5 Tips for Ensuring Great Coaching Results

Yesterday, I was enjoying a wonderful “wrap-up” phone call with a client of mine who recently landed a CEO job here in the area.  This individual had some very flattering things to say about my firm’s support of his job search process and the breakthroughs he was able to achieve along the way, which is always nice to hear.  It was near the end of the conversation, however, that he made the statement that I found most interesting.  Essentially, his comment was “My only regret, Matt, is that you didn’t kick my butt even harder along the way and force me to do the things I needed to be doing!”

This observation got me thinking, and after mulling the topic over all day, I thought it might be helpful if I were to share a couple of ideas about how people can optimize their success working with any type of “coach” in a professional capacity — be it a career coach, life coach, executive coach, or professional adviser of any similar variety.

For starters, it’s important to realize that good coaches are able to wear a TON of different hats in terms of how they approach the relationship with a client and the type of assistance they’re able to provide.  Depending on the situation, they can function as your own personal cheerleader.  Or mentor.  Or taskmaster.  Or thought partner.  Or confidant.  Or campaign strategist.  Or sounding board.  Or copy editor.  Or devil’s advocate. Or  conscience.  Or even possibly your priest, as one of my clients once characterized our relationship!  (let me assure you, though, that this last designation is one that I don’t feel even remotely qualified to fulfill…)

So whether you’re seeking out a great new coach to work with, or simply looking to maximize the productivity level with your current adviser, the key is to THINK REALLY HARD UP FRONT about the ideal role or roles (pick from the above menu or create your own!) that you need a coach to play in working with you.  You’ll find that some coaches are deep specialists in one particular area, while others have a more generalized bag of tricks and can truly “meet you where you’re at” no matter what role you need them to play.  And while most good coaches will ask lots of clarifying questions up front, or can instinctively figure out how best to work with you, it never hurts for you to initiate some dialogue around this issue right from the outset — informing the coach about your specific needs and guiding them on how to work with you most effectively, based on the lifetime of knowledge, insight, and awareness you’ve amassed about yourself.

The above element, in my opinion, is the single most important factor in ensuring a great “match” with a prospective coach.  Here are a few other suggestions that come to mind, however, that might help you prosper even more from the coach/coachee relationship:

1. Prior to each coaching session, e-mail the coach your desired agenda; it’s very important to arrive at each meeting with a clear focus and some specific outcomes to achieve, so that the coach can prepare some thoughts/resources in advance and make sure the time is invested as wisely as possible.  And if you’re not sure what the agenda should be, that’s a perfectly valid question to ask your coach for help with, too!

2.  Take detailed notes or consider tape-recording the session; if you’ve got the right coach, they’re going to be rattling off a lot of great advice for you to follow in a fairly short period of time, so don’t rely on your memory alone to sponge it all up!  Coaches will take it as a sign of respect, and commitment, if you routinely write down some of the advice they provide or you bring a recording device to each session (they’re getting smaller and less expensive every day) so that you can replay the session, later, in the comfort of your own home.

3.  Reschedule a session if you’re not prepared; rather than waste everybody’s time, most coaches will appreciate it (and won’t penalize you) if you inform them when you’re not feeling prepared for a particular session and would prefer to push it back to a later date.  As long as this doesn’t become a chronic habit, or reveal a deep-seated motivational issue that needs to be addressed, rescheduling the occasional meeting will be the best move for all concerned.

4.  Do your part and don’t expect miracles; while coaches should obviously be providing you with sound advice and demonstrable value at every step along the way, don’t forget that they’re merely the coach, not the player, and that the responsibility for implementing the successful game plan (in whatever context applies) ultimately falls in your court.  Phil Jackson, for example, has played an indispensable role in helping the Bulls and Lakers win a combined nine NBA championships in recent years, but don’t forget, he wasn’t the one out there on the court playing defense or scoring the basketball!

