Baby Boomer Career Management – Paradigm Shift

April 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

paradigm-shiftBaby Boomer Career Management – Paradigm Shift

Are you ready to make a paradigm shift in how you manage your career?

Client #1

I was sitting with a client who was networking for their next job.

He had just met with an old colleague who was working for new high tech company. His friend brought him in, introduced him around and made the proper introductions into HR.

The problem?

They had no open positions in the area where he is a good fit.

My client states “I am drilling holes and coming up empty!”

Another way to look at this is “I am drilling holes, and I am planting seeds!”

You plant enough seeds and some will germinate and sprout to the surface.

When?

You never know when!

You have NO CONTROL over the timing.

Boy is this frustrating, particularly for technical people who are used to working in predictable and controllable environments. This is a Paradigm Shift in how they manage their career.

You are out planting seeds strategically and …….waiting! ARGH!

(More: What is Strategic Networking)

Client #2

I was sitting with another client having just finished our second feedback session of his Birkman assessment. He had been diligently networking for a couple of years. He had built up his network on LinkedIn. He was getting contacted regularly for positions that…. he did not want.

What did he want? This client does not fit into a classical employee category. He had been at the same employer for over 15 years and moved from position to position as opportunities appeared.

He had just started to network strategically. We are now building his brand story that highlights his unique combinations of talents and skills. The idea is recruiters will find his LinkedIn profile, which will have the appropriate keywords, and will want to talk to him!

He then asks how long will it take to move into a new position at a new employer.

My response was the same as with client #1.

You have NO CONTROL over the timing. Another Paradigm shift in thought!

(More: Baby Boomers and your Brand Story)

Are you ready to start planting seeds?

You then need to cultivate your network on a regular basis!

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Repurpose Your Career by Marc Miller and Susan Lahey

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You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Baby Boomer, Employment, Networking Tagged With: , ,

Advice – The Magic Word in Managing Your Career

March 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

AdviceAdvice is the Magic Word

When someone comes to you and asks for some advice, do you ever turn them down?

Probably not.

In fact, your probably take it as a compliment!

What is the best way to approach a contact for help with your career?

Ask for advice?

I use this in a larger strategy called Asking for A-I-R.

  • Advice
  • Insights
  • Recommendations

(More: The Key to a Successful Shift: Asking for Help)

Let’s say you are looking to network into one of your target companies. You get one of your contacts to make an introduction. When you reach out to the targeted individual you immediately ask can I have a few minutes of your time to ask some advice.

Might they ignore your request? Sure.

Might they simply say no? Sure.

If they refuse to help you then they are probably a jerk. In that case you do not want to talk to them anyway. Move on to the next person in your target list.

When you get some time with this individual you might ask:

  • How did you get hired at the company
  • How do you like working there
  • Can you describe the culture
  • What is the management style in general in the company
  • What is the management style of your immediate boss
  • How is hiring done – referral, posting on website, headhunters,…

If you think of any other questions please share them in the comment box below.

The step that many forget is to ask for recommendations!

  • What should I do next
  • Who do you recommend that I talk to next
  • Can you introduce me to anyone that might help me in reaching my goal

When you get a recommendation, you follow up, follow up and follow up. You keep the person making the introduction in the loop at every step!

(More: Cultivating Your Network)

The last step in this process is to always ask what can I do for you?

I often tell the story of my son, who after graduating from college in 2006 was having difficulty landing his first job. He applied with a large employer in Sacramento California. I told him to get on the Sacramento chapter website of the professional association where he belonged. I told him to e-mail all of the Sacramento officers and ask for 15 minutes on the phone to ask some advice.

Every last one of them gave him at least 30 minutes, and he got a lot of great advice. He did not get the job, but he learned that when you ask for advice…. people will respond positively.

Advice is a magic word in managing your career!

Do you ask for advice?

Do you have a mentor?

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

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Check out my new book!

Repurpose Your Career by Marc Miller and Susan Lahey

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career, Networking Tagged With: , ,

Strategic Relationships – A True Story

February 10, 2013 by 4 Comments

Strategic RelationshipsStrategic Relationships

This last week has been amazing and all brought about by multiple strategic relationships.

PBS Next Avenue

My relationship with PBS Next Avenue , which is a PBS website dedicated to the support of the Baby Boomer issues, began sometime in 2012.   I was quite impressed with the breadth of issues they covered. I volunteered to be on an advisory panel (Facebook private page). I participated in a number of conversations over the course of 2012 providing my opinions on what I thought about the content. By the way, this is a high quality website.

