Jill MacFadyen's Career Coach Blog

THE NETWORKING BRIEF OR HANDBILL–AGAIN

Jill — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:57:30 +0000

It has been a few months since I wrote about the Networking Brief or Handbill. I ran across a sample that I thought would interest you. See the link at the bottom and also go back to the earlier blog to check out the earlier samples—one for banking and one for technology. Use these or the one linked today as guides as you create yours.

As a reminder, the Networking Brief is used when you want to tell people what you are looking for in your next step. Don’t expect them to take out a piece of paper and jot down salient points. It is your job to let them know with your personal commercial and with your Networking Brief. This leaves the guesswork out of the game. The Networking Brief lets the recipient know exactly how you can be helped. It is a one-page document that is easier for the recipient to keep on hand.

A Networking Brief includes:

your contact information,
short summary (similar to your resume),
several bullet points about why you are good,
types of positions and industries you are interested in,
connections you hope to make
names of target companies if relevant (and which this sample so nicely shows).

A Networking Brief is not a resume. It does not include names of companies you have worked for or the names of your schools. I would like you to use a filter when writing it. That filter is: does the recipient need this information to connect me with the people who can be most helpful to me?

Please use the links to see the new sample. Remember, this might not be the right style for you but I did want you to see it and I do thank the person who has allowed me to share it. See Network brief john jones final

QUOTE

“More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time, yet no MBA courses are given on the subject.” Peter Drucker

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories. Once a month, I will choose one commenter to contact for a free one half hour coaching session.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

What We Can Control—an Ode to My New Stapler

Jill — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:47:59 +0000

We can’t always make the big changes we want, but we can control little things. Even those small changes can be very helpful. I heard a coach say that it is easier to move an object if it is already in motion no matter how slow. Think of parallel parking your car. It is easier to turn the wheel if your car is in even slow motion.

I made two little changes over the weekend that make me happy but as my one son says, “You are so easily amused.” I bought a new stapler. It staples two and one half times the amount of paper and with a gentle push of one finger. The death grip I had to use on the old one and the number of times that the staple didn’t catch were a waste of time and energy. I also bought a new shredder. I now can shred 15 sheets instead of 4 and I don’t have to empty the shredded paper into a bag and then vacuum up the paper crumbs.

These two items gave me the energy to redo my filing cabinets. I have been avoiding this project even though the filing mess was making my life more difficult. So I ask you:

What have you been avoiding that has made your life more complicated?
What are you tolerating?
What small change can you make to ease your life?
If there is something in your life that you can’t change, how can you change your perspective about it in order to free yourself to move forward?

QUOTE

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. ~Victor Frankl

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

ABOUT OUR GUEST BLOGGER—ESTHER CHOY

Jill — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 12:52:56 +0000

I had asked Esther to speak at one of the Kellogg Alumni trainings that I was facilitating and was impressed with her work. I asked her to share her START Method with you.

Esther Choy has been a professional advisor and coach for over ten years. She is the Founder and Director of the Leadership Story Lab, a social enterprise dedicated to helping MBA applicants, career switchers, and military veterans to uncover personal leadership insights through storytelling techniques. Esther was also an adjunct faculty member for Northwestern University’s Undergraduate Leadership Program from 2001 – 2005. She has served as an admissions officer for Chicago Booth and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. She is an expert in helping clients mine their life experiences and turn them into compelling leadership stories. Please see her START method, which follows.

The START Method

In interviewing or networking situations, far too many people talk on and on without ever arriving at any relevant points. How do you tell engaging stories that deliver the essential message and captivate others? You follow the START method.

START stands for:

S – Situation. Share a situation you have chosen to address a question or deliver a particular message.

Set the scene.
Problem definition.
Provide a hook.

T – Task. Describe the tasks involved in the situation.

Introduce other characters in the story.
Outline “to-dos” by the playbook.

A – Action. Outline actions you took to address the situation.

Shift focus back to you.
Demonstrate independent thinking
Describe interactions with others.

R – Result. Delineate the results because of the action.

Provide quantifiable data whenever possible.
Do not categorically rule out a story with negative results.

T – Take-away. What you would like your evaluators to conclude about you.[MCP4]

Do not assume that your audience will automatically draw the conclusion you want them to make. You need to be explicit with the take-away.
Make the connection between the take-away and the organization you want to be part of crystal clear.
A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Take-away is the most crucial part of the story. The end is what people will remember because of the “Recency Effect.” This is the part where you want to make sure that you have a clear message about who you are, what you can offer to your audience, and why they should care.

The START method is an adaptation of the well-known STAR method for behavioral interviews. Based on my experience as an admissions officer and consultant, too many applicants miss the opportunity to tell an engaging leadership story. And even for those who are able to tell good stories, they fail to establish clear take-aways about their candidacies.

