career Club ONE is modeled after the exact systems that successful salespeople use to achieve their sales targets and manage long-term business relationships. The same principles you can use to foster mutually beneficial relationships and get a better job faster.

The post The brutal statistics behind the job search—and how you can beat them appeared first on Career Club.