Be on fire about your career

The news this week  had a story of not one, but two couch fires in the Chicagoland area. Holy smokes, how much time does someone have to sit on the couch to get it to combust? I actually don’t know the cause of the fires in the stories, but I hope these fires did not cause any additional financial burden for anyone suffering from job loss.

Activity in the job search means that you are out and about, talking and networking with people. Actually the job seeker needs to be on fire about finding a job. Meaning, you need to have a passion about your career, the opportunities and the abilities you bring to the job market.

After a job seeker has many weeks of looking for work under her belt, she starts to lose the expectation that she’ll find a job soon. Doubt starts to insert itself into the job seeker’s consciousness. Doubt can lead to negative thoughts and negative self-talk which start to feed on themselves and the job seeker can soon lose hope of ever finding gainful employment.

Back in 2009 I told the story of being as enthusiastic as a puppy dog when the doorbell rings. <Link> Keeping a positive attitude isn’t easy especially in a job search that seems to go on and on. But, I believe that one of the things that allows doubts to grow into depression is inactivity. Being a couch potato is one of the best ways to kill a job search. Focused activity leads to proficiency of your job search skills,  which leads to more network meetings, which leads to interviews, which leads to job offers.

Note the terminology focused activity: what do I mean by “focused activity?” Not all activity is productive and sometimes can be distracting the job seeker from meeting job search goals.  So, activity for activity’s sake can be counter productive and even destructive. When your activity is focused, it clearly enables you to achieve a short-term or long-term goal... getting you that much closer to landing the job.  

Be on fire about your job search, passionate about your next job and the future you’ll have. Don’t, however, let you the couch suck you into killing your job search and burn up your dreams.

New Year's Goals

It’s New Year’s time. Get those dusty old goals out and and polish them for the new year. While your friends are making New Year’s resolutions you can be setting goals and achieving success. How many people make New Year’s resolutions on January 1 and give them up by January 30th? Why? There are at least two reason for this. First, some people are not the structured goal setting type. Second, some folks only work with part of a plan to succeed.

In the first case, you may prefer to stay open to new information and be flexible when making decisions. Rigorous goal setting may be outside your mode or abilities. It doesn’t mean that you do not set goals, you have goals and attain those goals in a different way. In Myers-Briggs terminology you deal with the outside world as a “P” or perceptive person. The “P” folks out there prefer a, “...spontaneous way of life, and like to understand and adapt to the world rather than organize it.” That’s okay.

The second case presents others who set goals but forget to realize and keep in mind the benefits of achieving the goal. Or they don’t break down the big goal into smaller bites and set time lines. Or they don’t write down the goal and communicate it to people who might help.

There is more that goes into goals than just making a resolution. Goals need to be written down, shared, committed to a time line and tied to a benefit. Plus, each step or mini goal needs to be recognized, appreciated, and celebrated when it’s met. Often goals are made and written down, but then our daily activity doesn’t fit into meeting our goal.

Like my friend and chiropractor tells me, things work better when they are in alignment. That holds true for our physical body and our lives. This is the case for those of us who are more spontaneous in our goals and for those of us who find comfort in planning out the detailed steps in achieving our goals.

It’s New Years; may this year be happy, prosperous and successful for you.

Holidays, Job Search and the Blues

One of the hardest things I have to do when I am working with someone in job search is supporting them through the blues. Especially when the blues is really depression. I work with a counselors and psychologist and if I suspect that someone is dealing with more than the blues I refer them to seek professional help.

