Career Management Strategies

Career Management Strategies © 2003 1

Career Management Strategies © 2003

Jim Molloy

Organizational Development, Talent Development Professional, and Coach

Independent Contractor,Customized Solutions

Phone: 717 781 4880

Email: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Table of Contents

Career Management Strategies ....................................................................................................... 3

Approaching The Job Market ......................................................................................................... 4

Work History: Starting Your Resume............................................................................................. 5

Sample Resume ............................................................................................................................... 6

What Are Your Interests? ............................................................................................................... 7

Networking ..................................................................................................................................... 8

Creating Your Contact List ............................................................................................................. 9

Networking Questions .................................................................................................................. 11

Developing Your Story ................................................................................................................. 12

Interviewing and Follow-up .......................................................................................................... 13

References ..................................................................................................................................... 15

Action Verbs ................................................................................................................................. 16

Appendix ........................................................................................................................................ 1

Contact Worksheet .......................................................................................................................... 1

My Career Path Worksheet ............................................................................................................. 2


Career Management Strategies

Introduction “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

-Cheshire Cat, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Managing your career is a life skill, not a luxury. Sure, some people just fall

into a dream job, or so they say. Most people get the job of their choice

because they know what they want, and they are not afraid to go after it. If

you do your research, have a plan, and use your resources, you will succeed

in finding a job that meets your career goals.

Agenda Today’s Agenda is as follows:

Objectives

Approaching The Job Market

Work History

Developing Your Story

60 Second Commercial

Networking/Creating Your Contact List

Planning Your

Career First, you need to uncover your interests. Then, you need to talk to a lot of

people to figure out if they know of jobs that meet your interests. Next, you

need to talk to people that are in the jobs that have your interests to validate

whether or not the job still meets your interests, and discuss their career path

(how they got to where they are today). Finally, you need to talk to

employers that have jobs that meet your interests.

Identifying

Your Career

Path

Discussing the career path that was followed by someone in your dream job is

a good place to start. However, the market changes constantly, and

yesterday’s career path for your dream job may be different in today’s job

market. Developing your career path is a hypothesis, an educated guess as to

what you need to do to get to the job of your dreams.

Use the worksheet in the Appendix of this guide to get you started. Write

down your ideal job on the far right hand side of the paper. Working

backwards, write down each job complete with the skills you will need to get

the next job in your path until you get to where you are today. This exercise

takes quite a bit of time. However, the more people you meet with in your

desired career, the less time it will take you to identify your ideal career path.


Approaching The Job Market

Introduction Did you know that 75% to 80% of all job openings are never advertised? The

job market consists of both visible and hidden jobs. It is essential to a

successful career search campaign that you approach both.

Networking /

Face-toFace

Contact

Contact with many people will lead you to the job offer you ultimately accept.

Face-to-face contact is the most valuable form of interaction because it is

more difficult for the person to reject you (hanging up the phone, answering

letters, etc.). Therefore, the more people you talk to, and meet with, the

sooner you will arrive at your final destination: gainful employment.

Employment

Ads Advertised jobs offer a highly competitive source of employment leads

(Classified Ads, Monster.com, etc.). However, 75-150 applicants answer the

average employment ad. Why is this a problem?

The person screening resumes is not in a position to make a hiring decision

and read through every resume. Their job is to reduce the pile of candidates

to about 10 potential candidates for every position by eliminating as many

resumes as possible. Therefore, you need to make sure when you do respond

to an employment ad, that you put your best foot forward.

Responding to

Employment

Ads

Responding to an employment ad should always include a cover letter and

resume. The cover letter should highlight your understanding of the

company’s needs, and how you are uniquely qualified to help.

The Resume A resume provides the potential employer with a synopsis of your skills and

work history and should be kept to one page. Because you are limited to one

page, you may need to tailor your resume to highlight your skills that meet

the needs of each company and job. Not only do you need to provide a cover

letter that is tailored to the specific job, but you should tailor your resume as

well.


Work History: Starting Your Resume

Introduction The resume is a synopsis of your work history, including your achievements

and the impact you have had during your career. There are two resumes that

are common in today’s job market: Chronological and Functional.

Chronological resumes show the timeline of your work history. Functional

resumes explain your knowledge, skills and abilities. Chronological resumes

are preferred by most employers because they are easier to read, and

communicate all of the aspects of previous and current employment.

Employment

History

First, write down your current employer and job title in the space provided

below:

Employer Name: _______________ Job Title: ________________

Next, refer to the Action Verbs section of this guide on page 14 and circle

five action verbs that relate to your current job and write them in the spaces

provided below:

1. _______________

2. _______________

3. _______________

4. _______________

5. _______________

Finally, starting with the action verb, write a sentence regarding your job.

