careers Archives - Page 4 of 9 - The Voice of Job Seekers

Redefining the Rules of Resilience to Your Career

I told you a few weeks ago that Gen Z should ignore your Gen X and Baby Boomer relatives‘ career advice. This week is a clear example of how my generation, the epitome of resilience, has amassed outdated experiences regarding career and job-search advice. We have enough evidence from our generation regarding what was right and wrong about what we called resilience and how it applies to our careers.

We can look at the exploits of a hero like Muhammad Ali and the brilliance of his patience and intel in knowing George Foreman was a relentless pounder. The reward was one of the greatest sports victories ever. We can look at the tragedy in the head trauma he survived that left him unable to continue showcasing his colorful personality for the last 35 years of his life.

The fact we’re offering the “gut-it-out” and “you have to play the game” when it comes to our health, wellbeing, and survival in the workplace no longer serves us or our younger counterparts. I am only referencing Simone Biles a single time now because of her recent decision to step away from competing in the team and all-around Olympic gymnastics competition. You can find opinions and commentary all over the place. But that is all I will say about it in this article.

Our well-being is woven into our careers, and it is the catalyst of our job search.

You’ll need to discern who will be the right leader for you. Who will respect what you feel you need, your boundaries, and your aspirations? Initially, only you can make that decision.

Tom Brady chose his boss. I know sport is different. But, he took who his boss was going to be to heart. There is never a perfect boss. There’s a case to find the perfect boss for you.

We have the tools now to know who our boss will be long before we apply for a particular job. There’s intel to collect from people they work with. And yes, the process I described is a lot of work. This is a critical step now to your well-being and success in your career.

I also advocate deep networking. A large network is helpful. A network with many people who introduced you to other people, especially within a single or adjacent industry, can give you opportunities. I see that a lot in my industry with my friends, peers, colleagues, and partners. They will also add to your well-being because of their familiarity and experiences with bosses, colleagues, and intel of the work.

Great work relationships don’t have walls or distance anymore. As I can personally testify to powerful partnerships with those I never met in person. Remote work won’t change the friendship dynamic when choices are limited.

Competition is important for your job search because it’s designed that way. It probably won’t change anytime soon. Each of us has to decide which race we are willing to enter. It’s more important to be well-informed and do the necessary work to obtain what’s important to us. But we’re broken if our mental health is fractured, whether temporarily or permanently. Don’t risk your mental health to chase glory.

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

Treat Your Career Like Appreciating Property

My wife and I own a building we’ve been redecorating quite a bit in the last two years. There are challenges, and there were updates done that were seamless. There are useful analogies similar to building a future-proof career and the modern job search. Buildings and your career are similar because they require improvements to appreciate and add value. We can argue later how location has to do with its worth, but it does.

We can’t assume there is a solid foundation in both instances, so it’s important to have them tested. The house or building has to be inspected carefully and never overlooked because if it lacks a strong foundation, its worth is diminished greatly. We can assume the training and experience you’ve obtained will continue to add to your foundation for job seekers. Remember, employers, circumstances, and people who want to refer you will test your foundation.

I was recently on the “Who Ya Know” web show where one of the co-hosts, Trevor Houston, used a building analogy I thought would be interesting to explore. All of us, including Trevor’s co-hosts, Foster Williams and Mark Elder, rallied around this analogy. It was my favorite part of the show.

We are currently renovating a kitchen upstairs-intending to replace the Lazy Susan with a new one. Everything went as planned for all other work in the building except for the kitchen. We didn’t make any considerations in measuring the Lazy Susan, and as a result, we failed to finish the kitchen in the timeline we had established.

Your career and job search are similar to renovation.

Let’s keep in mind your career depreciates if you’re not renovating, just as a building loses its worth if you don’t. Renovation is related to buildings, as reinvention or innovation is more relevant to your job search and career. I advocate to constantly and consistently increase your value, so you’ll continually add worth.

The recreation shouldn’t stop overall progress.

When we decided to wait for the right size Lazy Susan for the kitchen, a lot of work still needed to be done in the rest of the building. Similarly, this shouldn’t happen to your job search, but the propensity of most job seekers is to stop adding value to other areas important to impress employers. You can’t allow training or the discovery of new learning to stop your overall growth and career advancement.

You can’t expect growth by doing just enough.

If you’re learning something new, change must follow. Learning itself doesn’t create growth unless applied to test whether it’s true or false. A slight change may be a need for the training to work. Although I don’t do personal training anymore, there is a practice that applies here. Growth is necessary, and it takes time.