5.  Communicate, communicate, communicate; last but certainly not least, it’s imperative that you provide regular feedback (including both positive and negative developments) to your coach as the process unfolds if you want to get the most out of the exchange.  Effective coaches need to hear about your setbacks, as well as your successes, in order to be able to counsel you effectively.  So don’t hold back or be shy about sharing your progress, even if this just means the occasional phone call or e-mail update.  Every top-notch coach I know will always go the extra mile to help those clients who keep them in the loop and demonstrate that they’re taking the process seriously.  They wouldn’t be coaching in the first place, after all, if their #1 driver wasn’t to see people land on their feet — and ultimately reach their goals!

Hopefully this list will prove useful to some of you out there, and if any of the coaches in my network want to chime in with even more suggestions on how their clients can help engineer a terrific outcome, I’d certainly love to share your thoughts!  My apologies, too, to the client I mentioned earlier who felt I went a little too easy on him.  I’ll have to work on my “drill sergeant” persona a little more in the future, since admittedly, it’s not my strong suit…

Book Review: How to Work With Headhunters (Nick Corcodilos)

I love Nick Corcodilos.  I love his column in the newspaper, I love his ongoing blog, and I loved his “Ask the Headhunter” book and the incredibly pragmatic and frank insights he shared in it about how the headhunting world really works — and how candidates can play the game effectively in terms of this important, but often misunderstood aspect of job hunting.

Do I therefore love this latest offering of his, a 130-page downloadable electronic guide (offered in PDF format here for $29.95) promising to demystify the process of working with headhunters/recruiters and to provide 62 myth-busting answers for fearless job hunters? Not in so many words.  I’d say that “really, really like” is a better characterization of my feelings about this latest offering that Nick has pulled together.  While, as always, the writing is brilliant and the content provided is far deeper than any other resource out there in terms of discussing the headhunting process, the value of the piece suffers slightly from one factor that, ironically, I think even the author himself would agree with.

What is this mysterious factor, exactly?  Well, right off the bat, Nick points out the surprising (to some) fact that headhunters account for less than 3% of all hiring in the marketplace.  He then goes to great lengths to provide a “taxonomy” of the staffing sector and to point out how true headhunters, in his opinion, are a totally different breed from other sorts of placement professionals you’ll come across such as recruiters, contract firms (aka “job shops”), temporary agencies, career management firms, and the like.  And lastly, he emphasizes that headhunters source talent for their clients almost exclusively via proactive methods, as opposed to finding candidates via job boards or making contact with people who may have sent in their resume in unsolicited fashion.  Practically speaking, this means that they almost always go after “passive” candidates (as opposed to active job hunters) who are already employed and already recognized as rising stars in their respective industries.

In response to the above realities, I can’t help observing that the true target audience for this guide is astronomically small when one considers that the vast majority of professionals out there in transition DON’T meet the stated criteria for being “headhuntable” material!  Why would one invest $30-40 in a guide about working with headhunters, therefore, if only one candidate in a thousand can hope to attract the attention of this elite audience?  And among the handful of movers, shakers, and “A Players” who qualify to be recruited by this audience, do we really think that most of these people need remedial coaching about how to present themselves successfully or exert control/confidence in the interview process?  This subdivides the target audience even further, when you think about it…

At any rate, my intent here isn’t to be negative or critical of Nick’s most recent publication, but to simply point out some interesting consequences of the author’s own logic — in the context of my own professional role, which is to advise people on what might be most useful for them to read relative to the job hunting process.  This issue aside, I assure you that “How to Work With Headhunters” is a fascinating resource and stands to definitely open your eyes about how the hiring process really works at this level, if you’re interested in such things.  The guide also provides some much-needed words of warning around the scams, deceptions, and bad practices that certain recruiters engage in — as well as those organizations in the “career management” sector who pretend to be headhunters, but instead bilk unwary job hunters out of $5,000 or more for some lackluster resume development and distribution services.  Just this weekend, in fact, I ran into the friend of a friend who was approached by one of these outfits that operates in the Seattle area, and his description of the sales process — and the hard-sell techniques they used to try to swindle him out or $4,700 — made me downright nauseous.

