Find The Work You Love
Yesterday, I attended a networking luncheon for the Career Development Network. Executive coach, Dan Morman of Praxis Innovation spoke to us of “Creating Mindshifts in Job Seekers.” Dan gave us several good ideas and tools to use with clients. I thought one concept in particular would be great to share with you here on the Daily Career Blog…
A client I’m working with has been notified that his position has been eliminated. He’s still on the payroll as he transitions his responsibilities to various parties at the company. He asked me a very good question this week about something I’ve never addressed here on the Daily Career Blog. I want to share his question and my response. Feel free to chime in with any additional insights you have or resources you know about so we can pass them along. The question: What questions should I be asking human resources, and what else do you suggest I do before my separation…
In part one and two I talked about the first ingredient of your brand – your skills, talents and traits. In part three, I’m going to tell you about the last two ingredients that go into making your individual brand… Passion and Accomplishments. So, you have the whole recipe now. Take your Skills/Talents/Traits, add in your Passion and top it off with your Accomplishments. Okay, so you do know what you’re passionate about, right? Hey, maybe you’re not. I’ve learned to not make assumptions that folks know this stuff. I mean, it’s hard to find the time to sit around and self-reflect. Life is busy. Life is distracting. I asked someone recently what she enjoys doing in her spare time, and she remarked, “What spare time?” If you don’t know what you’re passionate about…
Taking stock of your career assets includes taking a look at your personal traits. Traits are not the same as personal values, nor are they the same as skills. Traits specifically describe how we do our work in the world. Create a list of your traits – you can find traits online, of course, but the best list I’ve ever seen is in What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles. Round up what you think are your top 5 traits and then, if you dare…
The first step in cultivating your individual brand is to analyze and inventory your career assets. In other words, you need to be able to sum up what you bring to the table. Career assets include your skills, knowledge, traits and natural talents. Determining your skills might be the easiest place to start. Skills are those things you can do that very likely required some sort of training – they are the application of the training. Learning to read, learning to type, learning to use a software program on a computer… these are all learned, applied skills. Natural talents are on the other end of the assessing spectrum for most people. If you’re like most people, it’s hard to step back and look at yourself from an objective point of view and determine what your natural talents are. Why? Because your natural talents…
You possess a set of skills, qualifications, education credentials, talents and wisdom that makes you a business unit unto yourself. How you market that during your job search is very important. When you know what you bring to the table, you can better articulate how you match up to the opportunities at hand.
By Angela Loëb Back in 1997, Tom Peters coined the term “Me Inc.” in his article, The Brand Called You. Peters claims that you’re the CEO of Me Inc., and in the new world of work, you need to be … Continued