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.

Happy New Year,

Rod Colon

What a Difference a Decade Makes

As recently as the mid-1990’s, getting a job, starting a business, or switching career paths were not considered to be overwhelmingly difficult challenges. The jobs were out there but you had to spend lots of time using the increasingly popular Internet job boards to ferret them out and then electronically submit on them.

Since then, however, the global jobscape has changed dramatically. Economic pressures have forced companies to cut staff in order to keep their budgets in line. Achievement payouts, merit awards, bonuses, raises, and benefits have been relentlessly trimmed back in what began as a trickle but which today is a torrent. The available pool of jobs has dried up to such a point that if you need a job badly enough, the pressure of competition now forces you to prove your value and unique talents in an almost spectacular fashion.

In an era in which jobs have become unbelievably scarce, it’s regrettable that the majority of job seekers still rely on submitting generic resumes to Internet job boards with the belief that they can compete successfully with an ever-growing population of job seekers. The real problem with this approach is that it delivers miserable results involving little or no human-to-human interaction, networking, relationship-building, etc… — skills that, in the real world, are at the root of all successful business ventures. It is very much like tossing your resume into an immense “black hole” and watching it vanish forever with zero opportunity for acknowledgement or follow-up.

Today, there’s a dynamic and intelligent alternative. Shape My Career has partnered with the ETP Network (Empowering Today’s Professionals) to engineer a whole new job search system for professionals who want to manage their careers in the same way a CEO manages a company.

The system is logical, precise, and driven by business ownership logic. It leverages the power of advocates — people who will help you get connected to decision-makers or contacts who know those decision-makers — within a company that interests you. It requires you to develop a powerful value proposition which, if designed correctly, will compel any reasonable decision-maker to grant you an interview.

Happy New Year,

Rod Colon

The 21st Century Jobscape

The 21st century jobscape is unlike any other in history. Some of its key features include things such as: 1) a tremendous upheaval in global economic forces; 2) the “flattening” of today’s business environment in such a way that competition for available jobs has been ratcheted up into near-stratospheric levels; 3) an increased need on the part of many businesses to employ people who can comfortably cross the traditional boundaries of job descriptions and easily deploy their skills in a wide variety of available positions (thus significantly reducing costs).

If the preceding paragraph has given you an uneasy feeling about your current job search predicament, then it’s accomplished its purpose. It was written as a wake-up call for all those professionals in transition who still believe that the old, “traditional” methods of looking for jobs will still serve them well and eliminate the uncomfortable period of transition.

To frame out your understanding of Shape My Career’s new methodology, you’ll need to have your finger on the pulse of today’s job market … the “21st century jobscape”, as we call it.

Happy New Year,

Rod Colon

WE ARE YOUR “ON-CALL” CAREER COUNSELORS

We hope that you will gradually learn to think of SMC as your “on-call” career counselors. No two individuals will ever receive identical career counseling services because no two individuals will ever have the exact same career management requirements.

We teach, train, advise, counsel and mentor. We place the entire burden of “owning your career” on you, but we will be there every step of the way to make sure you take ownership in a true businesslike manner.

Happy Holidays,

Rod Colon

The Success List

You might think that just being enrolled in the SMC program practically guarantees a successful transition to a new job or position. But you’d be dead wrong.

The success you experience here will come from a strict adherence to some fundamental principles we will teach you. Here is a partial list:

• Your attitude, behavior, and even the way you think all have an unbelievably powerful effect on your success during periods of transition. If you don’t already know how to do it, you will need to develop a positive mental attitude about literally every task — large and small — you take on every day. Setbacks will happen but they should never be allowed to defeat you.

• You must learn how to think like a business owner with respect to your job search and career management activities. You are the CEO of a business and must learn to think and act like one. All decisions are yours, both good and bad. You must learn to hold yourself accountable at all times.

• You will bear the brunt of all work you attempt — no one will bear it for you. This is a measure of character, determination, and commitment to success. You must be relentless about pursuing all angles of the job search, not just the high-profile or glamorous ones.

• Know and understand yourself well. Know your strengths and weaknesses; capitalize on your strengths and avoid situations in which your weaknesses tend to reveal themselves. Even more important, develop a keen sense of self-awareness with respect to your interests, talents, and special skills.

