Key Steps to a Successful Job Search

Posted on July 5, 2011 by pdncoach

There is something very special about seeing a person who, with caring, knowledgeable guidance, takes a long look in the “self-assessment mirror,” rises up with a confident smile and says, “Aha! Now I know what I want my education, my job, my career, my life to be about. I know my next move.”

Such a unique quality of experience – “The Aha! Experience” – comes from a balance of dream and expectation, vision and daily habits, ability and desire, self-awareness and social understanding, an attitude of courage and decisive action. It comes from recognizing that learning and work are not something you get; they are something you do based on who you want to be. I have seen it happen.

Most of my attention in this blog is from the perspective of my role as a Business Coach. Although I don’t write on the subject that often here, I have been a Career Coach for more than 20 years now. I’ve helped thousands of people find jobs and advance in their careers, including many people facing significant obstacles to employment.  Starting with today’s blog, I will be sharing some insights, from time to time, which have been gained over the course of my career, and learned from the wisdom and experience of many of the people I have helped.

Of course, you need to know where you are now to get to where you want to go. Otherwise, you end up bouncing around in your “career” much like a pinball bounces around a pinball machine – you remain constantly at the mercy of outside forces.

A few basic questions
So you might as well gain more control now, regardless of where you are in your career. Following are a few basic questions to ask yourself as you begin a career transition or job search, followed by some keys to a successful career transition.

  • Do you know what kind of work you want to do? Why?
  • Do you know what kind of work you like to do? Why?
  • Do you know what kind of work you are good at doing? How?
  • Do you know what you want to be (when you “grow up”)? Why?

Thinking about the following questions may also be helpful to you:

  • What changes do you expect in the next few years? Why?
  • What personal changes would you like to achieve this year? Why?
  • What personal changes do you want to achieve in the next 3-5 years? Why?

Key Steps to a Successful Career Transition:

  1. Know your skills. Be able to describe your skills on paper and in person. Be able to give examples of situations where you have used these skills, how you used them and the results you achieved.
  2. Know the kind of work you want to do. Have a clear objective, but more oblique than an occupational title. Be able to describe your skill sets, tasks and activities in which you excel, interests, and goals.
  3. Have a plan. Know where you are now, where you want to be and how you will get there. Know what you are looking for and how to look. Spend a scheduled number of hours each week looking. Get one or two interviews a day. Know the steps you can take to achieve your goals.
  4. Know how your skills match employer expectations.
  5. Know how most people get hired.
  6. Understand the REAL purpose of resumes and applications.
  7. Understand the REAL meaning behind interview questions.
  8. Make a good impression. Do well in interviews. Be competitive. Treat your job search as a full-time job. Always be prepared to meet someone new. Your next employer could be in front of you in line at the supermarket!
  9. Follow up and thank people for their time, the information they gave you or the job they offer you!
  10. Keep improving your skills and developing new ones.
  11. Be useful by helping others. Service is the key to success.
Obviously, there is plenty of room to expand on these subjects, which I will do in future posts, so stay tuned and feel free to ask questions and add comments.
Join me at the Intersection of Purpose & Now.
Posted in career, career advice, career planning, Career Planning Checklist, job search | Leave a comment

Punch the Alien

Posted on July 4, 2011 by pdncoach

“The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy. Fighting superior technology, Man’s best weapon is the will to survive.” (promo for the movie Independence Day, released July 4, 1996)

Ever have an alien that you need to punch and kick like Will Smith did in Independence Day (1996)? You know, “Welcome [it] to Earth?”  
[Watch this short movie trailer; in fact, take time to watch the whole movie today if you can. It’s my favorite “summer blockbuster” of all time.  And it makes me feel good – prepares me for my own battles.]
Sooner or later you will have an alien encounter.  Your Alien’s intent will be to invade and destroy; it will seem superior to any weapons or defenses you have against it – at first.  As long as you have a will to survive, you can win.
And sooner or later, you’re going to find yourself in a desert, where it all comes down to face-to-face, one-on-one battle, “mano-a-mano” with your Alien.  That will be your turning point, win or lose. That scene sets up the rest of your story, the climax, and the battle’s outcome forecasts who is likely to win the war – either you or the Alien.
What is your Alien?
I’ve been fighting an alien for a while now, but only recently met it face-to-face in the desert so I could recognize it for what it really was, so I could catch my Alien with it’s armor down.  That was my game-changer. I think I know how to attack the mother ship now.  I can’t do it alone, though. I’ll need the help of my coaches, my support network, my family, my team, my God.
How about you? What will it take for you to give your Alien a knock-out punch?
Join me at the Intersection of Purpose & Now.
Posted in alien, battles, independence, Independence Day, obstacles, Will Smith | Leave a comment

