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By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive! Over the last 8 years or so, as the coaching and personal development field has continued to bloom and then explode, I've noticed the rise to prominence of two types of coaches. 1. The Peddlers of Hope and Passion (Hope Peddlers & Passion Peddlers). 2. The Peddlers of Fortune Cookie Inspiration. Now, don't get me wrong, both coaching categories have their value and their place. It all depends on the needs of their particular clients. In fact, helping to instill or to activate hope or passion in a client is surely a noble act and it can have much value as can short, pithy inspirational talks or interactions. The danger, though, is when Passion, Hope and Fortune Cookies (PHFC) are the extent of the coach's toolkit or when the client isn't self-aware that they may well need to "graduate" to a more Nuts and Bolts focused coach. For instance, if you are a carpenter or design commercial structures, initially PHFC can be very motivating and valuable. "You can do it!" (Peddler of Hope) "You're Howard Roarke! and don't even know it!" (Peddler of Passion) "Rome wasn't built in a day!" (Fortune Cookie Inspiration) At some point, Nuts and Bolts matter - the types and variations of nuts and bolts, the dimensions, the specifications like material and tensile strength. We'll talk more about Nuts and Bolts coaches and coaching as well since even that has some shortcomings which are not readily apparent. By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive! There's a common response or reaction among both students who have just graduated and have "no luck finding a job" and among working professionals who have been routinely passed over for promotion or who are currently having "no luck finding a job". So what exactly is that response or reaction? Come on, you know what it is -- These people must all be somehow lacking in something and that something is "education" or "knowledge" which can be easily be "fixed" by "going back to school". Now, while "going back to school" sounds good on the surface (after all, we can never be too educated or too knowledgeable, right?) it ignores many factors and even presents risks and dangers to your current (or budding) career as well as your future career. Just because you are not hired or you are passed over for promotion it doesn't mean that you are lacking any knowledge. In fact, in some cases (many cases actually) involving office politics and power you will be passed over not because you lack anything but because you are too good or too knowledgeable. With that said, even if you do lack knowledge, there is no guarantee that pursuing a new formal education will provide you with the necessary skills or knowledge you desire or think you need. In fact, it may be far cheaper to study or develop those skills on your own or, if you must, you can simply take some short and very focused certification classes. You also would be well advised to determine exactly what skills you are lacking and then ask yourself if your being passed over for a promotion or not landing a job has anything to do with a lack of skills. In most cases, it doesn't. Instead, we can isolate the problem in areas such as: 1. Your resume -- the way your skills are packaged and productized. 2. Your interviewing skills -- how do you communicate and convey your value. 3. The way you locate or surface positions. 4. And so forth. Collectively, I term these the "Job Search 4P's" or "4P's of Job Searches". Going back to school can also be extremely expensive both in direct costs for tuition and out of pocket costs as well as the opportunity costs of not working (assuming you are going full time, you've forgone that salary) and in the case of taking out loans you then risk limiting your option for jobs in the future as you now have an additional fixed overhead. In some cases you'll find that this new knowledge increases you career options but conversely and simultaneously having this new debt also reduces your options. So what should a person do? Well, look around. As just one example. if you are passed over for a promotion and you are told "you need an MBA", why not open your eyes and confirm if every other manager in your firm (or industry) has an MBA. Trust me, they don't. And you'll quickly see that not only does not everyone have an MBA (MBA as just one example, not to pick on any degree) but that, lo and behold, some managers don't even have a college degree! There are many other factors to research and analyze beyond this but the best way to do it is to simply make the most of what you have now while tweaking and testing it in the job market. Because the job market's response to you is all that matters. No degree, certificates or anything else matters. Are you getting invited to interviews? Are you getting written offers? That's what matters. Specifically, you need to SWAN & tweak before you decide to "go back to school". What is SWAN? Well, the SWAN principle is: Sell What's Available Now Whatever skills you have now, make the most of them in your job search (and/or at your present job). This may be using them to develop a visible and provable portfolio (volunteering or working to create tie-off projects, etc.) where these skills are demonstrated and productized. Using the SWAN principle will also force you to improve how you package, present, communicate and convey your skills and value to your current employer or prospective employer. Forget your dreams about all the attention your shiny new degree will supposedly bring you and focus on selling what you have now and the value you can add to a prospective employer -- right now. Once you know what you are doing it becomes like shooting fish in a barrel. And you'll find that you don't need to go back to school, at least not "now", in almost every single case. *Just to note, in this case, I use the term Job Search 4P's to describe a set of specialized job search skills as well as one overall process of the job search lifecycle. If you are familiar with classical marketing literature there is also the Marketing 4P's which are Product, Place (distribution), Promotion and Price. By James Santagata Managing Director, Career OverDrive! / SiliconEdge Mark your calendars for this exciting, upcoming event! (FYI: This is not a gratuitous beat down on recruiters, it's a hard-edged, constructive conversation to give job seekers the unadulterated truth along with immediately actionable, life changing information and know-how - all recruiters are more than welcome).
