Post-Grad Jobs 2

June 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment
connect

connect

Awhile back, I wrote that getting work experience was something college students can do to be offer-attractive upon graduation.

In response, I heard two things:

  1. Duh, I’m working to support myself while in school. I wish I didn’t have to. To you I say, it’s hard but will pay off in many ways. Steer toward as many career-related experiences/projects as possible.
  2. OK, but I’m still not sure how to find even a part-time gig. To this I offer some suggestions to consider based on my years at LSU:

Network and connect.  Make the most of everything college offers. Growing a large and diverse network should be a goal during your college years.

Career services. Usually, fees paid by students support campus career services. This means you pay for it so you need to at least check out all the services offered. The earlier you register with career services the more you benefit. Let them support you as you create your first resume. Also, introduce yourself to all the advisers and then invite them to connect on linkedin. Communicate to them that you are looking for a job or internship as needed.

Faculty. Stop by during office hours and introduce yourself to every teacher you ever have. Tell them what you are interested in and leave them a resume. Don’t take a lot of their time. When you get home, send a brief follow-up e-mail with your resume attached thanking them for speaking with you. Invite them to connect on linkedin.

College, major, and department advisors. Call or e-mail these people to schedule a time to meet. Have your questions for them pretty well formulated. Their job is to help you successfully figure out the transition from student to professional employee. Tell them what you are interested in and leave them a resume. When you get home, send a brief follow-up e-mail with your resume attached, thanking them for their help. Invite them to connect on linkedin. Communicate to them that you are looking for a job or internship as needed.

Classmates and other students. Connect on linkedin with as many classmates and others you get to know during your college years. As you create your first resume, build your linkedin profile. Linkedin is (currently) a free and pretty permanent way to connect and maintain relationships over time. That’s not to say you can’t un-connect with someone if necessary, because you can.

Your network is so key.
Just sayin.

 

What do you think are the best ways for college grads to be offer-attractive?

Filed Under: Career Invention, General Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Leadership Kaleidoscope

April 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment
kaleidoscope

view of a kaleidoscope

The other day we tried a nearby restaurant that recently opened. The manager greeted us when we entered and then he walked to the back and chewed out the waitress in plain sight. We stood there embarrassed, trying to figure out if we needed to be seated or order at the register. The waitress ran right past me with big tears in her eyes. Later, after we sat down, I heard the manager in the kitchen yelling “I’m not being mean; I’m a good teacher and coach! Nobody wants direction anymore”. I wrote it on a napkin so I wouldn’t forget his exact words.

The Ohio State Leadership Studies of the 1950s identified two main factors or leadership behaviors – initiating structure and consideration. This restaurant incident is an example of initiating structure – a manager defining actions and how tasks should be accomplished. Consideration refers to interpersonal and relationship behaviors such as being friendly, approachable, treating others as equals, and showing concern for people’s welfare. It was not demonstrated.

In terms of emotional intelligence, one of the most popular leadership concepts today, this manager seems low in social skills (i.e., managing relationships to achieve desired outcomes) as well as empathy (i.e., understanding other’s feelings). These are two of the five original dimensions of EQ identified by Daniel Goleman.

A long history of leadership research exists. I see the various theories, models and frameworks building on each other, providing different perspectives, and serving as mirror pieces in the kaleidoscope for analyzing it. The value is that defining the behavior is a good first step to improving the behavior. It is handy to know a variety of ways to conceptualize leadership because situations differ and one size does not fit all.

Would love to hear your thoughts on leadership and its development.

Filed Under: Career Invention, General Management, Human Resource Management, Leadership Development, Organization Behavior Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Mindset, Downton and Your Career

April 1, 2013 By 2 Comments
JB + UK_Planet

Downton Abbey

As a Downton Abbey fan I am fascinated by the underlying theme – the question of adapting to change and modern technology. The show’s producers are meticulous about getting every detail of history correct but to me it’s a study of contemporary times.

Lord Grantham is actually that person who can’t get the hang of voice mail or e-mail or smartphones and texting. The Dowager Countess is simply appalled by facebook and twitter. Maybe the new way is crass or common or not proper but failure to adapt may be much worse. Do you really want to be the one responsible for the loss of Downton?

Last week I wrote about Carol Dweck‘s work on mindset and here’s a quick review.

