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TED Talks for Career Practitioners

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TED Talks for Career Practitioners

TED Talks for career practitioners

Wouldn’t it be great if you could bring in a person who could articulate and inspire your clients through one of the following issues?

  • Creating confidence
  • Finding your passion / Being authentic
  • Introverts in an extroverted world
  • Conversation skills for networking
  • Perseverance in the job search
  • Fear or anxiety in the career change

Well, you can bring in experts by using TED Talks for career practitioners. I surveyed career coaches/practitioners recently and asked what their favorite TED Talks were and why. By utilizing these TED Talk outside experts, you can find another way to get your point across when you see something your client needs. One survey participant even sends TED Talks to some of her clients the night before an interview for motivation. Here are a few experts who can help you when you are working with your clients.

Creating Confidence

Hands down Amy Cuddy’s Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are is recommended to help students/clients who are feeling nervous before interviews and confidence building in general. The power poses can be very powerful before an interview and her suggestions for body positioning are important as well. Also, she refers to a study she performed regarding mock interviews and accentuates that the interviewers were impressed with eye contact, genuineness  / authentic, presence, enthusiasm.
21 minutes. 51 million+ views. Watch now

Finding Your Passion / Being Authentic

What They Don’t Teach You About Career Fulfillment in School  | Ryan Clements. He talks about the roundabout way one gets to their career(s). Ryan’s passion is empowering others to find fulfilling work, and living their “inner greatness”.
16:32 minutes. 135,000+ views Watch now

Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling | Emilie Wapnick. Have a client that tells you they have many passions and interests? Emilie talks about multipotentialites superpowers. Author, entrepreneur and artist, Wapnick was blessed with so many interests that she was unable to pick just one.
12:52 minutes 430,000+ views Watch now

“How to know your life purpose in 5 minutes“ | Adam Leipzig. At a class reunion, he talked with the 25% of the people who were actually happy in their work. They knew their life purpose because they knew (1) who they were (2) what they did (3) who they did it for (4) what those people wanted or needed, and (5) how they changed as a result of what you do. Make sure you watch to the end.
10:33 minutes. 13 million + views Watch now

Stop Searching For Your Passion | Terri Trespicio. She conveys in her TED Talk, “To live a life full of meaning and value you don’t follow your passion, your passion follows you.”
10:46 minutes 4 million + views Watch now

How To Find & Do Work You Love | Scott Dinsmore. Scott’s mission is to change the world by helping people find what excites them and build a career around the work only they are capable of doing. He is a career change strategist whose demoralizing experience at a Fortune 500 job launched his quest to understand why 80% of adults hate the work they do, and more importantly, to identify what the other 20% were doing differently. He shares three surprisingly simple practices for finding and doing work you love.
17:56 minutes. 5 million + views Watch now

Helping  Introverts

The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking  | Susan Cain. This is a phenomenal talk that inspires both introverts and extroverts. She helps us understand that introverts are creative, reflective people who can be great leaders and applicable across industries and backgrounds.
19:04 minutes. 8 million + views Watch now

Communication  skills (networking)

How to Speak So People Want to Listen | Julian Treasure provides tips on becoming a good conversationalist. The 7 deadly sins of speaking are introduced which keep us from being good conversationalists. And then introduces 4 foundations to stand on called HAIL (to greet or acclaim enthusiastically) H – Honesty  A- Authenticity I- Integrity L- Love.
9:58. 20 million + views. Watch now

Intrigue – How to Create Interest and Connect with Anyone| Sam Horn

In this interactive TEDx talk, Intrigue Expert Sam Horn shows how to earn the favorable interest and respect of customers, investors and decision-makers by finding out what’s important to them …. and focusing on that FIRST. I particularly liked her point regarding elevator pitches at about the 10-minute mark.
17:44 minutes. 368,000+ views Watch now

Perseverance in the job search

How to get back to work after a career break | Carol Fishman Cohen offers inspiration and advice for returning to work after an extended career break.
12 minutes. 110,000+ views Watch now

I got 99 problems… palsy is just one | Maysoon Zayid. So funny and real! She tackles disability bias with such warmth but her points are clear and spot on.
14.13 minutes. 5 million + views Watch now

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance |Angela Duckworth talks about why IQ isn’t the only thing separating successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success.
6:09 minutes. 16 million + views Watch now

Fear or anxiety in the career change

Why Your Critics Aren’t The Ones Who Count |  Brené Brown. This is a great talk for people who feel scared, anxious or vulnerable because of a career change. It often helps them understand that being vulnerable is part of growing and part of learning.
22 minutes. 2 million + views Watch now

