Angels and Emails

THE REALITY

Staring blankly at the screen in front of you the reality hits, the only thing you own at your new position is the shirt off your back and lunchbox. Same story, different cubicle. Yet again clinging to the hope that you have finally said “yes” to a career, and not landed in another J O B.

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THE TRUTH

Gone are the days of a career built off one company from which to build a predicable future and retirement. The employee ID, not the personal responsibilities one carries, is all that is taken into account when a lay-off decision is brought into the board room.

The future is yours to create – will it manifest through you or be given too you is the question. If you are miserable, change your course…don’t become the employee that should have left 6 months ago for the sake of your cube-mates. 

GOOD ADVICE

Be empowered and network! Keep your resume current, posted, and always be open to new opportunities that might cross your path.The minute you get complacent in a position, you sacrifice yourself personally and professionally to the will of the benchmark beast.

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4:54…4:55…4:56…4 minutes until the clock strikes 5pm. Another day over, another 2 inches of documentation added to the “to do” pile. As you enter the hallway and leap towards the elevator, your mind starts to wander…5 years ago when you graduated with a BA in Human Resource Management you did so under the expectation the future would be based on people, the feeling center of your future employer.

The reality however has manifested quite differently…Your job, a HR call center representative, requires the employee under distress to be reminded of the harsh reality of their numeric existance prior to reaching a human on the other end that cares.

Human capital has replaced the individual, and who they are and what they care about has been lost to world of controlled existance. From the swipe of a badge in the morning to the ‘log-off user’ at workdays’ end, a workplace of surnames and addresses has been buried beneath a world of employee numbers, performance rankings, and UserIDs. Policy, procedure, and process has become the job of the people we hired to take care of the “life” needs of today’s workforce, manifesting and perpectuating mediocrity as the performance standard in today’s cubicles. 

Shift the HR experience by establishing 3 “human” principles into practice.

1. Design corporate policy, company culture, and employee expectations around what is right vs. what is fair. If the foundation for processes and controls within your organization is based on being fair to all, you are trying to harness a tornado of opinion-based benchmarks and interpretations for how fairness is applied in the workplace. If you foster and encourage performance-based cultures and create static measures that are applied consistently across the organization, then what is right becomes black and white in application to manage and reinforce.

2. Outsource process, insource people. If ever faced with the strategic dilemma of outsourcing, find the balance to keep internal team members that are familiar with internal company culture, workplace policy, and have personal relationships with staff members for the “life” support and personal issues. Outsource time intensive and/or systematic processes.

3. No matter the discussion topic - acknowledge all individuals at the table as “humans” first. Make eye contact whenever possible, and initiate all discussions with “How are you today?” and wait for the response.

Be revoluntionary and bring “human” back to the workplace. Whether you are a senior manager or a front-line HR generalist – you are empowered and have the contact with the employees to make a difference in your organization.

THE REALITY

Feedback, and the never-ending search for comments and endless opinions, are everywhere. From email surveys received after speaking with a mortgage servicing representative, to the post-it box strategically placed at the pick up counter of coffee shops. The CEO, employee, and consumer all have an opinion, and only in rare cases is there complete harmony of perspective between the three.

Beware of bad career advice that inspires the pursuit of perfection through a revolving door of feedback, if you listen, you may never reach your destination.

THE TRUTH

Although feedback can be constructive, it can also be counterproductive. Companies can lose themselves trying to be everything to all, and you can lose yourself trying to seek out all of the experts to provide you feedback on your choices, professional documents, or career pursuits.

GOOD ADVICE

Define a small set of trusted friends, colleagues, and mentors to solicit for feedback, and if what they have to say resonates, make decisions and act on their suggestions. Recognize the difference between running in circles confined by the revolving door of opinions or taking in feedback as guidance to progressively move forward. Consistently seek progress and not perfection.

Are you an influential leader or an opinionated jerk? 

THE TRUTH – the “big mouth” self assessment 

1. When faced with interpersonal conflict at the office are you typically the  wagon (being pulled), ox (pulling), or the reins (steering)?
2. When faced with a project where you have to collaborate amongst your peers to accomplish a goal are you the score keeper (give someone else credit for success), the sprinter (you get the credit for success) or the coach (doesn’t care who gets credit as long as the goal is accomplished)?
3. In a departmental meeting are you the complainer (demotivate, accomplish nothing), coffee pot (motivate, accomplish nothing) or facilitator (motivate and lead action)?
4. Do your boss and/or co-workers trust you enough to follow your lead?

Beware of bad career advice that encourage collaboration through round-table discussions of opinions, at the end of the day the only objective that gets accomplished is that of the influential leader that left the table first, and the rest who followed behind. 

THE REALITY 

No one cares what you think, unless you influence them to feel the same way. 

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 GOOD ADVICE 

Are you the complaining score keeping wagon? You always ensure things are fair, with a lot to say but accomplish very little. Even though you are liked, you are probably a nightmare to manage. 

Are you the sprinting ox coffee pot? You possess a path full of accomplishments but chances are you are resented by your peers. The boss loves you because you get things done, but you face peaks and valleys of success and failure, because you are totally alone when faced with defeat. 