When you are structuring your stories, it is a good idea to follow a “flow” so that you can stay on point. The START method helps you organize your information and tell your story fluidly.

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Words Will Never Hurt Me

Jill — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:20:14 +0000

Sticks and stones will break my bones

But words will never hurt me.

WRONG! Broken bones will heal. Bruises will fade, but words do hurt. They can go “viral” in our infinitely complex brains, reside there and monitor and affect our behavior without our even being aware of their impact. These words might not have been meant to hurt or perhaps they were but in either case we humans give them undue credence. In my coaching practice, I have noticed that people are guided by words from the past and that unexamined these words are limiting. I have also noticed that these words that live on in our fertile brains are usually the negative ones. We humans tend to remember the negative more than the positive.

We are particularly vulnerable when we are in transition or when we are in a poor work environment. This vulnerability makes us more susceptible to rejection and critical words. I invite you to think of the most recent time when someone’s words bothered you. I suggest you examine the effect of the words and then make a conscious decision to live without the cloud of those words. Think of what you believe you have heard and then how you have interpreted it. In the words of my friend and fellow coach, Teri Conrad (www.thewinnerwithin.com), “what are you making up about that?”

MY APOLOGIES AND GOING FORWARD

I apologize for the break in blogging. I enjoyed a short vacation, and took the class mentioned below. I am currently taking a class on Moodle in order to put job search lesson plans on my web site. I have been warned that there will be 4 to 6 hours of homework a week, so future blog postings might be sporadic. If so, just check out some earlier postings. Another suggestion is to check out the quote section of www.careercoachjill.com. For the quote that comes up, choose to live for a day or a week as if that quote were true for you. See what changes in perception this brings about in your life.

SOME NEWS TO SHARE

In July, I attended a class run by the VIA Institute on Character. In particular we discussed the VIA Character Strengths, including the work of positive psychology leaders Martin Seligman, PhD, author of Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness, and David Cooperrider, well known for his work in Appreciative Inquiry. The emphasis was on knowing your character strengths/values and then putting them to work in your life. The benefits of positive assessment are “a shift from what’s wrong to what’s strong.” (Duckworth, Steen & Seligman, 2005)

QUOTE

“To thine own self be true.” Shakespeare.

My question is, “How can we be true to ourselves if we are living a life bound by someone else’s words?”

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

OUR DREAM JOBS

Jill — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 19:02:52 +0000

Sometimes we humans have an all-or-nothing mindset. However, because we don’t get the job we want right now doesn’t mean that we have to give up the dream. Three years ago, I met with a client only once but have remembered him all this time because of his dream job which was unusual and for which he didn’t have the industry experience. I read his name in the paper recently as having this dream job, so I e-mailed him. He replied that it took him 20+ years but he never gave up. I want to point out that he did get his dream job in a still-healing economy and did work at a Plan B job in the interim. So if you can’t have your dream job now, what can you have?

If you interview for a great job and do not get it, ask yourself what that job represented to you and seek out those qualities in alternative jobs. Don’t let one “no” get in your way.
If you have a job that is not the dream job, perhaps you can gain satisfaction by volunteering in an area where you dream of working.
If you don’t know what your dream job is, you can do informational interviewing to see what others like about their jobs.
If you do not have a job at all, perhaps you can find temporary, contract or consulting work. It is something to put on your resume and bring in some income. It can also be fun.

You might also ask yourself why you work at all. When I was a single parent and the sole support of three children, what I did was not as important as why I did it. This allowed me to have what others might have thought were some pretty crummy jobs and still feel good. The jobs themselves were not the focus. So, unless the “why” puts unbearable pressure on you, go back to the basics and think of why you work.

QUOTE

“Love the One You’re With” is a 1970 single by folk rocker Stephen Stills. Stills wrote the song after being inspired by the tag line — “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with,” which was a frequent remark by musician Billy Preston.

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

THE RULES OF THE GAME

Jill — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:05:41 +0000

If you don’t know the rules of the game, it is difficult to win. When I was a child I thought my cousin Maggie was perfect. She never did anything or said anything to make me feel that way. It was just my view. As young children we were invited to a wedding shower for an obscure relative. There were endless childish games, one of which was to tie a toilet paper bow behind your back. Maggie tied a perfect bow and I tied my bow the fastest. I was clueless about the game’s objective (which was to tie the best-looking bow) and so used my favorite attribute, speed. Maggie probably used her favorite attribute, which was excellent execution. When I lost and Maggie won, it was due to our differences in our view of the game’s purpose. However, since I didn’t realize that my interpretation of the game was faulty, I interpreted it that Maggie was better than I.

