All You Need is Love… and a Dental Plan

You know what you want: something that will satisfy you intellectually, stimulate you and make sense for the long term. You know what you’re willing to invest and you’re hoping that your potential partner will meet you in the middle, striking a balance of mutual benefit. The search for love and a career, when broken down to their fundamentals, are surprisingly similar, as outlined in the new book Job Search = Love Search: 10 Savvy Career Strategies That Help You Find Love Too.

“You have to start with a love strategy or a career strategy,” explains Beth Carter, an executive recruiter and owner of Carter Consultants in Warren who co-wrote Job Search = Love Search with Ronnie Ann Ryan, a dating coach based out of Connecticut. “You need to write a resume or an online profile. Interviewing is the same as a first date. How do you handle that?”

Negotiations are similar as well. Salary requirements and concessions on the job side of things fall under the same umbrella as a person’s level of commitment and deal breakers in a relationship. When it comes to red flags, there’s a big one people should look out for in both cases: a good first impression.

“If a hiring manager is distracted, or you’re on a date and the person doesn’t start to engage from the onset, you don’t want to be with someone like that.”

When asked for a job search tip that people wouldn’t think to apply to dating, Beth offered a word of caution. “A lot of people go into a dating scenario and treat it like a job search, meaning that they ask a lot of questions they probably shouldn’t ask on a first date. That’s a big turn off. Yes, you’re looking to gather information, but you should take it in smaller steps than if you were conducting a job search.”