2011 THEME The Job Search Rabbit Hole

2011 THEME The Job Search Rabbit Hole Ive  traveled  near and far and met with thousands and thousands of professionals who are in pain. People who lost their jobs and their identity at the same time. People who are feeling around in the dark, trying to figure out where they are and where they are headed. People who are not sure if they fit into society anymore. People who feel worthless. People who are anxiously chasing the illusion (defined: an erroneous mental representation) that they are looking for their next job. Unfortunately, the government (and governments across the country) perpetuate this illusion.  They report economic statistics, make baseless announcements, start meaningless programs, and celebrate over the creation of fake jobs, all leading us to believe that there is indeed hope. Hope in WHAT? I have an image of a job seeker running, chasing a job, or the concept of a job. Just as a hound chases a rabbit down a rabbit hole. But, could it be that the rabbit hole has branches, and the rabbit will never be captured by the hound? Could it be the rabbit never went into the rabbit hole, and the dog is fruitlessly fighting to get deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole? Maybe the dog chased a sick rabbit, or a small, puny rabbit, or some other varmin down the hole, instead of a succulent rabbit. You get the point what if you, as a job seeker, are fighting too hard to get down a rabbit hole that has no rabbit? Or, what if what you are chasing isnt a rabbit at all? Maybe you should be chasing something else. Maybe your journey, in this job search, will lead you on a completely different path. Maybe that means starting that business you have been thinking about for years. Or buying that franchise. Or scaling back on your expenses (moving, selling a car, etc.) and taking a lower paying, less stressful, more rewarding job that isnt a defining thing, but something to pay your bills and somehow giving you more personal reward and fulfillment back in your life. Maybe it is changing professions or industries. Maybe it is taking risks that you wouldnt have taken before. Maybe it is reevaluating EVERYTHING you ever thought about your happiness, your career, etc. Maybe it is serving in more volunteer, community or society and charity organizations. Maybe it is ____________________. I think you already know what it is.  Deep down inside, its been screaming to get out, and youve been pushing it back with but I already have a job! but Im an accountant, and I cant do that!  But _____. Maybe this year it is time to let go of the BUT and do what you already know is the right thing for you. And maybe that means to never have a traditional job again. Is it time to take the corporate ladder down, put it away, and do something else? Maybe, for you, it is the opposite of anything I wrote above.  I cant know that for you but you can.  And you should. The question that will be on my mind all year is this: Are you running down the wrong rabbit hole? 2011 THEME The Job Search Rabbit Hole Ive  traveled  near and far and met with thousands and thousands of professionals who are in pain. People who lost their jobs and their identity at the same time. People who are feeling around in the dark, trying to figure out where they are and where they are headed. People who are not sure if they fit into society anymore. People who feel worthless. People who are anxiously chasing the illusion (defined: an erroneous mental representation) that they are looking for their next job. Unfortunately, the government (and governments across the country) perpetuate this illusion.  They report economic statistics, make baseless announcements, start meaningless programs, and celebrate over the creation of fake jobs, all leading us to believe that there is indeed hope. Hope in WHAT? I have an image of a job seeker running, chasing a job, or the concept of a job. Just as a hound chases a rabbit down a rabbit hole. But, could it be that the rabbit hole has branches, and the rabbit will never be captured by the hound? Could it be the rabbit never went into the rabbit hole, and the dog is fruitlessly fighting to get deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole? Maybe the dog chased a sick rabbit, or a small, puny rabbit, or some other varmin down the hole, instead of a succulent rabbit. You get the point what if you, as a job seeker, are fighting too hard to get down a rabbit hole that has no rabbit? Or, what if what you