mikelally.net » career

From GRS: 5 Career Moves with Exponential Returns

mikelally — Mon, 30 May 2011 22:13:10 +0000

I am a big fan of the site: Get Rich Slowly. The other day they ventured into career territory with a post from April Dykman (I like her bio): Five Career Moves with Exponential Returns. If you earn and spend money you should be reading GRS. It has helped put me and my wife (and family) on a MUCH better financial path.

Anyway….love the tips here.

Send out hand-written thank you notes on nice stationery. I still have the last one I received – from Jen Sertl.
Invite a mentor out to lunch. Yes! And I need to do this. I realized the other day that I have been lax in following my own preachings.
Keep your resume current. Seriously, if I have to tell you why you need to do this please leave now and don’t come back.
Keep a brag folder. I like this one because its not included in lists typical of this nature. April points out: “keep positive notes, e-mails about a job well-done, and kudos from your boss, and file them away in a folder.” Do it. Refer it. Often.
Read an industry-related book. Love it. Or a magazine or a journal. Keep current. You have to keep feeding your brain. Don’t get stuck.

April goes on to remind us that we are the CEOs of our selves. Indeed. Thank you.

I am in the woods. I don’t know how to get out just yet. But at least I know I am in the woods.

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Mike Rowe Says We Need Skilled Tradespeople

mikelally — Sun, 15 May 2011 11:06:19 +0000

Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame, testified before the US Senate Committee on Commerce earlier this week.

I like Mike Rowe a lot. I’ve written about him before. I like the way he is using his fame.

His testimony revealed his thoughts that we’ve become so focused on “higher education” that we have almost completely abandoned the skilled trades: electricians, plumbers, welders, etc.

He references the crazy irony that we have high unemployment and many many “shovel ready” jobs that can’t start because their aren’t enough skilled tradespeople to go around.

I picked up his testimony from a post at BoingBoing. You can read that here or go read his full testimony here. But go read the full testimony, he speaks about his grandfather.

His statements resonate with me. Every person that comes to the house to fix something is over 50. Why is there such a stigma attached to vocational education?

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Showing Your Age

mikelally — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:44:54 +0000

Just read an interesting piece in the latest edition of Money – Does Your Resume Make You Look Old?

Lots of good solid resume tips here but there is one stand out for me. #8 – Delving Too Deep Into the Past.

The author, Elaine Pofeldt quotes Wendy Enelow (trainer/author) who says you should only go back 15 years. Unless 20 years ago you were President or landed on the moon or something.

Its a great point. I started my career path in 198-let’s call it-7. That is 24 years ago. In 1987 I was using Multi-Mate on a DOS based computer to do mailings for a stock brokerage. Cell phones were those giant military converted field radios. The fax – does anyone fax anymore – used that god-awful thermal paper. Texture worse than eggplant on that paper. Ick.

I just wiped out 15 years. All in financial services. But Enelow is right. None of that information is helping me. It doesn’t add anything to the marketing document/resume.

This advice isn’t just for aging Gen X’ers like myself. (Or the baby boomers who read “Money”). The resume is a marketing tool. As long as it doesn’t show a gap in your employment history – make sure you trim the old/irrelevant stuff.

Even if you are in your mid-20s. It is time to take the high school jobs off your resume.

And don’t forget linkedin!

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Using Social Media in Your Job Search

mikelally — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:41:00 +0000

I took my brother to Career Sherpa’s Employment Club meeting last night. She walked through her presentation on Using Social Media in Your Job Search. This made me feel guilty, because I was working on an update for this same subject. So – here it is. This goes into a lot more detail this time around. This isn’t just about searching for a job, this is about managing your career and your online identity. Enjoy! Drop a comment and/or share if you like it!

Using social media_in_your_job_search_v4_2_sep

View more presentations from mikelally.

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Getting a Job in 2011

mikelally — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:48:11 +0000

I know a couple of people that are re-entering the job market after years of not working or only working part-time. I thought I would share some thoughts and words of encouragement.

First. You need some kind of marketing vehicle. Traditionally, this is called a resume. Right now, I have three documents. I have your traditional resume – HOWEVER, it is a way cool resume updated for the 21st century. I have a Marketing Plan – which between you and me, I should update. I have something called a “pre-resume” which is something I recently read about and thought I would give it a try. It is a one-page combo of a resume (with limited info) and the meaty part of your marketing plan. If you need help with any of these things, you need to throw a little bit of money at Hannah. She will tighten you up.

Second. You need to get yourself on Linkedin. And you need to get yourself a complete profile. And you need a picture. Linkedin is a part of your marketing toolkit. But – more important – Linkedin is a giant relational database. It is not Facebook. You cannot play Farmville on it. But, if you work it, and use it to your advantage, it will help you find people inside of companies where you would like to go work. It is a tool to aid you in your most important job searching task…

NETWORKING.

