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Social Media – Why should Baby Boomers care about Social Media?

May 16, 2012 By Marc Miller Leave a Comment

In my last post I asked is Social Media, Baby Boomers and Careers — an Oxymoron?

There are some of you who get it and a lot that do not.

Last year, I did a presentation at Launch Pad Job Club on using social media in your job search.

I put up a slide that list all of the major Social media platforms at the time.

My question was

What are your concerns?

What came out overwhelmingly was privacy!

I do not want to tell them how old I am.

My response was then don’t.

I do not want to put my marital status on my Facebook page.

My response was then don’t.

I do not put the year I was born anywhere it is visible. I do not put my marital status. I also do not tell anyone on social media that I am a Dire Straits fan. OOPS just did that!! I want my MTV, I want my MTV, money for nothing and the …. oops that just came out.

You have to decide what you are going to expose. As a generation we are very private. Those days of complete privacy are over.

Are you different?

If you are reading this blog you are a consumer of social media. You likely found this blog post via LinkedIn, Facebook, RSS, Twitter, Google+, Stumbleupon or an e-mail. If you are a baby boomer you are likely an early adopter for your generation.

Why should we care about social media?

Whether you want to start a business or just want to get hired for a job, being found on Social Media is critical.

I taught a LinkedIn class to small business owners last month. I had a gentleman who owned an insurance agency for one of the major carriers for over 20 years. He told me that cold calls from people looking for car, home and casualty insurance had dropped off the last three years. He still had a lot of referral business but since the yellow pages had became a useless paper weight he needed to find new ways to be found.

When was the last time you used the Yellow Pages? You do remember the Yellow Pages — RIGHT!

How will your next employer find you? You cannot wait until for the economy to shift. You cannot wait for the next opportunity to appear. The days of being reactive with your career are over.

My next blog post will be how to make sure your LinkedIn PUBLIC profile shows up first when they search for you on the web by name. You are probably asking — What is my LinkedIn Public Profile?

We will talk about that and make sure that your LinkedIn PUBLIC profile contains what it should. My guess is 20-30% of you have nothing in that profile!

Do not forget about the availability of the Cure for Career Insanity webinar series launching May 22nd.

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Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Baby Boomer, Social Media Tagged With: baby boomer, Social Media

Social Media, Baby Boomers and Careers – An oxymoron?

May 14, 2012 By Marc Miller 1 Comment

The world has changed pretty dramatically in the last dozen years. We have been through two recessions with the second recession being the worst since the great depression In the year 2000 the following were true:

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, WordPress, Blogger and other social media platforms did not exist
You could find job postings on sites like Monster, Dice and other job sites
Newspapers still had want ads
Dial up modems were still the preferred way to connect to the Internet from home
Small businesses regularly spent thousands of dollars on yellow pages ads
You still likely had a Rolodex
Music was sold on CDs
Your reputation was based on your deeds

In the last four years change has accelerated:

Public companies are posting jobs because they are legally required not because they want to post them
Social media has created the referral economy
80-85% of jobs are filled through referrals
Companies are searching for candidates using Google and LinkedIn and do not care whether you are looking for a job
You have a personal brand which is based on your online and offline presence
Online marketing has spawned a whole industry where manufacturers big and small can bypass distributors
Music, Software, Training, and other intellectual products are sold online
In 2012, more e-books will be sold than physical paper books
It is now difficult to tell the difference between a traditionally published book and a self published book

As a baby boomer what issues to do we have with this rapid change?

It is changing so fast!
PRIVACY – I do not want to put myself out there like I am marketing myself like a tube of toothpaste
The technology skills required are beyond a lot of us
PRIVACY - I do not want to show everyone my picture
I can’t read those little fonts on my iPhone
PRIVACY - what business is it of yours to know where I have been today or yesterday or last week or…
I just learned how to use Facebook and they change the policies again
PRIVACY - Facebook change their policies and suddenly all of my friends can see my posts that I thought only my family would see
I do not want to build an online presence. I am good the way I am!

I was at blogathonATX a couple of weeks back and I heard from several bloggers that “Mom and Dad think that Social Media is a fad and it will all go away”.

What do you think? Is this all a fad?

