With 2008 rolling in at midnight, a number of people are talking about resolutions for the new year. Some are sharing their own resolutions. Some are offering the advice to make very few resolutions because no one ever keeps them anyway, or they’re suggesting that resolutions by ignored all together.
I actually gave up on resolutions a couple of years ago because I was getting frustrated at not meeting them. Somehow, in the discussion that took place in my head, the resolutions were replaced with goals. It was no longer a case of, “I resolve to (some unfeasible feat).” It became, “This year, I’d like to (task), and this is how I’m going to do it.”
My goals for the new year became a to-do list, and I found myself more capable of doing what I wanted (except for when the program I was using to keep track of my to-do lists was no longer available to me because I migrated to a different OS before I discovered the joy that is Todoist).
So…don’t make resolutions for 2008. Really think about where you’d like to be a year from now, and then set those goals, break them into smaller steps, and make them part of your to-do list (or a similar motivation tool). See how far you get!
Happy New Year’s!
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 9:37 AM EST
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Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.- Peter Drucker
The guys over at Slacker Manager are asking what the difference is between management and leadership. Reading over the comments, it seems that no one agrees. For some people, the two are synonymous. For others, there’s a distinct difference.
For me, managing and leading are two different things. Managing is overseeing things, making sure everything is running smoothly, making decisions and changes to keep everything running smoothly. It’s about processes. It’s operational.
Leadership, on the other hand, is an underlying set of governing principles. Where management is often something everyone can put their finger on, leadership is a bit more elusive. You know someone is a bad manager because they aren’t handling resources well. You suspect someone is a bad leader because it feels like the person never really knows where they’re going, and that translates to confusion in the ranks.
Management is a practice. Leadership is a trait.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Leadership and management at 7:49 AM EDT
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I’m noticing a lot of this lately, and it disturbs me. Let’s look at the scenario from both sides.
The Prospective Employer
(I don’t know how it happened for Jeremy, but I’ve watched it happen repeatedly at work.) A hiring manager puts up a job listing and receives a stack of resumes. He or she sifts through them to find the top group of potential interviewees. The hiring manager calls them to schedule the interviews. One declines the interview spot immediately because they have already been offered a job elsewhere. One immediately sets up an interview for the next day. The rest don’t even return the message left on their voice mail for two or three days.
The one who immediately set their interview shows up fifteen minutes late, unapologetic for their tardiness. Another interviewee also shows up late, a victim of the always-heavy traffic.
One interviewee, however, seems eager and yet detached. They set the interview. They call up the day before to confirm the time and location of the interview. The hiring manager prepares for the interview, even as an emergency project hits their desk, and patiently paces their office, waiting for the interviewee. After about fifteen minutes, the hiring manager starts organizing the emergency project, trying to remain available for the interviewee when they arrive. Half an hour after that, the project is in full swing. The hiring manager is muttering, wondering what’s keeping the interviewee from either arriving or calling. An hour after the interview’s start time, the hiring manager marks the resume as a no-show and dumps it in a file of people to not consider in the future, and tries to make up the hour lost to the rude interviewer.
The Prospective Employee
(What I can only imagine from helping so many friends work on their own job search, although my friends don’t pull this particular stunt, and from living in my current home.) The job searcher spends hours putting together a resume that sells them into their dream job. They write up the perfect cover letter. They comb the job boards, Craigslist, and anywhere else they can think of. Finding jobs that either fit or come close to fitting what they want, the job searcher sends out their polished resume and cover letter.
Lo and behold, they get that first nibble, the first sign that they may not have to live off ramen anymore. A hiring manager calls and offers an interview. The job searcher takes it. Somewhere between that first call and the interview, a variety of things happen. The job searcher is offered another interview with a company they’d rather work for, so they blow off the first interview they set up for the preferred interview. With no phone call to the first hiring manager, this is rude and puts a black mark against your name should you ever decide to apply at that company in future. Sometimes, the job searcher receives a job offer before their slated interview. In their excitement (benefit of the doubt), they completely forget to call and cancel their interview. Again, this isn’t terribly polite, and hiring managers do note this kind of thing.
