Career Hub

Career Management Resolutions for 2008

In the spirit of the New Year, here are some easy to implement resolutions to get your career management strategy on track for 2008.

1. Go to lunch. I meet a lot of people who never take a lunch hour because they are too busy working. Don't make this mistake. The lunch hour is a great time to solidify relationships with colleagues, mentors, friends, and family. More lunch buddies means more networking and potentially more job opportunities down the road. Try to eat with different people over the course of a month and get in the habit of introducing people over lunch. Be a connector so people will want to connect you to others in the future.
2. Get a hobby. Everyone has something outside of work that they are interested in. But many people find excuses for not pursuing hobbies and interests. Having a hobby helps build affinity with others. Running clubs, knitting clubs, book clubs, etc. help people bond and develop trust. Friendship grows out of trusting relationships. The more friends you have, the greater the likelihood that they will share information about professional opportunities that may interest you.
3. Join a professional association. Professional associations offer many great opportunities to connect with colleagues. Find an appropriate association in your field and do more than just show up. Offer to work the registration table at an event, contribute content to the association's newsletter, or be part of a panel for an upcoming event. Involvement leads to familiarity, and familiarity leads to opportunities sourced through other members of the association.
4. Reconnect with old friends. Friends are usually flattered when you take the time to find them and learn about what they are doing. Try to find old schoolmates through Classmates.com or your college's alumni directory. CorporateAlumni.com is helpful for trying to find previous work colleagues. Facebook is also a great tool for finding friends and it's not just for college kids anymore.
5. Get organized. As you build your list of new contacts, organizing their information can be a bit overwhelming. Use an electronic career management tool such as JibberJobber to keep your information current and at your fingertips.
6. Update your resume. Don't wait until you find the perfect posting on line or meet the right decision maker at a networking event. Always have an updated resume ready to send to your contacts. If you need help crafting the perfect resume, check out the bios on the Career Hub bloggers to find a professional that suits your needs.
7. Get online. If a recruiter or hiring manager wanted to know more about you, would they be able to find you on line? Put your full name in quotes on Google or another search engine and find out what information is available about you. If there is nothing there or you don't like what you see, start creating a web presence using tools such as Linked In, ZoomInfo, and Ziggs.
8. Go on an informational interview. One of the best ways to learn more about opportunities in your field or another field you are considering transitioning into is to talk to people who are currently doing the type of work you think you would like to be doing. In an informational interview, any question is fair game, and you can receive authentic answers to what it's really like to be in a particular professional role. These types of interviews help you validate your perceptions about a certain profession and adjust your career aspirations based on the information you receive.

Try to implement at least one of these suggestions in early 2008 and find ways to incorporate other strategies into your career management plan throughout the rest of the year. Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Posted by Barbara Safani

The Two-Year Job Interview

I'm a bit of a political junkie, so I've been following the Presidential race for months now - even though the actual election is still almost a year away.

I'm from the UK and things are very different there - election cycles last for weeks, not years. So this two-year campaign seems a tad excessive to me, and it made me wonder if the length of the cycle is part of the reason why Americans have such a low opinion of politicians (don't flame me! I said 'part of the reason'!)

I mean, how well any of us would fare if our job interviews lasted for two years? What secrets, mistakes and prior failures would interviewers be able to learn about if you had to spend 24 months making your case for a new position? Imagine how it would feel to finally admit "Yes, I under-estimated the cost of that new computer system back in 1993" or 'You got me - I really thought I had time to finish that project before the deadline and I was wrong," only to have it written up into an article in the company newsletter and distributed around for everyone to read and opine on.

I have to think that by the time you finally got the job, everyone would be a little tired of you, and any mystique you started out with would pretty much be gone!

Cross-posted at Blue Sky Resumes Blog

What's Next?

The lights on our holiday tree are still twinkling brightly as if to say, I'm still here...notice me? Gift bags and boxes, now empty and absent of adornment, have been flattened and organized, awaiting their next purpose. Family and friends have headed back to their respective cities and lives, awaiting what's next as the New Year fast approaches.

What's next for you? What awaits you in 2008? As you have been scurrying about this holiday season, doing this and that, going here and there, arriving and departing intended destinations, what have you been brewing up, chewing on and/or stewing about as it relates to next year, 2008?

