Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

Make the extrinsic intrinsic in your job search from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast …or tell your Alexa, “Alexa, play the podcast Career Opportunities”  ex·trin·sic/ikˈstrinzik/Adjective 1. Not part of the essential nature of someone or something; coming or operating from outside. in·trin·sic/inˈtrinzik/Adjective 1. Belonging naturally; essential. While engaging in the weekly #careerchat a few weeks ago, I was once again reminded of how much has changed in the work world over my last 25 years as a worker and careerist. We were discussing networking for job leads and career development and a lot of the advice seemed old fashioned to me. There was a discussion of setting up informational interviews, resumes, references and such and it seemed that many people were missing the deep changes that have taken place in the work world. After chatting for a while, I was finally able to put my finger on the nature of these changes. We used to think of job hunting as an extrinsic activity — one outside the normal realms of work and life. We only really engaged in networking and resume development when we were actively looking for a job. Once happily ensconced in a company, all our focus turned to moving up the ranks with little thought towards what might be happening at other companies or even, more dramatically, in other careers. We stayed happy in our cocoon until something forced us to once again enter our job search mode. Read this entire article – Make the extrinsic intrinsic in your job search from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books ††† * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

Work your contacts like a pro from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast …or tell your Alexa, “Alexa, play the podcast Career Opportunities” Back in the day, your Rolodex™ was your breadbox, your money maker and in some cases your lifeline. Today, whether you store your contacts on paper, in Gmail or some fancy CRM system, these descriptions are still valid. A lot of life and business is still about who you know.  Those contacts — both online and face-to-face — are golden. While the image of the smarmy salesman making endless phone calls is stuck in many minds, using your virtual rolodex to build your career and your income is as important as it ever was. Use your rolodex for good, not evil, and you can take your career to new heights. Read this entire article – Work your contacts like a pro from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books ††† * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

Most of us dramatically undervalue our knowledge from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast …or tell your Alexa, “Alexa, play the podcast Career Opportunities” This weekend was the 4th of our free CareerCamp unconferences here in the Los Angeles area. You can learn more about what happened there on the website at http://careercampscv.wordpress.com. My first session of the day was a breakout discussion on social media and your career. (The audio from this session should be available both here on Career Opportunities and the CareerCampSCV web site.) During that discussion, I heard a common refrain, “What do I have to share, discuss, write about, blog about?” I have heard this many times before and I always work to dispel this myth. Unfortunately, most of us often undervalue or devalue the unique knowledge that we have developed over the years. Even someone starting out in a career has learned some important lessons that could benefit others. Still, many of us hang our heads and proclaim we have nothing to offer to the world. Sometimes, in a slightly mean fashion, I will point out to people that if they have nothing to say about their work or their life, then they have much larger problems than just building their career. Most immediately understand what I mean. It is my effort to get them thinking about what they know and how important it might be to others. Read this entire article – Most of us dramatically undervalue our knowledge from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books ††† * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

Too Much Can’t in the World Today from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast …or tell your Alexa, “Alexa, play the podcast Career Opportunities” I must confess that I didn’t watch the launch of the final Space Shuttle mission today. I couldn’t bring myself to be in a celebratory mood since I see today’s launch as yet another step in a long list of “can’t” in today’s America. We can’t do this. We can’t do that. Even worse, we can’t afford to do this or that. Can’t often has nothing to do with external realities of money or knowledge. It has much more to do with a lack of will. Can’t allows us an easy excuse to stop doing those things that are most important. Can’t allows us to continue a long, slow slide into mediocrity, seemingly without blame. “It’s not my fault, we can’t afford it!” We can do these important things if we are innovative and creative and if we find the ability to see the value that is often found in these long-term programs. Read this entire article – Too Much Can’t in the World Today from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books ††† * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

