Resumark Blog

Letting Projects Ripen

Tue, 15 May 2012 18:19:34 +0000

Some projects move easily toward completion. Others are more difficult, contain hidden obstacles, encounter resistance, take lots more time, or turn out far worse than you planned.

There could be many possible reasons for these differences, but a big category of likely reasons is contained in an image of projects I like to call “ripening.” Like a piece of fruit, projects progress along a spectrum of “readiness.” When projects are fully ripe they yield to easy efforts and produce satisfying results. When they’re unripe, there’s little or nothing you can do to make them turn out well.

Some people attribute this “ripening” to a process of unconscious preparation and development that goes on in your head, rather than in the project. And that’s certainly one possibility. But “ripening” covers a lot of other project characteristics, many of which are undeniably external and objective.

The most obvious example of this is something like a timely report you’re asked to prepare on a fast-changing situation. If you prepare it now for presentation next week, there’s a good chance your report will be out of date by the time you deliver it. The project won’t be “ripe” - that is, ready for you to work on it - until you get much closer to your scheduled delivery date.

Here are some suggestions for determining whether or not a particular project is “ripe” enough for your best efforts:

1. Does it contain all the necessary data? In fast-changing environments, you won’t know the details of most current situations until the last possible minute. In complex situations, there may be days or weeks of data gathering and analysis required before a project is ready for you to start work. In any case, starting to crunch the numbers before all the numbers are in place is a classic case of working on a project before it is “ripe.”

2. Do you understand all the forces at work in the situation? If you’re not crystal clear about what’s going on, and exactly how each change you make will impact the overall picture, the project is not yet “ripe” enough for you to take action.

3. Are your skills and interests properly attuned to the project? Because you’re not a robot, your level of intelligence, ability to think and plan, creative juices, even your mood and other personal aspects vary greatly from week to week, day to day, even hour to hour. If the skills, talents, and abilities you require to perform well on a specific project are not peaking when you start work on it, you may be better off to delay your efforts until you can forge a better alignment between what you’re capable of doing and what you are trying to accomplish. Let the project “ripen” a little more you’re a better fit for its demands.

4. Are you fully focused on the project? Few of us face only one responsibility or challenge at a time; we normally attempt to juggle lots of projects all at the same time, and focus on each one if, as, and when necessary. If you’re currently too caught up in any one of your other projects, this may be the wrong time to tackle the one you’re now considering. You may produce better results by postponing some or all of your work on it until you can concentrate more exclusively.

Why Teamwork May Not Always Be Best

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:30:41 +0000

People skills. Collaboration. Group projects. Teams. Lately, business seem to have fallen in love with the idea of employees working together. The theory, apparently, is that two heads are better than one, and anything over three can’t help but produce something of genius.

In some ways, this point of view is understandable. After all, one person can have a crazy idea and just run with it, but if there are others around, they can rein that person in. Plus, with a group, things will be vetted as they move forward, making it more likely that the best ideas will rise to the top like the proverbial cream, right? Not necessarily.

The Loss of the Lone Genius

What all this togetherness doesn’t account for is the simple fact that some people just work better when they are off by themselves. In fact, more and more research is showing that some of the most creative individuals in any field are introverts that work far better when they are allowed to have privacy and freedom from interruption. These are “lone geniuses” who, by their very nature, just aren’t people who join with others. They are able to interact to the extent that they can share and advance their ideas by talking with people, but actually evolving those ideas with the hands-on help of others often ends up being detrimental.

For these people, solitude itself may actually be the thing that encourages their innovative and sometimes even outlandish thoughts. Freed from others, they don’t get sidetracked by the social dynamics that are intrinsic to working in a group. There will be no bombastic and charismatic group leader that keeps them quiet because they aren’t as good at speaking up in groups. No fear of rejection holding them back from proposing their more outside-the-box ideas, which often need time and space to evolve into something digestible for people who don’t have their imagination.

