Job Search

Instead of thinking about yourself in 2012, considering thinking about others.  Look for ways to help them get what they need.

Whether young or old, experienced or not - one area many people need help with these days is career.  

My client Linda inspired me recently by really going out of her way to help someone land her first job.  In Linda's own words, "I feel really strongly about people trying to help each other find their next stop along the career highway." And it shows!

To help someone in 2012, here's what you can learn from Linda:

• Be open to informational interviews. -- Linda spent time with a career newcomer to explain both a high level understanding of the work environment as well as a practical and realistic idea of what is expected in the position. Linda went even further than just talking about her work, and gave a full tour of her workspace complete with explanations of how all the pieces and team roles fit together.  Having this kind of bird's eye view gave an inspiring context to the job seeker and an ability to see a career path. 
• Share your network. -- Linda offered up additional connections that would help expand the network of the job seeker.  She made an introduction to a former colleague who had been in the business a long time so that the newcomer could hear firsthand what it's like actually doing the job day in and day out. For many this inside scoop is the perfect research to know if a job will fit their talents and personality--invaluable insight to know before going into an interview.
• Offer to help going forward. -- Linda asked to be kept posted on the person's job hunt and offered to role play on the phone for any upcoming interviews.  Given that she used to interview people for the job the person was going after, this kind of support was extremely valuable.  It's important to recognize that when people like Linda invest their time, they want to know how things progress with your search so be sure to keep them up-to-date at least monthly.

What ways have you helped others or been helped?  I'd love to hear your story.  Here's to a New Year where you give (and get) all the help you need on the career highway! 

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” --Kahlil Gibran

(Photo courtesy of Flickr user Asenat29.)

The skills mismatch is a huge issue in the current jobs crisis. 

Jobs are more complex these days requiring cross-functional skills or specialized knowledge.  Education is lacking for many unemployed workers and for those who are educated, the push has been towards non-technical skills creating a dearth of skilled workers in the trades.  Schools and business aren't aligned especially in vocational and technical areas.  So even students who want to train lack the facilities to become "job-ready" graduates.

Thousands of jobs are going begging because employers can’t find skilled employees. So what's an unemployed worker to do?  On the 4th Annual Job Action Day sponsored by Quintessential Careers, the good news is that there are smart actions you can take.  Having worked with individuals of all levels and backgrounds, I've found the skills mismatch can be a mindset issue and not reality.  

Here are three ways to bridge the skill gap: 

1. Most people take their strengths & talents for granted & don't tout them enough.  Ask those who know you well, "What are my best skills, abilities and talents?"  Take to heart what you hear.  When something comes easily to you, don't mistakenly assume it comes easily for everyone.    
2. Skills are transferable from job to job, employer to employer and industry to industry - more than most people realize.  My client Steve found his skills as a marketing executive in the music industry were key in helping  him successfully launch his custom furniture business. Now Hill Haus Woodworks is not only bringing him joy and fulfillment but a paycheck as well.  
3. Sometimes we gain skills we'd rather not use.  Rather than settle, Soul Search to determine those skills you most want to be using in your career -be honest.  For Stanford graduate Jessica DuLong, working in an office didn't satisfy her soul.  Yearning to work with her hands, she transitioned to working as a fireboat engineer and is now an advocate for putting American hands back to work in the trades. 

With the myriad of reasons for the skills gap, it can feel as if it's out of the job seeker's control to bridge the distance.  But you have a lot more skills than you give yourself credit for.  Take these three actions on Job Action Day and you'll be ready to go after your dream job with the perfect match of skills and passion!  

**Reinforcing the Job Action Day 2011 "Skill Up, Start Up, Speak Up" message is this group of bloggers dedicating blog posts on or around Job Action Day 2011 to the event. The first four represent the Quintessential Careers family of blogs:

-- Quintessential Careers Blog, Job Action Day 2011: Skill Up, Start Up, Speak Up, http://tinyurl.com/7rtm5rb.

-- Career Doctor Blog, #Job Action Day 11: Speak Up: It Takes a Village to Turn a Jobs Crisis Around, http://tinyurl.com/843qmje.

-- Quintessential Resume and Cover Letter Tips Blog, #JobActionDay11: Skill Up, Start Up, Speak Up: Expert Tips to Fire Up Your Job Search, http://tinyurl.com/87svjmd.