Take some time to review your career from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast …or tell your Alexa, “Alexa, play the podcast Career Opportunities” It is easy for thoughts, tasks and projects to get lost during the height of the work and school year. There is simply so much competing for our time that it is inevitable that some things get shuffled off into storage or forgotten entirely. I realized the other day that I hadn’t picked up my guitar in months. I love playing guitar, but finding the time — any time — to sit and play just wasn’t in my schedule. I was busy, and due to being so busy, more tired than I normally might be. This is a dark road that leads to hours spent staring at the computer or the television. Read this entire article – Take some time to review your career from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books ††† * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

Networking means conversations, not collecting business cards from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast …or tell your Alexa, “Alexa, play the podcast Career Opportunities” I have often said that I have some of my best ideas when I am talking with others. This seemed to be in effect this week when I was involved in the online Twitter chat #careerchat. As part of the conversation about networking I said, “Sometimes we overthink networking, too. Engaging with people is simply/or should be, part of your life. #careerchat” For whatever reason, this message resonated with many people in the chat and beyond. I was re-tweeted many times and it got me thinking about not only networking, but the host of other tasks we over complicate in our lives. The fact is, we often make simple things complicated in our lives. During my college career, I was required to take a course, several actually, in Interpersonal Communications i.e. talking to one another. It sought to apply psychological science to the very human act of conversation. We even had these exercises called “dyadic encounters” where we had to converse with a student partner and notice all sorts of things about the conversation, beyond what was actually discussed. Now sure, there is some benefit to studying things scientifically, but we can easily take this to ludicrous extremes. We can spend so much time analyzing something that we begin to ignore the very reason why we were doing it in the first place. This is certainly true with networking. I see people worry so much about connecting with X number of people or, even worse, X number of the “right” people that they ignore, if not offend those around them. For them, networking quickly becomes a game of numbers rather than a process of growth. Read this entire article – Networking means conversations, not collecting business cards from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books ††† * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!

It doesn’t take permission to do good work from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast …or tell your Alexa, “Alexa play the podcast Career Opportunities”   Watching your child move through their school years can always be quite illuminating. It brings back memories of your own childhood while also allowing you to learn a bit more from these experiences than you ever did as a child. Today’s lesson came from the student council elections at my son’s school. Watching parents and children alike discuss the results, I realized that too many of us think that doing good work requires some sort of title. Nothing could be further from the truth. These thoughts arose from parents discussing how disappointed they would be if their child — who was a current member of the student council — lost the election and wouldn’t be able to do the fun things they enjoyed as part of that role. Without even thinking, my first response was — if they enjoy doing it, why should they stop. Even without the title of “class historian” they could still go out and take pictures and store memories for their classmates. While the current council member would get first priority of having their photos displayed at school, there is no reason the other child should stop doing something they enjoy.   Read this entire article – It doesn’t take permission to do good work from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books †††   * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

Helping others help you from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast All of us need a little help in our careers. We need guidance. We need advice. We need support. Unfortunately, many of us don’t know how to help others help us. We often go about asking for help in odd ways or, even worse, ignoring or questioning the help we receive. Helping someone is a two way street and if you consistently go about it in the wrong way you will soon find yourself without anyone to help you at all. Read this entire article – Helping others help you from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

What I tell every new careerbuilder from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast Many of the readers and listeners of Career Opportunities have been working for a long time. They have had several jobs and maybe even a few careers. It seems to take a few years before most people start to consider their work and how to build the career they deserve. That said, I am always excited when I meet someone at the beginning of their career that, for whatever reason, has the foresight to see that their career and their life are intimately intertwined. For these people, today’s column focuses on the things I would love to say to every person just starting out in their career. Take these lessons to heart and your career may become much easier. Read this entire article – What I tell every new careerbuilder from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

