Change Your Focus During Your Job Search

“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”
Matthew 8:17

Is your focus only on yourself during your job search? Should it be? If it is you’re missing out on opportunities to reach out to help and serve others, and possibly make great connections…

Engineers erect barriers to the use of the “F” word (that’s feelings).  Scientists decry being labeled sensitive to others. Doctors are warned against becoming too emotionally involved with their patients and taught to maintain a professional distance.

Follow the example of Christ…

Yet, Christ didn’t abide by any of these. He truly “took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” He saw the blind beggar asking for mercy; it’s possible few others had truly seen him in years. He touched, talked to, and healed the leper, something that flew in the face of Jewish law and something that diseased man had probably not experienced in years.

Joseph also models interpersonal sensitivity in his relationship with the baker and cup bearer in prison.  He was not only responsible for integrating them into prison life, but he also assumed a greater responsibility for their inner life.  When they came out one morning crestfallen because of troubling dreams he didn’t turn a professional eye and look away.  He investigated.

Can feelings be left at the door?

One management guru teaches that employees should be cautioned to “leave their feelings at the company door” when they arrive for work. How insensitive, lacking compassion, and very naïve.  As if you could even do that!

God calls us to be different; to be compassionate, sensitive, understanding, and interested. We are not called to be intrusive or invasive, but to be alert. Even as you face the challenges of a job search, this is your mandate.

You may meet many new people, touch base with many you haven’t seen in a while. Opportunities to connect are all around. Don’t just focus on your needs, your challenges, your search. Focus on other people as well; their needs, their challenges, their jobs.  You may find it rewarding even as Joseph did.

You may even find as you reach out to them, God will use them or others to reach out to you. You are not in this alone, and they aren’t in their lives alone either. You may be the window for grace and mercy they are thirsting for, and that God wants to provide.

Isn’t that an exciting prospect!

Dear Father, who knows me better than You?  You are sensitive and care about every aspect of my life.  May I exhibit the same care.

If you would like to explore working with a Christian centered Career Coach, Contact me for a no-obligation consultation and we can discuss your situation, what you would like to achieve, and structure your job search to fit your uniqueness.

I am also available to speak to groups.