Executive Director's View
 Print this article | Send to Colleague
Planning you career CCBO Bottom Line 10-6-2011
These difficult economic times make it even more critical for you to pay attention to your career. I have long said that both men and women spend more time researching their next car, planning on how to upgrade their home, following their favorite sports team, or attending their children’s activities than they ever do planning for their next career move.
During these economic times there are two factors which make it more important now. First, for the first time in my memory, we have excellent managers who have been riffed or their departments eliminated through outsourcing. It is part of the economic malaise, but a terrifying time for most who face unemployment.
Second, we are also approaching a better time when retirement plans will match the resources to retire. As retirement portfolios take back part of their severe 2008-2011 reductions, Boomers by the hundreds, and eventually thousands and hundreds of thousands, will fulfill their retirement dreams. You must be prepared to fill those positions, if you choose.
A comprehensive discussion of career development is beyond the scope of this commentary, but let me list nine things you can do NOW to prepare yourself.
1. Update your resume. Your resume is the road map and marketing device for your career. It is often YEARS since most have dusted theirs off, and most often it doesn’t include your present position. Try updating it once a year around your birthday. Every five years have a professional examine it to ensure it corresponds to current market expectations. Be concrete, precise and honest. Also prepare sample cover letters and share them with a few knowledgeable friends.
2. Keep a compendium of your professional development experiences and other activities that improve your career. You’re not "old" unless at any age you stop learning and innovating. By measuring your development roadmap you are also seeing where your holes are and what you should do to improve.
3. Keep a career contacts list and annotate it. CCBO is indeed made up of great connections that you can make with your fellow professionals, and we’re proud that most members point to their contacts, most gained in professional development programs, the CCBO Leadership Academy or the annual conference, as a top value. BUT for career development, you need to keep track of those contacts. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but a simple listing of name, email address and how you met them and what impressed you about them is crucial. But you should also do this if taking AACC programs, state affiliate programs, NACUBO Management Institutes or other career-related meetings.
This will serve as the core for any job search. You’ve heard that most jobs are never filled from random resumes but from the recommendations of "insiders." This list can constitute your "insider" list for jobs, recommendations, ideas and more. The time to begin this list is NOT the first day that you need it. I follow this up with a simple email greeting, usually around the December holidays. You may help your contacts before they help you, but this connection is important.
4. Never duck a headhunter. Many of us receive calls about our availability for jobs, most often at times when we’re not interested. Never miss those calls and ALWAYS provide the names of one or several great people from your contact list. That headhunter will continue to call you and when it is time for you to look, most probably accept your telephone call.
5. Become knowledgeable about the resources available to you. Try the job announcements at CCBO, NACUBO, or your state affiliates. You can also try other job sites and often can visit college and university sites. Call any headhunters you know and look for community groups that can help. If already out-of-work, your college may be able to help with transition services.
6. Be realistic and systematic. There are many approaches to a job search, but do be realistic and systematic. You may come up with your own system, but don’t do it all at once. Rather, space it over the time that you can devote to this "job." Adjust this list to the degree you are actively looking for your next position, or if you are unemployed.
a. Make a weekly list of which contacts you will email or call about your search. Keep the number manageable.
b. Do the research to find at least four jobs a week to which you can apply. You may find more, but send four.
c. Call those who may know about those jobs from your list. Do they know additional information or people who do? Will they recommend you for this job?
d. Prepare a concise one-page cover letter to your resume that serves as a blockbuster marketing tool. Think about whether you need to individualize your resume.
e. If you can apply online, do so. But follow it up with a cover letter and resume.
f. After three weeks, if you haven’t received a response, send another resume. They probably got the first, but it never hurts to have a resume in different stages of their piles.
g. After six weeks, if you haven’t heard, send a handwritten note asking for an update.
h. Note that by now you are at various stages of many search options, and your tasks are filling up your week.
7. Related to #6, find people with whom to discuss your search. Call your close colleagues about once a month. Get into a local support group to discuss your progress and share new ideas. If you are male, talk with your wife. This sounds sexist, but many men if unemployed do NOT discuss their problems (especially career problems), and their ego is more highly tied to their work. It is critical to keep your family informed.
8. The most important life planning tool I use in many situations is to look forward to what I want to do. I compose a response to the proposition: "The year is [five years in the future]. Describe what you are ideally doing in your personal, family, work, career and professional life. Now describe what you did way back on [today’s date] that got you to where you want to be." Then I save them until next year, when I prepare to do it again.
I can’t tell you the number of times that coming back a year or even two later to see how my "dreams" are working has proved valuable. In some cases I see that I hoped to do something that is no longer important to me. In others I see that what I have to do now to achieve my dreams is different from what I thought, and that’s valuable. In yet others, like achieving my doctorate and coming to NACAS, I could see that I needed to radically change some of the things I was doing, otherwise a very important dream could be lost forever. For personal, work, career, family and professional goals it is a simple, yet very powerful tool.
9. Be healthy! Exercise, eat properly, keep up with personal and professional reading and do what it takes to keep your mind and body healthy. Who you are is NOT solely determined by your job, but job searches are clearly high stress situations. Do all you can to be healthy.
Envision a full and enriching career in higher education, but also spend that minimal time necessary to ensure that when opportunity knocks, you’ll be ready.
Agree or disagree to bob@ccbo.org
Dr. Bob Hassmiller, CAE, Executive Director |
|