-- A Storied Career, #JobActionDay11: A Start-Up Story of Triumphing Over Job Loss, http://tinyurl.com/7q7kvqb

-- Deborah Brown-Volkman, The Career Coach's Blog, http://tinyurl.com/3b2jda5.

-- Susan Guarneri, Career Assessment Goddess, The Start-Up Mindset: 10 Tips to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone, http://tinyurl.com/658dzkp.

-- Nancy Miller, Job Action Day 2011, Life Work News, Skill up for Employment, http://tinyurl.com/83tpkml.

-- Hannah Morgan, Career Sherpa, Start Up: Building A More Stable Career,

http://careersherpa.net/start-up-building-a-more-stable-career/.

--Miriam Salpeter, Keppie Careers, Job Action Day 2011-- How to confidently drive your career bus where you want to go, http://tinyurl.com/7h33oax.

--Meg Guiseppi, Today is Job Action Day 2011!, http://tinyurl.com/6v2hfl4  

-- Deborah Shane, Deborah Shane Toolbox, Raise Your Career Metabolism, Bring Your A+ Game

and Develop More Magnetism, http://tinyurl.com/7rp4gc5.

-- Wendy Terwelp, Rock Your Career, http://rockyourcareer.wordpress.com/.

See http://www.jobactionday.com/2011-Job-Action-Day.html for the complete, updated list of Job Action Day 2011 Blog posts.

I'm excited to share a follow-up post from social media career expert Miriam Salpeter.  Miriam was a recent guest on Making a Living with Maggie sharing tips on social networking for career success.  

Read below for her tips on how to leverage the latest social media tool, Google+...

When Maggie and I talked about social networking on her show, Google+ was very new on the social media scene, and we didn’t get to discuss how it might be useful for job seekers to explore. Hopefully, you’ve taken some of the advice we shared about LinkedIn to heart, but don’t forget – a well-rounded social media strategy (including a variety of networks) may help you achieve your plans sooner. I was delighted to take Maggie up on her offer to share my thoughts about Google+ and how using it could help you achieve your career and business goals.

Keep in mind, there are three big reasons to use social media: 

1. To expand the number of people you know and who know you. 
2. To learn new information pertinent to your field from mentors and thought leaders, and 
3. To illustrate your expertise with a community of people who may connect you to opportunities based on learning about you and what you know. 
   

Having spent time using Google+ for the past few months, I believe this new social scene allows users to accomplish all of these goals. Like Twitter, it is an open network, allowing members to learn from and share information with people they don’t already know. Without any introductions, anyone is free to find and follow people who provide useful details and information pertinent to their careers. 

Think about the possibilities! If you are interested in learning about an industry, organization, or niche, you can search Google+ (or use one of the applications popping up to help you search it) and identify people who are actively discussing topics that not only may interest you, but could open exactly the right door you need to go through to make your next career or business move.

Another factor to consider making Google+ worth your time – Google’s hold on search traffic. Google+ will help improve your “find-ability” by connecting you via the network to an extended “social search” community. For example, when you are signed into Google+, and you use Google to search a topic, Google likely populates your search with results from members of your Google+ community. Similarly, those community members will find you when they search for topics.

Finally, whether or not you decide to actively engage on Google+, this new social network heightens the importance of your Google profile. If you use any of Google’s products (Gmail, Google voice, etc.), you have a Google profile. Some recruiters are already chomping at the bit with excitement about tapping into a new network profiling details such as work history and expertise. Since Google+ automatically populates its profile using the Google profile, many who have a skeleton description will (and should) update it with useful and detailed information, which makes Google+ a great go-to place for employers and hiring managers to search for potential candidates.

If you've got a knack for numbers and love money, you might like a career in personal finance.  To help you decide, I asked personal finance expert Manisha Thakor (guest on my SIRIUSXM radio show tomorrow 7/29/11) to share a day in the life and her experience on the job... 

Q: How did you find your passion for personal finance?

