Career Musings

Daisy Wright (third from right), a Brampton businesswoman, was recognized with the 2011 Alumni of Distinction award from Conestoga College.

Wright, the founder and chief career strategist at The Wright Career Solution, a career transition firm that helps individuals find jobs and an author, was among eight Conestoga College alumni honoured.

The award is the college’s highest recognition of outstanding graduates who have achieved great success in their careers and made significant contribution to society.

Read full Press Release here:  Brampton Woman Honoured

Another Monday has come around and you are still unemployed and down in the dumps, right? Why not pick yourself up and ask yourself, or someone else, the following questions:

• What is it that I am pretty good at?

• What am I known for?

• Why is that some people come to me (instead of someone else) when they need to solve a particular problem?

Your answer could help you pinpoint skills you didn’t realize you have, or skills you have been taking for granted. With this awareness, it is possible for you to parlay your skills, (meaning “to make good use of an asset or advantage to obtain success”), and earn some legal money ‘on the side’. You could be selling your expertise – the skills you are good at – on several online marketplaces. Freelance websites like oDesk, Guru, Elance, and Freelanceswitch allow you to register and offer your services on a freelance basis.

Then, there is Fiverr, a site that builds itself as “The place where people share things they are willing to do for $5”, and Goferr, offering similar services or products, but for $25. These sites are not for everyone, and mentioning them here, do not constitute an endorsement or an affiliation of any kind. However, they may be worth your while to explore to see if you could earn some legal interim cash while you continue your job search. If you do decide to register with any of these sites, be cautious and pay special attention to their Terms of Service.

So, instead of holding a pity party today, explore the sites and see what happens!

To your success,

Her recent email read “Remember that job posting you sent me about a Bilingual Marketing Manager where they asked me to translate my résumé to French? I want to let you know that I got an offer and I accepted it. I am very excited since there will be a lot of interesting challenges and I am getting everything I want – salary, vacation and benefits. Thank you for all your help and I will keep in touch.”

This message was from a client with whom I had been working for several months. She was having a tough time finding a marketing manager’s position and thought that nine months was unbelievably too long to be looking for work. At times in our conversations I could sense her frustration, but I reminded her gently that job searching could be a slow and tedious process, but if she kept her head up and continued doing the right things she would eventually land the job she wanted. I also told her that giving up was not an option. She hung in there and got the job.

How did this happen? As part of the job search strategy, I encourage my clients to invest time in social media. I do, and it’s not not for social reasons, although that happens. On Twitter, for example, I follow hiring managers, recruiters and job boards, and participate in Twitter Chats with HR professionals, recruiters and leadership coaches to keep abreast of industry trends. Through these channels, I sometimes become aware of job opportunities and if I find that someone in my network seem to be a match for some of these opportunities (whether they are clients or not), I forward the information to them.

This Bilingual Marketing Manager’s job is a great example. It was posted on Twitter by Monster Canada (@Monsterca). When I read the requirements, it sounded perfect for my client so I forwarded it to her. She translated her résumé to French as the company requested, and after a couple of interviews and several weeks of waiting (because of the summer holidays), she landed the job with “everything she wanted…” as noted above.

Looking for a job is a full-time job, as it’s often said, but it requires various strategies to achieve success. The other point is that you may have a great résumé, but if you continue to use ineffective job search methods or rely on one particular strategy, it will not help you land the job of your dreams. Therefore, plan to incorporate social media tools like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ into your job search toolkit because that’s where employers and recruiters hang out these days. Job boards are still around, but the companies behind these boards are extending their reach via social media. If you are an early adopter ready to jump on the social media band wagon, you will be way ahead of your competitors and achieve your job search goal.

And, don’t buy in to the concept that there are no jobs! Jobs are out there, but you need to assess your skills, employ a variety of tools, be deliberate with your search and visualize yourself sitting at the desk as an employee at one of your target companies!  Remember, “Whatever the mind can conceive, it can achieve.”

I hope you have gained some value from this post. Share your comments below, or connect with me if you need to discuss how you can move your career forward. I will be pleased to have a chat with you!

It has been raining on and off for a few days in my neck of the woods, and it is quite dark right now; yet I know that the sun will come out tomorrow.

Are you still waiting on the phone to ring for that job you so desperately need? Have you heard ‘No’, once too often? Are you stuck in a rut feeling you have done everything you possibly could? Whatever you are going through right now, it’s not permanent. The dark clouds will subside and the sun is going to come out tomorrow; if not tomorrow, the day after.

May these quotes add some sunshine to your day:

• Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Thomas Edison.

• Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle. ~ Christian D. Larson

• When life seems hard, when you want to quit, look deep inside to find your spark to rekindle your fire. @MikeMoore

• The road to a better tomorrow starts at the intersection of fear and faith. You can either yield onto insecurity lane, or you can take a deep breath and put the pedal to the metal on the courage freeway. ~David Roppo (Thanks to +Lisa K. Smith for this one)

If these Monday Morning picker-uppers are benefiting you, then they might benefit others in your circle. Have them subscribe to the RSS feed above to get each post.

To your success,

If you are reading Monday Rx for the first time, welcome! Since many of us suffer from the ‘Monday Morning Blues’, I use this space on Mondays to send out positive picker-upper messages or other useful information to help us start the week right.

Today’s message is a simple one from Og Mandino’s “The Greatest Salesman in the World”.

1.    Today I begin a new life
2.    I will greet this day with love in my heart
3.    I will persist until I succeed
4.    I am nature’s greatest miracle
5.    I will live this day as if it is my last
6.    Today I will be master of my emotions
7.    I will laugh at the world
8.    Today I will multiply my value a hundred fold
9.    I will act now
10.    Today I will pray for guidance

Select any line that resonates with you and make it your mantra for today.

To your success,

Daisy

The headline for this post is really a tongue-twister, so read it again for clarity.

Today is Labour / Labor Day in Canada and the US, but am still sending  my message, albeit a shortened version. It’s a 30-second speech from Bryan Dyson, the former CEO of Coca Cola.

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. They are Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit, and you are keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – Family, Health, Friends and Spirit – are made of glass. If you dropped one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it.

Work efficiently during office hours and leave on time. Give the required time to your family and friends and have proper rest. Value has a value only if its value is valued.”

Whatever you are doing right now, take a moment to reflect on the message and evaluate your priorities. I am doing just that today!

To your success,

What is success? Whatever answer you come up with will be correct, as success means different things to different people. I read a quote recently that said “If you fail and learn something from it, that’s success too.”  Isn’t that amazing?

These seven simple steps won’t tell you how to get a promotion or how to make more money. They are more basic than that. They will guide you into making simple changes to your thought processes and set you on the path to achieving your success. You see, there certain things we all have to get out of our way before we can begin to see success.

Do you have anything else to add here? Post your comments below, and have a succesful week!

In May 2010, I began sending little picker-upper nuggets called ‘Monday Morning Rx’ to my newsletter subscribers. Sometimes it was a quote, sometimes something longer. You see, Monday mornings are tough for a lot of people whether or not they are in the job search. Anyway, I got busy and stopped a few months afterward. I believed then, as I do now, that everyone of us, at some point, needs a picker-upper when the going gets tough, so I recently restarted the Monday Morning Rx. Some posts have and will relate to career and job search, others will not.

Reflect on Today’s quote taken from Jon Gordon, author of The Energy Bus, and other books.

“Don’t Seek Happiness – Ironically if you want to be happier don’t seek happiness. Instead share your strengths and decide to work with passion and purpose and happiness will find you. The research shows that people are most energized when they are using their strengths for a bigger purpose beyond themselves. Whatever your job, decide to bring passion to it and find purpose in it. I’ve met bus drivers, mortgage brokers, janitors and fast-food employees who are more passionate about their jobs and happier than some professional athletes making millions of dollars. Every job will get mundane and “old” if you let it but purpose and passion keep it fresh and make you happier.” ~ Jon Gordon’s Positive Tip: 5 Ways to Be Happy at Work

Pass it along and help someone have a happy Monday.

Have a productive Monday.

How many times have you started something, then dropped it mid-way? It could be a hobby that you are passionate about, or a coaching program that fell by the wayside. It could even be a course you wanted to pursue to make you more marketable. But…you just didn’t have the zeal, the courage or the perseverance to see it through. You cannot succeed if you lack the conviction – the ‘belief in self’ – and you cannot succeed without commitment.

Today’s message is from Zig Ziglar’s little book, Success for Dummies.

“Success begins with the desire to be successful and the conviction that you can be successful. Then and only then, do you make plans to reach that specific objective of achieving success. After you make plans, you must be willing to commit to them. But no responsible person makes a commitment until he or she has a reasonable plan of action to fulfill that commitment.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Today, ponder on this math equation:

Conviction + Commitment = SUCCESS!

Have a successful week!

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It’s time for the Monday Morning Rx, a positive picker-upper blog post for those who need encouragement! Every Monday morning, I will present a short message to help readers begin their day on a motivational note. Today’s message is a quote from Mary Kay Nash:

When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested in failure.

Reflect on these words, identify your most challenging obstacle right now, and see how you could turn it into an opportunity.

Until next Monday, have a productive week!