Oh, The Places You'll Go!

On the subject of book reviews, I have one simple criteria: if it relates to your career, it's relevant here.

The above statement was the only way I could think to start this post because otherwise - as you read on - you might wonder what on earth was happening.

Allow me to explain a little further...

A friend mentioned a career book to me recently but his recommendation was so unusual, I thought he was playing an elaborate joke.

"It's a great book," he said. "Full of advice about making career choices and it doesn't pull any punches either!"

This sounded like a book I had to read.

"Who's it by?" I asked excitedly.

"Dr. Seuss," he said.

When I checked and double checked that he was being serious, I discovered that the book was called 'Oh, The Places You'll Go!' and ordered myself a copy.

Title: Oh, The Places You'll Go! - Author: Dr. Seuss - ISBN: 978-0-00-715852-2 (2003, UK soft cover re-print)

You might still think I'm joking (or that I fell for my friend's joke despite trying to avoid it) but I was amazed at what I read.

It was indeed good, solid advice that focused on decision-making and the variety of situations the world presents us with.

The Author didn't assume that he knew best either. He assumed the opposite in fact. That when it comes to your career, you're always the one in the best place to choose.

Here's one short passage to give you an idea what you'd be getting into by reading this book:

"You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself

any direction you choose"

OK, so this book won't answer all of your career questions in anapestic tetrameter but then again, it doesn't try to.

Instead, all it does is try to equip you with the knowledge that you will face choices, that things will sometimes be tough, that there will be ups, downs and everything in-between.

This book not only fills you with what organisational psychologists might call an increased tolerance for ambiguity, it also puts a smile on your face. Maybe Dr. Seuss knew that this is what you need most when you're, "in a slump" as he puts it.

Maybe Dr. Seuss wrote this book for the adult readers as much as the kids they would read it to/with. But even if you couldn't bring yourself to see this book as deserving of anything other than a pre-schooler's bookshelf, you would have to grudgingly admit that the subject matter of careers looks distinctly more interesting when it is touched by an artist in this way.

On the question of whether you should buy this book or not, allow me to respond by borrowing a little from Dr. Seuss's style:

If you're in two minds then all I can say

Is decide for yourself, today is your day!

(Plus £4.99 is all that you'll pay) :)

All the best for now,

Paul

www.ohtheplaces.org

800 CEO Read - Oh the Places You'll Go!

Oh, the Places You'll Go!, Waterstones UK

Where would I like to be in 5 years time?

Ask yourself this question

There's no trick to it

No right or wrong answer

Take your time

Where would I like to be in 5 years time?

Easy answers can't work in the long-run

Someone else's answer won't work for you either

You can't be 'technically correct' on this one

[Santa Cruz - see more at Saundra's Flickr Photostream here]

Where would I like to be in 5 years time?

You're not alone when you think about this question. It's by far the most searched and most visited on this blog.

I hope you do choose to stay with this question a little longer. The only person who can benefit is you.

Refresh it, Re-phrase it, Renew your attitude towards it. Do whatever you feel necessary but do take the time to ask yourself once again:

Where would I like to be in 5 years time?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Learn how your answer to this question can evolve over time at exploreyourcareer.com

Where do you want to be in 5 years time?

Chance and your career

What's the difference between taking your chances and taking a chance?

✪ We need to take our chances to move our careers forward

✪ To take a chance with your career is too great a risk

Are chance and opportunity related?

✪ To take our chances is to seize opportunities

✪ To take a chance is more opportunistic

[Taking his chances? - see more at Saundra's Flickr Photostream here]

Why explore this together?

✪ For our careers to be successful we need to know the difference

✪ Opportunity can be managed but chance also plays a role

So what's your opinion?

All the best,

Paul

Me, We

“Me, We.” might just be the world’s shortest poem.

The story of its origins are legend but most attribute this poem to Muhammad Ali. Testimony as to when and where he said it varies but there is agreement it was spoken at a public event and that it was Ali’s response to a question regarding the shortest poem or verse in history.

Muhammad Ali was a boxer but he was also a great wit with a live, febrile mind and a poet with a compelling, powerful voice. The evidence may vary but the legend fits. It doesn’t take much imagination to hear Ali speaking these words and saying them with meaning.

