career success Archives

Being Bold is the Pathway to Success in the 2nd Half of Life

May 7, 2018 by Marc Miller 1 Comment

Being Bold is the Pathway to Success

Are you being bold in making changes in the 2nd half of life?

The inspiration for this post came from the numerous comments I have been receiving from one of last month’s podcast. People have been telling me how inspired they were by episode #72 of the Repurpose Your Career Podcast titled Rebranding Yourself with Alexander Buschek [Podcast]. If you listen to this episode you will have heard Alexander Buschek say the following:

“You need a lot of discipline to change your life. People ask me these days, ‘How did you do that?’ When I tell them the steps I took, they say, ‘Well, yeah… no .. this is something that I couldn’t do.'”

What Alexander did was be bold and he took action. Another way of saying it was he took a risk and worked his tail off to make a change.

Being Bold is not as Risky as You Think

When you want to make a change or a pivot, it is not going to be easy. It does take hard work. However, if you are willing to put the effort in a methodical, planned fashion you will come out on the other end as a better person. It will feel very risky but playing it safe is very risky these days.

Alexander worked hard at establishing himself as a thought leader in an area that he had no direct work experience (Digital Transformation for Small and Medium Business). He was also reticent about standing out.

I cannot tell you how many times I told Alexander to “Be bold. You know your stuff!”

How could I tell? Well, go look at his website, DigitalTransformationBlog.com. Watch his videos. My favorite is Alexander Buschek on 3D Printing and Generative Design.

He did all of the videos using the equipment he had or could purchase for a few Euros.

Remember, Alexander did this by studying up on the subject but had no practical work experience. He did this through hard work, then he was bold and put himself out there. It felt very risky to him at the time.

Being Bold on LinkedIn

Whenever you are making a change and you are in a safe well-established career, I hear over and over again, “I do not want my boss or company to know I’m going to make a change.”

This is when you start making subtle but bold changes to your LinkedIn profile.

Change your header image that matches where you want to go. One of my favorites is this one.

We were doing LinkedIn profile reviews in the Career Pivot Community last week and the question came up about how much personality should be put into the profile. My response was:

As long as it relates to your professional career and where you want to go, be yourself.

The woman who asked was pivoting out an I.T. role that she had been in for over 25 years to being a technology-based creative. She wanted to create artwork using a 3D printer and shoot 3D videos.

Slowly add material to your profile that shows the world that you know your stuff. You could create:

Videos and post them on YouTube
Whitepapers
Blog
Website

Be bold and quit worrying about what others will think. Most of that worrying is because you are suffering from MSU (Make Stuff Up) Disorder. The reality is you do not know what people will think until are bold and try something new.

Being Bold Can Bring Criticism

I know, I know, you do not want to put yourself out there. If you write blog posts, whitepapers, or create videos you open yourself up to criticism.

When I published my LinkedIn Publisher post 5 Things on Your Resume That Make You Sound Too Old, it went viral. Almost 600,000 views and 2,800+ comments. A lot of those comments were negative.

Some people wrote negative comments to the following:

I am going to go out a limb and declare that putting two spaces after a period is obsolete. It is how most of us were taught to type on a typewriter. Therefore, most of us who do this (I have taught myself to stop putting two spaces after a period and it was hard) are over 50 years of age.

Over the years, I have heard that this has been used as a method of screening out older candidates.

This one piece of the post caused it to go viral. Why because the statement I was making was bold and more importantly correct. I was saying something that others did not want to say.

I attended a conference the week this post went viral. I had more people come up to me and tell me that they could not be bold like I was. They could not handle the criticism.

Making a Career Pivot is not Easy but Being Bold is the Pathway to Success

Are you ready to stand out from doing something new? Are you willing to be bold?

This will not be easy. It will take hard work.

Being bold can be very uncomfortable, especially for those of us who are introverts.

Go ahead, be uncomfortable and be bold!