Miscellaneous  TED Talks for Career Practitioners

The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain | Sarah-Jayne Blakemore talks about the mysterious workings of the teenage brain. Useful for career coaches, career teachers etc to understand the need to engage the limbic system.
14:26 minutes. 377,000+ views  Watch now

Why 30 is not the new 20 | Meg Jay. Following is a quote from one of the survey responders. “As a 20-something, I listen to this talk a couple of times a year to remind myself of growth opportunities that I should take advantage of now. I’ve also recommended it to other 20-somethings who were feeling stuck in their career exploration process. It’s a very relatable talk with a lot of great takeaways.”
14:49 minutes. 2 million views Watch now

What Jobs Will Look Like in the Future | Andrew McAfee suggests that, yes, probably, droids will take our jobs — or at least the kinds of jobs we know now. In this far-seeing talk, he thinks through what future jobs might look like, and how to educate coming generations.
14:25 minutes. 851,000+ views Watch now

I hope you found these TED Talks for career practitioners helpful for your work with clients. If you have others you recommend, please share them here. It used to be that you could only see this caliber of professionals if you attended conferences. Now they are just a click away.

See last years TED Talks for career practitioners recommendations.

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Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more.

Top Industries on LinkedIn

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What are the Top Industries on LinkedIn?

I wanted to know what the top industries on LinkedIn were for Chapter 4 in my book, A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Top Industries on LinkedClients Create Their Next Move. (Spring 2019). Unfortunately, I could not find anything more recent than in 2016.

So in February 2019, my virtual assistant (Patte) and I used the LinkedIn search function to look up every industry on LinkedIn and record the numbers of people in that industry.

There were a few surprises as I really thought I knew what I’d find. The biggest surprises were how high the construction field (#3) and the automotive industry (#9) were on the list. I could see that some people indeed were front line people like carpenters and mechanics, but the numbers were much larger for the owners, sales staff, human resources, and I.T. That makes sense as they are building their networks to provide more services. [Read more…] about Top Industries on LinkedIn

A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren

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Impressive insight into our economy and a personal philosophy of fighting for the middle class and underserved.

Elizabeth Warren’s book peels back the greed and money that is ruining our country and taking over politics. Her work at developing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau helps protect consumers every day now. Before CFPB was created big banks and CEO’s held all the cards. Needless to say, lots of big banks are not happy with her.  The trouble is, they still hold many of the cards.

I feel better knowing she is in the Senate fighting for the common person. I feel sorry for the Jamie Dimon’s of the world who ripped off consumers through banking scams and caused economic collapse and then got a 74% increase in pay raise to $20 million in 2013 when he (and others like him) really should have gone to jail.

[Read more…] about A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren

Clients Stuck in the Job Search? Now What Do You Do?

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Do you have clients who are stuck in the job search?

stuck in a job search

I’m sure you do. Here is one way to help nudge them and hopefully create some excitement to move forward. When I have a client who is stuck in the job search I have them create a list of 50 companies they could see themselves working for or would like to explore working for them.

Oftentimes, clients feel overwhelmed with where to start, confused, can’t see themes to explore in their job search, or for whatever reason, are just plain stuck in the job search process. By having them create a list of 50 companies to explore, they can then begin doing some research, reaching out to their network, and exploring…and it feels like forward progress. Because it is.

LIST 50 COMPANIES

The goal is to simply list 50 companies and not spend more than 5 minutes or so on any one site. Encourage them to trust their instincts and let “intentional serendipity” be their guide. “Intentional serendipity” is taking action, doing something like exploring the below website, and then be open to discovering something by accident.

Start by exploring sites similar to Best Places To Work in Maine. Most states, regions, and even cities will often have this list. I like people to begin here because most of these companies will have positive work cultures. Many clients I work with are very unhappy with their company culture or their boss and it can be difficult for them to see the positive in their career search.

Other great sites to check out might be GlassDoor.com, Indeed.com (who’s hiring), and search ‘best companies to work ____’ and see what suggestions come up below that search. My search came up with ‘best companies to work remote, part-time, and freelance’ and many others. Trust those instincts. They kept cave men alive over the years.

Go through their LinkedIn 1st connections and look for people who might be doing work that interests your client. See where these people are working, or worked. Of course, they can add any company they know of that interests them.

The goal is to get 50 names of companies, as quickly as possible, on to a list.

