In this portion of our syllabus, we are exploring the chapter on "Building a Healthy Career Everyday." Like with any activity, one needs to learn and practice new techniques in order to become a stronger player. This applies to actors and athletes, chief executives and crew chiefs, physicians and professors alike. Everybody needs to practice, and with that comes a need for coaching. Some of us are able to coach ourselves, find trusted mentors and seek out professional development resources on our own. Others, on the other hand, need some assistance from a career counselor or coach.
Peter Weddle, author of Work Strong, mentions the importance of finding the right coach to help you succeed in developing a healthier career. Peter also lists some ways to find good coaches and the organizations they belong to. I thought I would provide some links to those organizations and people that specialize in coaching professionals.
The Association of Career Professionals. They have local affiliates that you may use to find a person near you.
Career Directors International is a group that can assist in everything from resume writing to interview coaching.
The Career Management Alliance helps bring together coaches and professionals by ensuring their member career coaches meet the best standards.
There are even coaches for those on the front side of their career, those trying to take the final step of leaving graduate school to enter the professional world. The Dissertation Coach, Allison Miller, is a nationally known professional who helps those in higher education make that final step happen.
As you can see, there are lots of resources available to those needing that helping hand in finding the right path. As any sports fan will tell you, there is no substitute for the difference a great coach can make on a team's performance. The same rings true for your professional career too.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
The 7 Facets of a Healthy Career
Career Fitness is based on a controversial idea. Its core tenant is that a healthy career depends upon seven facets of activity, not one. It acknowledges that in today's highly competitive and increasingly unpredictable job market, survival -- let alone prosperity -- requires that we attend to more than our expertise in our occupational field.
You can see ample proof of this concept's validity by simply looking around. There are countless numbers of well educated men and women who accepted the claim by academic institutions that a college degree -- or better yet, a graduate diploma -- would ensure their career success. They devoted themselves to that one objective, and today, they're out on the bricks looking for work.
They've made a fine start -- professional competence is the heart of a healthy career -- but they need to do more. They must, for example, "strengthen the circulatory system" of their career. Their network of contacts both in their field and in the broader workplace keeps their name and capabilities in circulation. The traditional term for this activity, of course, is networking, but networking is "notworking" if all one does is chatter away on a LinkedIn discussion group.
Research among employers clearly indicates that they continue to rely as much on traditional face-to-face interactions as they do on the virtual ones found online. In other words, the only way to strengthen your career's circulatory system is to get out of the house or office and into those venues where you can actually meet those who are online, as well as those who aren't.
Then, you have to practice the Golden Rule of Networking. It's as simple as it is powerful -- you have to give in order to get. If you want someone to be helpful to you, you must first be helpful to them. You have to share your contacts and knowledge of the job market with others if you would like them to share that information with you.
Good networking, then, is not a one-off proposition or a transactional experience. It begins with making connections to others, to be sure, but ultimately it involves establishing familiarity and trust. Those are the pillars of a sound professional relationship, and such relationships are the only network you can rely on to serve your best interests.
As this example makes clear, there's more to this one facet of strengthening a career's circulatory system than may at first be apparent. It requires both a knowledge of what's entailed and the skills to execute the appropriate actions in an appropriate way. That's why my regimen for Career Fitness covers four steps in each of its seven facets. The more of those facets you work on and the more constructive your actions in each, the better your prospects for finding a great job and, no less important, hanging onto it.
Thanks for reading,
Peter
You can see ample proof of this concept's validity by simply looking around. There are countless numbers of well educated men and women who accepted the claim by academic institutions that a college degree -- or better yet, a graduate diploma -- would ensure their career success. They devoted themselves to that one objective, and today, they're out on the bricks looking for work.
They've made a fine start -- professional competence is the heart of a healthy career -- but they need to do more. They must, for example, "strengthen the circulatory system" of their career. Their network of contacts both in their field and in the broader workplace keeps their name and capabilities in circulation. The traditional term for this activity, of course, is networking, but networking is "notworking" if all one does is chatter away on a LinkedIn discussion group.
Research among employers clearly indicates that they continue to rely as much on traditional face-to-face interactions as they do on the virtual ones found online. In other words, the only way to strengthen your career's circulatory system is to get out of the house or office and into those venues where you can actually meet those who are online, as well as those who aren't.
