Nifty not Shifty

I was introduced formally to CareerShift by my former boss and the Director of Career Services at USM, where I earned my graduate degrees.  CareerShift is impressive.  To get access to CareerShift one needs to contact their alma mater's career office to find out if they provide the service.  If they don't I would recommend asking for it because it's well worth it.

CareerShift bills itself as a "job hunting and career management solution" and it lives up to the bill.  After creating a profile the system will begin to provide the user with possible job leads.  These job leads tend to be early in the job search cycle so if the user is paying attention it's possible to be early in the application process - usually a good thing.

If a user is applying to jobs in several different functional areas or industries the system allows the creation of multiple marketing campaigns.  This allows the user to tailor the search for a specific function or industry which makes for a much more effective application.  

I have not used the contact linking service as much as I probably should but the system assists users to find a person or persons to become a contact with the recruiting organization.  I also have not used the integrated calendar much but it looks very useful in helping to plan and coordinate recruitment activities.  This would be very useful to someone who needs to develop a structured and task oriented approach and wants to devise a to-do calendar for applications, follow-ups and scheduling.

CareerShift is a very useful and interesting tool.  I hope that they will continue to add functionality to it as they go forward.

The Job Search Cycle

Nothing is more frustrating than having to depend on someone else's timetable.  Unfortunately, that is exactly what job seekers are doing when they begin the process.  Whether it is setting up time to meet with networking contacts or submitting job applications or setting up interview times, job seekers have to adjust to working with these individuals and be open to accommodating them.  If job seekers had it their way, they would set up the schedules at their own convenience and create a job search and application cycle that is convenient for them.  It's not the case though, and that is the reality of the situation.

Now I would like to propose something that may help to lessen the frustration.  First, remember that networking resources are giving of themselves to the job seekers benefit.  I would always suggest that networking should have be a mutual give and take, so think about what you can contribute to the relationship.  But, it will still be necessary to acknowledge that you have asked them to help out and it has to be on their schedule.  I would propose something similar with the job application cycle.  Here are some great opportunities for job seekers to match their background, skills and experiences.  These opportunities are being offered to the job seeker and not the other way around and you are not the only applicant being considered.  So once again, the time frame is set by the one hiring and we need to be compliant with the prospective employer.

A couple of reminders:  First the application cycle is around eight weeks from the time the job is posted until a hire is made. Some research suggests that the earlier you enter the cycle the higher the likelihood of getting an interview.  This should not discourage someone from applying well after the posting date.  Too many jobs have initial applicant pools that are poor, or interviews that do not pan out.  Putting your hat in the ring does not really cost anything.  Secondly stay positive and appreciate the opportunities for what they are. Good things come to those that wait.

The Insider's Guide to Effective Campus Recruitment

What works in campus recruitment?  How can recruiters gain more traction with their target audiences on college and university campuses?  Is it possible to "get above" all of the noise that current students are exposed to so that your message gets out?  What messages really work?

Since one area I am exploring to further my career is campus recruitment and because I have worked many years for universities (19) maybe I can provide some insights to help some improve their campus recruitment.  From my work with recruiters I know that campus recruitment is challenging. There are internal constraints, competition with from all directions for student attention, campus branding challenges and competition from recruiters who are after the same applicant pool.  These challenges make it difficult to reach staffing goals.

If I could summarize the characteristics that I have observed associated with successful campus recruitment they break down into just a few categories:

• Knowledge of post-secondary education and programs in general and specific knowledge of the institutions recruited
• Campus branding including a clear value proposition
• Clear communication
• Continuity and consistency in building relationships

Of the above I think that relationship building is by far the most important and probably the most difficult task.  The organizations who do this well, over time build talent pipelines into their organizations and set up their new hires for success in the long run.

More detailed ideas are found here.

