Book Review: Shop Class as Soulcraft (Matthew Crawford)

“The question of what a good job looks like — of what sort of work is both secure and worthy of being honored — is more open now than it has been for a long time.  Wall Street in particular has lost its luster as a destination for smart and ambitious young people.  Out of the current confusion of ideals and confounding of career hopes, a calm recognition may yet emerge that productive labor is the foundation of all prosperity.  The meta-work of trafficking in the surplus skimmed from other peoples’ work suddenly appears as what it is, and it becomes possible once again to think the thought ‘let me make myself useful’.”

This quote, taken from page 9 of Shop Class as Soulcraft, sums up the book’s compelling premise.  In thought-provoking fashion, the author discusses the various forms of fulfillment he’s gained from being a practicing electrician and motorcycle mechanic, versus the less satisfying experiences he’s had as a “knowledge worker” in various office settings.  He’s eminently qualified to perform this analysis, as well, given his PhD in Philosophy and the fact he’s far from a misfit who couldn’t “make it” in corporate America — but actually spent several years leading a political think tank in Washington DC before deciding to shift back to a more vocational career setting.

Certainly, other authors have tackled this same ground and questioned whether something precious and irreplaceable has been lost in the world of white-collar employment today.  Many of these books never pursue the debate beyond a superficial level, however, and seem ragingly biased, idealistic, and anti-corporate.  Mr. Crawford’s work is the exception.  He doesn’t necessarily seem to have an axe to grind — and he raises numerous thoughtful points that I haven’t seen brought up before.  I’ll leave it to the potential reader to discover most of these, for themselves, but he raises issues such as whether most blue-collar work (so to speak) is inherently more cerebral than office work, due to the “real” problem-solving and troubleshooting required.  Or whether many college graduates are struggling to find meaning in their work since they’re exposed to few, if any, objective measurements of achievement — unlike a mechanic, who knows he’s “been useful” and “done good” the moment the dead machine he’s working on roars back to life!

Here’s another quote, from page 126: “The popularity of Dilbert, The Office, and any number of other pop-culture windows on cubicle life attests to the dark absurdism with which many Americans have come to view their white-collar work.”  I like that one, too.

Granted, while the book does drag a little bit during its more philosophical passages, it’s also studded with a number of juicy historical tidbits that remind us that the “workplace” as we know it is a relatively recent creation.  For example, one could easily forget that it was only 100 years ago or so that the idea of “management science” and the “division of labor” really took off.  In fact, in Henry Ford’s first automobile factories, we’re told that he had to hire 963 men to fill every 100 jobs, since the vast majority of workers hired quit almost immediately once they realized they would be assigned to perform only a single task every day, over and over again.  Apparently this notion was shocking to the sensibilities of the time, where workers were steeped in a tradition of craftsmanship and expected to have a direct hand in seeing products (or projects) through from start to finish.

In sum, whether you agree or disagree with Mr. Crawford’s conclusions, Shop Class as Soulcraft is an intellectually engaging piece of writing that will be enjoyed by anybody at a career crossroads — especially those folks who haven’t felt particularly satisfied at any point during their corporate career.  One shouldn’t mistake it for a “tactical” career blueprint of any kind, or something that will aid job hunters with their day-to-day activities, but if you’re interested in philosophy, history, and big ideas, this book will be right up your alley!

StrengthsFinder: The T+S+K Formula

They say good things always come in threes, so I can’t resist the urge to post a third entry related to how to apply one’s StrengthsFinder assessment results effectively in a career transition scenario.  As for those of you out there who AREN’T proponents of the “Now, Discover Your Strengths” methodology, please bear with us, and don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of more “mainstream” blog postings coming soon!

The aspect of the StrengthsFinder tool that is rattling around in my brain today, however, is the importance of understanding the differences between an actual “strength” and the component parts that make one up.  To be honest, I had forgotten this distinction entirely, myself, until I picked up and read the NDYS book again the other day for the fourth time.  Somehow, over the years, I had fallen into the habit of giving the label “strengths” to the five results one receives from the book’s signature assessment test.  As it turns out, this is not technically accurate according to my recent refresher course.  What the StrengthsFinder test instead purports to reveal are not your strengths, per se, but the dominant underlying talents that play a key role — along with the ingredients of skills and knowledge — in forming your core personal and professional strengths.

Confused yet?  Don’t worry, it all will click, eventually!  And in case it may help, let me cite the formal definitions from the book.  Talents are “the ways in which you most naturally think, feel, and behave as a unique individual” whereas Strengths reflect your ability “to consistently provide near-perfect performance in a specific activity.”

Once you’ve got the hang of these distinctions, you’re ready to seriously contemplate the book’s magic formula, which is Talent + Skills + Knowledge = Strength.  Understanding this formula, and its implications, is the most powerful part of the assessment for those who are unemployed.  Why?  Because a serious job hunter needs to recognize that Strengths are what companies are looking for in professional-level candidates.  Not just Talent.  Not just Skills.  Not just a college degree or a smattering of relevant Knowledge.  Strengths are the things that actually produce profitable results and get things accomplished for the company, which is why employers are being so annoyingly picky and subjecting job applicants to so many levels of scrutiny these days.  Employers are just not terribly interested right now in hiring somebody who might be able to solve a problem in 30, 60, or 90 days down the road, just like you wouldn’t be interested in hiring a plumber who could fix your leaky pipes “someday” or an accountant who “might” be able to prepare your tax return.   Employers are trying to track down individuals who possess the precise mix of Talent, Skills, and Knowledge (HR types usually label these items Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) that will allow them to walk into the office and start knocking their assigned tasks out of the park, from day one.

So if you’re planning to incorporate the StrengthsFinder into your job search, in a significant way, I’d suggest you practice breaking down your key work-related capabilities (aka Strengths) into their corresponding Talent, Skill, and Knowledge elements.  Engaging in this exercise will not only help you understand why you’re so good at certain things, on a granular level, but will also help you package/sell your competencies to employers in a highly persuasive way.