Take responsibility for your own education from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast I have been advising you to take control of your career for over 12 years here on Career Opportunities. I continue to believe that it is of the utmost importance that you manage your career instead of letting it manage you. Today, I am extending that advice beyond your work and your career. Starting today you must also take direct responsibility for your own education. Through budget cuts and legislation, our American system of higher education is being priced beyond reach or destroyed entirely. While I will rue the day it occurs, there may come a time when many of you, or more likely, your children,  will find it difficult, if not impossible, to gain a college degree. In such a world, you may need to look to other, perhaps older, methods to gain the education you need to succeed. Read this entire article – Take responsibility for your own education from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

Are you learning with every project, task, opportunity? Are you “Hitting the Bullseye”? from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast Over the last several months my son and I have been increasingly active in archery at our local range with our local SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) group. We enjoy being outdoors and the camaraderie of archery, as well as challenging ourselves to improve our skills over time. During our hours at the range, comparisons between archery and your career have been coming to mind quite a bit. There is one analogy that I haven’t been able to shake so I felt it deserved presenting here. When you are on the archery range your goal is typically to become better and better at your aim. The archery target presents a clear goal and clear feedback after each shot. If only our career was so forthcoming with feedback. Archery is a challenge of constant correction and adaptation. If you want to improve, you carefully evaluate each shot, what you did, and the results it produced. After some time you will find that your muscle memory will begin to kick in and it becomes easier and easier to hit the bulls eye consistently. Read this entire article – Are you learning with every project, task, opportunity? Are you “Hitting the Bullseye”? from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

Your career is about YOU! from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast You may have noticed over the years that I don’t write about typical career-related topics here on Career Opportunities. Where other columns might focus on resumes or interview skills, I prefer to talk about how your career relates to you, your needs and your goals. Too often I think we forget the a career is a very personal thing. It isn’t some academic process that happens to someone else. It happens to you. You have to live with your career, day after day, so shouldn’t you be building the career you deserve? When we talk about careers we tend to focus on the external factors. How can I perfectly answer that tough interview question? How can I mold myself into someone this company will want to hire? How will our boss feel about this action? Will the company have issues with that? To my eye, we spend entirely too much time trying to satisfy external forces and factors and too little looking out for ourselves. The true success of your career is how much you gain from it, not how much others gain from you. Sure there should be a balance, but in most career situations we err on the side of pleasing our employer instead of pleasing ourselves. Read this entire article – Your career is about YOU! from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

Production, Promotion and Being Proactive in your Career from the Career Opportunities Podcast A live recording of my presentation, “Production, Promotion and being Proactive in your Career”, at Tuesdays with Transitioners on February 15, 2011. (1 hour, 23 minutes) Listen to this podcast   One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

The Care And Feeding of Your Career from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast Your career isn’t just something you set on autopilot and forget. Sure, you might be engaged in a great job at the moment and enjoying your work, but even then you need to be constantly monitoring and adjusting your career. Times change and along with them the economy, the stability of your company and your own wants, needs and desires. Be happy, sure, but don’t let it lull you into a false sense of security. You need to keep building your career, even when you seem on the right path. Read this entire article – The Care And Feeding of Your Career from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

The Art of Communication and Your Career from the Career Opportunities Podcast Listen to this podcast Communicating well with those around you may be one of the most important parts of any career. Whether you are communicating with your family, your co-workers, your managers or the world, whenever you fail to communicate effectively, the consequences are swift and painful. If you are having issues in your career, take some time to think about how you are communicating. I can guarantee you will find something lacking in your approach that might have prevented a lot of workplace angst. I was reminded about the importance of communication through a recent event in my own life. It involved a school announcement that the archdiocese (my son attends Catholic grade school) would be adding 20 days to school year, starting with the Fall 2011 calendar. While I personally had no real issues with this, the outcry from other parents was swift and loud. There were a variety of arguments against adding these days, but I believe at the heart of the argument was the presentation of this new policy as a fait accompli (a thing accomplished and presumably irreversible, Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary). Read this entire article – The Art of Communication and Your Career from the Career Opportunities Podcast One-To-One Career Consulting Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing  Build the Career You Deserve with these books * A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!