Third. I don’t have a college degree. Yes – I went to college. I started as a Political Science major, got dis-illusioned in a hurry, switched to English Lit because it was fun and easy to read books and argue with people (two of my favorite things to do ). But ultimately got bored because I was working full time and going to school full time and making money and LEARNING a load of stuff that I still practice TODAY…20 (shut up) ish years later.

Not having a degree hasn’t hurt me. Yes, there have been a couple of companies that wouldn’t even look at me. Too rigid for me anyway. They did me a favor. It hasn’t hurt for two reasons. One – I hustle. I work hard. I achieve results. I win. Two – I focus on BUILDING and MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS. Some of you know this as “networking”. Every job I have had since I started delivering newspapers – with the exception of a very few of them – came from relationships and recommendations. In fact, the crappiest jobs, were jobs where I went in cold.

Starting in 2007/2008 when the world went ape-shit, HR departments decided they could add even LESS value by REQUIRING a degree from everyone. In fairness, they did this because there were just an overwhelming number of candidates for every gig. There are stats. You can look them up.

None of this matters to you though. You don’t answer ads on Monster or (sweet baby Jesus!) ads in a newspaper. No – you are new school. You build relationships and market yourself. While all the sheep are pounding on the front door, you have a close personal relationship walking you and your kick-ass marketing document (resume) to the hiring manager and and she tells that manager what a total rock star you are and how sick it would be to have you on the team.

Talk to Hannah. Or come with me on the 19th to her career club in Canandaigua.

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On Craftsmanship

mikelally — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:05:29 +0000

The concept of “craftsmanship” or being a craftsman (or an “artist”) has been a strong recurring theme for me this year. Godin talks about it in Linchpin. Pressfield talks about being a “professional” or “artist”. Graeme pointed me to an article from Robin Sharma (“60 Tips for a Stunningly Great Life”) where number 3 is “see your work as a craft. And today I just caught up on a posting from Josh Kaufman of Personal MBA fame that provides his take on being a craftsman (“The Craftsman Creed”)

Josh leads off with a great explanation – it’s not about money or a promotion. It is about:

“… the joy of developing yourself and mastering new skills that you can use to live a productive and satisfying life. Perfecting the art, and improving the quality of your life as you pursue it, in an end in itself. In short, we’re craftsmen.”

Craftsmanship for Godin, Sharma, Kaufman, Pressfield and yes, even Tom Peters is about continuous improvement. A craftsman knows what she is the best at doing. They hone their skills. They learn. There is always more to learn. They practice. They demand value for their skill-set.

It keeps slapping me in the face.

What is my craft?

I think we will save that for next time.

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Book Review: Seth Godin’s “Linchpin”

mikelally — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 16:36:54 +0000

In case you haven’t noticed – in the last 30-50 years – the world has moved on. This has been made very clear in the last 3 years or so where the U.S. has gone through the worst financial crisis since the depression. The way we work has changed.

You can’t be a cog in the machine any more. Godin, urges us to be linchpins. Artists. He borrows heavily from Stephen Pressfield’s “resistance” – that force of nature that holds us back, makes us second guess ourselves.

I’ve recently gone through a process of interviewing people for a position I have open. It hasn’t gone well. Rochester, NY was once the home of such GIANTS as Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch and Lomb. These companies are no longer giants. They are mere shells of their former glory. They grew a culture of entitlement. If I stay at Xerox for 20+ years as a project manager making $100+k a year but never actually DOING anything – all is great. But enter 2008 and the economic collapse. Guess what – you’re not worth $100+k a year. I can find someone better for half that amount.

Harsh. But true. Seth, as always, is here to help.

For Godin, linchpin means being an artist. To relate it to Pressfield, I think linchpin=artist while professional=artist therefore linchpin=professional. In a VERY strict sense of the word. Getting up every day, getting your tool bag, punching the clock and creating masterful work. These are the things Godin is encouraging. Showing up isn’t enough.

The system taught us and encouraged us to just show up, keep our heads down and we will be rewarded. And that worked pretty well until globalization really started to kick into gear. Showing up isn’t going to get it done. Because for every one of you there are 5 people in Chennai and another 5 in Shanghai and another 5 in Brazil that got up before you and are better educated and are figuring out, as you sleep, how to do your job better and cheaper.

This is just one of those books. You should read it. You should read Godin’s “The Dip” right after. These two books go hand in hand.

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Futureproofing Your Career

mikelally — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:11:29 +0000

Over the last week, our intern and our receptionist left to go back to school. MBA and undergrad respectively. Neither school was teaching either of these smart, high upside, people the skills that they need to be developing and nurturing TODAY.