Marc Miller

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Are Your Emails Ignored? Call Them on the Telephone!

April 30, 2018 by Marc Miller Leave a Comment

Emails Ignored?

I was trying to reach out to a LinkedIn connection last week and it appeared my connection ignored all of my email attempts. Emails were sent to their personal and business accounts. I sent them a LinkedIn message.

I got crickets back.

Most of you at this point would have given up.

Not me! I started looking for their phone number.

Yes, you can reach out to them on that device called a telephone.

We have all run into this situation where we send an email and we get nothing back. No response.

It could be:

The email ended up in their SPAM folder
They say it went ehh…
The volume of email that day pushed your note way down
They do not like you

Why they did not respond is completely unknown to you. You can make all of the stories up in your head and the reality is you do not know. I call this the MSU (Make Stuff Up) disorder.

Too Many Emails

We know a lot of time emails are ignored because we get too much email. By the way, I use a product called SaneBox to categorize my emails. If you are interested here is my affiliate link.

We all are afflicted by too many emails especially during certain times of the week. This depends on how many newsletters we are subscribed to, the email habits of our work colleagues and so forth.

What can we do?

Pick up the telephone! I know it is old school but then I am old school AND IT WORKS!

I Don’t Have Their Telephone Number!

In the old days, you could pick up the telephone book and find someone’s telephone number but now we have the Internet.

I wanted my LinkedIn connection’s phone number – so where could I find their phone number?

I looked on their LinkedIn profile. It was not in their contact information.

I scanned through their summary section of their LinkedIn profile looking for their phone number. Nope, not there.

I located their employer’s website and went to the contact page. No phone number there. Not to be deterred I googled “company name phone number.” I found the company phone number on several websites including the reputable website, Bloomberg.com. Great! I called the number.

First time I called I was shuttled to someone’s voicemail. Hmm.. later I called back and got a recording “no one is available to take your call.”

I then went to Whitepages.com and typed in the name of the person I was looking for. Bingo! It popped up with someone that was likely my contact. In fact, this person lived relatively close to me.

I called the number and got a voicemail. I left a message and I had an email response in less than 30 minutes.

Is My Phone Number Out There?

You may be wondering what information is available about you. Go to Whitepages.com and type in your name and zip code. You will likely be surprised that they know your age, address, names of your immediate relatives and other information. If you are willing to pay, you can find all kinds of information that is available to you or anyone else.

If you find that your emails are ignored, figure out how to find the person’s phone number and call them.

You might want to reach out to a close friend, relative or work colleague to get their phone number.

It reminds of the old AT&T commercial that said reach out and touch someone.

Go ahead and use the telephone when your emails are being ignored.

Marc Miller

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Are You Seeking Respect and Failing in Interviews? [Updated]

April 4, 2018 by Marc Miller 2 Comments

Seeking Respect in Interviews

Are you seeking respect and backing off your usual style when you first meet someone?

I have several new clients whose natural style is to be direct in their communication. In contrast, they have a high need for respect in their dealings with other people, as defined by their Birkman Assessment.

In other words, the way they communicate is not how they want to be treated. Hmm…an interesting combination. This is far more common than you think. Most of us communicate in a more direct fashion than we want others to communicate with us.

These clients, who are seeking respect, will often back off their usual style when they first meet someone. They will ask more questions and listen more to get the respect they desire.

Does this work in an interview situation? Not necessarily!

Have you been failing in interviews because you are not your authentic self?

Note: This post was originally published in December of 2014 and was updated in April of 2018.

Salespeople

This “style” is actually fairly common with really good salespeople. They tend to be fairly aggressive in their communications style except when they meet someone new like a new sales lead. What they do is back off from their naturally aggressive communication style and start to ask really good probing questions. At this point, they become very good listeners which is what a good salesperson is supposed to do. Once they gained the new client’s respect they can start reverting to their more natural direct style of communications.

This works really well in a sales call but is disastrous in an interview situation. If you want that next sales position you had better be prepared to sell yourself from the outset.

