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Evaluation, the Key to Career Insight

December 19, 2017 By Marta Goertzen

Lately I have felt stuck in my career.

What do I want to be when I grow up? Although I look grown up on the outside, I still ponder this question periodically. I never want to I feel like I am living the same day over and over like that great movie, Groundhog Day. I seek insight to improve my career and my life.

Ever feel stuck? From the number of folks I talk to about this, I bet you feel the same way occasionally too.

You know what I discovered? Insight begins with evaluation. Really!

To discern your future, look at where you are, consider what you like and don’t like, then make a plan for change.

I have used this technique myself many times to unstick my career. I found some insight into how younger folks look at this situation in an interesting article by Jay Kim in Forbes, “If you feel stuck in your career don’t do something drastic, do this”. Kim describes Ryan Holiday’s thought process as he grew his career by making some life changes.

The key to finding satisfaction seems to come from using your time wisely to gain insight.

Here are five steps for evaluation to gain insight as you prepare for career growth:

What is working? What activities, lifestyle and career choices are making me happy or bringing me the reward? How can I do more of what I love and less of what I dislike? What is standing in my way of doing more of what I love? Start making lists of what is working and what is not.
Don’t be an island. Get advice from people with more experience whose opinions your respect. Read some books, go to some networking meetings, and reconnect with people you might have lost touch with.
Take some calculated risks but don’t go crazy. Don’t quit your job based on dissatisfaction. Make your move towards something you like better not just to avoid something you dislike. Do your homework before making any major decisions.
Don’t burn bridges. You never know when someone from your past will pop up in your future. You want their reappearance to be positive.
Make good use of your time to learn and grow in place so you are prepared to move when the time is right.

Don’t settle for a mediocre career that you don’t want! LinkedIn offers many ways to find the ideal job or career for you! Get your FREE copy of the LinkedIn Career Advancement Tips and find the perfect career today.

Let’s have Coffee and Set Career Goals to get Ahead

December 12, 2017 By Marta Goertzen

Job search is a game of numbers.

The more you reach out, the faster you will find a job. This is true whether you are laid off or seeking to move along in your career.

What distinguishes a successful career transition? It takes two parts hard work and a dash of good luck.

And a lot of coffee.

I like to talk about career growth and job transition in units of coffee. Lots of great relationships are built around coffee. Relationships lead to opportunities. Building relationships is the core of networking. So it stands to reason that the coffee we drink while building relationships can be an important currency.

To jump start your career, start by setting goals to get ahead around coffee. How many coffees do you want to have each week? The more coffee, the faster your job search transition will move. The trick is convincing the right people to have coffee with you. So let’s set some goals to boost the amount of coffee you have.

How many email / IM conversations in LinkedIn does it take to set up coffee with someone? In my personal experience and observations of my clients it takes about 3 or 4 email / IM exchanges to get your target to be comfortable agreeing to coffee.

It doesn’t work every time but it does work.

How many connections does it take to get one connection to agree to coffee? In my experience not everyone you reach out to will agree to have a conversation with you sufficient to result in coffee. So plan to reach out to at least five people to get one person to have 3 to 4 email / IM exchanges to agree to have coffee. Make sense?

Now we can set up some numbers. Let’s say you really hate your current job. You decide you want to have 5 coffee per week. That means you have to have 4 email / IM exchanges with at least 25 people per week because only 1 out of 5 at best will probably agree to coffee. Get it?

If it takes about 5 contacts to get 1 coffee, then you better get cracking! Set your goal. Want to have 1 coffee per week? Then you need to start conversations with at least 5 people to find one of those five contacts who will agree to coffee. Feeling more relaxed and only want to have 1 coffee per month, then you can slow down and only target 5 people per month.

The pace is up to you. The trick is setting a goal, whatever goal makes sense for YOU! Make a contract with yourself. It could look something like this:

I want to have _____ coffees per _(period)_____,

so I promise myself to reach out to ______ people per _(period)______,

so I can have _____ email / IM conversations per _(period)_____.

You can’t just call someone up out of the blue to ask them to coffee. They probably won’t agree to take time away from their busy schedule to have coffee with you unless there is something in it for them or they feel safe (no one wants to have coffee with a crazy person!). You have to start a conversation to find something in common. In Part 2 of this discussion we will cover what to talk about to build relationships. It is not what you think! Stay tuned for next week’s blog!

**Get the confidence you need with a FREE copy of The Interview Doctor’s Job Requirements Comparison List and prepare yourself to prove with evidence that you can do the job!**

Which Fish are YOU in the Work Pond?

December 5, 2017 By Marta Goertzen

Are you a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a very small pond?

This article is an excerpt from out BizTV video, which can be viewed online, simply click this link.

Which fish are you? Why are we talking about fish in November?

Jane is an up and coming financial analyst who wants to be a Chief Financial Officer someday. She has some choices to make about her next role.

She could take that job as a Financial Planning Manager in Gigantic Corporation, a multi-billion dollar corporation with dozens of divisions. She would be one of many in that role. The company is mature, growing steadily. She can see a long future career path in leadership roles in one of those divisions. But she also anticipates the bureaucracy and politics that comes from a huge company. She would be a little fish in a big pond.

Or she could take that role as a Chief Financial Officer in the small but fast growing start up. Less stable but she could be her own boss right away instead of waiting. She could have immediate impact.

Small fish in a big pond? Or big fish in a very small pond?

This could be the most important career decision Jane or anyone makes. Each choice leads to a different path.