Will Baby Boomers be able to adapt to the new world of careers and social?

Is the title correct?

I will be writing about this topic over the next several months. I will be offering practical tips along with some engaging dialogue or at least I hope you will think it is engaging! I will be offering parts of a online LinkedIn/Social Media curriculum I am currently developing.

Do not forget about the availability of the Cure for Career Insanity webinar series launching May 22nd.

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Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Baby Boomer, LinkedIn, Social Media Tagged With: baby boomer, LinkedIn, Social Media

Do you really know what you are passionate about?

May 11, 2012 By Marc Miller 2 Comments

Late last year I started working with a client who was very unhappy with their current work environment. We discussed how we would go about discovering all of the factors that surround her work and personal life. I believe you cannot separate them. Our first step was for my client to take the Birkman assessment. Their interests came back as the following.

We discussed her Scientific interest and it was right in line with what she had done much of their career.

When we discussed the Artistic interest my client’s response was I am not artistic!!!

I asked her, did they like going to art galleries or liked to paint or work with clay or…..

The answer was some.

I then turned the discussion to my client’s home. My client’s face lit up when they talked about their kitchen. The kitchen had gone through a total remodel and this was a project of joy. We talked about other projects that involved color and design. My client’s face just glowed with enjoyment.

I later talked to some people who knew my client very well and asked them did they think my client was artistic. They went duh! Look at the house!

My client worked in HR for a very large organization. Art would never be integrated into her work life. I introduced my client to my image consultant who besides helping with clothes, color and other image related topics is helping her to integrate art into their daily life.

Just as with my wife and her outdoors interest my client knew but did not know how important art was to them.

Why do you think we do that? Why do some people forget what is important to them? I have some ideas on the subject but I would like your perspective.

I will move on to a new topic next week – Social Media and Career – I will be looking at this from the Baby Boomer perspective.

Do not forget about the availability of the Cure for Career Insanity webinar series launching May 22nd.

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Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Interests Tagged With: career, Interests

What if you are not passionate about anything?

May 9, 2012 By Marc Miller 2 Comments

I have been talking about interests. I have talked about those interests that you must fulfill to be happy. In my last post I talked about my wife and her very high outdoors interest. She knew about this — kinda but she was not aware of it to extent that she would go outdoors when she felt blue or just needed a boost.

What happens when you are not passionate about anything!

That is me!

I do have a lot of interests but nothing I am passionate about. This came out in my Birkman assessment. A score of 85 or above is strong interest. A score over 90 is something you must have in your life to be happy.

What you will notice about me is:

I like putting things together, mechanical, either physically or logically (software)
I like helping people. I have run help desks, support groups and been in training most of my career
I like to research stuff, scientific, and figure things out
I like to propose ideas and communicate, persuasive
To a lesser degree I like the outdoors

What do I not like to do?

I am not a reader AT ALL! Literary

If you have read earlier postings you would have learned that I graduated from high school reading extremely poorly. I read at maybe 30-40 words per minute. Reading was hard work! Even though I have overcome that in the last 30 years I still do not read for enjoyment. I read books when required.

The one interesting thing in writing this blog is I have gotten complements on my writing. This is the first time in fifty five years of life that I have been complemented on my writing. You cannot believe how good that feels!

I do not love to do anything. I like to do a lot of things. This is both good and bad. On the good side, I have been able to move around in my career. Programmer, engineer, trainer, IT consultant, public speaker, sales person, school teacher, help desk support person, non-profit fundraiser and now a career designer.

On the bad side, I have been directionless from time to time. I wrote about this in my post when I left teaching titled Dealing with that Directionless Feeling. Rather interesting this post is found by readers using Google search every week. I am not the only one who gets this feeling from time to time.

How about you? Do you feel that you are not passionate about anything.

Are you driven my a single calling? I will rap up this series in my next post.

Do not forget about the availability of the Cure for Career Insanity webinar series launching May 22nd.

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Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career, Employment, Interests Tagged With: career, Employment, Interests

Career Pivot Webinars and Workshops in May

May 7, 2012 By Marc Miller Leave a Comment

The second half of May is loaded with offerings from Career Pivot.