What is your interpretation of the job search “game”?
Is it accurate?
Does it help you?
If your search has been frustrating, who can you talk to check out your interpretations?
What is your favorite job search tool?
What other tools might you be ignoring?
Do you understand the “rules” of the game? (FYI, those sometimes unwritten rules do include networking.)
Are you incorrectly taking losses to heart?

QUOTE

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” Albert Einstein

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

So You Didn’t Get the Offer

Jill — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:56:55 +0000

It’s painful. You frequently don’t get considered for a job unless you match the company’s qualifications almost exactly. But this time, you were a perfect match for the qualifications. You got the interview and felt that there was nice chemistry between you and the hiring manager. And yet you still didn’t get the job. You hear about the person who did land the job and realize he/she was not as qualified as you. You start to doubt yourself.

There is another possibility. You might have been so perfect for the job that it scared the hiring manager off. In my early years of recruiting, I was asked to find candidates with an undergraduate degree in engineering, an MBA from a good school and a personality for sales. I presented ten candidates to the hiring manager who just couldn’t make up his mind. He wanted just one more and then promised to make a decision. I threw in a “ringer” with no MBA and no particular personality for client-facing work. If you guessed the ringer was the one hired, you are correct. In thinking about it later, I wondered if the hiring manager, “Jed,” wanted someone who would never get promoted over his own head and who would make Jed look good by comparison. Sometimes you are not hired by the Jeds of the world and it has nothing to do with you or your qualifications.

QUOTE

Alice from Alice in Wonderland, “It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.”

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

A LITTLE RESEARCH

Jill — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:05:15 +0000

Someone I know received a call to interview for her dream job the same day her resume was received. What was her secret? It wasn’t good luck; it was research and follow-through. This Creative Person found the job she wanted, looked up the hiring manager on LinkedIn, saw that the hiring manager had a blog, read the blog. One of the hiring manager’s entries suggested sending your resume via Federal Express to make it stand out. Creative Person did so and received a call the next day.

What stands out for me in this example is not the sending of the resume via Federal Express but the steps leading to reading the blog and following the hiring manager’s advice.

By the way, as a recruiter I didn’t like receiving resumes via Federal Express because it made me feel guilty that the person needed to spend money to get my attention. Also I rarely saw a correlation between the expenditure and the sender’s match to our job posting. However, in the above-mentioned situation it did work. I credit Creative Person’s ingenuity and follow-through.

QUOTE

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” – Dr. Seuss

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

JOB SEARCH LIKE A TENNIS RACKET

Jill — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 19:02:13 +0000

Tennis rackets have a sweet spot—the optimal place for the ball to strike for success. However, some of the most difficult shots to return are those tennis balls hit from odd places on the racket. It might have been unintended by the player but still successful. I had one tennis coach who jokingly called that getting your full money’s worth out of the racket. I suggest that if you are only looking for the sweet spot in your job search, you might not be getting “all your money’s worth” out of what you have to offer. You might need to try something different. Some suggestions:

Accountability groups—the synergy of the group drives you to action. Find one in a local job club or form one with others you know who are in search.
Boards of directors—even if only in your head. Instead of interpreting job search results by yourself, do it from the filter of a pre-chosen group of people you admire. You can even arrange for an actual board of directors to give you advice and feedback.
Use family members and friends as an accountability group by e-mailing them where you are in your search. Outline highs, lows and areas where you are trying to improve. This not only holds you accountable but it keeps their inquiries from making you uncomfortable. It puts you in charge.

QUOTE

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

LIMITING BELIEFS

Jill — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 12:57:54 +0000

Quite some time ago I worked with a union employee who was making a decision to take a buyout package from his soon-to-be-former employer. He had a chance at what he considered his ideal job, the gun counter at Cabela’s. He had not interviewed in decades. We practiced interviewing and as he stood up to leave he said that this was going to go well as long as he didn’t have to touch a cash register. I insisted he sit down because I knew that in retail working the cash register would be mandatory. He explained that when he was 16 he worked for a small retail outlet with the owner’s nephew. He believed that the nephew had stolen money. When the cash register came up short, my client got fired for theft. And as a result, this big burly man wouldn’t touch a cash register. If he hadn’t blurted out the “as long as I don’t have to touch a cash register” comment, this hidden belief would never have surfaced and he might have missed out on potential and enjoyable jobs.

What jobs are you avoiding? Is there a “real reason” or is it a limiting belief? Is that limiting belief along the lines of “oh, I wouldn’t be any good at that?”

As this man confused cash registers with getting fired, what negative consequences have you mistakenly fused with actions?

See if you can unearth some limiting beliefs, dust them off and have the light of day filter some reason into them.

QUOTES

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” Buddha

“Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.” Mahatma Gandhi