Brazenly Refreshing

It is bold, hip, and direct.  It's the blog Brazen Life which is part of a larger organization called Brazen Careerist which I stumbled across several years ago and have been a pretty loyal reader ever since.  First, they implicitly, sometimes explicit, acknowledge that postings about career related matters are generally pedestrian and then they make the effort to come up with unique angles to approach common career questions.  Secondly they don't pull any punches, they are honest and straightforward in their writing style but are still creative enough to get the reader's interest.  Here are actual leads from recent posts:

"You want the perfect life. You want to jump through those hoops, get that glory and actually be happy with the greatest of ease"

The day started so well. Sunny skies. Light traffic on my morning commute.

A lot of the posts also include some rather deep questions for readers to ask themselves.  As you can see from the second example they do not just classify career-related matters to job searching but cover a wide variety of topics that affect us as "careerists."  Included is advice and commentary on what it means to be "professional," commentary on work-life issues, career growth and social media.  All topical areas that many recent graduates and more than a few experienced professionals need to know about and address in their work lives.

If I were looking for a good place to start with readable, reliable advice and the willingness to ask important questions in learning more about careers, Brazen Life would provide more than a good start.

Campus2Careers

A few years ago a young man, Nathan Green had an idea for a career-related website.  It was a challenge to try and find a niche that was not taken but had some upside.  He struck on 2 things:  What if the site "evaluated" someone's profile and attempted to match the individual with jobs or organizations?  Secondly, what if the target was medium to small businesses who sometimes have trouble making recruitment connections to hire the best matches.

What Nathan came up with is Campus2Careers and they have been quite successful. Over the past month or so, I have had the opportunity to use the system more often and have found it to be very user friendly, navigable and pretty accurate in it's matches. If I were a new college graduate or young professional I think that it would match me with a lot more jobs than it has, because they specialize in entry-level positions.  We keep advising young applicants to develop online portfolios and this system has a lot of flexibility to show off accomplishments in a portfolio-like way.  If I were a small or medium sized business looking to hire professionals I would have to pay attention to the system they have created because it seems to work well and quickly narrows down choices based on the information provided by applicants.

They must be doing something right because Campus2Careers was recently acquired by Sure Score and Nathan is a new VP!

Phoning It In

One way to find out what skills that job seekers need is to participate in the process yourself. I have had several phone interviews over the past couple of weeks and have learned a lot from these experiences.  The first thing that strikes me is that they were each stylistically different.  One of the interviews was more of a monologue on the part of the interviewer who went to great length to describe the program and goals.  There was some discussion that was along the lines of some of the immediate tasks that I might take on for the job.

A second phone interview had a single interviewer who was simply doing screening.  Was I still interested? Did I understand the job?  Was the proposed salary OK?  The third type of interview is the one that I have the most familiarity with.  A lead interviewer is joined by several other people in the organization.  They each usually ask one question and they ask for your questions at the end.

One of these team interviews was unusual in that the interviewers were very direct in their expectations. Another one was more genial in that they were trying to get vet me but also sell me on their organization.

Some of the takeaways I have from these experiences:  First of all, as career coaches always say, you have to be prepared. I was over prepared for most of these and knew that I would not get to show everything that I knew but it gave me confidence that I was ready.  One really good question they asked, was my most significant accomplishment in the past year --- I was not ready for that but it's a good example of how in most interviews you get questions you were not expecting.  That question is also good because it has made me reflect on that very thing.

I made the effort to sound confident and knowledgeable.  I was in a location that did not have a lot of background noise and had a good connection.  Doing some research on these organizations ahead of time gave me some good ideas for questions to ask.   I also based some questions on what's current in the field.  For example, career services are under increasing pressure to provide data on outcomes.  Some of my questions revolved around how that looks or the expectations for how that might look for the given organization.

The test of whether any of this pays off is whether I get invited to interview on-site.  I anticipate those experiences will be a bit more of a challenge.

Yes Indeed

One thing that has happened over the past few weeks is an opportunity to learn more about what's going on with job boards and job posting systems.  I thought it might be interesting to offer some insights into some of these, a few of which are very interesting in their unique approaches to gathering job seeker data and "finding" possible matches.  This is a step forward, albeit an experimental one, for these services because it goes beyond a much more laborious traditional job search/application process.