Find a new job? Get a degree? Finish a certification? Earn that promotion? Make more money? Start a business? Write a book? Relocate? Start over? Switch careers? Reinvent self? Resign your position? Create a blog? Retire? Enter the workforce? Buy a business? Pursue graduate school?

Last Friday, I attended a Teacher Education Convocation for graduates of a university's School of Education. The 35-year-old keynote speaker said something that has stuck with me since. He said that he loves being a teacher and as a teacher, he offered this definition of success: it is not how many digits are in your paycheck, it is how you make a difference in the lives of others on a day-by-day basis.

Success. What's next for you? How will you define success in 2008? How will you make a difference in the lives of others in 2008?

posted by: billiesucher

Make a difference with your personal brand in 2008

I was planning to send out a series of posts between now and the new year to get readers starting to think about the difference they want to make with their personal brand in 2008.

That was until I received Robert Middleton's weekly ezine with this link The Gift of Service - I think it says it all.

Make a difference in 2008. Wishing you a happy and outstanding year for your personal brand.

BLS Employment Forecast through 2016

On December 4, 2007 the Bureau of Labor statistics released employment projections for the year 2016. The table below shows how some of the major industry sectors compare to the projected national workforce growth rate of 8.9%:

Industry Projected Growth Rate New Jobs Health care and social assistance 21.6%      3,367,600 Professional and business services 19.3%      3,502,000 Financial activities 13.9%      1,166,000 Leisure and hospitality 11.8%      1,583,000 Construction 11.0%          836,000 Average workforce growth rate 8.9% Information 5.8%          178,000 Wholesale trade 4.5%          270,600 Government 2.2%          504,000 Retail trade 1.4%          214,200 Manufacturing -9.1%    (1,266,000)

These data compare the 2016 BLS forecast to the employment by industry sector in November, 2007.

The industries in green are projected to grow faster than the workforce, creating a demand for workers from outside that industry. The industries in grey are projected to grow, but not as fast as the workforce, weakening the demand. Manufacturing, in red, is declining.

Will manufacturing recover?

It doesn't look good. Manufacturing employment peaked in 1979 and has been declining ever since. In the last 10 years it experienced an unprecedented and steep decline of 20% ... and the future looks bleak. A graph and the State trends are available at http://www.jobbait.com/targeting.htm.

Databases Do Not Deliver Jobs: People Do

I paraphrase in the title of this blog entry a statement made by Ask The Headhunter guru Nick Corcodilos in his e-mail newsletter this week.

One of the articles in this particular edition struck home for me because of some of the encounters I have had in recent weeks with prospective clients who had been using the job boards as their primary method of job search. Not surprisingly, they had been disappointed that hiring managers were not beating down their door with job offers.

As Nick points out to his reader who has applied for more than 250 positions via the Internet and recruiting agencies advertising online, the probable reason he hasn’t landed a position yet is that he is working exclusively through middlemen in an environment “awash with so many resumes and candidates that the value of the n-th candidate now approaches zero...”

Now I would not go quite so far as to say that Web-based job search is a total waste of time, as I have had a substantial number of clients land positions this way. But it is certainly true that the odds are not in your favor when a position posting can draw literally thousands of resumes. I advise my clients to use the job boards to a limited extent, but not to spend more than about 20% of their job search time doing so. The remainder of the time should be spent on identifying a small number of companies that interest you, researching them, and working to develop inside contacts. The objective is to make friends within the company and learn about what their challenges and needs are. At some point you’ll be able to get an introduction to the manager in the area where you want to work, but as Nick points out, make sure this is their idea, not yours.

Once you’re in the door, you need to be pre-armed with a good understanding of the company and its goals, opportunities, and challenges, and of specifically how you can help. Remember that no one is looking to hire someone to fill a position; they are looking to bring someone in who can meet a need.

The statistics vary depending on the study, but Nick estimates (and I believe he is likely correct) that about 60% of jobs are found and filled through personal contacts—not job postings. He says that the best recruiters fill only about 3% of all jobs, a percentage which I think is perhaps a bit low. However, the point is that initial 60% figure—your job search will be at best only about 40% as productive as it could be if you are not working a targeted personal contact strategy.

On the following I wholeheartedly agree with Nick: “Managers tend to hire people referred by people they know and trust.” In this blessed season, we focus greatly on our personal relationships and our circle of friends. Resolve in the New Year to take this mindset into your work life and make a relationship-building, personal approach your winning job search strategy.