NOW RATE THEM

After producing a list of 50 companies go back and rate them:

1 – I really like these

2 – Seems like a nice place to work

3 – I’d like to know more about these companies

Rate between 10-15 companies a #1 and 10-15 companies a #2.

They now have 10-15 companies #1’s to start with and do additional research. Help them set a goal of researching at least ____ number of their #1’s each day or week.  By limiting the number it becomes manageable.

BEGIN RESEARCHING

Start with the #1’s and go to their website and social media sites. In a career journal begin taking notes. At this point, try not to spend more than 15 minutes on each company.

  • What industry is this in?
  • Which values align with them?
  • Are they growing? Declining in their field?
  • What jobs interest them at this company?
  • Who in their LinkedIn network is a 1st or 2nd connection, that works there currently or worked there in the past? [Go to the search box, don’t put any text in, just ENTER. Click on “all filters”]
  • Do any of these companies have anything in common? Is there a theme?

The goal is to identify the top few companies to begin further exploration. Maybe the top 3-5 so they can get some momentum going and to not be stuck in the job search anymore.

STRATEGIC CONVERSATIONS

Now have them reach out to people who work there or did in the past. Ask for 10-15 minutes of their time. This is always easier if they are ‘warm connections’ like 1st connections or people they know. Have them start simple and stay focused.

  • What do/did they like about working there?
  • Was there anything they didn’t like about the company? Or wished had been different?
  • Is/was there an opportunity to grow?
  • Where would your client’s skill set fit into the company? (Of course hopefully, this is one of the areas you are working with them on articulating)
  • Are there similar companies they could recommend?
  • Are there any people they should talk to and can they connect them?

After this, they can continue to all their #2’s and #3’s on their list of 50. The key is to break the process down into something manageable that helps them gain an understanding of what the options are out there. This will also help them focus their efforts. When you have 1000’s of companies to explore it is hard to begin. By narrowing down the list they can then prioritize. Once they identify top companies they can start paying attention to them on social media, follow them, and continue to learn more about opportunities.

It really is about effort and forward progress. “Action” is where intentional serendipity happens and sometimes it is the little things that can help someone get unstuck in their job search.

What do you do to help your clients who are
stuck in the job search?

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Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more.

Peak Careers - Professional Development for Careers

The ONE Thing by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan

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The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results.

This book was recommended to me by my business coach (Thanks Mandy) and also was recommended reading from my December interview on books (Watch now). 

Yep, it is a great book at focusing your efforts and energy to ONE thing that is the most important thing to you now. Each day. Each moment, before you begin doing things, you stop and determine the “ONE thing that you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary.

It is filled with activities and thought-provoking questions to get you to realize that doing less is actually doing more. This is focused on your work but can be applied to personal, spiritual, school, worship, your community, and all areas of your life.

My ONE thing right now is to finish my book, A Field Guide for Career Practitioners, and I begin every day with 1-2 hours of writing, editing, or other book-related things. I create a ‘to do’ list of three things and this is always #1. The author would have you do a ‘to do’ list of one (1) thing and allot 4 hours to it each day. Not sure I can juggle all that needs to get done by giving it 4 hours, but I like his idea…keep it simple, focused, and say no to anything during that time which does not support your ONE thing.

Throughout the book are links to additional resources, like this to help you discover your ONE thing. (Here’s one) and I have yet to explore those but I can only assume they will be helpful.

If you feel scattered and not sure how to rein in the ‘tsunami of information’ in your life, check this book out.

INTERVIEW: My Three Words to Guide Me in 2019

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Another Peak-Careers Interview

Three Words to Guide Me in 2019:
Why, How, and What for..

I have been choosing three words to guide me now since 2016 and my guest has been doing it for a few more years. Learn Why, How, we choose words and then listen to the words we both choose and the meaning they bring to us.

My guest today is Scott Woodard. Scott is an executive and career coach. (see full bio below)

What we will explore today:

  • Why do you choose 3 words to guide you?
  • How do you do it?
  • What are you 3 words and why?

Look for my blogs on this same topic at 3-Words Blog

Scott Woodard

Scott is an executive and career coach. He frames issues so people can take action and achieve their goals. He works with individuals and teams to see new patterns and create alternative ways to move forward. Scott has coached people from all walks of life: corporate executives and elected officials challenged to transform their organizations; Boomers trying to determine the “second acts” of their life, and new graduates starting out in their first career.

You can reach him at [email protected]
Learn more about him at www.scottwoodardcoaching.com

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly career news email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. https://peak-careers.com

Peak Careers - Professional Development for Careers