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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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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.

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Goodbye, Coach Wooden. Thank you for everything.

mikelally — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:18:11 +0000

“Be true to yourself. Make each day a masterpiece. Help others. Drink deeply from good books. Make friendship a fine art. Build a shelter against a rainy day.”

Link to NYT obituary.

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Being Gracious

mikelally — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:25:35 +0000

I learned something today. About myself and how I act in a certain situation.

I am in a Leadership training class/group through work. There are 6 of us in the group. We meet every other week for an all-day session. Last week, the group nominated me as “Top Gun” – leader of the week. There was and is a hat involved.

A Top Gun hat.

From 1986.

I offered to return the hat at the end of class.

And I understand now that this was not very gracious of me.

Offering to return the hat was dismissive of the nomination. Not to mention rude. Oh my god, I just heard my mother’s voice. But don’t get me wrong – I was HONORED to get the nomination. That sort of thing motivates the hell out of me.

I need to work on handling it better. I need to be more like Meryl Streep. She’s won a go-zillion awards. Each time she turns it around on the people with whom she is working. When I won, I did thank the group. I am not a TOTAL neanderthal. But I could not have been leader of the day unless they worked with me to allow that to happen.

So – I have to thank the group for being a great team. I AM truly honored that they nominated me. I am glad I could help in such a way.

It also didn’t honor the facilitator at all. She made reference to a mentor who had inspired her to use the hat as a token. Again, I need to not be such a jerk. Because if I had been the one giving out a token representing one of MY mentors and a mindless idiot dismissed it – I would have had a heart attack.

I am learning.

Every day.

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Nailing an Interview

mikelally — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:28:51 +0000

Get Rich Slowly linked to a post on How to Nail an Interview recently.There are some great tips here and I know some of you are out there hustling to find a new opportunity. Check it out.

I like the authors methodology. Real world research. Not miscellaneous thoughts from people that did some hiring 20 years ago and somehow think that is relevant today.

Be sure to check out the videos. OMG – yes…DEFINITELY check out the videos. I didn’t even KNOW you could PROFESSIONALLY hunt sasquatch! I’m moving to Seattle!

I especially like tip #1 – your resume has 10 seconds to sell. Take 10 seconds and count off 10 mississippis. You have less time than that. I always tell people to imagine the preview pane of whatever email program their screener is going to use. You have that much space and that much time. The rest of it matters only from a keyword perspective or if you get an interviewer who wants to go line by line. Have a different resume ready for her.

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Quoted in UpMo

mikelally — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:19:42 +0000

Was just catching up on my RSS feed and saw that Jessica Howard from UpMo quoted my Networking is Good For You post from January 14th.

I’m pretty excited. I just recently got turned on to UpMo. Jessica continues the topic of extracting long term value from your network in her post: Getting Feedback: Let’s Hear What Our Network Has to Say.

I can’t believe that I am included with the likes of Liz Lynch and Alison Doyle!

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Free Networking Templates

mikelally — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:02:00 +0000

Hannah has turned me on to upmo.com

Link to a page on their site that lists 3 networking email templates. You could easily use them as a phone call script as well.

Templates:

Getting Reconnected
Job-finder Intro
A Thankful Request

I would lose the “I’m incredibly busy right now” line from the Job-finder Intro template. It comes across as very obnoxious to me.

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Networking is Good For You

mikelally — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:58:18 +0000

Hannah linked to a study by UpMo.com on the habits of elite networkers.

She linked via facebook so I don’t feel like I am repeating anything. It’s an interesting article that shows the linkages between networking and career success and income status.

There are some good takeaways from the article:

1. Network. Do it.

2. Use linkedin. It is a great tool. You are all sick of hearing me talk about it. It is a CRM application for your network. I use it MULTIPLE times per day to understand who knows who and how they know them.

3. Make time to network. Building relationships should be a part of your DAILY routine. It is not something you do when you need to do it. It is something you should be doing ALL THE TIME. Networking is NOT situational.

4. Network LEGITIMATELY. The key here is to BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. Build connections. MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS. Having 1000 contacts on linkedin is MEANINGLESS if you can’t DO anything with them.

5. Practice networking. It is PAINFULLY difficult. I know. I have trouble with it ALL of the time. Adapt and overcome. Read books.

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Is it Safe?

mikelally — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:20:21 +0000

Great post from Rajesh Setty on tompeters.com

I love Raj – he lists a set of questions you should be asking yourself if you are wondering if you are safe.

1. Is your job CORE to the company? (This is what happened to me.)
2. What will the company LOSE by eliminating this job?
3. What is your QUANTIFIABLE assessment of your value in the eyes of stakeholders? (Math and science people, math and science)
4. Is your job off-shorable?
5. Do you care as if it is your own?
6. Are you likable/Do you play office politics well? (I combined both of these because I feel like are inseparable?)

You need to know the answers to these questions. Math and science. I lost my job because we were running an experiment AND my understanding of my perceived value was off. Huge huge huge learning experience for me.