Answering people’s questions and trying to hunt up the latest on career ideas, I’m writing about all aspects of career from visual resumes to networking, so sometimes I even have to remind myself that the core of all of this is career choice, how to change or choose a career.  Without a good career choice, who cares how high tech or catchy your resume is.  It still can’t land you the right job.

So I wanted to make sure that anyone looking for information specifically about how to make a new career choice can quickly and easily find the top posts on this topic.

Here they are:

Choosing a Career You’ll Love

How Big a Career Change Do You Want?

The Big Secret About Finding a Great Career

Which Career Is Best–Career Ideas for Artistic Student

How to Choose A Career–Tips from the MBA Application Process

Choosing Your Career? Or Is the Wrong Career Choosing You

The Happiness Factor in Choosing a Career

One True Career?

Get Answers to Questions about Specific Careers, Jobs

7 Things Career Changers Should STOP Telling Themselves

I hope this helps.  I’d also suggest you use the search box at the top left of the page to look for specific topics on career choice or any career topic.

–Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and get your career info bonus

Technorati Tags: career change advice, career_ideas choosing_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.

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

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

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.

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!”

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!

But in the long run, she said, it was generally not fascinating and challenging enough if you really wanted to swing dance regularly for years.  It didn’t give you the same opportunities to play with the music, and didn’t have as many classic moves.

So do you just do east coast until you get bored?  Or do you go ahead and grit your teeth and go directly into lindy, knowing you may be pretty frustrated for quite a while on the dance floor?

Or maybe there’s a better way. You have 2 dance learning paths–you start learning east coast in order to get out on the dance floor with some success immediately, and well before that becomes less interesting, you also start learning lindy hop during practice time and classes.

So what does that have to do with careers?

Simple–many clients I see and people I talk with are stuck with the job equivalents of east coast dancing (or a “dance” they don’t like at all!) long after it has become unchallenging, predictable and lacking in opportunity to really show their stuff (grow, learn and express new skills and passions). They may well need help in finding some new moves for their east coast career options right now (translation: They need help with job issues or resumes, job interview skills, etc.), but for the long-term, they need to have something bigger in mind. They need a second set of career plans that let them dream big and work toward that dream now.

They may think they can’t do both, but in fact we do find ways for them to continue with their east coast dance for the short term AND be preparing themselves for lindy hop in the long term.  In other words, they can have two tracks going at once so that they don’t have to wake up one day ten years from now and realize their dream hasn’t happened and still seems 10 years away.

Tips for Long Term Career Action

Ask yourself what you can start doing this week to define, start testing out, or moving ahead with your ideal career even as you continue your current job or look for a new job similar to your last one.

• First, figure out what you will want to be doing in 1, 5, or 10 years.  If you aren’t sure, check out some of the posts here for ways to do that, such as here and here.
• If you already have some career ideas for the future:
  • Can you volunteer for an organization involved in the kind of work you’re interested in doing?
  • Can you do an informational interview with that shop owner who has a shop similar to what you’d like to do in a few years?
  • Can you find out about the educational options for becoming qualified in whatever field you’re interested in doing?
  • Are there internships you might get?
  • Are there books to read about doing your passion–photography, being an entrepreneur, a tour guide, a chef, a painter, a CEO of an engineering firm?

List all the things you can do over the next few months, and keep coming up with more steps until you are clear on what you want and have a general plan to achieve it.

In addition, blend your east coast (short term) and lindy plans too.  In other words, make sure what you are doing in the short-term also will help you in your long term plans by:-

• Taking courses
• Getting mentored
• Learning about management styles
• Gaining the skills you need
• Making contacts.

By going along both paths, you can get instant success with your current work, make that help you for your bigger dream, and begin acting on that bigger dream now.   My clients get much more motivated with this than with just doing a new resume for a so-so job that they know isn’t their dream.  They are flat-out happier as they do that east coast swing dance while figuring out the steps for the lindy-hop future.

–Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and get your career info bonus

© 2009 Leonard Lang. Feel free to reprint or pass on this article as long as you include the copyright notice and the hotlink to http://choosingacareerblog.com

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

And with that one word, all hope is dashed.   All creativity also goes out the window—you can almost hear it flying off.
 
I find the idea of something being unrealistic is one of the most abused terms, often an unconscious excuse to bail out of something due to fear of failure, rather than an honest and full assessment of what can be done.  That’s one of the many reasons I start out every brainstorming group and every career client by having them put aside what’s realistic (to them) for starters and have them start imagining what they’d really want to do if they could have what they wanted.
 
Be Realistic Later Rather Than Sooner
 
Later, we can see how to make it real and what the real obstacles are.  Even then, I work with clients and groups to look creatively for new ways to get past obstacles, rather than just letting ourselves get us stuck, assuming there is no way because we can’t see it right away.

This way of approaching career dreams is simple but critical. You find your big ideas, dreams and wildest ideas first, and then see try every way to make them work out.  Tha’s very different from the model most people use—assuming their big ideas are unrealistic from the get-go, based on their limited current thinking.

Some people would respond to this approach by telling stories about how reality has knocked down their plans and big ideas when they were being creative and open minded.  That certainly happens at times.  But it just tells me that we don’t really know what will happen in advance until we try things out—until we see if we can achieve the apparently unrealistic goal.  After all, none of us has a big enough mind to see all the ways things can work out—for better or worse.  Since there are always unknowns, it’s best to creatively work towards your goals and see what arises that might help you that’s unknown than to assume things won’t work.  As they say in baseball, “that’s why we play the game.”

–Career changers, jobseekers–Be sure to sign up for free career and creativity ezine and get your career info bonus

© 2009 Leonard Lang. Feel free to reprint or pass on this article as long as you include the copyright notice and the hotlink to http://choosingacareerblog.com

Technorati Tags: career change advice, career changer, career ideas