“I'm getting a new job.” You've been telling your family and friends this so many times they're ready to run away when you say it again. Reminders are on hand-scrawled notes on the refrigerator and clutter your iPhone calendar. What drove you to make this move has ranged over the years, but pick one: Your boss is a nightmare; your company is posting losses; you don't feel appreciated. Or on a more positive note, you know you've done amazing work and deserve a fantastic opportunity—the kind that Jane, your cheery neighbor, just got with seemingly half your effort. The thoughts won't leave your head: I'm going to get a new job. Today! I'm not kidding.

That means it's time to look in the bathroom mirror, splash some cold water on your face, and ask yourself:

Now what?

The Blunt Truth

Over the past several years I've received thousands of resumes, unsolicited and from people I don't know. And guess what: They rarely go anywhere. Most of the time, I don't even open the document. That might strike you as harsh or even unfair, but here's what I know about many other CEOs and senior executives: They're not opening your resume either.

This brings me back to our core advice to “lose the resume”—figuratively speaking. Of course, you need to have a resume. But you should keep your resume in perspective. Your resume alone won't land the next job for you, and it certainly won't advance your career along the trajectory that will get you where you truly want to go.

In fact, if you just send out resumes, you have already lost! Consider these statistics: Of the 250 resumes going out for every corporate job, the initial screening typically eliminates 98 percent of job seekers, and only 2 percent will even get an interview. These numbers don't make it into most resume-writing guides. Then again, this isn't meant to be another one of those books. This book serves a different purpose: to enlighten you about the rules of engagement—how to think, act, present yourself, and tell your unique story—so that you can win.

Make no mistake: Getting a job is the ultimate contest between you and every other candidate. Your mindset needs to be that of a true competitor. Ex-NBA star Allen Iverson said in his Hall of Fame induction speech that, as he learned in sports, “If it's me or you, it's me.” If your mindset is anything less, you're not going to achieve your goals. To win, you need a sense of urgency. Once you commit to making a career move, you must put yourself on a deadline. Act as if your job is going to be eliminated in six months! Suddenly, your whole mindset changes. You vow to take control of your professional destiny before it's too late. You have to act quickly, because another unspoken truth is this: It's better to have a job when you're looking for a new one. You become single-minded in your pursuit of the next opportunity. This includes, as you'll soon see, doing the hard work of looking within to assess your strengths and weaknesses, what motivates you, where you fit in, and the contributions you can make to your next employer.

I have to tell you that as a CEO, I always find that the candidates who show a great willpower and drive to land a job—and who avoid the inertia of searching lamely—are the ones who make great employees. Frankly, I would never want to hire someone who views work as just a job. I'm looking for people who equate work with meaning, with purpose—their life goals and destination. These are the 20 percent of people who account for 80 percent of what the organization accomplishes. They aren't going through the motions of what's required. They are invariably “all in,” because they equate their job with purpose.

What you've done is not what counts. Who you are and what you will do for them matter most.

So before you even think of your resume, you must first be introspective. That starts with knowing what you want and why you want it—what inspires and motivates you—and knowing which type of environment and culture will enable you to thrive.

Getting a Clue

Most people, however, have no idea what they really want or where they'd be best suited. On top of that, they lie—all the time and especially to themselves. Needless to say, this is not a winning combination.

Without a handle on your strengths and accomplishments, as well as an understanding of your blind spots, your weaknesses, and where you need to develop, you will lack clarity in the job search. The heart of the process is finding meaning—your passion and purpose. Far more than the proverbial “following your bliss,” passion and purpose ignite performance! This is an unbeatable combination—the motivation and inspiration that drives you to achieve.

I say all this because if you haven't been in the job market lately, you are in for a shock at how rigorously companies try to find truly motivated candidates—and sniff out the punch-the-clockers. I hear comments all the time about the hours upon hours of interviews and assessments companies now put people through. And then all the “I Spy” background checks, reference calls, and social-media snooping.

