The Voice of Job Seekers

Mark Anthony Dyson ★ Career Writer ★ Speaker ★ Thinker ★ Award-winning Blog & Podcast! ★ "The Job Scam Report" on Substack! ★ I hack and reimagine the modern job search!

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Earlier Work and Life Planning With Your Career in Mind

Earlier Work and Life Planning With Your Career in Mind

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Let’s face it, the lines between work and life continue to mesh. Many professionals are trying to separate the two with 24-hour access to work product. According to Scott Behson, even executives are upfront about their need for work-life balance.

In this episode, we discuss his article, A Lesson for Future Working Parents.

If you want to contribute to the discussion, there are three ways you can do so:

  • Call and leave a voicemail at 708-365-9822, or text your comments to the same number
  • Go to TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com, press the “Send Voicemail” button on the right side of your screen and leave a message
  • Send email feedback to [email protected]

This is Scott’s third time on the show.

Here’s more about his background:

Scott Behson is a professor of management at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has a doctorate in Organizational Studies, and blogs at Fathers, Work and Family. He is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, Time, Wall Street Journal. He’s the author of The Working Dad’s Survival Guide: How to Succeed at Work and at Home,

Here are some highlights from our discussion: 

  • Help his students look at their careers with possible family in mind, not just the prospect of a job
  • We need to be flexible and adaptable with our career planning, keeping up with technology trends
  • Important to be lifetime learners, self-learning, and stay relevant best described as future proofing
  • There’s no easy formula but intentional in thinking about time, emotional bandwidth
  • Scott is seeing more high-intensive companies and individuals who are upfront in wanting flexibility

Do you need help with your career direction and career success?

Do you need coaching or instruction? I can help.

Please note, I will be taking a break for three weeks in May returning the first week in June. Then will offer six more shows until my summer break in July until September the week after Labor Day.

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If Your Personal Brand is Not Disruptive, You Won’t Matter

If Your Personal Brand is Not Disruptive, You Won’t Matter
The heart of a job search is your personal brand. All which is contingent on your ability to differentiate yourself from everyone else. If the core of any job search doesn’t create memorability, the difficulties of selling your skills be stalled at every obstacle. When you’re older, it’s even harder to convince an employer your personal brand brings energy and solutions.
There is no magic wand in building a personal brand. The magic words do not exist. No plot twist in your story has enough intrigue alone to increase your hire-ability. Although all of us dream of stopping someone from what they were doing to pay attention to us, it’s rare.
Fireworks may not go off, but there is something about each of to make someone notice. That’s the disruption factor. Everything from little acts of kindness to doing something profoundly effective to make life better for someone goes a long way. In today’s job search, this is no different.
I got a chance to be a reporter at my college radio station. The only reason I got the job: I went and got an interview with a college dean. The strangest thing about it was it wasn’t my major. Even mass communication majors got it wrong (everyone wanted to like Walter Cronkite but without the work). It is the same set mindset today as there are only a few job search podcasts out in iTunes. I am willing to do the work. So should you.
You don’t have to take many risks to be disruptive. The small things could effectively highlight your value. Here are several suggestions that could help:

  1. Consistency 

To have a constant flow of solutions, knowledge, or message differentiates you online and offline. Most people won’t commit to being consistent, but everyone would like to experience it. If you’re a resource who is approachable and ready to give, people respond positively to it.

  1. Content

In keeping with #1, most people don’t want to use online tools for blogging. Perhaps content won’t find you a job directly, but it can frame discussions with employers around your abilities and thinking. Content can also build familiarity with you as interviewers will call in those who they feel they know and feel comfortable with having dialogue.

  1. Creativity

Your opportunity to get noticed or to reach to right referral opportunity won’t come in a blog post, video, or podcast. Sure those mediums help, but not as much as responding to an opportunity landing in front of you. Recently, a friend was referred through commenting on a Facebook Group page. His one comment leads to a conversation with someone who referred him to a hiring authority in her company resulting in a job from one interview.
Job search is a competition. It’s hard to differentiate yourself. If you’re just one in a thousand, then it’s nearly impossible to get noticed by an employer. Most people like familiarity and are willing to connect with someone. Hiring managers and recruiters alike enjoy familiar connections or with someone who they associate with in some way. If you can divert their attention to quality interaction, they’ll be open to disruption if you appeal to them.
You gotta show them–disrupt and interrupt in a way that’s appropriate and natural.

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Critical Thinking Strategies to Impress Employers with Jeff Kavanaugh

Critical Thinking Strategies to Impress Employers with Jeff Kavanaugh

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Graduates undervalue communication and critical thinking. Employers want more of it. My guest today, Jeff Kavanaugh, explains how graduates can prepare for the job market. Jeff addresses much of this in his new book, Consultant 2.0. If you want to know more about his book you can go to his website.

How are you preparing for the job market?

I would love to hear your thoughts in one of three ways:

  • Call and leave a voicemail at 708-365-9822, or text your comments to the same number
  • Go to TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com, press the “Send Voicemail” button on the right side of your screen and leave a message
  • Send email feedback to [email protected]

About Jeff Kavanaugh:

Senior Partner at Infosys, a $10bn global IT consulting firm. He is also an adjunct professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. He has been featured on Fast Company, Huffington Post, and Tech Crunch.

Here are some highlights from our discussion:

  • People with little experience should seek relevant internships
  • It is a credible data point and learn to apply real world examples and stories
  • Critical thinking demystified requires you to restructure your thinking– calls for rigorous application and logic
  • During interviews, state your conclusion first and support with 3-5 sub points
  • We discussed how imperative it is to use inductive logic to communicate your thinking
  • Knowing your audience, research, understand their experience, dig deeper
  • Show respect in researching the company and interviewer
  • Phrases, stories, adjectives are clues to the interviewer your willingness to connect and relate
  • We discussed studies showing employers value work ethic, professionalism, competency
  • Absorb the publications you read outside of college work. Read publications such as Wall Street and the Economists
  • After reading, write a 500-word blog post on what you’ve written over 2 or 3 years. Collecting 20 or 30 articles over time may catch the attention of prospective employers
  • Employers look for how a job candidate will frame their stories and answers. The right answer is secondary to how it’s analyzed and broken down by logic

Do you need job search coaching or instruction?

I am here for it! Use my contact information above to inquire about individual or group coaching. You can also sign up for my weekly newsletter at the top of my page.