RUN YOUR CAREER AS A BUSINESS

RUN YOUR CAREER AS A BUSINESS

For far too long, job seekers have tried finding positions with an approach that can only be compared to falling into some gigantic “Black Hole” in space. The Black Hole approach to job searching goes like this: You take a copy of a generic resume that’s been on your computer for years, tweak a word or two in the belief that you are giving it relevance, then visit the major Internet job boards to see how many job openings look like good possibilities. You spot a few, submit the generic resume (possibly with a cover letter) and then “wait it out” until a response comes in.

But the reality is this: 95% of the time a response doesn’t come in. The problem with this approach is that job seekers have become complacent and careless working on the assumption that an Internet job board, being nothing more than a piece of software sitting on a server somewhere in cyberspace, will accept your documents, evaluate them, pass them up the line for review if the match seems like a good one, and so on. But Internet job boards are not people. There is literally no opportunity for human interaction (e.g., dialog, questions, callbacks, follow-ups, etc…). That is both the primary flaw and inevitable failure of the so-called “Black Hole” approach.

SKILLS vs. COMPETENCIES

SKILLS vs. COMPETENCIES

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BASIC DEFINITIONS

A skill is something you learn through education or experience. A competency is something you are born with. Interviewers tend to pose questions that will help to reveal your competencies.

FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS AND DIFFERENCES

· Competencies are underlying characteristics that differentiate superior performance from average performance. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that well-trained interviewers try to determine your competencies so that they can make the best possible match on key positions.

· Skills are the know-how, the information acquired from most knowledge. Competencies, however, are the inherent abilities a person has or uses to achieve his/her goals by successfully deploying those skills.

Example: You can call a manager competent only if she can achieve her goals effectively by using her skills. The manager may possess organizational, planning, communication, computer, and interpersonal etc. skills. But we won't call her competent if she fails to achieve her goals, e.g. lowering production costs, enhancing a product quality etc.

· Skill is related to education whereas competency is related to training, experience etc.

· A skilled person can easily teach his skills to others in a short time but in case of competency, it needs a long time orientation and often found very difficult.

· Skills are transferable, i.e., they can be adapted for several different types of jobs or positions.

THE CEO OF ME, INC. PARADIGM

The CEO of any company runs the company. CEOs direct all critical operations such as sales and marketing, research and development, strategy, finance, corporate culture, human resources, community affairs, public relations, and so on.

CEOs are primarily responsible for setting the corporate strategy and vision. They decide which products to introduce into which markets and against which competitors. CEOs decide how the company will brand itself and differentiate itself in the marketplace.

Ultimately, the CEO is responsible for the success or failure of the company.

Here are some key CEO responsibilities that you must learn to incorporate in managing your career as a business:

As the CEO of your career you will:

· Learn to partition your responsibilities to ensure that all critical operations are carried out and none get overlooked. For example, your Research & Development Department will be in charge of networking — making connections, digging up new leads, gathering business information, etc… Right from the start, anything you do that's part of this effort is processed in the R & D “department” of your mind. Likewise, your Sales & Marketing Department will oversee the development of a powerful value proposition and various parts of the 7-Step Job Search Methodology until every task is properly niched.

· Take responsibility for making tough decisions — there’s just no way around this. Tough decision-making is a skill with tremendous short and long term benefits. It trains your mind to weigh options before you commit to a course of action.

· Accept the consequences of your tough decisions — both good and bad. You can savor the good results and analyze why the bad results occurred. Most importantly, don’t waste time beating yourself up when a decision yields poor results. Pick up the pieces and move on. Learn from every aspect of the failure experience because it will move you closer to winning the race for 21^st century jobs.

· Bring a new level of personal accountability to managing your career. Why? Because you have a “governing body” to which you now have ultimate responsibility: your Personal Board of Directors (e.g., spouse, family, extended family, significant other, etc…).

Still not convinced your career can benefit from thinking like a CEO? Are you saying, "Why bother? This sounds like a whole lot of work for very little benefit."

If that’s how you see it, consider this: For every terrific opportunity you identify — and for which you’re qualified — there could be hundreds, maybe thousands of others competing for the same position. But there’s one critical difference: Most of them fail to adopt the “I’m in charge” attitude and their race for the finish line becomes a mediocre performance at best. They remain mired in the “employee mind-set”, a part of the Black Hole crowd that inevitably lags behind in the race to get the job that you are busy targeting. And while most of us don't want others to fail, there’s nothing wrong with capitalizing on the inept business decisions of others to gain a tactical advantage whenever possible. In other words, if you are thinking like a business owner and your competitors aren’t, you have a significant edge over them in the race for 21^st century jobs. Do not fail to leverage it!

