Archive for October, 2009

Archives for Branding You

Despite the numbing loss of over millions of jobs – and the worst job market since WWII— young professionals, job-seekers and career changers can and do get jobs today. They are accomplishing this by adapting to a morphing workplace, determining how they can add value to the industries and jobs that matter now, and swiftly repurposing their skills.

The first step towards this success is a network – but one that goes far beyond an electronic Rolodex of contacts. We at The Guru Nation have seen greater results when job seekers can plug into a knowledge network of experts who can provide critical advice on career choices. This kind of network first eliminates the feeling of isolation that can accompany a job search or being downsized; and second, it can provide essential advice on identifying leads, preparing for and landing a job.  Pulling from some of our experts’ advice, here are five ways to succeed in the new changing paradigm:

1. Identify your Value Proposition.  Define the core strengths and characteristics that pervade your career and reflect your personality.  It is tremendously empowering to know who you are and what foundational skills you bring to the table. An independent-minded, optimistic team builder can start 10 businesses in 10 different industries and still succeed.

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Archives for Coaching

One-half of US employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, up from two-fifths 10 years ago. Are you one of them?

If you are seriously dissatisfied, it’s going to affect your attitude. And that may show up in your performance. It could also put you at risk of losing out to others who are more satisfied with what they do.

But are you really in the wrong job or business? Or is it just a case of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence? Are you dissatisfied or unfulfilled for little or no reason? How can you tell?

Here are some steps to help you figure out if you’re in the right job and some recommendations on what to do about it.

Think of yourself as a business. Would you back yourself? Would you invest in You, Inc? If the answer is no, you’re in the wrong job. To invest in a business, or in this case, in yourself, you need to be comfortable on three main fronts: that market demand for your services is buoyant, that competition is not too tough, and that you are reasonably well placed to succeed.

Consider market demand for You, Inc. You need to be sure that demand for you is not about to fall off a cliff. If you worked as a travel agent before the dot-com era, long-term demand for your services would not have looked promising, given the looming threat from e-booking and e-ticketing. Is there something happening in your industry that could affect future demand for your services?

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Archives for Hot Skills

Terry Hird is a professional negotiator in Silicon Valley who enjoys teaching others the craft. Arranging a time to interview him by phone didn’t involve a lot of back and forth. It was a take it or leave it proposition.

Well, not really, I suppose I could have held out for an in-person meeting and then I would have been obliged to accept his location. That’s the thing about negotiations – you have to know when to press for what matters to you and be very selective about it. We agreed I would call him, but I’m no pushover.

A lack of good negotiation skills can hold back career advancement – and worse – says Hird who in addition to running his own firm also teaches an extension course at UC-Berkeley. “The most popular topics for [my students] are how to get a raise, and how to deal with a bad boss,” he says.

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Archives for Globalization

Fernando Ara faces an extreme virtual commute from his Orange County, CA office to Madrid, Spain. Ara is in the vanguard of worldwide cross-border telecommuters. Ara is the U.S. country manager for Redkaraoke, a social networking website, but works out of his California-based home office and travels when necessary for meetings.

Ara’s colleague, Justin Abbott, based in Baltimore, MD, heads up business development for the company. Another manager, Jose Miguel Segurra, lives in Japan. They communicate with HQ mostly via Skype.

“The biggest issues are managing between multiple time zones – from Spain, to the United States, to our Country Manager in Japan,” Abbott said. “And, of course, making sure that we all understand each other and are on the same page.”

WorldatWork, a Scottsdale, AZ, Washington, DC and Toronto, Canada-based organization, predicted in a recent report that 100 million Americans will be teleworking by 2010. Most of them will be working for companies located in the U.S.-but as the trend continues, it can be expected that as steadily increasing number of people will find cross-border opportunities.

It’s not just a virtual career choice, it’s a quiet workplace trend that goes mostly unremarked-upon by media or governments.

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Archives for Workplace

One evening in May 2006, the president of the China division of a $10-billion-a-year multinational locked himself out of his office. Using his handheld, he fired off a nasty e-mail to his secretary, ordering her to start checking with her superiors every night before she went home. He also CCed others in the company before hitting send.

She replied, CCing the company’s entire China staff and asking him to remember his manners. “Even though I’m your subordinate, please pay attention to politeness when you speak,” she wrote.

The Chinese press caught wind of the exchange and because the president was from Singapore, it sparked a fury about cultural imperialism. He later resigned.

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Archives for Employment

It’s no joke: there really are too many lawyers. And there are too few nurses and accountants. At least, that’s the employment outlook this year.

What if you could glimpse the future and foresee low demand for your skills in 2012? Would you change careers based on that data or would you continue to chase your dream?

Most of us would pursue our passion – after all, we only get one shot at life. Still, amid an oversupply of lawyers (was it ever otherwise?), many of whom are struggling to pay off six figure law school debts, you have to wonder shouldn’t they have seen this coming?

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Archives for Employment

The news of my father’s untimely death in 1988 has not yet reached every direct mail list company. Knowing this, perhaps it was a bad idea to introduce these diligent list brokers to my imaginary co-worker, Teresa Human.

Actually, when I ‘hired’ Ms. Human in late 2006, ostensibly an HR manager at Third Set Media, I used her name to apply for and access HR White Papers and webcasts. Ironically, the idea was that I would insulate myself from future offers by these pesky list brokers. This assumption has proven to be incorrect.

The other day I called a friend from an AT&T office line and he told me that the caller ID read “Teresa Human, Third Set Media.” This came as a bit of a surprise to me.

True, Ms. Human has fielded direct mail offers for healthcare insurance, Chase credit cards, software-as-a-service, the Wall Street Journal, and AT&T is hot for her to buy something called U-verse. About once a week a call center agent reaches my office line and insists upon speaking with Ms. Human. When I reply that she doesn’t work here anymore, they don’t cross her off of their list – maybe she will return?

I’m not quite sure what to do next. And no, I’m not going to apply for a job, a phone line or a credit card in her name. What I’d like to do is circulate a death certificate for Ms. Human, but then I’d have to invent a fictitious doctor willing to sign off on it.

I may be stuck with my imaginary HR manager for quite some time. Besides, she would be difficult to replace – especially in this economy. Meanwhile, I have an opening for an imaginary IT support guy, but I will wait for the economy to turn around before filling that vacancy.