[Apparently that is "laser" engraving. Does Buck Rogers work for Steve Jobs?]

This poem has followed me around since I first read it. It came up again last week in a question about the way most of us think about our careers. The question was:

“Can our individual career thinking be changed from Me to We?”

The questioner's premise was that our careers are never isolated, they are in fact always connected. Your career joins you to your work, your employer, your colleagues, your intentions, your life outside of work, the list goes on.

So if there are hundreds of touch-points, convergences and connections between ourselves, our careers and the outside world, why do we default to 'Me' when we think about careers?

Is there necessity around 'Me' thinking in careers or is it just history and habit?

Thinking about your career was traditionally a lonesome activity. The number of people going to their boss to admit 'thoughts about leaving' is growing but is still a minority. We take career advice from third parties (our friends, relatives, HR & career professionals even) but this advice is too often based around individualistic thinking alone: “What should I do?”, "What do I want?", "Where is my career going", etc.

It is still essential to resolve individual career questions but the Me to We shift behind career management is inevitable and has already begun. Your career may be yours but for it to be successful, for you to experience your career in full, for your career to deliver genuine satisfaction and fulfilment, it must be understood holistically too.

Although it wasn't always so clear, work/life balance is Me, work/life fusion is We.

Of course there is much more to learn (your opinion is welcomed for a start!) but - going back to Ali's poem - sometimes we need a simple and memorable expression to get us started. Besides, it wouldn't be the first time in history a poet has figured something out first.

Have a great weekend wherever you are!

All the best

Paul

On Preparation & Your Career

My good friend Saundra has been supplying images on work/life fusion for a little while now.

Usually, I write a blog post then we choose an image together. This time around Saundra's image came before the post.

I always found Saundra's work inspiring, I suppose today is proof! :)

[Lone Surfer - see more at Saundra's Flickr Photostream here]

What do you see when you look at this picture?

I looked at the surfer first. Is he plucking up the courage to jump in or is he looking on the sea after a good day at the office?

Then I looked at the sea. There are waves but on the whole the sea looks pretty calm. And that's when the Saundra-inspired-light-bulb appeared above my head...

A surfer can't make the waves. He just has to prepare and be there at the beach when the conditions are right. Hours of practice learning to ride, reading the weather, finding the best beaches and the best breaks; these are the things that make a surfer ready for the day he's at the beach and the waves are there for him.

The parallels with our careers are endless. Career management can only prepare us for the right conditions, the right set of circumstances, the right opportunities.

Sometimes, even when you have done everything right, you will still have to wait.

But the time will come when you have done everything right and the conditions are perfect too. That's when the surfer gets the waves he wants. That's when you get the break in your career you have worked so hard for.

So that's what I saw in this picture. Do you see something different?

All the best for now,

Paul

Make it known!

A formidable lady I worked for used to say, "Have the guts to ask!"

Get your intentions out there.

Once you know what you want, make it known to others.

Part of this is being prepared for any answer. If the thing we want is close to our heart, none of us want to hear we can't have it or that it's beyond our reach for now.

[Golden Bay - see more at Saundra's Flickr Photostream here]

It makes sense to test first when it comes to your career. When you know what is important to you, what you are good at and what you want for the future, you can define it for others. You know what to ask for.

You might not get the answer you want first time around but any answer you get can be learnt from. In every answer there will be something to help you move forward.

If you are unsure what to ask for, you can examine your experience and your values, talents and goals. When you are sure what you want, prepare yourself for every possible answer and go out and ask for it!

Follow these links for more on career decision-making and your values, talents and goals:

✪ Career choice

✪ Where the research leads...

✪ Failure & Success: Inseparable Career Twins

✪ work/life fusion: values

✪ work/life fusion: talents

✪ work/life fusion: goals

All the best for now,

Paul

Opportunity Management VI - Persist

Only a handful of encounters are genuine career opportunities.

When everything falls into place, one single opportunity will become your next job and the next step in your career.

Until then, you might finish runner-up a few times, get overlooked or maybe even completely forgotten.

Throughout all the unsatisfactory outcomes - or lack of outcomes in some cases - your career experiences grow, your knowledge builds and your awareness deepens.

And you move one step closer to your goal.