Here are a few examples I whipped up on the fly that demonstrate what this would look like:

Strength: Planning a profitable retail product assortment
Talents:  Any could help, but Analytical, Strategic, Futuristic, and Achiever might be a particularly strong fit
Skills: Microsoft Excel usage, as well as the ability to perform complex pricing and forecasting calculations
Knowledge: Understanding of retail/wholesale concepts, inventory management methods, product sourcing channels, SKUs, and modern merchandising techniques

Strength: Building and managing a high-performance sales team
Talents: Any could help, but Maximizer, Developer, Consistency, and Individualization might be a particularly strong fit
Skills: Sales training, performance management, meeting facilitation, expertise in effective negotiating and deal-closing techniques
Knowledge: Deep understanding of the company’s products/services, competitive positioning, target markets, and industry niche

Strength: Leading an organizational turnaround
Talents: Any could help, but Command, Competition, Positivity, and Achiever might be a particularly strong fit
Skills: Financial analysis, strategic planning, investor relations, process improvement, design and communication of restructuring initiatives
Knowledge: MBA or General Management background, industry knowledge, understanding of change management principles

Strength: Repairing automobiles
Talents: Any could help, but Input, Context, Arranger, and Deliberative might be a particularly strong fit
Skills: Usage of various shop tools and diagnostic systems, ability to read engine schematics
Knowledge: Understanding of automobile engines and components, troubleshooting procedures, safety precautions

Or if you want to attack the issue from another angle, try this approach on for size.  Pick some common career avenues — or a list of occupations that interest you — and ask yourself: “Based on the five natural talents that the StrengthsFinder test indicates that I possess, what kind of (insert job title) would I be? What kind of accountant?  What kind of salesperson?  What kind of social media consultant, purchasing analyst, operations manager, or hairdresser?”  Boatloads of career-related wisdom could come tumbling out of this exercise, should you devote the time to trying it out.

At the end of the day, sure, the picky naming conventions I’ve cited in this post may not really matter in some respects.  In casual usage, for example, almost everybody would understand the meaning to be the same if I were to say that I have an Analytical “strength” versus an Analytical “talent”.  Where I think these distinctions become increasingly significant, however, is when you apply them to picking career paths and figuring out how to best sell yourself to organizations.  As discussed in yesterday’s post, if you consistently find yourself trying to get employers interested in your Talents, versus your Strengths, you’re going to be in for an uphill battle.  “So what?” the employer thinks to themselves.  “So you’re empathic.  Or analytical.  Or comfortable around other people in casual situations.  Why should I care about this, exactly?”

If you can pitch the employer on your ability to deliver “near-perfect performance” in a specific task that interests them, however, and that will help them become more successful and profitable, then you’ll likely get their full, undivided attention!

Editor’s Note:  I’m honored to mention that one of the principal authors of the StrengthsFinder series, Marcus Buckingham, just started following these posts of mine on Twitter as of yesterday.  Or at least somebody bearing his name did!  Mr. Buckingham, if that’s really you out there, how did I do?  Any insights or criticisms to offer about how I’ve applied your tool to the job search and career planning equation?

StrengthsFinder: Building Credibility

As promised, I’m piggybacking on the post I wrote yesterday in order to shed a little more light on one key aspect of applying your results from the StrengthsFinder instrument — or any other personality profile you might have taken.  I want to provide a little more depth, and specificity, around how to actually build credibility with employers and convince them you truly have the success traits in question.

Why is this important?  Because in many, many years of conducting mock interviews with job seekers, I’ve almost never had somebody successfully “sell me” on the power and importance of an innate talent or personality trait.  Sure, I’ve had hundreds of people tell me that they are extremely detail-oriented, or outgoing, or results-focused, or whatever.  But do I necessary believe them?  Or see how such a quality might trump more tangible work-related qualifications such as skills or experience?  Not usually.  And I daresay most employers and recruiters would say the same.  After you’ve heard these same words used thousands of times, by thousands of candidates, they lose a lot of their mojo.  What’s more, one almost can’t help but acquire a cynical bias around these kinds of personal abilities after coming across so many “detail-oriented” people who have typos on their resumes — or so many quote-unquote “strategic” managers who don’t know what a SWOT analysis is, aren’t able to define the difference between strategy and tactics, and who don’t seem to have anything all that interesting to say about the strategic challenges or opportunities in my (aka the employer’s) market space.

So my point is this.  Unless you’re 100% committed to learning how to sell your natural strengths/gifts/talents in a meaningful and powerful way, and one that has a fighting chance of busting through the crusted-over cliches in the interviewer’s mind, it’s almost best to avoid discussing them altogether.  Stick to safer, more measurable subjects like skills and educational credentials.  If you end up in a situation, however, where you want or need one of your personal strengths to shine, here are some thoughts on how to accomplish this:

1)  First, convince yourself. This first suggestion sounds like a cop-out, I know, but it’s absolutely essential.  To have any hope at all of convincing another human being that you’re truly “one out of a hundred” in terms of some fundamental talent you possess, you first have to believe it, yourself.  Just taking a test and casually musing over the results isn’t enough.  You need to corroborate the assessment results with real-life examples of how you’ve put this strength into action, as well as feedback from people who know you well and some supporting data gleaned from other personality profiles.  You can’t have a smidgen of doubt about the talents that make up the “authentic you” or you’ll get easily picked apart when it comes time for employer cross-examination.

