Posts tagged 'career advice'
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to stories these days. Earlier in my life, I wrote a lot of fiction. I became very adept at creating characters from scratch and then, during the rewrite phase, changing key aspects of their personalities and lives.
Now that I am a professional writer of resumes and bios, it has become apparent that the lives we lead are often dependent on the stories we tell about ourselves, first the stories about ourselves that we tell to ourselves and then the ones we tell others.
“My career has kind of been all over the place,” I was told by a client over the weekend when discussing her resume. She was apologetic.
What she didn’t know was that I hear that same thing all the time. And in most cases, as in this one, I don’t agree. “No it hasn’t. You’ve had four jobs in the past twelve years and all of them have been in the area of communications. Writing, creating presentations, giving talks…” I said as I surveyed the page.
“Oh, yeah,” the client replied after a pause, her voice betraying some relief and surprise. “I guess that’s true.”
So “I’m a flake.” or “I’m a mess.” turns into “I’m a communicator.” and, with the new resume I have written for her promoting her in that way, she can confidently go out and look for their next job. And even if she still feels like a mess sometimes, as long as the story she projects is “I’m a communicator,” she should have no problem getting hired.
What stories do you tell in your life or in your career that are holding you back?
June 17th, 2009
It's Good to Be King
How many times do you think Denis Leary was told his dreams were too big? How many agents didn’t want to rep him, how many clubs didn’t want to book him? How many friends told him to maybe try something else? How many empty rooms he did stand-up in, how many hecklers he endured? How many pitch meetings were cancelled because the executives thought his career was over, when he knew it had just begun?
Think about that the next time you are watching his critically-acclaimed, long-running FX show, Rescue Me, or reading his best-selling book, Why We Suck. (Good job, Denis!)
April 16th, 2009
Like It's His Job...
My almost 18-month-old son, Ben, is obsessed with pushing things around. Anything that is on wheels that he can get behind, he’s all over it.
He has two techniques that he uses. The first one involves getting going as fast as he can for as long as he can until he crashes into something and then crumpling to the floor while screaming.
The second one, which he developed recently, is all about creating a deliberate path, course-correcting as he goes along, and going very slowly. It’s kind of his own version of the tortoise and the hare, if the hare had crashed into things and then totally freaked out.
His first technique is more fun (he often laughs as he speeds along) and sometimes it makes sense to go at a breakneck pace until you hit a wall, especially if you can avoid the post-crash drama. Other times, especially when you are in a tight space, it makes sense to use his second method, inching along and shifting slightly every so often. The trick is to know when is appropriate to use each technique.
April 15th, 2009
I spent about an hour and a half on a conference call last week for a woman who was trying to decide whether to keep her web-based business open, transform it into something else, or close it altogether and move on. The call had been put together by a blogger/social networking consultant/operator of successful web-based community (busy gal!) and included a publicist, two other entrepreneurs, a couple of other smart women with different career paths, and myself, initially wearing my entrepreneur hat.
Though most of us did not know the business owner, we were all familiar with her business and were fans of the idea, and we’d been prepped as to what the problem was. We all quickly dove in, discussing the issue, throwing out ideas on how to overcome it or work around it, good ideas, but of course, ideas which involved time and energy and, in some cases, financial investment.
To each idea, the owner of the business tiredly informed us that she’d already tried some version of the solution being proposed. Her tone started to feel familiar to me, one I sometimes heard when initially meeting with Career Rutbuster clients. Exhaustion, disillusionment… surrender.
I put on my career consultant hat at that point and and gently said, “You sound pretty down about the the whole thing.” A small voice answered back, “Yes.” Fighting emotion.
It had become clear to me that this entrepreneur was not in a place to take another passionate stab at making her business model work. She was just too tired, too down. “How would you feel if I suggested taking a break from it, doing something else for a while… maybe three months?” I asked.
The rest of the conversation was mostly about how she couldn’t quit, she’d put too much into it, she was too old to admit defeat and start new with something else. And no matter how many times we reassured her that we were just talking about taking a break, putting the business on hold (something that actually was possible in her case), she kept coming back to the same concept: FAILURE.
You see, this woman was facing The Dip. The Dip, as defined by Seth Godin in his aptly titled book, is either a temporary setback that you will overcome if you keep pushing or it’s a Cul-de-Sac, which will never get better no matter how hard you try. Godin’s belief is that winners quit fast and quit often, and quit without guilt– until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons.
I have no idea whether the business owner on the conference call is experiencing a temporary Dip she could/should overcome in order to hit the big time and make her business thrive, or whether it’s a dead end she should walk away from on the way to something else.
All I knew when I was on that call– and YES, I did recommend the book to her (and now that I think about it, should probably remind her of)– was that she was not in a place to answer that question for herself.
The idea of walking away from her business- or even making it into something else which was not the exact model she had been working on for the past few years- was the equivalent of admitting defeat. And my point- which was Godin’s point- is that some Dips should not be overcome. They are not failures- they are steps along the way to finding that something that will work, whether it is a business or a job or a political movement.