are chasing isnt a rabbit at all? Maybe you should be chasing something else. Maybe your journey, in this job search, will lead you on a completely different path. Maybe that means starting that business you have been thinking about for years. Or buying that franchise. Or scaling back on your expenses (moving, selling a car, etc.) and taking a lower paying, less stressful, more rewarding job that isnt a defining thing, but something to pay your bills and somehow giving you more personal reward and fulfillment back in your life. Maybe it is changing professions or industries. Maybe it is taking risks that you wouldnt have taken before. Maybe it is reevaluating EVERYTHING you ever thought about your happiness, your career, etc. Maybe it is serving in more volunteer, community or society and charity organizations. Maybe it is ____________________. I think you already know what it is.  Deep down inside, its been screaming to get out, and youve been pushing it back with but I already have a job! but Im an accountant, and I cant do that!  But _____. Maybe this year it is time to let go of the BUT and do what you already know is the right thing for you. And maybe that means to never have a traditional job again. Is it time to take the corporate ladder down, put it away, and do something else? Maybe, for you, it is the opposite of anything I wrote above.  I cant know that for you but you can.  And you should. The question that will be on my mind all year is this: Are you running down the wrong rabbit hole? 2011 THEME The Job Search Rabbit Hole Ive  traveled  near and far and met with thousands and thousands of professionals who are in pain. People who lost their jobs and their identity at the same time. People who are feeling around in the dark, trying to figure out where they are and where they are headed. People who are not sure if they fit into society anymore. People who feel worthless. People who are anxiously chasing the illusion (defined: an erroneous mental representation) that they are looking for their next job. Unfortunately, the government (and governments across the country) perpetuate this illusion.  They report economic statistics, make baseless announcements, start meaningless programs, and celebrate over the creation of fake jobs, all leading us to believe that there is indeed hope. Hope in WHAT? I have an image of a job seeker running, chasing a job, or the concept of a job. Just as a hound chases a rabbit down a rabbit hole. But, could it be that the rabbit hole has branches, and the rabbit will never be captured by the hound? Could it be the rabbit never went into the rabbit hole, and the dog is fruitlessly fighting to get deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole? Maybe the dog chased a sick rabbit, or a small, puny rabbit, or some other varmin down the hole, instead of a succulent rabbit. You get the point what if you, as a job seeker, are fighting too hard to get down a rabbit hole that has no rabbit? Or, what if what you are chasing isnt a rabbit at all? Maybe you should be chasing something else. Maybe your journey, in this job search, will lead you on a completely different path. Maybe that means starting that business you have been thinking about for years. Or buying that franchise. Or scaling back on your expenses (moving, selling a car, etc.) and taking a lower paying, less stressful, more rewarding job that isnt a defining thing, but something to pay your bills and somehow giving you more personal reward and fulfillment back in your life. Maybe it is changing professions or industries. Maybe it is taking risks that you wouldnt have taken before. Maybe it is reevaluating EVERYTHING you ever thought about your happiness, your career, etc. Maybe it is serving in more volunteer, community or society and charity organizations. Maybe it is ____________________. I think you already know what it is.  Deep down inside, its been screaming to get out, and youve been pushing it back with but I already have a job! but Im an accountant, and I cant do that!  But _____. Maybe this year it is time to let go of the BUT and do what you already know is the right thing for you. And maybe that means to never have a traditional job again. Is it time to take the corporate ladder down, put it away, and do something else? Maybe, for you, it is the opposite of anything I wrote above.  I cant know that for you but you can.  And you should. The question that will be on my mind all year is this: Are you running down the wrong rabbit hole?

