Career Ideas

Making a career change typically takes time, creative thinking and great support.  Here are 5 tips that cover the most basic elements of success for launching a new and better career.

1.  Know where you’d like to go–not just where you don’t want to be.

Often people know what they don’t want in a job, especially if it’s a current job where the boss demands way too much.  But you need to find out what you do want besides the end of that problem.  What positive things would you like in your career and job?  What would you love to do?

2. To be creative, get a structure for your creativity.  In other words, get a plan.

Just going by the seat of your pants toward some long-term vision can be fun…until you hit a big bump.  Designing a business card and finding your first consulting client, for instance, may seem the quick way forward.  But for long-term goals, this approach usually winds up getting you even more bogged down and confused as soon as something goes wrong.  While you need to be able to jump at opportunities that arise unexpectedly, you can do that best within a basic structure.  A map of your journey.  A plan.

3.  Add deadlines to the plan (or lifelines to pull you forward).

Plans go nowhere without clear timelines, even if you need to constantly adjust them.  They give you perspective, create order, hold you accountable.  In some ways it’s like college or high school.  You didn’t study for the test until the night before.  Why?  There was a deadline.

4.  Get help—Develop your support network

• A Success Partner–someone to hold you accountable for what you want to do and agree to do
• People who can be a sounding board–a few opinions about your bigger ideas or ways of moving forward–your board of directors for the career change
• People who can give you information on what the career you want is actually like and how you can break into it successfully–make sure you are interviewing each of them to find out just what you need to know that you can’t find out by researching online
• People who can help you remain motivated –who believe in you and help you believe in yourself
• Mentors or advice givers–for when you need specific ideas about something directly in the career field you want to move into

Don’t worry—you probably have most of these people in your community of support already.  You just have to ask them when needed.

5.  Be persistent

If you have a vision you really want to achieve, persistence in spite of difficulties becomes a lot easier, so we’re back to number one.

Tech and social media guru Seth Godin just wrote a blog post on who will save publishing…or newspapers. His answer in a nutshell—no one will save things as they are, and therefore no one will save the jobs as they are. He wrote: “We need to get past this idea of saving, because the status quo is leaving the building, and quickly. Not just in print of course, but in your industry too.”

A depressing statement. And flip. And apparently callous as jobs are a bit more than categories to eliminate in the name of social or technological or any other kind of progress.

But his point is a good one—as he concludes, “no saving is needed to save the joy of reading…” In other words, what people really care about will continue and in new, hopefully, more powerful ways.

So what does this mean for you in whatever job or career you have?

Your Main Career Mission–the Big Career Idea

It means you need to recognize what you are really about at work beyond your job title and listed duties. You are not about project management or accounting or in my case, coaching.  Those are convenient labels. But you’re about how you are contributing and love to contribute through work. If instead of seeing yourself as project manager, you see yourself as the person who gets information and people working together in some way for some result, then your career may change, but it isn’t about to disappear. It will only change in the tools you can use and the industries where you may be using them.

If you’re in marketing—there’s been remarkable changes in the tools available and in the entire model of how to engage and reach possible customers or clients. These range from Adwords to Twitter to giving products to people who influence their groups. If you only know about magazine and newspaper ad placement, you are indeed in trouble. But if you understand you are about connecting people to products and engaging people emotionally through creative use of resources–and you keep updating your skills to match that mission, then you are not going to be just kicked out the door as obsolete.

In my case, I help people get unstuck, get motivated, get a vision. I help them solve problems to make their vision real regarding careers. If career coaching becomes a passé idea, I do not necessarily need a new lifework mission. That’s because people have always gotten stuck, lost their way and motivation, and thrived when they have a vision. I just need to continue to help people resolve those problems in a new way that fits the times.

The key to all this is a clear mission, a lifework statement that can act as a rudder so you don’t get away from what you love. That rudder can also keep guiding you to any new skills you need to learn. If you go beyond your job description this way, and understand what you’re really doing and accomplishing, you’ll stay motivated, and you will keep up with technology and changing industries. You won’t need saving, either.

