 A great question to ask during your information interview: If you were to hire someone to work with you today, what factors would be most important in your hiring decision and why? When considering the informational interview process, you've reviewed your Alumni network, talked with past colleagues and strategically identified professionals in the field or organization that most interest you. You’ve found that many people are happy to share their time and insights. Now what?!? The single best thing you can do to find a job is to start informational interviewing. Informational interviews can open up huge opportunities. Don’t let all that amazing energy go to waste! To Dos After an Informational Interview:
AuthorHeather Palow, Career and Business Coach who empowers entrepreneurs, career changers and people who want to take control of their lives by clarifying their strengths and achieving their goals.  Have you ever tried to share your LinkedIn profile URL with someone or thought to add it to your resume only to copy and paste a horrible long list full of numbers and letters? It’s not pretty! 1 new LinkedIn profile is created every 4 minutes. LinkedIn’s automatic algorithm can’t possibly keep up with our desire to have a URL worthy of sharing. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to create your own semi-customized LinkedIn profile URL. LinkedIn has standardized the first half of the URL address, every profile starts with: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ And now the customization begins. . . Custom public profile URLs are available on a first-come, first-served basis so if you have a fairly common name, such as Jane Doe, you might want to be creative as to how you customize your URL. You could consider adding a keyword that fits your personal brand such as “JaneDoeWriter” “JaneDoeVT” or “JaneDoeProjectManager.” Here’s LinkedIn’s official instructions on how to complete the customization process: Yahoo! You followed their directions and have a snazzy customized URL… now what? Here’s 3 cool things to do with it:
If you haven’t maintained your LinkedIn profile lately then it may be time to set up a free exploratory call to see about having me work some profile magic so you get noticed in 2018 and beyond! Heather Palow, Career and Business Coach who empowers entrepreneurs, career changers and people who want to take control of their lives by clarifying their strengths and achieving their goals.
During the free exploratory session I have with potential career coaching clients, I often hear the question: Do I need to go back to school or get more training? The answer is a resounding: Yes, as a believer in lifetime learning I advocate for all types of education and the power that knowledge has on the career change process.  A cairn consists of a pile of rocks, typically 3 feet high, and is more common in the eastern United States. They are visible in even the worst conditions, helping hikers to find their way home. It is said to be good luck if you add a rock to the cairn, which may explain their enormous size. When people meet with me, they get an unbiased viewpoint that can help them focus on clarifying their educational goals in relation to their career. Additional training may be needed in your next career if it will support you in obtaining:
One might even consider taking a short course in photography, cooking a specialty food, or learning what trail cairns are for, who knows? The hope is that by exploring something that you don’t already know about, you gain a new perspective and meet people outside of your current circle. 2, 4 or 6 years of higher education may or may not be the key to unlocking your ideal career path but I would guess that a 2, 4 or 6 week short course will give you some insights you didn’t have before, and might be your cairn that helps you navigate your career path. AuthorHeather Palow, Career and Business Coach who empowers entrepreneurs, career changers and people who want to take control of their lives by clarifying their strengths and achieving their goals.   Vermont maple syrup thank you gifts and handwritten notes I gave to my clients who referred my services to others in the past year. I don’t have “employees” but I still show appreciation as it means a lot when clients trust me to support their friends and colleagues. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the #1 reason people leave their jobs is that they don’t feel appreciated. When talking with one of my small business coaching clients, he remarked about how his employee's morale dips during this busy time of year. Does this sound familiar to you? According to Gallup, only 13% of employees worldwide are fully engaged on the job. That means the other 87% aren’t giving their full effort. Add in a busy time of year or when a tough deadline is looming, those numbers start to hurt business even more. Few employees go into a job with the intention of performing poorly or not caring. It happens over time, months and years of not getting positive feedback or worse - any feedback at all - they begin to give up because they don’t know how to meet the employer's expectations. To focus on employee engagement, you have to focus on the employees themselves. You have to set expectations for the employee and then encourage them so they understand what you want to see more of. Recognition goes a long way toward building morale. As the employer, focus on spotting what works and encouraging it because it is repeatable, understandable, and gives you a high return on your employee investment. This doesn’t have to cost you a lot of time or money.