  • People with a fixed mindset believe basic qualities, like intelligence and talent, are fixed traits. They spend time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. In addition they think talent alone creates success—without effort.
  • People with a growth mindset believe that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work and that brains and talent are just the starting point. They also love learning and possess the resilience necessary to accomplish great things.

I bring this up again because having a growth mindset is important to successfully dealing with today’s rapid change. As a coach, I have clients in their 40s and 50s trying to figure out where they fit into the new world of work. They are concerned about their age and being perceived as old. I have to say that the stereotype of old people not being tech savvy is alive and well. And the reality is that most employers want job candidates who are fluent in technology.

So if you are > 35 and not already a stereotype buster, how do you develop that fluency?

Get out there. Create a profile, page, account, whatever. Connect. Lurk around social media sites and observe how people interact. Go to forums or other virtual places where people discuss what you don’t know. Listen to podcasts. Read the FAQs. Take classes. I guarantee you there is a free teleclass or webinar on whatever bit of technology you don’t understand.

It’s not always easy. People who ‘get’ technology and benefit the most aren’t necessarily blessed with some special tech ability. They just have the mindset to figure it out. They don’t dismiss and reject it or throw up their hands and wail ‘I don’t understand’. They keep at it until they figure it out. They just do it.

Hmmmm. Could that be the tagline for an entire mindset (in addition to Nike of course)?

Would love to know what you think about mindset or Downton Abbey.

Filed Under: Career Invention, For Managers & Supervisors, General Management, Human Resource Management, Leadership Development Tagged With: , , , ,

Mindset

March 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment
the mind

what is your mindset?

Every now and then someone says to me “you are just so smart you can do anything” and that really irks me. I know it is meant as a compliment but the logic of the statement seems to discount all the hard work I’ve done as well as the reality of failure which has happened before and will certainly happen again.

For a long time, I could not articulate why this bugged me so but the work of Carol Dweck and the idea of mindset provides the framework I’ve needed to explain it. Dweck is a researcher at Stanford and based on twenty plus years of research has identified two distinct mindsets – fixed and growth. For a good overview of the concept, listen to an interview with Carol Dweck here.

From her website:

  • People with a fixed mindset believe basic qualities, like intelligence and talent, are fixed traits. They spend time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. In addition they think talent alone creates success—without effort.
  • People with a growth mindset believe that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work and that brains and talent are just the starting point. They also love learning and possess the resilience necessary to accomplish great things.

Someone who says “you are so smart, you can do anything” likely has a fixed mindset and attributes success to a fixed trait. They believe people have it or they don’t. People with a growth mindset believe talent can be developed, know they can improve, learn from mistakes, and almost get a buzz from the challenge.

I’ve been thinking a lot about mindset because last week I participated in New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. The crowd was a great mix - old, young, black, white, Asian, Hispanic and pretty much every other facet of diversity out there. I talked to artists and fashion designers and musicians as well as attorneys and MBAs and yes, even academics! A VERY diverse group indeed. Monday’s keynote speaker, Walter Isaacson, traced the history of entrepreneurship in NOLA and eloquently pointed out its relationship to diversity and creativity.

NOEW brought many diverse types together but we were all connected by a common mindset – a growth mindset. People were there to learn, develop, and connect. Some had failed before, many knew failure was a distinct possibility, but everyone was on fire about their idea. It was great to be part of such a gathering.

One final thought – mindset can change. Someone with a fixed mindset when young can absolutely develop a growth mindset later in life.

Would love to hear what you think about mindset.

Filed Under: Career Invention, For Managers & Supervisors, General, General Management, Human Resource Management, Leadership Development, Organization Behavior Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Clean Energy

October 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I recently attended the awesome Revenue Rocks coaching conference and want to give a big shout out to Michele Woodward, Nona Jordan, Jeanette Maw and Fabeku Fatunmise for generously sharing what they know and do.

We talked about the idea that the kind of energy you bring forth affects the outcomes that you get.

This means you need to process the stuff from your past that may not have turned out like you wanted or may even have been painful until there is no negative charge associated with whatever happened. The goal is to neutralize that negative energy. Past stuff can include many things – relationships, career, jobs, your money legacy, your family, etc.