Before training anyone, an assessment is needed to prescribe the correct exercise program for each individual. For most people, squats are the most challenging yet rewarding weight exercises to perform and add muscle. I couldn’t prescribe weighted squats to someone who cannot hold their balance when squatting without weights. It’s as important- someone trains safely or consequently injures themselves. The goal is for them to perform squats, but it will take a series of small and progressive training to get someone to weighted squats safely and effectively.

Similarly, career growth occurs after assessing whether you need to do more. Then you determine if smaller steps are best to grow. Discomfort is certain at some point, but the process shouldn’t hurt you more than the change itself.

It costs to renovate and to redecorate a building or a house. It also costs to assess, and if smaller steps are needed, time and cost are a factor. All of these could discourage you from finishing a building, house, or career. You don’t want any of them to be an excuse not to finish. Remember, your job search and career are much like property. Continual changes and upgrades will bring value and appreciation. No changes or upgrades bring down the value and depreciation.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

by Mark Anthony Dyson

7 Career Advancing Risks to Take in 2021

There are times when you need to take some risks when advancing your career. If you’re not vigilant of your industry, upskilling your skills from familiarity to mastery, or deepening your relationships with connections, you’re behind.

Job search is a part of your regular life in some way to prepare for the worse. As you know, this could happen anytime.

Maybe you’re doing the right things, but your career advancement and job search seem stagnant. Well, I got you. You may need to step out and take a few chances. No, you’re not exactly stepping out on a ledge, but a shake-up helps you to gain traction as much as it exposes your lack of comfort.

Here are a few ideas of risks to help you with taking the next steps in your career:

1. Use video to express thought leadership, teach, or recap new learning.

Not only will you capture more eyes on any social network (especially LinkedIn and Instagram), but also for potential business partners and employers to get to know you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a raw or unpolished presentation. Your viewers will be more impressed and riveted your willingness to “put yourself out there.” It also speaks to your courageousness more than anything else. You, too, can have a friend like Miss Fe Marie, who, outside of her Board of Education job, has a YouTube channel with nearly 21,000 subscribers in its five years. She had a video from 2018 with more than 800K views and making the most of the opportunities the exposure is bringing.

2. To start building your next career.

As you know, your journey starts with curiosity and wonder, but often it is the beginning of fulfillment and possibilities. Just having a job to pay the bills is alright for many, but more professionals want to have more options. Gary worked for the government as a forensic account for 32 years, yet his passion was electric. Before retiring, he trained and worked as an electrician and enjoyed working when and how he wants.

3. Start career-advancing collaborations online or offline.

Volunteering is an excellent way to partner with an organization and building on initiatives from the ground up. Since technology is a continually evolving possibility, those adept at learning new technology could leverage non-profit organizations to grow new skills and build partnerships. Most importantly, they can develop a reputation in new technology, process, or an in-demand talent. Collaborations also create a reason to network with people you know who do similar work. In the long-term, these connections can lead you to the right opportunities without scouring the Internet.

4. Negotiate better compensation

Although negotiation is an expected transaction to start a new job, most professionals don’t research diligently at the beginning of their job search. Even more, don’t strategize to create opportunities in the positions they hold. Money isn’t the only negotiable commodity as compensation. Working remotely also brings you opportunities to get compensated for equipment, software, flexible time, training, insurance, and more.

5. Be more visible for employers to find you.

I would want you to be mindful of what your employer may think without risking your current job. The more you show your value and that you’re valued, it will be the right anecdote to get noticed by employers, recruiters, and referrers. By emphasizing importance through accomplishments and results speaks loudly and attractively to those who desire those results. From posting awards for exceeding qualitative and quantitative benchmarks to showing photos of volunteering time to charitable causes could open more possibilities.

6. Enter competitive skill competitions (not necessarily a contest)

One way to stay on top of industry trends and the skills to remain relevant is to create content around it. Sometimes this means competing in industry contests or at least creating content where essential feedback is offered. It doesn’t have to be an official competition where prizes are provided to be considered competitive. When someone within an industry is recognized for their work, another person will eventually come along and do it better.

7. Becoming well-known

Most people will respond by saying, “I’m not trying to become famous,” when that’s not what I mean. Being well-known can mean you’re creating demand for your work outside your 9-5 job within your industry or local organization. Your visibility at times can make a demand contingent on the scarcity of your skills. It’s not a bad idea to appear on a podcast or two, or a video interview, radio or television news appearing as an expert. Peer-reviewed white papers increase your knowledge and credibility to become a resource for other professionals.

What I’ve discovered is the increase in possibilities as a result of contributions. You’ll likely experience demand for your work the more you are interested in serving or helping your peers. Everybody wants to find a job when they need to in the shortest amount of time. It helps to assure familiar relationships knowing the value you give will eventually provide an open the door to career advancement.