Over the course of 2012, I regularly shared PBS Next Avenue material over Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I did this because it was very good material.

The point here is I gave and I gave and I gave. This went on for a significant period of time. I had no plans at the beginning of getting anything back.

When Repurpose Your Career – A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers was ready to be published I reached out to their social media person, Bryce Kirchoff, to see if they would be receptive to have a short phone call. Bryce introduced me to Richard Eisenberg, managing editor for PBS Next Avenue.

Last December, I sent a pre-release copy of my book to Richard and he suggested we make a pitch. When I say we, I mean Susan Lahey, my co-author/ghost writer, and myself. Susan put together several pitches, something I could not do, and Richard’s editors accepted one of them.

Last week, our article The Key to a Successful Career Shift: Asking for Help went live on the Next Avenue website. It had links back to my website and a wonderful image of my book.

Strategic Relationships

There were three strategic relationships to this story:

  • Bryce Kirchoff – We had gotten to know each other via the Facebook page that led to a phone conversation and an introduction.
  • Richard Eisenberg – Who helped us craft our story to be accepted by his editors
  • Susan Lahey – Susan and I have worked together for over a year. She is extremely adept in writing in my voice. She wrote the pitch and the article. She has the skills to craft words beautifully. This is a strategic relationship.

Trending-Stories-ForbesForbes

Last Friday, Richard informed us, Susan and I,  that the article had been picked up and was on the Forbes Website. For a first time self published author, this is huge.

I then reached out to my LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ contacts and asked them to go to the website and share, share and share some more.

By Sunday afternoon, the article had been viewed over 1500 times and was in the top five trending articles on the site and #1 in the investing section.

To my friends who shared my article with their friends, THANK YOU!

Paying It Forward

I believe all of this happened because I have been paying it forward for a long time.

My good friend Steve Harper describes this best in his book The Ripple Effect: Maximizing the Power of Relationships for Life & Business (Second Edition).

The concept is when you do the right thing by someone else, it is like a drop creating a ripple in a pool of water. The ripple may rebound quickly, it may take a long time to rebound, or it may never come back. You just never know.

However, when it does come back it will return when you least expect it.

Pay it forward and expect nothing in return.

I was asked last week how did all of this manifest? I told them I had built strategic relationships and it just happened.

If you do this enough, good things do happen.

What are your strategic relationships?

Do you cultivate strategic relationships when managing your career?

Last but not least, please visit the Forbes and the Next Avenue articles and share it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or Google+.

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You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

 

Filed Under: Career, Networking Tagged With: , ,

Career Insanity – Doing your homework – Finding former employees on LinkedIn

March 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

We discussed in the previous post about making connections with recruiters and HR personnel at our target company.  We then strategically connected with current employees.

We now want to connect with former employees.  They just might give us a different story or….. maybe not!

Watch this video about locating former employees on LinkedIn and strategically make a connection.

Make sure and view this video full screen to get full effect.

Make sure that you target former employees that have personal relationships with people you know. I would ask each of my connections to see if they have a personal relationship with the target employee and would be comfortable giving a personal introduction.

Have you tried this? This is all about strategically finding people who can answer your questions.

I used VmWare in these videos because they are a employer in Austin that has been rapidly growing.  I am in no way saying they are a good or bad employer but just growing rapidly.

Check out the Cure for Career Insanity webpage and sign up to get updates on this program.

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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

Career Pivot FaceBook Page

Twitter : @MrMillerAustin

Twitter : @CareerPivot

Do not forget to get the “Don’t Retire Even If You Can – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Check out the Baby Boomer Infographics, Fact Sheets and other documents on the Career Pivot Resources page.

Filed Under: Career Insanity, Networking Tagged With: , , ,

Step 4 in a Career Pivot – The Job Search – Part 2

January 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In the last post I discussed my struggles in finding a teaching position.  With a little more than a week till school started I did not have a position.  In fact, I had not had a single interview!

All of my younger colleagues had positions.  I noticed then that all of my classmates in my cohort who were male and over 40 were all in the same position. We were the last candidates who would get called.  If you remember from my earlier post, I did not pick up on the signs that my demographic (male over 40 professional) was not in the target audience for the first Alternative Certification Program. This was happening again!