Be the facilitating coach with the reins. Influence those around you by getting to know them personally and engaging them through a message that resonates with them. Lead from the back and push others into the spotlight, but never lose hold of the reins to steer the outcome in your desired direction.

THE REALITY

Waiting for the job market to “pick up” is officially not working. Companies are finally in the black, but out of fear are still not expanding their work force via the extension of formal offers of employment.

Beware of bad career advice that deters you away from considering contract work, the wave of the future career might just be a series of assignments carried from beginning to end within various institutions.

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 THE TRUTH

Companies are bringing staff aboard, but rather external staff to complete internal contracts. Although some contract assignments may only be a few weeks, the duration can range up to 18 months. Although temporary staff typically don’t receive internal company perks, many organizations have been slashing the “feel good” programs over the past few years anyway. Contractor compensation is very competitive if not higher to internal company wages, and there is typically the chance of a contract leading to a full-time opportunity.

GOOD ADVICE

Consider contracting a great way get your foot in the door of desired companies and the opportunity to identify, by working in the production environment, whether or not an organization is a solid place to build a career.

Assessment.com Home of the MAPP Assessment, located in Edina, MN offers a portion of their MAPP career assessment free online. http://www.assessment.com

No matter how much one tries – not all can be a professional dancer…or chef…or accountant. Just because one is passionate about something, does not necessarily equate to a solid foundation upon which to build a successful career and future.

A career must be built upon two intersecting personal and professional tripods, with the top triangle an active career objective that keeps an individual future focused.

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Personal Triangle: passions, gifted skills, values

Professional Triangle: qualifications (education, certifications, training), experience (work, volunteer, leadership), an ACTIVE career objective

The best way to figure out where you are headed, is to identify where you are standing.  Find yourself, your direction, and then start moving.

THE REALITY

Social media has become an extension of who we are and consequently, part of who people acknowledge us to be. We define the words “circle of privacy” to be a 3 digit sum of individuals. So why are we still so shocked when social media habits bleed into our professional lives, with real-world consequences?

Beware of bad career advice that affirms social media has no professional consequences – the truth reveals the contrary.

THE TRUTH

45% of employers now screen social media profiles as part of the hiring process.  (Harris Interactive http://mashable.com/2009/08/19/social-media-screening/ )

Google your name. Think about what you find from this perspective – what can your employer, current or future, find out about you from your online communication streams and profiles?

GOOD ADVICE

Own your identity and be consistent between your personal, professional, and virtual reputations. If there is vast disparity between one or the other, it might be time for career assessment.

You professional: Miserable accountant at a financial services organization

You personal/virtual: Cooking blog and food expert

You career reassessed: Create a goal to find an accountant position for a restaurant management company or a cooking academy.

Get creative, be specific, and eventually all of you will become one at some point in the future.

THE REALITY

The search continues for one “tip”, one session, a single piece of advice that will change the course of the future and actually land a stable paycheck. Advertisements are everywhere, career and resume service providers trying to grab a piece of the market share that endless job seekers are openly desperate to pay for.

Beware of bad resume advice – you are less hopeless than you think.

THE TRUTH

If you don’t know who you are and what you are looking for, no one can truly help you write a resume.

The resume process IS personal and should be interactive between an individual and the service provider. Prices can range from $250 to $1500+ for advice, and yet the consumer may walk away from the experience with very little knowledge how to update the new resume on their own in the future.

GOOD ADVICE

A good coach would ensure 80% of the time and effort is on individual’s shoulders, so costs incurred for resume specific services should never be more than a couple hours of time. If it is – the consumer is ultimately paying for an “over-process” within the providing institution.

YOUR 80%

1. Refer to the “Be extraordinary – 3 steps to changing the perspective behind your career search” article to build a personal and professional profile with goals.
2. Go through the process of creating a solid objective statement that answers these questions; Who are you? What do you bring to the table? What type of company/position are you looking for?
3. Revisit your work history and ensure you have included as many measurable benchmarks as possible for your individual contributions ($ revenue, $ sold, increased profits by %, etc.) 
4. Refer to the article titled “The Holy Grail of FREE Document Templates.” Identify and convert existing resume to new template.

REMAINING 20%

Choose a known and trusted provider, that encourages making the process of creating a resume, a personal one. If they take the time to get to know who you are, possess the qualifications to assist with strengthening sentence structure, and ask questions that challenge your perspective, they are probably worth the time and money.

Our governments, religious institutions, corporate environments, and our social expectations have been founded upon fear based consequences; obey the law or you will go to jail, pray or you will go to hell, work or you will get fired, lose weight or no one will accept you. We all strive in one form or another to avoid our addictions and vices yet so many external influential factors are continually encouraging us to fail. These institutions and those who lead them categorize populations collectively; however insist human beings individually remain obedient, humble, and respectful of these structures out of fear.

Darren Baker - Veer.com

Our world is in the mist of a transition, a battle between those who currently possess authority and individuals fighting to regain and retain their own personal powers. Eventually all institutions must learn to accommodate a much more independent, confident, and opinionated society.  People are not just opening their eyes to the injustices around the world; but people are engaging within themselves, allowing sensations of passion and purpose to help them stand for a cause and find someone or something to believe in.

What do you believe in?