What this really comes down to is the idea that the world needs both kinds of people. For every charismatic genius like Steve Jobs, who worked best when pushing others to understand and realize his dreams, we need an Isaac Newton sitting alone under an apple tree working out the concept of gravity. Or, to put it a different way - Steve Jobs isn’t Steve Jobs without his own Isaac Newton going off alone to really think about things and work on the project alone.

Unfortunately, with the rise of “groupthink” in companies due to the desire to have everyone working together all the time, “lone geniuses” seem to be out of fashion, and it’s something we may come to regret.

Looking to Love Your Work

Mon, 07 May 2012 20:43:23 +0000

Ever watch kids play? Most of the time, they’re intensely focused, giving it their all, and very close to shrieking or laughing with pleasure.

Adults at work? Not so much.

The difference comes not just from the ages, or from the external pressures that impact adults at work much more than kids at play.

Among the biggest differences are how much more closely kids’ play meshes with and engages their basic interests, preferences, and sources of pleasure. But this seems natural, since most times kids choose what they’re going to play, while adults most often work on tasks and projects handed to them by supervisors.

Unless you’re independently wealthy, it’s undeniable that (in the words of the classic lyric): “you’re taking what they’re giving ’cause you’re working for a living.”

However, despite what you and everyone else may think, you may not have to accept quite as many unwanted job elements you do. In many jobs, there is room not only for pushback, but for choice. And the more deeply you can tap into your unique personality, skills, and abilities, the more likely you are to find work that’s well suited to you, work that fewer people are capable of doing as well as you. That’s an advantage, because when fewer people can perform a job well, it generally carries more prestige and pay.

These simple truths offer a strategy for upgrading your job situation to be more personally satisfying. Here’s how to do it:

Phase 1

Start by re-learning who you are and what you’re most capable of doing well. Think back to your childhood, then your teen years, then your early adulthood, and so on until you reconsider the present. Look for patterns, themes, and tendencies. Were you always good at math? Did you find it easy to see the best way forward? Were you unwilling to give up on certain goals? Did you frequently lose track of time during one or two of your activities?

The person you were in years gone by offers wonderfully accurate clues to your inner nature, native skills, most exciting potential, and deepest interests.

These are the elements you should try to incorporate into your working life, starting right away.

Phase 2

As you discover clues to your nature, skills, potential, and interests, look for ways in which all these elements might mesh, combine, or synergize. For example, if you are interested in colors and shapes, have a naturally strong memory for visual appearances, and want to know more about the ways people interact - both positively and negatively - with their spaces, you might bring all these elements into play in a career such as interior decoration or architectural design.

It takes a while to absorb enough clues about your unique personality and skills, and even more time for them to gel into possible new career directions. So allow plenty of time, but don’t let this effort languish, either. If any of this were easy, you’d already have done it. So keep pushing, even if it seems at times you’re making little progress.

Phase 3

Re-Invent yourself for a better job or career. Once you know more about what you love doing, begin blending the various job possibilities associated with them in search of a new way to earn your living. Without leaving your current job, for example, you can engage with others on your team, and with your supervisor or manager, to explore options for expanding or changing your current job description. You could ask to use different procedures or tools, or to handle different responsibilities.

The key to loving your work more to utilize more of your inner nature, native skills, most exciting potential, and deepest interests.

Can Blogging Help Your Job Search?

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:35:12 +0000

You’ve likely heard about companies firing their employers for complaining about their jobs (or sometimes even just mentioning them) in their personal blogs. What you don’t hear as much about are the success stories. People who attract the attention of employers through their blogging.

Why would blogging make employers think that you’re the person for them? Maintaining a blog requires a certain kind of skillset and can translate into a number of workplace environments.

You have to know how to market… Obviously great for marketing positions, but really in any industry where you might be creating a presentation about something for your bosses (or their bosses), this is a great skill to have.

