Who wins the job search: 🛍️ shoppers or 🏃‍➡️ athletes?

⏲️ Pop quiz time - don't overthink it, just give the first answer that comes to mind. Ready?

When it comes to finding a new job, do you treat it like:

• A competition to be won? or
• A fit to be found?

Got your answer? Great. If you said it was a competition to be won, then you're approaching the job search like an Athlete. I would argue that this is how most of us have been trained to pursue promotions or new roles – by putting a lot of hard work into showing that we can outperform the competition and win.

Or did you focus on finding the fit? Then I'd deem you a Shopper – you're out there with a general idea of what you're looking for, and you're going to compare what you find until you get as close to your goal as you can. If you're taking this approach, you'll probably have some absolute essentials on your list, and some nice-to-haves. If you've ever gone house or apartment hunting, or braved the dating scene, you know how this works. It's up to you to find the right mix that you can live with.

I'm not here to judge either approach. If it works for you, great! But before you go set yourself up on the starting line as an athlete, or make your wish list as a shopper, take a moment to double-check that you're taking the right approach for your circumstances.

If you're going to treat the job hunt like an athlete, you'd better make darn sure to pick a rewarding sport. If the rules are consistent and fair, if the competition is truly open to all comers and if you are confident that "winning" will give you what you want, then by all means, be the athlete.

The problem is, we often default to this competitive mindset without considering that there's another approach that may suit our needs better. Whether it's the reality of burnout or curing interview anxiety, so much of what I've learned about navigating the working world comes down to finding a good fit.

I suspect that shoppers – not athletes – often have the better approach for today's rapidly changing world of work. Instead of following someone else's rules, you're defining what matters to you and going after it. Maybe it's time to stop treating jobs like prizes to be won and start asking ourselves: is this really what I want?

Happy navigating,
Bridget