Career Archives - Page 31 of 43 - The Voice of Job Seekers

Career lessons inspired by Dr. King, Jewish Women, the Civil Rights Movement

It is the soft skill that is needed in 2013, as it was the lifeblood of African Americans for centuries demonstrated for the world to witness in the ’50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. There are White and Jewish people who chose to endure and embrace some of the African-American hardship during the civil rights era.

There are career lessons to be learned from each incident and event in history. Those compelled to march in the civil war of race without provocation and passivity or color inspire us. This movement primarily associated with African-American that crossed the borders of race became a few Jewish women’s sole careers providing enduring career lessons.

There are so many ways to endure, and many more reasons to persevere. Here is one reading where I felt there were parallels of Jewish women using transferable skills and experiences to aid and advance the civil rights movement. Although the efforts are minimally featured and remembered in mainstream history, the lessons are a fountain of knowledge and application:

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/civil-rights-movement-in-united-states

As you read, I hope you see some valuable career lessons that I gleaned:

1. How Jewish women fitted and thrived in a diverse and hostile environment

2. Using transferable skills such as, writing, perseverance, and soft skills to transition to a new setting (or career setting)

3. Trained and prepared for difficult and life-threatening challenges to respond passively and nonviolently

4. Emphasized and walked in the shoes of others looking and finding solutions to everyday challenges

5. Failure in one setting was an actionable opportunity to create other opportunities, not a time for defeat and purposeless reflection

Did you notice other applications of career lessons that I didn’t mention? Please share with us in the comments. Happy King Day!

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mplemmon/2744600367/

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Book Review: Who Says Its A Man’s World by Emily Bennington

Emily Bennington is the author of, Who Says It’s A Man’s World: The Girl’s Guide to Corporate Domination is the second book that I am reviewing that is not solely focused on job search advice and tips. In December, I outlined key points from the Leigh Branham’s book, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave, that job seekers should apply to their job search. I will make the same case as well, but first address why should job seekers read a career book among the other industry related material in preparing for the next opportunity.

To answer a common question, yes, I read the book in its entirety.

I also read through the reviews of Emily Bennington’s last book, Effective Immediately: How to Fit In, Stand Out, and Move Up in Your First Real Job. Most of the positive reviews mentioned how practical the book was acting as a guide for new graduates. Even seasoned professionals commented how the advice was so practical and precise.

As an educator, I appreciate the practitioner approach, witty, mildly caustic, and affable, with an educator’s heart in her latest offering. That makes a book an easily digestible read for me, not one inundated with statistics and learning theories.

The first chapter in Emily Bennington’s book recommends that you outline three points from each of the five sections of the book. In addition, she created some practical worksheets for the readers to use and organize thoughts (I am also ignoring that the women focus advice is as practical for us men folk). I wish more career publications would incorporate this strategy (Emily, please don’t change).

To pontificate on my random statement, no, I did not study this book. I suggest that the job seeker who desires to optimize the wisdom from these lessons is to read through it twice, absorbing a few points per section.

Out of the many reasons job seekers must embrace “…Man’s World,” I am offering five reasons this would aid all job seekers, particularly women:

Self-awareness

Bennington empathizes with the unload of the unexpected work and offers several strategies to help manage stress and expectations. As mentioned before, there are exercises to help the employee envision the type of pace and culture he or she desires. This mindset is useful for the current unemployed job seeker to manage his or her expectations of a future employer. Bennington’s suggestion is for you to control of every phase possible from the beginning.

Social skills

Bennington tackles commonly sticky subjects such as, appropriately dressing, office banter, and managing your manager in a way that is easier to swallow than most authors would. If anything she suggests that you walk in the other person’s shoes as part of a strategy that accompanies direct communication.

Personal effectiveness

As mentioned earlier, this section is workbook-like so that the reader can create target areas for improvement. More importantly, this enables to keep the reader accountable.

Team development

Bennington merges a chapter about critical thinking to help the reader think even deeper about his or her approach to knowing people on the team. This is useful as job seekers need to display his or her aptitude and abilities to solve problems. How do you engage coworkers, learn their strengths, and complement them with your abilities? Bennington provides 100 questions to engage others as either a non-management coworker, and as a manager.

Leadership

Again, the practical approach makes this book easy to follow and put in practice, especially when she discusses leadership in a “walk the walk” mantra. Bennington makes the case as trust is earned, and “…trust is built on dependability.” Although much of this is addressed to women, men can take away the approach.

I recommend “Who says…” not just as a preparedness to the office, but as intended by Bennington, an opportunity to excel in the workplace.

Oh Yes, the FREE copy!

Would you like to own a copy of Emily’s new book? To qualify, all you have to do is leave a comment below before Monday by answering this question: Which of the five areas (self-awareness, social skills, personal effectiveness, team development, leadership) mentioned in this review is your strength? The winner will be randomly picked on Monday. Good luck!

About Mark Anthony Dyson

by Mark Anthony Dyson

A Moment with Amit De, CEO of Careerleaf

Here is a fresh look at a new job seeker community, Careerleaf.com, an all-in-one job search platform that cuts the time to apply in half, publicly launched. Careerleaf’s partner-driven platform helps job seekers search for jobs, showcase themselves, and track and manage the entire process. You can read more at Careerleaf.com.

Amit De was gracious enough to find a few minutes provide some answers to questions I had. I will say that he had to correct me when I called the site a job board. In fact, the site was created to avoid the feel and function of any job board site. It was his own frustrating research experience using job boards that inspired this site.

What myths do you tackle and debunk with Careerleaf that makes you standout?

We provide a community for candidates that lets them access niche and other job boards, while structuring their job search effectively and efficiently.

What were some of the challenges you faced in starting out?

Building out the features that would help the candidate most, as our solution focuses on the candidate. However, getting the right mix for users is always a challenge.

Please explain the thought process of what you liked and didn’t like about job boards that you were using?

Just searching the large boards, where you have postings which receive hundreds of applications and get no responses. There needs to be a more efficient way of finding the right jobs.

How did you come up with Tracklet?

We created the Careerleaf Tracklet to help job seekers easily track and manage their search. Many job seekers don’t just look for jobs in one place, so Tracklet was created to allow them to easily manage all of their searches across the Web.

Was your goal at the beginning was to cut the initial time from the application to the search?

One of the goals was to cut the time. But overall, to create a more efficient system.

I saw a screen shot of the job seeker profile and it looked very attractive. Are there other considerations to the job seeker profile that would make it stand out to potential employers and recruiters?

There are lots of other features we can add, but too much is also not good. Hence, we felt this was a good balance to allow candidates to showcase themselves efficiently and tailor their profile.

So what would be key elements that a user must have to attract employers and recruiters on their profile?

A fully completed and well-thought out profile will certainly give users a better chance of attracting employers. Job seekers should focus on creating a strong summary of themselves in their bio section to allow employers and recruiters to better understand what they are searching for.