Personal Branding Archives - The Voice of Job Seekers

How To Be Informed About Your Career Regrets By 40

How to Be Informed By Your Regrets Before 40 by Mark Anthony Dyson

Not all career decisions are amusing stories we can tell later, even if things turned out OK. We often lack foresight and insight when we’re in our early 20s. Sometimes our “yes” should have been “no”—and vice versa.

Setting career strategies and goals takes work. Yes, we want to take control of our careers by accepting full responsibility for our actions, creating opportunities for ourselves, and staying connected. There are those times when we put lots of food on our plates, but we will only eat some and often waste the food.

Some decisions seemed horrible then, but it was the right call. You may only appreciate those later, like when you’re over 40. I thought of a few, and perhaps you can spot them sooner than I did:

1. You said “no” and missed out

When you’re young, you value moving up the ladder and want life experiences with friends. You want both, but saying “no” to career opportunities (or a single one) leaves you with feelings of unrequited love. On the trip back to reality, your values mean more than status, and contentment means more than confinement in a career.

It’s bittersweet, but those relationships you built through your experiences were too valuable. Now you understand these relationships start the process way before any crisis.

You gain intelligence from coffee conversations, networking events, and a few informational interviews.

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Only after a few interactions, your resume will take a relevant shape.

2. You were fired, and afterward, your career stalledHow does it feel when you realize being “fired” was either a great new beginning or a shareable life lesson? Being “let go” was not judgment day, but it felt like it. It feels as if Satan, in the form of disappointment, is stalking you. It took years to get over the sting. The needles and pins of pain. The cloudy and stormy feelings of shame.

Some people need help in understanding why it happened, but others discover freedom and relief quickly is what was supposed to happen. You lost a job for reasons not uncommon to man. If you haven’t reframed it positively, now is the time to do so for the rest of your career.

3. You chose life over money.

Our parents told us to have fun and work hard in our 20s. Some of us were underemployed but refused to go home because we loved our freedom. We ate Spam or Ramen noodles to survive because we decided to immerse ourselves in our lives. The sting remained for years, but we can go to that place when challenges cloud our vision.

Sometimes we gain wisdom from there; other times, clarity or novocaine. You can see the ending to your story clearer, so now you save. Even better, happiness used to have a different cash value. Your ability to career management brings a smile and not a competitive smirk.

4. You lost track of tech and professional relationships.

Certain technologies can become old-school in a short time. Your career path can become irrelevant quickly if you are not on top of trends in your industry. Your friends indirectly challenged you to keep up because they were moving, and you knew you had to keep up.

Somewhere along the way, relationships changed, priorities rearranged, and we feel we should start over again. Tech is infused with life now, so you have to catch up. It will take a little while if you work on it daily.

5. You couldn’t accept “no” from a potential employer.

Rejection makes us more robust, and boy, is it painful at the time.

You spent more time over “what could have been” and less on what you have.

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Sometimes it turned out great, and then you’re grateful for the “trial.”

Remember those who benefited from your path and how it turned out because they are not better without you. Whether you just started a new job yesterday or 20 years ago, you can list 20 ways you’re valuable to your next employer. And do yourself a favor: Keep adding to the list.

6. The lousy boss had value, after all.

We may not like the messenger, but the message was on point. Sometimes our jagged little life-saving pill was brought by an ugly carrier pigeon, and we reject the message for the wrong reasons. In our late 30s or early 40s, we realize when a more acceptable package our ugly acting boss was right. We hated the message and the messenger.

Don’t worry, most of us have been there, but it would have saved us or someone else much heartache if we had looked much deeper at the message. The diamond isn’t in the delivery but in the package.

We get to where we realize what’s most useful and valuable lessons are only sometimes recognizable at first. We may have reached a more straightforward space before 40. But the one thing we do know is upon arrival. We appreciate our career journey more because clarity is an irreplaceable part of our experience.

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.

5 Easy Unordinary Ways to Make Employers Notice You

5 Easy Unordinary Ways to Make Employers Notice You by Mark Anthony Dyson

About five years ago, Geoffrey Owens, once a regular on the legendary Cosby Show, was seen working a — *gulp* — regular job at Trader Joe’s. The press quickly ran with the story, and people worldwide began commenting negatively about Owens’s situation. Owens ended up quitting his job because of all the unwanted attention.

However, there was a silver lining in this: Tyler Perry invited Owens to join the cast of his show, The Haves and the Have Nots. He’s had other movie and television appearances since then.

Think about this: Press coverage put Owens’s name out there, and while there was a little turbulence at first, that coverage also led to new jobs for Owens.

There’s a lesson here for every job seeker. Today’s job search is all about making yourself seen. If employers know who you are and what you can do, they’ll turn to you when they need someone with your skills.