[Pacifca Beach View - see more at Saundra's Flickr Photostream here]

All of your research, your preparation, your hard work, sticking-to-the-task, persistence, early mornings, late nights, wins, losses and everything else besides, count towards the end result when you finally achieve it.

Whether you are job searching, changing careers, facing or dealing with redundancy or layoff, your story, your questions and your opinions are welcome here as always.

All the best,

Paul

_____________________________________________

Follow these links for more posts on Opportunity Management, Research & Persistence:

Managing career opportunities

Why we work

Research not Job Search

When failure defines success

Why we search

Job search is about finding work. Career research aims a little higher.

Research helps you understand the work you want and how to find it.

Career research aims for a job and an environment where you can get the most from your strengths, where you are valued for what is important to you and motivated to achieve new career goals too.

Does it sound like an impossible task when put like that? Like looking for a needle in a haystack as your Granny might say?

[Derek saw it, but his next job was a long way off]

 [Thanks to Saundra for the use of this image.

Check out her amazing Flickr Photostream here!]

Research ensures that all of your experiences count. Even the ones you might look back on as mistakes. Research helps to make your learning cumulative. Each phone call, interview, application process, networking conversation or chat over coffee, moves you one step closer to your goal. The goal of work that satisfies our short-term priorities but also moves us closer to personal career success as a long-term objective.

Earlier posts on this blog have shown how even the knock-backs and the disappointments can work in your favour. You might resolve never to make a particular error again, or that your communication will improve in a particular situation, or that your next opportunity doesn't break down for the same reasons as the last.

Stuart (a friend who is currently career researching & job searching) recently said to me that his entire career experiences are what he gets most excited about when he talks to potential employers. Not just his glowing successes or wonderful references - all of his experiences. All the past lessons, struggles, errors of judgement, obstacles and challenges too.

Stuart realised that his career experiences - when looked upon as a whole - are what make him an attractive proposition in the job market. That is because, without the full range of his experiences, he wouldn't be the same person. The person who can now confidently state where he wants his career to go in the future. The person confident he will recognise the right job opportunity when he encounters it. The person who knows what he has to say and do to make the right opportunity count.

In my opinion, Stuart is absolutely right. When we realise the value to employers in all of our career experiences, we present answers and solutions in a more human form. Our experiences can prove that we know what we are doing and where our careers are going too.

Stuart and I apologise if any of this upsets your Granny but - with the right support from career research - the needle and the haystack need no longer apply!

Here are some more posts on research, job search & managing your career:

Research not Job Search

Know what you are doing

Listening to career feedback

Career Management from within

When failure defines success

Failure & Success: Inseparable Career Twins

All the best for now,

Paul

More career perspectives

A big message in a recent career management conversation has been the importance of perspective. How it is essential to career success that your view of yourself is one that the job market can agree with.

Differences in perspective are sometimes needed - particularly if you are seeking career progression and development - but there should also be fundamental agreement between the way you view yourself (experiences, strengths, challenges, etc.) and the way other people see you.

Where there are differences in perspective, we need to be aware of them to deal with the questions and responses they provoke. Differences between perspectives can become ideal talking points, explored together with recruiters, potential employers and our network of contacts, feeding valuable information to both sides.

[You haven't lost perspective. Pikachu really is that big!]

Managing perspective in this way helps you to actively bridge the gaps between the things you know you can do [with the right support, in the right environment, etc.] but have yet to prove yourself in.

Career management steps in to help you manage perspectives by providing strategic and evidential support to your conversation with the market. The job market is too mature to take long-odds bets on hiring people without relevant experience but it is flexible enough to promote the right aptitudes & attitudes and make joint commitments - between employer & employee for example - to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.

So how might we prepare ourselves to manage perspectives positively?

✪ It is up to each of us to know the skills & experiences we possess

✪ To clearly communicate the direction we want our careers to follow in the future

✪ To take the initiative in seeking out the partnerships where opportunities can be created on both sides

These are examples of strategic career management in action. Individuals who manage career perspectives well are finding success even in this challenging employment market and - as was alluded to in an earlier post on this blog - the barrier to adopting these practices and attitudes for yourself, exclude none of us from making a positive start!

Links with more on perspective & your career:

Career perspectives

A broader perspective

work/life fusion, perspective and perception

Practical exercise I

All the best for now,

Paul

Who are the partners in your career?