In April, I launched the first LinkedIn workshops targeting small business owners and solo entrepreneurs. The workshop was titled The Art and Science of Using LinkedIn for Small Business. These workshops were offered in Austin, Texas where I happen to live!

On May 10th, I will be offering a webinar titled 5 LinkedIn Tips from the Art and Science of Using LinkedIn for Small Business. This webinar is FREE, which years ago I had a salesman refer to as the 4-letter F-word. You can register for this by clicking here.

On May 22nd, I launch the Cure for Career Insanity webinar series. The Cure for Career Insanity is for anyone who wants to change jobs, roles or even careers and needs a new approach that works. We are going to embark on a five-step strategy to get past Career Insanity and make your next move count. This is a series of five webinars spread out of 5 weeks and is priced to be affordable at $97, a lot cheaper than hiring a career coach. For more information and to register click here.

Finally on May 23rd AND May 24th, I will be offering The workshop The Art and Science of Using LinkedIn for Small Business in Austin twice. This now a 4 hour workshop and each session is limited to 6 people. Bring your laptop and you will have ample time to work on your LinkedIn profile.

This hands-on, four-hour seminar will teach you:

The anatomy of a successful personal profile, including LinkedIn applications
How to manage your activity feed and control the reach of your activity broadcasts
How to mine the activity feed for valuable information about your connections and potential customers
How to leverage LinkedIn groups to cultivate business relationships and promote your brand
The Art of Connecting using simple techniques

For more information and to register click here.

Over the next few months, I will be blogging on how to use Social Media and specifically LinkedIn to build your credibility, research and help you get to the next step in your career.

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Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career Insanity, LinkedIn, Social Media Tagged With: Career Insanity, LinkedIn, Social Media

Baby Boomers – How well do you know yourself?

May 4, 2012 By Marc Miller 1 Comment

In my last post, I posed the question about whether work fulfilled all of your interests.

What if you really do not know what you are interested in anymore?

You might say that is a silly question but I have found this to be true with multiple clients. I also found this true with my bride of 32 years.

On my wife’s birthday in late 2009, we made the decision to start looking at condominiums and apartments with an intention of downsizing. We found ourselves a Realtor and start exploring.

In about six weeks, we looked at a lot of places and we found nothing that felt right, then we walked in the condo we live in now!!

It was advertised as a tree house. It is on the second and third floors of a low rise. Three balconies and two of them face down a hollow. It sat up in the trees. During the day there is no need for any lights other than in the bathroom. We have few drapes or blinds. My wife immediately said this is it. I said let’s do some homework. She said – this is it! I said let’s do some homework. She said – this is it! I said –…… you get the idea.

It is a beautiful unit, in a great location, condo prices were depressed so it was priced right. Why was she making such a fuss? A couple of years later I did her Birkman assessment and I knew.

My wife is very high outdoors interest. Did she know this of herself? Well kinda, sorta,…. She has been a nurse and a massage therapist of 30+ years. After lots of discussion this is something that has been submerged for a very long time.

In my work with over 50 clients in the last year, is this very unusual? Heck no!

One of my discoveries in the last year is we, the baby boom generation, do not know ourselves very well.

How well do you know yourself?

Over the last dozen years as I have changed careers multiple times, I have learned a lot about myself. What makes me happy. What pisses me off. It has not been easy but I am much happier for it.

What about you?

I will give you some more examples in the coming week.

Do not forget about the availability of the Cure for Career Insanity webinar series launching May 22nd.

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Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Interests Tagged With: baby boomer, Interests

Baby Boomers – Does work fulfill what you are interested in?

May 2, 2012 By Marc Miller Leave a Comment

All of us have different interests in life. For some it is music, art, fix things, researching, organizing, reading, being outdoors,……

Some interests are more important than others. Some of these interests are so important that if you do not fulfill them you will not be happy.

I have written before about using the Birkman Assessment with most of my clients to discover who they are and what they want. The Birkman measures interests in 10 different categories. The measurement scale is 1-99. Anything over 85 is a strong interest but anything over a 90 is something you absolutely have to have to be happy.