Creating Your

Resume

Creating your resume starts by writing your employment history, then

organizing all of your information on a single page. Information you should

consider providing include: An objective, a background summary,

educational background, and any specialized or computer related skills.

There is a sample resume on the next page, and most software programs have

easy to use resume templates.


Sample Resume

Sample Resume

The sample resume provided below is an example of a chronologically

formatted resume. However, you will want to customize the format to fit

your personality, career goals, and aligned with each opportunity you seek.

LIBBY WILLIAMSON

6113 Southgate Drive

Boston, MA 02745

[email protected]

(617) 555-1212

________________________________________________________________________

OBJECTIVE: To secure an position in a small to medium-sized human services organization.

BACKGROUND: Highly motivated, detail oriented professional with

experience in accounts receivable, securities processing and

customer service.

Proficient in operation of 10-key adding machine.

Strong interpersonal and organizational skills.

Typing speed: 50+ with high degree of accuracy.

WORK EXPERIENCE: Genesis National Bank, Boston, MA

08/91 - 05/94 ACCOUNTING CLERK

Performed record keeping, payment processing and account

reconciliation pertaining to international security trades and cash trades in a

high volume environment.

Coordinated transaction processing information and related account

data with affiliated French bank daily.

Maintained high level of accuracy while consistently meeting strict

deadlines on a daily basis.

EDUCATION: Elizabeth Brant School of Business, Boston, MA

09/73 - 08/76 SECRETARIAL DIPLOMA

Degree: 1976

COMPUTER SKILLS: Corel WordPerfect

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Windows 2000, and XP

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Power Point

REFERENCES: Furnished upon request.


What Are Your Interests?

Introduction Well, what are your interests? One of the most successful ways to uncover

your ideal job is to identify your interests, including likes and dislikes about

previous jobs. Then, when you set up meetings to talk to people about

potential careers, you can ask them whether or not the job fits your criteria.

For example, if you like organizing things you can ask, “How much of this

job involves organizing, and project management?”

You may want to use a separate piece of paper for this exercise. List the

information in any order, just write down everything you can think of at first.

Then, rank each of the items in order of importance in the spaces provided

below.

What didn’t

you like about

your previous

job that you

want to avoid in

your next job?

1 ____________________ 6 ____________________

2 ____________________ 7 ____________________

3 ____________________ 8 ____________________

4 ____________________ 9 ____________________

5 ____________________ 10 ____________________

What did you

really like

about your

previous job?

1 ____________________ 6 ____________________

2 ____________________ 7 ____________________

3 ____________________ 8 ____________________

4 ____________________ 9 ____________________

5 ____________________ 10 ____________________

What do you

want to be

included in

your next job?

1 ____________________ 6 ____________________

2 ____________________ 7 ____________________

3 ____________________ 8 ____________________

4 ____________________ 9 ____________________

5 ____________________ 10 ____________________


Networking

Introduction Networking is the single most important skill to a successful job search.

Goal The goal of networking is to meet enough people to identify a person or

persons that are able to provide you with first hand information regarding a

career or company where you have an interest.

Developing

Your Contact

List

The first step in successful networking is to develop a contact list. This list is

essentially everyone and anyone that is willing to talk to you. If you are

planning to talk to people for information about a company or career, first

make it clear you are asking for their insights, not a job.

Anyone can be a contact. Think of everyone you know or have met at one

time or another. Use the form on the next page to get started. Then, as you

make contact with these people and have a conversation, remember to ask

who else they know you should meet. Pretty soon, you will have hundreds of

people to call on to help you in your quest.

There is a Contact Network Sheet for your use in the Appendix of this

reference guide.

Using Your

Contact List Using your contact list involves writing to and calling friends, acquaintances,

and strangers. Generally, you will not ask them for a job, but simply that they

allow you to meet with them to discuss your present situation, to receive their

advice.

Making

Contact Before you make your first call be prepared to state your present situation,

what you are asking for, and make it clear that the meeting will be at his or

her convenience, and you have no expectations of a job offer, you are simply

trying to learn from their knowledge of your chosen career field. Be sure to

open your conversation by mentioning the name of the person referring you.

Also, when contacting people by telephone, always ask if it is a good time to

talk. If the person says no, find out when it would be a good time to meet.

For example, “Mr. Smith, this is Michael Somerset, your friend Julie Jones

suggested I give you a call, is this a good time to talk?”


Creating Your Contact List

Introduction Your objective is to develop a list of as many people you can contact as

possible, regardless of whether or not you believe they will help you find the

job of your dreams. Write the names of at least 10 people you can contact in

each of the categories below.