Interviewing with Unfamiliar People

It is very common that you will interview with the hiring manager and potential future peers that you are unfamiliar with. What can you do? Try the following:

Court everyone on the interview list, but please do not stalk! Learn as much as possible about the people you will be speaking with. You may want to research them on FaceBook and particularly find pictures of them on social media. Make sure you can recognize them when you first meet them in the interview. The more familiar you are with them, both personality and visually wise the quicker you will revert to your natural style.
Be prepared to tell stories to answer any question they may ask. “Let me tell you about the time when…” If you have your stories down cold, you can tell them with authenticity and be your natural self. You do not want to memorize the stories but be able to tell them in a natural way.
Be prepared mentally by following these three steps for walking into your interview with confidence. This is far more important than most people think. If you walk into this situation feeling good about yourself, your confidence will exude from every pore in your body.
Be prepared to tell the interviewer why you want the job. Are you excited about the job opportunity? If so, be prepared to show it. I have always said you cannot fake passion.

Probing Questions

Bring a set of probing questions with you to the interview. You want to probe for pain points. The more insightful the questions you ask, the faster you will gain the respect you want. My favorite is “what keeps you up at night?”.

Hopefully, you have used some of these questions during the screening interviews which would allow you to tailor them to each person you are interviewing with.

We are setting ourselves up to get the respect we want as fast as possible. The more we know how we fit into this new organization the faster we will revert to our natural communications style. We all are human and should seek to become comfortable with the situation as quickly as possible.

Use probing questions to get yourself comfortable quickly.

Closing the Interview

Be prepared with a set of questions that will help you determine whether the job is a good fit for you. Please rehearse asking these questions so that they roll off your tongue. This does not mean memorizing them but know them well enough that you can tailor them to any situation.

Practice asking these questions with others and in front of a mirror. Be as natural and direct as your usual style.

Pay Attention to You

Do you know what is your natural style of communicating? Pay attention to how you naturally communicate. Ask your friends and colleagues (who you trust) to describe your communication style.

One of my favorite exercises that I use with my clients is to ask 3 people who know you from work and 3 people who know you from your personal life for 3-5 words or phrases that describe you.

The more you understand how you communicate, you will be able to identify when you are seeking respect in an interview and adjust accordingly.

If you have been getting to the final round of interviews and losing each time this may be the reason.

Marc Miller

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I am a Square Peg in the 2nd Half of Life – What Now?

April 2, 2018 by Marc Miller Leave a Comment

I am a Square Peg and Over 60 Years of Age

I admit that I am a square peg! The nice round holes that my corporate masters created for me were a painful fit. I did manage to squeeze myself into those holes and got paid well for it but at what cost?

I have written about square pegs in the past:

What I want to discuss in this post is what happens to square pegs when we enter the 2nd half of life.

I have been talking with a variety of individuals who are all square pegs and are now struggling to maintain their careers in the 2nd half of life.

Square Peg Problem

The problem that square pegs have is they have to conform to the damn holes that our employers create for us. We become actors when we go to work and we play a role. The problem is that consumes a lot of energy.

Early in our career, this is tiring but we are young and vibrant. In the middle of our career, this starts to become exhausting but we put up with it, but when we enter the 2nd half of life late in our careers, it is debilitating.

The results often show up as physical ailments or burn out.

Let me give you 3 examples.

The Closet Introvert

This is my story. I am a closet introvert. I appear to be an extrovert because I am a great public speaker, I can work a networking event with the best of them and I can meet and mingle with strangers with ease. When I am done, I am exhausted.

This did not happen overnight. In my 22 years at IBM, I slowly became an articulate techno-weenie or a geek that could speak. I was paid more and more money to do this.

When I hit my late 30s and early 40s, my back would spasm once or more times a year. I would be done for a week or more. Finally, my l3/l4 discs ruptured and after taking 3 months off for bed rest, I kept going.

