Wednesday, March 31, 2010

For A Successful Job Hunt, Develop Clear Objectives

The first step of a successful job hunt is to develop clear job objectives. Then you can create a plan to market yourself to potential employers. You are your own best product to sell! The foundation of your plan will be the list of strengths you bring to the job and the list of needs you expect the job to fulfill. You can check out free downloads for creating these lists at www.careerwithinyou.com. A solid plan includes identifying clearly who will be interested in paying you for your work, where the best opportunities are, and how you compare to your competition.

Pointer: Romantics & Introspecting. Romantics can help you introspect about what strengths make you unique and what might be missing in your present career that you can add to your list of needs. Check out this description to identify which of your friends might fit into the Romantic career type: http://www.enneatype.com/typefour.html


Your next step is to select two jobs that fit well with your strengths and needs lists (to the best of your knowledge prior to further research). You will eventually create one full plan for each job objective—this means two different résumés, cover letters, series of interviews, and so on. You may be interested in Job Objective #1 but are not having success in that area. However, a similar Job Objective #2 may also interest you, and you may discover you can get many more interviews and job offers in that field. As you can imagine, more than two objectives will require too much work to execute effectively. Nonetheless, most candidates do need two for maximum flexibility in the job market. For simplicity of this book we will walk you through the steps for one job objective, but plan on repeating some of the same steps for the second one.

Stay tuned to learn more on Peoplegogy or get the info now by reading The Career Within You! Check it out here: http://bit.ly/6RXfC0

Friday, March 26, 2010

Ever wish you could go back in time?

Ever wish you could go back in time? I do. Actually, I think about it all the time. There are moments in my life that I wish I could bring my current thinking and knowledge back in time to make things better. Sometimes I just want to be young again and have no worries. Other times, I want to feel that feeling of love or fearlessness or ambition that I did in the past. I think about college a lot. I scan through high school from time to time and wonder what old friends are doing today (I guess I could find them on facebook). Memories are great but nothing would be like actually going back and being in the moment even if it was only as a spectator like Scrooge.

The only thing about going back is the fear of the butterfly effect. That I might change one thing and it changes everything. I don't want to change anything in it's current state. I love my wife. I love my children. I am happy with the accomplishments that I have achieved in my life. I don't want to be anyone else. I will take my life good or bad.

I wish I would have made more videos or taken better care of the ones I had so that I could experience 1979, 1986, 1991, 1992-1996, even 1999-2001 and definitely 2002, 2005 and 2007. I close my eyes sometimes and I am outside the apartment that would be my home for the next three months in New York City. My dad is hugging me for the first time in a long time. He says "I love you" for the first time I remember. I feel like I'm three years old but I am happy, happy, happy. There are so many moments that I enjoy from the past. So many great days and memorable nights. I guess they will always be there in my mind.

Ever wish you could see the future? I do. Actually I think about it all the time.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Are you the "Romantic" career type?

Growing up, Cherie received much praise for her intellect. When she graduated from college with a B.S. in computer science she was recruited into a rotational program in a reputable software company with a good paycheck. After working there six months, she attended a workshop about the “Career Within” given by Elizabeth Wagele and Ingrid Stabb in which she discovered the nine career types. She determined that hers was the “Romantic,” the person who loves authenticity and self-expression above all. Over the next few days she had trouble concentrating at work. She kept thinking about the part of herself that was artistically creative and began to long for a way to express herself in her work. At the end of the week she called her best friend to tell her she was starting to feel depressed. Her role within information technology seemed to lack meaning and she needed to talk about it. That Friday she couldn’t make herself go to work. Instead she made the chocolates that had become her passion to create and that she loved to give to everyone on birthdays and holidays. This cheered her up and brought her back to a sense of feeling alive.

In the career workshop she had learned that Romantics can be fearless in pursuing their hearts’ desires. Among their greatest strengths are their aesthetic sense and their imagination. Cherie realized she wasn’t expressing herself sufficiently. While she did use creativity as a software developer, she couldn’t make use of her excellent aesthetic sense in the way she would have liked. Cherie felt most happy when she was creating new chocolates. On weekends she invented imaginatively shaped candies and new recipes, tried them out on friends, and did research about how to start a small business. Eventually Cherie started selling her chocolates at the local farmer’s market on weekends. Business boomed from there to specialty grocers. Then she sold her confections on-line, using her web development abilities to further her marketing. Since then Cherie has quit her job. Now she is so successful she makes more money making chocolates and expressing her creativity.

Sound career advice for Cherie might be completely different from appropriate advice for you. Cherie was a Romantic, but what are the other choices? What career type are you? Check out a free career type quiz at www.careerwithinyou.com

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Are You Stuck in the Shallow End of Life?

Playing it safe and swimming in the shallow end of life will never leave you fulfilled.  Of course, we all need our jobs: we need our paychecks, the security, and the knowledge that our family needs will be covered. Trust me, as a single mom for most all of the last 20 years, I know all about survival. Even when I was checking groceries at a local grocery store after completing both my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Psychology, I found meaning by connecting with regular customers who always seemed to bring their problems to me!

Unfortunately, for many of us, focusing solely on "making it" leaves us a bit lost. We also need meaning, and when we don’t have that in our job, a place where we spend a huge portion of our time each week, we are often left feeling lost, thinking, “ What is the point?” “Am I really even making any kind of impact in this world?”

So, what does all of this have to do with playing it safe?  We all know people who complain about their jobs, day in and day out, but never really do anything about their complaints. They might moan to coworkers and occasionally begin conversations with, “If only..” but they are not really doing anything to change their situations.

When we want change in our lives, we need to dare to do something different. We need to take a long hard look at our values, our strengths and our long-term goals and decide if we are taking action that is in alignment with those. When our actions are in congruence with our heartfelt values and strengths, we feel energized, confident and able to meet new challenges.

If you are feeling unfulfilled, confused, or unsure that you are on the right path, there are many tools that might help, including Clifton's Strengthsfinder, which is free with a purchase of one of Gallup’s associated books, described here. I have used this survey and found it to be quite valuable.

Another wonderful tool is free; it’s called the VIA Survey of Character, which identifies your top 5 signature strengths. The Via report, found here, takes about 30-45 minutes to complete and is totally free. Yes, I know, I said that already, but how many excellent resources do we find that are completely free?  The VIA, backed by years of research by top psychologists, not only identifies strengths but has accompanying resources on how to utilize your strengths in daily life so that you can experience more fulfillment.  Sometimes the discovery of a value or strength helps illuminate a frustration you have experienced in your current situation.  This validation and new understanding often spurs people to act and make changes in their lives.

I wish you all the best in living a life that utilizes your true, best self.  Life is much too short to stay in the shallow end.