2)  Hand the employer a printed copy of your StrengthsFinder results. The fundamental secret behind most personality tests is that they essentially tell us things that we already know or suspect about ourselves, but for some reason known only to psychologists and neurobiologists, there’s something magically “validating” about seeing this same data presented on paper.  Information is always more credible when it’s printed out.  So if you really want to engage an employer in a discussion of how your personal strengths might add value to your future job performance, try using handouts.  If nothing else, you’ll stand out from the crowd.  And once the hiring manager sees that an “actual scientific test” confirms you have the traits you claim, the psychological effect described above might exert its irresistible influence on them, as well!

3)  Arm yourself with relevant accomplishment stories. This one isn’t all that original, since every interviewing book on the planet instructs job hunters to have some of their best “success stories” on hand, practiced, and ready to share with employers.  What you may not have done in the past, however, is examine how your fundamental personality traits (as opposed to skills or knowledge) have played a role in your past successes.  So apply this strengths-based layer of thinking to each of your past accomplishments, using whatever storytelling model you’re comfortable with (e.g. CAR, PAR, OAR, STAR; every career firm has some model they recommend that people use to break their stories down into an initial Challenge/Problem/Opportunity, followed by corresponding Actions and Results.)

4)  Offer references, endorsements, or work samples to back up your claims. If you tell me that you’re highly Empathic and extremely good at understanding the needs of the people around you, that’s nice.  I’ll take you at your word and assume you might be slightly more developed in this area than the average person who interacts with the world from a more self-absorbed perspective.  If you kick things up a notch, however, and supply me with some letters of recommendation and LinkedIn testimonials saying things like “Joe was the best listener of any manager I’ve every worked for” or “Betty had an incredible knack for understanding our customers’ needs, sometimes even better than they did, themselves!” I’ll be MUCH more inclined to give you credit for this talent.  Such evidence might be dismissed as hearsay in a court of law, but as a hiring manager, I’m going to be impressed by somebody who can back up their claims with consistent feedback from those around them.  A work sample or portfolio piece that illustrates your strengths in action can be a real show-stopper, as well!

5)  Contrast your style to that of the “typical” style for a given job role. This one takes a little more finesse, but if you’re somewhat of an underdog for a given position, you might point out how you’d bring a unique and refreshingly different perspective to a job assignment compared to what the employer in question might typically encounter in other candidates.  For example, I suspect that the majority of career counselors out there would rank higher than me on StrengthsFinder attributes like Empathy, Woo, and Relator.  I’m just not a touchy-feely guy, at heart.  Never have been.  And as a result, I fully admit that I’m far from the best available consultant for those job hunters whose primary need is for heavy ongoing infusions of emotional support and non-directive listening.  So instead of pretending to be something I’m not, when explaining my services to people, I emphasize how my core strengths in areas like Intellection, Input, and Ideation allow me to approach the job hunting process from a more objective, marketing-focused angle.   They allow me to help people write compelling job search documents.  And find interesting new outlets for their skills.  And brainstorm creative ways to engage their networking contacts and uncover new target companies.  This approach seems to have worked pretty well for me over the years, and if I come across somebody who needs deeper work than I can offer in assertiveness or confidence-building, I refer them without hesitation to some other coaches in town who I know have greater natural strengths in these areas.

6)  Ask the interviewer to describe their best employees. This technique is something of a “sneak attack” designed to get employers to think a bit outside the box and realize (hopefully!) just how important one’s fundamental strengths, talents, and tendencies are to bottom-line job success.  If you can get them to openly discuss the personality of the top performers in the role you’re targeting, they might disclose some nuggets (“Harriet is our rock star — she’s able to juggle a million different deadlines at once and stay calm as a cucumber the whole time!”) that you can then emphasize, yourself, if you share some of the same strengths, habits, and tendencies that are identified.  You might need to prompt the employer a bit, however, to get good data.  Try asking follow-up questions like “Do you find that your top performers are always the ones who have been in the industry the longest?” and “All other things being equal, what truly separates your superstars from your bottom-of-the-barrel performers?”  And if you want to shoot the moon and risk being even more aggressive, you can ask “Obviously you, yourself, haven’t been in this industry your entire career.  What factors would you say have allowed you to adapt so successfully to this field and your current role?”  It’s a courageous question, for sure, but if you really want to emphasize the importance of natural talent, this line of conversation might be enough to switch the employer’s light bulb on!

7)  Demonstrate your Strengths in the interview itself or via a follow-up exercise. If you’re going to try building the case that you possess some incredibly useful success traits, make sure the employer sees evidence of these in the hiring conversation itself.  If one of your StrengthsFinder themes is Individualization, for example, share some observations regarding the individual people you’ve met during the hiring process, including the receptionist who greeted you in the lobby.  If Responsibility is your claim to fame, arrive at the interview 15 minutes early, fully prepared, and follow-through like clockwork on every subsequent step of the courtship ritual.  If you’re a Positivity person, let your positive energy wash over the stressed-out hiring manager during the interview so that the rest of their day is a little brighter.  All of these behaviors will greatly reinforce the words that you’re mouthing regarding your true nature.  And if the opportunity doesn’t arise to show yourself “at your best” during the interview, ask them for an assignment that will let you prove these things.  If you’re Strategic, in other words, ask whether they’d be interested in having you put together a PowerPoint that provides an objective overview of where you feel their company fits into the market — and where some untapped (and profitable) possibilities might lie.

8)  Pick your battles; don’t try to sell more than one or two strengths at a time. One last mistake I’d point out relates to those interview candidates who claim to be really strong in a particular area, such as team-building, but then can’t resist saying that they’re also the cat’s meow in terms of creativity, accountability, leadership, empathy, and analytical thinking.  Nobody is going to buy this.  While people can be equally strong in multiple areas, without question, the more different areas you try to claim “greatness” around during an interview, the more you’ll water down and weaken your message.  So if you’ve got one or two strengths that are substantially more well-developed than others, stick to them.  Own them.  Focus on getting credit for them and making them uber-relevant to the conversation at hand.  And if you’re one of those fortunate few who happens to have a whole closetful of natural gifts, be smart about it, and isolate/emphasize just those select few that appear most relevant to the opportunity you’re pursuing!