If you don’t yet have a clear Lifework Statement or sense of career purpose and direction, contact me about ways I might help you get there.

Technorati Tags: career ideas

Avoid These Mistakes Preparing for Job Interviews

It’s easy to overprepare or underprepare for a job interview.  Here are 4 mistakes to avoid if you want to properly prepare with the least amount of stress.

Mistake 1.
Trying to prepare answers to all the questions you can imagine.

There are no end to questions.  Some are common–tell me about yourself.  Where do you see yourself in 5 years…  Others are not.  If you look on websites with helpful lists of questions, you are likely to find 20, 30, 50 or more questions–most pretty good.  But forget about that.  Instead, focus mostly on preparing a few, solid, relevant stories that can be used to answer lots of questions.  Just make sure there are stories for key categories of questions.

Mistake 2.
Not having questions to ask about the specific company

If you can’t name the company’s products or services and come up with a few questions about them or about the company, your apparent lack of interest will result in a very real lack of job offers.

Recently, a client of mine mentioned a few key points about a tech company’s key product.  The interviewer then proceeded to quiz her to see if she could answer questions about the product that a customer might ask.  She knew it all.  She got the job. It wasn’t a very hard thing to do.  All she had done was read through the company’s website.  Not too much to expect from a potential employee.

Mistake 3.
Thinking it’s all about you.

The opposite is true.  Yes, you want to come off as wonderful.  But wonderful means you are meeting the needs of the people in the company.  That’s right.  It’s all about THEM.  What do they need?  How can you benefit them more than the other zillion applicants?

This relates back to overcoming mistake number 2, knowing about the company so you can say how you will help solve some of its problems or challenges (backed up by proof using one of the stories you prepared as mentioned in how to overcome mistake number 1).

Mistake 4.
Thinking interviews are all about having the right answers

Your resume and cover letter probably had enough of the right answers in the sense of showing you possess the right requirements.  Now is the time to focus on making a strong, positive connection with your interviewers.  If you can answer all the questions intelligently but seem distant or disinterested, you won’t be hired.  You need to relate to the people as people. The  content, while very important, is still secondary to showing you are a person who people will want to be with and work with 40 hours a week.

Technorati Tags: career coach, job interview, jobseeking

If you are unhappy, then you are, unfortunately, not alone.  Only 45% of Americans are satisfied with their work. That was the lowest level recorded by the Conference Board research group in more than 22 years of studying the issue.

While income and health benefits were major factors in this, a key finding was that only 51% now find their jobs interesting — another low in the survey’s 22 years. In 1987, nearly 70% said they were interested in their work.  The researchers noted that lack of interest leads to lack of innovation, which further hurts the US economy.  Unhappiness at work in other studies has been connected with health issues.

When I read these kinds of statistics, I always wonder why.

Why are so many people staying in jobs that don’t satisfy or interest them?  Of course, I realize, especially now, the answer may be financial.  But my experience with clients tells me that this rarely if ever excludes starting to plan and take action toward long term (or short term) change.

One reason people get stuck and don’t change is that they get caught in a negative cycle with all-or-nothing thinking.  Either I stay in a lousy job that I don’t like but get some financial security or I go broke looking for something wonderful that may not happen. That may seem a bit extreme, but I would suggest if you don’t like your work, then you look at your own thinking and see if it doesn’t boil down to this kind of belief.

If so, take an alternative approach.  Use your current situation as a stable base to start planning and taking actions to move toward your dream job and career.  You don’t have to immediately quit your current job or job search in most cases.  Figure out what you’d love to do and either start applying for those kinds of jobs now or taking other actions to make that possible (volunteer in related activities, take classes, etc.)

In other words, don’t make yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place.  There are places between staying where you are and ditching it for a completely risky unknown future.  But you ‘ll never find out what those places are, let alone how close you can get to that exciting but risky future if you keep thinking how unsatisfied you are while assuming it’s too risky to change.

