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Archive for career management – Page 2

Want Versus Need?

June 5th, 2018

Want Versus Need

 

Nearly every job applicant has seen them.  Nearly every HR Manager has written them.  What are they?  “They” are the dreaded “wants” job posting.  From a better economy to a paradigm shift to non-traditional candidates, we have constant changes to our workforce, but not to our hiring approach.  We seem to struggle in writing ads that attract because they are either too general (the focus of a future post) or too specific.

Furthermore, we need to embrace career changers, the workforce subset of “Gig Economy” 1099 contractual or project-based workers, returning veterans, and those without a traditional four-year or two-year degree, or we will lose out on great employees.  Business today struggles to find qualified workers, particularly in all manner of technical positions, so rethinking our search methods and hiring process will lead to a larger pool of capable candidates.

In this post I would like to touch on crafting job postings that have specificity, but not to the point of ridiculousness, and I use a real example found in recent months online to portray my point.  Below is a partial posting located on a large, well-known job board as to technical requirements for a programming position titled Java Programmer.

 

JAVA PROGRAMMER WANTED

DB2 or Oracle

SQL

SVN

R

Junit

Eclipse

Java

J2EE

JSON

JSP

JSTL

UMB

Data Modeling

Spring Web MVC

Model Integration

Spring Tags

Squint

IBM AS400

SAP

Workday

Microsoft Office

 

Can we say unrealistic, oh, and not just a Java Programmer position. Furthermore, the job required  at least five years of programming experience, a preferred Masters in a computer-related field, preferred OCPJP or SCJP certification, and preferred experience with Tomcat or tcServer, all in a 24/7 on-call environment, and with a multitude of additional supposed needs, like multitasking.  I GUARANTEE the company does not have all the technology listed above or need it.  Strangely, this ad is eerily similar to three other job postings on the same job board page for other non-related organizations.  I also did a search for Kansas City, Missouri (my hometown) and found several similar ads.  Two cities, multiple ads, and nearly identical in many ways, except job titles. Clearly we need a better approach.

Many of these companies appear to “want” a person that may not exist, or as many IT professionals call it, a Unicorn, and are literally scaring away a good portion of qualified jobseekers.  Undaunted by a lack of qualified applicants, these job postings occur frequently within the tech industry.  My tech resume clients regularly tell of applying for these positions and finding out during an interview the company doesn’t need most items they listed.

Companies must to determine WANTS versus NEEDS in both job postings and hiring, and realistically assess what they do and don’t have technology-wise to avoid creating laundry lists.  The use of formulaic templates and copying and pasting from competitor ads needs to stop.  Write from scratch and create a posting describing the true requirements of your job.  You can use a quasi-template for how you write a job ad, and still be quite distinct from all others.  Collaborate with the hiring manager and if possible, another person within that department in a similar capacity to the job being posted.  What applications and systems do you actually have, and which of those will the applicant work with precisely.  Only include the necessities.

Lastly, as I have pointed out in prior articles, many of your applicants don’t have a degree but do have experience or training from legitimate educational organizations in the very areas you require.  Let’s not discriminate against nearly three quarters of the population because of “shiny object syndrome” and instead pursue qualified candidates regardless of their possessing a four year degree.  Ask for proof of ability in the interview process, inclusive of applicant demonstration of skills and career portfolios of work, to increase your quality of hire.  By developing accurate postings, and treating your candidates with respect through ongoing communication, you will cultivate a valuable group of applicants who no longer shy away from your job postings and become an advocate for your company.

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Management, Careers, Human Resources, Interviews, Job Search
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Favorite Quotes to Bolster Your Job Search and Business

May 9th, 2018

 

“If you don’t know why you’d hire you, neither will they.” – Frank Sonnenberg

 

“Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy.  If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace.  And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possible have imagined. – Johnny Carson

 

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

 

“Bad boss? Fire him/her. When you’re interviewing for a job, Your job is to interview them. You are an equal.” – Richie Norton

 

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles, and less than perfect conditions. So what? Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident, and more and more successful.” – Mark Victor Hansen

 

“You have two choices in life, to accept things as they are, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” – Denis Waitley

 

“People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.” – Andrew Carnegie

 

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

 

“Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure.” – Norman Vincent Peale

 

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” – Benjamin Franklin

 

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

 

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell

 

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge

 

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” – Theodore Roosevelt

 

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden

Categories Business Coaching, Career Management, Careers, Inspiration, Job Search
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HAVE YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS ALREADY COME AND GONE?