StrengthsFinder: Practical Applications

Can one ever become TOO self-aware?  I mean, to a fault?  It probably wouldn’t be hard to pull off, given the zillions of personality tests and assessment instruments that are available today, ranging from international powerhouses like MBTI (Myers-Briggs) and DiSC to a number of scrappy up-and-comers like the locally-based Core Value Index from Taylor Protocols and Thomas Indicator Profile from CereCore.  Heck, I even took a test years ago called Kingdomality that pegged people into the roles they’d likely play in a medieval village, based on their personality type.  For the record, and oddly enough, I was cast as the Black Knight…

While all of these different instruments have their pros and cons, as well as their ardent followers, I’ll admit that the one personal development tool I’ve found to be more valuable than any other is the StrengthsFinder assessment offered by the Gallup organization — a tool that was popularized, initially, through the best-selling book Now Discover Your Strengths by Donald Clifton and Marcus Buckingham.  This is the only assessment tool I use in my work with clients on a regular basis.  Not only do I love the simplicity and cost of the instrument (buy the book for $20, take the test it contains, and bingo, you’re done!), but I also find that the results it spits out are eerily on target for many people, including myself.  Additionally, unlike many assessments, the StrengthsFinder tool isn’t built around “quadrants” or another such rigid construct where certain personality traits are mutually exclusive by definition (e.g. you can either be introverted OR extroverted) and it also doesn’t make the assumption that only certain personality types can succeed in certain career roles.  I find people to be much more complex than this.  And I know tons of people who have performed like champs in various job roles that wouldn’t typically be associated with their particular personality type.

At any rate, that’s why I love the StrengthsFinder tool.  So if you haven’t taken it, I’d encourage you to do so, and if you happen to believe in your results and buy into the philosophy that Gallup espouses, there are nine different books you can track down that talk further about the tool and its various applications.  I want to take a moment and put my own unique spin on things, however.  I want to discuss how the results from this tool, and similar tools, can actually be harnessed to make a practical difference in the outcome of your job hunt — versus just being one more indulgent, feel-good personal development activity that you ponder for a while, but that you don’t actually end up applying in any productive way.

So here’s a quick list of ideas I’ve come up with in terms of how a person might apply their StrengthsFinder results in “tangible” fashion to the career planning and job-finding process:

1)  List your five StrengthFinder themes on your resume or LinkedIn profile.  Sure, it’s unorthodox, but this step will at least make you stand out from the crowd, and if the recruiter or hiring manager reading your resume is a fellow fan of the tool, you’ll likely get some extra brownie points!  Want to be REALLY wild and crazy?  Add them as a line in your e-mail signature block, as well…

2)  Tailor your job search game plan directly around your core strengths.  If your StrengthsFinder themes provide some keen insight into how you’re wired and the types of activities you’re naturally most successful at, why not apply this information to the method, routine, and strategy of your job search, itself?  While a “Woo” person might have the best success out building relationships at casual networking events, an “Input” or “Analytical” person like myself might avoid embarrassing themselves at such functions and instead focus on gaining publicity via a blog or on-line networking tools — or work on gaining a competitive edge through superior pre-interview research.

3)  Explore career options by searching for jobs that specifically call for your strengths and talents.  While this step can be a little tricky, at first, we ‘re fortunate to have sites at our fingertips today like Indeed.com that contain millions of bytes of real-time occupational data from around the entire country.  Have you tried isolating one of your key strengths, as well as some closely-related synonyms, and then running these keywords through the entire job database to see which career niches relate to them in some way?  Which jobs and careers have a non-obvious requirement for a person with strong Empathy, for example?  Or for an individual naturally oriented to the Connectedness of various things in the world?

4)  Brainstorm some fresh Talent/Skill/Knowledge pairings.  Let’s face facts.  If you’re looking to change careers or increase your marketability for mid-to-senior-level positions, your natural talents alone aren’t going to be enough.  As the NDYS book emphasizes, you have to pair up your natural gifts with some black-and-white skills and educational/knowledge elements before you truly have a “Strength” that companies will value highly (and pay you handsomely) for.  So as an exercise to help with this step, try browsing through the course catalog of your local community college, since these institutions are the best game in town in terms of acquiring new Skill/Knowledge elements.  Along the way, as you flip through the course offerings available, ask yourself “How would my natural Talent for X pair up effectively with the Skill in (or Knowledge of) X, Y, or Z that I could learn through this school?”  You might be surprised at the creative ideas that surface by brainstorming in this outside-the-box way.

5)  Use your StrengthsFinder themes to identify new target company/contact possibilities.  While there are thousands of well-intentioned job seekers out there doing their best to “network” in some capacity, many people still struggle to help the people around them come up with good referral possibilities.  One way to stimulate this thinking is to ask people if they know of companies where a certain Strength is lacking in the organizational culture — and causing problems, as a result — or whether they know of any particular leaders/managers who AREN’T good in a particular area and might value a complementary subordinate on the team.  These questions might sound like “Are you aware of any companies suffering from a lack of Strategic thinking and who might need somebody to help them figure out which products to support going forward — and which to shelve?”  Or “Do you know of any executives who are smart, but tend to avoid conflict, and might therefore value somebody with thick skin (the Command theme) willing to help them hold people accountable and communicate tough decisions?”