There’s also value to be gained in this book/guide for those ASPIRING superstars who want to know how to position themselves most effectively for future contact by headhunters — or to study, ahead of time, what they should do in these situations.  And lastly, even if there’s no direct application to your own career situation, the publication is an interesting, worthwhile read in its own right.

At the end of the day, however, I musn’t lose sight of the fundamental purpose behind these reviews I write, which is to educate the average job hunter on what career-related books he or she should consider investing his or her time, money, and energy in.  And while this latest offering by Nick Corcodilos is exceptional, as always, make no mistake about it — it’s geared toward the sophisticated needs that a handful of elite executives will face when fielding headhunter-driven opportunities, not the day-to-day job search challenges and realities that are encountered by most mainstream candidates in career transition.

Changing Perspectives, Lessons Learned…

Each and every year, for about a decade running now, I’ve made it a tradition to take the Fourth of July week off and head about four hours east to play in the massive Hoopfest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in Spokane — then spend the remaining days resting and recuperating my knees on the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

This year was no exception, and while I’ve just returned with a whole new installment of family stories and memories swimming around in my brain, I won’t bore you with a “verbal slideshow” of my personal adventures — although the story of my terrier’s head accidentally catching on fire IS a pretty wild one.  Luckily, we put out the flames almost immediately and she wasn’t permanently harmed…

What these annual vacations do for me, however, and I’m sure do for you, too, is provide a rare cushion of perspective between “life” and “work” that can be tough to achieve when you’ve got your head down, day after day, racing from one work-related project to the other.  It’s far too easy, in such scenarios, to take your employment responsibilities a little too seriously and lose sight of the other elements of your life that are important to you — and that are actually under your complete control, as much as it may not seem like it, at times.  Given that I tend to read a lot of historical novels during my time off, too, I often get whacked with an even greater dose of perspective.  For example, the moment I start to get stressed out thinking about the avalanche of e-mail that piles up when I leave town, I’ll come across a passage in Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything” (a terrific book that I just re-read) that talks about how scientists discovered that we, as humans, share 50% of our DNA with bananas — or how the 1964 Alaskan earthquake shook the ground so hard that it sloshed water out of swimming pools in Texas!

Given the size and scale of these kinds of events, it seems a bit silly to get all bent out of shape worrying about whether your television can convert the new digital channels or whether your neighbor accidentally might have raked some leaves into your yard, by mistake.  And in the past two weeks (sorry, going to be morbid for a second) we’ve also been exposed to the bracing perspective of seeing a number of well-known celebrities (e.g. Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Steve McNair, and even “infomercial king” Billy Mays…) pass away well, well before their time.

At any rate, what can we learn from all this?  To yank this blog entry back to a career context, I’d encourage you to ponder the fact that any sort of vacation (even the long, unwanted kind) from the demanding rituals and routines of full-time work provides fertile ground for perspective, learning, and self-growth, should you decide to consciously bring these elements into play.  Would most people choose such a learning opportunity, voluntarily?  Heck no!  But if the universe gives you one, you might as well seize it.  Along these lines, I’ve recently had the good fortune of helping several clients celebrate the landing of new jobs after MANY months out in the market (in one case, over two years!)  And in each case I found the opportunity, amongst the merriment, to hit them up with two questions: “What have you learned during your time between assignments?” and “As a result, what will you do differently, this next time around?”

Alas, it’s probably some deep-seated survival skill that we, as humans, allow ourselves to so easily get boxed into viewing our lives from a single set of narrow priorities or a single point-of-view — but having just gotten back in the saddle from some time off, myself, it struck me that vacations (as well as periods of unemployment) are among the best times we ever get to reset, recharge, and rethink our priorities.

Top 100 Women in the Seattle Tech Scene

I can’t believe I didn’t spot this resource earlier, but better late than never!  About a month ago, TechFlash (the Seattle tech industry website hosted by John Cook and Todd Bishop of Puget Sound Business Journal) posted a great list of the “Top 100 Women in Seattle Tech” that you’ll find here.  This detailed breakdown of the local technology scene is not only fascinating, in and of itself, but if you read through the 70+ comments posted AFTER the article you’ll pick up some pretty intriguing market knowledge, as well.