But these candidates don't realize just how much pressure companies are under to perform in today's business climate—and how critical good hiring has become. Slow-performing companies can be crushed by competitors that are able to use technology to scale up quickly, or eaten alive by activist investors whose aggressiveness and clout would have been unheard of just a decade ago. In this kind of world, there is no room to miss out on star hires and be stuck with the dregs because of a lousy hiring system.

You need to get in touch with what gets you up and excited at four o'clock in the morning without the alarm.

Our research finds that the cost of replacing a manager six to twelve months after he or she is hired is equal to 2.3 times the person's annual salary. For a senior executive, the replacement cost can well exceed $1 million. More important, companies know that the profits Wall Street wants to see each quarter are largely the product of what we like to call “discretionary energy,” basically the extra work and innovation only the most eager employees bring. You hear top executives say it all the time: If they can consistently stiff-arm the drifters and draft the dream team, the company is golden.

So trust me, any organization worth its name has a pretty good chance of finding out if you're a passionless dud—if that's who you are. And it won't matter if you have an amazing pedigree. The good news, however, is that there is passion in all of us, even if your last job squashed it.

My passion is being part of an organization that is transforming an industry. We are creating the new and the different as a people- and organizational-advisory firm. I get out of bed in the morning (before my alarm clock goes off) thinking about what we can do next to achieve our purpose.

In the same way, you need to get in touch with what gets you up and excited at four o'clock in the morning without the alarm. And don't think Millennials are the only ones motivated by purpose. As I've found in my interactions with people at all levels of organizations (including the one I lead), most desire meaning in what they do. Our research backs this up. In a recent survey of professionals by Korn Ferry, nearly three-quarters (73 percent) cited “work that has purpose and meaning” as their primary driver. When purpose is your motivator, it becomes authentic and tangible in the story you tell about your career thus far, and where you're headed.

Smart companies that have purpose aren't afraid to pound their chest about it and seek only truly purpose-driven employees. (And by the way, be suspicious of those companies that say they have purpose but don't seem to be following through.) The CEO of a large industrial company made this same point as we discussed talent. In on-campus recruiting, on the company's career website, and in every interview for positions at every level, the core message is purpose. This company does not see itself as only manufacturing complex industrial equipment. It sees itself as literally and authentically changing the world by tackling some of the most pressing problems on the planet, from access to electricity to global climate change. If a job applicant doesn't have a genuine passion for the company's overarching purpose, then that person isn't a fit for the culture—no matter how good the person's technical skills are.

When Passion and Purpose Go Missing

Purpose. Passion. These are two pretty big P words, and realizing how critical they are in today's “lose the resume” job-hunting era means doing a gut check on your own level of passion. Without strong doses of passion and purpose, it is nearly impossible to be a positive outlier. Performance is mediocre, at best. People without passion and purpose are the inverse of the top performers. They are the 80 percent who accomplish 20 percent. They don't take enough time to figure out what really satisfies them. When they do manage to get a new job, it usually is one they don't like much better than the one they had before. It's a paycheck, they tell themselves. They're bored and apathetic.

Do you have any of the symptoms of a passionless career (page 29)? There are, of course, other symptoms. Perhaps one of the more serious ones is bad health. It's true that people devoted to work may eat more junk food, sleep less, and miss the post-work trip to the gym. But aren't they typically the ones who find the time to recoup? Maybe they're up before the crack of dawn—no snooze alarms here!—to get in those five miles and prepare organic chicken salad for lunch. Putting it bluntly, they have the will to live well, and that passion follows them throughout their day.

You must have a genuine passion for your employer's overarching purpose. If not, you'll be only a worker.

Whatever the symptoms, a passionless career can lead you into the temptation of quitting. If it does, don't! Job gaps and career interruptions are major red flags for employers. Stay where you are and don't jump at the first thing to come along. If you do, you'll be mired in those same ten symptoms within six months!