…and network. The way to get more hits on your blog is that same way you get ahead in the business world: network with the right people who are able and willing to lend a helping hand in exchange for you doing the same.

You have to be able to build and maintain relationships. In other words - people skills. Sure, you’re dealing with your readers virtually, but a lot of the same manners and protocols apply that do in the work place. Good people skills are always a sought-after skill.

You have to be able to clearly communicate. This applies to, oh, just about every job anywhere. Unless you’re working completely alone, you’ll need to talk to coworkers, delegate effectively to people below you, and explain to your superiors why you did or didn’t do what they asked of you. People who communicate well tend to do well.

You have to know your field. Successful blogs tend to be niche blogs where a person has a lot of good information about a particular field. Chances are, if an employer is excited about the prospects of hiring you from your blog, it’s for a position in the field where you are an “expert.” And how did you become known as an expert? Your blog!

A blog can be particularly helpful if you are trying to change fields or looking to advance your career. You may have experience and expertise that doesn’t show up in your resume, but will shine through on a blog.

But before you list your blog on your resume, make sure it will help your job hunt. Does it look professional? Is it error-free? Do you have only positive things to say about the industry in which you are looking to be hired? If you’re not sure, get an outside opinion, preferably from a mentor within your field.

Use Twitter for Job Hunting

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:26:12 +0000

The advice is well known: as soon as you’re back on the streets, looking for work, you:

Update your resume
Tweak your LinkedIn profile
Browse the job boards
Apply to every open position that makes sense
Tell family, friends and professional colleagues that you’re looking

But there’s more you can do: Although Twitter is best known for silly, superficial, in-the-moment communications among people who know each other personally, it’s increasingly coming into use as a networking medium among people who have never met.

With Twitter accumulating active, involved users at a breath-taking pace, there are starting to be ways to use this communications channel for job hunting - ways that didn’t exist just a short time ago.

These include:

1) Tweet your needs to your friends and followers. It’s smart to use Twitter to let everyone in your network know you’re back in the hunt for a good position. Not only may you reach people not included in LinkedIn, Facebook, and your other networks, people who tweet are often an active, plugged-in group. In many cases, your contacts on Twitter will quickly offer you strong leads, or at least useful contacts, you can pursue as you search for your next job.

2) Add a photo to your Twitter profile. Since job searching on Twitter is likely to involve people who have never spent time with you (at least not recently), the value of a headshot is immense. It lets people evaluate your character - or at least think they can - and remember you more easily than they ever would without that kind of visual cue.

3) Cast as broad a net as you can. Networking is a numbers game, so getting more people thinking about you and your search for a new position is going to increase your chances of making a useful contact and parlaying it into a job offer.

Search Twitter for such people as:

Alumni of your school(s)

Career coaches

Human resources personnel

Experts, consultants, and networkers in your industry

Moderators of relevant chat rooms and job boards

Recruiters

Reporters who cover your industry

Specialty bloggers in your field

Tweeting to key people in these positions can directly or indirectly help you discover a position, or an organization looking to hire. What’s more, staying in touch with people like these will help you get and remain current in your industry, as well as understand more about any individual company you decide to target.

4) Follow the tweets coming from organizations where you’d like to work. There may be both official and unofficial messages that will help you identify upcoming relocations, new products and services, mergers, acquisitions, divestments, and internal reorganizations - any or all of which may lead to openings that you are qualified to fill.

It’s great when you can offer yourself as a candidate for a position even before the organization begins to search.

5) Tweet like a professional. Think in terms of your old, your present, or your new boss, and keep your tweets on a level that you’re willing to have them read. Personal issues, nights on the town, conquests, failures, silly thoughts, and embarrassments are all better reserved for face-to-face conversations with friends, rather than broadcast to the Twitterverse.

5 Most Common Networking Mistakes

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:47:23 +0000

Networking. Is there a more cringe-inducing word in the English language? Most people are not inherently good at it, and some even find the idea of it distasteful. Unfortunately, your personal connections are the best asset you have in getting a job and moving ahead, so networking - and networking well - is something that all of us have to work on.