A: My interest in all things personal finance started at an early age. I grew up in a small town in Indiana where cheerleaders and football players ruled. Being nerdy and socially awkward to put it mildly... it became VERY clear to me at an early age that "a man was not going to be my financial plan".   And my real secret weapon has been my parents.  My dad has always worked in finance and I can remember being around eleven years old and him teaching me how to use his HP12C calculator to see if I contributed my lawn mowing and babysitting money to an IRA and it grew at 6%, 7%, 8%, etc. what I'd have at retirement.  When I saw the size of those figures over time, yeesh - that sure got me hooked on finance!  And my mom has long been a staunch feminist. She used to read me books like "Free To Be You And Me" and gave me gender neutral toys to play with. So stir all that together and from a young age I had both the (harsh) social realization that not all girls grow up to be princesses and the inspiration and information from my parents to learn how to provide for myself. Being financially independent has completely changed my life for the better and I want to help as many other women achieve this kind of life choice and freedom as well.

Q: Is Personal Finance growing as a field?

A: Absolutely!  During the 1980s, 1990s, and into the early part of the 2000s, as a nation we spent well beyond our means. It's going to to take quite some time for us to recover from that 25 plus year financial party.  On top of it, the financial landscape has become so much more complex of late, it's essential to get education and help to navigate the financial seas.  I see the next couple of decades as being excellent ones for individuals interested in financial planning.  It may not be as "sexy" as the investment banking and hedge fund craze of recent years... but personally as someone who spent nearly 15 years in the financial services industry in a more corporate role, I find helping real people eliminate financial stress from their lives through financial planning to be incredibly rewarding - both emotionally and financially.

Q: What does it take to be successful in a Personal Finance career?

A: For readers old enough to remember the "Weeble Wobble" toy... it had a motto "Weeble's wobble but they don't fall down."  They were an egg shaped toys weighted at the bottom so no matter how close they came to hitting their heads on the ground and wiping out when someone knocked them over... they always bounced back up. I've found that kind of tenacity in the face of the inevitable road bumps you encounter when trying to build a career or business to be the secret sauce.  A close second is to never ever forget that business at the end of the day is about people.  Like many women, I spent far too many years thinking hard work alone would move my career forward.  Now that I'm in my 40s, I realize that so much of success comes from others.  It really does take a village - so while working hard to hone your skill or craft is important, I see now that to be truly successful you also need to get to know others in your field as well. Besides, it sure makes work more fun to have real, meaningful human connections in your work.

Q: What do you recommend for people who want to follow in your footsteps? 

A: Before going out on your own, be VERY clear on how you are going to monetize your interest or skills.  I've learned the hard way that "wanting to do good" is a lousy business strategy. Much better to want to earn a fair profit in exchange for providing a truly valuable service or product.  In my case I originally thought I'd make a living helping women in more of a one-on-one level.  But as I got a better feel for market demand and my skill set I realized I would hit the sweet spot of doing work that mattered, making a profit, and enjoying life... by helping women on a one-to-many basis through my speaking, writing, teaching, and corporate work.  It's not the model I started off with but as every good MBA know... without cash, your businesses doesn't last!  Or said slightly differently, I took something I had a genuine passion for, something I've long considered almost a hobby (i.e. a deep interest in personal finance) and turned it into a solo career - but it wasn't a profitable solo career until I realized that trying to help the women of the world become economically empowered would be a much more impactful if I first demonstrated that through my own actions.  Oh - and never miss Maggie's radio show. A constant stream of career wisdom is to be found there.  That's my other key tip for others :)

Thank you Manisha for the insights and radio plug;).  For more great personal finance advice including Manisha's inspiring "Women's Financial Literacy Initiative", go to ManishaThakor.com. Through teaching, writing, and speaking about the basics of personal finance, Manisha helps working women who want to put themselves in the financial driver's seat of their lives. As she likes to say... when you "Own Your Finances" you can "Own Your Life."

(Photo courtesy or Amagill.) 

Want a career in food?  Food safety is a growing field and one where you can make a real difference.  Take Barbara Kowalcyk. The tragedy that thrust Barbara into the food safety arena was chronicled in the 2009 Academy Award-nominated documentary, Food, Inc.  

In 2001, her two-year-old son, Kevin died after eating tainted hamburger and since them Barbara has made it her job to save others from foodborne illness co-founding CFI to help America find science-based solutions to the food challenges of the 21st Century.

