The First Career Transition

I don’t care how old we are, going through our first major career change is dramatic.  You could be 22, 29, 35 or 40.  No matter what the age making a shift in our careers brings anxiety.  And a shift can be as straight forward as shifting industries but staying in a similar role.  For some that is hugely dramatic.

I vividly remember the early years of my career.   Yes, like many young professionals today I went through similar challenges.   I too started my career in the middle of a recession.  I began my career in human resources.  HR has been the constant through-out my career in various forms, but early on, I bounced around to various jobs within HR around the Boston area.  Employers were really beginning to change regularly and layoffs were becoming more common.  About 3 years out of college I landed a great recruiting job.  After about a year of that I transfered to another office, within the same company, but as an assistant to the benefits manager.  Well, I just thought that was crazy.  Of course I was experienced enough to actually do benefits job, not the assistant.  Why was I the assistant?  I hope you are getting my humor here.  The thoughts that filled my head were of confidence but very arrogant.  Fortunately I had a wonderful VP who was kind enough to set me straight and gave me the option to either stay, and buckle down, or leave without any recourse.  She offered to be a reference if I needed one. After a long stressful weekend of debating my options, I decided to leave and head out looking for something else.  A year later I was being laid-off from a great HR job.  More drama.

My time out of work, fortunately, was not too long.  I did struggle to figure out where to go.  The one thing I did know is that I wanted to stay in human resources in some fashion.  So I kept my job search with that target in mind.  I picked my top companies for the two locations I wanted to check out, Boston and New York City.  I did a couple of trips to NYC in my job hunt.  It was fun but I decided to not venture there.  I opted to stay in the Boston area.  

So I had a target, human resources.  I had a location, Boston.  I pulled my resume together and my elevator pitch with the help of a career services consultant.  This was the first time I had heard of such a thing, an elevator pitch, in regards to a job search.  It was the most important skill I learned while working with him.  

What else did I learn through my early career transition?  First, that I needed to always be connecting with others.  I never knew when I would need to move onto another job either because of my arrogance or the economy.  (more humor - not so arrogant anymore - I hope).  Building your network and nourishing it are keys to success in any era.  When I say to build your network I don’t mean just online with Facebook either.  I mean, use more professional online tools such as LinkedIn and definitely get offline.  One point on LinkedIn, it may be boring but you need it, so get over the “boring” and build a branded profile.  

On the offline network, get out and meet people.  You never know who knows someone else who has a job of your dreams open and waiting for you.  Attend networking events.  Attend events that are outside of your normal circle of friends and family.  It could be an art exhibit opening or a unique community event.  They are fantastic opportunities to interact with new people. 

Secondly, I had to learn to be resilient and not take all of this too personally.  I learned to  manage my attitude.  To see the glass half full.  To look for opportunities.  Opportunities were not going to come out of thin air.  I needed to be aware of them and to look for them.  Which I did.  

I learned to surround myself with positive people, read good books, keep exercising, and find a good healthy hobby.  So rather than being out at the pubs many nights a week eating bar food, drinking beer, and spending money I didn’t have I took up getting to a gym and hanging with a different crowd.  I eventually picked up golf which was wonderful when I worked in sales.  I still love the game but hardly get a chance to play. I am hoping to get my boys on the golf course soon so we can play as a family.

With time I was gainfully re-employed at an human resources systems company training clients.  I had my own single bedroom apartment.  I loved it!  It was the best job.  I made new friends.  I traveled.  I built up my professional skills and especially learned to love giving workshops and presentations.    I began to learn what my strengths were.

What are you dealing with in your transition?  What are you learning about yourself through it?  Are you building your network?  Do you know what you are targeting next?  Do you need someone to walk alongside and guide you like I did?  If so, ask for help.  With the right career coach you can get to your next job with confidence and faster.

Remember, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”  Journey on.

Strategies for Dealing with the Passive-Aggressive Boss

Have you ever worked for someone who was the "passive-aggressive" type?  Meaning they would aggressively change something you were working on but passively address it with you or your co-workers.  Here is an example.  Manager decides to change an employee's responsibilities but decides to tell others before telling the person involved.  Or another one.  Manager knows there is an issue but avoids it for weeks, hoping the issue will fix itself, rather than being the leader and taking care of the challenge quickly and decisively.  In a passive-aggressive type of manager the decision making is not very clear or concrete.    If you have reported to someone like this, you know how awful this can be.

I have had a few of these bosses and it was the most frustrating time I have ever had in my career.  I am seeing more and more of this in today’s corporate culture and it is disturbing.    I am wondering if any manager is being truly "trained" to be an effective leader of people.  It is strange, middle management is passive-aggressive but in the board room they yell at each other.  Go figure.  I think a bit more reading of good leadership books are in order.  My newest favorite is “The Mentor Leader”, by Tony Dungy.

