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.