I work with people on career growth and management – leadership issues. It is not unusual for someone to be hung up by the way their last job unraveled or by the after effects of a cruel, crazy former boss who did a number on them. I can definitely empathize having had a range of work experiences myself. But, to be a great employee or manager or put your best self forward in a job search you’ve got to clean up those bad feelings.

Here are a few ways to neutralize negative energy:

  • talk it out with a trusted friend or family member
  • write it up, in detail
  • write a letter to the person you feel wronged by (not necessary or even advisable to mail it)
  • read what you’ve written aloud until the charge is gone or burn it or bury it
  • ask God to help you be free of it
  • meditate on it with the intention of letting go
  • really examine your thoughts and work to change them

If you’re not having luck getting past your past, a good coach can help. Sometimes an experience is so traumatic that working with a mental health professional is a better option.

How do you know when you’ve succeeded?  You are probably done with the past if you can tell the story aloud in a generic, no-intensity way. And once you are there, Congratulations! Moving forward will be much easier.

 

What do you think?

Filed Under: Career Invention, For Managers & Supervisors, Leadership Development Tagged With: ,

Transparency

September 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It’s happened again, the fourth time in the last six months.

I’ve encountered a professional who is fudging their credentials.

Each is a little different. One is claiming to be something but their professional training was not that specialty – kind of like a doctor trained in cardiology who finds dermatology more to their liking so they call themself a dermatologist and set up a dermatology practice.

Another person is stretching their years of employment and their title. I like to refer to these as tenure stretch and title stretch.

The other two have Linkedin profiles that present them as an expert but they don’t have formal training, credentials, or certification to support the professional title they use (title stretch). You may think I’m being picky or petty but I know one of these “experts” did some “expert” work for an organization and the results were catastrophic.

This is the 21st century and in the new world of work you can be what you want to be. It is possible to be self-made and self-educated and trained in the school of hard knocks – that’s fantastic! In no way do I mean to de-value that path to success. However, in some professions, there are ethical principles governing what you call yourself and in some states there are laws regulating professional titles.

I don’t have close personal relationships with the people I described above but there is enough information on the internet that I can easily find what they claim does not check out.

Reminds me of the plot in daytime soaps where the new doctor moves to town, commences doing surgery and treating patients only for it to be discovered several months or years later that they have no medical degree. Of course, much drama ensues.

Fiction is one thing; however, reality is another.

Message to individuals – you can fool some of the people but other people know. Be transparent. Yahoo, Radio Shack, and Notre Dame are just a few high profile, instructive examples.

Message to organizations – background check, background check, background check.

What do you think?

Filed Under: Career Invention, Human Resource Management Tagged With: , , , ,

Readiness

September 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I’m writing this on August 29 as we ride out the storm named Isaac. The worst is not yet here but we are ready.

I did not witness a bunch of freaking out in prep for this one. Most people I know have been through hurricanes before and like us, live in a state of semi-preparedness. We always have batteries, flashlights, radios, a five-day ice chest, containers to fill with water, etc. The only things needed were gas and ice.

Did you catch Drew Brees’ message as the storm approached? “We’ve been through this before. Obviously, do everything you can to keep yourself, your families and those around you safe. I know we’re ready. We’re prepared for this. We have been for a long time.” Yes, we have been ready for awhile.

Makes me think of careers in the 21st century. You must be ready. Sometimes the opportunity is visible from afar and slow moving (like Isaac) but often the window is only open for a brief second and you have to jump at a moment’s notice. (Sorry for the mixed metaphors but you get the drift.) Once in my career I had only a split second to make a move. I was ready, I knew it and I’ve never regretted that decision.

Living in a state of perpetual readiness may sound exhausting but once you become accustomed to it, the security is reassuring and gives you strength.

Similar to a storm readiness checklist, here is my career readiness checklist.

