Tennis is about skill, stamina, understanding the rules and understanding the mind of the other player, Job Hunting is not much different!!! It’s about knowing your skill set, working your strong points and playing them up in your resume, knowing the things you need to work on, having the mental and physical stamina necessary through your job search and knowing the opponent, in the case of the maybe future employer this means knowing what they want and knowing the competition can certainly  help.

Tennis requires knowing your opponents mind and how your game will affect him or her, Job hunting is about getting to know the employer and how your ‘game’ that you have to offer will affect them . A job seeker needs to learn the effect of the game they play i.e. their resume!! Judging by the effects, does it irritate or please, you will certainly see the effects of the ‘game’ you are playing, are you winning or losing, but even if you are losing, never give up.

Both tennis and job hunting require very high levels of concentration and if you are struggling with distractions in your job search while desperately needing to ‘win’ a job, just like winning a Tennis Match then you need to do something to help you be able to concentrate better on your job search. I have written before about how looking for a job IS a job.

Once you have really got to grips with your mind-set for the job hunt ahead of you like in a tennis match, then you are better able to read the mind of another and in the case of job hunting, this means better understanding what the hirer wants, as will be seen in the job offer.  

Yesterday in my article about leadership, I wrote about how appearances do matter, sadly it does not matter how good a leader or employee you may be if you do not look like what is needed for the job.

Appearance is often seen as a sign of state of mind. A not so good tennis player is going to hit the ball but with not a lot of idea at all of the strategy needed to win, a good one on the other hand has a strong well developed game plan, just like a job seeker needs.  A not well disciplined tennis player hits the ball and runs around the court, but has no real system in place, just like a not very effective job hunter, who has little or no idea what employers are looking for…and does not know how to play the game.

Both a good tennis player and a good job seeker have a purpose ...to win. if you know someone who gets every job that they apply for then pick their brains and get some advice. Think of the competition you will have when applying for jobs as a competitor in a tennis match and raise your mental approach to the highest it can be, find out all you can about the business and view your resume and cover letter and certainly an interview if you get one, as your game plan.

Tennis players make great shots and miss shots too, if you keep missing the shots, i.e. not getting jobs then go back to the game plan and revise it.

In a tennis match, one player may well be better than another but chance may mean that both as the match starts have an equal chance, what wins or not is the game they play.  When you apply for a job along with all the others that do, until the hirer reads the resumes, everyone has an equal chance, so you need to make sure that your game plan, your resume or CV is the best in order to win the match.

Valerie Hartland