In my research of this topic, I found some great articles and resources.  Here is what psychologist Neil Warner says about these types of managers.  Notes in () are my additions.

There are some characteristics of a passive aggressive manager, which in present times look like the necessary tools for survival of the meanest. These tactics sometimes get confused within the authority aura that higher ups exude, but after some time there is no more denial possible. Your own reactions are telling you to watch out and not be surprised by some backstabbing and dirty tricks.  Are you familiar or have you been in the receiving end of someone of the following “nice attitudes”?

1) The boss that takes full credit from the team’s work thus sabotaging employee advancement;  (and moral)
2) The boss keeps complete control over the project; (and changes their mind every other day about the direction of the project or the process to be followed)
3) The boss restricts necessary information for the worker to do a good job;
4) Planning for meetings with the employee and showing up later or never;
5) Overriding the worker’s authority with his team;
6) Criticizing an employee in public, making him feel worthless;
7) Exploiting an employee’s particular talent;
8 ) Withholding employee recognition and praise;
9) Playing another worker against old time employee;
10) Micro-managing decisions which are in the employee power to do.

Neil couldn’t have listed these any better.  Have you seen these?  If so, how did you react?  How did it make you feel?  Generally known as a high energy, get things done kind of person, this type of behavior in my manager, drove me to shut down.  I became very unproductive and eventually started to show my own passive-aggressive behavior which is NOT the best way to handle this type of manager.  So what is?

There is not a cookie cutter solution for every situation but here are some strategies that can help.

1. Make sure it is not you.  Yes look at yourself first to truly access the situation.  I may have lost a few of you here but really we have to do a gut check first before we can point fingers.  Be honest.  Is your boss really off their rocker or is your behavior triggering some of the reactions you are getting.  Be sure you are the hardest most ethical worker this manager has ever had.  Also be humble.  Pride causes the worst problems in any organization.  Ask a close friend and confident who will be honest with you if there is something in your behavior that needs some adjusting.  If you determine it is not you move onto #2.
2. Stay professional.  Always keep your head clear and work professionally no matter how crazy the boss gets (and they can get nutty - believe me I know).  Enough said.
3. Don’t take it personally.  Any difficult boss that continues in bad behavior for long stretches is truly worth of your sympathy more than your anger.  They are struggling and don’t know how to fix it.  Perhaps you can politely and professionally guide them, without them knowing of course.  Once you realize it is not you triggering these reactions, try to be sure to not take their attacks personally.
4. Set clear expectations.  Yes, I am asking you to “manage your boss”.  Have a meeting with your boss to be sure you know what they expect of you.  Have them state it very clearly and with deadlines.  Then be sure it get it in writing. 
5. Get it all in writing.  Any and all conversations that have discussed important details or goals be sure to send an email or write a document that reviews the conversation.  Be sure to get a response from your manager, again in writing.  You may need this later to clear up any confusion.
6. Stand up for yourself.  If you continue to let this behavior go on without defending yourself, you are just as much at fault.  I know this is a hard one.  I struggled with this.  Many times it was easier to work around that manager than to directly confront them.  Besides I never knew what they would be like that day.  The key here is to be professional, not emotional.
7. Find another manager.  This can take on various forms.  One strategy is to find another manager / VP with whom you can work more closely with and who would be willing to mentor and support you even if it is just throughout the life of a project.  This is when a “dotted line” manager can be a blessing.  Or find a new manager.  Do a transfer within the organization.  Or really find a new manager and make a leap to a new company or job.  That can seem extreme but if significant time has passed and all the strategies in the world are not making your work environment more pleasant, it is time to move on.
8. Get a hobby.  Make sure your work is not all encompassing or this crazy manager who changes their mind all the time will send you to the looney bin.  Life is not all about work.  There is so much more.  Go find the more and enjoy it!
9. Get desk toys.  Meaningless humor I know.  But really, a stress ball can be amazing in helping the mouth from spewing profanities at the next innocent co-worker who comes by your desk to ask you something.  Consider it.  I had a Zen garden.

To go deeper into strategies find a mentor that can help.  One that either knows the organization well or is completely separate from the frustration, so they can give you an objective view.  Either way, you will grow and learn something you didn’t know before this experience.  Look for the positives.

Effective Informational Interviewing

Have you ever had an "informational interview"?  If you have, then you may know what I am talking about but if you haven't, here is a brief explanation.

