Today's competency addresses whether or not you know what you want to do during the next 10 years. 10 years, you ask??? How old will you be? How will you define yourself and will you have accomplished your goals?
If it seems to you that 10 years is WAAY too far into the future to plan, well, in a way it is. It does, however, present you with a unique challenge----and that challenge is the essence of your career management strategy: how DO you want to shape your next 10 years, or is it OK with you for someone else to define it for you? As someone once said, "if you don't know where you're going, any path will take you there." Any path, anyone, anything that you just fall into will shape your future - and that, my friends might just not work for you.
So, as you visualize your next ten years, who will be in the driver's seat of your life? How will you define success? What will you be doing? How satisfied will you be with your life?
If 10 years seems like a lifetime, break your goals and plans and action steps down into a 3-5 year time span, or even in one-year increments. Don't let life just happen to you.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
What do you like?
This week's career competency concerns your career interests and your personality traits:
"I know what I both like and dislike in work"
Since so many of the 27 career competencies are related, this one primarily speaks to understanding what you enjoy doing and not doing at work. (Additional factors that could influence these feelings include: the size of the firm, industry, culture, and the people you might work with). Your motivated skills, your strongest abilities and skills, and your pattern of major achievements (addressed in prior blog posts) all speak to our likes and dislikes. Each one of us have certain work tasks we must do, but also have tasks we generally enjoy - maybe even look forward to- as well as those we lose ourselves in.
What do you think of when you read this??
I believe the best way to assess yourself on this competency is to ask yourself the BIG IDEA question: what is my visualization of my perfect job and place?
John Holland's long-standing career theory - called the trait-and-factor-theory- and the theory which most interest inventories are based on posits that one's career interests are related to the personality traits exhibited by the people who are employed in that occupation. What do you think?
Lots to ponder....next post's competency: what do you want to do in the next 10 years?
"I know what I both like and dislike in work"
Since so many of the 27 career competencies are related, this one primarily speaks to understanding what you enjoy doing and not doing at work. (Additional factors that could influence these feelings include: the size of the firm, industry, culture, and the people you might work with). Your motivated skills, your strongest abilities and skills, and your pattern of major achievements (addressed in prior blog posts) all speak to our likes and dislikes. Each one of us have certain work tasks we must do, but also have tasks we generally enjoy - maybe even look forward to- as well as those we lose ourselves in.
What do you think of when you read this??
I believe the best way to assess yourself on this competency is to ask yourself the BIG IDEA question: what is my visualization of my perfect job and place?
John Holland's long-standing career theory - called the trait-and-factor-theory- and the theory which most interest inventories are based on posits that one's career interests are related to the personality traits exhibited by the people who are employed in that occupation. What do you think?
Lots to ponder....next post's competency: what do you want to do in the next 10 years?
Saturday, April 30, 2011
You're a STAR
Before we move on to next competency, here's an addendum:
Become your own S.T.A.R. What does this mean?
Just documenting your accomplishments isn't enough - you'll need to quantify/qualify them. But, how do you do it? Using the STAR technique helps you frame each "power story" and creates a picture or tells your story in a personal way, with a punch:
S = situation > describe your situation/problem/issue you dealt with
T= tasks > what you needed to do in order to address the situation/problem/issue
A= actions > what you did to address the situation/problem/issue
R = results > the measurable results of your efforts
My colleague, Betsey, (thanks, B) advises we develop at least twelve power stories. When I first heard her tell one of our students he needed these, I thought to myself, "egads, that's a lot." I have now come to endorse that, and more. The more you can quantify/qualify your accomplishments, the better you're prepared to field virtually any interview question. Behavioral questions form the bulk of what employers ask and new surveys suggest that "culture fit" (code for: will you fit into our organization?) is the NUMBER ONE attribute employers look for in candidates. Recruiters assume you've got the technical/content chops for the job, but need to be convinced you've got the temperament for their culture.
Wanted to put this out as an
ps if you struggle with this, you're not alone...practice with someone who you trust and who believes in you..