The Boss Problem

If you want to jump ship because of a bad boss, don't do it. Let's face it, about 50 percent of people have trouble with their bosses. It's so common that in my business we say people don't leave companies; they leave bosses. The frequent complaints include: The boss doesn't give feedback, doesn't recognize people for what they do, bases promotions more on personality than performance, and so on. All these may be well founded, but here's some advice I like to give: Having a bad boss can actually be a valuable learning experience. In fact, it is the best way to learn what not to do and how not to act. The consolation is that you never stay with one boss very long. The boss will move, or you will.

But whether it's harsh feelings about a bad boss or boredom or any other negative emotion that becomes your catalyst for trying to get a new job, you're almost guaranteed to make a wrong move. You need to move toward something, not just away from something.

This brings me to a candidate whom I must sadly refer to as “Startup Zach.”

The Tale of Startup Zach

A friend of mine, Jen, brought Startup Zach—as we can call him—to my office one day. By the time he came in, I could only wish we had a time machine, because he was a year too late. Worst of all, he knew it.

Startup Zach had spent most of his career in large financial institutions—highly structured, hierarchical firms. He did well, and his career progressed over the years, but he kept hearing from Jen, who was his neighbor, about a great startup she joined. The more Zach listened to her talk about launching and scaling a business, the more he wanted to try something new. He convinced himself that he, too, was entrepreneurial and could excel in a “flat” organization.

If only he had taken the time to look deeply within himself and recognize what had made him successful where he was. If only he'd talked to a former boss or mentor who could have given him feedback about trying to make such a drastic career move. If only he had done a self-assessment to understand his motivation and his leadership style. Instead, he began moving away from something that was working and became fixated on something he knew nothing about.

Zach was adamant that it was time for a change and startups were the only way to go. Give him credit for one thing: He did a complete makeover, wearing his hair a little longer and dressing down his wardrobe as much as he could at work. He consumed everything he could about the startup world, about incubators and accelerators. He became an expert on Jeff Bezos.

Jen cautioned him: The startup world wasn't as glamorous as he was making it out to be. It wasn't all hoodies and high fives. And it was so different from what he was used to. But Zach wouldn't listen. He convinced himself that his company had held him back. Unfortunately for Zach, he didn't really know himself or his true passion and purpose. He forgot how much he valued hierarchy and boundaries. He overlooked the comfort he found in the clear delineation between roles and responsibilities.

If only Zach had taken time to look in the mirror to see exactly who he was.

Ultimately, Zach networked his way into a job at a startup—and found out pretty quickly how wrong he was. His first day on the job, the office was half empty. He thought it might have been a holiday he wasn't aware of. But when he asked a coworker—someone half his age dressed in jeans and a hoodie—where everyone was, he got a shrug for an answer. Even the executive team, he soon learned, preferred to work virtually.

And then there was lunch—literally wheeled in and set up cafeteria style. Everyone ponied up in a line. “How long has this been going on?” Zach asked, trying to fathom the expense of feeding the entire office every day. “Free food all day,” one of his new coworkers said, misunderstanding the question. “You know where the snack closet is?”

While there was undoubtedly a lot of talent in the room, Zach felt he was the only grownup. (In actuality, his lack of self-awareness, which led him to pursue a job that was a poor fit for him, showed his immaturity.)

The hardest part of all was trying to get things done. Zach struggled every day with the ambiguity of the entrepreneurial environment, where jobs and responsibilities often blurred. Without a structure and clear lines of communication, Zach became highly ineffective. After a few days, he woke up from the dream he'd lulled himself into and realized the startup world was a terrible fit for him. There was no one at the startup who was like him, no one who spoke his language. The company knew it, too.

Startup Zach lasted two and a half months. Although he was allowed to resign, the truth is he was fired. That's when he came to see me. “How do I deal with this on my resume?” he asked. And my heart sank.

Zach had indeed dug himself a hole, and it would take a long time and a lot of excavation to get out. The lesson he learned, albeit too late, was he'd forgotten his core values. He ignored the fact that he is best suited to a large, well-established company.

The first thing I advised Zach to do was get in touch with his passion and purpose—what really inspires and motivates him. To do that, we put him through a self-assessment (such as the exercises and assessments in Chapters Two and Three of this book). Based on what the self-assessment showed him, Zach more clearly understood the story he had to tell. It revealed that Zach thrived in a structured environment with clear boundaries, and that he had difficulty managing in ambiguity. It explained a lot about why he was so frustrated by the startup environment.