Coworkers

1 ____________________ 6 ____________________

2 ____________________ 7 ____________________

3 ____________________ 8 ____________________

4 ____________________ 9 ____________________

5 ____________________ 10 ____________________

Friends

1 ____________________ 6 ____________________

2 ____________________ 7 ____________________

3 ____________________ 8 ____________________

4 ____________________ 9 ____________________

5 ____________________ 10 ____________________

Family

1 ____________________ 6 ____________________

2 ____________________ 7 ____________________

3 ____________________ 8 ____________________

4 ____________________ 9 ____________________

5 ____________________ 10 ____________________

Neighbors

1 ____________________ 6 ____________________

2 ____________________ 7 ____________________

3 ____________________ 8 ____________________

4 ____________________ 9 ____________________

5 ____________________ 10 ____________________

Classmates /

Alumni

1 ____________________ 6 ____________________

2 ____________________ 7 ____________________

3 ____________________ 8 ____________________

4 ____________________ 9 ____________________

5 ____________________ 10 ____________________

Continued on next page


Creating Your Contact List, Continued

Teachers /

Professors

1 ____________________ 6 ____________________

2 ____________________ 7 ____________________

3 ____________________ 8 ____________________

4 ____________________ 9 ____________________

5 ____________________ 10 ____________________

Employers

(Current and

Former)

1 ____________________ 6 ____________________

2 ____________________ 7 ____________________

3 ____________________ 8 ____________________

4 ____________________ 9 ____________________

5 ____________________ 10 ____________________


Networking Questions

Informational

Interview

Questions

Here are some questions to ask the person you meet with when you have an

opportunity to meet with someone that is working in your desired field or

position:

How did you first enter this field?

How did you prepare yourself to work in this field?

What did you do before you worked in this field?

What do you like most about working in this field?

What do you find most challenging about working in this profession?

What could I do to prepare myself for this type of career?

What books or references would you recommend to someone interested in

this field?

Are there any professional associations that people in this field join to

learn and share information?

What courses, seminars or other learning experiences would be especially

helpful for acquiring the skills needed to increase my chances of entering

into this field as a future career?

Where do you feel this field is headed, and what could potential job-

seekers do to take advantage of those opportunities?

Which of your colleagues would it be particularly useful for me to talk to

about a career in this field?


Developing Your Story

Introduction Storytelling is one of the oldest and most effective ways of communicating

information. Your story will help you to uniquely position yourself among

other job candidates in the market. Good stories, answers the questions:

Who? What? When? Where? Why?, and How?

Why Prepare

and Tell

Stories?

Having your stories prepared in advance align well with today’s behavioral

interviewing techniques used by most recruiters. Although not all companies

use behavioral interviewing techniques, you will be prepared to share your

accomplishments in a tangible and meaningful way.

Step One What three or four achievements are you most proud of? Include your

academic and work experience?

First Achievement

Second Achievement

Third Achievement

Step Two Develop your story to show people listening how you made a difference.

During an actual interview, you can use your stories to highlight your skills,

and then put your story in context with the interviewers business needs.

Here are some questions to think about:

What problems did I deal with?

What actions did I take?

What were the results?

First Achievement

Second Achievement

Third Achievement


Interviewing and Follow-up

Introduction Contrary to popular belief, interviewing is not an interrogation - Interviewing

is a two-way dialog. The interviewer wants to know if you are capable of

meeting the needs of the job based on your behavior during past experiences.

When answering interview questions, elaborate, tell a story about how you

have handled similar situations in the past, then follow up with questions of

your own to maintain a two-way dialog of sharing and learning. The

following four skills are necessary to have an effective interview.

Listening

Questioning

Paraphrasing

Summarizing

Closing

Listening While listening, convey to the interviewer that you are really listening

through verbal, vocal and non-vocal means. Leaning forward, and nodding

your head in agreement are two non-verbal means of acknowledging you

understand what the interviewer is saying.

Questioning Use open ended questions or questions that cannot easily be answered by a

“yes” or “no.” These types of questions will show the interviewer you are

interested and want to learn as much as you can about the position, and

company. For example:

“What was it about my background that interested you in speaking with me?”

“What do you think most employees like about working here?”

“What qualities will a candidate need to successfully fill this role?”

“What are some of the challenges a person would face in this position?”

“How often would the person in this position be evaluated?”

“What opportunities for advancement exist for a person in this position?”

Paraphrasing Good candidates “play back” what the interviewer is asking or stating to

make sure both people are in agreement. Basically, you are repeating what

was said, and then looking for verbal or non-verbal agreement to confirm

understanding.

Continued on next page


Interviewing and Follow-up, Continued

Summarizing During and especially at the end of the interview, it is critical for you to

summarize the needs you have heard by the interviewer. After summarizing

the needs and qualifications for the job, you want to make sure the

interviewer has no other questions.