To me, those skills are:

Networking.
Personal Marketing.
Skill Evolution and Development.

Networking – Its not about making friends. It is about gaining and spreading influence. You HAVE to get out there and meet people. Opportunities are everywhere. You must have a deliberate plan to expand your circle of influence.

Build Relationships! Leverage your network. This doesn’t need to be some kind of nefarious, Dr. Evil type plot. You should be doing this genuinely. Not simply stepping over people to get to the next circle of influence. You will get a reputation. Quickly.

Marketing. This should probably go first on my list. I love the Seth Godin approach. “If you can’t describe your position in eight words or less, you don’t have a position.” LOVE IT. Tom Peters loves it so much he has officially named it the R.POV8. Remarkable Point of View In 8 Words or Less. You must know yourself. You must have a home base like Chris Brogan advises where you can send people to learn more about you. (For me it is this blog). You have to stand out. You have to be constantly tuning. Tinkering. Fiddling. FINE TUNING. Not re-inventing yourself every day. Being a hammer as Harry says.

Skills to Pay the Bills. You have to be CONSTANTLY updating your skills. Along with marketing, you have to know who you are. What are you the BEST at doing? Tom Peters – every project a WOW! project. Keep current. Think globally. Having trouble with that? Read “The Economist” religiously. It will scare the pants off of you. And hopefully motivate you. You are being outworked. Right now. This very second. There are people in China, India, Brazil, Russia, and countless other places that are sacrificing more, working harder, learning more and they are coming for YOU.

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5 Simple Career Management Lessons

mikelally — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:29:41 +0000

The Keys To Unlocking Your Most Successful Career by Joann S. Lublin from the July 6, 2010 WSJ online is possibly the best article I have read all year about managing your career. Great, great stuff.

Five simple lessons.

1. Network effectively. I already love Lublin. You’ve seen me rant about this before. She recommends “strategic relationships” and I am completely on board. She quotes a career coach, Paul Anderson, who says “relationships can’t be built in 60 seconds.” Amen, brother. This is the problem I have with “networking”. I am focusing on networking SMARTER. Quality versus quantity.

2. Sweat the small stuff. Details matter, people! This is another recurring theme from your old pal Mike. She reminds us to not have sweaty palms when you shake hands. Check the tags on handshakes over on the right —-> it has been a recurring theme for me.

3. Get your marketing materials in order. OK…I paraphrased my new favorite Lublin. She talks about creating something called a “pre-resume” which Career Sherpa will tell you is her Marketing Plan. It works. Do it.

4. Pay it forward. Help others.

5. Know thyself and be ready for re-invention. Seriously…I may have to stalk my new bff Joann Lublin. Know you goals. Know your core values. Know your TRANSFERRABLE skills. You can re-invent. Mrs. Mike Lally, after YEARS of worrying and ASSUMING that she would have to “start at the bottom” if she changed jobs – just got a PROMOTION at a NEW firm which takes her into a COMPLETELY NEW role.

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Six Year Anniversary

mikelally — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:59:22 +0000

I started writing “a” blog on this day in 2004. I cannot believe it has been six years. I’ve been through a lot in that time. I was running a telemarketing operation at the time. Then I had back surgery. I tried to launch an outsourcing business with some partners. That failed. I went to a major telecom provider where I spent a year commuting to Florida helping to launch a 500 seat call center. I went to a learning solutions company to become a product manager. I got laid off after one year. I spent a year out of work. My daughter spent 15 days in the hospital with what we now know was H1N1. Now I am doing account management/project management for a software company.

Whew.

In ’04 I started it all off by referencing Tom Peter’s Brand You Survival Kit from FC. ALL of what TP says in this article is still relevant. Lots of us STILL aren’t hearing it. To re-cap:

Turn every project into something the recruiter or person doing the hiring is going to get excited about.
You must market yourself. Accomplishments on a resume are NOT ENOUGH.
Don’t settle for being a jack of all trades. Master something. But be able to adapt at a breakneck pace.
Loyalty to the “company” is dead. Loyalty to your peers is crucial. Build your contacts.
New technology is useless for the first five years. But you need to know its out there and be ready to use it when it becomes useful.
Constantly re-invent yourself.

The funny thing is that in my original post I said that you should build your contacts in your Palm Pilot. I also said “rolodex” but I think in 2010 I have a better shot at people snickering at the dinosaur that is Palm Pilot versus the Rolodex (the modern day equivalent of writing on stone tablets.)

But DAMN, Tom is right. Was right. WILL CONTINUE TO BE RIGHT.

You have to be marketing/re-inventing. You have to be a hammer as Harry Joiner says. Loyalty to your peers IS critical. Your network is your future.