Career Transition Readiness Improvement

Career Transition Readiness Improvement From the Blood, Sweat, and Tears of Danny O’Rourke and many others ASQ 1212, Sept. 2016 meeting

You will always be in one of 3 Career States • Status Quo • Transition • Some of Both

Transitions Planned (foreseeable ) Negative, Career Ceiling Planned Positive My MBA paid-off, Movin’ on up! Note: These four transitions came from the book: Do Over by Jon Acuff. He uses different terminology but the concept is his. It’s also a great book. Status Quo Unplanned Positive My Manager hit the lottery – surprise promotion! Unplanned Negative, Layoff

The Surprising Stuff • There is more to it than I imagined • It is harder than I imagined • People who haven’t done the job search recently, don’t get it

What do these things have in common? • Paying your credit card bill • Laundry • Fitness • Eating your vegetables • Make some time now for your Career You will pay either way – the time you don’t spend keeping up will be time you spend catching up.

Core Components in your Career Management • Stories • Know Thy Work Self • Skills • Network / Relationships

Core Components in your Career Management

Stories Work Examples / Stories / Portfolio & Documentation… Have You Ever Been Experienced? For every Major Position/Project, take notes: [ ] When did it start? …end? [ ] Responsibilities / main role within the position / project [ ] What was the impact? ($ generated, $ saved, speed/cycle time, strategic?...) [ ] How many people were involved/who was involved (note Internal vs. External, Senior Management? [ ] This feeds internal transition and Networking – who did you work with? [ ] Did you help or hold any other roles, besides the main role? [ ] Was it a success / successful year?... – what criteria did you use? …what made the effort a success? [ ] If it was not successful, why? What would you do next time? [ ] General Documentation – Address, salary, bonus from this work?

Know Thy Work Self [ ] Did you try something new? Did you like it?, Dislike it? [ ] What were you most excited about (going into it)? [ ] What were you least excited about (going into it)? [ ] What was most rewarding aspect? [ ] What was most frustrating aspect?

Network / Relationships [ ] From your list of people you worked with – Add them as a LinkedIn Connection [ ] Did you work with anyone outside of at work (volunteer, hobby, school, church, etc.)? – Add them as a LinkedIn Connection [ ] Did you meet anyone new outside of at work? Consider a LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social media connection. [ ] Have you cleaned out any connection invites to you (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)

Skills Skills / Training / Education / Experiential Learning [ ] Did you take any formal classes/education? [ ] Did you learn anything new, informally? (Read a book, watched a documentary, listened to an hour long radio program….) [ ] Did you learn anything new from experience, from having to do it? Maybe you did quick Just-In-Time research on a topic, tool, approach? [ ] Did you have to (or choose to) use a new piece of software or technology? At work or at home.

Benchmarking & Next Level [ ] Work Stories – Put your stories into a Challenge, Action, Result format and write them up at level of quality equal to a resume. Benchmark: 1.) What skills do other people have in my current position?, 2.) What skills do people have in my desired position?, 3.) What skills are called out in the job descriptions of my desired positions? [ ] What is at your core?: What 3 words describe your strongest skills, 3 words …on Character, … on attitude, on personality, what 3 words do you want other people to use to describe you. [ ] Ask other people: What 3 words would they use to describe you? Review how you see yourself vs. others. Put down examples to demonstrate those core adjectives.

Is this Quality? A job description and requirements that really aren’t the requirements or the description? The job description that stresses the candidates atttention too detail An “open” job that really isn’t open. The job that requires that you be able to start ASAP and it takes one month to hear back that they want to interview you and you have seen this same job opening pop back up on the job boards for 4 months prior to you applying to it. The potential customer rejects your product without explanation. The Customer won’t talk about the scope of the project until they lock down the price. However, the scope of the project won’t be very negotiable.

Questions I will answer from at least one of these views, if I can: 1.) from my experience OR 2.) the experience I have seen and heard from others OR 3.) the answer I would get from my Outplace group

Extra Credit There probably won’t be time to have a discussion around more items that you could add to the list but, maybe after the talk we could discuss more things if you are really a go-getter or maybe you are very worried rough times are coming and you have to dig in.

Beyond The Starter List Know Thee Self Stories Network Skills

Career Transition Readiness Improvement