Then, you have to practice the Golden Rule of Networking. It's as simple as it is powerful -- you have to give in order to get. If you want someone to be helpful to you, you must first be helpful to them. You have to share your contacts and knowledge of the job market with others if you would like them to share that information with you.
Good networking, then, is not a one-off proposition or a transactional experience. It begins with making connections to others, to be sure, but ultimately it involves establishing familiarity and trust. Those are the pillars of a sound professional relationship, and such relationships are the only network you can rely on to serve your best interests.
As this example makes clear, there's more to this one facet of strengthening a career's circulatory system than may at first be apparent. It requires both a knowledge of what's entailed and the skills to execute the appropriate actions in an appropriate way. That's why my regimen for Career Fitness covers four steps in each of its seven facets. The more of those facets you work on and the more constructive your actions in each, the better your prospects for finding a great job and, no less important, hanging onto it.
Thanks for reading,
Peter
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Finding Your Niche Market
On our LinkedIn group, HigherEdJobs, there has been a great amount of discussion on a thread regarding an article, "New Rules of the Game." In short, this article, also by Peter Weddle, brings up the issue of how we go about marketing ourselves to potential employers, and what are some ways we can go about making ourselves stand out amongst the competition. Peter suggests in the article, like in Work Strong, that people need to do some tough introspection. Where the discussion has gone on LinkedIn is about what it means to market one's self.
One of the things we are learning how to do better by following along Peter's path in Work Strong is to market ourselves better and to prepare for our next position months, if not years, before finding it. Many people on the thread believe that marketing=lying or in some way deceiving others into buying into a product that they don't really need or want. In this case the product is you.
Marketing is not lying or deceiving, it is presentation and preparation. The next chapters in the book are going to help us prepare ourselves for market. The definition of marketing is the promotion, distribution, and selling of goods or services. We are all promoting and distributing our services as professionals in higher education either as administrators, staff, or faculty. Finding a niche or method of self-promotion that is creative to help stand out of the crowd is not dishonest, but rather good marketing.
Those in academia may have traditionally thought they were above having to promote themselves. Perhaps at one time that was true -- that merely having a couple of great references, a published work, and the doctorate in hand were enough. I think of another group of people who are not traditionally thought of as self-promoters or marketing mavens, the Amish.
The Amish people have done a great job of marketing their way of life, their goods and services, in a way that is competitive and honest. My grandparents were in need of a new garage at their home in eastern Ohio. After shopping around, they found that an outfit of Amish builders were the best combination of price, craftsmanship, and customer service they could find. This is not the traditional picture I had of the Amish people, yet seems perfectly fitting that they would be great builders. That group found a niche to market their strengths while still maintaining their way of life. Those of us in higher education can do the same.
Why shouldn't people in all fields of work seek to find a special way to market themselves? Why not take honest stock of your abilities and achievements and find positions that are better suited to those skills? You can then use those new positions to angle toward your future career goals. There is nothing wrong with being strategic.
One of the things we are learning how to do better by following along Peter's path in Work Strong is to market ourselves better and to prepare for our next position months, if not years, before finding it. Many people on the thread believe that marketing=lying or in some way deceiving others into buying into a product that they don't really need or want. In this case the product is you.
Marketing is not lying or deceiving, it is presentation and preparation. The next chapters in the book are going to help us prepare ourselves for market. The definition of marketing is the promotion, distribution, and selling of goods or services. We are all promoting and distributing our services as professionals in higher education either as administrators, staff, or faculty. Finding a niche or method of self-promotion that is creative to help stand out of the crowd is not dishonest, but rather good marketing.
Those in academia may have traditionally thought they were above having to promote themselves. Perhaps at one time that was true -- that merely having a couple of great references, a published work, and the doctorate in hand were enough. I think of another group of people who are not traditionally thought of as self-promoters or marketing mavens, the Amish.
The Amish people have done a great job of marketing their way of life, their goods and services, in a way that is competitive and honest. My grandparents were in need of a new garage at their home in eastern Ohio. After shopping around, they found that an outfit of Amish builders were the best combination of price, craftsmanship, and customer service they could find. This is not the traditional picture I had of the Amish people, yet seems perfectly fitting that they would be great builders. That group found a niche to market their strengths while still maintaining their way of life. Those of us in higher education can do the same.
Why shouldn't people in all fields of work seek to find a special way to market themselves? Why not take honest stock of your abilities and achievements and find positions that are better suited to those skills? You can then use those new positions to angle toward your future career goals. There is nothing wrong with being strategic.
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