My Personal Branding Story Part 6 Narrative, Context, and Being a Purple Cow - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

My Personal Branding Story Part 6 Narrative, Context, and Being a Purple Cow - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career This is the sixth of ten posts where we follow Marcos Salazar’s personal branding journey, as he uses the concepts and four-step process outlined in Me 2.0 for his own career. In my last two posts, I described why I decided to use the concept of being a Renaissance Worker as my personal brand.   In many ways, adopting this brand was a risky because Renaissance Worker is not a term people are familiar with. In addition, if someone asks me what I do, am I going to say, “I am a Renaissance Worker.” Nope â€" that’s not going to fly and it probably never will. I was aware of both of these issues and while they may seem like obstacles to creating my personal brand, I actually see them as opportunities because they will require me to take a creative approach to communicating my brand. In this post, I will be discussing three psychological strategies â€" creating   a narrative, understanding context, and being a purple cow â€" in conjunction with the second step in Me 2.0 â€" Create Your Brand â€" to help you grab your audiences attention and keep it. While I will be using these strategies in the context of being a Renaissance Worker, they can be applied to any personal brand. I will begin with offline strategies first and in my next post will transfer them to creating a strong online presence that will attract people to your personal brand. Create a narrative I was at a party this past weekend and like usual, I got the typical, “What do you do?” Now, if I had said, “I am a Renaissance Worker,” we all know I would have gotten a confused look. But even saying the typical, “I am a consultant at xyz company” would not have been any better. I rarely answer this question by just stating my day job because simply put, it’s a pretty boring response. If I’m talking to someone, whether it’s a friend, a date, or someone at a networking event, I want to be engaged. So what I usually end up doing is telling some kind of story. When I got asked what I did in New York, the person also said, “Nice shirt!” That night I was wearing one of my Brooklyn BoroThreads tees, so instead of simply mentioning my day job of, “Im a psychology researcher for the Girl Scouts,” I took a cue from that person and started talking about how I had designed the shirt myself and it was from a clothing company I just launched in New York. I could have ended there, but that still would have not been too exciting. So I began telling a story of how I had met my business partner Gabriel via Craigslist when I subletted an apartment after breaking up with the girlfriend I was living with. Gabriel was my roommate for that month and we hit it off right away as we hung out in the apartment talking about how much we loved Brooklyn, funny things about New York, Amherst (where he was from and I went to college), and general tech stuff. This led me to talk about how   Gabriel and I were chatting at a café one day and noticed how New York was packed with clothing stores, but no one had ever really created hyperlocal clothing focused on interesting and quirky things about living in the 5 Boros. So before you know it, I was creating a narrative on the origin of BoroThreads and discussing funny stories, the way we come up with the designs, and how we end up seeing people on the streets wearing our gear and make it a point to go introduce ourselves (and sometimes buy them a beer). The person was really enjoying the story and I can guarantee that they remembered who I was much better than if I had just said, “I am a clothing designer.” This illustrates an extremely important idea to keep in mind when communicating your personal brand: our brains are wired to think in terms of narratives. Storytelling is one of the few universal human traits that spans across cultures and all of known history. They captivate the mind and elicit emotions that become tied to themes, events, or characters. When this happens, our story gets implanted into memory easier and much more permanently. This is why creating a narrative about your personal brand is infinitely better than simply stating your job title. Context is key When talking about your personal brand, especially if you are a Renaissance Worker with many slashes like me, you always have to take into account the context you are in. For example, at the party I picked up on the cue of the person making a comment about my shirt, so that was a perfect lead in to talk about BoroThreads and clothing design. If I had started talking about Girl Scouts or my books, it would have been out of context and may have been harder to create a story or get them interested in one of my slashes. It’s the same when I am at a psychology conference. If someone asks me what I do, it wouldn’t really be appropriate to start talking about BoroThreads because that is not what people are there to discuss. So whenever you are in a situation where you may be talking about your personal brand, learn to take cues from your environment and the person you are speaking to, and then adapt your narrative appropriately. Becoming the purple cow in the room While telling a story will make you more memorable, one way to make your personal brand stand out is by having people see you as being unique or remarkable in some way. As a Renaissance Worker with many slashes, a good way to do this is by throwing out one of your other professional identities at the right time to create surprise and uniqueness. So at the party, when I was telling the story about BoroThreads I could tell they were under the impression that it was my full time gig.   So after I was done, I casually mentioned, “Oh, but for my day job I am a psychology and leadership researcher for the Girl Scouts.”   This seemed to have come out of left field and I did this on purpose because we are psychologically programmed to notice novelty and pay attention to things that seem strange or different. When they heard this, the person was surprised because they were not expecting to hear something like that and became curious of not only the fact that the Girl Scouts have a Research Institute, but that there was a guy working for them. So mentioning that I worked for the Girl Scouts as a psychology and leadership researcher right after talking about clothing design created a psychological disruption that forced the listener to spend more cognitive energy to understand what I had just said. The end result was creating a conversation that was a bit unusual and this led the person to pay attention at a much higher level. This strategy is what Seth Godin calls being a purple cow. Godin says, “Cows, after you’ve seen them for a while, are boring. They may be well-bred cows, Six Sigma cows, cows lit by a beautiful light, but they are still boring. A Purple Cow, though: Now, that would really stand out. The essence of the Purple Cow â€" the reason it would shine among a crowd of perfectly competent, even undeniably excellent cows â€" is that it would be remarkable. Something remarkable is worth talking about, worth paying attention to. Boring stuff quickly becomes invisible.” Discussing being a renaissance worker While I didn’t discuss the concept of a Renaissance Worker right off the bat, I did set the stage for talking about it using these strategies. And when I did bring it up, they loved the idea and felt they could really relate. So in creating a strategy for communicating your brand, always try to create a narrative, take your context into consideration, and find a way to present your uniqueness so you become the purple cow in the room. Author: Marcos Salazar is the author of The Turbulent Twenties Survival Guide, which focuses on the psychology of life after college and what graduates go through as the make the transition from school to the working world. He writes a career adventurism and psychological development blog for young professionals at www.marcossalazar.com. You can connect with him on Twitter @marcossalazar.