So few job seekers use all the tools available at their fingertips to stand out. While different searches will require different strategies, there are a few easy steps almost anyone can take to maximize their visibility:

1. Showcase Your Personality on Social Media

As I always say, employers can’t train great personalities — they have to hire them. Why not spice up your public social media profile pages with exciting cover art and other details that showcase who you are? Instead of coming across as a generic job seeker, personalize your profile and give people a reason to stay on your page a little longer. Tell a story about yourself — a sincere, personal story. Help employers see you as more than just another candidate.

2. Create a Facebook or Instagram Business Page for Your Job Search

Employers want to see your personal Facebook page because it tells them much about who you are, but your privacy settings say, “No way!”

No problem: You can create a public business page for yourself instead. This can be dedicated to your professional journey while keeping your personal page personal. Use your business page to share professional musings and post content that delivers value to your readers and potential employers.

You can also use your business pages to run ads to better target employers on these platforms. Master entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk swears by Instagram ads for brands. Why shouldn’t you try a similar strategy to increase your own visibility?

3. Expand Your LinkedIn page

While a social media page can be a good supplement, your professional presence should really have its own headquarters on the web. LinkedIn is where most people can get noticed where recruiters are looking.

Treat LinkedIn as your own dedicated site. You can control the positive professional narrative about your abilities, explore ideas, take your readers on your journey, and tell great stories about your achievements. The time investment is a small price for a robust multimedia professional portfolio.

4. Host a Local Radio Show

Does your community have a local radio station? Ask if you can host a weekly show.

Many cities have local stations that encourage community members to participate in content creation. Go ahead and get involved! You can use your show to interview employers and entrepreneurs, chat with industry experts, and answer questions from listeners. Not only will you create a valuable resource for your community, but you’ll also build a powerful channel for reaching potential employers.

5. Volunteer

Charity work is a great way to hone specific skills to help you land your next job, even if you’re currently employed. If you’re not employed, it’s also a great way to gain additional experience and fill the gaps in your resume.

Volunteering can connect you with organizations you want to work for. Working with a nonprofit allows you to meet local employers who support that nonprofit’s mission. These connections can be leveraged into job opportunities once you’ve demonstrated your value through volunteer work.

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When building a stand-out brand, use these strategies and any others that can help you effectively broadcast your value. Whatever tactics you choose, be sure they truly assist your job search and capture the right audience’s attention.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

How To Show Your Brand is More Than Your Title

I want to share my annual thoughts on job search trends that are slightly different this year. Instead of one list where I share a list, I want to dive deeper into each one I share and then write a round-up linking to each article.

Let’s start by stating the obvious. You’ve heard me say that job search is a lifestyle. You’re going to need to market the brand you have. It’s more than titles, acronyms, and letters behind your name unless it’s an M.D., JD., and others. Even MBA letters behind a name have lost their essence. It won’t evolve into anything significant until it’s visible with applied knowledge.

If you differentiate yourself from your peers and competitors, you’ll lump yourself in. It would help if you wanted to stand out, but listening to many folks who are telling you a brand is something you create. If you’re making a persona instead of exploiting the one that markets yourself, you’re doing it wrong.

Yep. I used “markets.” Get used to it as of right now. We’re all trying to get some visibility. It’s not magic. It’s intention.

Let’s talk about the title with the letters behind it. Many experts will say on LinkedIn it doesn’t matter. Titles are marketing if they’re useful and universally known. Labels are marketing if you do something only 50 people in the world do. Titles are helpful when you are professionally involved in an industry where you’re paid to have those skills, and everyone knows what it is. OK, so maybe I’m wrong about this. It may get you some helpful LinkedIn SEO.

But it’s not your brand.

I’ll argue if you can’t capture your brand in the fewest words possible, you’re thwarting your marketing efforts. It works well spent if you want your brand and work to be its referral engine. People need to scan and click. Take their thinking from them, and infuse it wherever possible, with as fewest words as possible.

We’re remote, and we’re online. Present yourself as a gold mine, not a land mine:

How are you valuable?
What do people need from you (what have you been told)?
What solutions are you known for?

You have to explain a title; if you have three inexplicable titles, people may not ask anything of you.

My wife and I contracted our electrical work to George for many years. George has been our go-to guy for whatever electrical job we needed for our two-flat. We thought that’s all he did, and in fact, we also enjoyed his company. We know that he also owned several pieces of property.

We didn’t know he retired from the government after 32 years of finding hidden money as a tax accountant. We didn’t realize this until this year about George.

If we’d known, it wouldn’t change our relationship with him. But he only wanted us to understand what is relevant to us. George solved one problem for us. He has received many referrals from us just for the work he’s done for us. George created the demand for his work only as an electrician for us.

Be like George.