When making a career pivot your resume and social network profile will not get your foot in the door.  You must make the personal connection FIRST! You have all of this experience that at first glance does not necessarily appear to translate to this new career or role.  You need to network and let people in this new world know who you are, what your values are, what skills and talents do you bring to this new world and the most key for the getting a position in the public schools, you can be trusted with the kids.  Trust is huge. You have to build the relationships first.

The first time any of the principals saw my name was when I submitted my resume.  They did not know me and therefore, I was not even going to get a call.  So how the heck did I get a teaching position?

Everyone in my cohort knew which of us were still looking. A little over a week before school started the school that hired me called one of my young employed colleagues about an open position.   She immediately called me and told me that a position had opened up. I immediately faxed my resume to the school (yes, I faxed a resume!  This is a school district) and within two hours I had a interview scheduled. Two days later I was hired.  My network worked for me.

What I did not understand was teacher contracts are rarely honored by the teachers or the school districts.  At the last moment, the teacher who vacated the position I was hired for, was hired by another school district.  It is very common the month before school starts, teachers move around where they fill vacant positions in one school but creating a vacant position in the one they left.

All of my colleagues who were male and over 40 were hired but at the very last moment and for the least desirable positions. Typically, in large urban school districts, with minority majority populations, poverty and single parent households. The key here is learning to teach students who come from the culture of poverty. After one week of teaching I said, “Toto we are not in Kansas anymore!” This was the beginning of a very stressful year that did not need to be so stressful.

No matter what kind of career pivot you make you have to make the personal connection first. I cannot reinforce this enough, it is all about relationships!

My next set of posts will be lessons learned from my first months at school.  These lessons apply to just about any Career Pivot!

You can subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by filling out the menu on the top right or click here.

You will find other related information on the Career Pivot FaceBook Page.

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career, Career Pivot, Employment, Networking Tagged With: , , , ,

Step 4 in a Career Pivot – The Job Search – Part 1

January 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I made my course correction and I was enrolled in a Alternative Certification Program at my local community college. I was taking classes at night and working as a consultant for my previous employer 3-6 days a month.  This continues until the end of June.

During the month of July, we had three full weeks of classes that will supposedly prepare us to take the certification exams. The adjunct professor who developed the curriculum and was preparing to teach the class was suddenly not available to teach the class.  The college was being audited by the certification body and it was found that many of their adjunct faculty did not meet the certification criteria.  The professor was now taking a graduate level math education course instead of teaching us. We were given a replacement who was not able to teach the class. In the end, we ended up organizing our selves to teach ourselves and we demanded a refund.  What a disaster!!

Most of us ended up passing both certification exams but we were woefully prepared to teach high school math.  We knew the math but had no experience teaching it. I had taught adults in 40 different countries around the world and I knew we were in trouble.

After we passed the certification exams, we were eligible to be hired under a probationary teaching contract.  We would continue to take night classes over the next year and if we complete our first year of teaching successfully, we would be issued a full teaching license.  It was our task to find the teaching position, interview and get hired.

What was the problem?  I did not a clue on how hiring occurred in school districts. I assumed it was like finding any other job. Boy was I wrong!

Schools are very closed tight knit environments.  I pulled every trick out of my hat in to get interviews. I applied to around 40 different middle and high schools in the area. I met every principals secretary and made sure I handed my resume to them in person.   I pursued this all summer. Until the week before school started, I had not gotten a single interview.

I had no idea how to find a position at a high school.  My resume was filled with corporate experience but nothing that a high school principal cared about. When making a career pivot you need visibility.  I should have substitute taught at the school where I wanted to get hired during the spring. I needed to network!

Networking is key in a Career Pivot! Previously, I stated that I had not networked enough to research how pursue certification.  Now when I wanted a teaching position, I had not networked my way into the schools so that the principals knew who I was.  Without that personal connection no one was going to look at my resume until the last minute.

I will tell you how I actually got hired in the next post. It was through a personal connection.

You can subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by filling out the menu on the top right or click here.

You will find other related information on the Career Pivot FaceBook Page.

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career, Career Pivot, Employment, Networking Tagged With: , , ,

#4 need to be met in your next Career Pivot – the need for respect

December 19, 2011 by 2 Comments

When we go to work, we have an expectation to be treated by our peers in a way that makes us feel that we belong.  What we need varies from person to person.