This article is also a useful reminder that despite the temporary slowdown in the economy, there are still a ton of creative, entrepreneurial-minded folks out there “pushing the envelope” and working on ideas, products, and concepts that could lead to significant spurts of job growth around Puget Sound.  Enjoy!

Weather Aside, I’m Diggin’ June!

Not trying to be a “Pollyanna” here folks, but boy, this first week in June is already showing quite a few promising signs in terms of the job marketplace — at least among the statistical sample of folks I’m working with and especially in comparison to the doldrums we’ve been facing these few past months.  Is it the sunny weather?  Is it the stimulus money kicking in?  Is it a subconscious societal decision to let go of some of the anxiety we’ve all collectively been wallowing in?

Quite frankly, I have no idea what the underlying drivers might be for this sudden burst of inspiring events, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.  And I certainly won’t go so far as to say that this is going to be stable trend, as opposed to an isolated event.  But boy, it’s refreshing to get into the office and have three separate clients report that they’ve landed what appear to be great jobs.  And to have three other clients call me (bless their hearts!) to report that the positions they landed last month are going even better than expected!  This is more than enough good news in a given week to keep any career coach walking on cloud nine…

And on a related note, when I finally had the time to catch up on some of my on-line news reading the other day, I was struck by how many positive developments I noted in relation to companies here in the local region.  Sure, there are still plenty of articles talking about layoffs and such things, but if you pay close attention, you’ll also find plenty of upbeat, growth-oriented news interspersed throughout the standard slate of “downer” stories.  For example, in just one sweep of the Seattle PI news feed, I noted the following headlines:

Seattle Genetics Pockets $11.5M
Tableau Rolls Out BI (Business Intelligence) Software
$500K for 1000 Markets
TeachStreet Takes in $1.2 Million
Infinia Raises $14.1 Million for Solar Power
Visible Technologies Raises $6M
HealthUnity Raises $2M
Uptake Medical Secures $3M
Oncothyreon Raises $11 Million in Stock Sale
CoAptus Raises $3 Million for Heart Device
Ramgen Power Gets $20 Million
Hydrovolts Wins $50K Zino Green Fund
Xori Gets $2.1 Million from Accelerator
SynapticMash Scores $1.2 Million
Delve Raises $1.65 Million, Revenues Surge
Proteotech Raises $519K
AVI Wins Part of $2.1 Million Contract
Likewise Software Laps Up $10M Series C
Vigilos Raises $1.4 Million from NWVA

The moral(s) of this story, from my vantage point?  First, job hunters and working professionals alike should take aggressive steps to stay positive, as well as see the positive in things.  The silver lining may be obfuscated at times, but it’s out there if you look for it, and your state of mind is going to directly affect your job search outcome.  Secondly, make sure you have a regular reading regimen in place (via newspapers, trade journals, blogs, RSS feeds, etc.) so that you can spot some of these emerging growth and hiring opportunities before your competition does.  And lastly, take note of the fact that you likely haven’t heard of 80% or more of the companies profiled above in my “positive developments” list — and that it’s going to be these emerging small-to-mid-sized companies that save the economic day, when all is said and done.  So if you’re still standing in line at Microsoft, T-Mobile, and the Gates Foundation, it’s time to dig a little deeper and find some relevant companies that are under the radar screen…

P.S. Oh yeah, and the “weather” complaint in my blog heading?  Sorry, having grown up in Alaska, 90 degrees is just WAY too warm for comfort.  Give me “sunny and seventy” any day of the week…

State of the Job Market: A Visualization

A client of mine recently sent along an interesting little link that paints a picture of the job market (and its recent unpleasantness) in a new and different way than I’ve seen before.  If you click here, you’ll see this animated feature, which demonstrates the growth and shrinkage of the available jobs across the country over the past few years.  If you watch carefully, in fact, you’ll see the impact of Hurricane Katrina, the emergence of the auto industry crisis, the turmoil on Wall Street, and many other current events reflected.