That’s why it’s valuable to look at 5 of the most common mistakes people make when trying to network. Avoid these, and you’ll be well on your way to making a positive connection.

Make it all about you. Yes, the point of networking with someone is so that you can get them to help you in some way, but that doesn’t mean that you should ask for their help right away. Most people will find this rude, and even if they do help you, they might do it begrudgingly. At the very least, you want to forge some kind of personal connection before asking for what you want, but it’s even better if you can make yourself useful to them in some way.

Paper the town. When you ask someone for their help, or even just to get to know them, you want them to feel like it’s because they’re special - they are the only one who can help you because of their special knowledge and abilities. But that’s not going to be possible if you take a scattershot approach and put yourself out there to a bunch of people because you want to make sure that someone comes through for you. Do that and you’ll quickly become that annoying person that no one wants to help.

Be a Poindexter. This one is mostly for actual networking events, but if you go somewhere specifically to network - do it. You can hang out with your friends anytime; the point is to meet new people and expand the group of people you can count on. No one is saying it’s easy, but you’ve got to bite the bullet.

Have bad follow-through. It does you no good if you meet someone and share a connection with them but don’t follow up after that initial encounter. And it’s especially bad if you make plans to meet them or send them something… and then neglect to do so. You’ll immediately be labeled a flake, and they’ll go from having a moderately positive impression of you to a negative one.

Play out of your league. While Donald Trump would be a great connection to have in theory, how much time and effort do you think he would actually put in to helping you? Look at it this way: what’s in it for him? The best networking connections offer something for both people.

Handling the Ups and Downs of a Job Search

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:17:13 +0000

The New Year’s gloss is off the year: the resolutions are broken (or mostly) and the time is zipping by. When you are job hunting, it’s hard to look at a blank slate and fill it with promising dreams. If you are feeling beat up by the job search and thinking that blank slate is a bad thing, read on.

Keeping yourself motivated during any job search can be difficult. But this is especially true during a very long, protracted job search in a bad economy. The ups and downs can be as difficult to handle as finding the jobs to apply for. You’re buoyed by each new call for an interview, apprehensive when called for second interviews, and crushed when the call comes that you were one of two finalists - and it didn’t go your way. If you feel as though you are marked with a big red L on your forehead, or you are frustrated by jumping through all the hoops only to be told no, you are not alone. What you need are a few coping strategies, and a little dose of reality.

Don’t bank on one opportunity

Even if it’s the job of your dreams - especially if it’s the job of your dreams - do not stop applying for other jobs. Keep your foot in the game and continue to be responsive and enthusiastic about other opportunities. We all know not to count our chickens before they’re hatched, but it’s so tempting when things seem to be lining up. Remember, you don’t have the job until an offer has been made, and sometimes, not even then.

Find a support group, person or system

And it probably shouldn’t be your spouse. Ideally, it should be someone who is going through the same experience, but preferably not in the same field. Find a group at a workforce center (you can go even if you are not on unemployment in most states) or a library, church or community center. If you can’t find one, start one. Giving vent to your frustrations will help keep them from coming out during job interviews.

Say what you mean

In most cases, your interviewer may not know that much about the actual job. And they can’t read your mind. If you are the perfect person for this job, say so, using specific examples. Explain why your experience is a good match. We’ve all done the thing where we walk out and on the way home think of something brilliant we should have said. Don’t forget to sell yourself.

Plan ahead

Do as much research as possible about the particular job for which you are interviewing, so that you can give real substantive answers to questions, and maybe even offer solutions to their problems. But also plan what you are going to do after the interview, this week, next week and so on. Your job right now is to find a job. You wouldn’t be able to do your job without planning out your work, so why should the job hunt be any different?