I convinced myself I was an extrovert. After a near-fatal bicycle accident shook my world, I decided to go off and teach high school math wherein the end I collapsed from exhaustion. If you want to hear the full story of how I seduced myself listen to the podcast episode From High-Tech Training to High School Teacher, and Why I Left. [Podcast].

Now that I am over 60 years of age, I have to be careful how much public speaking I do. Several weeks back I presented a multi-generational workshop for a bank in Dallas on a Saturday. I drove for 3 hours up in the morning, listening to podcasts, gave the 2-hour workshop and then made the 3-hour drive home. Those 3-hour drives were my restorative niches.

I have to allow a lot of alone time before and after being around people. If I do not I am dead the rest of the day. Even though I am really good at being around people and presenting workshops it is exhausting.

I am a square peg and shoving myself into that round hole is EXHAUSTING, especially now that I am older.

Musical Technologist

I have met multiple musical technologists over the last few years. It is very common for engineers to have high interests in music.

Most recently I was speaking with a gentleman I will call Ron who works for a very large hospital system. He evaluates systems and he has to stay on top of all technologies the hospital is implementing. With the advent of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and all of the downstream technologies, the rate of change has accelerated.

At the same time, Ron has a huge interest in music that he has relegated to the side for many years to raise a family, pay off the mortgage, and put his kids through college.

Ron can keep up with the technological changes but …. he does not want to. What once was fun, interesting and lot of work is now just a lot of work.

He has spent the last few years taking care of elderly parents. His priorities have shifted.

Ron spent years shoving the square peg of himself into the technology round hole.

Creative Technologist

This last example is Sam who wandered into technology a long time ago. He did not really select it but it was there at the time he graduated from college.

Over the last 20 years, he has worked for large companies in their IT departments. He has gotten pretty good at it. Today he is in IT security which is a hot area. The problem is he is sick of it. He is both mentally and physically tired.

Now that Sam is in his mid to late 50s he can no longer keep shoving his square peg into the round hole of his job. He is physically fit and can do it but … he does not want to anymore.

Sam is highly creative and would love to marry his technical knowledge with some form of art. He is now exploring different video options with virtual and augmented reality.

The big question is can he make a go of this AND keep putting his kids through college at the same time.

Square Pegs and Financial Requirements in the 2nd Half of Life

I was quite blessed that my first tech startup left us debt free in my late 40s. We had children early by today’s standards in our late 20s. So many of the square pegs I have talked with lately waited to establish their careers before having children. Putting children through college in their late 50s or early 60s is no longer unusual.

As we all have lived through 2 horrible recessions that decimated both retirement and our kid’s college savings, many square pegs feel they have to keep shoving themselves into the round hole of work.

This is one reason we are working our plan to move to a lower cost place in the world along with a slower pace of life where I can continue to avoid that damn round career hole. Check out the latest about our journey at the How to Move Abroad and Take Your Job With You Series Page.

Are you going to keep shoving yourself into the round hole?

Marc Miller

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Top 10 Career Pivot Posts

I wanted to share with you the top 10 Career Pivot posts that were published in 2017. I have published a similar post the last several years.

I changed my posting strategy in the middle of 2017 to create new posts every Monday and update a previous post from 3-4 years earlier on Wednesday. I usually expand the old posts by adding 50-75% new material.

This will be the first of two posts that details what Career Pivot readers found interesting in 2017. This post focuses on the most popular articles published in 2016. Next month’s post will list what readers found most often via Google. That will be an interesting list!

Let’s get started.

#1 – Dealing with that Directionless Feeling [Updated]

At various times in our careers, we may feel directionless. This is particularly true when our skills are rendered obsolete or industries have died.

In my case, it was when I made a career pivot to being a high school math teacher, teaching Algebra I and II, in an inner-city school in 2004. I pursued this after a near fatal bicycle accident created a moment of clarity for me.