I couldn’t resist writing a post today, having just read an inspiring article about the artist Carmen Herrera.   It seems Herrera has been a serious painter since the 1930s. Now at age 94, she’s suddenly famous, having had her first museum show 5 years back when she was a youthful 89.  Her “secret”: persistence borne of her love for painting.

In spite of more recent evidence, I think there remains the idea that if you don’t make it in your field by 30 or 40, you really can’t expect success. Now, if you’re trying out for the New York Yankees or most ballet companies (a few seem to be including older dancers), you can assume that before 40 you will definitely know if you are going to have the success you may have wanted.

But for most fields not dependent on an extremely high level of physical skills and performance, you may not need to give up on your dreams at any given age.  You may need to find other work for financial reasons–and that work can also be passionate, meaningful work, perhaps in a related field.  But you can also keep working on your dream goals part time in one way or another.

In Herera’s case, she never quit painting. She didn’t run after success, but kept doing her art with her vision, not making any attempt to fit the latest trends.   “I do it because I have to do it; it’s a compulsion that also gives me pleasure,” she said in a New York Times article  (read the full article here).  There’s the key–not whether others accept you for what you love, but your own sense of needing, loving to do something.

But there’s another secret less celebrated in our culture.  Herrera’s success like everyone else’s is also dependent on a support network, in spite of all the myths about individual triumph.   For instance, Herrera knew other artists and was supported always by her husband of 61 years (a NYC schoolteacher).  That network of supporters were also persistent.  In fact, the person who created a turning point for her, the artist Tony Bechera, had been a booster of hers since the 1970’s but only in 2004 did Bechera make a connection that led to the big break for Herera.

An artist had dropped out of a show of geometric female painters.  Bechera told the director of the museum with the show that he needed to add Herrera.  That director had never heard of her, but was convinced to look at her work and was amazed.  She was put in the show, and now some of her paintings are being sold for 40 thousand dollars.

The ’secret’ of persistence is hardly unique to Herrera.  In fact, it is ensconced in traditional sayings and lore.  According to the NY Times article, Bechara toasted Herrera recently with a Puerto Rican saying:

“The bus — la guagua — always comes for those who wait.”

Herrera responded “Well, Tony, I’ve been at the bus stop for 94 years!”

Marketers need a targeted niche, but they also know their products and services need to stand out from other products in their niche.

You need the same approach whenever you are looking for a job or a promotion.  You need to make  yourself stand out as well in order to get a job in highly competitive fields.  Or to move ahead in an organization.  Or to help you define yourself for your own needs.

One traditional way to do this that still works is to go the extra mile for others.  Do just one or two more things (or one or two things to a higher level) than the typical person would do to complete your job tasks.

The only difference is that traditionally, this idea was often about working extra hard with extra hours, no matter how much you hated the extra work.  That’s not how I’m suggesting you do this.

Examples

Going the extra mile is what I’ve been seeing lately when I go to one food store where staff literally put down whatever they are doing and help customers find products or easily return items.  They walk you to the exact spot a product should be rather than just point and tell you aisle 5 on the left, can’t miss it.  They talk with you like a person and not someone to get rid of as quickly as possible.

I’ve talked to some of the staff there about their work, and it seems clear to me that they enjoy their work more because they do this, and it’s not a problem with their management.   In this case, the entire store stands out and is branding itself, but each person working there has learned a valuable lesson they can take anywhere and be a star performer.

Going the extra mile is when you’re in IT and really love to communicate your ideas to non-techies, so you figure out clever new ways to communicate all that geeky stuff by creating presentations that people understand and enjoy.  That can be your brand, how you go an extra mile to stand out.

For example, one person makes up silly presentations about tech subjects that do take him a little extra time over the usual boring talks, but he loves the creativity and performance elements, so it seems like LESS work and effort and MORE FUN.  It also means he is the go-to guy when presentations need to be handled.  This in turn means he gets to do more of them, which is a way he likes to spend his time.

