Lucia Knight
A Joy At Work Experiment: How to Break the Cold Job Application Cycle
If you find yourself spending a lot of time looking at job adverts, what that suggests is that your personal network isn't strong enough to fill the remainder of your career with work that brings you joy. That might be a little bit harsh, but if this is the landscape, what can you do about it this week?
If you're spending valuable hours scrolling job boards or hitting the apply button on cold LinkedIn applications, it's time to rethink your job-seeking approach.
Why?
Because 75% of senior positions are filled through personal connections, not public posts. We could argue about that exact percentage, but the truth is clear, the majority of senior roles are secured before anyone ever thinks about posting a job advertisement.
So, if you find yourself spending a lot of time looking at job adverts, what that suggests is that your personal network isn't strong enough to fill the remainder of your career with work that brings you joy.
That might be a little bit harsh, but if this is the landscape, what can you do about it this week?
[00:30] Rethinking Cold Job Applications
[01:39] The Joy At Work Experiment - Plant 10 Seeds
[01:57] Build Your Work Network
[03:10] Expanding Beyond Work Connections
[04:34] Nurturing Genuine Connections
The Joy At Work Experiment
Your joy at work experiment this week is to plant 10 seeds in your professional network garden.
And I’m not talking about the people who you think could be most valuable to you in the future. I’m talking about those people who bring a smile to your face. The people you can create a long-lasting human connection with.
Investing in these relationships will carry you beyond the endless cycle of cold applications into a career that flourishes with joy, freedom, and real genuine connection.
Here’s how you do it:
Step 1. Start with your work network.
Take ten minutes to identify five humans, from your career so far, who bring a genuine smile to your face. Think of colleagues you clicked with, mentors who inspired you, clients whose personality brightened your day, or connections whose talent made your work easier or more enjoyable, because these are your people.
Step two. Go beyond your work connections.
List five humans outside your direct work circle. Now these are humans, you know, through hobbies, sports, social circles, or even family with whom you enjoy talking about your or their work with. These connections form the foundation of your broader supportive garden network.
Next Steps:
If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my Life Satisfaction Assessment. It's a 30-minute program where I guide you through a deep dive into 10 areas of your life to assess what's bringing you joy and what's bringing you down. I call it Derailed and it's a fabulous place to begin a joy-at-work redesign.
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How to break the cold application cycle - A joy at work experiment
You're busy, yeah? There's never enough time to focus on your future work happiness. But if you don't focus on it, things just stay the same, don't they? In these short episodes, I wanna give you some tiny ideas, some mini experiments to try out this week to either dial down a pain point for you at work or dial up your potential for joy at work.
Let's dive in.
Lucia Knight: If you're spending valuable hours scrolling job boards or hitting the apply button on cold LinkedIn applications, it's time to rethink your approach. Why? Well, because 75 percent of senior positions are filled through personal connections, not public posts. We could argue. About that exact percentage, but the truth is clear, the majority of senior roles are secured before anyone ever thinks about posting a job advertisement.
So, if you find yourself spending a lot of time looking at job adverts, What that suggests is that your personal network isn't strong enough to fill the remainder of your career with work that brings you joy. That might be a little bit harsh. Maybe, but as a former headhunter with nearly two decades of senior board recruitment experience, I've seen these trends up close.
So if this is the landscape, what can you do about it this week. In your joy at work experiment this week, I want you to invest 10 minutes deciding some of the core people who are in your personal human network. Now grab a piece of paper or a post it note and let's get into it.
Step 1. Start with your work network.
Take ten minutes to identify five humans, just five, from your career so far, who bring a genuine smile to your face. Think of colleagues you clicked with, mentors who inspired you, or clients whose personality brightened your day, or connections whose talent made your work easier or more enjoyable, because these are your people.
To give you a little bit more direction, think about old bosses, former peers, current internal clients, past external clients, that person you really clicked with at that event. Your contact in the advertising agency or the auditing firm or the consulting firm with whom you really got on. The former board member that you always used to have a few drinks with after the strategy day, or the guy that you trained a decade ago, or the colleague from the different division that you went through that awfully painful presentation course with.
Step two. Now go beyond your work connections.
List five humans outside your direct work circle. Now these are humans, you know, through hobbies, sports, social circles, or even family with whom you enjoy talking about your or their work with. These connections form the foundation of your broader supportive garden network.
For example, a sister in law who works in the NHS, an organization that fascinates you, or a friend who has just joined a startup AI business. A parent friend, maybe, who keeps you company on the edge of the muddy sports pitch, who seems to enjoy his work. A member of your swimming club who works in the same industry.
What about the recovering workaholic who's always experimenting with work life balance? Or the guy you share book recommendations with at the Friday night wine tasting, crisp eating, chess, pole dancing class. Now, a little warning here. In both these categories, we are not talking about the people who you think could be most valuable to you in the future.
That isn't what we're doing here. That isn't true, long lasting human connection making.
Now imagine these genuine humans, these genuine human connections as seeds in your professional network garden. When nurtured, these are people who recommend you to their personal connections, who pass along news of unadvertised opportunities and other moral support.
When your role is Made redundant or your company falters. Your joy at work experiment this week is to plant 10 seeds in your professional network garden. Just 10 humans who bring a smile to your face. Investing in these relationships will carry you beyond the endless cycle of cold applications into a career that flourishes with joy, freedom, and real genuine connection.
If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my Life Satisfaction Assessment. It's a 30 minute program where I guide you through a deep dive into 10 areas of your life to assess what's bringing you joy and what's bringing you down. I call it D Railed. It's a fabulous place to begin a joy at work redesign.