February 15th, 2018

Every year we set resolutions to achieve, and most of us are already done with them by the second week of January. Below, I have given you six tips to breakthrough your struggles and make your New Year’s Resolutions, or any goals you set, stick. These tips have worked for me personally, and will help you continue to set attainable goals in the future.

1)     Write them down by hand first, put a pen or pencil to paper. Writing goals down by hand helps you to clarify thoughts, makes you spend more time crafting your objectives, and offers your mind a more physical and tactile process. Typing can become mindless and discourage the creativity that physical writing can provide.

2)    Make them specific.  General goals such as “I want to lose weight” offer no definite goal, but a precise amount by a particular date can help you plan accordingly to meet your objective. “Exercise more” sounds wonderful, but “exercising three days a week for 30 minutes per session with a combination of cardio and stretch” is far more doable, and gives you a true goal to reach for, not just a vague aspiration.

3)    Make them realistic. Losing 50 pounds in two months isn’t going to happen unless you are on “My 600 lb Life” and being treated by a doctor while adhering to a seriously strenuous diet. Setting a goal of losing five pounds per month could definitely happen, and simple dietary changes along with exercise could see that number go beyond your monthly target.  Getting a job in one month is most likely unrealistic, but looking at changing or obtaining a job in the next six months gives you purpose and pragmatism in a job search.

Likewise, don’t set too many goals that will overwhelm you and cause you to give up. Try setting one goal in each area of concern. For instance, set one goal for health, one for finances, one for relationships, and one for the workplace. Four goals are more than enough to pursue concurrently, but not so many they can’t be accomplished. Remember, once you have completed a goal, you can replace it with a new one.

4)    Get an accountability partner. Don’t do it alone. Tell people about your objectives who will support you and encourage you to meet your goals.  Let your supporters know your specific intentions to keep you accountable. Even better, find a buddy who has a similar goal and use the opportunity to collaborate and compete.

5)    Keep the goals in front of you and track progress regularly.  Putting them on paper and perhaps on computer is great, but then rarely or never looking at them and not tracking your progress will eliminate all chances of success. Post them on the refrigerator, next to your home computer, put them on your smartphone, but wherever you place them, make them constantly visible with definable results you can track.

6)    Reward yourself for hitting a goal. Rewards don’t have to be costly. From an outing at a new museum or garden in the area (with free admission) that you have been meaning to visit, to a dinner at a new or special restaurant with a significant other or friend, or a new out outfit to celebrate a weight loss success, having a reward can make your goals more tangible.  When you know there is an incentive on the other side of an objective, something you truly want, it can spur you on to achieve it to “win the prize.”

Whatever you do, don’t give up. Just because you didn’t fully accomplish a particular goal doesn’t make it a failure. If instead of losing 30 pounds over the next six months, you only lost 20, is that really a catastrophe? 20 pounds is still a great feat, and your health will benefit. Now set a new goal to lose the last 10 pounds. It is the constant chipping away at a goal that gets you to the finish line, not a sprint, but a marathon. Taking each goal in bite-sized chunks that can be realized, instead of viewing the end goal in its entirety, will ultimately mean victory.

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Management, Careers, Inspiration, Job Search
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What is a Waste of Space, Unprofessional or Inappropriate on Your Resume?

November 29th, 2017

What is a Waste of Space, Unprofessional or Inappropriate on Your Resume?

I found the above picture yesterday in a search for graphics, and it immediately struck me as perfect for my article. While everyone writing their resume is doing so in earnest and with the best information they have, often the person writing it may have received bad resume advice from friends and family, used poorly written sample resumes or just be winging it to get their resume done for a potential job.  There are several items that jobseekers put on their resumes that are unnecessary, take up excess space, and look unprofessional.  Here are a few I see on a regular basis:

–An Objective:  Instead of putting a tiresome, repetitive objective about how you want to work for a company that loves you and hugs you and will take care of you forever, how about the job title for the specific job you are applying for, and for which the resume is tailored.  There will be no doubt by the reader what you are applying for, and the job title is most likely a keyword in their system.  Then add a list of job/industry related keywords, or three bullet points highlighting great accomplishments, or a one sentence statement of purpose.  Make sure anything you use at the top of the document with your job title is also communicated in the body of the resume.

