The Career You'll Love » job change

Keeping the saw sharp

Carl — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:18:09 +0000

If you have a job, you’re probably very busy. You’re now doing the work of three people, struggling to catch your breath.

The difficult part is to think about the long term. You not only need to be valued as a productive worker today, but also five years from now. Or ten.

Are you building that foundation for your future career?

Read more on my Workbloom blog»

Helping to define your next job

Carl — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:25:31 +0000

Does your next job exist yet? Maybe.

But many times jobs are created, or tweaked, based upon specific needs at a certain time, even connected with the talents of certain individuals.

This is one of the reasons why some jobs are filled before they’re even posted: The hiring manager was taking advantage of a great match of someone’s existing skills to address a specific pressing need.

Read more on my Workbloom blog»

Using LinkedIn to further your career

Carl — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 23:43:19 +0000

Earlier this year, Microsoft commissioned a study which asked hiring managers how much they used the internet to check out prospective candidates. Here’s a couple of interesting results:

57% used professional and business networking sites (such as LinkedIn).
98% used SOME internet resources to check out candidates.

This tells you that you need to have a positive presence on the internet, because your next boss is most likely going to check you out – perhaps even before ever setting up an interview.

Read the rest on my Workbloom blog»

Becoming world class

Carl — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:33:03 +0000

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success, he stated that to achieve mastery in an area, it generally takes about 10,000 hours of serious learning, practice, and skill development.

I think it’s a valid conclusion, but there’s more to the story.

If you want to be famous for something, to be at the forefront, you have to establish yourself as world class. You want to be one of the best violinists? 10,000 hours. You want to make a living as a pro golfer? 10,000 hours.

Read more on my Workbloom blog»

How to build a personal brand inside a company

Carl — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:29:19 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about the importance of creating a personal brand. I first came across the idea in an article by Tom Peters in Fast Company Magazine in 1997, but he didn’t originate it.

Here’s the concept: Any powerful brand (Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, iPhone, Facebook) stands for much more than the products that it names. McDonald’s stands for more than just a certain kind of food, it’s also about kid-friendliness, reliability, cleanliness, and value. These attributes are incredibly consistent over the long term, and drive much more visibility and loyalty than just the food they sell.

Read more on my Workbloom blog»

Creating a custom job out of thin air

Carl — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:57:45 +0000

I’ve been fortunate to have had opportunities during my career to create jobs. Ultimately I even ended up creating customized jobs for myself, based on bringing my best talents and passions to giving great value to my employer.

In the first article, I describe the general approach. In the subsequent 5 installments, I walk you through the process of creating a job which could just be the most exciting work you’ve ever done.

Read the series of 6 articles on my Workbloom blog»

Looking to Change Career? Emphasize Your Transferable Skills

Carl — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:07:11 +0000

It’s going to happen eventually: You feel stuck in your job role. You want to take your career in a different direction, but your education, your skills, and all the people around you are telling you that it’s too difficult to change.

This can go on for years. Maybe you’re even reasonably good at the job, but more and more it grates on your nerves. You’re just digging a deeper hole for yourself, with no end in sight.

How Giving to Others Opens Doors!

Carl — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:08:22 +0000

I’ve been involved with a fair number of volunteer organizations during my lifetime, and I’ve always been amazed at how much people are willing to give. On the face of it, this isn’t quite rational – why would you do something that costs you a lot of time, money and work, when you aren’t getting anything specific in return?

Ah, but you do get something.

You have amazing resources!

Carl — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:30:22 +0000

I previously wrote about the process of becoming grounded and mentioned that you probably have hundreds of resources at your disposal. Let’s explore that a bit further.

Do you need a MasterMind group?

Carl — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:44:11 +0000

Here’s a useful concept that might come in handy at some point: A MasterMind group can help you to achieve your goals through support, ideas, and motivation. So what is it?

The idea was first captured in 1937 in the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It’s a small group of people meeting regularly to:

Support each other
Challenge each other
Bring new ideas forward to help each other

Being interested in the concept, I decided to form a group last year which would help me move through the transition from being employed, to looking for a job, to creating my company. Four of us meet every 3-4 weeks via telephone for 90 minutes, and each of us talks about the progress we’ve made, the actions we’d like to take, and what support would be helpful from the others. So far, the results are that each of us has valued the support of the group, and achieved important goals. The only cost is our time, as we’re using a teleconference line graciously supplied by one of our members.

Here are the critical factors for a successful group:

Small enough so that you can get to know each other personally, but large enough to have some diversity of thinking – I decided 4-6 people was the right size for us.
Some elements of commonality of background to help quickly form relationships – Our group is formed from people who used to promote coaching at my former employer.
Some elements of diversity so you get richer depth and breadth of ideas – Our group is two men and two women, physically located around the western US, each looking to take different steps in our lives.
Being focused on helping each other get useful results.

Some groups will pay someone who facilitates the conversations and logistics, but given the backgrounds of the four of us we were able to do without. And on the whole, we’ve found this to be quite useful!

If you’re interested in the concept, simply Google “MasterMind Group”; there’s plenty of resources out there. Maybe this will be a valuable asset at an important point in your career where you’re looking for fresh ideas and personal support!