Encourage your employees by noticing when they do great things such as:
Positive recognition makes people feel really good about themselves. It also motivates employees to keep up the good work year round but most especially when the ‘end of year holiday season’ craziness or large deadlines loom near. Maya Angelou said it best, “...people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Author Heather Palow, Career and Business Coach who empowers entrepreneurs, career changers and people who want to take control of their lives by clarifying their strengths and achieving their goals.   Journaling in my hammock while camping. As a coaching group, we continually reap the benefits of sharing knowledge and resources that inspire us. My fellow Coach and Accountability friend Alexandra Hughes shared with me an interesting TedEd talk entitled “Try Something New for 30 Days” and asked me to consider what I’ve always wanted to do consistently but just haven’t. I was surprised to find that my first thought was journaling. My surprise came from the knowledge that I write quite a lot every day, mostly resumes, cover letters, eNotes, and other documents for my career coaching and communication clients. But to sit down and write for myself, well, that’s always felt a bit overwhelming. I took up the challenge, and knowing my personality, I created a short action plan for success:
In the end, I managed to journal for 27 of the 30 days, not bad for my first attempt. While the number of days wasn’t really my focus, consistency was the key. I found that taking the time to write down a few things helped bring the things I spent energy on into focus, brought structure to my feelings of chaos, and calmed my many thoughts before going to bed. Would I do it again? Yes! I’m really enjoying the journaling so I’m going to continue with that process. In my desire to start the “something new for 30 days” right away, I printed a pdf version of the free Best Self “self journal” (try it yourself!) and if I continue to enjoy and use it for the full 13 weeks then I will buy one of their hardbound physical journals. They offer a few different products, check out the free pdf version of the scholar journal if you’re a student! Since I’ve had a good experience with my first 30 day “something new” challenge, I’ve decided to try a second one. This time I’m focusing on celebrating fall, my favorite season, with Griffin, my favorite scruffy little pup. Wish us luck as we get outside every day, enjoy the fall leaves and change of the seasons! What will you do for your “something new for 30 days?” What short action plan will you create to help make it a success?
AuthorHeather Palow, Career and Business Coach empowers entrepreneurs, career changers and people who want to take control of their lives by clarifying their strengths and achieving their goals.  Ever have a summer that’s just been a bit…different? This has been one of those summers for me. We’ve been working through some anticipated changes in home ownership and this is my first summer in as long as I can remember that I don’t have vegetable or flower gardens to tend. While this might not seem odd to some, gardening is pretty much in my DNA. My grandfather, a botany professor, shared his love of all things botanical with me. Growing up our family owned flower and landscaping businesses for years, and most of my summer memories contain family, flowers, and taking care of the harvest. Earlier this winter, when I received my new gardening catalogs in the mail, instead of hungrily pawing through them for fun new things to plant this summer, I found myself wondering how I was going to enjoy beautiful spaces, dig in the dirt, and partake in the harvest. Without a garden I had to find alternatives to meet my need to weed. I did! In early summer I visited the Vermont Flower Show to enjoy beautiful spaces; in mid- summer my daughter and I volunteered in our community gardens; and as summer is starting to draw to a close we have been enjoying the bounty of the farmers markets in our region. This summer, my energy has shifted from gardening to staging and home showings. Similarly, has your summer also been a bit different? Maybe you’re having to think creatively about your career path? Are you trying to grow your skills in new, different ways? Are you trying to find new ways to shift your energy into a more fulfilling way of life? Like my summer gardening challenge, a career change can be daunting. Here are a few tips to help along the way:
This summer, I’ve learned that thinking creatively about my garden woes created many great adventures for me. A bit of digging into your career could do the same for you. We can’t wait to see where your career change adventures take you! AuthorHeather Palow, Career and Business Coach. I work with entrepreneurs, career changers and people who want to take control of their lives by clarifying their ideal lives and achieving their goals. |
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