–References Available Upon Request:  The interviewers already know this, just bring your reference listing to the interview.

–Your Picture:  A picture on LinkedIn is great, but not on your resume.  Not only is there a potential for discrimination but the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) don’t work well with pictures.

–Fancy Graphics:  Similar to above; this is great for handing your resume to someone, but not for the ATS.  Chances are the ATS won’t be able to read the document, or it will place a multitude of unrecognizable symbols in your resume.

–Personal Information:  I have actually seen the following on resumes:   person is in “good health,” has 10 children, height and weight numbers,  hobbies that are a little too personal and don’t relate to the job or create interest, and spousal details.  Again, there is discrimination potential, and these items are not appropriate for the document.

–Obvious Skills:  Microsoft Office; it is always better to give the specific programs – like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access.  You can also do the following:  Microsoft Office:  Word, Access, Excel and PowerPoint, and then you have all the potential keywords.  Phrases like detail oriented, email usage, and problem solver can go away too, they are blaringly general.

–Be Detailed:   Never use general information and vague keywords when you can be precise or explain something in a reasonably short bullet point.  However, let’s not use too short of a bullet point.  For instance, I see the following constantly on resumes: “Answer Phones.”  That isn’t a bullet point, it is a very short statement.  Here is a bullet that describes answering phones.  Answer five-line phone system, including distribution of calls to appropriate parties, and fielding of general inquiries.  A five-line phone system is a whole different animal, and tells a potential employer that the company you worked for was probably very busy, and you had a lot phone calls to manage.  The other merely says you know how to answer a phone.  In this case, more is better.  Avoid one and two word bullet points, they tell the reader nothing.

–Use of Responsibilities or Duties include:  Okay, I will come find you and tear up your resume if you use these phrases to begin a bullet point.  HR hates them, recruiters hate them, resume writers hate them.  Why, because they are overused!  Enough said, find a thesaurus for better action verbs.

–Unprofessional Email:  I actually saw this email address on a resume at a career fair – CMYNPPLRNG, yes, it says “see my nipple ring” in vanity plate parlance.  Also avoid your name and the year you were born – let’s not just give things away.  How about using your name and the last four digits of your phone number or the numbers in your home address?

–Professional development or civic and professional memberships:  Want to provide meaning to your professional development, and professional and civic involvement, put a year, or year-to-year with it.  The date offers context to the reader as to how relevant and recent it is in your career.

–Outdated professional development:  Do you really remember that 1995 Project Management course – probably not.  So, instead go with the last 10 years, and only list the best of the best.  You can always take an addendum to the interview with a comprehensive listing of professional development, if in the last 10 years there are copious amounts.

Space is precious on a resume, whether you have a one-page or three-page document, you want everything on the document to be useful to the reader.  Remember, if your resume makes it past the ATS, and the initial 10-15 second screening, it will be read – make it all count!

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Careers, Job Search, Personal Branding, Resume Writing
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Answering the Question: What Makes You More Qualified Than the Other Candidates?

November 16th, 2017

Answering the Question:  What Makes You More Qualified Than the Other Candidates?

 

This is a common question my clients are regularly asked in an interview.  There is worth to the question, despite what you read online, and I do understand the logic behind it.  So, here is how you handle it:

First, tell them you don’t know the other candidates’ qualifications, nor do you have their resume, so all you can speak to is your own qualifications for the position.  Not only is this true, but you avoid saying anything negative about the other candidates – this is one of the reasons an interviewer asks the question.  Be careful to address this at the beginning of your answer, as you don’t want the interviewer to feel as if you ignored a portion of the question.