The Mayo Clinic cites the following as symptoms of depression:

• Feelings of sadness or unhappiness
• Irritability or frustration, even over small matters
• Loss of interest or pleasure in normal activities
• Reduced sex drive
• Insomnia or excessive sleeping
• Changes in appetite — depression often causes decreased appetite and weight loss, but in some people it causes increased cravings for food and weight gain
• Agitation or restlessness — for example, pacing, hand-wringing or an inability to sit still
• Slowed thinking, speaking or body movements
• Indecisiveness, distractibility and decreased concentration
• Fatigue, tiredness and loss of energy — even small tasks may seem to require a lot of effort
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or blaming yourself when things aren't going right
• Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things
• Frequent thoughts of death, dying or suicide
• Crying spells for no apparent reason
• Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches

For someone going through transition due to a job loss some of these symptoms are normal and natural... but when these symptoms persist and even grow stronger action is called for. Counseling is one of the most important actions a person can take. Some folks will require medication in addition to counseling and there is nothing wrong with that. I’m amazed the number of folks who will routinely take cold or flu medicine but balk when depression medication is suggested.

Acute and chronic depression is a real disease that people are suffering from. Like the flu, cancer or a broken leg, depression is a medical condition that requires medical / psychological attention.  Psychologist tell us that the holidays are a difficult time for all of us, many people feel depressed during this time of year.  Even Elvis sung about a “Blue Christmas” and bouts of the Blues are understandable especially in our current economy.

From a career standpoint, I teach a “first things first” strategy. If you’re looking for a job you’d better develop a professional resume. Likewise, if you’re suffering from depression you need to deal with that before you’ll be able to do well in a job search. Just in the amount of energy required to conduct a professional job search, a depressed person will lag behind his or her competition. A job search requires a positive attitude; as one colleague says, “A job seeker has to have the enthusiasm of a puppy when the door bell rings!” I don’t know how someone can do that when they do not have the energy get out of bed, little less make 10 phone calls.

My hope is this, if you are feeling down and are demonstrating some or many of the symptoms listed above, contact your doctor for a proper depression screening. Seek out a counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist and get the proper treatment to help you get ready for a job search or career change.

Why is Asking for Help So Hard?

In my December 2009 blog, “The 80/20 Rule” I brought up the subject of networking and asking for help or advice from those we network with. I pointed to the fact that men are so unlikely to ask for help it has become a punchline of jokes. Some people say that the GPS became such a successful product for this reason and others point out that using a female voice for the GPS is just plain irony.

But it’s not just men; many women don’t like to ask for help anymore then most men. Back in March 2010 my blog “Asking for Help and Advice in Your Job Search” I wrote, “This is what I say to my clients who tell me that they are uncomfortable asking for help: "Get over it if you want a job. It's a numbers game and you'll need to ask a lot of people for their help and advice in order to meet the person that knows about your job."

Recently, I’ve meet a number of people that voice this same issue about asking for help. So I asked myself and others why is this so hard? Let’s first point out that this isn’t only a problem for people in job search; it really is an issue for most of us at every stage of our careers. In fact, even as students it’s hard for us to ask for assistance or help. Still, why?

Fear of rejection
Most commonly this seems a reason not to ask for someone’s help. Is this irrational? Normally I would have to admit that if you ask people for help or advice they give it freely, willingly, with joy. Yet, folks will say to me, “What if they say no?” Of course the response to that is, “What if they say yes!” if you don’t ask you’ll never learn what not being rejected feels like.

Feeling vulnerable
Now, it is true that if we are asking for help, we are admitting that we need help. We are not strong enough, smart enough, connected enough to do it ourself. If I have to ask for help, I tell myself, “I suck” or something equally demeaning. However the fact is that I have never met the 100% perfect, totally fulfilled, absolutely self-reliant human being. In fact, many of the people that we look up to in sports, business or the media have been found cheating, using drugs or covering up because they couldn’t admit that they weren’t perfect. We all feel vulnerable, so what!

Owing someone
Along with feeling vulnerable, people will say, “I don’t want to be beholden to someone else.” This really falls into the “I don’t want to feel vulnerable” camp. What if Great Britain said back in 1939 and 1940, we don’t want to be beholden to America so we’ll pass on Lend Lease. What if Google didn’t want to be beholden to a bunch of stock holders or if any company didn’t have public offerings of stock. Would a person whose house is on fire stop to consider whether or not owing the firefighters was worth making the call to 911? Pretty silly!

