Josh McAfee - Measure Up: Mastering Your Career Search Like a Boss

MEASURE

UP

Mastering Your Career Search Like a Boss

Josh McAfee & Trisha Garek Harp

NEW YORK

LONDONNASHVILLEMELBOURNEVANCOUVER

Measure Up

Mastering Your Career Search Like a Boss

2021 Josh McAfee and Trisha Garek Harp

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing. Morgan James is a trademark of Morgan James, LLC. www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

ISBN 9781631953033 paperback

ISBN 9781631953040 eBook

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020944080

Cover Design by:

Christopher Kirk

www.GFSstudio.com

Interior Design by:

Chris Treccani

www.3dogcreative.net

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To my wife, Kerri; our daughter, Lana, who as of writing this will be born in 3 weeks; to everyone who pushed me to write this book and encouraged me along the way; and to God for blessing me with a career and life thats revolved around helping and been so fulfilling. Thank you so much for everything you have done to support, encourage, and challenge me. Josh

I would like to dedicate this book to all of my past coworkers who have felt stuck and trapped in their jobs. You are not stuck. You always have options. Im really proud to put many of our conversations to good use through this book. Trisha

Thank you for purchasing Measure UP. We developed a free Get Started Today download to compliment this book which will guide you through the high level steps of our process. To download the guide, visit CareerWhisperer.co/MeasureUpToday

Its amazing what can happen over a simple cup of coffee. Over two years ago, we met at a networking event unsure of what to expect but knowing we needed to collaborate on this book.

It was 2018. Josh had more than 25 years in recruiting and career coaching and had recently sold the recruiting business he started in 2001 in which hed worked with and coached thousands of people in career transition. Hed been keeping track of what people were doing really welland what they were doing poorlyin their career search. Colleagues and friends coaxed him to start writing a book.

Trish, meanwhile, had followed two different career paths: Working with adults with developmental disabilities and working with entrepreneurs and their significant others. Josh and his wife, Kerri, were her clients. As Trish progressed more into the coaching realm, she realized that much of her psychological teachings could be applied to people in search of a more fulfilling career path.

So there we were, sipping our coffee of choice, when we decided wed write a book together. It would be a way to give back to people and communities whod been helpful to us, and also to do a little good in the world. Wed teach readers on communication, recognizing strengths and weaknesses, and figuring it out how to present themselves in a way that would highlight their value and resonate with others. We felt we both had some pretty powerful concepts to share with you.

Why now? For one, the material in this book will always be relevant. The technology will change, and the way people are interviewed will change, but these principles are timeless. Its about the ability to be genuine and focused on how youre valuable, why youre valuable, instead of focusing on the things you want, feel, think, and need.

When youve read this book, youll discover our words will carry over to all aspects of your life in the way you choose to interact, find your network, and exist in the world as a whole. Theres a better way to present yourself, a better way to communicate, a better way to identify and target who you want to be around instead of just being around whos around. With a little effort and intentionality, this will be not just a shift in your career, but also a shift in your life.

Think of your career this way. Youre in the most amazing movie of your life. This is your adventure. Who do you want to be? You get to choose based on who you discover you are.

Let our adventure together begin.

Rex was a support engineer fixing the bugs in systems and helping customers with their technical problems. He was really good at itso good that his company came to rely on him a little too much. Insisting they needed Rex in this role, his boss kept him there for three years. Feeling as if he were slowly boiling in a lobster pot, Rex had to escape, but didnt know how. Eventually, he updated his resume, posted it on a job board, and applied to several new positions.

Rex received lots of interest as a support engineer but no interest in any of the more technical roles he was ready to grow into. This left him feeling even more trapped and a little depressed. Why couldnt anyone see his value? Why wasnt anyone interested? He went back to work for another 6 months with the water around him slowly getting hotter and hotter. Josh, who had a client looking for a technical support engineer, found Rexs resume and called him. As they talked, it was obvious that to Rex, this was another interview for a role he really didnt want. After about 10 minutes, Josh stopped and asked Rex how he thought this interview was going. Terribly, said Rex. He was a little taken aback but humbly repeated, terribly. Josh asked him what was going on and shared that he could feel his frustration over the phone. What came out of Rex next was 3.5 years of frustration, anger, pain, anxiety, and helplessness.

What are you really good at? Josh asked Rex, who said he was great at understanding customers problems. He was also really good at finding hacks to meet their needs; and he loved working with the development team to solve common issues. Josh asked Rex if hed like to move into a developer or programmer role where he could have a bigger impact. Over the phone, Rex started to choke up and said, Yes! He explained how he didnt get anything other than support jobs from all of his efforts. Josh laughed, telling Rex he was a mislabeled product. By going shopping in the support engineer aisle, Josh had found Rex. But in what aisle did he really belong? Software developer, Rex answered, his voice bright ening as we discussed where he was stuck, what he should be doing differently, and how to apply a few simple principles to his job search.

During the next 8 years, Rex moved into programming jobs with two different companies, earning promotions. Then his original lobster pot company asked him to return in a senior development, client-facing role, working directly with the product management team. It was his dream job. But it took so long to land it because Rex was focused on describing his current role instead of his own strengths and value. Throughout this book, we are going to explore how you can do the same, and much more.

• Do you feel disrespected, undervaluedor simply joy-lessat work?
• Were you laid off or fired from your job?
• Is your current work situation lacking security or stability?
• Did you recently get hit with some big expenses, and you realize how much you want to find a better-paying, better-fitting, more rewarding job?