Second, before you ever walk into that interview, fashion an answer.  Being perceived as caught off guard by an inquiry that is commonly used will certainly be a negative.  This is essentially another way of asking “what makes you qualified for the position.”  It doesn’t matter which of these questions you get, the answer will be primarily the same except for what I provided in the “first” part of the answer.

Speak concisely about how your skills, education and experience, with a couple of pertinent examples, relate to the job the interviewer is hiring for specifically.  Keep the answer to less than 90 seconds, so you have enough time to share some details, and connect them to the job, but not so much you bore the interviewer(s).

Use your biggest and best skills and experience, and only relevant education (if used at all) in the answer.  This is not the time to talk about your phone prowess as an IT Director, or how you helped your frat organize a “party” for an entry level bank teller job (or any job for that matter).

What is the organization truly looking for in this position regarding experience and skillset?  What will your typical tasks be day-in, day-out?  What unique capabilities, education, certifications, or experience are they desiring that you already possess?  Depending on the level of, and detail provided about the position, you can offer quite a customized answer to the interviewer(s).

Keep a cheat sheet on hand of this answer in your notebook or portfolio for the interview.  Now you will be prepared, and have a great answer that truly offers value, while setting yourself apart from the competition in a professional and likeable way.

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Interviews, Job Search, Personal Branding
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11 Interview Tips Experts Say Will Make You Stand Out

October 26th, 2017

11 Interview Tips Experts Say Will Make You Stand Out

I was honored to recently participate in a colleague’s article interviewing 11 experts on how to “stand out from the crowd” while in an interview.  Below is my tip for jobseekers, and a link to the full article.

“Craft answers to Behavioral Interview questions prior to the interview.  I take every one of my clients through an exercise to develop these before walking in an interviewer’s door.  Go through performance reviews, your own resume examples of success, think about projects you have worked on, documentation you have created, how you contributed to cost savings or profit and revenue development, and how you increased customer service.  Write these in a format of Challenge, Action and (successful) Result and take them with you in a career portfolio to the interview.  Now you will have an arsenal of perhaps 20 or more examples to refer to if necessary.  You can write them in a brief synopsis (three sentences will be sufficient) but can share and expand on during your interview session.

Since nearly every interview has Behavioral Interview questions, this exercise will pay huge dividends in your success.  Don’t be stuck trying to think of an answer for every interview question that comes your way, prepare ahead and reduce your stress while you impress.”

To see the full article, please go to the following link: https://www.offtheclockresumes.com/blog/11-interview-tips-experts-say-will-make-you-stand-out

 

Categories Career Management, Interviews, Job Search, Personal Branding
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Proofing Your Resume and Cover Letter

September 26th, 2017

Proofing Your Resume and Cover Letter

Proofing a resume or cover letter both for the writer or the numerous friends and family who often review, can be a daunting task. You want that document to be perfect. You’ve heard that one mistake could cost you a job. First, let’s do away with that myth. Thinking that someone is taking your one, two or three-page resume and cover letter, reading it, and then dismissing you from consideration for one error somewhere in the middle the document typically doesn’t happen. Nearly every resume I review for client companies or at career fairs has a couple of errors in it, and this is after a person has typically done multiple reviews and had others review it multiple times. Most hiring managers and HR personnel reading the document are first doing an initial scan if it gets through the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Then, only if you make it into the “qualified” pile they will actually read it. To be truthful, that reading, while more detailed, is not for spotting every error in the document unless those errors are jumping out at them!

Most people reading your resume understand there may be a minor error or two. I assure you their resume probably has typos in it too. Add to that some of the strange things an ATS can do to the document, like inserting weird characters where they don’t belong, or changing all you letter “d’s” to “g’s,” which does happen, and now your potentially perfect document is inaccurate, or at least peculiar looking! That is not your fault and something readers on the other side of the ATS need to understand.  What they don’t want to see are glaring errors, like your name or the company name misspelled, bad grammar, missing or incorrect punctuation, erroneous or misspelled industry terminology and acronyms, and overused action words.