Realizing at last what he truly wanted, Zach took eight months to get back on track, which hurt him financially and strained his marriage. He ended up back in financial services, a step below where he was before. This is another negative he'll have to overcome, because future employers will want to see career progression, not regression.

But Zach learned the lesson the hard way. Without self-awareness and self-knowledge, he became a prime example of why you should, as the adage says, “Be careful what you wish for.” He became the victim of a wish he never should have made. It sounds basic perhaps, but Zach simply didn't understand who he was.

The Wrong Reasons to Look for Work

As this sad tale illustrates, people can end up on job searches for incredibly random reasons. What might have happened if Jen was in the STEM business, and Startup Zach became hell-bent on getting into that field, going back to grad school and running up a huge debt in his forties? But to some degree, all this randomness is how many of us, unfortunately, make a lot of decisions in life—and with equal chance of disaster. The best but most uncomfortable analogy is marriage.

In the United States, if 100 couples marry, chances are only 40 to 50 of them will stay together over time. Oddly, the “divorce rate” among new hires and their employers is about the same. Studies show that nearly half (46 percent) of new hires fail within the first eighteen months. The reason cited in nearly nine out of ten cases is “attitude”—a broad term that implies someone was uncooperative or in general didn't “get it.” In other words, there was cultural incompatibility.

Our research shows that technical skills alone are not enough for success. You have to fit with the culture. Of course, the majority of people hired want to do well. But they can't, because they feel little or no connection with where they work and what they do. Without passion and purpose, performance can only suffer. That's why people fail—particularly those in more senior positions.

Here is another corollary between the failure of marriages and jobs: People don't know what they want or what suits them best. They aren't self-aware. Often, poor career moves come down to your “job clock” ticking. You've been in one place for X number of years, and suddenly you panic and think you have to make a move. But without a game plan, you jump at the first job, without having thought it through. That's about as wise as deciding to marry the next available person who walks down the street. You'll be heading for the divorce lawyer before you unwrap all the wedding presents.

Or like Zach, you go chasing after an ill-suited opportunity, without evaluating how compatible you and this new position really are. You might be able to pretend for a while that you really do fit in the wrong environment—a round peg happy in a square hole. But before too long, a bad fit rubs in all the wrong places.

Don't do this to yourself. Make moves that are best suited to you—your passion and your purpose. This will elevate your performance. Work in a culture where you fit, and work for a boss you not only like but will also learn from.

The Right Reasons to Look

Many people may not have thought seriously about passion and purpose in terms of their career. Maybe they found it hard to get a job out of college because their skill set was not in demand. Or maybe they were laid off during the Great Recession that followed the 2008 financial crisis and getting any job took precedence over worrying about passion. But that doesn't mean you can't change your career strategy this time around.

It's time to heed the wake-up call and get serious about your career development. For you to improve your chances of being successful—of tapping deep motivations that will be the engine driving your performance—you need to think more deeply about your passion and purpose. This means that before you take one step externally—by polishing your resume or putting feelers out to your network—you must do the hard work internally.

Instead of looking to make a jump and land somewhere, you need to be strategic. . . . Think several moves ahead.

You need greater self-awareness and self-knowledge of what resonates deeply within. Otherwise you'll go at the career equation without knowing what “X” really is. You'll be solving for the wrong variable, which most of the time means a slightly different title and a little more money. You won't know that at the core of your being, you're hungry to make more of an impact.

When the bell goes off, instead of looking to make a jump and land somewhere, you need to be strategic. This isn't a roll of the dice. It's a game of chess. Think several moves ahead. Your next job should be a “resume builder” that continues a progression of more responsibilities and leading bigger teams. But this will happen only if you're willing to do the hard work. (Get ready for the next chapter, which covers this!) You need to know who you are, what motivates you, and what value you bring. After all, this isn't just a job we're talking about. It's your future.