The next time you meet someone, resist the temptation to ask those standard questions. Instead, ask them about the things they love, their hobbies or their family. Their answer may reveal a whole lot that you can never get when you ask the usual questions about work.
Then start thinking about yourself in terms or who you are and what drives you, instead of defining yourself by what you do for a living.
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I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be, for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.
Martha Washington
So you’re at the planning stage, and thinking about the things that you’d like to do to advance your career and get ahead. You don’t have to make a change right away (but check yesterday’s blog post if that’s the case—because you’ll need that information to help you get ahead too).
Here are my top 12 kick butt strategies for a career that really inspires.
1. Assess people in your target positions (remember yesterday’s step 4 about outlining your next five career moves), and have an honest look at the people already there. Who does an excellent job? What skills do they have? Do you have those skills or perhaps even more to offer?
2. If you want to work for a different company, then it can help to get to know some of the people there. Conduct an information gathering interview. Equally powerful is to join an association and get involved to get known. Don’t just sit on the periphery waiting to be discovered. Remember that this is an investment in your career. Participate wholeheartedly too; no one is going to gravitate toward you if your membership is simply a replacement for a business card.
3. Think strategically about what you are prepared to do to help yourself. Be honest about it. If you’re only willing to commit 10 minutes a week, then you’re not going to get far and you won’t be advancing that quickly. Get serious, get committed and get results.
4. If you do not have the education that you need for the position that you want, or you know that the folks in the jobs you want have more education than you do, take a class to develop your competency in the area you want to get into. You don’t have to necessarily need to have completed the same level of development, but you’d better be showing your commitment to and interest in your target area. Go after the credentials that apply to your desired area of work; these days there are certificates and courses for pretty much everything, and employers use them as part of the process to see who is serious and who is not.
5. Analyze your competition and see how you measure up. You want to establish yourself as THE best candidate, not just any candidate. Analyse where your competition’s weaknesses are and ensure that you don’t have issues yourself in those same areas, while you continue to improve your own strengths.
6. Assess your current work load. Does what you’re doing have an impact on people you want noticing you? Is there an opportunity for you to gain exposure based on what you are working on? Does someone several levels above you know about your work, and the value it will bring to the organization? If not, ask for more responsibility, and volunteer if tasks are not offered directly to you. Then make certain that you are prepared to deliver, and go out of your way to impress.
7. Speaking of impressing, do more than what is expected of you. Go above and beyond the call of duty so that when tough stuff comes up, people are looking to you for answers. If you want to get ahead, you must be ahead, and if you wish to lead you must behave like a leader no matter what your job title is.
8. Dress for where you want to be in life, in the position that you want. That might mean that you are the best dressed person on your team, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Dressing for the position that you want is exactly how other people can picture you doing the job that you desire.
9. Visualize yourself in that position that you want, making the decisions and completing the projects that count. Visualization is a very powerful to get your subconscious helping you to achieve that new job. Even if you aren’t sure what it is that you want, visualize yourself doing the things that you know are a part of your future. What are you wearing? Where are you living? Imagine your body language and demeanour as someone who has what they want. If you cannot see yourself in the position that you want, no one else will see you there either.
10. Read periodicals that pertain to your industry. If you are not reading these, then you are not up to date and can derail your own plans by missing out on key developments or changes that are taking place. Take responsibility for what you must know, and READ. Keep up on technological changes for the same reasons.
11. Make a list of the TYPES of jobs that you would love. Don’t put barriers there; think outside the box a little. There are more than 20,000 different jobs in the job bank database, and more get added every year, yet many people when asked can only list about sixty before they run short of ideas.
12. Keep an open mind about relocation. A lot of times people stay in the same job that they hate because they don’t want to move, but think of the opportunities that can be open to you if you keep all your options open and don’t restrict yourself to living in the same place forever.
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You can copy and print this complete article for your personal use, or pass it along to someone that you know might benefit. Just be sure to include the following information without altering anything please:
(c) 2008 Pam Robertson, MVPi. Pam is a Career and Life Success Consultant who helps people to create lives and work that are worth celebrating. She is based in Nova Scotia, Canada and can be reached at 902.222.9212 or by email to pam(at)mvpi(dot)org. For more information you can also visit her website.
When people find out that I am a career consultant / coach / kick you in the pants job change artist, I generally get one of two responses. Some don’t want to tell me what they do to make a living because they aren’t where they want to be; others ask me for help immediately because they or someone very close to them are keen to make a job change.
These are the top nine things I recommend for folks who want to make a job change but don’t know where to get started, and they want to move quickly with no time for dilly dallying.