Barbara has provided scientific input to national and international government bodies, served on multiple national advisory committees, and received public recognition for her efforts to improve food safety. 

Hear more of Barbara's inspiring story LIVE on my SIRIUSXM show tomorrow (June 24) at 4p East/1p West SIRIUSXM 110.  Read below for her advice on careers in food safety and how you can make a living making a difference!  

• Is food safety a growing field? In general, we are facing a public health capacity crisis in the United States and globally – and, as a public health issue, food safety is no exception.  Emerging infectious diseases and food contamination – as well as the sustainability of agriculture and the safety of our water – are growing and difficult challenges.  In fact, most experts agree that zoonotic diseases – human diseases that originate in animals – will be the big health challenge for the 21st Century.  Given the global nature of our food supply and our increasingly limited resources, it is clear that, going forward, we will need a more holistic and sustainable risk-based approach to food and food safety that focuses on prevention and integrates human, animal and environmental health.  Unfortunately, we do not have enough trained people to effectively and efficiently develop and implement such a system.  With the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010, the workforce crisis will only get worse as governmental agencies and food producers across this country struggle to find qualified people to implement the new laws and regulations.  So, yes, food safety is a growing field.  

• What do you enjoy most about working in this area? I have always had a keen interest in public health.  Before I became involved in food safety, I spent nearly 10 years working in clinical research as a biostatistician.  During that time, I contributed significantly to identifying new treatment options for health issues that greatly impact people’s lives – most notably schizophrenia.  Even though my interest in food safety was born out of my family’s tragedy, I am still driven mainly by my interest in public health and knowing that every day I am making a difference.  As CEO of a national non-profit, I wear many different hats – strategic planner, scientist, researcher, educator, advocate, policy expert, writer, counselor, fundraiser, bookkeeper and travel agent.  While I enjoy the diversity of these tasks, what I enjoy most is translating science into action – whether I am talking about the importance of using a meat thermometer or by meeting with government officials to discuss the development of new public policies – so that the food on our plates is safer for us to eat.

• What's most challenging about it?  I am one of those people who loves challenges, so what I enjoy the most is probably the most challenging.  I have a master’s degree in statistics, and I am currently finishing up my doctorate in Environmental Health with a specialization in Molecular Epidemiology.  I am a data person.  While I understand the scientific process, I am not a bench scientist – but a lot of food safety is rooted in bench science.  So, the challenge for me is translating that bench science into terms that non-scientists can understand and that motivates them to change their attitudes and behaviors towards food safety.  Scientists and data people are, by nature, not the best storytellers, but that’s what is needed in order to translate science into action.  Of course, the business-side of running a non-profit is also very challenging.  I always have to be thinking two steps ahead about what we are going to do and how we are going to fund it – not an easy task in the current economic climate!

• How would you recommend someone who wanted a career change get started in this field? There are several different career paths that someone could pursue within food safety – working in government, industry, academia and NGO’s.  Most will require an advanced training in public health, microbiology or food science.  To figure out which path is best for you, I would recommend speaking with food safety professionals, taking a class in one of those areas and reading scientific journals as well as more popular literature on the subject.  There are several programs that are specifically designed for working people who want to pursue a career in food safety.  The University of Minnesota School of Public Health is recognized as one of the leaders in training public health professionals for careers in food safety.  Every May/June, they offer a three-week Summer Public Health Institute (http://www.sph.umn.edu/ce/institute/) which is specifically designed for working professionals.  Students can take just a day of classes or, by taking online classes and attending two Summer Public Health Institutes, earn a master’s of public health through University of Minnesota’s Executive Program in Public Health Practice. The Summer Public Health Institute offers a number of excellent courses in food safety from different perspectives and would provide insights as to which career path might be best for you.   Similarly, Michigan State University offers an online program where students can earn a Certificate or Masters of Science in Food Safety (http://www.online.foodsafety.msu.edu/). 

Many thanks to Barbara for sharing her advice and making it her mission to inform and educate about the dangers of foodborne illness.  What an inspiring example of a person who is "being the change they want to see in the world." To find out more and support her cause visit http://www.foodborneillness.org/.

If you have questions for Barbara or want to get advice on your own career dilemma, call into my show at 866-675-6675 - Making a Living with Maggie, Fridays 4p East/1pm West SiriusXM 110.