I taught for 2 years and was highly successful. The reality was I could not be a successful school teacher AND stay healthy. The experience drained me of my strength and sparked multiple bouts of depression.

I left teaching after the fall semester of my 2nd year drained but, more importantly, directionless.

Click here to read the entire post.

#2 – Free Version of LinkedIn is Dead. May It Rest in Peace.

I am declaring that the free version of LinkedIn is dead, may it rest in peace.

I contributed the following quote to the Career Sherpa’s post 31 EXPERTS SHARE PREDICTIONS FOR JOB SEARCH IN 2017:

The assimilation of LinkedIn into Microsoft will mean an acceleration of new features along with higher fees.

I have somewhat of a unique perspective on the acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft as I have been through 2 high-profile tech acquisitions in the last 15+ years:

The chipset that Agere Inc. produced is now profitable and alive as part of Intel. LifeSize Communications was later spun out of Logitech and is still alive but… barely.

Click here to read the entire post.

#3 – What are Your Natural Talents and How to Find Them? [Updated]

A quandary I find many people have is identifying their natural talents.

They can tell you all about the skills that have acquired. We are paid to exercise our skills, which may or may not be built on top of our natural talents.

If you are not sure of the difference between talents and skills read my post Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference?

I have been taking myself through a few exercises. I have found it quite interesting and thought-provoking.

Click here to read the entire post.

#4 – Strategic Networking Playbook – Who, How and When!

Often when I talk about strategic networking, people will immediately think of networking events. Their palms will get sweaty as they would rather get a root canal surgery than walk into a room full of strangers.

I now say strategic relationships because there is no relationship building at a networking event!

Relationships are created after the event when you sit down and meet one on one. You get to know one another and find common ground.

What strategic relationships should you have? This is the “who” of strategic networking.

Click here to read the entire post.

#5 – 10 Career Experts Share Their 2017 Baby Boomer Predictions

It is January of 2017 and it is time to look to some experts for their predictions and prognostications for the coming year.

The impetus for this post came from the Hannah Morgan’s post 31 Experts Share Predictions for Job Search in 2017 where I threw in my 2 cents. However, a lot of these predictions target the general job market or even the biggest segment Gen Y. What about Baby Boomers?

I decided to ask 10 Career experts to provide their baby boomer predictions for 2017.

Click here to read the entire post.

#6 – What is Your Current Salary? How to Answer! [Updated]

I’m sure you have been asked early in the interview process, “What is your current salary?”

If it was up to me, I would have everyone respond indignantly—None of your %^%#(& business!

However, that does not work in our current work environment.

So, how should you answer the question, “What is your current salary?”

I have a client who, just the other day, was asked this by a recruiter. It was the beginning of a series of interviews or, as I call it, she was going to run the gauntlet.

My client very politely said it was early in the process and that she would discuss salary later. It was all about total compensation, benefits, yadda, yadda, yadda. Pretty standard response.

The recruiter persisted in wanting to know. She finally said, “We need to know whether we can afford you. What is your current salary?”

My client broke down and told her, but added twenty thousand. It turns out that this was in her range.

I told my client I would have turned it around.

Oh, you want to know whether you can afford me? What have you budgeted for this position and I can tell you whether you are within my range?

Make them give you a number!

Click here to read the entire post.

#7 – 8 Ways Older Job Seekers Invite Age Unconscious Bias on Social Media [Guest Post]

Job seekers after 55 have a hard (but not impossible) task of finding work. Many find themselves searching for much lower paying jobs, creating a business, or both. Employers and recruiters look for ways to exclude candidates such as baby boomers. One way is to check to see if he or she has a social media profile, and next what does someone’s timeline say about them.

Older and younger job seekers are not as conscientious about personal brand awareness as they should. Although we see many people talk about transparency, there are limits. There are absolutes needing privacy like medical information or personal affiliations.

There are other things people share offer more unneeded scrutiny:

Click here to read the entire post.

