OWNing your career!

Mass Application Dash, MAD: I’ve applied for hundreds of jobs and had no replies! What’s the problem? In my professional diagnosis, there are a couple of directions we could go here. If you’re at all familiar with business process mapping, can’t stand it myself, it might look like this (minus the visuals):       A.       You – apply – no response (repeat cycle). What you want it to look like is:       B.       You – apply – interview request – job offer. How do you get from point A to point B? Start by analyzing what you’re doing and looking for opportunities for success. So, the problem is you have applied for hundreds of jobs. Stop there and ask yourself, has applying for hundreds of jobs helped me? Just because you don’t have a job or an interview doesn’t mean the answer is no. Big picture, perhaps now you realize that merely flooding the system with your resume is not sufficient and the goal should be to take a more measured, strategic approach. Meaning, focus your

Managing for the first time By Daryl M Williams Beaded sweat on my forehead drips on the small of my back, sleep wracked by erratic motion and an inability to relax, doubt plagued thoughts imagining catastrophe and ruin. Not the beginning of a poem, if it were it wouldn’t be one of my better examples, but this is a slight exaggeration of how I felt the days and nights leading up to my first step into the managerial arena. Why was I so despondent when this is something I wanted, badly? I’ve always considered being in management the opportunity for ordinary people to have an EXTRAORDINARY responsibility. Now, I didn’t join the police or become a firefighter, I didn’t become a Ranger, Delta Force or the team lead on Seal Team Six but I realized I potentially had the opportunity to decide the following: 1.       Who was interviewed 2.       Who was hired – Are your kids eating today? 3.       Who was fired – Will the rent/mortgage be paid? 4.       Make work passable i

I’m a Career Changer and it wasn’t easy! By Daryl M Williams I work with people, some are career advancers, others are career launchers, but my goal today is to talk about the career changer. I am qualified in that I went through this process not that long ago. Won’t bore you with the specifics, but it required me to take some steps. Step 1: What’s my brand?  I’ve never really liked the term brand as it relates to us humans much like some of my students recoiled whenever I said ‘Sell yourself!’ I still needed to discover what my BRAND would be. I recognized I likely wasn’t going to be as familiar as the Target bulls-eye , Nike  or Apple but that was and is OK with me.  I decided that what I enjoyed doing was what I intended to do moving forward and that was helping and teaching others and specifically on career related topics . That discovered, I needed to figure out ways to communicate my worth and experience. Step 2: Developing my identity I worked on developing my i

Advice to a younger me By Daryl M Williams Full disclosure…. …I haven’t always been a model employee. Sometimes the truth hurts but writing that doesn’t hurt me although I know I have potentially prevented myself from achieving in some areas and opportunities in other areas. How is not important and you don’t have to tell me how you may have sabotaged yourself but knowing is half the battle. Right? So, what would a mature Daryl tell a younger Daryl? Lots of things, like Peeps really don’t taste good, avoid certain types of beverages and try and align your jobs with your career. Please see below for some relevant specifics: Learn at every opportunity: Whether from a direct report, peer, customer or leader make sure to take the opportunity to learn. I think I’ve done this for the most part but it is worth mentioning and I certainly could do it better. Don’t take things so personal: Now I come across nice enough, in fact a former co-worker once told me “Ever

Career Toolbox Tip: Find Your Advocate By Daryl M Williams I’ve fielded some excellent questions along the lines of: ·          “Why aren’t I advancing, moving up, being promoted?” ·          “What should I be doing?” Now, I can give a simple answer and this is a blog post so perhaps something microwavable would be best as opposed to a seven course meal but I still want to offer something useful. Here are some thoughts I have on this topic I am increasingly hearing. ·          Find out where you stand in the organization? o    Have you worked in the same role for four plus years? You might be typecast. http://goo.gl/IWeRH o    Do you have a bad attitude? How would you know?        §   Do people run SCREAMING the other way when you approach? §   Do you generally not speak to anyone even when spoken to? o    Are your peers getting the coveted assignments such as projects, reports, meetings with the executive leaders? This is only a small test to determin

10 Things You Should Always Bring with You to an Interview By: Resumebear The current state of the economy and the job market has made it almost impossible to find a job. If you want to be one of the “chosen” to land an interview, you must be at the top of your game. No longer is it enough to simply appear at an interview dressed in a suit and armed with a positive attitude. Today’s candidates must be thoroughly prepared for each interview they attend. An important component of that preparation is knowing the ten things you should always bring with you to an interview. 1. Five copies of your resume – even if you have submitted your resume electronically, it is still important to bring along hard copies. In many cases, candidates will find themselves interviewed by multiple managers, so it is always important to have enough resumes to go around. 2. Professional references – be sure to bring a list of 3-5 professional references. Include each reference’s contact information including em

OWNing your career!: Marketing 101: You are the Product By Daryl M Will... : Marketing 101: You are the Product By Daryl M Williams Think back to the past several Super Bowls and some of the companies that ...

