According to a number of recently published reports, the job market is finally recovering. Is this an opportune time for you to take stock of your career? Whether you are an executive or a first line worker, what better time to reevaluate your work situation.

I know that for some of you the recovery can't happen soon enough. Over the past few years, there have been limited opportunities for advancement in many industries. This has been frustrating for a large number of people who view the recovering job market with guarded optimism. This article offers a two-phase process for capitalizing on this market, Analysis for Focus and Openness to Serendipity. Both of these phases can play an important role in helping you maximize today's career opportunities.

Analysis for Focus - Many an individual has made a different career situation worse by impulsively changing jobs. Take time to review your current career objectives and be careful of letting your emotions drive any important career decisions. First reassess your strengths and then determine the industries and companies worth pursuing.

• Reassess your strengths.
  It is difficult to manage your career without clearly understanding your strengths. To help make the most of this process, I recommend reading Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. The authors point out that only twenty percent of individuals working in large organizations feel that their strengths are in play every day. What about you? It is impossible to excel in a position that doesn't allow you to use your strengths at least eighty percent of the time. Now, Discover Your Strengths offers a free online survey to help you identify your strengths. With or without the survey, write down three of your top strengths and specific work accomplishments that will show how you have used these strengths. This work will pay off in your search and in subsequent job interviews.
• Determine what's hot and what's not.
  What are the hot industries where your goals can be achieved? A quick way to get up-to-date industry information is by going to websites such as www.bostonworks.com, www.industryweek.com and www.fastcompany.com. You can also go to Recommended Resources on our website for other helpful tools. Regular use of these websites will give you a good appreciation for industries that are booming.

  Once you have identified your target industry, begin to develop an "Ideal Company Profile." Make notes on the type of culture where you can thrive. Will it be structured or freewheeling, team focused or based on a "star system." What about organizational leadership? Nothing determines the culture of an organization more than its CEO. What would the profile of your preferred CEO look like? Will his or her background be in marketing, engineering or operations? How will this background impact the way the business is run.

The more upfront research and self-analysis you do, the better you will be at communicating your value to a prospective employer. Don't wait for the day of the interview and think you can wing it. That would be a prescription for disaster.

Openness to Serendipity - Have you ever asked a friend how he or she landed a new job, only to be told, "I got this call, and honestly, I wasn't even looking." My guess is that there is more to this story than your friend's abbreviated answer. In fact, this situation probably is an example of a serendipitous event. The origin of the word serendipitous comes from the ancient story of The Three Princes of Serendip. Their father, King Glaffer, sent the three princes on a prolonged journey throughout the Orient. While traveling they repeatedly experienced unexpected good fortune. In contemporary language, we refer to their experience as serendipitous events.

In you quest to capitalize on the recovering economy, I would encourage you to be open to serendipitous opportunities. Don't be locked-in to a narrow range of preconceived job possibilities. There are many new and exciting career options available to you, but first you must be open to the unusual and unexpected. These serendipitous opportunities are most likely to develop when you do the following:

• Look for ways to help others.
  The best networkers begin by helping others meet their professional needs. They understand that important relationships can't be instantly developed. These quintessential networkers learn as much as possible about the people they encounter. They frequently send these individuals articles of interest, book recommendations and job leads. Almost magically, serendipitous events eventually start to happen for them. What they put out comes full circle in ways unexpected.
• Be out and about.
  Serendipitous events will not happen if we never leave our offices. Neither will they happen if we insist on using the Internet as our sole method of seeking out jobs. Like the Three Princes of Serendip, by leaving the comfort and security of familiar surroundings, we will create the dynamics necessary to create unforeseen opportunities. Jump start this process by contacting former coworkers and making plans to get together. Next, locate professional association meetings to attend by checking out your regional business newspaper. In the Boston area we have the Boston Business Journal. Go to www.bostonbusinessjournal.com and click on Calendar for a wide assortment of meetings. The work you did in the analysis step will lead you to the most productive meetings.

The friend who appeared to fall into a job in the above scenario, most likely contributed to his or her good fortune by taking the steps described in this article. Please remember that analysis without action will only maintain the status quo. However, taking action without analysis is irresponsible and can lead to a more problematic job situation. To reach our career goals we need to employ both analysis and the steps necessary to create serendipity.

I'm interested in your success. If I can answer any questions related to this article or if you have a comment about the article, please let me know at mark.campbell48@verizon.net.

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Recommended Reading:

Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D., The Free Press, A Division of Simon and Schuster Inc., Hardcover, 2001. Based on the Gallup study of over two million people.

In your last performance review were you required to identify two or three weaknesses? Did you have an uneasy feeling that there was something terribly wrong about focusing on your weaknesses instead of your strengths? If you did, the authors of Now, Discover Your Strengths would agree with you. Their research shows that globally, only 20 percent of employees working in large organizations feel that their strengths are in play every day.

A key feature of this book is the online StrengthsFinder Profile, a product of a 25-year, multimillion-dollar effort to identify the most prevalent human strengths. Each book comes with a password to access the profile. The profile helps you determine where you have the greatest potential for using your strengths. It identifies, through a series of questions, your top five themes out of the thirty-four researched by the authors. If you are interested in building upon your strengths and managing around your weaknesses, then this book is for you.