Going the extra mile is being at a networking event and instead of just promoting yourself, you help others to network better.  It takes no more time.  It can be a lot of fun.  You can also relax more because you aren’t selling or pushing yourself.   You’ll also receive support and appreciation (in other words, you become more memorable than if you just self-promoted).  You can also take that approach to work trying to connect others and become branded as the go-to connector person.

Work Happier, Not Just Harder or Longer

To summarize, whatever you do, don’t just come up with things to make you work longer hours and drain your energy. We have plenty of that in our society. Going the extra mile by working overtime and hoping it will be appreciated is often a recipe for frustration and resentment.

So what should you do?
1. Brainstorm a dozen ways you could do something more than you’re now doing.  Have fun with it.  Ask others. These could be things you do once in a while or everyday things

2. Think about which you’d enjoy doing and would benefit others and your own performance.

3. Choose 1 or 2 ways, trying not to eat into your already busy schedule too much.  Don’t take over part of someone else’s job tasks or do something that clearly is showing up someone else.

4. Start doing it and see how you feel and how much what you’re doing is helping.

5. Jot down what you did and the results. This will add to your sense of accomplishment and will remind you later in detail if you need to draw on stories for presenting yourself during job searches or for promotions or to simply give yourself a motivating boost.

6. See if these activities start to help you rethink your brand, what you offer others, what you want to most do during work hours.  Maybe you are that geek who finds that making funny PowerPoints is what you really want to do.  You then create a job or consulting business around that.

7. Incorporate your successes into stories for job interviews, performance reviews, cover letters. Use your examples to show how you shine at work and aren’t just another reasonably competent, nice employee. Show how you have taken initiative. Ask references if they might include these positive actions in their recommendations.

Let me know what you try and how it works out!

THINKING OF CAREER COACHING?  Here’s what you need before the first session to assure success.

In my coaching practice (including leadership as well as career coaching), I find the greatest success comes when clients come to coaching prepared in three ways. 

The 3 factors for success:

1.  Commitment to action and change
2.  Time to do the work
3.  Clarity about what you want from coaching

COMMITMENT
You can be doubtful or frustrated.  You can be fearful of change.  But if you are committed, you will typically be able to get through all these obstacles either alone or with the support of a good coach.

TIME
I don’t have a set number of hours someone needs to work each week between sessions to succeed.  Everyone is different.  Every situation unique.  That’s what’s so fascinating and useful about coaching–it’s not a cookie cutter approach.  But you are probably wasting a lot of good money if you don’t do some homework between sessions, enough to make noticeable progress and generate new questions for your sessions. 

CLARITY
If you don’t know what you want how will you get it?  You can use early coaching sessions to refine, clarify or reshape your goals.  But do as much prework on this as possible.

How ready are you?  Answer the 3 questions now:

1. On a scale of 1–10 how would you rate your commitment to succeeding with your career goals?
2. How much time would you devote each week to achieving those goals?
3. What is your primary goal right now?

If you had an 8, 9 or 10 for the first question, at least a few hours per week for the second (more if it’s working on a complex career plan), and you have a specific goal you want to accomplish, you are a great candidate for success with coaching if that’s what you decide to do. 

If not, and you feel you’d like to move ahead, try asking yourself these questions:

1. What’s holding you back on your commitment?
2. How you can find more time or prioritize career matters higher
3. What do you really want with your career/job? What help do you need to get there?

Answering those you will be ready to move ahead solo or with professional support.

© 2009 Leonard Lang

Technorati Tags: career_coaching_Minneapolis career_ideas coaching_success

Note from Leonard: From time to time, experts with something great to say ask if they can be included on this blog.  When their information will complement and add to the ongoing discussion here, I am excited to present them. Today’s post is from Rose Jensen about how college students can truly benefit from an internship. Rose offers a great list of specific tips.  These are mostly pretty simple to do yet can yield a lot of information and future benefit (plus make your internship more engaging and fun).