Career articles sometimes have questions for titles but how many ask us for an individual answer?

I won't pretend to be completely blameless on the annoying rhetorical question front but this is one question that can only be considered independently. Yes, a career is something we all have in common but we are all individuals. There are times when only thinking for ourselves will do.

Here is one question that can only be answered by you: Who are the partners in your career?

[Look closer and you might see something you missed!]

Last year I wrote about the people who have a long-term interest in your career. That article highlighted the difference between the people showing an interest in your career today and the smaller group of people who are with you for the long haul. This article is really about clarifying that small group of interested people and considering partnership from the perspective of our careers.

Partnership goes further than interest because it is more active and involved. Our career partners are the people who help our careers to develop; the people who offer us the benefit of their experience; the people who volunteer an opinion as we deal with difficult questions; the people who challenge our beliefs and intentions to help us succeed.

Successful careers always have partners and they create partnership opportunities for others too. The most important partners in our careers can be people we already know as well as people we are yet to meet. Realising who our partners are, how they have helped us so far and how the benefits of partnership can be extended in the future, is all the incentive we need to answer this question for ourselves.

_________________________________________________

Here are a few partnership & 'independent career thought' related links:

Interest in your career

Looking back, around and ahead

Boulos's story: Job satisfaction

Seek to understand

Time

Splitting decisions

Have a great weekend wherever you are!

All the best,

Paul

Failure & Success: Inseparable Career Twins

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life

 and that is why I succeed." Michael Jordan

[Related Geek Stat: Michael Jordan's biography on the NBA website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."]

Maybe it is easy for the greatest basketball player of all time to talk about failure as he looks back on a career full of achievement but I'm not so sure. I am inclined to believe that there is genuine honesty and bravery in these carefully chosen words. They are meant to inspire.

[Sometimes the scenery is so good you can't fail!]

Our careers are unlikely to be scrutinised as publicly as those of our sports stars. Maybe that makes it easier for us to face failure because we can do it privately first?

Being the greatest in any discipline is an uncommon experience but turning failure into success can be done by us all.

For more about failure & success read:

When failure defines success

Failure: A label applied by mistake

Failure: The Secret to Success (thanks to Guy Kawasaki)

Judging career success

Career leadership and Personal success

What does personal success feel like?

Pursuing personal success

All the best!

Paul

James's story - Talking Careers with your Boss

“It was a risk but I decided to talk with my boss about where my career was going.”

James tells the story of his most recent career move that began - maybe a little unconventionally - with an approach to his boss this time last year.

“We had a really open conversation and agreed that I could look at career opportunities outside the company while exploring internal possibilities at the same time. As you can imagine, there was to be no effect on my performance in the meantime [cheeky smile].”

James continues, “I did the usual rounds of meetings and chats with recruiters and a few opportunities started to come my way. One conversation [with a potential employer] continued over several months. There were plenty of interviews and meetings but - in the end - this was the conversation that turned into my new job!”

[Sometimes you just have to let talent speak for itself]

So far so good for James but how was he helped by having the career conversation up front with his employer first?

James answers, “It’s funny because there is no way I would have got this job if my boss and I had not made our agreement in the first place. I could never have kept such a long process hidden from view. Something would have given under the strain.”

To sum up James says, “I moved my career on with support from my employer and it helped them too because I could stick around to hire and train my replacement. I can now look forward with absolutely no hang-ups about the past and nothing but goodwill behind me. Yes, it did feel like I was taking a risk approaching my boss at the outset but now, I am really glad that I did!”

***Career Health Warning***

James approached his boss about his career future and both sides did benefit from this progressive approach. Talking to your boss in this way is only something you should do if you are absolutely prepared for every eventuality [including the potential for your boss to take offence and dismiss you on the spot!].

A situation like this should be handled with extreme care and any action you take should be based on the history & health of your relationship with your employer [ahead of any external or 'expert' recommendation]. If you are in any way unsure, explore your doubts before doing anything that can not be undone!

***End of Career Health Warning***

In your opinion, is James’s situation unusual or is it something that is becoming more commonplace? Was James thoughtful, brave or even reckless in his actions? Here is some additional material that might help you decide:

KEEP Consulting: The value of career conversations between employers and employees

The value of career conversations - Update!

Best Regards

Paul