Let me be clear, I do not believe that any of these services is the answer to ultimately getting hired.  They are good to very good research tools, but ultimately networking and interviews are the key tools to getting a job offer.

That said, I will give my thoughts on one of the more popular job search sights, Indeed.  Indeed is a job aggregator.  It searches many sites and tries to provide a "one stop" to find all of the jobs that fit the search criteria.  It has a very good advanced search feature that allows you to create saved job searches and automatic emails to matches, etc.  You can sort the results by relevance, although the results that show up sometimes leave me questioning what the system was actually looking for.  You can also sort by date, which is helpful if you're running a saved search and just want to view recent postings.

Indeed generally takes you to the recruiting organization website to do the actual job application.  This is good because the data on responses to applications through third-party websites is not good.  Applications done directly on the recruiting organization website have a somewhat better response rate.

Overall, I like Indeed but it is less targeted and massive in the data that it can provide.  The less targeted something is, the more of a "roulette wheel" effect and the less likely you will get a positive response.

Can Humanities Majors Still Be Relevant

I was not a humanities major but since I am highly verbal and auditory I think I have always been attracted to many aspects of the humanities. Yesterday, Business Insider had an excellent interview with Darrell Bracken, CEO of Logitech, who graduated from Hendrix College in Arkansas with a degree in English.

Mr. Bracken provides a much more succinct explanation of why and how humanities majors can be relevant using himself as a case study.  Since I have worked in higher education at a liberal arts university, I have had the opportunity to observe first-hand some really talented humanities majors. I have always said that the real key to being successful post-graduation is early evaluation of post-graduation goals.  This is more critical for humanities majors than any others because for the most part, the majors are non-vocationalized. That is, they are not attached to a specific job as would be an accounting major.

With the earlier planning in mind, humanities majors can then seek the vocabulary necessary to communicate their skill sets. They can create portfolios of work that will be attractive to future employers.  Finally, and most importantly they can seek internships related to their career goals -- the practical experience combined with the educational background is the lynchpin that makes the difference between being underemployed at graduation and having the necessary cache' to be competitive at a higher level.

Locally and Globally

I met with a representative of an organization that promotes international trade and economic development.  They have also been involved in promoting education on international business by working with the local colleges and universities on case competitions.  These have been very valuable to the students who have participated because they provide a real-world example of the challenges of operating in a global economy.

My contact was most helpful in providing feedback to me about some of the ideas that I have for moving forward.  I was also able to update him on some contacts at Trinity so that he can move his program forward even though I'm no longer there to help him.

Not Every Day is a 20/20/60 Day

I just read an excellent article in Business Insider, Use the '20/20/60' Rule to Find Your Next Job.  The idea is that the balance of your time in a job search the 60% should be spent networking.  The rest of the article covered the "hidden job market" with some excellent statistics to back up their contention that most hires happen because of networking and not because of online applications, which is where most job seekers spend most of their time.  I have always been a proponent of the hidden job market concept and that is why I  place a heavy emphasis on networking and being a connector when I advise others.

One thing to bear in mind though, is that it's important to feel/be productive every day.  Some days you may not have a lot of networking contacts lined-up and that's OK.  Using that time to peruse the job boards is OK and can make you feel productive in short spurts -- just remember that the payback on this is small so quickly it will not feel as productive.  If you have a lull in your networking that's a signal that research is in order to expand your network and also to follow-up with people you have touched base with in a awhile.

Interview Prep and Being Quick on Your Feet

I had an onsite interview that followed a phone interview by a couple of days.  The interview was interesting in that during the phone interview the recruiter asked me to consider and prepare to respond to 3 specific things.  One had to do with operations and logistics, a second area was about intern development and the third was coordinating an educational program.

Over the course of a couple of days, probably about 3 hours total, I formulated some responses to the areas being considered.  I actually created a PowerPoint for myself that I took into the interview, both printed and on my tablet (in case I could not get network access).