#8 – Do Your Skills Match Your Interests in Your Career [Updated]

We develop a lot of skills throughout our career. Most of us learn these skills because they are in demand by our employer or industry.

Our interests are aligned with our talents. If you are not sure of the difference between your talents versus your skills please read the post Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference?

What happens when your skills are not aligned with your interests?

We get bored, burned out or left behind.

Click here to read the entire post.

#9 – 10 No-Fail Ways to Get Your Resume by Resume Screeners [Guest Post]

Ten years ago, you would’ve written your resume solely with the hiring manager in mind. Today, your audience is still the hiring manager, but also resume screeners. Resume screeners, also called “applicant tracking systems”, search, filter and parse each resume to determine which candidates are the best fit for the position. This all happens before the hiring manager even sees them. What does ATS mean for you? Your audience should shift slightly away from the hiring manager in favor of ATS. Check out these 10 no-fail ways to get your resume by ATS.

Click here to read the entire post.

#10 – A Near Fatal Bicycle Accident Was Actually a Mammoth Gift

My near fatal bicycle accident on July 11th of 2002 changed my life for the better. You read that correctly, that fatal day was actually a mammoth gift in disguise.

All I remember was cresting the hill before descending into the blind curve. There are glimpses of memory in the emergency room with my wife, Lotus.

After that, it was waking up in the hospital, a brace on my neck with a morphine drip in my arm. The car had been going 30 miles per hour. I was doing 20+. I evidently totaled the ‘96 Toyota Corolla with my body. At those speeds, the survival rate is about 10 percent.

Click here to read the entire post.

Conclusions

I want you to notice that about half of the posts were updated from earlier years. There were also a couple of guest posts that were very popular. Look for more of each in the coming year.

Next month look for a post of the most googled posts in 2016. This is always interesting because it tells us what you are looking for.

You may have noticed that we’ve organized the site into 8 portals to help you find the content that best suits your needs. These are:

You’ll find these highlighted under the heading ‘I need help to…’ on our front page, the sidebars on this site and the bottom of each post. Look for a start here page shortly.

What was your favorite post of 2017? Leave a comment below.

Marc Miller

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

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Job Search	Career Pivot/Change	Career Success	Careers in the 2nd Half of Life
Social Media	Multi-Generational Workplace	Networking	Entrepreneurship

Being Bold is the Pathway to Success

Being Bold is not as Risky as You Think

Being Bold on LinkedIn

Being Bold Can Bring Criticism

Making a Career Pivot is not Easy but Being Bold is the Pathway to Success

Do You Need Help With ...

Emails Ignored?

Too Many Emails

I Don’t Have Their Telephone Number!

Is My Phone Number Out There?

Do You Need Help With ...

Seeking Respect in Interviews

Salespeople

Interviewing with Unfamiliar People

Probing Questions

Closing the Interview

Pay Attention to You

Do You Need Help With ...

I am a Square Peg and Over 60 Years of Age

Square Peg Problem

The Closet Introvert

Musical Technologist

Creative Technologist

Square Pegs and Financial Requirements in the 2nd Half of Life

Do You Need Help With ...

Top 10 Career Pivot Posts

#1 – Dealing with that Directionless Feeling [Updated]

#2 – Free Version of LinkedIn is Dead. May It Rest in Peace.

#3 – What are Your Natural Talents and How to Find Them? [Updated]

#4 – Strategic Networking Playbook – Who, How and When!

#5 – 10 Career Experts Share Their 2017 Baby Boomer Predictions

#6 – What is Your Current Salary? How to Answer! [Updated]

#7 – 8 Ways Older Job Seekers Invite Age Unconscious Bias on Social Media [Guest Post]

#8 – Do Your Skills Match Your Interests in Your Career [Updated]

#9 – 10 No-Fail Ways to Get Your Resume by Resume Screeners [Guest Post]

#10 – A Near Fatal Bicycle Accident Was Actually a Mammoth Gift

Conclusions

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