Closing During the close of the interview you want to summarize all of the business

needs shared by the employer during the interview. After you have

summarized all of the key points, ask the interviewer what they feel are the

top three things a successful candidate will need to accomplish in the first 3-6

months on the job.

After the interviewer has summarized the top three points, it is your turn to

restate how your knowledge and background match up to their top three

needs. Here you will need to cite examples (these are examples you have

probably already presented during the interview, but discuss them anyway).

Finally, you need to bring closure to the interview and this can be done with

two simple questions.

1. What other questions do you have about my background?

2. Is there anything about my background that would cause you to

hesitate in hiring me for this position?

Thank You

Letter The follow-up letter or thank-you note gives you a final opportunity to

reiterate your interests in the job position highlighting their needs and your

unique qualifications. The follow-up letter can also give you a chance to

present any information you may not have had time to discuss.

Follow-Up After a week to ten days have gone by, if you have not received a formal

response regarding your interview, follow-up with a courtesy call. Always

keep the tone of your voice up-beat, and your message positive. Your

message should emphasize your excitement and qualifications to fill the role

and make a positive contribution to their company.


References

Introduction Employers will usually ask for references if they are seriously interested in

making a hiring decision. It is very important that you have a list of

references you provide. Generally, employers will ask for professional

references, these people you have worked with. Sometimes, prospective

employers will ask for personal references as well. Developing a list of three

to six professional and personal references will have you well prepared for the

next step in the interview process.

Reference

Information The information needed on your references is very basic.

Name

Business/Home Address

City/State/Zip Code

Email Address

Best Times to Reach

Best Method of Contact

Occupation/Title

Telephone Number

Relation To You

The reference sheet should be typewritten on a separate piece of paper for you

to hand to the interviewer upon request.

Preparing

References After you interview with a prospective employer, if you have been asked to

provide references, it is common courtesy to contact each reference to let

them know they may receive a letter or phone call.

Thanking

References Make sure you send a personal thank-you note to each of your references.


Action Verbs

accomplished achieved addressed administered advised allocated

answered appeared applied appointed appraised approved

arranged assessed assigned assumed assured audited

awarded bought briefed broadened brought built

cataloged caused changed chaired clarified classified

closed collected combined commented communicated compared

compiled completed computed conceived conducted conceptualized

considered consolidated constructed consulted contracted controlled

converted coordinated corrected counseled counted created

dealt decided defined delegated delivered demonstrated

described designed determined developed devised diagnosed

directed discussed distributed documented doubled drafted

earned edited effected eliminated endorsed enlarged

enlisted ensured established estimated evaluated examined

executed expanded expedited experienced explained explored

expressed extended filed filled financed focused

forecast formulated founded gathered generated granted

guided handled helped identified implemented improved

incorporated increased indexed initiated influenced innovated

inspected installed instituted instructed insured interpreted

interviewed introduced invented invested investigated involved

issued joined kept launched learned leased

lectured led licensed listed logged made

maintained managed matched measured mediated met

modified monitored motivated moved navigated negotiated

observed operated ordered organized oversaw participated

perceived performed persuaded planned prepared presented

processed procured programmed prohibited projected promoted

proposed provided published purchased pursued qualified

questioned raised ranked rated realized received

recommended reconciled recorded recruited redesigned reduced

regulated rehabilitated related reorganized repaired replaced

replied reported represented researched resolved responded

restored revamped reviewed revise saved scheduled

selected served serviced set set up shaped

shared showed simplified sold solved sorted

sought sparked specified spoke staffed started

streamlined strengthened stressed stretched structured studied

submitted substituted succeeded suggested summarized superseded

supervised surveyed systematized tackled targeted taught

terminated tested took toured traced tracked

traded trained transferred transcribed transformed translated

transported traveled treated trimmed tripled turned

tutored umpired uncovered understood understudied unified

unraveled updated upgraded used utilized verbalized

verified visited waged weighed widened won

worked wrote

Career Management Strategies Performance Consulting Solutions © 2003 1

Appendix

Contact Worksheet

Introduction Remember, networking is not about finding people that can get you a job, it is about talking to people about their

insights on how to learn more about jobs, the job market, and companies of interest. Keep track of the people you

contact, and the outcome. It is also a good idea to

Name Phone Number Date Contacted Results

Career Management Strategies Performance Consulting Solutions © 2003 2

My Career Path Worksheet

My Ideal Job is:

Skills I will need:

My Next Step is:

Skills I will need:

My Next Step is:

Skills I will need:

My Next Step is:

Skills I will need:

My Next Step is:

Skills I will need:

My First Step is:

Skills I will need:

Career Management Strategies

Career

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