1. Divide a sheet of paper into two columns. In the first column, list your skills. Include all of the things that you do at work – and at home – that you can do at work. Then go through the list again and use a highlighter to colour those skills that you can perform at a level of excellence, so that you now have a list within a list. You now have a list of things that you are good at.
2. In the second column, write activities that you really enjoy. We know that people who are doing work that and includes things they like to do succeed at work. That just makes sense, and although you might be itching to make a move right now, keep in mind the relationship between what you are good at and the things that you enjoy.
As an example, you could be very skilled at repairing engines. If an activity that you enjoy happens to be troubleshooting engine problems, then your skill and enjoyable activities complement one another. If however you have great skill at diagnosing human skin disease but don't like working with people, then you could become disconnected from your job very quickly.
3. Go through both columns and rate your level of expertise with your skills and the activities that you enjoy using a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is you know how to do it, 3 means you can do it pretty well and 5 means that you can do it in your sleep you know it so well.
Now you have two columns that highlight things that you excel at.
4. Sketch an outline of your next five career moves. These can be lateral moves within your current company, promotions (vertical moves) or moves to new companies. They can also include starting your own company. The idea here is to get an idea of the progress that you are going to make.
5. On a fresh page, map out opportunities for work that you are good at within your current company, or within the target company of your next career move. How do you compare to the people already in that job in terms of age, education and experience? Be honest about how you compare with your competition. Which of them are doing a good job? Of those people, what skills do they possess? Do you have those skills?
6. Make a list of people who could help you. This might mean your bosses boss, a mentor, a previous supervisor, or people that you have not met yet. Just remember that people are often willing to help others succeed, but that they cannot help you if they don’t know what you need. If you aren’t well networked yet, you’ll have to be brave here while creating your list, but understand that you’ll benefit just as soon as you get comfortable operating outside of your comfort zone.
7. Get your resume working for you. Make sure that your resume is up to date and that it looks polished. No spelling mistakes, no lies and embellishments allowed. Your resume is your calling card, and introduces you for consideration in a new job. If you aren’t sure there are plenty of helpful books in the local library, employment office or information on the internet. You can even attend a workshop and really learn how to pull your information together. Don’t rely on someone else to create your resume; it’s your story and you should tell it. Get some professional help if you want someone to help you polish it, and then it will really stand out. Your resume must be up to date BEFORE you start approaching people for jobs, because it helps you to realize just how far you’ve come and how much you have to offer in your new position.
8. Conduct interviews. An interview is just a meeting, and this meeting is for you to talk to the people that you need to, and to ask for the information that will get ahead. This is where you contact the people in the list that you created at step six. When you book the meeting, let the person know that you are interested in getting ahead in your career, and that you’d like to ask them some questions. Have your list of questions ready, and be professional in the meeting. Let them know the types of positions that you are interested in. Most carefully, let them know what YOU can do for THEM now, within your current skills, knowledge and disposition so that they see that there is some sense in what you are saying, and to help you become a person of interest in their eyes.
9. Tell people that you know and trust that you are looking for a new job, and then tell them exactly what it is that you are looking for. Remember that people will often help you when they understand what you need. You might be amazed at what a conversation with a friend of a friend can do, and with the number of people who find the jobs they want through this kind of intentional networking.
Tomorrow, an article about planning for moving up the career ladder when you've got a little time on your side.
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You can copy and print this complete article for your personal use, or pass it along to someone that you know might benefit. Just be sure to include the following information without altering anything please:
(c) 2008 Pam Robertson, MVPi. Pam is a Career and Life Success Consultant who helps people to create lives and work that are worth celebrating. She is based in Nova Scotia, Canada and can be reached at 902.222.9212 or by email to pam(at)mvpi(dot)org. For more information you can also visit her website.
In a survey of small business owners this summer, success was credited to three things: the ability to delegate tasks to someone else, coaching for the owner and key staff, and networking. Here’s your network.
This is an opportunity for you to NETWORK, LEARN and SHARE what you know in a positive place. Regular contributors will be rewarded as the site grows; there is a featured member page is in the works and prizes will follow.
Come on in and join the fray! Click here to visit the site, or copy and paste the link into your browser. http://mvpi.formotion.com
You don’t need to see a career coach, consultant or counsellor to figure out just what kind of work turns your crank. Your life is about a lot more than just work, isn’t it? Sure you probably work, and if not you might be doing unpaid work. You also have people that are important; spouses, dates, children, parents, friends. Then you have hobbies or interests that you’d like to develop, education you might want to pursue, a community to be a part of, and more.
Developing your career is about managing your life. The real question is, do you know where you’re going, and how you’re going to get there?
Coach, consultant or trainer? Come check out the new forum and jump right in!
http://mvpi.forumotion.com
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