Become your own S.T.A.R. What does this mean?
Just documenting your accomplishments isn't enough - you'll need to quantify/qualify them. But, how do you do it? Using the STAR technique helps you frame each "power story" and creates a picture or tells your story in a personal way, with a punch:
S = situation > describe your situation/problem/issue you dealt with
T= tasks > what you needed to do in order to address the situation/problem/issue
A= actions > what you did to address the situation/problem/issue
R = results > the measurable results of your efforts
My colleague, Betsey, (thanks, B) advises we develop at least twelve power stories. When I first heard her tell one of our students he needed these, I thought to myself, "egads, that's a lot." I have now come to endorse that, and more. The more you can quantify/qualify your accomplishments, the better you're prepared to field virtually any interview question. Behavioral questions form the bulk of what employers ask and new surveys suggest that "culture fit" (code for: will you fit into our organization?) is the NUMBER ONE attribute employers look for in candidates. Recruiters assume you've got the technical/content chops for the job, but need to be convinced you've got the temperament for their culture.
Wanted to put this out as an
indent to the previous competency.......so get writing, and I'll suggest the next competency soon...
ps if you struggle with this, you're not alone...practice with someone who you trust and who believes in you..
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Career Competency #3!
This week's competency is as follows:
I have seven major achievements that clarify a pattern of interests and abilities that are relevant to my job and career.
OK - this is serious - you all have at least seven, don't you? This can be in the form of projects, events, tasks, or even something you volunteered for - sort of a "go above and beyond the call of duty" period. As I told one of my MBA grads today, document, document, document the minute you start your job and quantify as much as possible.
Here's the thing: you may not even realize these patterns - maybe you're not that aware that is really IS an achievement--maybe you just chalk it up to working hard. Maybe you think you're doing great stuff but someone minimizes it in some way.
HEY! This is where you've got to just stop and think - are other folks doing this? Is this something I'm proud of? Are folks I care about paying attention to this? If so, write it down, and be proud of it!
When I first tried this, I started to wonder if my efforts were worthy of writing down. Here's my first entry:
Coordinated a two day Career Pathways Conference, facilitating two workshops
Then I looked at what I wrote and thought, "wow, I did that." But when it came time to put that on my resume, I felt embarrassed. HUH? The point is, we often minimize or forget about the results of our efforts. And, if we are truly concerned about managing our careers, we need to keep a record of what we've done and promote ourselves every chance we get. This is hard to do for females especially. What? Tout our skills? YES - be proud of what you can do and tell people about it!
Stay tuned for next week's competency: I know what I like and dislike in work......
I have seven major achievements that clarify a pattern of interests and abilities that are relevant to my job and career.
OK - this is serious - you all have at least seven, don't you? This can be in the form of projects, events, tasks, or even something you volunteered for - sort of a "go above and beyond the call of duty" period. As I told one of my MBA grads today, document, document, document the minute you start your job and quantify as much as possible.
Here's the thing: you may not even realize these patterns - maybe you're not that aware that is really IS an achievement--maybe you just chalk it up to working hard. Maybe you think you're doing great stuff but someone minimizes it in some way.
HEY! This is where you've got to just stop and think - are other folks doing this? Is this something I'm proud of? Are folks I care about paying attention to this? If so, write it down, and be proud of it!
When I first tried this, I started to wonder if my efforts were worthy of writing down. Here's my first entry:
Coordinated a two day Career Pathways Conference, facilitating two workshops
Then I looked at what I wrote and thought, "wow, I did that." But when it came time to put that on my resume, I felt embarrassed. HUH? The point is, we often minimize or forget about the results of our efforts. And, if we are truly concerned about managing our careers, we need to keep a record of what we've done and promote ourselves every chance we get. This is hard to do for females especially. What? Tout our skills? YES - be proud of what you can do and tell people about it!
Stay tuned for next week's competency: I know what I like and dislike in work......
