Peak Careers

Professional Development for Career Practitioners

Career

Who do you learn from?

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We all learn daily, from infancy to old age.  You can’t help it as your senses pull in information from a variety of sources and you have to do something with that information. For most of us, we are processing information at a variety of levels from the subliminal level, the physical level, and the intellectual level.

Polar Bear Dip 013

We live in the information age as well and have to figure how to sift through the enormous volume of information. (By the way, thanks for reading MY information here 🙂  Humans learn through instrumental & associative learning.  Instrumental is when you receive positive feedback from figuring something out on your own and associative learning is when you watch others do something and you say, “that was a good idea” or “I’m not gonna do THAT!”  (which is how my younger brothers learned watching me make mistakes).  Apparently I also have to learn that swimming in a pool in the winter is a bad idea too!

Another great way to learn is from identifying people you can model. Think about an area you need more information on, like using social media to reach clients, or new ideas on improving your orientation, whatever you need help on right now.

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Take 15 minutes this week to learn something important.

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Over the years I have watched my colleagues in many different fields and realized there are those people who attend conferences, present at conferences, network with others, read journals, and work at their own growth and knowledge base to improve services to their clients.  And then there are others who work as if they have “reached their professional pinnacle”.

It has always been important to me to be the former and maybe it is because I am a huge extrovert and I process information out loud, but I do know it has always been critical for me to learn more so I can do my job better.  This has meant reading professional journals (hard to find the time), attending conferences (hard to find the money), taking classes (hard to find the time and money), and networking with other like-minded professionals (sometimes hard in a rural state like Maine).

What I’ve found over the years is that most of the people who really WANT to do some of these activities are busy people, very busy people.  So how do you find the time?

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2080 work hours per year. Now what?

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So your career is winding down after working for 30+ years and you are thinking about ‘Where do I want to spend my time’?  Good.

But thinking about it is only a start, you really should make a plan and begin the processing of making value decisions.  Determine what is IMPORTANT to you first and then break it down into its parts.

  • Is it time with your spouse?  Children? Extended family? Friends? Alone?
  • Is it community service? If so, what does “community service” mean to you?
  • Is it how to use your leisure time? Does that mean traveling?  If so, how often? Where?
  • Is it about learning?  What does that mean to you?
  • Some kind of work?  Part time?  How much / often?
  • Leaving a legacy?

After you clean your garage and the basement (which might take a year after neglecting things for awhile) you will have about 2080 hours that you USED to spend at work and now will spend it doing SOMETHING.  Will it be I Love Lucy reruns? A couple of fishing trips? Regardless of what you decide to do,  making a plan will improve it.

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LinkedIn – Start From The Beginning

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inigomontoya

linkedinInigo Montoya in the Princess Bride (my favorite all time movie) “I am waiting for you, Vizzini! You told me to go back to the beginning… so I have.“

With over 450 million people (as of 10/2016)  on LinkedIn and most of them in professional positions, to be current you need to learn what LinkedIn is and how to leverage the power of LI in your future.

For many people I work with they really need to “go back to the beginning” and create or update their profile and know WHY they are doing it. Below is my attempt to summarize “Why LinkedIn?” and some excellent resources to support many of the sections of your profile.

Why LinkedIn?

  • Create a professional online presence
  • Identify & make connection to develop your network
  • Identify groups that are discussing topics of interest
  • Research companies
  • Find employment

You want to ensure you have presented yourself as professionally as possible.  Below are tips on how to create / improve your LI profile.

To EDIT, simply go to your Profile page and click on the “pencil” in the upper right corner.