The Single Word That Will Increase Productivity in 2013 Is....

The Single Word That Will Increase Productivity in 2013 Is.... UNSUBSCRIBE!!! Its 10:45am CST, Im about to start an 11:00am conference call and need to prepare but Gilt.com, RueLaLa, and OutNet.com just sent me a preview of their fabulous sale today.   Just one click and Im off in DVF  dresses and Minkoff bag land.   I click the X and focus back on preparation, start my call, and at 11:00am BOOM!   Another email the sale has begun!! Ya feel me here?   Not only are these emails interrupting  my productivity and getting me off-task, they are draining my pocket-book.   I made a decision enough! I did it.   I unsubscribed to every single online shopping site that emails me each day.   The reality is, I know where to find them.   If I really need a pair of boots, wallet, book, or really anything at all, I know which website to visit and there will likely be a sale of some kind. This is my challenge  to you:   Ask yourself how much time you are really spending online browsing or shopping?   Do you typically jump to that site as soon as you receive an email?   If you are getting lost in the luring sale emails and daily messages as much as we are, unsubscribe!   Try it for a month and see what happens. Challenge B: If its just too tough to fully unsubscribe, create folders within your inbox called Junk or Online shopping.   Autodirect any emails containing certain words or from certain sites to these folders.   This way they do not appear in your inbox and you are not tempted to read them immediately.   You dedicate a half hour at the end of your day to look at them all at once. Tell me- Does this post speak to you?   Do you feel tempted by daily subscription emails?

Your Personal Brand is Nothing if Not Global - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Your Personal Brand is Nothing if Not Global - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career The U.S. used to stand for “no one else matters but US.” Then came Bollywood, and its 1.2 billion audience members, including pretty much the best engineers in the world. And then came Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and its audience of 1.3 billion consumers of concrete and Hong Kong. Oh, and Kate Beckinsale was crowned the sexiest woman in the world, per Esquire. ScarJo and Megan, you have your place, but audiences around the world, heck even here, find celebrities more desirable if their personal brands are born outside the US. U.S. Citizens: Your earning power and net worth are dependent on seeing yourself as employable by anyone, anywhere. Your personal brand must embrace that you are a world citizen, not because it’s the polite thing to be or because global warming is melting another continent’s ice caps and you’ll miss out on seeing polar bears. Right now, your best job may be with a multinational not based in the US, a US company that is globally oriented or any business where you’re not just serving the locals. Unless your personal brand is to intentionally cater to the locals, like running a neighborhood diner, which is incredibly cool and could totally rock a gentrifying couple of blocks. Of course, if your personal brand is entrepreneurial then you might be thinking about franchising your concept, so remember Subway has more overseas stores than domestic. Global thinking isn’t just for brands like Coke, Nike and Disneyland anymore. Increasingly, it’s for your personal brand and mine. My cousin Allan started out running a classic Mustang parts business in Long Beach. His personal brand was big with the membership of a few local Mustang car clubs and the classic car geeks at swap meets. Five years later, he makes most of his money shipping cars overseas. He’s built his personal brand by being a rock solid supplier of cherry condition cars to big money bidders in Australia, New Zealand, the EU, the UAE and of course, Asia. So citizens of the US, make your personal brand global friendly. Read a business etiquette book that tells you the rules in the places where you won’t find familiar faces. Like how you should show up on time to German meetings but stay calm when you’re the only one in the conference room in Rio and it’s two hours later than, oh let’s just say you anticipated. If you had the oil, fresh water and Olympics that Brazil has, you might be more casual than concerned when the US pays you a call. Here’s what you do now 1.      Pick a daily newspaper website from 5 nations only one of them from your home country. Read at least the headlines. Yes â€" most of them are translated into English (we still are the language of air traffic control). 2.      Look for your passport, and if it’s time to renew it, take a photo that makes you look like a trustworthy business person, and not like you at 19, needing a haircut and living on Ramen noodles. 3.      Pick 3 multinational companies to follow online, so you can see what it’s like to be part of the whole world â€" and not think you are the whole world. Author: Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen.