The recruiting industry is notoriously opaque and riddled with informational asymmetries, full of traps and pitfalls that can cost you dearly in terms of job opportunities, job offers, lower starting salaries and worst of all, even your reputation.
In this exciting, interactive session James will explore and then offer specific solutions to:
Join James as he exposes the inner workings of the recruiting industry while guiding you to job search success. Bring and ask your hardest or most fantastical questions on recruiters and the job search process. James is the Founder and Managing Director of Career OverDrive!(tm) and SiliconEdge(tm) as well as Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance (APCA). He is a proven International Executive Coach and Leadership Development professional having deep US, Japan and Asia-Pacific coaching, training and consulting experience coupled with hands-on business & technical expertise. With over 20 years of industry experience, James has spent 11 of those years working in Silicon Valley for companies ranging from New Venture Start-ups to established Industry Leaders engaged in developing nascent technologies & pioneering emerging markets. He is also the author of the forthcoming book, "Crush Any Interview!" and is a Certified Professional Coach, Certified Employment Interview Professional, Certified NLP Practitioner and has successfully completed the Corporate Human Resources Management and How To Be A Successful Trainer programs as well as the Principles of Persuasion Workshop. Date: April 17th (Thursday) Time: 18:30 open, 19:00 start, 20:30 end Venue: FCCJ - The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan | Map to FCCJ Cost*: ¥4,000 ICA members; ¥6,000 non-members. By James Santagata
Managing Director, Career OverDrive! Don't waste your life waiting for the bus to come pick you up. Newsflash: It ain't coming! Well, at least it ain't coming anytime soon or it would have been here by now... Sometimes, the smart move, sometimes the only move is to make a conscious decision to lace-up your boots and start the long, back breaking journey on foot. You'll be told by others, perhaps even through your own internal talk, that you aren't ready, that you aren't prepared, that the timing isn't right. But you need to realize one thing while you ask yourself another. Life isn't a dress rehearsal and if you aren't ready now, without getting in the arena of life, bench marking your skills, tempering and honing the skills you already have now while developing new ones, when, pray tell, when will you ever be ready? The answer is NEVER. And in that case your future is as clear as day and ends with a Death Bed Regret. Remember, we almost never regret what we do, we regret what we didn't do. By James Santagata
Managing Director, Career OverDrive! / SiliconEdge I dug up and finally got around to putting up a presentation I gave on cloud computing entitled, "Cloud Computing": What It Is, What It Isn't, Why It Matters" for Tokyo 2.0 which was held at Super Deluxe in Nishi-Azabu. We had a great turnout for the event with over 200 people attending. It was almost 5 years ago yet a number of the main themes and issues I addressed have come to pass. You can watch the video, link to the original or see the full presentation PDF by clicking on the button below. By James Santagata
Managing Director, Career OverDrive! Be spicy, be like Thai food. Understand that life is simply a sales, marketing and, most of all, perception game so learn to stand for something and don't worry about being the "nice guy" or "nice girl". Stand for something. Mean something. Be like Thai food. Spicy. It's not cafeteria food. And it's not for everyone. But then again, how many people will stand in line for "cafeteria" food vs ethnic food? Thai food may have a smaller audience but it's an audience of dedicated foodies. So Spice up! By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive! I had the good fortune to be invited to participate in the 2014 After JET Conference's Career Panel which was held at the Pacifico Yokohama (Yokohama, Japan) on February 21st. By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, Career OverDrive! There's been a lot of talk and debate over the last few years as to the value of the "'lowly" Liberal Arts degree. A variety of pundits and talking heads have even gone so far as to argue that there's no value to be had in such a degree, especially when one factors in the direct costs incurred during the course of earning the degree as well as the opportunity costs associated with the four years unemployment typically experienced while the student studies for the degree. To all of these pundits and all of this punditry I have but one word: Hogwash! I'm here to tell you that