Here are three tips to make a smart career decision:

Which people do you prefer? Do you see mentors and colleagues or potential foes? Consider whether you want to work with that team hour after hour, day after day for years in the future.
Which culture matches your workstyle and lifestyle values? People come and go but the culture will probably stay the same so you better feel like you fit from the inside out.
What is your tolerance for risk? The smaller pond is much riskier. But the rewards might be great if you can tolerate the risk.

I have a pretty high tolerance for risk compared to some people. I also like to have immediate impact without bureaucracy. I often chose to be a big fish in a smaller pond. It worked for me but it does not always work for other people.

Don’t make such an important decision based on money or perks. Fit beats money every day. Be the right fish in the right pond for your career satisfaction.

Want to advance your career but not sure what to do? Check out The Interview Doctor’s Career Advancement Tip Sheet to lay a foundation for your career growth. To get your FREE copy, click here.

Nail that Final Interview and the Job Offer

December 3, 2017 By Marta Goertzen

Several of our Interview Doctor clients have had final interviews recently.

We call them “final” because we are hoping that after this particular interview a job offer will be forthcoming and the job search can be over. It is very exciting!

It got me thinking about how this final interview is different. Remember whether consciously or unconsciously every hiring manager is trying to answer three questions: 1) Can you do the job, 2) Will you love the job, and 3) Will you fit with the team.

After several interviews, the hiring manager already knows you have the skills so you can do the job. Otherwise you would not be invited back so often. Because you interviewed well, they probably know you will love the job.

The final question that differentiates you from the other final candidate(s) is whether you will fit with the team.

Or rather, which of the final candidates will fit with the team the best. Your challenge in a final interview is to make clear what you offer and be the best version of yourself that you can be. You cannot turn yourself into someone you are not. You don’t want to be a round peg in a square hole. If you really don’t fit with the team if you are hired you will not last long. So how do you walk this fine line to get the offer you want?

Here are seven tips to find the right balance so you can succeed in a final interview:

Don’t assume, don’t be overly confident and don’t brag. You don’t have a job offer yet. This is another fine balance. You want to act like you are the right candidate for the job but if you assume, are over confident and brag then you risk turning the hiring manager off. Read your audience and give them the right balance of confidence and stories to make them fall in love with you.
Ask questions to clarify your understanding and learn more about the operation and the people you will be working with. Don’t wait until the end of the interview to ask questions. Intersperse questions with the conversation as you and the hiring manager are talking. This makes the interview into more of a conversation than an interview.
Know the two or three points you want people to remember about you. Find places to insert this information in a casual, conversational fashion.
Calm, confident and courageous. Be the best version of you. Look people in the eye, sit up straight and be confident even if you have to fake it. Don’t be overly confident though. The job is not yours yet. Be aware of what is going on around you so you can provide the information that will seal the deal.
Laugh and be real. Be friendly. Demonstrate through your behavior that you are a good person to work with, that you will be a good colleague. You want them to be able to imagine you sitting in the next cubicle.
Make a connection. Do your research in advance. Get the names of the people you will be meeting in the final interview. Research them on LinkedIn. You can send them a request to connect with a personal note saying, “I am so excited to meet you next week at our next interview.” Notice their personal interests so you can make a connection over an interest or a professional experience. This gives you something to talk about that will make a connection, make you real so they can image working with you.
Be prepared. Have extra copies of your resume. Bring business cards. Research the company and the employees on LinkedIn, their website, and Google. Know how you can solve the company’s problems then figure out places where you can insert that information into the conversation.

To be fully prepared for your Job Interview, download our ebook, “The Top 30 Most Frequently Asked Questions at a Job Interview“. It’s Free!

Are you getting the impression that a final interview, even more than other interviews, is about making a connection? Make a connection so the hiring manager can imagine you working in the office next door and you will get the job offer!

20,973 steps!! A personal best, a world record… for me.

November 28, 2017 By Marta Goertzen

Are you so busy that you’re not really productive?

It was a perfect day of hiking, riding and wandering around Yellowstone. Clear skies, a little cold but who cares. Gorgeous vistas made up for the cold. All that moving around really adds up. I was pretty proud of myself for hitting that personal best!

But wait. At the bottom of the pedometer screen on my phone it said, “5,732 steps at a healthy pace”.

Yikes. I was more active than ever but less than one third of my activity made any difference at all to my health goals. How could that happen? I kind of felt a little cheated.

It got me thinking. How much of my daily activities in general contribute towards getting me to my goal?

I feel busy all the time. I check off boxes on my TO DO lists every day. But am I getting anywhere? How can I improve the amount of energy and activity that moves me forward towards my goal?

Here are some tips to add “healthy steps” to your day to be more productive.

Be more aware how you spend your time. Where can you turn wasted time into productive time?
Schedule time for your top priorities then hold that time sacred.
Know what your big picture goals are. Eliminate activity that does not support those goals.
Be realistic about scheduling. Stop sabotaging yourself. Life happens!
Allow yourself to have some fun every day, a little reward for being more productive!

I am following many of these tips because I want to boost my productivity so I don’t just spin my wheels. Challenge yourself to take more “healthy steps” every day so you can move closer to your goals!

Ask yourself the same question about your career. Is your career taking you where you want to go or are you just very busy? Download a free copy of The Interview Doctor’s Career Advancement Tips to be sure your activity is taking you where you want to go.

Check out these other blog posts for more job search tips and career advice.

Get out of the House they said… and look What Happened

The Impact of Your Health on Job Search

The Impact of Time on Energy