• Never assume that you have made a lasting impression on someone just because you’ve had a great phone call or a fabulous interview. Be absolutely sure you follow up in all interpersonal activities. Keeping your name and face brightly framed in the mind of a would-be decision-maker can be the difference between getting the job you want and yielding it to someone else.

• Learn to acquire mental toughness. If you’ve been raised on the need for comfort and compassion from others to get through your troubles, you may find certain aspects of the SMC Program difficult. You will need to “steel your resolve” to get through the tough times on your own … and once you’ve done it successfully a few times, it will become not only second nature for you but one of the most valuable weapons in your career management arsenal.

• Become a master networker. The more you know about networking and the finer points of executing it, the more successful you’ll be in making connections with decision-makers and advocates who can help you along on your journey.

Happy Holidays,

Rod Colon

A Learning Library

As a participant, you must begin to think about your experiences in SMC as a learning laboratory. Most of the time, your efforts will be successful, but from time to time you will experience setbacks. The SMC learning laboratory will help you put problems into a healthy perspective so that setbacks are perceived only as temporary delays (and terrific learning lessons!) in forward progress — just as a CEO views minor setbacks in a real-world corporation.

Happy Holidays,

Rod Colon

732-367-5580

Shape My Career Offers ...

SMC offers participants a well-defined path through the maze of traditional career management and job searching techniques. But it does so using a paradigm of business ownership and personal accountability for all of your career decisions. The advantages of this model are powerful. Briefly, participants will:

• participate in a group of self-assessment exercises designed to make them keenly aware of their talents, strengths, skills, and overall fitness for the kind of career or position they wish to pursue;

• learn how to think about their careers as business owners instead of some random task on a “to do” list and learn how to manage the day-to-day operation of that business as its Chief Executive Officer;

• learn the art of making connections in order to develop sound, stable, and long-term relationships;

• learn how to develop “targeted value propositions” for the positions they seek;

• learn and master the critical 21st century skill of personal branding;

• master certain fundamental and mission-critical Internet skills;

• learn and master a specific 7-Step Job Search Methodology that practically guarantees success in getting interviews (provided it’s followed precisely);

• learn the key behaviors that drive successful connections and master the techniques for finding advocates;

• learn how to access and leverage the “hidden job market”;

• learn how to prepare for a successful interview;

• learn how to manage negotiations successfully;

• learn what must be done during the first 90 days of landing a new position to ensure success on the job while continuing the never-ending task of expanding your network.

This is by no means a complete list. There are many other techniques, tips, tools and procedures that will be introduced as the program’s topic sequence requires them.

Happy Holidays,

Rod Colon

Chief Operations Officer

Shape My Career, Inc.

155 North Washington Avenue

Bergenfield, NJ 07621

tel: 201.477.8370 ext. 170

alt: 732-367-5580

fax: 201.385.8243

email: rod.colon@shapemycareer.com

web: www.shapemycareer.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/rodcolon

A COMPLETELY UNIQUE CAREER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

From its very name, Shape My Career distinguishes itself from all other outplacement services. SMC literally “molds” a career transition plan around you — the participant — and your individual needs and unique requirements. Compare this with most other outplacement services that typically use a cookie-cutter “one size fits all” approach to job searches and career transition — and then promise extraordinary results! The fact is … there is no comparison!

Our staff of expert-level career counselors is led by Mr. Rod Colón, Founder and CEO of the ETP Network (Empowering Today’s Professionals). Rod has been building networks, teaching networking skills, and providing expert-level coaching for business and career professionals for almost twenty years. He draws from experience on both sides of the interviewer’s desk and therefore brings a fresh and unique perspective to the career counseling space.

At some point in your SMC training, you will interact directly with Rod and make some interesting discoveries. Although he is energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate about helping people, he demands the very best you have to give at all times and uses a no-nonsense approach to get it. As he senses your level of commitment to help yourself, he offers customized guidance and precisely targeted support to ensure you follow a path that will lead to extraordinary success!

Rod Colon

Your Career Is Calling Radio Show on PRX

If you go to www.prx.org and click on "series" you will see that we have uploaded a couple episodes of Your Career Is Calling. We should have all our shows up by the end of the month.

Enjoy,

Rod Colon