a win-win situation

And now, dear friends and followers, we come to a most important recommendation. It just so happens that Amy [a commenter from the previous posting AND an AWNY member ~ hey, hey, hey] has set the conversation topic for the day – make it a point to meet your network connections. Before we launch into that, I just want to remind everyone that I am trying to keep within the frame of the blog topic/mission, which is to locate a job using only a computer/the internet. I completely agree with Amy that meeting face-to-face is the number one way to go, but for now we’ll keep communications web based – online phone calls, Skype, and email. And away we go…!

I’ll start off with the oh-so-smart Lynnette Lebron from Simon & Schuster. During our call a few weeks ago, she dropped that HR departments are “actively recruiting” candidates. Lynnette and her team are “at the helm and ready to go”. When a position opens up and a candidate is needed - they have cherry-picked the best folks for the gig. Nice! How do we become one of these at the ready representatives? Lynnette’s advice is to conduct “exploratory interviews”. Get into the ear of an employer. Start the dialogue for a potential new future. Lynnette says she knows a sincere candidate when she sees one. Another good tidbit Lynnette shares: during an informational interview, “ask for more internal references”. Expand your chances.  Clever, eh?!

Need a little helping hand? This online pdf from FSU [man, I love acronyms] is just what you need. The easy-to-read guide walks you though finding contacts, preparing for an informational interview, questions to consider asking, actually arranging the interview, and of course, follow up.

Have you ever participated on either side of the informational interview process – interviewER or interviewEE? Let’s hear from you…

let's take a look at the big picture

Sometimes you just need professional help and no I don’t mean the psychiatrist sort [although that’s never a bad idea]. I mean more like a professional career development coach. I recently attended a workshop here in NYC called Discovering Your Soul’s Work. During the lunch break I caught up with the woman running the course. Allie Roth is the founder of the Center for Creativity and Work and is a career coach with more than twenty-five years’ experience in creativity, wellness and career development.

During our interview, Allie shared with me that we can’t separate our careers from what is happening in the economy. Allie definitely hit a cord with me when she mentioned individuals feeling like they forgot their souls and have lost the focus of who they are and the greater contributions they could be making. During the class, Allie talked with the two dozen or so students about feeling overwhelmed by these issues, but perhaps these hardships in our lives have happened to help point the way.

Quieting the mind, not giving way to the voice of fear, urgency, and external worry are all different suggestions she offers to find balance and positive footing. Doing this gives way to letting “creativity surface” and being able to find “your work in the world”. One method Allie suggests is journaling. There are tons of different online options to do this. I like Live Journal. 

"Technology can be a distraction. It can also enhance the human experience. We’re living in an exciting time” Allie tells me. So where do I go with this? The two-decade veteran tells me to reframe my current job to fit a new career platform. Ok, what if I don’t have one? Next recommendation: “What do you have in your life right now that creates an opportunity to bridge to where you want to be?” Great, just what I wanted, career homework.

Friends, you will be glad to know that if you are feeling left out of my workshop experience that somewhere near you a coach is glad to help. Interested in Allie? Good news, you can connect with her via Skype. Don’t look for the woman in Second Life. She’s keepin’ it real in-person, by web cam, or email.

If coaches aren't your thing, maybe you have heard of the Myers-Briggs analysis. This is what I think/this is who I am/this is what I should do – kinda thing. Answer a bunch of questions; see where you fall on the map. For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about or have never taken the test, don’t fear – click here. The provided link takes you to a site that does a free, mini example of assessing who you are and what you might possibly be interested in doing based on your answers. FYI folks, there are more robust systems out there for self-assessment, but being low on dough or lacking the desire to give away my private contact info – this is what I got. Know of something else? I would love to hear. As it stands, the quiz told me that I am social, enterprising, and artistic. Last note, this is just a sneaking suspicion but I think the site might be funded by big brother!  ;-)