The Reinvention Coach

Balance, Part 1...

I've been blog-tagged on the topic of balance by Jaya Schillinger of Inspirational Business.  This means I'll answer a series of questions on balance, but in order to actually practice balance I  have to wait to respond! 

This has been a very intense week for me; so much so that I had to move our teleclass, A Four Step Plan for Achieving Your Reinvention Goals to May 23rd.  So in the spirit of taking my own advice (which I will share with you next week) I will actually take it first and take a break! 

Topic to be continued....

P.S.  Since I'm taking a bit of a break this week, you still have a chance to submit your reinvention reward list and win a copy of our Reinvent Your Resume! eBook.  Email us your list!

Ten Tips for Conducting an Effective Search- Part 2...

Last week's post contained the first three of ten tips for conducting an effective career reinvention search.  Here are the next three:

4.      Identify what you have to offer to your target industry:  What makes you unique—what is your mix of accomplishments, skills, experience and attitude?  Think about this and make a list of the job skills you have to offer.

5.      Fill the gaps:  If there’s a gap between what your target industry needs and what you have to offer, come up with a strategy for filling it.  Don’t expect people to take a chance on you without being willing to prove that they should.  Analyze what it would take to get the skills you need, and assess if there are any shortcuts you can take (i.e. more education or training, volunteering, pro-bono projects). 

6.      Have a system:  Forgetting details in your career reinvention search can create major problems and cause you to miss opportunities, so set up a master tracking and organization system.  Make sure whatever you put in place helps you with all aspects of your search, including keeping a history of conversations, organizing your contacts, managing your research, and automating reminders for follow ups.  Use whatever systems feel natural for you such as notebooks, Outlook, or web-based systems like the free jobseeker desktop at www.jobfiler.com.

7.      Get a personal business card and email address:  If you’re employed and looking, do not give out your employer’s card or email address—this is bad form!  Whether you're between gigs or currently employer, you need to get a personal business card.  Make sure your email is professional, not something like 'WildPartier at yahoo dot com'.

Next week... the rest of the top ten!

Creating a Reinvention Reward Plan

Rewards are an important of your career reinvention strategy.  An effective tactic is to create an incentive system for yourself that sets formal targets and rewards for each interim step you accomplish along the way.  If you hold off on rewarding yourself until you reach your ultimate goal, you'll lose faith along the way-- or burn yourself out! 

Your rewards can be monetary, time or activity-based.  They should be deliberately fun and pleasurable rather than just a break from the grind.  This means choosing activities that nurture and revitalize your spirit to help replenish your reserves of energy.  It's also important to come up with rewards that you can use on a daily, weekly and monthly basis; this helps you to keep your momentum going and avoid being derailed by the inevitable bumps in the road.  Some examples include:

• When I finish these five cover letters, I’ll take a break and read for an hour.
• After I make these three calls to contacts, I’ll go get a cup of coffee.
• Every Friday afternoon I’ll take a break from the search and go to the beach.

One of the first tasks we give to new clients in our reinvention coaching program is to create a reward plan.  So here's a coaching 'request' for you:  take a moment to brainstorm how you plan to reward yourself during your own career reinvention, and identify the specific milestones you must hit to earn the rewards. 

When you come up with your list, email us your ideas and the most creative one will win a copy of our eBook, Reinvent Your Resume! We'll also post the top ten ideas on our blog next week!    

Only a few spaces left...

If you haven't yet signed up, there are a few spaces left in our upcoming teleclass,  A Four Step Plan for Achieving Your Reinvention Goals.  If you're interested in reinventing your career (or your life!) and looking for an easy, step-by-step plan to make it happen, then you don't want to miss it!

The teleclass takes place next Wednesday, April 11th, at 9pm Eastern.  The call will be recorded, so even if you can't make it that evening, sign up anyway-- you can listen in later AND still receive the bonus Reinvention Goals Workbook, all for only $29 (a huge savings off the price of one of our regular courses).

To grab one of the last spots, sign up here.  Look forward to 'seeing' you on the call!

Ten Tips for Conducting an Effective Search- Part 1...

I started off including all ten tips at once-- this made for a very long blog post!  So in the interest of keeping things mangeable, I'm breaking this article into a series.  Following are the first three of ten strategic steps you can take to strengthen your odds of conducting a successful career reinvention:

     1.      Conduct a multi-level campaign:  This means using more than one method to conduct your search; i.e. not just looking at job boards or solely talking to contacts.  Some areas to explore:

    a.      Online: Job boards (i.e. Monster, Careerbuilder, etc.), industry blogs and newsletters (i.e. Marketing Sherpa, Publisher’s Lunch, Cynopsis, Hired Guns), online groups or communities.

  b.      Offline: Newspapers (especially the business section), industry trades (‘people on the move’ columns), magazines (INC, which profiles fast-growing entrepreneurial companies, is a great resource), classifieds (yes, some companies still do advertise there), industry conferences.  NOTE: Recruiters are not a good resource for career reinventers since their job-- slotting people into positions according their background—is at odds with changing industries.

2.      Do a targeted campaign:  Don’t just send out hundreds of emails, letters or make random phone calls—create a select list of interesting companies (we recommend ten) and pursue them.

3.      Identify what your target industry needs:  In order to conduct an effective search, you must understand the needs of your industry so that you know how you can help them achieve their goals.  The best way to learn this is by networking with people in the industry and researching the industry’s current trends, opportunities and challenges.  Keep in mind that the most basic need a company has is to create and serve the customers who keep them in business.  Your goal is to figure out how you can help them with this mission!

To be continued next week....