My personal favorite, though, is when the job searcher blows off an interview because they got a better offer. The offer was to go skiing with their friends who are playing hooky from their own jobs. (Yes, I’ve seen this one happen.) Same result: the job searcher has no job, and they’ve earned themselves a reputation at the company they were supposed to be interviewing with. Even if the job searcher calls in after the interview slot and asks for a reschedule because of an illness, the hiring manager isn’t likely to take the job searcher seriously. (They tend to be very understanding if you call at least a few hours beforehand and let them know you’re sick. Hiring managers aren’t heartless beasts.)
The moral of the story
If you really want a job, then act like it. Keep your appointments. If you genuinely can’t make it or are running late, then call and let them know that. It will leave a more favorable impression on the hiring manager, who is a person who understands that things happen sometimes. Don’t bother with everything you’ve read about finding a job unless you actually intend to put forth the effort to go through the job search process.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Changing careers at 7:53 AM EDT
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One of the hardest things to get across in a resume or traditional interview is your soft skills. (If you’re smart, you hope for a behavioral interview or you approach your interview from a core competency standpoint.) These hard-to-present skills are part of what interviewers are looking for, even if they can’t exactly quantify them either.
There are probably as many ways to demonstrate that you possess a soft skill as there are soft skills. Even more fun, some of these skills are easier to show than others. Some soft skills are also more sought than others, simply because they’ve been defined as present in successful employees.
If you’re feeling out of touch with your own soft skills, you might consider writing down a list of things you’ve done and work up a list of what you have from there. You might also consider reading up on core competencies (which I found very useful when I needed to take a look at my own soft skills). Look at your resume as a story that presents not only your achievements, but also examples of these skills. Extend that mindset into interviews to further support showcasing your soft skills.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Changing careers at 7:39 AM EDT
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I decided to check out the new site Climber.com over the weekend. Unlike other job search sites, it’s intended for those who aren’t looking for a job to connect with their dream job, to climb up from where they currently are at the moment.
While I’m not terribly confident in the purpose, I find their set-up interesting. There’s a place to upload your resume, but you only reach it after you’ve gone through all of the site’s hoops. (I’m in the process of updating mine, so it’s not up yet.) The hoops include filling out a questionnaire that creates your “career fingerprint”, which I think means it suggests what your ideal career looks like. You also get to list your dream companies, words that you feel describe you, and skills that might impress a potential employer.
With my unusual background and skill combination, I haven’t been matched to any companies yet, but I’ll definitely be interested to see what happens as the site grows.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Changing careers at 1:20 PM EDT
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You practice interviewing, right? If you’re looking to change jobs, then this is an essential step right next to updating your resume.
While you’re preparing for the usual questions, why not prepare to shine in your responses?
The interview is honestly the best chance you have to win over a person at the company, and you want to put your best foot forward. Be engaging. Be curious. Be assertive. Be forward-thinking. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Changing careers at 7:19 AM EDT
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“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.”- Mark Twain
I don’t know if I agree that courage is resistance to fear, but I do like the thought that it is the mastery of fear.
If we acknowledge fear, but assert our mastery over it, then we can do so much more than if we try to ignore the fact that we’re afraid.
The fine line between courage and cowardice is knowing you’re afraid and being willing to do something about it.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 8:08 AM EDT
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I’m a big fan of Curt Rosengren’s work, but I think this article actually sums up identifying career passion on more of a layman’s level.
How do you pick a career path? You find the work that makes you happy. You find the work that gets you out of bed without much effort. It may not be what you’re best at, but it’s what gets you drooling. It’s what draws your attention when you’re minding your own business.
Think about what you’re drawn to, and then pursue it.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Changing careers at 7:42 AM EST
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I’m looking to rework my resume this week so I can start organizing a basic portfolio that supports it. Apparently, I’m not the only one with resume revising on the brain, because articles have been popping up all over the place this week.
Or perhaps it’s a cosmic signal that i need to shake mine up and get it out into the world again.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Changing careers at 7:33 AM EST
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Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.- Peter Drucker
Just in case you were wondering…
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized, Leadership and management at 7:38 AM EST
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