Month: March 2014

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This Week’s Workshop: Implementing Your Personal Marketing Plan… Thursday, April 3rd, 8:45 AM @ The Egg and I Restaurant in Addison

This week, Thursday, April 3rd we will ‘conduct’ a job search in real time, drawing from actual experience of our participants.  This session provides an excellent OVERVIEW of our 12 step Process to regulars and new comers alike.  Our focus is on effective time management to create focus and efficiency in job search efforts.  We’ll be rolling in OPTIMIZING your LinkedIn usage.

Who Should Attend?

  1. Anyone who wants to create a strategic plan for the rest of their working life… job changes will occur!
  2. Job seekers who find themselves in a rut…rapidly crashing into the black hole of depression
  3. Any job seeker looking to create focus within their search efforts
  4. Any professional to give substance to their next steps
  5. Newcomers to DFWCareerpilot… including tire-kickers

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NEXT Week’s Workshop: Developing Your Personal Marketing Plan… Thursday, March 27th, 8:45 AM @ The Egg and I Restaurant in Addison

Are you TOTALLY Prepared For an Efficient and productive job search?  This session provides an excellent, albeit quick OVERVIEW of our 12 step Process to regulars and new comers alike.  Our focus is on effective time management to create focus and efficiency in job search efforts. We also look at the importance of personal accountability to ACTION!

We meet regularly at The Egg and I Restaurant in Addison (NW quadrant of Arapaho and Montfort… 1 block east of the Tollway)

Who Should Attend?

  1. Anyone who wants to create a strategic plan for the rest of their working life… job changes will occur!
  2. Job seekers who find themselves in a rut…rapidly crashing into the black hole of depression
  3. Any job seeker looking to create focus within their search efforts
  4. Any professional to give substance to their next steps
  5. Newcomers to DFWCareerpilot… including tire-kickers

Please SHARE this post with your friends.

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THIS Week’s Workshop: In-Synch Personal Marketing Collateral Materials… Thursday, March 20th, 8:45 AM @ The Egg and I in Addison

Building on the concepts of ACHIEVING CareerFITness, next week’s Event will focus on content issues for high impact, productive collateral materials like a job seeker’s resume, verbal ‘pitches,’ and their LinkedIn Profile.

Actions requested:

Bring hard and soft copies of your current resume draft… bring your laptop (or other wi fi-enabled editing tool) if you want to do some self-inflicted, hands on editing of your resume or LinkedIn Profile… everyone will have the opportunity to practice their verbal collateral materials.

The 411…

Let’s consider the difference between good and GREAT.  Why agonize over the creation of “the perfect resume?”  You’ve seen sketch artists capture the real you in a matter of minutes… A traditional resume communicates what you have already done… sort of a historical epitaph of your past.  It is very easily written from old job descriptions.

However, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), a Dutch painter, was NEVER in a hurry.  A masterpiece takes time.  I have never known anyone, including professional resume writers, who are capable of developing and writing a high impact resume within an hour or two.  The upside of getting a resume out quickly is that you don’t sacrifice early opportunities.  Such a “quickie” may work well… especially if you’re seeking a commodity job in a soft job market.  You need a job fast, right???

  Wrong.

  • The downside of a “quickie resume” — when your true objective is to find work requiring professional talent and skills — is that the output is seldom very compelling and persuasive, truly fitting your career objectives.  And in today’s digital marketplace, your quickie resume may have extended shelf life, once “mined” from the giant, online resume/job banks.  It’s a monster of a problem.
  • The time that you spend developing a GREAT Resume Template is some of the most valuable time that you’ll spend while in career transition.  A “GREAT” Resume is a dynamic documentation of your communication strategy, the vital epicenter of your Personal Market Plan. 
  • Developed in parallel with your two-minute drill strategies and your LinkedIn profile, your resume will have clearly positioned and targeted marketing collateral that will serve you well.  Yes, written and verbal collaterals that are in synch with each other, will create and dispense your marketing message.

This week’s workshop encourages you to communicate what you are capable of and motivated to do in the future, using your past as supportive evidence.  Its easy to make a resume look and read well… but does YOUR resume truly “FIT” your career objectives?  By learning and following the guidelines suggested this week, you will find the “journey” to your destination, successful career transition, to be smooth sailing.  

Plan to attend this THURSDAY at 8:45 AM…

Who should attend:

  1. Job seekers who have not achieved productivity in their ONLINE efforts
  2. NEW Job seekers who need to develop their collateral ‘arsenal’
  3. Those that understand they must ‘tweak’ their resumes from time to time… but don’t understand HOW
  4. DFWCareerpilot ‘regulars’ with specific questions

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THIS THURSDAY’s Workshop: Achieving CareerFIT… Thursday, March 13th at 8:45 AM @ The Egg and I Restaurant in Addison

Just what IS a good CareerFIT for you?

To achieve a good “fit” between you and any future opportunity, you have to ask yourself some basic questions about yourself and your prospective employers. The fit depends on how well the jobs meets your needs and how well your skills and abilities meet the employer’s needs. The employer will make a decision and extend an offer to you: now it is time for you to make your decision.