6)  Leverage your Strengths to overcome Knowledge/Skill deficiencies.  In cover letters, as well as the interviewing process, you sometimes have little choice but to trot out your natural gifts/talents as a way to offset the lack of “hard skills” and “specific industry experience” you might have for a given assignment.  In my opinion, this is the single greatest benefit the StrengthsFinder tool can potentially contribute to the job search process.  It’s also the hardest to execute.  Hiring managers hear candidates claim to be fast learners, people people, and results-oriented drivers all day long, so will be almost completely closed down to the idea that your natural talents are worthy of important consideration once they learn you don’t possess the full laundry list of skill and knowledge elements they’re seeking.  You’re going to have to sell them HARD on this idea, which takes a fair amount of preparation and practice.  You’re going to have to map out specific ways in which your innate gifts would contribute to success in the job at hand and then convince the employer you truly have these gifts, compared to all the other candidates they’ve met paying lip service to the exact same words.  When you see this done, it’s an amazing thing, but it’s a rare occurrence!  To help with this step, I’m going to be writing a follow-up post shortly that discusses some tips, tricks, and methods you can use to gain more credibility in this area, so stay tuned…

7)  Give your new boss a gift; tell them exactly how to get the best out of you! You’re know you’re going to work again, right?  I mean, despite the conditions out there, you realize it’s a near-impossibility that you’re destined for permanent unemployment?  Given this fact, let’s fast-forward to the first exciting week of your new job.  Assuming your new manager appears to have at least one iota of self-awareness, you might consider entrusting them with a printed copy of your top five StrengthsFinder themes, as well as the pages from the second half of the NDYS book that talk about “how to manage” somebody with your particular orientation.  Tell them that since you’re just getting to know one another, you wanted to give them a cheat sheet about your work style so that you can avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and so they know all the right levers to pull to get the best out of you.  Honestly, if my last boss had kept a copy of my “how to manage this person” results taped to their desk, they could have manipulated me like Pinocchio all day long — to the positive benefit of all concerned!

So for what it’s worth, these are just a few pragmatic ways in which I feel the StrengthsFinder results can be applied for fun and profit as part of your job search adventure.  What other ideas come to mind?  What other applications have you tried, yourselves?  How else can one transport the results from such assessments (StrengthsFinder or otherwise) out of the realm of “academic curiosity” and into the world of “Wow, those test results played a critical role in helping me select a perfect career path — or land my next job”?

Time for Entrepreneurial Exploration?

Self-employment may not be for everyone, but I’ve discovered that it’s also not for as few people as one might think, either!  One of the amazing things that’s taken place over the last decade or two is the explosion of different entrepreneurial avenues that have become available in the marketplace, thanks to the Internet and other game-field-leveling technologies.

Back in the day, it seemed as if only a select few individuals with piles of cash sitting around could afford the luxury of launching their own company or being in business for themselves.  You typically had to rent a brick-and-mortar facility, after all, and plow thousands of dollars into fancy marketing materials, inventory, and support salaries.  Or if you were interested in franchising, your options were pretty much, well, buying a McDonalds outlet for the paltry sum of a million bucks or so.

These days, however, the barriers of entry are so low they’re nearly non-existent.  Service-based companies basically just need a website, a firm grasp of Internet marketing methodology, and a commitment to providing off-the-charts customer service to get their referral network fired up.  Product-based companies also have all sorts of new options they can draw upon, as well, in terms of contract manufacturing and outsourcing.  They also can now raise money through venture capital firms and a variety of other innovative sources that weren’t around a while back, at least in the quantities they are today.  And as for those interested in buying a business or a turnkey franchise opportunity?  These options now come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from part-time businesses you can run out of your house to larger, more mainstream opportunities that cut across virtually every industry niche in existence from cattle farming to catering to child care.

The key development that inspired me to write this post, however, is the fact that the average job search (especially for senior-level positions) is now taking many months longer than usual.  As a result, the “scary” risk/reward curve of self-employment doesn’t seem quite as daunting as it seemed before, at least for many people I’ve encountered.  These folks seem to be making the logical deduction that as opposed to taking their chances on being out of work for a full year or more, they might just as well invest this same amount of time and energy trying to get their own enterprise off the ground, instead, where they’ll likely feel a stronger sense of purpose and a greater sense of control over their own destiny.  Food for thought, at the very least.  And in some cases, the very process of launching a business proves to be a killer networking and job hunting strategy, since it imbues people with a sense of confidence and a concrete “reason” to be out and about, meeting with people each and every day.

As for the role Career Horizons can play in the process, we’re admittedly more of a “midwife” than anything else.  Perhaps the greatest value we can bring to the entrepreneurial exploration step, directly, is to help people conduct a careful analysis of their career wants/needs and decide whether the self-employment or traditional employment route would be the most effective path toward achieving these goals.  We’re also fairly well-equipped to advise people on the tactical steps involved in launching a small service business or consulting firm, since that’s a journey we’ve taken these past six years, ourselves.  Beyond that, we start referring people out like madmen and helping people connect to just the right resources to help them explore — or take — the entrepreneurial plunge.

On that note, we’ll cite a few of our favorite sources of assistance for those who might be interested.  As a starting point, we’d encourage would-be business owners to explore some of the many government-sponsored programs out there such as the Small Business Administration or the Small Business Development Center.  These institutions represent your tax dollars at work, so take advantage of them!  There’s also the fairly new Self-Employment Assistance Program offered through WorkSource, where eligible candidates can apply to take entrepreneurial training classes in lieu of job hunting, while still receiving unemployment benefits all the while.

On the non-governmental front, those interested in learning more about franchising options or entrepreneurship, in general, should definitely get acquainted with our good friend Jeff Levy at The Entrepreneur’s Source.  Jeff is a walking treasure-trove of information about the self-employment world and can offer extremely wise counsel for those considering this option.  In addition to his franchise coaching services, which are largely underwritten by the franchise companies, themselves, his programs include a highly-regarded AIM for Success program (details here) that qualifies for the WorkSource SEPA program mentioned above.  You might also touch base with John Martinka, a locally-based business broker who offers individual consulting, as well as workshops, for those thinking about purchasing an existing enterprise.  In fact, John recently released an e-book called “How to Get All the Money You Want for your Business Without Stealing It” and is giving away free copies to the first 100 people who comment on his blog, which you’ll find here.