Respect at WorkSome of us, (that is me), want to be communicated with in a very direct manner and keep the emotions to a minimum.  I have had clients who want and need to be treated in a very respectful manner (please no direct in your face communications) and they want to be able to express their emotions when needed.  Most of the population is somewhere in between these two extremes.

How do we go about selecting jobs and environments where we will get the level of respect and emotional support that we want and need?  I believe that through Strategic Networking you can explore different environments for the level of directness in communication and the level of emotional support. The problem is you do not typically ask people how direct they are or can I explore my emotions with you. You need to listen to your gut and go with your instincts. For many, this is really hard.  For men, we tend to over analyze.  For women, many do not trust their instincts.

As you talk to people, learn to pay attention to the physical body cues of excitement, and tension.  Learn to differentiate between tension that comes from excitement and fear.

We all have different needs when it comes to feeling comfortable with our peers at work.    Have you thought about what you want? What are your needs?

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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.

Please check out my one on one coaching packages or the Cure for Career Insanity webinars

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Filed Under: Career Pivot, Networking Tagged With: , ,

9 articles on strategies and tactics for building relationships for your career or job search

September 26, 2011 by 1 Comment

The “networking” word has gotten a bad rap for some of you.  For many of you it is right next to “public speaking” as something you will avoid at all cost.  I am going to use “building relationships” from now on.

I have recently finished a whole series of blog posts on networking, oops, building relationships.  I would encourage everyone to read the entire series which includes:

Your Network – Quantity versus Quality
Cultivating your network – Part 1
Cultivating your Network – Part 2
Sharing your network
What is Strategic Networking
Strategic Networking – Targeting Companies and Recruiters
Strategic Networking – Targeting Companies and Recruiters – Part 2
Strategic Networking – Asking for AIR
Strategic Networking – Followup Strategies

Spend some time with these articles and think about how you can apply these strategies in your life as well in your search for a career.

If you found this valuable please share it with the buttons below.  Please comment and let me know what you think.  You can also subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by filling out the menu to the right. You will find other related information on the Career Pivot FaceBook Page.

Marc Miller

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4 questions to ask on your way to your next career or job

September 6, 2011 by 6 Comments

This series on networking has been all about the mechanics of networking.  Let’s talk about what is the goal of all of this networking.

Many of us, especially baby boomers, have spent the last 20 to 30 years working.  We have put minimal focus on our career path or more importantly what we want. Over the last six months, I have worked with so many clients who started their careers by taking what was available at the time. They did not choose the career path, the career path chose them. They then get married, have children, buy homes and acquire stuff. Boy do they acquire stuff!! If have you never watched the George Carlin bit on your stuff, watch it now.

Maintaining that stuff becomes paramount in our lives. We end up working to support the stuff.  It often takes a major event to cause us to do something different (Layoff, health issues, death in the family, children leaving or coming back, financial collapse…) What now?

The questions you could be asking:

  1. Which of this stuff do I want to keep?
  2. Where do I want live?  Do I really want or need this house? We often stay in places because of what other people think.  For example, we think we need to keep a bedroom for a child when they come home.
  3. Who do I want to live with?  Your relationship with your partner and family is a key aspect in any career or job change.  This is always a good time to evaluate on whether you want to work on the relationship.
  4. What do I want to do?

My favorite book on this topic is Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Rest of Your Life by Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro. My favorite quote from the books is

“Living in the Place you belong, with the People you Love, Doing the Right Work, All on Purpose”.

The upcoming posts will continue down this path of how to you find out “What I want to do”.

If you found this valuable please share it with the buttons below.  Please comment and let me know what you think.  You can also subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by filling out the menu to the right. You will find other related information on the Career Pivot Facebook Page.

Marc Miller on Strategic Networking

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Networking for over 50 Job Seeker

September 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I read a blog posting on the Interns Over 40 website named Networking for the Over 50 Job Seeker. It discusses Networking in all of the same ways that I have been doing over this series of postings via a video produced by AARP (Yep I belong to AARP and I am over 50).

Here is the AARP video that I could not resist sharing.   Enjoy!

So what do you think? Are you going to re-energize your networking efforts?

If you found this valuable please share it with the buttons below.  Please comment and let me know what you think.  You can also subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by filling out the menu to the right. You will find other related information on the Career Pivot Facebook Page.

Marc Miller on Strategic Networking

Filed Under: Career, LinkedIn, Networking Tagged With: , ,
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