SHARE THIS POST with your network… and let them know about the scheduling AND content changes at DFWCareerpilot!… THX

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Write out the factors that are important to you in a job… actually write out your list.  During your career transition, learn the value of setting your offer criteria, a key element of your Personal Market Plan:

  1. Creates an objective target for your efforts ahead;
  2. Gives you a meaningful set of questions to ask during research and networking;
  3. Provides an objective way to analyze and react to offers as they occur.

To manage your career wisely has you extending the same concept.  Consider some of the factors listed below … Examine each factor through the questions listed – and then ask, “does this opportunity fit me?”

Work Requirements and Expectations: What is the next  appropriate work for you? Is the work process or project oriented?  If it’s process oriented, are the requirements and expectations clear?  What kinds of projects will you work on? Will you work on one project at a time, or multiple projects? Are the projects long term or short term? Will you work on a project long enough to see the end result? Is it important to you to be able to see the project as a whole, including the result? Or will you be content to do the work without a big picture understanding?

Work Environment: Will the work space be a source of comfort and confidence for you? How formal or informal is the environment? Hectic, fast paced? Will you have the opportunity to have flex time, or to tele-commute? How many hours a week does the employer expect you to work? Will you have the freedom to wear casual clothes? What is a typical day like at the company you are considering?  Would they allow a “trial visit” or at least a site visit?

Career Path: Is there a defined succession plan? What position(s) can you move to next? How long do new hires generally stay in the same job? How quickly do people get promoted? Are your opportunities for professional development well defined and available to you? Are mentors available?

Training and Personal Development: what kind of training will you get from the employer to do the job? What kind of training will you get to stay current in your area of interest? Are the answers to these two questions different? Does it matter to you if the answers are different?

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This week Thursday, March 13th, we will focus on a strategic, more career-oriented, definition of FIT,  answering your questions and concerns at each step of the way…  Your Careerpilot has created collateral development: resumes, correspondence, etc. as a separate topic for our next event.

This is a great place to start for new-comers as the other Core Topics will follow in sequence… THIS WEEK’s Workshop…  Achieving CareerFIT brings focus to those elusive decisions regarding positioning and targeting your efforts.

The first five steps of the 12 step process, from assessment to beginning the evolution of your LinkedIn Profile, will be discussed.  Please let me know you’re planning to attend by filling out this quick RSVP… THX

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THIS Week’s Workshop: Embracing The OTHER Job Market… Thursday, March 6th @ 9 AM

Thursday, March 6th we will discuss basic philosophies of our approach to job search, overview the entire 12-step process, answering your questions and concerns at each step of the way… this is a great place to start for new-comers as the other Core Topics will follow in sequence.  

Please SHARE THIS POST with your network, noting TIME confirmation…  I think we’re THROUGH with the wrinkles that The Egg and I have challenged us with.  THANKS for your flexibility.

The traditional job market could be characterized by “requisitioned” jobs being filled by chosen job seekers.  A job seeker’s Personal Marketing Plan will embrace all of the 12 Steps in our job search process.  It is meant to provide a focused and efficient approach to The OTHER Job Market…  You see, the notion of an “unpublished or hidden” job market is far from new.  However, knowledge of “The OTHER” job market, and your ability to execute your Personal Market Plan in it, will create both focus and productivity in any career transition.

In the OTHER Job Market, potential employers and job seekers hold equal responsibility for the recruitment process.

If an individual is under-employed, seeking a change, or actually unemployed, they must be visible to potential employers who are seeking their services.  Creating this visibility is strategic, personal market planning and execution—it can be marketability without rejection!  Remember…  Personal Marketing is a contact sport.

As a reminder… are YOU prepared with:

Written Personal Marketing COLLATERAL Materials… 

  1. A GREAT Resume that positions you clearly as a terrific FIT with your career objectives… and in today’s technologies: a database-friendly, asci version;
  2. A correspondence template package that consistently carries your communication strategy, your message… and in today’s technologies, a reformatted, text only version of your resume ready for email needs;
  3. A high impact, personal biography and/or NETWORKING PROFILE that you can lead with in your referral based networking strategies.

VERBAL COLLATERAL… 

  1. A well rehearsed “two minute commercial,” your answer to the most asked question during career transition, “Tell me about yourself.”
  2. Several, well though out, “elevator speeches,” examples that support your primary, positioning, key words. These are usually your representative accomplishments under the SUMMARY of your resume. (30 seconds to 1 minute in length)
  3. A succinct “qualification statement” that you can use as an introduction at networking events.  (usually 20 – 30 seconds)
  4. An “exit statement” which explains your availability, to address the second most asked question during career transition.

Having your collaterals prepared and rehearsed prior to active personal marketing is central to your success and builds confidence.  Consistency in the delivery of your message is what creates memory… and frequency of your message helps you get there. And don’t forget your LinkedIn profile and other digital ‘footprints!’

THIS WEEK’s Session is a great place to start for new-comers to DFWCareerpilot!

Who should attend…

  • New Comers, come kick the tires of a new approach to job search… and please fill out the form below!
  • Long term job seekers looking for a new edge… a new approach
  • Regulars. to gain new perspective