So if you are finding yourself in a Dip these days and trying to make sense of it and decide your next move, check out The Dip.
April 14th, 2009
Get a notebook and pen out. We’re going to have a little fun. FUN, remember– you don’t have to actually DO anything about what you write. Just give me 45 minutes and your imagination.
In the last post, I wrote about women who had changed their careers in order to make more money. They had taken hobbies, passions, ingenious ideas, and transformed them, by blood, sweat, and tears, into lucrative new opportunities.
If you didn’t already jump over to More magazine via the link, take a moment to do so now. It’s a short article: http://www.more.com/work-money/work/reinvent-yourself-richer/
Okay, now get your pen and pad ready. First, I want you to write for 15 minutes straight writing down all of hobbies, passions, or ingenious ideas. Don’t edit yourself. If you love your cats, put down cats. If you love nothing more than browsing the Dollar Store, put down The Dollar Store. Fifteen minutes- no editing, no stopping. (Think about it- if any of the women in the More article had edited themselves, they never would’ve made the leap they made. Okay?)
When you are done, you are going to pick five to ten of your hobbies, passions, or ingenious ideas and brainstorm for at least a minute on what businesses you could create based on each one. For cats, you could put luxury cat kennel, matchmaking service for cat lovers, cat sweaters… anything that comes into your head. Two minutes on each one- again, no editing.
Okay, now that you are done, I want you to pick one of your business ideas and spend ten minutes writing a short profile of yourself like the ones you read in the article, as if it’s five years from now and you have tranformed what you wrote in your notebook into a lucrative business.
When you are done, take a moment to read it over. How do you feel? Can you get a glimpse of the life that might be waiting for you if you let yourself take the first step?
Photo by neovain.
April 1st, 2009
Continuing this week’s theme of addressing the compensation piece of the career pie, today’s topic is changing careers in order to make more money.
There are certain jobs you do because there are intangible payoffs (helping others, self-expression, etc.), not for the money. Some people choose to become teachers, social workers, or bar band musicians because of these non-monetary rewards.
There are a lot of careers where you unexpectedly reach an earning ceiling you didn’t realize was there- or didn’t consider when you were starting out.
Other times, you don’t get where you thought you would get and you hit a salary dead-end (such as the executive assistant trap which I’ll be addressing in another post soon).
And sometimes there is burnout (the intangibles stop providing the same satisfaction) or circumstances change (kids approaching college or a marriage ending) or you have an epiphany (”I am worth more than this!”) and the money-making piece becomes more important.
In the March More Magazine, there is an article called Reinvent Yourself Richer about four women who jumped their earnings by changing careers. They went from being a flight attendant to an entrepreneur, a musician to a CEO, an executive assistant to a publicist, and a psychotherapist to a real estate broker, respectively.
The thing that struck me is that each of the women profiled made their own opportunities. The entrepreneur invented a clever product and then passionately publicized it to everyone she met for the next year as she hung onto her flight attendant job during the transition.
The musician who became a CEO is the CEO of her own company. She saw a niche business need that wasn’t being addressed and created a website to fill it and her gamble paid off.
The executive assistant-turned-publicist tapped into a passion she had and repositioned herself by reworking her resume to highlight little-used skills in order to get work for a public relations firm.
The psychotherapist, going through a divorce and needing to kick up the earnings to support her kids, had a background in renovating and flipping apartments which she turned into a career by getting licensed as a real estate broker and persevering until she got her first clients and proved herself, so she could get more clients.
All of these women are making substantially more money than they were in their previous careers and they did it by using their own ingenuity and passion, and forcing a change in their lives.
Nobody reached down and gave them an opportunity. They all sweated out the transition with challenges some thought they might not have it in them to overcome. But they were all so committed to making a difference in their lives, they did what was necessary.
What untapped passions or unexplored business ideas or alterntive career paths do you have? How can you make your own opportunity and kick up your earnings in the process?
Photo courtesy of JBlaze_B.
April 1st, 2009
Secrets of Six-Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life by Barbara Stanny is not just for women, but it’s well-established that women are more likely than men to fall into the trap of working in jobs with low pay ceilings OR working in jobs where they allow a low-pay ceiling to exist because they are too scared, for whatever reason, to ask (demand) to be paid what they are worth.
This book is for any chronic underearner, as Barbara Stanny terms herself (at the time) and anyone making well below their earning potential. She interviewed over 150 women and identified the issues and road-blocks they had (or did not have) to making over $100,000 (and often a lot more).
She names the “must-haves” for busting through a low earning ceiling: a profit motive, audacity, resilience, and encouragement, and provides relevant stories from the interviewees lives in their own voices. In some of the cases, the women had a transformation that took them from an anemic paycheck to big bucks and in others, the women knew they wanted to make a lot of money from the beginning of their careers and went for it. Both types are instructional.
