• Your career is yours and yours alone. You have the power to create it and live it as an expression of your unique talents and energy.
• Forget what other people think of your choices. Even though people often mean well, you will be the one putting in the hours so be selfish enough to do something you enjoy and to have fun with it!
• Being yourself in your work gives power, creativity, and freedom. You are off track if you feel insecure or like an pretender at work.

#2 Look Inside Yourself, You Know the Answers

• Take note when you find yourself fully engaged in a work activity. If it feels like you are in the zone, or plugged in and energized, or connected to something larger than yourself: Pay special attention.
• Then describe it further…what are you liking about what you are doing? Is it this? Is it that? Keep asking yourself and you’ll know when you hit the answer that feels right.
• Start general then get more specific in your description of what you like about what you are doing. For example, is it the communication or connection? Is it the performing or beautifying? Is it the helping or healing? Is it the organizing or administrating? Then add more detail by asking why.

#3 Respect the Career Development Process

• The beauty of a great career is in the way it unfolds.
• Enjoy the present moment. Each small step adds up until you are for sure ready for more.
• Appreciate then forget when you felt lost or frustrated in your career. Through those times you learned more about what you DO want.

#4 Understand the Power of People

• People can be powerful and brilliant in sharing their connections with others. Use strategy in maintaining your 150 or so top connections to tap into the power.
• Accept that people can be dark, egotistical, and negative but this is nothing compared to an individual in harmony with self. Recognize the negative as the weaker power and stay beyond it.
• See and applaud the strengths of others as you do for yourself. Be a builder-upper who is generous with knowledge, info, and positive energy.

#5 Be an Opportunity Bulldog

• Take your individual strengths and mesh them into your public identity and no one can take your place.
• Research and understand the opportunities that exist because of the challenges in your field of expertise.
• Present a passion for being or finding the solution and be unafraid of asking for the opportunity.

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You may also want to add a space on your accomplishment log to mention how you felt while working toward each accomplishment. Say a 1 to 5 star rating, 5 being the best. This will help you recognize what activites juice you up so that you can make arrangements to do more of those.

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TIP #1 – DEFINE WHAT YOU WANT SO THAT YOU CAN HELP OTHERS HELP YOU

It may seem counterintuitive, but the best way to find a job is be able to tell people exactly what kind of job you want when networking. Sometimes people think it is best to keep all options open for any type of job that may come along. But with that strategy there is a higher likelihood that they will not like the position they accept and will be looking for a job again real soon because they quit or got fired. A person who handles the job search that way risks quickly becoming a job hopper. And guess what, it all started because they didn’t define what they were looking for in the first place.

The process does not have to be difficult or long and drawn out. It can be quite enriching if a person takes the time, but it can be done quickly with a few educated guesses when food just needs to get to the table too.

Minimally, you need to know:

• What kind of work fits your lifestyle right now such as part time, full time or contract?

• What industry are you interested in?

• What are example job titles?

• What skills you have to offer and what kind of problems you can solve with those skills?

With this kind of information in mind you can start the job search by asking people you know and people you meet a very powerful question, “Who do you know in the retail clothing industry that may be looking for part-time employees?” As simple as that you can begin accessing the hidden job market and the power of networking. Moral of the story: knowing what you want sure helps other people help you.

TIP #2 – FIND A MENTOR

First, outline or journal what your career will look like when you arrive at the “next level.” What will you be doing in your work? What experience & education will you have achieved? How are you impacting your industry? Continue to make better distinctions about yourself and where you want to go then follow your nose to the virtual and real world gathering places for people whose interests match yours. Look for them in writing and speaking that is going on in your industry and in professional associations associated with your industry, or attend a conference or training, and search for them on LinkedIn. Locate and engage the experts in those places. Share your enthusiasm and demonstrate that you are there to learn and that you are very interested in contributing to the conversation. Ask the question, “what advice do you have for someone who is interested in doing what you are doing?” Ask also how they stay up-to-date in the field. Be sure to thank them for their time by writing them a thank you note or email or a quick follow up phone call or message later. Consider them a part of your professional network and send info their way when you see or hear about something they might like to know. If you notice a potential mentor but suspect they are too busy to be a mentor? Or maybe you just don’t know how to break the ice with them. Try informational interviewing. Its not just for students or those choosing a career for the first time! Informational interviewing can help you transition to a new career field, further your network, or find a mentor.

TIP #3 – ACCOMPLISHMENTS NOT GOALS

Spend more time tracking and talking about your accomplishments rather than your goals. Think about it: accomplishments are actions you have already taken, goals are actions you intend to take…which is more powerful? Begin by making it a habit to log your accomplishments weekly while they are fresh in your mind. Collect them and turn them into bullet points for your resumes and power stories for your networking and interviews.

TIP #4 – START A BLOG

Career blogging is a networking and electronic portfolio all in one! Your blog can be an outstanding networking tool. This is just the kind of thing the blogosphere was meant for…sharing information, having a discussion, building relationships. Plus, a blog can become a showcase for your unique personality, knowledge, and skills. With small regular posts you can quickly build an impressive portfolio demonstrating more about your personality and quality of work while building your reputation at the same time.