The reality is

You are not perfect. You are going to mess up. You are going to say the wrong things, spill your water, get lost and be late. It will happen. You can’t beat yourself up for it. You just need to move on. And it could take a while. But the worse thing you can do, for your career, your family and your self-esteem, is give up. There will be a better day down the road. This too shall pass.

Improve These Taken-for-Granted Skills to Upgrade Your Brand

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:30:23 +0000

Are your job-hunting procedures not working as well as you expected, or as they have in the past? One reason may be that the “brand-package” you present to prospective employers is weak in some of the bedrock leadership, communications, and teamwork skills most people take for granted. If your personal brand doesn’t appear to include top-of-the-line skills, you may well be losing out to candidates who lack your overall ability, knowledge, and experience, but who seem at first glance to be stronger candidates.

Here are five taken-for-granted skills that you may want to polish:

Your Listening Skills These are probably the most frequently overlooked skills of all. One sharp young marketer was fired from several jobs and failed to make the short list on other positions for which he was well qualified simply because he didn’t take the time to listen when people spoke. His mind raced ahead and grasped the point the person was making, prompting him to interrupt in order to give his eager response. No one cared that he was smart and knowledgeable. His refusal to hear others out in full earned him low marks from almost everyone with whom he talked. Listening to others carefully and thoroughly is fairly easy to do, but it will happen only after you make the conscious decision to do it.

Your Speaking Skills The way you express yourself is fundamental to other people’s overall impression of your personal brand. In fact, it’s quite common for someone who knows what he or she is talking about - but who hesitates, chooses the wrong word, or even just mumbles - to appear less knowledgeable and capable than other candidates who possess the gift of gab. Fortunately, you can easily upgrade your speaking skills, either by means of professional training, or just by recording yourself on a regular basis and paying attention to the playback. There are also public-speaking organizations, like Toastmasters, where you can learn to make a much better impression whenever you open your mouth to speak.

Your Writing Skills The ability to convey your ideas and knowledge through the written word is an important element of any strong candidate’s personal brand, and in recent years has become even more central to success in a great many situations. Writing effectively requires that you first know what you are trying to say, and then that you take a few extra minutes to express your points directly and unambiguously. You’ll also help strengthen your personal brand by proof-reading your written words one extra time, checking for correct punctuation and spelling. It definitely takes a few extra minutes to improve your writing, but the impression good writing makes on others is always worth the extra time.

Your Teamwork Skills Teamwork is collective effort, so the key to demonstrating your value as a team member is to maintain a broad-enough perspective on any situation to see yourself as part of a group, to recognize what the group is trying to achieve, and to play whatever role may be available to you within that group to help facilitate the team’s success. The alternative - to focus primarily on your personal goals and to selfishly work toward them - marks you as relatively unconcerned about the team.

Your Leadership Skills As a candidate, it’s not easy to provide real leadership. But you can still demonstrate that you bring strong leadership skills to any situation as part of your brand-package. To do this, prepare a few good stories of your past successes that illustrate your leadership effectiveness, and work one or more of them into your interviews, where appropriate. Also, use the traits of a good leader - including the ability to cut to the heart of the matter at hand, to get others to buy into your analysis and proposed course of action, and your readiness to acknowledge and appreciate what others contribute to the group - to mark yourself as a desirable candidate for whatever job you’re seeking.

How to Break Bad Work Habits

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:33:54 +0000

Even though there’s been a bit of a rebound in the job market recently, we all know that things still aren’t good, and probably won’t be good for a while. However, if you’ve been let go from several jobs in the last few years and can never seem to latch on to any permanent positions when you go through temp companies, it might be time to take a good look at yourself. We all have a bad habit or two that we take with us to the workplace, whether it’s arriving late, taking too many breaks, gossiping, complaining, or spending all day on Facebook and Twitter. If you believe there are things you might be doing that are hurting your chances at getting and keeping a job, it might be time to break the cycle. But how?