So, how do proof your own writing? First, walk away from that document. It doesn’t matter if it is a resume, cover letter, reference list, reference letter, or any other career related information, you need to step away before reviewing it. Don’t write a resume that can impact your ability to get a job and then feel the need to send it out the same night. You will regret it most every time. Come back the next day and read it again with fresh eyes. Then walk away again for a few hours, come back and reread. Now walk away again, come back and read that document to yourself out loud. This allows you to catch syntax errors – those sentences and phrases that just don’t “sound” right.  Sometimes what sounds great when reading it “in your head” doesn’t quite work when you read it out loud. Lastly, read it backwards. Yep, I said backwards. Certainly this seems laborious, but it actually allows you to catch additional errors like missing punctuation, misspelled industry or technical terminology, company names, and occasional repeated words like “the the,” more easily. When you read it back to front, the “reading what you think you wrote” issue goes out the window. How it sounds isn’t important at this point. Reading in reverse is all about spelling and punctuation.

As a final thought, know that regardless of how many times or how carefully you read your resume or cover letter for errors, we are still human, and so are your family and friends. You still just might have missed something. My feeling is that if a person reading your resume doesn’t understand that every once in a while we make errors – then that person or organization may have larger issues. Primarily having a mindset that says you can’t ever make an error. Typically these organizations will also give you the work of three people, demand you get it done with no overtime or constant forced overtime, or put you on salary so you can work 90 hours a week. If you misspelled your name, company name, or something painfully obvious on the resume, like writing HIPAA with two “p’s ,” then take your medicine (sorry, couldn’t resist the healthcare pun). However, if in the middle of the document you used “united” and accidentally spelled “untied” or Microsoft Word just didn’t catch a misspelling, and that is their major determining factor in an interview or hiring decision, consider yourself lucky. They may have saved you another job search.

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Management, Job Search, Resume Writing
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What Experts Wish Their Bosses Had Known About Talent Management

August 20th, 2017

What Experts Wish Their Bosses Had Known About Talent Management

Recently MarTechExec contacted me about a Talent Management article they were preparing concerning development of leaders in an organization.  Below you will find my answer for the article and a link to it as well with other experts chiming in on their thoughts.

“The very first thing I tell client companies and executive coaching clientele is that the best ‘doers’ in a given job aren’t necessarily the best managers and leaders for their organization. Many an employee has been promoted to their level of incompetence, creating more problems for organizations and employees, than benefits. Additionally, most managers are promoted, but don’t receive any real training until reaching an executive level on how to do their job effectively.

Therefore, training in management and leadership skills are vital. Early and ongoing instruction should encompass a combination of traditional operational management areas, including the basics of business writing, employment law, reading and understanding company financials, process analysis (metrics/benchmarks/KPI’s), and client relationship management.

Likewise, to grow a leader, assignment of a seasoned mentor should be combined with education in communication and active listening, how to motivate (up and down the chain of the command), dealing with diverse personality types, and the importance of integrity in all business and professional-related interactions. Mastery of these relationship-based skills along with operational excellence is what elevates a manager to a truly great leader. Subpar training and mentorship anywhere during a manager’s career development, in the end, will result in a sub-par executive.”

Link to experts article:  https://martechexec.com/article/talent-management-experts.html#KarenSilins

Categories Career Management, Careers, Human Resources, Talent Management
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6 Career Coaches Share How To Discover Your Passion

July 6th, 2017

6 Career Coaches hare How To Discover Your Passion

I was delighted to participate in a colleague’s recent “experts article” as a career coach, on “how to discover your career passion.”  I have included my part of the article and a link to the full article below:

“First, have the job seeker go through an exercise that is very revealing and can detect patterns they may not realize. Take multiple pieces of paper and split them into four columns. The first column will start with your most recent company, and the second column, your most recent job title. The third and fourth columns are very important – make a detailed list of what you liked (column three) and what you didn’t like (column four), AND WHY, for each job. If you had multiple jobs for one company, do this exercise for each job title.

Take this exercise all the way back to your first job. This will help you see trends in bosses, tasks, colleagues, benefits, pay, organizational culture, and other items you liked and those creating issues. You can also go through each job and identify skills learned to utilize in creation of a resume. This is just the start of discovering your new career, but it will be the most important one.”