#43 - Freelance Career Expert Series Robert McGuire from Nation1099 on Understanding the Gig Economy CareerMetis.com

#43 - Freelance Career Expert Series Robert McGuire from Nation1099 on Understanding the Gig Economy â€" CareerMetis.com The Career Insider Podcast Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS Robert McGuire is a business owner from New Haven, Connecticut. He operates the McGuire Editorial Content Marketing Agency in which he helps B2B and SaaS companies create and implement effective content marketing strategies.evalHe also takes on the role of editor for the Online Gig Economy Forum Nation 1099, which helps solopreneurs find answers to questions about their businesses.Coming from a background in journalism, as well as marketing work for non-profit organizations which helped him see the evolution into the content marketing era. It was this type of work that eventually opened up a path to create his current content marketing agency and become involved in the “Gig Economy”Episode Summaryeval1. RobertMcGuire tells a little bit of his back story and how his previous work evolved into his current business.2.He explains the term “gig economy” as he has come to underst and it.3.Robert talks about skills, and what types of people find success within the gig economy, and some of the statistics surrounding freelancing.4.Robert discusses how Nation 1099 helps freelancers and gig economy workers to thrive and succeed.Quotes“Content marketing is really where you’re giving away authentic and highly valuable information in order to attract people”.“I think that I might be a frustrated publisher at heart”.eval“What interests me the most are people with professional creative skills who are working at that level”.“We’re unemployable and proud of it”.“A third of the population is doing gig work”.Links ResourcesevalTo learn more about Robert McGuireyou can visit hisblog. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.To learn more about the Gig Economy, Freelancers should check out the amazing resources at Nation1099.Robert’s team has also put together a bonus checklist for the listeners of this podcast and the blog audience. You can find the checklist hereIntro Music provided courtesy of Accelerated Ideas (www.accelerated-ideas.com). Soundtrack â€" Siren KickbackEnding Music provided courtesy of Accelerated Ideas (www.accelerated-ideas.com). Soundtrack â€" No Need to Rush

Identity - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Identity - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog I keep coming back to the concept of identity. Lots of human ideas, activities and concepts are influenced by identity. Personal identity. Group identity if there is such a thing. Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Owen Davies whos working on one aspect of this, namely digital identity. A secure, trustworthy digital identity would be a really nice thing to have these days, but there is still no one accepted system available. The Identity Commons are creating a solution for this, which will ultimately be owned by all of us and doesnt that feel a little better, than having Microsoft own your digital identity (or at least the systems supporting it). They are basing their work on chaordic principles, which feels exactly right for a project of this kind. From what Owen told me about it, it sounds like a really cool thing. Rock on, guys! Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Should you look for a recession proof job - Hallie Crawford

Should you look for a recession proof job Are you worrying about job security and seeking a job that is recession proof? For example, maybe you’re looking at government jobs? This  isnt  best way to go about your job search. No industry is recession proof. You are picking your career based only on one criteria. If you want to really be happy in your career, try looking at local instead. Or look at what industries are booming. Include these things in your career search formula, and don’t let recession proof be your driving choice. It is okay to consider it, but don’t have it be the only reason why you choose a job. The biggest reason why you don’t want get caught up in what industries are recession proof is because you don’t want to limit yourself. Making a choice based on fear, instead of doing something you really want to do, can be a big mistake. If youd like more help in your job search, contact us today for a complimentary consultation. Job Search Coach P.S. Are you frustrated with your job search? Check out our  FREE REPORT:  â€Take Control of Your Career Transition: Uncover Hidden Opportunities”.