Managing Your Career Growth

Managing Your Career Growth

Utilizing the resources available in today’s job market can be overwhelming, to say the least. Want to create a resume? There are over 100,000 web pages designed “specifically” for you. Same with interviewing, dressing for success, asking for raises, and just about anything else you can think of. And all of the sites have “give away” information, services you can purchase, products for sale… you can spend your entire life just learning about what is available, and how people think you should manage your career. Unfortunately, educating yourself is just the FIRST STEP.

You will never know all there is to know – about any subject. The important thing is to get sufficient information to make an educated decision. You don’t have to be an expert on interviewing to have a successful interview. Likewise, your resume doesn’t have to be a showpiece. With the onset of the internet, resumes have become nearly obsolete as a way of introducing yourself to prospective employers. In today’s market, an employer can find literally hundreds of resumes on line that say exactly what they want. We say that resumes today are good for only two things: to disqualify for a position, and for the hiring authority to take notes on during the interview. While a resume is still a necessary tool in the job-seeking process, it should not be a major focus of your time and attention.

So what should you be focused on? We recommend that you do what we call the “Love to Do Exercise” which is a part of our PowerPlan System. In this exercise you list what you love to do, and identify who benefits from you doing that. Then we set up a structure of conversations with those people – asking them what resources they are looking for to reach the next level of success. Then we look to see how you can provide those resources.

More, more, more…
The job search game is a game of numbers – it used to be that for a hundred resumes you’d get 10 responses and 1 or 2 interviews. Now it’s no longer the number of resumes you send out, but the number of actual conversations you have with real people – hiring authorities – about what they’re looking for and what you can provide. We recommend a minimum of five conversations every day; and identify five new people you want to talk to. And be sure to keep the names and numbers in a way that is easy to find them again – this is going to become your database of people who benefit from the services you provide!

Managing Your Conversations
It is important that you manage the conversations that you have, from initial contact through the results and follow up. We use a spreadsheet solution, amazingly enough called the Conversation Manager, which tracks the name of the individual, company name, their position with the company, their contact information, the notes of the conversation itself, the results produced out of the conversation, the next action to be taken, and the date you want to take that action.

Overall, looking for a job today can be challenging, but the challenge can be FUN! Enjoy meeting new people, increasing your Rolodex, and increasing the circle of people who know who you are, and what you are up to. The larger your circle, the more opportunities will come your way.

And of course, we recommend you have a career coach to support you in REACHING YOUR GOALS & REALZING YOUR DREAMS! For more information on our Career Coaching and Business Growth Solutions, visit www.empowered-enterprises.com today!