An informational interview is a tool to help job seekers, career transitioners, and even college students, understand a particular job or field that they are considering moving towards.  It is a brief conversation either on the phone or in person in which the person seeking the new career is "interviewing" the person currently in the role or field of study.  The goal is to learn about the perception versus reality of an area of interest.  I did this when I was first looking into coaching.  It was the best thing I could have done.  By speaking to real coaches in various areas of expertise, because I wasn't sure career coaching was what I wanted to focus on, I got a true picture of the training and experience necessary and even the lifestyle / schedule.

Before digging into how to have an effective interview there are a few key differences between a regular job interview and an informational interview I want you to understand.  The informational interview is targeted at:

1.  keeping it brief

2.  information gathering - mostly one sided

3.  the person in the job you most want to investigate

On the other hand a formal job interview is:

1. much longer

2. with multiple interviewers, both parties are interviewing each other

3.  the job seeker is the core person being interviewed by a hiring manager(s).  

The pressure is on you but with an informational interview the pressure is significantly lower but not gone.  This tactic if done well can help you decide if you want to go into this area, add connections to your network, and possibly gain you a job opportunity at that company or elsewhere.  This person may know of other opportunities for you to investigate at their competitors or partners.  So the pressure is never off.  You still must bring your "A" game.

It is a tool fantastic tool to utilize.   Many times people are willing to help in your research however they can.  But keep a few "rules" in mind to have your informational interviews be truly successful.

Some "rules" of information interviewing:

1.  Prepare, Prepare, Prepare.  Never "wing it".  Prepare as you would for anything truly important.  This shows respect to the person you are interviewing.  Know where you are meeting and how long it will take to get there, if this is in person.  If it is on the phone, have the correct number and time.  Confirm the details the day before.  If in person, again dress appropriately which means professional.  Develop your questions in advance and have them in priority order.  

Some great questions to ask in an informational interview:

• How did you get into this field?
• What are your core roles and responsibilities?
• What is the favorite part of your job?
• What do you most dislike?
• Here is my interest and background (keep it brief) how might you suggest I break into the field?
• What training or education is required?
• What associations do you belong to?
• What publications do you read to keep up with your field?

Finally be prepared to keep to the allotted time.  If the plan is 20 minutes, based on your conversation when you booked the interview, keep to it.  Again this shows respect for the person's time.  If this is a positive experience for the person being interviewed they will mostly likely offer up their time again to others.

2.  Research, Research, Research.   Research not only the company that this person is employed by but even more importantly, the person.  Find out all there is to know about the person you are going to talk to.  Their background, time at the company, length of time in the field, and any common area of interest.  This common area of interest will help you truly connect with them.  That is the key.  Make a connection and you will have an alley, encourager, and possibly colleague in the future.  Some of the coaches I did informational interviews with years ago are now my colleagues and I love that!

Research them on Google, LinkedIn, ZoomInfo.  Work to understand as much as you can about that person.  Just like preparation and research pays off in a formal interview, so it will, in an informational interview when the pressure is not nearly as high.

3.  Follow up, Follow up, Follow up.  Be professional and thankful for the time this person spent with you.  Follow up with a values based thank you email, within 24 hours of your meeting.  Also send a handwritten thank you card.  That too needs to be in the mail within 24 hours.  Yes, this is "old fashioned" but tells the person that you appreciated their time enough to actually write a "real" note.  Trust me.  It makes an impression of your character, whether you do or don't send thank you notes and emails.  I make this same recommendation for a formal job interview.  I mean let's be practical.  The email gets there quicker and is easier to type up.  The handwritten truly shows your appreciation.  Send both!

Be sure to follow up on recommendations or connections this person makes for you.  Let them know what came of their connections and suggestions and exactly how it helped.  This again shows good character and also keeps you in their mind for future news and opportunities they may hear about.

I strongly suggest the informational interview to see what is perception versus reality in a field you are interested in.  If you need help working through getting one lined up or preparation for, let me know.  I can help.

How to Begin a Job Transition

Do you have a vision for your future life?  It may be just getting the next job to sustain yourself for the coming year or two.  Or you may be ready to really envision life moving forward for the long term.  Whichever it is, the same steps prevail to your goal.  You are ready for a change.  A new job, a new career, a new life.  “I am ready to start over and really find what I am meant to do.”  Transitioning into a new career can be a great adventure.  One that is exciting and filled with new insights and learnings.  I choose to think of it as an inspiring blessed time of discovery.

To begin the adventure of discovery, you have to be ready.  You will know you are ready when you are excited about the possibilities that you have before you.  Perhaps you are like myself.  I had a laundry list of careers I wanted to “try” and had no idea which would be a good fit for me.  Or perhaps you are like a friend of mine who knew, instinctively, what she was are meant to do next after a job loss.  One thing is for sure you have to be ready to take the next step.  Without it, you will have a difficult time tackling the tactical side of moving into a new line of work.  Discovering what you want to do is the first step.  Next is the hands on work to get you to your career goal.