  • Up-to-date resume. Your resume is never finished. You should regularly be updating, tweaking, and enhancing it as you gain experience, develop, and discover your strengths. If you had to send your resume out today, could you do it?
  • Knowledge of strengths. Build on them. If you are unsure of your strengths, consider doing some assessments.
  • Knowledge of developmental areas. Work to strengthen these. Create a specific, doable plan. If you are don’t know where to begin, contact me for a copy of my development planning grid. Or, consider coaching.
  • Experience. Sometimes your job provides career-relevant experiences, other times you have to find them. Volunteering is an excellent source for developmental experiences.
  • Regular networking* –  in-person. Attend your professional association meetings but also find other events in your community. Meetup.com is a way to find interesting gatherings and meet new people.
  • Regular networking* – virtually. The usual suspects – Linkedin, twitter & facebook are the holy trinity for virtual networking.
  • Eyes open for opportunities. In your company, your industry, your community and online. Be ready for them.

None of us wants to go through storms, whether natural or career, but being ready makes it easier.

*Cultivating a large network takes time. Don’t wait too late. It’s kind of like looking for D batteries when a storm is already in the Gulf. They just may not be available when you need them.

 

What do you think?

Filed Under: Career Invention, Community Service, Leadership Development Tagged With: , , , ,

History Buffness

August 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

History Buffness

While in Chicago recently we saw the show Million Dollar Quartet Live, a fascinating look at the night when Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were all at Sun Records in Memphis with legendary producer and discoverer of great talent, Sam Phillips. A lot of stuff went down that night including Johnny Cash’s split with Sun, Phillips opportunity with a major label, the shenanigans of Jerry Lee and the Blue Suede Shoes drama between Elvis and Carl Perkins.

I’m sure much of it was fictionalized but I left knowing a lot more about the history of rock and roll than I knew when I arrived. Because I am a huge fan of music (and would be a rock and roll star myself except for a complete lack of musical talent), I loved this show. Knowing the history, really of anything, makes me feel more a part of it.

This translates to some good career advice as well. Learn everything you can about the history of the industry in which you are interested. Read biographies and autobiographies of those who pioneered it or shook it up or caused controversy. Some really amazing stories are out there. You can start this even before you are actually working in the industry and through your public library, it’s no-cost professional development! If you know the company you want to work for or are already employed, study the history of the company and its founders in the same way.

There are few guarantees in this world, but I can say with confidence that studying the history of your industry and company will help you succeed.

 

What do you think?

Filed Under: Career Invention, For Managers & Supervisors, Leadership Development, Organization Behavior, Recommended Reading Tagged With: ,

Stretching

June 13, 2012 By 2 Comments

A work related situation recently forced me to stretch, something I believe is important for career development. Having to look at a situation in a totally different way and use an unfamiliar method can be intense but usually results in a (career) growth spurt.

At my husband’s grad school graduation 12 years ago, the speaker talked about the value of stretching and I’ve thought about it often. Don’t remember who the speaker was or anything else he said that day but the idea of stretching has stayed with me.

I’ve done yoga on and off most of my life and isn’t that what it’s all about? Stretching a little more each time and holding it – growing stronger, better, more flexible, poised and balanced?

Are you being stretched professionally? If not, look around, find a good opportunity and go for it. Your company is a great place to start but if nothing is available there, look to your community. Schools, churches, neighborhoods, and organizations of every persuasion are full of important projects waiting to done.

 

What do you think?

Filed Under: Career Invention, Human Resource Management, Leadership Development Tagged With: , ,

Why?

October 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Are you stuck in a job that’s making you miserable? Do you wonder how you got to this point? Most of us have been there at one time and based on my experience, I am sure things really stink and am sorry for your pain. But, with a change of perspective, you can benefit from this mess through some valuable lessons. It is not often that life presents a steady stream of opportunities to practice and learn:

  • that taking long deep breaths, when you feel like screaming, can relax your system
  • how to NOT get rattled in the face of insanity (see above)
  • how to just let the craziness roll off (ditto)
  • how to take time to respond rather than saying the first thing that comes to mind
  • that sometimes no response is the best response
  • how to have difficult conversations in a cool and calm manner
  • how to be gracious and take the high road in every circumstance (this is especially hard)

Very often bad jobs and bad management go hand in hand. It is unfortunate and tough, but you really can grow by observing and learning, especially what NOT to do. Exploit your situation. Take in everything you can. Practice these lessons over and over. Make mastery of them a goal before you move on. You and your career will benefit enormously.

And, to help you through, some George Harrison songs:

George Harrison – All Things Must Pass

George Harrison – Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the Martin Scorsese HBO documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World.

Filed Under: Career Invention, Leadership Development Tagged With: , , , ,