How else can we help?  Do you need referrals to some superb accountants, attorneys, graphic designers, or legal professionals who can help get your new business off the ground?  Or folks who can help you write a great business plan?  Or perhaps you’re a current business owner who needs an executive coach to help keep you “sane” or a dynamite marketing consultant, such as Lenora Edwards, who can teach you how to sell and market your services in a highly effective way?  While we don’t offer these types of services, ourselves, we’re in a great position to refer you to experts in the local area who do!

We even just heard from an acquaintance of ours, a former attorney and HR executive, who is offering to coach a few fledgling business owners at a ridiculously lowball rate as part of a formal “executive coaching” program she is currently enrolled in.  Any interested takers?

Again, self-employment may not be for everybody, but if you’ve ever had an inkling to explore the possibility, now is a great time to seriously investigate this potential option — and we’d love to help!

NSHMBA Microsoft Recruiting Event: November 9th

Ever been interested in exploring a career path at Microsoft?  If so, I’ve got good news!  Our friends over at NSHMBA (the National Society of Hispanic MBAs) have alerted us that they’re going to be hosting a special “Professional Development & Recruiting” event at Microsoft from 6-9pm on November 9th — and that this event is open to all comers, not just members of the NSHMBA organization.

Following a quick review of the event details, which you’ll find here, it appears that quite a few Microsoft executives and recruiters will be on hand to chat with folks about the various opportunities available at the company — which is still continuing to hire in multiple areas, despite the staffing cuts experienced in some areas lately.  Registration for the event is required, however, so if you decide you’d like to attend, make sure to visit the website above and let them know you’re coming.

Since it looks like the event will be co-hosted by a number of other diversity-focused groups in the area, as well, I’m going to go ahead and list these other groups below, too, in case any of you would like to become more involved with them on a regular basis.

•  NSHMBA Seattle (National Society of Hispanic MBAs)
•  ALPFA Seattle (Assoc. of Latino Prof. in Finance & Accounting)
•  SHPE-PSC (Soc. of Hispanic Prof. Engineers, Puget Sound Chapter)
•  PWOCN (Professional Women of Color Network)
•  KCHCC (King County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce)
•  AWSHCC (Association of WA State Hispanic Chambers of Commerce)
•  NBMBAA Seattle/Portland (National Black MBA Association)

Hope this event proves productive for those who choose to make an appearance, and if you need any further information about the groups outlined above, I’m sure a quick Google (or Bing) search will turn up the appropriate websites!

Burning Question for Job Seekers #6

“What do you love, I mean really love, about business?”

It’s so easy to bash the corporate world.  In fact, it’s become downright fashionable to complain about the greed, waste, exploitation, and ethically-challenged behavior displayed by a high-visiblity chunk of the business world these days.

Each day, it seems, I’ll come across yet another “corporate refugee” with an amazing tale to tell in terms of the abuses and shenanigans they’ve had to deal with in the workforce, ranging from outlandish cases of sexual harassment to employees being asked to turn a blind eye to fraud.  And if one wanted to get even more worked up about the issue, you could always go see Michael Moore’s latest movie “Capitalism: A Love Story.”  I saw the film not long ago, myself, and can assure you that it offers up ample food for thought, even if we all fully agree that Mr. Moore’s projects are the product of an extremely pointed (and not necessarily unbiased) agenda!

There’s one major problem with jumping on the “bash business” bandwagon, however.  It’s the fact that the vast majority of U.S. citizens currently earn their living working in the private sector and will unquestionably continue to do so for the foreseeable future.  I wish I could track down the exact statistics, but I think it’s a safe bet that at least 80% of the jobs in this country are generated through private-sector employers, as opposed to government or non-profit positions.  So whether you’re a technical program manager at Microsoft, a self-employed marketing consultant, or the receptionist at a small three-person startup struggling to break even, you must embrace the fact that you are part of the business world.  Not exempt from it.  And in my mind, as a career coach, this means that unless 4 out of 5 of us can find some business-related problem that we truly love and enjoy solving 40+ hours per week — it’s going to be a rough ride!

Seems obvious, I know, but I meet a lot of folks these days who instantly give off signs that they are “on the rebound” from a bad employment experience.  They trash-talk the corporate world.  Or seem perplexed by it.  Or don’t seem the slightest bit interested in understanding how the potential employer they’re interviewing with actually makes money — or in discussing how they can contribute to this primary goal.  This attitude is anathema to hiring managers, especially those tasked with the health of the bottom line.  They’re looking for people who want to go to war with them, and win the free market battle, not people simply seeking a paycheck or holding their nose while the company goes about the “nasty” business of seeking a profit.  This is even more the case if you’re seeking a management or leadership position within the private sector.  Being competent at your job is rarely enough anymore.  Companies want to see passion.  They want to hire people who seem steeped in the new realities of the market and are chomping at the bit to help the organization attract new customers…or streamline its finance function…or capture market share from a competitor…or build a new recruiting process that will give the company an unfair advantage over its competition.

On a related note, are any of you familiar with the word “frenemy?”  As in somebody who is “both your friend and your enemy” at the same time?  I’ve heard this new buzzword pop up a few times lately, usually among teenage girls at my wife’s school who seem to find themselves, frighteningly often, in the position of disliking somebody in their immediate social circle — but who feel the need to maintain appearances, as opposed to “going public” with their dislike.  Well, that’s the vibe I get from many candidates these days.  They say they’re looking for a position in the business world, and they clearly want the benefits a job in business can bring, but they don’t act like they enjoy the business world even the tiniest little bit.