Prime Confidence at The Intersection of Purpose and Now

Posted on July 1, 2011 by pdncoach

I get “pitched” a lot of ideas from prospective new clients during our early conversations.  They want to do “something” that will make a difference in their business, with their team, in their lives. Usually, economy of time and money is on their mind, superseding their reason for doing anything, or doing something that will actually make a positive difference. They forget to make a business case for change and that’s OK – I am here to help.

So I ask questions. Simple ones, but as most of my clients come to acknowledge, these “simple” questions are the big ones – the important ones that seldom get asked, or at least not answered. What do you want to be different as a result of working with me?

No one knows your business better than you do.  But sometimes we are too close to what we do, which keeps us from remembering why we do it, from reviewing how we do it, and from considering what might improve if we tried something new and practiced it long enough to master the improvements.
The Primes
I also have a responsibility to inform the client about what I believe might be going on in their situation and what is really needed for positive change.  This is exactly what Chris McGoff’s book The Primes: How Any Group Can Solve Any Problem seeks to address.

“Michael’s little sketches, made in the heat of battle and just in time, enabled me to visualize and understand important principles that I didn’t previously.” Prologue, The Primes

My first obligation to a client is to help them visualize and understand important principles, even before I say “yes” to working with them; of course, even more become relevant after we agree to work together.  Because I seek never to tell anyone something I could ask them instead, I ask questions about core principles that might be at work in their situation. What questions are we seeking to answer here? How are things now? How do you want to be? Some principles have proven true so many times that they help me to discern issues that lie beneath the surface of the basic idea the prospect is proposing to me on that first call.
The Primes is now on my PDNcoach Recommends reading list on Amazon.com and I highly recommend business leaders and other professionals read it; read it like a handbook that you’ll return to often.  I will explore some of the 32 Primes that McGoff identifies in coming months, just as I continue to explore some of my own.  Let’s get started with the Rule of Parity.
The Rule of Parity
McGoff introduces The Rule of Parity in his Prologue and again in Chapter 2.  It’s a rule that I see ignored almost universally by individuals, as well as by teams and organizational leaders.
People need approximately as much space to talk about the problem as they do the solution.  They need balance between analyzing the As Is and imagining the To Be.
People naturally want to solve their problems, get past their problems, rise to their challenges, innovate and create new things for a better world. But we have tendencies to “jump in” too quickly, or analyze too much for too long.  They not only skip over the As Is, they let the What If (usually negative) cloud and even prevent the desired To Be before it is ever conceived.

The truth in the Rule of Parity shows up often. People find it more difficult to decide and act in the moment when they haven’t already considered long-term aims, deep values or noble purpose. To properly address our challenges, we need to think about the outside world, our dreams, and work through something like the proverbial – yet all-to-clinical – SWOT analysis.

People never arrive at The Intersection of Purpose and Now without the Rule of Parity.  They become paralyzed. Without the Rule of Parity they tend to look through “rose-colored glasses” or see the “glass as half empty” – in fact, the glass has a leak. Without the Rule of Parity, all kinds of things blur intent, process and desired outcomes. They get lost. They even panic.

The Rule of Parity requires us to seek deep agreement on the As Is and deep understanding of an inspiring To Be, in order to identify a Noble Purpose, clarify Strategy and follow-through with Action.

I advise, as does the author: Violate the Rule of Parity at your peril.
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Join me at the Intersection of Purpose & Now.
Posted in Chris McGoff, coaching, decision-making, parity, problems, questions, The Primes | Leave a comment