Marketing 101: You are the Product By Daryl M Williams Think back to the past several Super Bowls and some of the companies that produced commercials. At the end of their 30-60 second spot, you had no idea what service or product they were introducing or selling. DON’T be those guys! Even GoDaddy.com, a seemingly successful and newsworthy company is an example NOT to follow. Why? Well for one thing, they relied on your desire to research them further by going to their website, routinely ending commercials before you knew what was being sold. It worked for them but unless your résumé offers truly captivating content, ending it before you’ve sold the connection  between your experience and the role you are pursuing is a sure fire way to hear crickets from that job you applied for. How do you avoid being those guys? Glad you asked and here are some tips: ·          AVOID the empty rhetoric such as: o    Keen eye for detail o    Strong communication skills, writt

Why you should have an Executive Board daryl m. williams January 14, 2013 Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came. I ALWAYS loved the theme song to Cheers. ALWAYS! Fantastic but what does that have to do with anything and specifically the title about executive boards? Well, the executive board I’m talking about is different but should be a bit closer to our hearts because it is our individual boards. Let me explain. I believe we should look at ourselves as individual corporations. Our careers are our product and we are the CEO as well as head of marketing, etc…of our corporations. This is not a new concept and while I did not learn it from J.T. O’Donnell or Reid Hoffman, among others, they certainly validated my way of thinking. That said your corporation should

Typecasting: Make Lemonade out of those Lemons daryl m. williams January 14, 2013 Typecasting happens. Last Friday this is how I started my post titled Typecasting: The Negative. I also provided a definition, which has returned for another week, see below. Let’s start with what it is, per Google it is defined as: typecast  past participle, past tense of type•cast (Verb) Verb 1. Assign (an actor or actress) repeatedly to the same type of role, as a result of the appropriateness of their appearance or previous... 2. Represent or regard (a person or their role) as a stereotype: "typecast by their accents". That is where the similarities end and now I want to talk about being typecast and how you can use that to your benefit. In a 2003 MIT study, MIT Sloan 2003, Professor Ezra Zuckerman looked at how actors are typecast and made comparisons to the work world most of us inhabit. Among his findings were: • “Typecasting can provide a route into the industry” • “I

OWNing your career!: Typecasting: Take One! : Typecasting: The Negative daryl m. williams January 4, 2013 Typecasting happens. Understand, typecasting isn’t merely that Arnold or Br...

Typecasting: The Negative daryl m. williams January 4, 2013 Typecasting happens. Understand, typecasting isn’t merely that Arnold or Bruce or Sly are action stars or that Will Ferrell is a comedian. Typecasting in your career happens and can be ugly and difficult to break out of once applied but can also be a positive but today it is the negative I’m focused on. Let’s start with what it is, per Google it is defined as: typecast  past participle, past tense of type•cast (Verb) Verb 1. Assign (an actor or actress) repeatedly to the same type of role, as a result of the appropriateness of their appearance or previous... 2. Represent or regard (a person or their role) as a stereotype: "typecast by their accents". Taking it a step further, you’ve been working as an administrative assistant for the last five years but this isn’t where you see your career ending. Unfortunately being an administrative assistant is now synonymous with your name. Why is this negative? I

Get(ting) over yourself! By Daryl M. Williams January 4, 2013 As I took some time off from blogging and generally thinking over the extended holiday break known as Christmas Eve to New Year’s day, I realized a couple of things I thought were worth sharing (in no particular order: ·          Even when you enjoy your work, some days it is still work (Genius!) ·          Those Sprite What’s my Motivation commercials are excellent questions to ask ourselves Motivation ·          Some days you just have to muster up the will to climb the proverbial wall I’m not unhappy at work or even having a super difficult day most days but as I reflected on 2012 and the years that came before it this topic seemed relevant. We have our up’s and down’s and work can be and routinely is one of those things. How do we move past a case of the Monday’s and focus so our work, whatever that may be, is what it should be, gives back, is deserving of the paycheck we’ll receive? Here’s what