Posted by Laurie Smith

Holiday Event Networking: Boost Your Job Search

The holidays are typically a time for reconnecting with family, friends, and business / professional acquaintances, many you may not have seen in quite awhile. How about making those holiday get-togethers yield an even greater return-on-investment than just goodwill? Why not make them opportunities, as Tom Peters suggests, to Purposefully Practice Listening (And Hearing).

Why is that important? From a job search perspective, you never know who your family, friends, and acquaintances may have in their "network", perhaps on LinkedIn or Facebook or simply in their social and business circle. It may be that the very companies and hiring authorities you are targeting for your job search are accessible through your family-friends-acquaintances network. If this seems unlikely, think about this...how many new people have YOU gotten to know in the past year? Couldn't this explosion of connections also be a possibility for your circle of friends?

While you are purposefully practicing listening, you are building a bridge that motivates others to want to reciprocate...by asking about you. Then you can bring up your job search and ask about potential contacts in targeted companies without feeling like it's an imposition.

You may agree with this strategy, but feel uncomfortable putting it into practice...after all, these are your friends and family. Just think of it this way - YOU may have some valuable piece of information or networking connection that would be priceless for the other person as well. Ask what you can do for the other person first, perhaps to help them achieve their goals for 2008, before you ask for yourself.

For more tactical suggestions regarding any networking event (holiday or not), check out Mark Hunter's article 22 Tips to Use at a Networking Event. His tip #8 reiterates the purposefully-practicing-listening advice. The remaining 21 tips are a roadmap for what to do from arriving at an event to the follow-up afterwards. Good stuff...

Cross-Posted at Career Goddess Blog

Do you Need a Hobby?

Pastel Journal points to a New York Times article linking hobbies to improved job performance.

According to the article, doing something you love stimulates creativity and refreshes a tired mind. But there are also other benefits:

Hobbies also enhance self-esteem and self-confidence. Feeling that you are solely defined by your job — even if it is going well — can raise your chances of experiencing anxiety, depression and burnout, because you don’t have a perception of yourself outside of work, said Michelle P. Maidenberg, a psychotherapist and business coach in New York, and clinical director of Westchester Group Works, a center for group therapy.

“When people rely only on their role at work to foster self-esteem, that alone cannot typically fulfill their needs,” she said. If you are unhappy with your work performance, you are more inclined to define yourself as inadequate, but if your identity is varied — businesswoman, mother, wife, painter, cook — you can reflect on your success in those other things, she said.

As our work days become increasingly stressful and demanding, and technology ensures that our bosses can reach us at all hours of the day and night, I think hobbies - particularly those that are creative in some way - are more important than ever.

Read the whole article here.

If I Were You, I Would...

Today I spent the better part of the day preparing for another credential I hope to earn.  As I was frantically working away, something my client said the other day kept interrupting my concentration…

You career people seem to have all the answers.

Quickly, I fell back on my good old counseling lines: tell me more about that; say more about that.

Turns out, I am one of several career professionals my client has spoken with. While I am not sure what anyone else offered up, here’s my response to her comment:

1. Pay attention to self and how you’re doing; nobody knows you better than you
2. Listen to your own voice
3. Trust your instincts / intuition
4. Consult brain and go with gut
5. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it
6. When in doubt, don’t
7. Use your own filtering system
8. Ask yourself, does the information I’m being told make sense, or is it nonsense?
9. If 3, 4, or 5 people all say the same thing, then it might warrant your consideration
10. In the end, rely on your own good judgment

Do you have all the answers?

Posted by: billiesucher

Culture & Brand Are the Attractions

According to a recent poll by SEI (a provider of solutions to the financial services industry) Relationship Managers in the industry are more likely to stay at their current employer based on culture versus compensation.

69% said Culture was making them stay and 56% had said was the original reason they joined - 59% placed brand and reputation as the main reason for choosing.

This is not just going to apply to financial services but many industries. As markets tighten and companies again consider retaining the best and looking for others they are going to have to take in many other considerations in constructing an enticing package.

We are now seeing many companies starting to incorporate the use of personal branding in to their development and training programs as a differentiator - engaging and retaining their brightest and best to be the future leaders.

Cross posted on Reflections of a Square Peg