(Spoiler alert: if you’re actively trying to avoid any negative news about the economy, this site is probably worth skipping!)

So why did I decide to post this link, knowing it could potentially bum some people out?  For starters, it was because the client who sent it to me encouraged me to do so, after I asked her opinion on the matter, and I thought she had a great point to offer: “Although initially I felt like throwing up my hands in surrender, after I looked at it (the animated diagram) a bit I felt better.  The reason is that over the last couple of months, I started thinking about looking at other cities in the country.  On looking at the map, Seattle doesn’t look so bad compared to other areas I would consider, (in fact, looks more favorable) so that told me to take a breath and just stay put (which I want to do).”

Additionally, I think it’s a great case study in critical thinking and in pondering this kind of data carefully instead of allowing yourself to have an indulgent, kneejerk reaction to it.  If you take the time to read the string of comments posted under the animated feature, in fact, you’ll note that a number of people have called the authors of this presentation on the carpet for not being totally accurate in their portrayal of the data in question.  And while I’m not enough of a statistician to debate the merits of the arguments presented, it’s clear that one can’t (or at least shouldn’t) simply take the information in this graph at face value, saying “Look, here’s indisputable proof that the economic apocalypse is nigh!”

Just thought I’d throw it out there for discussion…

Cover Letters: Time of Death, 2009…

As I shared with many of you in my latest newsletter, I’m finally throwing in the towel — and yielding to the overwhelming evidence suggesting that cover letters (at least in their traditional form) are no longer an effective or important part of the modern job search process.

This may not seem like a big deal, to some, but for those out of work this is a “tectonic” development with significant implications.  The reason?  The process of drafting cover letters tends to suck up hours and hours of time each week from the average job hunter’s efforts, and if nobody is reading these masterpieces, this time and energy can be invested much more productively somewhere else.  Additionally, many people despise the process of writing such letters, and will save themselves considerable psychic anguish if they are “absolved” from having to write these pieces for each and every resume submission.

I realize, of course, that I’m somewhat late to the party (at least among career coaching circles) in arriving at this conclusion.  There have been a number of articles, blog postings, and other pieces published over the last few years where knowledgeable folks have expressed their belief that cover letters have lost their luster.  In general, however, I tend to be wary of “faddish” career advice and wanted to make sure that the sudden anti-letter sentiment wasn’t simply being used by some folks as a form of shock value to raise the anxiety level of job seekers and sell more services.  After hearing a number of my recruiting friends mention that they never, ever read cover letters from job candidates anymore, however, followed by several of my HR acquaintances echoing this same sentiment, I started to believe the hype — and to examine whether my coaching philosophy on this issue had exceeded its shelf-life.

It was at that point, too, that I took matters into my own hands and started asking every hiring manager I came into contact with whether they felt the cover letter added any real value to the job application process.  In what was nearly a clean sweep, virtually every single one of them said “Honestly, no.  I don’t read the letters.  I just go right to the resume and it tells me what I need to know.”

So if the evidence is to be believed, job hunters should seriously curtail their letter-writing efforts and channel most of their writing mojo (including some serious customization) into the resume presentation itself.  The resume now needs to stand completely on its own two feet in terms of communicating your fit for a particular opportunity — and must clearly indicate your top qualifications for the role at hand, ideally through a list of 8-10 bullets near the top of the first page.  One size most definitely does not fit all, anymore.  You need to demonstrate to each employer, within a few seconds, that you have the exact set of skills they’re looking for if you want to land in the “interview” pile.

As for whether you should send any kind of covering document with your resume, well, it stands to reason that you have to say at least a little something about why you’re submitting your credentials to a given employer.  You can’t just send your resume ala carte and assume employers will know what to do with it.  So my advice to job hunters, going forward, will be that you e-mail your resume to employers using a crystal-clear subject line (e.g. “Resume of John Smith, Accounting Manager”) accompanied by a short one- or two-paragraph e-mail note explaining why you’re writing and perhaps highlighting one key thought or attention-grabbing statement of why you’d be a great fit for the job in question.