Article link:  https://www.offtheclockresumes.com/blog/6-career-coaches-share-how-to-discover-your-passion

Categories Career Exploration, Career Management, Career Transition, Careers, Job Search
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The Dream Career Conundrum

May 11th, 2017

The Dream Career Conundrum

Every week I receive multiple calls as a career coach from people wanting to find their “dream career” or “what they are meant to do for the rest of their life.”  While some people do have a career calling, most people actually have several potential careers that would give them great satisfaction, provide decent income, help them feel like they make a difference in the world, but aren’t necessarily a “dream career.”

The dream career, in my opinion, is a myth perpetrated by the media and Hollywood as an ideal fantasy.  That fantasy shows that every day of your career life should consist of love, puppies, kittens, roses and constantly happy and at peace.  The reality is that you can have an incredible career that you do love and still have bad days, stressful times, dread an occasional Monday, work overtime, and struggle.  These “issues” are part of real life and of work.  From people selling “manifesting your potential” to that “ideal career,” the whole fantasy is that every minute of your day can be happy, you can have as much vacation as you want, your pay will be outstanding, everybody has a calling, and that you can do your passion for a living.

I have a passion for collecting angels, but that doesn’t mean I can turn it into a career.  My father had a calling to be a police officer, but he didn’t even realize it until he became one and saw the difference he could make in others’ lives.  Sometimes happenstance intervenes and that was the case with my career.  Sometimes a career coach leads you to a better career.  Sometimes a job you take out of necessity or an interest/hobby turns out to be a great career.  However, sometimes that career you felt so called to changes to one you want to leave, or a dream business opportunity fails, or you don’t want a traditional “job” but instead want to raise your children and be there for your parents as they age.

The Dream Career Conundrum

My “dream careers” were to be a rock and roll star, an opera star, or a conductor of great choirs.  I still sing as a hobby (paid and unpaid) and don’t conduct much, but I am truly happy in my vocation as a career coach, resume writer and small business coach.   The reality is that ALL of us are multi-faceted and any number of careers can make us happy.  So, first we have to determine if the career itself is the problem or perhaps something else.  For instance:

–Are there issues with your current boss that make you unhappy in your job?

–Do you dislike the values or current direction of the company for which you work?

–Do you like your current fellow employees?

–Could there be issues from your home life that impact your work life – like a divorce or separation, sick parent, sick child, or money issues?

–Do you suffer from depression or other related illness that can negatively impact how you feel about your life and career?

–Does the job pay enough for you to save a bit of money and not live paycheck-to-paycheck?  This will necessitate you looking at your finances and determining where you might be overspending and if that could be creating part of the problem.

–Is it YOUR attitude?

The Dream Career Conundrum

Sometimes what you bring to the table is ultimately what makes the job miserable.  That can be hard to hear for some of my clients, but bad attitudes, grouchy demeanor’s, and an overall “the glass is half-empty and where the hell is my cheeseburger” outlook will get you nothing but dissatisfaction.

Ask yourself if you like the work you do, not the boss, employees, etc., but the work itself?  How about the industry?  Perhaps it isn’t a new career in total, but a different job within your current industry.   What about the work environment?  If you work alone but love people, or vice versa, you might be miserable due to the environment but not the job.

Regardless of whether you stay in your current job, change your job or change your career, make sure that your decision is made with a dose of reality.  There are no true dream careers like you see in a commercial or a movie.  Yet, there are highly satisfying careers, given the proper circumstances (appropriate pay, good work environment, nice coworkers, a happy and grateful attitude by you, and a company and boss who seem to care overall).  Even if one or two of the above are missing, you can still like your job/career.  Too many have changed their entire career path when the real issue wasn’t the work itself.

The Dream Career Conundrum

Take your time in evaluating your current career and your personal life to find the root of the issue, and do it as objectively and dispassionately as possible.  Then, if the career is truly dis-satisfactory, take more time to discover options of where you could have a more satisfying career experience.   Do not rush to a decision, which could have you jumping from the frying pan and into the fire.  Likewise, don’t stay if you know you are in the wrong place, as becoming comfortable in your discomfort because change seems more stressful, will only make the rest of your life increasingly unsettled.  Whether you find a new career on your own, or with some guidance from a career coach, know that each job/career has its difficulties.  Also know that you can find a career you love and live a more fulfilling life because of it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

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