6 Life-Changing Career Tips From The Co-Authors Of The Little Book To Land Your Dream Job

How do you land your dream job? Everyone’s thought or wished they knew the answer. Help is now on the way. Billy Clark and Clayton Apgar are the unconventional career experts and co-authors who just released the Little Book to Land Your Dream Job today.

Why now? Clark and Apgar, who have collectively counseled over 5,000 professionals on career development, job search and worked with many top-performing organizations worldwide share how, “Especially in this challenging moment, when so many have experienced professional upheaval, we wanted to give anyone and everyone the tools to find that next job, or figure out how to pivot to a new career.”

With their purpose to motivate and empower professionals of every stripe, especially young professionals, Clark and Apgar who have worked together for the past eleven years at Billy Clark Creative Management (BCCM) as authorities on talent acquisition and career strategy for the design and lifestyle industries, are doing for career development what Marie Kondo did for clutter, Gwyneth Paltrow did for lifestyle, and Ina Garten did for cooking with their very own 90,000-Hour rule.

Similar to Malcolm Gladwell quantifying “that the key to achieving world-class expertise in any skill, is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing the correct way, for a total of around 10,000 hours”, Clark and Apgar found that “each of us spends on average 90,000 hours at work during our lifetimes.” This is obviously a significant portion of our waking lives, and yet, the duo report that “80% of us say we are dissatisfied with what we do.”

That one key statistic is literally the jumping off point for their holistic, honest career advice designed for a cross generational audience from the twenty-five-year-old who doesn’t know what to do with their life, the thirty-five-year-old who realizes they are in a career they have never liked, the forty-five-year-old who has been laid off and needs a professional pivot, the fifty-five-year-old who realizes they need to stay professionally competitive, the sixty-five-year-old who, for the first time, has the opportunity to contemplate a legacy and discover a new path.

The co-authors outline how the first step in assembling your professional identity is to inventory four key elements: Interests, Attributes, Purpose, and Priorities advising “this as an audit of what makes you – YOU.” The messaging is particularly apt for women who are, according to Clark and Apgar, “pivoting and thinking about creative ways to work from home and take care of the kids or seek that balance and flexibility for a career or a job that makes more sense for one’s lifestyle moving forward.”

Utilizing a breezy, fun, encouraging yet honest approach, Clark and Apgar counsel, that your “professional identity reflects your professional DNA – your unique encoding of aptitudes and talents, methods of working and modes of thinking – and is the foundation of your working life. As a result, the right professional role is a gift, is liberating, and can improve the rest of your life. It is best to spend those hours doing something that is of interest, satisfying, and meaningful because everyone deserves the opportunity to be their best professional self as no good job lasts forever.”

To get you started on your new career path, the co-authors share six exclusive, essential tips for understanding who you are and how to land your dream job.

1. Attributes.The duo counsel that “the traditional ways of thinking about oneself as a professional are dated. Historically, most of us have learned to think in terms of qualifications. However, the sum total of what you bring to a role and to an employer is considerably more substantial. Consider a broader set of attributes – those defining characteristics that make you unique as a person and a professional. Think of these as the assets that an employer buys when hiring you. If you understand these attributes, you can direct your career and job search(es) accordingly, crafting your profile to emphasize your breadth and depth.

2. Casting. This is a fascinating insight. Clark and Apgar have observed that, “The truth is, hiring is casting, similar to what the entertainment industry does with actors for television shows and films. Not every actor, no matter how good, is right for every part. There are many characters Meryl Streep would tell you she absolutely should not – nor would want to – play. Try writing your own job descriptions. We find the most productive descriptions include buckets of responsibilities and tasks arranged by category. Envisioning such day-to-day functionality enables you to better map your professional identity onto a particular industry, and a particular role within that industry.”

3. Resume. Who hasn’t wondered in the course of job seeking and interviews how to properly craft their resume to attract their dream job? Clark and Apgar succinctly break it down by advising, “Always craft your resume for the role you want, not the role you have. In other words, it is a prospective, rather than a retrospective, document.”

The duo share that your resume “is a marketing tool – and the product is YOU. Relatable content is important. Projects, places and people are valuable conversation-starters in interviews, anything to which a reader might have a personal connection. Perhaps you spent time in Istanbul earlier in your career, which appears on your resume. If an interviewer also spent time there, that connection might be the most important detail in the whole document, establishing an easy rapport. And no typos. Period. Some hiring managers won’t call you for an interview if you have a single misspelling. (Principal, not principle!)”

4. Outreach. This is a key part of the entire process. The co-authors outline how, “A job search is a campaign, requiring a high level of organization and concerted outreach. It is up to you to proactively cultivate relationships and coordinate their involvement.” They always tell candidates: conversations never hurt. Put another way: talk to as many people as possible. Conversations yield knowledge, and knowledge is empowering. Most, in fact, won’t lead to anything concrete. Until one does. You simply never know when a conversation will become your next (dream) job.

5. Communication. This is great advice. Never say in two words what you can say in one. Clark and Apgar shared how,“ We have a tendency as humans when communicating professionally, to overwrite, over-speak, and overthink. With correspondence during a job hunt, ask yourself: is there a more concise way to phrase this same thought? The answer is (almost always) yes. And make sure to send a simple, well-constructed ‘thank you’ note after an interview. You may send a note in the mail as a supplement, but in our digital age, it’s important to send an email within 24 hours. You will never get a job solely because of a ‘thank you’ note, but you can lose one when you don’t send one.” They have seen it happen.

6. Interview. Finally and possibly most importantly, “an interview is a world unto itself. Both the atmosphere and expectations are heightened, which means our preparation and perspective need to be, as well. Approach an interview as your opportunity to ‘connect the dots’ on your resume. When you speak about your career, you are telling a story. Remember to think beyond the jobs. The jobs are the anchors, the themes are the substance.”

Perhaps the co-author’s most sage counsel is to remember, “We are our own best professional advocate. We owe it to ourselves to stay sharp, nimble and flexible. Once you are aboard at a new employer, do the work, earn respect, prove yourself invaluable. Then you’ll have leverage to more actively define your trajectory, responsibilities, and compensation.” It’s the best way to land and enjoy your dream job.