It’s Change
I’m not used to asking people for help. Once upon a time, you and I weren’t used to walking, talking, driving or going to work; that didn’t stop us then. That’s what being human is all about. It’s about change and growth, and becoming better. Getting help, assistance, direction made it possible for us to walk, drive and succeed at work. Asking for help now will drastically shorten your job search.

So asking for help is very human, very normal and appropriate. Asking for advise doesn’t make you appear weak or stupid. Asking for direction in your job search or any career choice is a great way to glean insights and wisdom and make a connection to another human being. So start asking for help and advice in your job search.

13 things that you can do when you're feeling powerless over the world

Brian Ramaker was a guest speaker at a Transition Support Group I facilitate at St. Barnabas Church here in Chicago’s Western suburbs. Brian is a financial planner for Edward Jones and came to offer some insight to our folks in transition as well as some encouragement. Beyond that Brian shared a little of his faith walk with God. It was powerful as it was genuine and simple. He also shared an article he had read in MSN Money, A survival guide for the unemployed, by Liz Pulliam Weston.  Here are some of the highlights of the article:

1. Get your head on straight. Keeping your spirits up
2. Schedule your job search. Get up early, take a shower, put on nice clothes and schedule what you'll do for the day
3. Let people know how to find you. Your business and professional contacts may have only your work e-mail address and telephone number
4. Stay covered. With health insurance
5. Apply for unemployment benefits.
6. Track your spending. You no longer have the luxury of not knowing where your money is going
7. Get your priorities straight. List your bills and other spending in order of importance
8. Conserve your cash. When you've lost your job cash becomes king
9. Don't tap your retirement funds if you can avoid it.
10. Use your home equity with caution.
11. Raise cash. Organize a garage sale or sell items on Craigslist or eBay
12. Identify emergency sources of aid.
13. Consider volunteering. It’s not a waste of time doing unpaid work? It gets you out there doing something positive

If you're in job transition, read the whole article, it's important. Again, I want to thank Brian for his wisdom and kindness. He spent 90 minutes with my group and gave away a priceless gift... himself.  Have a great week and do something nice for the world, little or big it doesn’t matter.

Career vs. Job Transition

  I define career transition as moving from one job type in one industry into another job type in a  different industry. Compared to job transition – moving from one job to another in the same or similar industry – career transition is far more difficult. This is because most people screening applicants are looking for people who have done the job before and they are not looking at all the people who can do the job. This is a result of all the applications a company receives for any given job posting. It makes sense  to screen out as many resumes as possible to get to a manageable number. Later we’ll discuss how to overcome this fact of life.

If we agree that it is harder to transition careers vs. transitioning jobs, why change careers? Let’s look at two examples of why someone would want to change careers. I work with a lot of folks who are over 45 years old. Some of these men and women have been on the same job, with the same company for twenty, twenty-five, even thirty years. Some of these people are really tired, they are burned out, or they are sick of the job and need a change. Some folks are in an industry that cherishes youth and the job’s demands are set up for younger professionals. For example, one fellow was a steel worker who worked building high rise buildings. At 49 he’s considered an old man even though he’s still young to many of us. The saying, “It’s a young man’s game!” really makes the point.  


When I work with clients who decide to change careers the first thing to do is outline the client’s transferable skills as part of a skills assessment. These are the skills that transcend any specific job description but are essential for many different careers and job roles. My favorite one “Interpersonal Relationship Skills” is part of many job descriptions. Often there are parts of our job that we love doing that we don’t realize are completely transferable to several different career arenas.


After we identify the client’s transferable skills, I then shift to discover their key or core competency. This is what the client does best and in many instances what they love doing most. I had a person tell me recently that without a job coach it took her almost two years to discover her core competency in order to shift her career to the job she now has and loves.


With an understanding of my core competency and transferable skills in line, you can now start appraising different job descriptions and careers to move into.  It’s important to realize that letting go of your past to move on to your future career is probably the hardest part of career transition.  There is some effort required to start seeing yourself in the new career. This is important if you are ever going to sell yourself to a hiring manager.  


Next time we’ll look at what it takes to get noticed in a new industry or field.