PICTURE:  You should have a professional looking picture of yourself, preferably with a blank background. i.e. not taken at the formal dance.  Do a quick search for people on LI and see how their pictures show up for ideas.  Not too close.  Not too far away.  Not too busy in the background.    Additional information

TAG LINE / HEAD LINE:  The area immediately under your name is your ‘tag line’ or ‘head line’ and is pulled automatically from a section in your profile with your most current position. Edit this section to highlight your career interests, skills or passion.   When people search for you they see your picture and this tag line, so it is important to capture a highlight of who you are in this section. Check out other peoples profiles and generate some ideas on what might work for you.  Additional Information

Example:  Career Coach |  Passionate | Creative | Problem Solver
Example:  Higher Education Professional | Collaborator & Connector

ABOUT SECTION (formerly called SUMMARY):  Near your name and Headline, you will see a blue box “Add Profile Section”. Click on this and add ABOUT. Think of this section a bit like your cover letter.  This is an area where you can write about yourself, strengths, passions, interests, etc… that you would NOT find on a resume. Keep it short, bullets work well, and think of ways to set yourself apart from the other college students looking for employment. Additional Information.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR LINKEDIN ADDRESS:  You can change your LinkedIn address / public profile URL and can then add it to your resume, business cards, and/or in your email signature.

  • On your Profile page, look to the right column for EDIT YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE
  • In the upper right of that page is “Edit URL”
  • Simply put in your name or if your name is taken, use your name with a simple number after it. SAVE is at the bottom.
EXPERIENCE SECTION:  This is the one area that will look much like your resume.  You can add a few ‘bells & whistles’ here, but start with replicating what you have on your resume for experience.

SKILLS SECTION:  Take some time and look at people’s profiles who are working in the industry / occupation you are interested in.  Check out their SKILLS listed and if you have those same skills, add them to your section.  Think about the top skills employers are looking for as this is one of the sections RECRUITERS use to search for candidates.

 
There is so much more LI can do for you in developing your network, learning from others in groups, and finding work, but I will save some of these topics for a future blog.  
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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. 

6 Ways Finding a Job is Like Fishing

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Having just returned from a great fishing trip to Canada with my 87-year-old dad, 3 brothers, and my cousin, I could not help but make the connection between finding work and fishing.

#1. Fisherman says:  When I get to a new lake I try to find the best place to find fish.  It might be a bay with weed beds, logs, a drop-off, or other structure for fish to hide in, but I will know it when I see it.

Job Advice: If you have found success in one industry or type of work and you enjoyed it, that is a GREAT place to start looking.  You are familiar with the language and skills required and you probably know people who can help you.

Pike I caught in Canada on a fly rod

#2.  Fisherman says:  I’ve found the place, now I need to pick a lure.  I always use a Mepps spinner for pike and I love the red & white colors, so that is what I’ll start with.

 Job Advice: Initiative. It is not bad to start with what you are most comfortable with but what worked on one lake (or job search) may not work on your next one.   If you are comfortable looking for jobs on the internet, go ahead and start there for ideas.  The key is to BEGIN now and try something, anything, just DO something.

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What have YOU done to get out of your comfort zone lately?

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Mt. Whitney

20 pictures, 20 seconds to convey a message with each picture, PechaKechu is what it is called.  I performed my 1st PK in July 2013, but I don’t think it will be my last.  I showed 10 pictures from my travels in New Zealand 30 years ago 10 pictures from a 200-mile backpacking trip I took last summer.  I talked about how peaceful and simple time can be in the mountains and how difficult it is to embrace “slowing down” in my daily life. (Based on my blog from last winter, Nation on speed.)

I’ve done plenty of speeches in front of crowds and conference presentations, but this format requires a real sense of simplicity and an eye to entertainment as well.  You have to really cut out the extra, keep it simple, say less, let the pictures speak, AND have a message you are passionate about.  The rehearsal night was the night when everything changed.

And not just for me.

Each of us presenters took the courage to try this presentation style and each of us received great feedback from each other that was positive and compassionate.  We all knew what it takes to get up and bare your soul in a VERY different format that puts you out of your comfort zone no matter who you are.

A young lady named Amelia introduced herself to the group as a college student from Ohio who summers in Maine.  She spoke about body language and how 70+% of communication is conveyed in body language.  She had too many pictures about faces and not enough about all the other types of body language.  She was not keeping up with her slides as well.  She was not the only one who struggled with the timing as well.

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