The interview itself was different in that there were very few questions asked.  Most of the time, I spent listening to the interviewers thoughts about the plans and goals for the organization.  During the course of the hour plus discussion I did get to present some of my thoughts on the three areas.  Even though I did not get to give the complete details, because of time I at least got to provide some broader thoughts and show that I was prepared.

Some take-aways from the experience:  First the preparation paid off.  I felt prepared and confident to cover the required areas.  Second, the notes I created were very helpful. As we got into the discussion and I realized we were running short on time, I was able to go to the areas that seemed most pertinent to the concerns that were articulated by the interviewer.  Second, always be ready to be quick on your feet. I had planned for the interview to be more "standardized" and to get more time to talk, but had to adjust on the fly for a different experience.  Hopefully, it was good, but I think that I did a good job on my end and I cannot control what the interviewer thinks.

Insights from the World of Non-profits

Several individuals in the world of the non-profits have been very helpful.  They have taken the time to meet or speak with me on the phone.  The first thing that I observe is that most non-profits look and act a lot like for profits.  The biggest differences are in mission and money.  They are not operating to make money and often rely on fund raising to finance their mission.  I think that this also affects the internal politic of these organizations as well.

Their needs from a hiring perspective are not that different either.  I hear them say how important communication skills and professionalism are for the people who work for them. They do seem to place a higher emphasis on prospects understanding and buying-in to mission than you might see with a lot of for-profits.  I am also interested in how many of them like having interns or who are interested in developing internships.  Some of the recent discussions about pay versus non-pay internships are affecting their decisions on this, as well as staffing to oversee these programs.

I for one would love the opportunity to work with a non-profit to develop internships and also to work with interns themselves as new professionals.

You Can Bank On It

One of my contacts works for a commercial bank here in San Antonio.  We met for lunch today.  The first thing I learned was that I should double check the location, because I went to the wrong restaurant.  Luckily the actual location was only a few minutes away and I did not disrupt his day by being really late.  I think when you network you just have to be congnizant of the time you are taking up from your contact, who is not making any money while talking with you.

His perspective was great.  First of all he's a parent so talking with him about some of his concerns about career planning and what he might expect of someone working with his daughter was helpful.  He definitely wanted to make sure that she would come away from the meeting with options.  He was not particularly locked-in to her having a final answer but that she would have a general direction to go in.  That was good feedback because once concern I have is about unrealistic expectations on the part of clients and their families.

Dropping Everything

Some people are gracious. I made a contact with someone who owns a small business based in San Antonio but whose clients range from small to large companies nationwide.  She has a unique perspective because her primary focus is on educating organizations and groups within organizations.  She also was a start-up and has been through all of the stages of development to finally, a very successful business model.

I contacted her and she was going out of town for an extended time but was able to see me that day.  I was able to make that work and we had about an hour long conversation about some of the career goals and possibly start-up ideas that I have.  As I said, her taking time from her busy schedule, just dropping things and meeting with me was very gracious and I appreciated it.

More than the time her ideas and feedback were invaluable.  From reminding me of a business model we were both familiar with that failed to providing thoughts on where I might go to "mine" potential clients she was very helpful.  Her flexibility was important and my willingness to drop everything to take advantage of the opportunity was key.

What's in a Job Title

I am exploring a possible transition to the corporate world so I had lunch today with a colleague and friend who made that transition.  She was quite helpful in pointing out some areas to be aware of.  One of them was that some of my interest areas, recruitment, training, and internships might not have a job title specifically with any of those things in them. Often they are HR titles that have those responsibilities as part of the job.  It's important to have your nomenclature down -  what do organizations call someone who does the job you are interested in?  A classic example is that geologist is rarely in the job title for geologists so persons searching for those jobs need to be aware of what the job titles are.

So my task is partly to research not only where these opportunities are but what they're called.  Related to that, in planning a small business what names could work for the business.

