Competency #7: I know what skills I can offer employers in different occupations beyond my education background

Today's competency deals with recognizing the skills you possess that could qualify you for unique occupational areas you may not have ever considered.  "Thinking out of the box" about interesting work, irrespective of your educational background can not only shake off the boredom of your current work, but allow you to actually transform your work life.  The "career ladder" is a thing of the past; the "rock wall" metaphor (a career is like climbing a rock wall - you can go up, but also need to move to the left or right, or even down before you can continue your ascent) is less relevant, too.  Too many of us find there is no rock wall to climb, and we must take stock of all our experiences and the skills/knowledges gained to forge ahead into a profoundly ambiguous world.

Daniel Pink's fabulous book (A Whole New Mind, 2005) stresses a need in this new "Conceptual Age" for people to possess what he calls the "six senses"- design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning - all, by the way, so-called "right-brain skills".   Understanding the ways in which you use these six senses can help you understand how, regardless of your educational background, you are nimble enough to move into new work roles:

Design:  have you created a product, a service or an experience that is beautiful or emotionally engaging?
Story: have you persuaded, communicated or fashioned a compelling narrative?
Symphony:  can you see the big picture and combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole?
Empathy:  do you know what makes people tick, can you forge new relationships, can you care for others?
Play:  can you have fun, use humor and laugh?
Meaning: do you have a purpose, and can you be fulfilled by it?

Recognize your talents, understand your interests, explore work which allows you to be fulfilled, stay curious and courageous.  If you do, there will always be a workplace for you. 

Competency #6: I have a well-defined career objective that focuses my job search on particular organizations and employers

Being able to focus your job search on specific organizations requires that you've already done the work of what I like to call "field research" - including Internet searches, informational interviewing, and networking for information.  It also assumes and requires that you know what kind of work you want.  This skill set comes only after you've identified and made sense of all the many self-assessments you've taken and you've got a pretty good handle on what drives you, what you most value in the workplace, what motivated skills you've got in your arsenal, and your personal brand.  By the way, have you developed your personal brand statement?  If not, now is the time to do so!

Assuming that you're ready to focus, you'll need to get a piece of paper and a writing tool.  Write down all the organizations you can think of where you know an employee, or someone you know knows someone "on the inside". This can include where family members, friends, neighbors, or casual acquaintances work.  Utilize your Facebook contacts, and your LinkedIn connections. While we've all heard of the "7 degrees of separation between Kevin Bacon and I", the reality is that it's now only about 1 or 2 degrees of separation.  So start the list now - try to come up with at least 30 companies.  There is nothing wrong with grabbing a few close friends and doing this together!

Then, prioritize your top 5-10 companies based on your values, interests and skills.  Once you've prioritized, start contacting people, using your network if possible, inside those companies.  Tailor your career objective to what you can offer these companies - the most compelling pieces of your career brand - AND what you know they're looking for.  Remember that your career objective must be specific to the company needs, and that your focus must be perfectly matched to what they need.  

Competency #5: I know what I want to do during the next 10 years

With heartfelt greetings that you've had a productive, happy and super-fun summer! This summer has been one of periods of intense joy and satisfaction, coupled with a large dose of intense sadness for me.  The circle of life, I believe....

Today's competency involves knowing what you want to do with your life during the next 10 years.  So.....how old are you right now?  How old will you be in a mere 10 years?  Can you envision 10 years "down the road?"  Do you expect to be working where you are currently working?  If so, why?  If not, why not?  Will your life in the next 10 years include important milestones like adding to your family, experiencing an "empty nest", retiring, seeking and finding a new career or job, moving, going back to school or finding that "soul mate"?

For me, I will be 68 in 10 years.  Do I still want to be working?  YOU BET - although my definition of working might be different than yours.  I expect to be busy (if you know me, you know that this is a MUST) having defined my role on earth perhaps much differently that I do at the present.

Your task, therefore, is to picture yourself 10 years from now, and then set goals - personal/career/civic and: evaluate your present situation to determine if this is helping or hindering you toward your vision of you 10 years out.  For some of you, this will be painful; others of you will think, "yup, I can see myself continuing down this path for another 10 years." Forget about the state of the economy - you heard that right - because, if you've followed my blog for awhile, you understand that you'll keep yourself "job-ready" by regularly documenting your most significant achievements (not "duties").

Actively engaging in this visioning activity can create confidence and security.  Don't procrasinate!  Not feeling passionate about your current job situation?  ACT now and your next decade will be full of promise.  

Career Competency #4: Well.Defined.Focus

This week’s competency is as follows:  I have a well-defined career objective that focuses my job search on particular organizations and employers

This one addresses several different themes, most notably a “well-defined career objective”. How is it defined?  Well, simply put, it is a specific statement that zeros in on precisely who you are and what you want to achieve in your next job/occupation.  It seems so easy to do, doesn’t it – but the fact of the matter is that it is one of the hardest tasks to do.  Why?  Because it requires you to assess yourself, research the market, identify your overarching career goals, analyze your “gaps”, and develop your action plan.

So, let me ask you a few questions:

• Can you list your desired position types by function or industry?
• Do you know the primary qualifications needed for these positions?
• What have you learned about the companies and industries that interest you?
• What are the responsibilities of these positions?
• What are the positives and negatives about these functions and/or industries?
• What challenges might you face in pursuing this type of position in these types of companies/industries?
• What type of networking activities have you done or will do to find valuable connections within these companies/industries?
• How have you or will you identify people with whom you can conduct information-gathering meetings?

Before you can even attempt to craft your well-defined career objective, you need to have given time and effort into the questions above.  You can’t write a saleable resume without understanding what the job entails and how it matches with what you have to offer.

The subject of putting an objective on a resume has been the topIc of vigorous debate.  Recent trends in writing career objectives show that a huge percentage of today’s resumes begin with a headline that clearly communicates “who” the candidate is and “what” they want.  Hiring professionals can instantly find the information they want from a sales professional applicant by the headline “Multilingual Sales Executive and Key Account Manager.”  This, of course, gets placed at the top of the resume.  It solves the “wimpy- career-objective problem” which HR folks hate, and tells them you have confidence and focus.

The Next 10 Years...

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.

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?

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

      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..