Identify the bad habits. The first thing you need to do is be honest with yourself about your negative habits. It might even be worth it to ask a former trusted coworker if there were any things you did at work that bothered them. Hearing these things might not feel good, but it’s important to know so that you can get better.

Come up with positive strategies. If your problem is that you’re always late, set a goal to leave 10 minutes earlier and do whatever you need to achieve this - alarms, going to bed earlier, showering the night before. If you put off answering emails, schedule time each morning to work on them. Your strategy should fit the nature of the problem.

Take baby steps. Changing yourself can take time. Set small goals rather than large ones, and let yourself be proud when you achieve them. If you spend two hours a day on Facebook and Twitter, shave 15 minutes off of that once a week until you feel you’ve gotten down to a reasonable amount of time.

Have a big goal. Yes, I know I just said you should use smaller, more achievable goals, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a larger one. An “ultimate” goal, say, like getting a promotion or landing a fulltime job. All of those baby steps can be a pathway leading to this.

Working on making yourself a better employee can certainly help you in your career, but don’t be surprised if it makes you feel better about yourself in general, too!

Don’t Fear Mistakes

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:08:36 +0000

One of the saddest aspects of our dog-eat-dog culture is that so many people are brought up to be fearful of their own ignorance, errors, and outright mistakes. That’s a shame, because - just as with learning to ride a bicycle - some things are very difficult to master without a period of trial-and-error. This includes all things musical, artistic, and athletic. It also includes most creative thinking, inventing, and science.

The whole notion that making a mistake is a mistake, is a mistake.

In fact, just as giving away a dollar to get back two (we call this “investing”) is a basic business activity, learning more from a mistake than the mistake itself costs you is a basic pattern of human growth.

When you unpack this notion, you realize first that you aren’t making a mistake if you know in advance that a particular choice or action isn’t going to work out well. That’s just being stupid, or self-destructive.

An honest mistake involves a sincere advance belief that it’s going to work out great. When it doesn’t, you may feel foolish. You may have singed your hair a little. You may have lost some coin or some advantage that it took you a long time to amass. But if you have the right attitude, and take the time to study your mistake, you may learn enough from it to make your mistake a worthwhile expenditure of time, money, opportunity, and effort.

That’s your second realization.

And it carries the simple but important implication that there’s nothing wrong with making honest mistakes. Just make sure you make them in moderation, rather than in great quantities. To keep your number of mistakes under control, do the following:

- Do all you can not to make the same mistake twice.

- Watch your step as you go forward, in hopes you spot any obvious pitfalls and bear-traps before you step into them.

- Get advice and guidance from people who have previously made mistakes in this area.

- Build up a system of “safety ropes,” like mountain climbers do, so the penalty for any mistakes you make will be contained, rather than a death-dealing drop all the way back to where you started.

It’s also helpful to make sure you learn all you can from every mistake. Think carefully about:

- What you did wrong within the mistaken actions and choices

- What you did right within the mistaken actions and choices,

- What you learned during the course of the mistake, and

- What you can do better next time you face the same situation.

Even more important, don’t accept defeat too readily. Many people who have achieved great success have done so immediately after major failures. But rather than accept their mistake as a dead end, they continued to work toward their goal. Think of this process as making “mid-course corrections.” You can make a mistake early on, then recognize the error and make adjustments to minimize the problems and maximize the opportunities that follow from it. By sticking with a project and continually fine-tuning your actions and choices, it’s possible to turn an initial mistake into an ultimate success.

Using this three-pronged approach, you need never fear making an honest mistake.

And you won’t be alone. Countless people who have achieved great success have reported, on looking back, that they learned more from their errors than from their successes. What’s more, countless mentors and coaches have settled on advising others to make more mistakes, or at least to be willing to make more of them.

While mistakes themselves can be valuable, the willingness to make them can be even more valuable. This is because the willingness to make errors brings relaxation, freedom to experiment, opportunities for new insights and innovation, and confidence that a single mistake won’t be the end of your efforts to start or continue your career.