So back to my initial question.  What do you love about business?  What part of making a profit spins your jets?  What major or minor role can you play in helping an organization survive during this tough economy — or better yet, thrive?  This question is an important one to ask yourself if you’re targeting a role within the for-profit world.  And if you just can’t seem to muster up emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, passion, or love around the subject of business, that’s a serious sign that it might be time to reposition yourself for role in government, academia, or the non-profit sector — or take aggressive steps to process any “emotional wounds” that capitalism might have dealt you, so you can get back on the horse.  Sure, there are a great many things to despise about the way certain businesses conduct themselves, but the institution as a whole isn’t going away, any time soon.  Find the part of it that amazes and inspires you!

Tips & Turnoffs from a Hiring Manager

Today was a fun day.  As opposed to my usual routine of camping out in the office — meeting with clients and weeding my overgrown e-mail garden — I decided to get out and grab coffee with several former clients of mine just to catch up, see how they were doing in their new assignments, and compare notes on the current state of the market.

Along this whistlestop tour, I connected with an alumnus (and now good friend) of mine who now runs a successful management consulting company in downtown Seattle.  To his credit, he’s been able to maintain a stable workforce and revenue stream, despite the economic turbulence out there, and I always enjoy hearing his thoughts on the state of the marketplace and the challenges that he has to tackle as an organizational leader.

This morning’s rendezvous was no exception.  This time around, among the many topics we discussed, he was kind enough to share some advice for me to pass along to my clients with regard to the interviewing process.  Having interviewed hundreds of employment candidates over the past few years, he said that he’d developed a mental list of “red flags” that almost always tend to signal trouble in terms of a potential hire:

•  Candidates who express difficulty/reluctance to travel to downtown Seattle for a potential interview, via comments such as “Shucks, I hate battling the bridge” or “I never know where to park down there.”

•  Candidates who ask for special accommodations, up front, in terms of work schedule; e.g. “Would it be possible for me to only work four 10-hour days?” or “Would I be able to work from home on Tuesdays, since I have to pick up my kids at school that day?”

•  Candidates who turn out to be “serial negotiators” and keep adding more and more demands, once the job offer negotiation process begins, even when the company makes the concessions requested

•  Candidates who imply that working for my friend’s company and /or in a consulting role are clear second choices to some other desired goal such as working full-time for Microsoft; e.g. “I’m hoping to hear back from this other company I talked with, but would certainly consider becoming a consultant, if my other option falls through.”

You may laugh at some of these items, thinking they’re pretty obvious behaviors candidates shouldn’t display, but they happen much more often than you’d think!  And to his credit, my friend doesn’t necessarily have a problem with the issues themselves that are expressed above, such as a person wanting a little scheduling flexibility, but has found that the types of people who would raise these issues up front, during the courtship phase, usually turn out to be highly needy employees — and rarely end up succeeding in the company’s fast-paced, constantly-changing environment.

On the flip side, he said that there are two ways that candidates can quickly win his heart and get a healthy dose of extra credit:

•  He loves candidates who can answer the question “What is your special magic?” or “What are you extremely good at?” without missing a beat; the people who possess this level of self-awareness and have great clarity about their capabilities, he says, always stand out and make a strong positive impression; as the CEO, too, he says this information is immensely helpful in figuring out the best place to plug a person into his organization, even if it isn’t in the role the candidate is interviewing for

•  He also loves candidates who make proactive statements along the lines of “I’d love working for your company because of X, Y, or Z” and then fill in these blanks with something interesting, relevant, and that shows an above-average level of preparedness on their part

Granted, these are all techniques that are mentioned in the various interviewing prep materials that Career Horizons shares with our clients, and we’ve also talked about them in prior articles of this blog, but I still thought it would be valuable to list them all in one place — and tie them to the actual day-to-day experiences and suggestions of a local hiring authority.

And one bonus tip?  My contact also said that those folks who HAVE jobs should be highly aware of the intense pressure that business owners are facing to reduce overhead — and should therefore make a point to go the extra mile and continually find ways to build value with the people who employ them.  As a case in point, he relayed a story of a recruiter on his team who didn’t seem to be working very hard and who justified this behavior by saying “But I don’t have all that much to do, since we don’t seem to be hiring many new people right now!”

Not a very smart career management move, I can assure you…

“Communication Channel” Tips for Job Hunters

While it may sound silly, job hunting success or failure can sometimes hinge upon the littlest things, so I’m going to take a moment to share a few thoughts on one of the most basic elements of running a job search — which is to ensure that the “communication channels” you’re using to make contact with potential employers are as clear and effective as possible.  Believe it or not, as straightforward as you might think this part of job hunting might be, there have been a few important shifts that have taken place in recent years!

So just to make sure there’s zero friction around the communication methods you’re using to round up your next job, here’s a quick checklist of suggestions I’d submit for your review:

Telephone Tips:

•  Use only one phone number on your resume; most employers probably won’t take the time to track you down via multiple numbers, so give them the number you check most frequently and that you have the most personal control over (such as a cell phone, as opposed to a home phone other members of your family might answer)
•  Make sure to state your name in your voicemail greeting so that employers can feel confident they’re leaving a message for the right person and that they’ve called the right number
•  Avoid creative or humorous voicemail greetings that could turn employers off or make you look unprofessional
•  Don’t use an out-of-state cell phone number; this could raise fears you’re not a local candidate and easily cause employers to pass you over for fear of having to incur relocation fees
•  Resist answering your phone in cases where you don’t recognize the caller ID number; if an employer 0r recruiter is calling you, it’s best to have them leave a message so you can call them back when you’re in a quiet place, not rushed, and have done some quick research through your files (or on the web) to be prepared for the call

E-Mail Tips:

•  Consider setting up a separate Internet-based e-mail address strictly for job hunting purposes so that this account can be checked easily on the road and you don’t end up polluting your “main” account with a bunch of job search spam
•  Avoid using an AOL account or Yahoo account for your job hunt, if possible; unfortunately, AOL accounts are often perceived as “old school” by many tech-savvy employers, whereas Yahoo accounts are notorious for having reliability issues and causing many legitimate messages to get accidentally routed into a person’s “Junk Mail” folder
•  Create an automated e-mail signature (if you haven’t already) that contains all of your appropriate contact information in it, including possibly your LinkedIn Public Profile address, if you have one, to make it easy for employers to “check you out” via that system