Will you absorb this paradigm shift overnight? No. In a week? Unlikely. In a month? Maybe. People internalize it at very different rates. Most of our members can tell rather quickly if they are cut out to be the CEO of ME, Inc.

The good news is that this mental model will work if you make it work.

THE SPECIAL VALUE OF BEING AN UNTOUCHABLE

THE SPECIAL VALUE OF BEING AN UNTOUCHABLE

BECOME SOMEONE WHOSE JOB CANNOT BE OUTSOURCED

In his book The World is Flat (copyright © 2005 by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux), New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman presents a view of the future in which evolving technologies will level the playing field for business owners worldwide. Traditional corporate hierarchies will likely be replaced by highly specialized online communities sharing similar business interests.

According to Friedman, to survive in this ever-flattening world, individuals must diversify their skills so that they remain viable competitors across many different careers.

Those who do, those who attain a level of specialization that cannot be outsourced are, he claims, "untouchable." So if you want job security, join their ranks. Become an “untouchable" now.

Are there specialized skill sets or talents you have that very few others have? If so (and better yet), are they solid enough and flexible enough to permit you to claim value as an employee across a range of industries? If you haven’t given much thought to this question, it would be wise to invest some self-assessment time now. It may turn out that the “untouchables” among us will be the only people who can compete in the race for 21^st century jobs.

BREAKING FREE OF TRADITIONAL LIMITATIONS

BREAKING FREE OF TRADITIONAL LIMITATIONS

Career professionals have long been aware that certain kinds of people are better at certain types of jobs and that it’s important to find as good a match as possible between the person you are and the kind of job you choose. The problem is that the traditional approach to job searching doesn’t take enough considerations into account. The conventional analysis looks at only the “big three”: your abilities, interests, and values.

Shape My Career recognizes the importance of these factors. Certainly you need the right skills to perform a job well. It also helps if you’re interested in your work. And it’s important to feel good about what you do. But this is far from the whole picture! Your personality has additional dimensions that also need to be recognized. As a general rule, the more aspects of your personality you match to your work, the more satisfied you’ll be on the job.

Most of us make our most important career decisions when we are least prepared to do so. The decisions we make early in life set into motion a chain of events that will influence our entire lives. Yet when we’re young we have little or no experience making job choices, and we tend to have an overabundance of idealistic enthusiasm, plus a reckless lack of concern for future consequences. We haven’t lived long enough to see ourselves tested in a variety of situations, and we’re highly susceptible to bad advice from well-intentioned parents, teachers, counselors, or friends. No wonder so many people get off to a poor start.

There is no easy solution. But a methodical and relentless commitment to self-discovery will always provide rich career dividends. Getting to know yourself well is not a narcissistic activity; it’s an intelligent and tactical maneuver used by an increasingly large number of professionals to help them carve out “favorable position” within the high-stakes competition involved in finding jobs and satisfying careers.

HOW ARE YOU DIFFERENT AND CAN YOU PROVE IT?

HOW ARE YOU DIFFERENT AND CAN YOU PROVE IT?

THE TWIN CHALLENGES OF DIFFERENTIATION

If you are a nuclear reactor engineer who specializes in building personalized fail-safe thermonuclear radiation prevention kits, you probably don’t need to worry about differentiating yourself from your competitors — because there probably aren’t any.

But if you’re a computer programmer, a dental hygienist, or an aspiring ballet dancer, you’ve got a problem and it’s a big one. You need to figure out just what it is that you do that no one else does — or no one else can do nearly as well as you — so that the consumer marketplace readily sees you as the only clear choice when shopping for certain products or services.

If you are able to differentiate yourself from others, you absolutely must do it. There’s far too much competition in the pool of available jobs to rely on mediocrity.

If you’re not able to find something that clearly differentiates you from others, you’ll need to spend some time searching for it. Think about all of the skills, talents, and abilities you have and how they are used — under your conscious control — to deliver a particular product or service. Is there anything you can do with your unique talents that can be transformed into a clearly and strongly perceived benefit on the part of the consumer? What level of effort would you have to expend to make this happen? Or have you concluded that, in your case, it’s impossible?