As a college student, one of the most valuable ways you can prepare for your career is to get an internship. Even if your internship doesn’t lead to the exact career path you end up choosing, you’ll gain hands-on professional experience, make contacts in the industry, learn a new set of marketable skills, and prove your reliability and commitment. Internships are also great ways to explore a field and determine whether or not you’d like to continue in that industry after graduation. But before you get too complacent just because you’ve been selected for an internship, check out these 10 tips for making sure you make the most out of your experience.

1.    Show up on time. Being punctual gets you huge points in the dependability department, and if you’re always available whenever your boss needs you, you can expect a great recommendation letter when you leave.

2.    Get to know everyone in the office. You might feel intimidated at first, but make a point to chat a little with each person in the office as a way of learning more about the industry and building up your contacts.

3.    Ask questions. Internships are learning experiences, so the more questions you ask about the industry in general and your specific to-do list, can only help.

4.    Set goals. Determine what you want to get out of the internship and set goals for achieving it. With a more focused outlook, you’ll be more efficient at achieving your goals.

5.    Be positive. Don’t kid yourself: interns often have to schlep papers, get coffee and do a lot of filing. Just be grateful that you’ve got something to add to your resume and an inside look at the job you may one day have.

6.    Take on more tasks. Even if it isn’t offered, don’t be afraid to take on greater responsibility and help out more in general if you can handle it. You’ll meet more people and demonstrate your capability.

7.    Send a thank you note. After your last day, send thank you notes to everyone you worked with in the office. It’s not always necessary, but going beyond what’s expected will ensure you leave on a positive note.

8.    Attend special events. Offer to help out at special events to increase your exposure and networking opportunities.

9.    Be professional. Even though everyone recognizes you’re still the college kid, acting professionally and as if you could fit into the office culture will help your chances of getting a job after you graduate.

10.    Ask for an exit interview. Spend a few minutes with your manager to go over your demonstrated strengths and weaknesses. This meeting will also help you figure out what to include on your resume.

Today’s guest blogger is Rose Jensen.  Rose writes about the best online universities. She welcomes your feedback at Rose.Jensen28@ yahoo.com

Technorati Tags: choosing_a_career, college_internship, internship, internship_tips

Out of work?  Looking for a new career?  Then start seeing opportunities.

I just read about a fascinating experiment by psychology professor and bestselling British author Richard Wiseman, author of The Luck Factor: The Four Essential Principles

He wanted to see if people who had lucky lives and those who were unlucky responded differently to unexpected opportunity.

He put ads asking for people to respond who considered themselves exceptionally lucky or unlucky.  He wound up with 400 people over the years from 18 to 84 from all walks of life.  The lucky had stories about lucky meetings with famous people, like Warren Buffet, that changed their lives or chance encounters that led to their marriages.  The unlucky told about disasters like their planes being struck by lightning.

Yet through it all, Wiseman wondered if the lucky were DOING something differently from those who were unlucky.  In other words, they didn’t just have luck happen to them, they did things that led to luck    ”… Although lucky and unlucky people have almost no insight into the real causes of their good and bad luck, their thoughts and behavior are responsible for much of their fortune,” in Wiseman’s view according to an article he wrote about his experiment in The Skeptical Inquirer.

One factor was seeing more opportunities than others.

In an experiment, Wiseman gave volunteers a newspaper and asked them to count the number of photographs.   But inside the newspaper were unexpected opportunities—on page two he had a half page notice in 2-inch high type (hardly difficult to find), saying “stop counting—there are 43 photographs in the newspaper.”    The self defined lucky people tended to find it, while the unlucky ones tended to miss it.  Then, later in the paper there was another big announcement that said they should stop counting and tell the observer that they had seen this announcement to win $250.

You’d think that would get someone’s attention.  But not for the unlucky souls.

Wiseman concluded from this and other tests and experiments that the lucky people aren’t so focused on a single objective (like counting photos) so they can notice new and unexpected opportunities.  It’s the opposite of what we are usually told about getting ahead and certainly getting a job in a tough market.