Let’s look at an example:

This is a former client who works in something other than the music industry. Notice the score of 97 musical. Their first reaction was — I cannot carry a tune!! I have no musical talent!! However, this person regularly visits live music venues. This measurement has nothing to do with talent but Interest. They LOVE music!

Given that this person does not want to work in the music industry because of the dysfunctional aspects of working with musicians they absolutely MUST allocate time in their personal lives for MUSIC! It is imperative that their work allows them the personal time to fill this need!

Do you have a personal interest that is so strong that you have to have it in your life to be happy? Think about it?

How well do you know yourself?

My experience of working with Baby Boomers is we do not know ourselves very well. We often have taken our interests and shoved them so deep that we forgot about them!

We will look at other examples in the coming couple of weeks.

Do not forget about the availability of the Cure for Career Insanity webinar series launching May 22nd.

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Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Interests Tagged With: baby boomer, Interests

Announcing the Cure for Career Insanity Webinar Series

April 29, 2012 By Marc Miller Leave a Comment

I have been writing about the Cure for Career Insanity for the last two and a half months. If you read the last post, I wrote 31 articles on the topic. I did not realize it was so many! The nice people at Core Media Enterprises created this video for Career Pivot on the Cure for Career Insanity program.

We are now ready to launch The Cure for Career Insanity Webinar Series on May 22nd.

Cure for Career Insanity is for anyone who wants to change jobs, roles or even careers and needs a new approach that works. We are going to embark on five-step strategy to get past Career Insanity and make your next move count.

The five steps will be covered in five 45-minute presentation (15 minutes for Q&A) sessions (All sessions will be recorded):

Week 1 – 22 May 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Defining the Problem: What are you running away from in your current position or role? Is it the boss? If it is the boss what about the boss causes you to want to run away? Is it the work environment? What about the work environment?

Week 2 – 5 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT (we will skip Memorial Day week)

Defining the Goal: What do you want to run towards? What do you want in your next job that at least fixes what you are running away from?

Week 3 – 12 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Learning to Ask for What You Want: How do you ask for what you want? How do you use strategic networking and interviewing techniques to ensure you get what you want in the next position?

Week 4 – 19 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Framing Your Job Search for Maximum Effectiveness: What do you tell your next prospective employer when he asks why you want to leave your current position? If you tell him the job stinks and your boss is an ogre, he will say: ”NEXT!”

Week 5 – 26 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Negotiating From Strength: How do you negotiate for what you want and IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT MONEY!!

I am limiting enrollment to 25 for this first session. Contact me for special discounts

I am very excited about the launch of this program. The goal is to provide a very affordable way for people to change their habits and to take control of their career choices.

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Please share this blog with your friends and colleagues using the social sharing buttons below. You can subscribe to this blog and my monthly newsletter by filling out the form at the top of this page. Please visit my Career Pivot FaceBook page daily for interesting articles. If you “like” my page you will be able to download the “Baby Boomer Fact Sheet” with 24 important facts about the challenges that face baby boomers today.

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career Insanity Tagged With: Career Insanity

31 Articles on the Cure for Career Insanity

April 28, 2012 By Marc Miller Leave a Comment

It is time to summarize the five steps of the Cure for Career Insanity.

I have spent the last two month going over each step. Please take the time to review the posts that you may not have read.

On Monday I will be announcing details of the launch of this program.

I will be offering significant discounts in the program to anyone who goes to the Cure for Career Insanity webpage and signs up to get updates on this program.

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Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career Insanity Tagged With: Career Insanity

Do you really know what you are passionate about?

What if you are not passionate about anything?

Baby Boomers – How well do you know yourself?

Baby Boomers – Does work fulfill what you are interested in?

Announcing the Cure for Career Insanity Webinar Series

Week 1 – 22 May 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Week 2 – 5 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT (we will skip Memorial Day week)

Week 3 – 12 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Week 4 – 19 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Week 5 – 26 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT

31 Articles on the Cure for Career Insanity

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Week 1 – 22 May 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Week 2 – 5 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT (we will skip Memorial Day week)

Week 3 – 12 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Week 4 – 19 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Week 5 – 26 June 2012 – 7 PM CDT

Sign Up for Updates

Blog Categories

Career Pivot Evaluation

Career Pivot Planning

Job Search Jump Start