It's a Small (Business) World

I attended an interesting workshop with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at UTSA.  This workshop is pretty much required if you are going to work with the SBDC.  The topic was creating a business plan.  That was a good topic for me, since I've never had to do one before.  Most of the services of the SBDC are free, but to get you started there is a small fee attached to the first workshop.  I guess the reason for this is determining how serious you are and also so you have some skin in the game to make sure you show up.

A business plan is not rocket science but it definitely provides a lot of opportunity to identify areas of business that are important, but for which you might not be familiar.  It gets you to start thinking about who your audience is and how you will communicate with them.  It asks you to create a mission statement and to identify markets.  All of those things seem important if  a business is successful. It also asks you to look up some data related to what you want to do.

The facilitator did a good job of walking us through the outline of the business plan and I was able to fill in a few of the blanks, but clearly this is going to take some time to draft.  Not part of the business plan outline but required is a financial pro forma -- basically how much money you will need to start-up, where it comes from and how it will be spent.  Our facilitator recommended starting by doing the main outline before tackling the financials.  I will gladly do that.

Meeting with a former colleague is a great thing, but it can be a bit uncomfortable as well.  Today I met with a former co-worker and it was great.  We met at a really good restaurant called the Boiler House for lunch so that by itself was worth the time.  The food was really good and it was very reasonable for lunch.  Beyond that she had some great insights into some of the work we did together and some great feedback about what she saw as some of my strengths.  Getting feedback from people with whom you've worked, especially about strengths is a good thing.

The biggest takeaways were that she felt I was very collaborative and open to working with areas outside of my own and even my own division.  I appreciated that because it was exactly what I was trying to do.  Now I need to consider how those skills and attributes fit in with other possible work and organizations as well as how best to communicate those things.

Monday Blahs

This is my first "real" Monday after leaving the job.  One thing I know is that getting into a routine is important so I approached today as if I was going to work.  I caught up on my email, began to map out who I need to contact going forward, and did some research on the Small Business Development Center.  I also did some updates in LinkedIn and began to explore their job postings.  I will be looking at other job posting sites in the future keeping in mind you can spend a ton of time online but the thing that moves you forward is the networking.

First Networking Contact

I had a meeting this morning with a recruiter from a large and fast-growing company in San Antonio. I had met this individual several times and he impressed me with his energy and professionalism.  He's actually rather new to this particular organization but has a lot of recruiting experience.

We talked about some of his observations of recruitment as a field. He also asked me what my plans were and my response was that I am exploring different options at this point. Some things I mentioned were:

• Transitioning to the corporate sector as a recruiter
• Exploring opportunities in corporate training
• Going out on my own in career coaching

He had positive feedback for all of those areas.  He also suggested that I look into working with interns or internship coordination in some way.  I liked that idea as well.  I appreciate the generosity and his willingness to take the time to meet with me and provide feedback.   I will be sending him a follow-up note shortly.

Can I Take My Own Advice?

For the past 19 years I have worked in higher education.  The vast majority of that time has been spent advising students and alumni on how to decide on career paths and then formulate a plan to follow that path.

One of the interesting things about the adventure that I'm on is whether I can take my own advice.  Let me begin by saying that right now I am not entirely sure what I want to do.  One piece of advice that I share with students is that what we are going through is a process; we won't wake up one morning and the light will suddenly go on.  Instead this is a research project and it involves learning about things that interest me, things I'm good at, and things that I value -  those things should be work-related in this case.

Over time, I will be doing a lot of reading and researching in areas related to careers, human resources, recruiting and such.  I will be getting feedback from a lot of people with whom I've worked over time.  That seems like a pretty good way to start the process.  Hopefully, I will remember to compare what I learn, and the feedback I receive to what I know about my interests, skills, and values.

Welcome to the Great Job Adventure

I am a fifty-something, mid-life career changer.   I recently decided to leave my job at a University and pursue other options.  My greatest interest is in assisting others with their career success and helping people to realize that since we spend more than a third of our time at work, it is perhaps the greatest place from which we can serve others.

This blog will chronicle the process that I am following to pursue my next adventure in my work life.