Liberal Arts degree, in and of itself, is most likely fine. Just fine. "What? James, are you serious or just totally delusional?! " Yes, I'm serious and no, I'm not delusional. There are many reasons why I am certain that the Liberal Arts degree is not a "Death Wish For Careers" which I won't go into at this time, however, it is readily apparent ot me that plenty of value can be extracted from both the pursuit and earning of a Liberal Arts degree. In turn, this acquired and derive value can be used to great positive effect during a Liberal Arts degree-holder's pursuit of professional employment. And as an aside, plenty of value can also be extracted and shown to a prospective employer by even non-degree holding job seekers/job applicants as well. Here's The Real Deal In A Nutshell: The Liberal Arts degree itself is fine, provided that you have studied and learned your subject matter to some basic level of competency but more importantly learned HOW to study when acquiring new information in the future and without direction or prodding from your professor or other authority figure. Now, reports have come back from many if not most Liberal Arts grads saying how tough a time they face looking for meaningful (versus underemployment or unemployment) employment after having graduated. There is no doubt that with few exceptions Liberal Arts grads have it harder, but what they face is by no means insurmountable, it's more about filling in a few gaps, buffing out a few dings and learning how to use the value they already have created and possess to their advantage. For instance, most Liberal Arts majors or grads could greatly enhance their job market value and the buying temperature of prospective employers by simply and quickly adding a few skills which may range from basic tech or analytical skills to work facilitation and work environment skills as well as the job search strategies, tactics and techniques that are needed to wrap around these core or foundational skill sets to land that coveted or desired job. We've discussed this before but we can never do it enough: 1. Being good at doing the job is not the same as being good at getting a job. 2. It's not the degree you earned that's killing your job search. What this means is that not all degrees are created equal in terms of the way they are perceived by prospective employers in particular and the job market in general. This is not good or bad, it is just the way it is. And that's okay. Once we have tuned into reality, we can own it. Specifically, the less value your degree is perceived to have in the job market or the lower the value that your degree signals or imputes to the job market (and/or the greater the supply of similar candidates in the job market holding the same credential) the greater your skill in understanding and applying the Job Search 4P's* must be. Specifically, the Job Search 4P's are positioning, packaging, presenting and promoting skills as well as a candidate's ability to communicate and convey value (C&C) to a prospective employer. Conversely, if you have a "stronger" degree (that is the perceived value of said degree is that stronger or more greatly valued in the job market) or employers clearly understand how to monetize (or have monetized) or they feel they can more readily monetize a particular degree (such as a computer science or business degrees), all things being equal, you'll need far less proficiency in the application of the Job Search 4P's during your job search. Once you know what you're doing it becomes like shooting fish in a barrel. If you have one of these higher in-demand, easier to map or more readily communicable degrees and you know how to use the Job Search 4P's like a boss, well, in such a case, you'll quickly find yourself in such high demand that you'll basically lord over and rule the job market. And that's a very enviable position to be in! *Just to note, in this case, I use the term Job Search 4P's to describe a set of specialized job search skills as well as one overall job search process. If you are familiar with classical marketing literature there is also the Marketing 4P's which are Product, Place (distribution), Promotion and Price. Fun night at Mitsubishi Estate's EGG/T21C New Year's Kickoff Party (Shin-nen-kai). in Tokyo. Heard great presentations from the Country managers of Pinterest, Box, Splunk and Millennial Media. |
AboutCareer OverDrive™ is your platform for career acceleration and expert advice. Together we'll explore high-performance career development, acceleration, transitions and change, job searching, interviewing and salary negotiations, Psychological Jujutsu™ and office politics and organizational power dynamics. Archives (by date)
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