Monday, April 18, 2011
This week's career competency
This week's career competency is: "I can identify my strongest abilities and skills." What does this mean? Well, in a sentence, it means: do you know what you do best? This one deals not only with your perceived "brand", but who you REALLY are. Ask yourself: can I identify my strongest abilities and skills? Creative? Intuitive? Designer? Counselor? Writer? Collaborator? Scientist? Fixer-upper? Uber- organized? Problem-solver? Researcher? Manager? Juggler? And.....what among these skills can you transport into a different career area?
We are not only NOT brought up to think of ourselves as having (wonderful) skills, but we tend not to even think about this subject as we move into adulthood. A good amount of introspection and reflection about what you have to offer to crucial to your career management. Like recruiters usually remark, "if you don't know what you can do, neither do we!" Here's a tip if you just can't identify your own skills: ask someone who knows you well to tell what they think your skills are....
We are not only NOT brought up to think of ourselves as having (wonderful) skills, but we tend not to even think about this subject as we move into adulthood. A good amount of introspection and reflection about what you have to offer to crucial to your career management. Like recruiters usually remark, "if you don't know what you can do, neither do we!" Here's a tip if you just can't identify your own skills: ask someone who knows you well to tell what they think your skills are....
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Today's career competency
Today's career competency is: I know what motivates me in the workplace. Score yourself from 1-5, 1: strongly agree and 5: strongly disagree.
This has to do with a few things: your work values and your motivated skills. Does your current workplace fit your work values, such as opportunity to use your intellect, your creativity; does it provide you with independence or are you able to work in teams? If not, maybe this is de-motivating you. Everyone has different needs that they want to be met where they work! In addition, we all have lots and lots of skills - some of which we LOVE to use, and others we either are neutral about, or just hate to use. Then there are other skills we'd love to improve upon. What skills do you have that you really need to utilize daily? These are motivated skills - be intentionally aware of these and they will help you understand why you look forward to go to work everyday. For those of you who are using skills that you only moderately like or even have that "Ugh" feeling when you use them, I say it's time to take a look at the very tasks/skills you like the most and think about either trying to leverage them in your current position, or start looking for positions that allow you to utilize those skills that you really love.
Next competency we'll explore: I can identify my strongest abilities and skills.
Stay tuned and believe in yourself,
Karen
This has to do with a few things: your work values and your motivated skills. Does your current workplace fit your work values, such as opportunity to use your intellect, your creativity; does it provide you with independence or are you able to work in teams? If not, maybe this is de-motivating you. Everyone has different needs that they want to be met where they work! In addition, we all have lots and lots of skills - some of which we LOVE to use, and others we either are neutral about, or just hate to use. Then there are other skills we'd love to improve upon. What skills do you have that you really need to utilize daily? These are motivated skills - be intentionally aware of these and they will help you understand why you look forward to go to work everyday. For those of you who are using skills that you only moderately like or even have that "Ugh" feeling when you use them, I say it's time to take a look at the very tasks/skills you like the most and think about either trying to leverage them in your current position, or start looking for positions that allow you to utilize those skills that you really love.
Next competency we'll explore: I can identify my strongest abilities and skills.
Stay tuned and believe in yourself,
Karen
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Yikes I"ve been neglecting my blog!
The world is changing so quickly I can barely keep up with it, especially trends in career management! I"ve been busier over the past twelve months working as a private career coach, contractor and part-time Associate Director of MSU's MBA Career Services Center than at any time in my career. This tells me (and confirmed by a recent survey) that contract employees, temps or interim workers are one of the biggest trends in 2011. Daniel Pink's great book, Free Agent Nation, predicted this phenom.
One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is a well-honed, current toolkit of career management skills. There are 27 career competencies everyone needs to possess! In upcoming posts, I'll review each one, and share some ideas about how you can gain these essential skills.
One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is a well-honed, current toolkit of career management skills. There are 27 career competencies everyone needs to possess! In upcoming posts, I'll review each one, and share some ideas about how you can gain these essential skills.
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