Snail Mail & Fax:

•  These methods were “the bomb” circa 1988, but as you’ve probably noticed, they are rarely used anymore as part of the modern hiring process; every once in a while, however, we’ll see a job hunter try contacting an employer via one of these methods — and sometimes the “uniqueness” of using these throwback channels will actually set them apart and lead to positive results!
•  In terms of including one’s mailing address on resumes and cover letters, it’s now considered a smart move by many experts to list only the city and state you live in, instead of including your full address; the fear (as paranoid as it sounds) is that employers are now running candidate addresses through sites like Zillow.com to get a sense of where a person lives and what this might say about them in terms of lifestyle, income needs, and commute distance

I’m sure there are a few other “best practices” we could come up with in terms of employer/candidate communication, if we put our minds to it, but as of right now these are the key thoughts that I came up with to pass along.  Again, I realize this isn’t the sexiest aspect of job hunting to blog about, but it’s also one we can’t overlook — since these channels are critical to landing your next great job offer!

Crummy Economy: Silver Linings?

Looking out the window today, I probably couldn’t have picked a worse day to talk about silver linings.  Right now, at least in the Seattle/Bellevue area, the cloud cover is so dense and dreary (ya gotta love October!) that there are no linings of any kind to be found — silver or otherwise.  Still, since I was really just planning to speak metaphorically, I suppose I can forge ahead and make my point, regardless…

What’s that point, exactly?  It’s that one can find bright spots and positive things to celebrate in almost any situation, no matter how painful or challenging — and I believe that this principle applies equally well to today’s recessed economy, as well.  Now to be clear, I’m not saying things are good out there.  And I assure you I’m not simply donning my Polyanna mask in honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday.  Like everybody else, nothing would make me happier than for us to roll back the clock to a more normal job market where the “average” person could expect to find work and earn an “average” living within an “average” period of time.  After all, as beautiful as it is to look up and see a true silver lining, peeking out from behind a cloud,  most of us would still prefer a sunny day to a cloudy one!

So despite the tight constraints of the current job market, and the challenges the recessed economy is creating for so many people, I’d still like to share three encouraging developments I’ve witnessed lately during my comings-and-goings:

1)  People are gaining clarity around their priorities

While nobody wished this experience upon themselves, necessarily, today’s job market is proving to be a superlative “teaching moment” for many people in terms of focusing them to reassess and reevaluate the things in life that are important to them.  Many people, for example, are being forced to come to grips with their relationship to money for the first time in many years.  How has money (or more accurately, their desire to acquire lots of it) affected their lives to date?  How has it contributed or detracted from their happiness?  Where does it truly rank compared to other work satisfaction elements they might value such as work/life balance, fun, personal growth, freedom, and other factors?  Without question, the financial discipline and creative cost-cutting measures many families have put in place these days are going to serve them well for many years to come, assuming they maintain some of these habits once they land a new opportunity.

Additionally, I’ve seen numerous people use their “time off” to rebuild fractured relationships, improve their health, attend to issues in the family, conquer significant personal goals, and make other incredibly positive strides forward.  How many metric tons of wisdom are we going to gain, as a society, from people thinking deeply and profoundly about these issues as a result of this tough economic slog?

2)  Young people are learning valuable lessons

At a networking event our firm facilitated the other day, aimed at helping job hunters stay confident during protracted unemployment, numerous job hunters piped up and said that one surprisingly positive side-effect of their unemployment status was that their kids were paying attention — and that most of them were showing remarkable maturity, grace, and flexibility in terms of helping the family adapt to these tough times.  This experience certainly isn’t a universal one, I’m sure, but at least a half-dozen of the attendees expressed great pride at the resiliency of their children and felt convinced that this period of privation would provide them with some lasting, valuable life lessons.

Over the years, I’ve heard similar stories from parents that have literally brought me to tears (the good kind), such as the client of mine whose 9-year-old daughter offered up her piggy bank to help pay the overdue rent — or tales of teenagers who have willingly gone out and gotten a job, for the first time in their lives, in order to help the family make ends meet.  So I can’t help but wonder whether this recession will leave a positive impact on the next generation — just as the Great Depression of the 1930s played an instrumental role in forging the values of the “Greatest Generation” we all revere.  Along the same lines, Malcolm Gladwell argues in his latest book Outliers that there is clear evidence linking the success of many of the most prominent business leaders in the last half-century to the lessons, values, and work habits they picked up watching their immigrant parents overcome the odds and adapt, heroically, to a totally new culture and the American way of life.

3)  The best aspects of human nature are on display

The last “silver lining” item I’d point out is the one that I’m most excited about, of all, and is also the phenomenon I encounter the most in my day-to-day experience working with job hunters.  Barring a few annoying exceptions, I’m simply blown away by how generous, thoughtful, and helpful many people (including hundreds of Career Horizons alumni) have been in terms of lending a hand to their fellow seekers and going the extra mile to be a networking resource.  Rather than steal my own thunder, in fact, I’m instead going to direct you to a brand-new article I wrote here (click on the “Troubled Times” link at the top of the list) that spells out my recent observations in this area.  This article was also just published today as one of my regular Puget Sound Business Journal installments.

As I’ve said in that piece, and will say again here, if you’ve been one of the generous souls who has taken the time to assist a job hunter in need, grant an informational interview, pass a LinkedIn request along, or volunteer in some other capacity to help people get back on their feet, thank you — on behalf of everybody.  Your amazing, thoughtful actions are an invaluable part of helping people keep the faith and remain confident that we’ll get through these tough times!