The Reinvention Coach

Tips for translating your background (& a free teleclass!)

Last week I was in Atlanta at the HOW conference sharing reinvention strategy tips with hundreds of graphic designers and creative professionals.  With only an hour for my talk there wasn’t much time, so I offered to give a FREE teleclass on Tuesday, June 19^th at 9pm Eastern (yes, that’s tomorrow night!) to go into a bit more depth on a few key strategies that will help you translate your background so that you can more easily move into a new career.  For those of you who’d like to join us on the call, register here (NOTE: our course registrations are handled through our shopping cart, but because this class is free you don't have to enter any credit card information). 

In the meantime, here are a few 'translation' strategies to get you going (excerpted from our Reinvent Your Resume! eBook):


TIP #3:  Focus on skills, not functions.

Many times you will not have directly transferable work experience for every aspect of your target career.  Still, it’s crucial that you demonstrate your value to potential employers, thereby enhancing your capability to transition from one industry to another.  The way to do this would be to focus on your skills you used in your previous roles, rather than your job functions.  Focusing on your skills will strengthen your marketability and show potential employers that you possess valuable talents will help them achieve their business goals.

What does this really mean?  Instead of just filling your resume with a list of job responsibilities; emphasize the skills that it takes to perform those functions.


TIP #5: Show a pattern of success through your accomplishments.

In order to make a successful transition to a new career, it is critical that you show a pattern of success in your former field.  Demonstrating accomplishments—along with the skills and qualities that helped you achieve them—will go a long way towards convincing your target employer that you’ll be able to replicate your successes in their company.


TIP #7: Speak the language.

Every industry has its own language, and in order to effectively market yourself for your new gig you’ll need to learn the “lingo.”  For example, overseas sales partners might be called ‘sales agents’ in one industry and ‘licensees’ in another.

Why is this important?  If you don’t translate your background into the language used by your potential employers, you run the risk of them missing your relevant experience.  Using the previous example, you can’t assume that your target employer understands that ‘sales agents’ are the same as ‘licensees’.  And if you think you’ll explain that in the interview, think again: most likely you won’t get a call.


Want to learn more about these (and other) reinvention strategy tips?  Check out our eBook or join us on tomorrow night’s call!

What's your summertime goal?

Most people think that summertime is a time of play, relaxation and fun in the sun.  It is all of those things, but summer can also be a great time to accomplish a goal or two!

When you’re all fired up with the excitement of a fresh start in September or on New Year’s Eve, it’s much easier to get going.  But how do you make your goals happen in summer, when all you want to do is hang out?  Using these guidelines can help:

1. Make them fun!  When it’s sunny outside, who wants to do things that are a drag?  Keep this in mind when choosing a summer goal, and make sure you pick one that inspires a feeling of excitement and anticipation.
2. Make them flexible!  During summer, you never know when you’re going to get the chance to head to the beach for a long weekend.  You want to pick a goal that allows you to put it down for a few days without losing momentum.
3. Make them short!  To take advantage of the season, it’s best to pick a goal that can be accomplished in three to five months (don’t forget about Indian summer—that counts too!).
4. Include ‘summery’ activities!  The more you can weave summer into your goal, the more inspired you’ll feel to make it happen.  So if you want to get a draft of your script done, take yourself to the park to write.  Or if you want to network your way into a new company, take your contact to lunch at an outdoor café.

Summer is supposed to be a time of relaxation, so don't overwhelm yourself by picking too many goals (one or two is a good number!).  For more motivation, give yourself permission to take the summer off from other obligations and enlist a friend or two to join you in your quest. 

Lastly, don't forget to figure out-- in advance-- what reward you're going to give yourself accomplishing your goal.  Make it fun, make it special, make big... like a week at the beach!

   

A quick refueling of inspiration...

Sometimes when we're in the midst of reinvention, we need to refuel ourselves with a little pep talk or a brief boost of inspiration.  If you're looking for an quick hit of motivation, check out these two online resources:

**The Daily Motivator (www.greatday.com):  Founded and written by Ralph Marston, this site contains a new feel-good message each day.

**Daily Word (www.dailyword.com):  A publication by Unity Church, this online arm of their popular published magazine offers support and inspiration from a non-denominational Christian perspective.   

The Dumpster

A few weeks ago I wrote about The Parking Lot, a technique that helps you manage the mental chatter caused by an overwhelming to-do list.  But what if your chatter is coming not from a list of tasks, but a litany of ‘bugs’?

Bugs are those thoughts that are, literally, bugging you!  They’re the complaints, annoyances and irritations that circle endlessly through your mind.  Bugs can show up as mentally replaying an argument or a past event you wish you’d handled differently.  They can also take the form of rehashing an irritating comment someone made or worrying about a situation where there’s nothing you can do. 

The occasional bugged thought is normal (and easily stamped out).  But when their noise level or quantity increases to the point where they start to take over, it’s time to pull out The Dumpster! 

You create the The Dumpster in the same way you created The Parking Lot: take a blank sheet of paper and write ‘Dumpster’ on the top in big black letters.  When a bug starts running through your mind, put it in ‘the dumpster’; in other words, write it on that sheet of paper.  The very act of writing down something that bugs you can help clear it out of your mind.

Wondering what you can do with the Dumpster once it contains all the bugs?  Take it and dump it-- literally!