The good news is that it’s possible for just about everyone to find something that can be transformed into a highly differentiating business attribute. The bad news is that once you’ve found your distinctive attributes, you still need to develop a marketing strategy to “sell it” (i.e., make it attractive) to the consumer.

You must find a way to address both challenges: your point of distinction and your point of attraction. You can do this by re-examining your talents and finding ways to package your work output that best leverages the very best talents you have.

BREAKING FREE FROM THE OLD MIND SET

BREAKING FREE FROM THE OLD MIND SET

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THE OLD WAY vs. THE NEW WAY: THERE’S JUST NO CONTEST

This section will provide you with some distinct comparisons between the old mind set (“Black Hole”-style thinking) and the new mind set, the “CEO of ME, Inc.” All you need to do is read each pair … and by the time you’re done, your brain will have absorbed a great deal about this new paradigm for career management in the 21^st century.

Old Employee Approach

Job Search

New CEO of ME, Inc. Approach

Market your skills to create and stay open to multiple opportunities. Keep many options available.

Old Employee Approach

Network only when you need a job, then wonder why it takes so long to land a position.

New CEO of ME, Inc. Approach

Constantly market and network inside and outside your organization. Reach out to your network and try to find one solid opportunity per day.

Old Employee Approach

Prepare your resume.

New CEO of ME, Inc. Approach

Prepare proposal to present skills/benefits that pass the “6 second” acid test. Always carry business cards.

Old Employee Approach

Initial interview

New CEO of ME, Inc. Approach

Business meeting with a potential client.

Old Employee Approach

Interviewer asks questions to find out why they should hire you.

New CEO of ME, Inc. Approach

You ask questions to identify the client’s business requirements. Client answers determine whether or not you should work for them.

Old Employee Approach

You are placed in the beggar’s seat and asked what salary you are looking for.

New CEO of ME, Inc. Approach

Never give away your bottom line. “I would consider any reasonable offer between [give range here], not a specific amount.” This places YOU in the driver’s seat!

Old Employee Approach

Interviewer wraps up interview

New CEO of ME, Inc. Approach

You go for the gusto with a killer close to make a memorable impression on the client. Close with your three best skills that match the client’s needs. “I would like to give you three reasons why I am the best resource for this position out of any person you have interviewed or will interview.”

Old Employee Approach

Salary and Benefits Offer

New CEO of ME, Inc. Approach

Contract negotiation. Ask for everything. Then compromise at the negotiation table. Always wait until the next day to accept offers.

THE GENERIC RESUME - JUST BARELY USEFUL

THE GENERIC RESUME - JUST BARELY USEFUL

Not only have you seen them, you probably have one: a generic resume. It’s the document you pull out of the file cabinet when someone tells you about a position that may be interesting … but it's light on relevant details (or doesn’t supply them at all).

It over–itemizes extraneous work experience, sharing details that might impress your family and friends but not a decision–maker looking for relevance.

Generic resumes are exactly what the name implies: non–specific, “baseline” resumes that describe your skills, list professional experience, and provide supplemental information like education, contact information, etc.

You’d probably be very surprised to learn how many people actually submit generic resumes when applying for a position they’ve isolated with our 7–Step Job Search Methodology. It’s appalling. Can you imagine a decision-maker scanning a resume for a position that has clearly defined core skills, only to see a grossly non–targeted resume with absolutely NO relevance?

Does this mean generic resumes have no value? No. They're good starting points for developing targeted resumes. When you identify a well–matched position, you can use your generic resume as a point of reference from which to build the targeted version. In that regard, we can think of them as “just barely useful.”

MANAGE YOUR CAREER AS A BUSINESS

MANAGE YOUR CAREER AS A BUSINESS

From this point on, you will learn to manage your career as the CEO of a business — the business of “ME, Inc.”

The CEO of any company runs the company. CEOs direct all critical operations such as sales and marketing, research and development, strategy, finance, corporate culture, human resources, community affairs, public relations, and so on.

CEOs are primarily responsible for setting the corporate strategy and vision. They decide which products to introduce into which markets and against which competitors. CEOs decide how the company will brand itself and differentiate itself in the marketplace. Ultimately, the CEO is responsible for the success or failure of the company.