His personality tests also showed that the unlucky were more anxious and tense.  Again, if you are in a job hunt or are desperate for a career change you are likely to have increased tension and anxiety as you do your job searching or career idea seeking activities.  As Wiseman writes, lucky people “look through newspapers determined to find certain type of job advertisements and as a result miss other types of jobs.  Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.”

The good news–Wiseman found he could help people understand this and 3 other factors, and that people understanding this led to improved luck.

In this case, the lesson is very clear for career changers and jobseekers (and everyone else, too).  It’s not to be distracted and unfocused.   But it’s also not about always concentrating on opportunities and goals.   Instead it’s about staying relaxed and open ,being willing and confident enough that what you are doing will produce something good—though your idea of what that is may be only one good outcome.

It’s not in his research, but from experience, I’d suggest it’s also about gently holding an intention in mind—for instance, to find out something that will help you with a career choice or to find a great job opening.  That intention doesn’t mean you are constantly waiting for every chance to hand out a business card or ask about career opportunities.  Instead, it just prepares your mind to hear and see when the equivalent of the ad for the $250 prize shows up even though you are looking for photographs.

Technorati Tags: career change advice, career_coach, career_ideas, luck, opportunity

What’s the most direct way to get the inside scoop about the details of a specific career, an industry, a job, a company?

• The internet?
• Bureau of Labor Statistics?
• Library databases?
• Twitter?
• Your best friends?

All of those are fine, but nothing beats the inside story from someone doing the job or hiring for the position you are considering.  How do you get that?

Just ask.  Ask for an informational interview.  It’s a no-cost powerhouse technique for getting up-to-date information.

With an informational interview you can find out:

• What the opportunities are in an industry or companies
• How to get into a field, job, or industry
• What education or experience you might need
• What’s the day to day like.   Many glamorous sounding fields have a lot of work that is not so glamorous (Even film superstars repeat small parts of scenes over and over).

Informational interviews are so great because you aren’t looking for a job during the interview, and the person you’re interviewing isn’t directly looking at you for hiring (though that might be a subtext).

In other words, whatever basic question you have about a career or job can be asked.

Who Can You Ask?

Use the broadest range of your network.  If no one in your network directly can answer the questions you have, ask them if they know anyone.  You’d be surprised at what you turn up.

You can also use social media, especially requests on LinkedIn or on Twitter.  You can also use LinkedIn to find people you don’t know but who are exactly the people you need.  Then see if you have anyone in your network who is directly connected with them.

Why will someone I don’t even know take the time to talk to me?  To answer a question with a question–would you take the time if someone asked you for just 20 minutes and sought out your advice and expertise without expecting anything else (like a job or reference)?   If you could fit such a request in, you probably would.

I know I have, and I’m not unusual because people I’ve asked have talked with me.

When Looking for Work (or More Clients)—My Experience

I’ve frequently been asked for informational interviews about coaching and training, and have enjoyed the discussions.  Hopefully, I at least gave the interviewer at least one point of view about the joys and obstacles in my field.

I’m currently going through a new round of interviewing people–not to change careers–but so I can learn how the changing health care environment might affect my leadership coaching and facilitation clients in health care.  I am also receiving invaluable information about the current hot buttons in health care, the language people are using, and how people look for services like mine.

Similarly, you can go on informational interviews that can extend your knowledge of how you can do a better job of looking for a job in a given field.  You can find out what people still need to hire for in your field, what kind of companies might be looking.  In addition, though you most definitely are NOT looking for a job during such an interview, you are almost automatically expanding your network.  It’s fine to let people know you’d like others to talk with and that you are looking for work just in case they do hear of something.

In other words it can be a solid part of your job search.  Of course, if they are impressed with you, they will remember you.  If they remember you, then if they or their company are looking for someone, you will have an advantage over other unknown applicants–or even be called in before any job posting.

Again, you are not directly seeking work during the interview, so don’t try to pretend you’re interested in an informational interview when you’re not or it will backfire.

In future posts, I’ll talk about how to conduct a successful job interview.  If you have experiences you’d like to share or questions, please add your comments to this story.  I’ll reply.

Technorati Tags: career information, informational interviews, Interviews