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In fact, let’s make it an Elevator Pitch Fest! My colleague, Susan Ireland, is collecting elevator pitches generated in the comments at her blog — The Job Lounge. You’ll find my elevator pitch at the top of the list. Please consider this a personal invitation for you to join in too. The goal is to reach 100 elevator pitches and, frankly, I think we can blow that one out of the park! Thanks much.

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So, have you spent time practicing your one minute bio? The exercise feels kinda lame and unnatural but the important thing is that you give it some thought and practice putting your voice to your thoughts about your work — where you have been careerwise and where you are going.

There is an art to networking. It is quite difficult to remember to take a moment to understand who you are interacting with and how to best present yourself in various situations. But keep your mind on it and stay aware for opportunity, not just opportunity for you but opportunity to help others somehow — that is powerful networking. The person you help may not be the one to help you but you set wheels into motion by being generous with your knowledge, info, and positive energy.

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Social networking websites strive to bring people of similar interests together in a “meeting place” online. I like to say that it is almost as good as attending a convention in person without the costs of travel or vacation time. Of course, meeting in person is ideal, but with the multimedia capabilities of today you can establish new, and even deepen existing relationships with a little online savvy. With social networking online it becomes easier to visualize your personal and/or professional networks. You can also connect people you know with other people you know quite easily using online introductions—a powerful networking strategy.

Social media is powerful and it is here to stay. There is potential for competitive advantage by having a presence online, but you have to manage your online identity in a way that positively serves you. By using social networking technology, you provide proof of your technology and communication skills (or lack thereof) depending upon how carefully you utilize the medium. And, by the way, the absence of an online presence is becoming a detriment to successful networking and job search too.

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Listen to the passion in his voice…he has an important message to share. Find your passion and use it to serve others by developing your personal brand.

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On a side note, a variation of meta-search that you may find useful is Chimby.com which is specifically for searching career advice-related articles. Additionally, meta-searching job openings can be achieved through SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com.

Back to ego surfing…there are a couple of possibilities you might learn about your online presence. One is that nothing comes up about you and the other is that negative info comes up.

If nothing comes up then it is time to embark upon a web presence campaign! A simple way to begin is with Twitter.com which is a mini-blogging platform. It is called a mini-blog because users are limited to posting messages of only 140 characters in length at a time. People simply sign up for a user name, then they begin posting messages–or “tweeting.” For career advancement purposes, remember to post tweets that reveal your specialized knowledge and skills, AND that showcase your personality.

Keep in mind, Twitter is a double edged sword. The downside is that it is very easy to send off scathing or sarcastic one-liners that do not demonstrate the best a you have to offer. The upside is that with very little, but consistent, effort you can build a web presence and begin fruitful dialog with others.

Another easy way to get started is to create a LinkedIn.com and/or Plaxo.com profile. LinkedIn is a key professional networking website. Recruiters and human resources professionals are getting quite accustomed to checking LinkedIn to find talent and to vet individual applicants before beginning an in-person dialog. LinkedIn also offers a question and answer area that is a great place to network.

Plaxo is also very good, but for different reasons. Most useful is that Plaxo enables people to automatically see what you are posting on the net via your “pulse stream.” So if you post an update to your blog or submit a new bookmark to your favorite bookmarking site, it will show up on your pulse stream which members of your Plaxo network will see. Plaxo also features the ability to make a business side of your profile and a personal side of your profile so that you may divide up who gets to see what. Plaxo started out as a web-based contact manager to keep address and information up-to-date, so it does that very well, too.

Creating LinkedIn and Plaxo profiles will be somewhat familiar because they resemble a resume format. One big difference is the ability to post a picture with a profile. You may want to have professional photos taken or otherwise use a suitable digital photo for upload. Adequate photo editing for online resizing of digital photos can be done for free at ShrinkPictures.com. I suggest the “create avatar” tool for use with Twitter, LinkedIn, and Plaxo profiles. This tool will shrink the photo down to a perfect size for posting online with just one click so you do not have to worry about defining dimensions or file size. By the way, avatar is an image, symbol, or graphic that represents a person online. You can get very creative with your avatars, but remember for career advancement purposes you will need to maintain a professional image.

For info on what to do when negative info comes up when ego surfing, check back here Friday or better yet click the blue RSS button at the upper left of the page. Thanks!

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With social networking online, it becomes easier to visualize your personal network. You can also connect people you know with other people you know by online introductions.

It is wise to exercise caution with any online profiles you create on social networking sites just as you would with writing and sending email. Info you put out there can be used against you.

Examples of social networking sites include www.plaxo.com, www.twitter.com, www.myspace.com, www.facebook.com, www.linkedin.com, and www.xing.com.

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There is an opportunity for “reverse mentoring” with technology. Reverse mentoring means a younger person can guide and teach someone older than they are.

Of course, we all know there are many skills and ideas the older generation can teach the younger generation, but think of how the younger generation can give back through technology which they tend to be so comfortable with. This could be crucial because one of the integral ideas for career success that young people need to learn is reciprocity in networking. This type of mentoring can open the door to dialogue and both sides benefit as in the traditional mentoring relationship. Not to mention the increases in self-confidence and time saved that will be gained as both parties get up to speed, one with technology and the other with networking.

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