After the readiness check-in with yourself, comes the discovery.  All job searches have to have a target / a goal.  Do I want to work as an Account Rep in the health care industry or financial services industry?  Or do I want to work part-time at the art museum?  Or do I want to work as an independent consultant?  The list could go on and on.  The least effective job search has no target to shoot for.  The job seekers that will “take anything in any industry” will not be successful.  I have seen too many job seekers just putting out their resume to all kinds of job boards, company websites, agencies, and and personal contacts without any rhyme or reason behind it.  No one will hire you without knowing what you want.  If you don’t know what you want how can anyone else.  

How do you discover what you want to do next?  You say, “Lisa, I really want to do something with meaning, that has flexibility, that is no longer doing....” whatever.  “How do I figure this out?”  Great question.  First I it will take some uninterrupted time to remember what it is that you enjoy, are passionate about, or have always wanted to do.   To help get the thoughts going I have listed some questions for you to ask yourself.  Go get a coffee or a glass of water, a comfy seat, and something to write with.  Write out your initial answers to the below.  Get started even if it is brief or a bulleted list.  Writing it down is key. 

Which of my skills do I enjoy using?  Which of my skills do I least enjoy using?  What industries interest me?  What hobbies do I have that I enjoy?  What type of people do I enjoy working with?  What legacy do I want to leave behind?  What values must be present in my work for me to be successful?  What impact do I want to make?  Who are my role models and why?  How do I learn best?  What kind of environment do I thrive in?  Do I prefer work to make decisions that are based on logic or how they will effect people?

From this list, go back and continue to look at at various times.  See what other thoughts or ideas come to mind.  Once you get started you will be surprised that more ideas will come to mind.  There is more to this discovery and defining your target but the above questions, answered honestly, will get you heading in the right direction.  

Once a target has been determined, the next step is to develop a job search strategy.  Determine, from all the various job search tactics out there, which you feel comfortable using.  To get you thinking about the available tactics, here is a list to get you started with a brief description of each.

Networking Face to Face:   In person meetings with other professionals to introduce yourself and discover contacts that can help you in your job search.  There are many local networking meetings at libraries, job seekers groups, or business workshops which will get you connected.  This tactic is essential to any job search.   

Networking Online:  There are many online sites that allow you to manage your contacts and reconnect with co-workers, friends, and find future hiring managers.  The best known are LinkedIn and JibberJobber.

Niche Job Boards:  These are online job boards that are specific to an industry or type of work.  Targeting with in your area of industry is a time-saver and will give you and idea of what is happening currently in the industry, who is hiring and who is not.

Company websites and blogs:  More and more companies are posting their open positions directly on their websites and are not paying the job boards to do this for them.  Many companies will also provide descriptions of their culture and programs they provide to employees.  These are helpful tools in your research for opportunities as well as networking and preparing for interviews.

Job Aggregation Sites:  These sites search company career sections as well as the major job boards and consolidate them onto one site.  Indeed in one such site.  This can be a real time saver.  You can see the company’s name on the posting or the site from which the aggregator found the job posting.  Many of them have job alert emails that you can sign up for.

Online Professional Communities:  Think of these as the associations and organizations you belong to but online.  Again going as industry specific as you can is the best way to go.

Recruiters:  Recruiters are hired by companies as consultants to find qualified candidates for certain positions.  Many times the recruiters know of job openings at certain firms before any are posted.

Career Fairs - Online or in-person events that allow you to meet / talk to / interview with a live corporate recruiter.

This is not a complete list but it gives you an idea of the options that are out there in 2011.  Each tactic has pros and cons depending on the needs of your job search.  Look through this list and decide which strategies you would like to use and in what order?  As I mentioned earlier do not fall into the trap of only posting your resume online.  You must use several tactics to be truly successful.  I will tell you that good old fashioned networking is still the leading tactic to finding a job - online and offline.  Nothing works better than having direct contact, outside of an interview, with the hiring manager.  This can only be done through networking.

After determining the strategies you wish to use and the phase in which you will execute them, it really is just getting to work.  Work on your plan and you will hit the bulls eye.   

If you continue to feel overwhelmed, seek out professional advice.  There are several organizations such as local job clubs, networking groups, and associations that offer workshops and services to job seekers.  If you prefer a more personal approach, seek out a career management coach.  Do not hesitate to “interview” a few to see with whom you feel most comfortable.  Most coaches offer an initial phone consultation for free.  

“The journey of a million miles begins with one step.”

I wish you much success in your journey.  Continue on your plan and you will succeed and find work that you love and that fits into your life.