The book has a very readable, conversational format. Barbara’s own story of financial transformation, depicted along with those of the interviewees, gives the book an intimate, personal tone, and there is something for anyone looking to break through any barrier to six figure (or seven figure) success.
March 30th, 2009
One of the cliche interview questions that recent grads are told to prepare for is “Where do you see yourself in five years?” When I was a recent grad, I found that type of question a puzzle, if not a trick. Though I don’t remember actually answering it, if I did, it was some lame “best guess” I presented because honestly, I had no idea where the next five years would lead me. Plus, five years seemed an eternity.
After the first few years of ones’ career and certainly when one is well into mid-career (and perhaps middle age, for that matter), I firmly believe one can and should should have an idea of where they want the next five years to take them. Creating financial, professional, and personal growth benchmarks are key for making progress in the long run and making decisions day-to-day based on overall priorities and desired direction.
So if you don’t have one, get a notebook out and start working on your five year plan and interim goals. It will be a roadmap to get where you want to go. After all, at the end of that time, wouldn’t you rather get where you intended to go than get nowhere at all?
Photo by brain_farts.
March 23rd, 2009
When I’m not busy helping you people get better jobs, one of the (many) other things I do is write bios for professionals and businesses. Because of my relationship with the Personal Family Law Program (I am their recommended biographer!), a lot of the individuals I write bios for are lawyers.
Lawyers get a bad rap.
Almost every single lawyer I have talked to is passionate about what they do. Maybe it is because of the nature of the PFL program, but the lawyer I spoke to today was not a PFL member.
Now let me just tell you– I love doing bios. I get to pry. They pay me to pry and then to write a story about them. (Joy!) Among the questions I ask is why they chose to become a lawyer and then I ask why they chose the particular specialty. And I usually get a really interesting, personal answer.
For some of the lawyers I write about, there was a family experience, where a relative was wronged. The lawyer I talked to today, who is based in Portland, Oregon and was fending off his two restless kids while he grabbed 20 minutes on the phone with me, specialized in personal injury. He told me he had applied to law school when he was finishing college and then worked for a short while in a very large law corporate law firm in Boston. He decided, based on that experience, to pull his application and do something else.
Cut to several years later, after travel, a couple other careers, starting a family, and putting down roots in a community. He realized that he didn’t have to work for a big, impersonal firm which represented corporate entities nobody at the firm particularly cared about. He could be his own kind of lawyer.
Now he and his partner have a practice which represents individuals who have been seriously injured through someone else’s fault. They severely limit the number of clients they take on so they can focus on the cases they have and provide the very best care to those clients. Sometimes they even fight big law firms like the one he worked at out of college.
I asked him if any of his recent cases had impacted him strongly and he told me about a husband and wife in their 70s. The husband had taken care of the wife, who was wheelchair bound and had other health issues, until they were in a car accident. As a result of the injuries the husband sustained, he was no longer able to take care of his wife at home and he had to put her in a home. He was heartbroken. He was totally in love with this woman and it killed him that he couldn’t be with her. The lawyer told me that as a result of the settlement his firm got for the husband and wife, they were able to hire in-home care and the husband and wife could be together again.
That’s a pretty powerful story and an extreme example of making a true difference. Not everyone is in a profession that has that opportunity, but we do all have the opportunity to use what we do in a way that brings us satisfaction.
I love writing a great bio (and not just because I’m a nosy person). I love helping clients figure out how to get more out of their careers and crafting resumes and cover letters that will land them better jobs. I even love writing blog posts that will provide my readers with something to think about.
Now let me ask you… Are you the kind of lawyer or writer you want to be? Is there somewhere else you could apply your skills- another company, type of company, or field- that would give you the kind of personal fulfillment you long for in your career?
Photo by Mike Willis.
March 14th, 2009
I know, I know. Enough with the Top Chef. But I can’t help it. It’s a microcosm of the business world. People trying to make it, to land on top, to get the big title and the corner office (or restaurant).
The season finale was on last night (SPOILER ALERT).
Carla had been gaining ground the last few episodes, really shining and showing what she could do. But on last night’s episode, she let herself be led out of her sweet spot by another chef. Carla’s insecurity made her doubt her own ideas. She went with dishes that weren’t “her” and… you can guess…
Stefan had been the star all season. It was his to lose, really. And the last few episodes, his confidence got the best of him, especially last night when his performance mattered most. He went with a fancy technique in order to show off, but one which didn’t preserve or enhance the flavor of the food he was cooking, and he settled on a tried and true dessert which the judges felt was tired and not-so-true and… well, you can guess here too.
Which lead Hosea. Hosea knew his strengths, he had confidence but not arrogance, he stayed away from a danger zone (for him, dessert), and he went the distance.
If you haven’t watched the show because you don’t cook or don’t like cooking shows, give it a shot anyway. It’s not about the food. Trust me.
February 26th, 2009
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