At Career Investments, we work with people at all stages of their careers who want more out of their professional lives – more meaning, more freedom, more money. After working with hundreds of people in intensive, one-on-one coaching sessions, we have identified a set of 12 key competencies for career success. In this post, I would like to explain the first three: Language Skills, Critical Evaluation and Self-Awareness. They are first because » Read more: The First 3 Critical Career Competencies
My New Year’s Resolutions
January 2nd, 2012 by Jim No comments »The start of a new year is a great time to look over your career accomplishments for the last twelve months and set your course for 2012. And that’s exactly what I plan to do, too. To give you some idea of how to start, here are my own 2012 resolutions:
By the end of this week I will draft a new career goal statement. It will begin with » Read more: My New Year’s Resolutions
Holiday gift ideas for job hunters
December 12th, 2011 by Jim 1 comment »If there are job hunters on your holiday list – and there probably are – here are some ideas for gifts they will be sure to appreciate.
Memberships in professional organizations: Job hunters often drop out of professional associations to save on cash while job hunting. A membership that allows continued attendance can be an important networking boost.
Gift certificates for career coaching services: Many career coaches (Career Investments included) offer gift certificates or at least allow you to purchase services for a friend or family member. This important benefit can help a job hunter accelerate his or her search and increase the likelihood of a positive outcome. » Read more: Holiday gift ideas for job hunters
Language counts
November 11th, 2011 by Jim 1 comment »Language really matters, in resumes, cover letters, interviews or network sessions. Careful use of language will increase both the number and quality of the career opportunities you have.
In an earlier post, I talked about using a story to illustrate the phrase “strong communicator.” Today I want to talk about using word choice to do the same thing. In this case, the goal is to identify and eliminate what we call “generic language.” These are words like “creative,” or “analytical.”
The problem is, most people don’t know when they are using generic language and when they are using lively, interesting language. So here is a simple process to identify the words and phrases in written documents that may need work. Once you have cleared them out of your writing, it will be easier to eliminate them from your spoken communications as well. » Read more: Language counts
Networking for Introverts
October 26th, 2011 by Jim No comments »What kind of career networker are you?
This is a question I read on Tech Republic a few months ago. The article, based on the book The 11 Laws of Likability by Michelle Tillis Lederman, came along with a short quiz you can take. The quiz sorts you into one of four categories:
- The Observer: Hangs back, watches what is happening, but doesn’t get involved
- The Reactor: Interested in connections, but wants someone else to take the lead
- The Initiator: Actively engaging, looking for opportunities, balanced
- The Director: Strategic and methodical
Are you being held hostage?
September 12th, 2011 by Jim 1 comment »“I Hate My Job!”
Oh boy, do I remember what that feels like.
Hating your job, for whatever reason, is agony. After all, we spend nearly all of our waking time, at least 5 days a week, working. And if you are like me, when you are doing something you hate, you spend the rest of your waking time complaining about it. What a waste!
Finding an Accountability Partner
August 8th, 2011 by Jim No comments »There is a lot of things to do when you are job searching. Tweak your resume, search the job boards, check your Facebook account, return that email about next weekend’s cookout, clean out this desk drawer, its a mess, and as long as I’m cleaning …. oh oh.
I find staying on task the hardest thing to do, especially when I really don’t want to think about the problem or make those pesky networking phone calls. Other tasks seem to throw themselves in front of me.
We work with clients every day who have this problem. And to be completely honest, we have it ourselves.
The best solution we have found is to recruit and use an accountability partner. This is someone who you respect and who you want to respect you. Someone who won’t let you off the hook when you aren’t staying on task. Here is a very simple way to make it work. » Read more: Finding an Accountability Partner
“So tell me about yourself”
July 27th, 2011 by Jim 1 comment »Nearly all of our clients want to know how to answer the dreaded open-ended question. It doesn’t matter if it is “tell me about yourself,” or “why do you want to work for us?,” the fear of giving a wrong answer overwhelms peoples’ common sense.
Here are a couple of pointers.
Reframing failure
July 22nd, 2011 by Jim No comments »At a recent presentation on resumes, an audience member asked me an interesting question: “What about my failures — I have made a lot of bad decisions in my career, how do I talk about them?” » Read more: Reframing failure
A post for parents
July 8th, 2011 by Jim No comments »We work with a lot of college graduates. We have noticed that, as the weeks after graduation stretch into months and no jobs materialize, communication between parents and graduate deteriorates.
This is natural, I suppose. Parents are looking at the sunk costs of an education, they worry about their son or daughter maturing into an independent adult, and one things leads to another….
So, this post is for all those parents. It gives a few dos and don’ts for the parents who want to motivate but instead find themselves alienating their grad. » Read more: A post for parents