Along these lines, here are three types of “killer thoughts” you might consider highlighting in your e-mail cover note:

1)  A very specific, interesting reason as to why the job in question appeals to you

Example: “While I’ve applied to a number of inside sales jobs in the past few weeks, I was instantly drawn to your company’s advertisement because of your statement that you want somebody who openly embraces cold-calling as a way of driving revenue.  Trust me, this won’t be a problem should you end up adding me to your team.  I’ve got zero problem picking up the phone and reaching out to qualified customers — my last boss, in fact, commented that he never once had to worry about me violating his ‘no whining’ policy when it came to having to make such calls.”

2)  A very specific, interesting reason as to why the company in question appeals to you

Example: “Given current economic conditions, I’d imagine that numerous candidates are submitting their resume for this opportunity.  I’d like to emphasize, however, that I’m particularly drawn to Escapia due to the fact that I used to run a bed and breakfast, myself, and therefore have a detailed understanding of the tourism industry and its terminology.  So while I suppose my accounting skills could translate into just about any organization, I’d love the chance to get back into a company like your own that relates so closely to my interests and caters to my former peers in the hospitality world.”

3)  A very specific, interesting qualification that differentiates you from other candidates

Example: “As you’ll note from my resume, my experience to date touches upon almost every single one of the specific skills and qualifications requested in your advertisement.  On top of these credentials, however, I’d also emphasize that I helped my previous employer complete a major SAP installation just six short months ago — and that this entire process, including lessons learned, is completely fresh in my mind and ready to be brought to bear on your company’s pending SAP implementation effort.”

The statements above are obviously not intended to represent the entire e-mail note you’d send in response to an advertisement, of course, but should give you a flavor of the types of “zinger lines” that you can incorporate to help your submission stand out.  Will you win ‘em all?  Probably not, if employers these days are as militant as they claim about focusing solely on the resume document.  But at least you won’t need to channel tons of time into writing formal, fully-formatted letters of the old-fashioned variety any longer.  And if you DO manage to catch the employer’s eye with your short e-mail missive, there’s no question that it can still tip the scales in your favor.

The key?  Just don’t make them open any extra attachments or go through the apparently arduous task of scrolling down in their e-mail browser…

Entrance Interviews — What a Concept!

While enjoying a celebratory glass of wine with a client who just landed a new position, it struck me that I’ve never yet blogged about one of my my favorite tactics for the newly-employed: asking your new boss for an “entrance interview” shortly after being hired!

As most of you likely know, many companies engage in the practice of “exit interviewing” when an employee decides to leave the organization.  In these meetings, a representative from HR usually asks a series of questions to see why the person is choosing to leave and what the company could have done better to retain them.  For example, after conducting a quick Google search, I found a number of sample “exit interview forms” on various HR resource websites that recommended the company rep ask questions like “What are your primary reasons for leaving?” and “What did you find most frustrating about your job?” and “Is there anything the company could have done to prevent you from leaving?”

Does this practice strike anybody else but me as slightly absurd?

To me, an organization needs to be communicating with its employees constantly to figure out what key issues or policies might be contributing to chronic worker dissatisfaction.  Better yet, I think a lot of these issues could be short-circuited right up front if a manager were to sit down with a new employee and talk through some of the work style and communication factors that so often lead to conflict — and cause higher-than-normal attrition rates.  Since I hold out little hope that most managers will proactively make a point of doing this, however, I suggest to all of my newly-transitioned clients that they “empower themselves” and ask to hold such meetings themselves, ideally within the first two weeks of starting the new job.

Essentially, the new employee should simply request a 30-minute meeting with their supervisor to discuss how they can best work together and function most efficiently, going forward.  Upon securing the meeting, the individual in question can then prompt dialogue around a series of questions which might include the following:

•  What are the unwritten rules I should know about working here at XYZ Company?
•  What attitudes or behaviors tend to lead to success in this company’s (or workgroup’s) culture?
•  What types of personality traits or behaviors are publicly frowned upon in the organization?
•  What are your own personal preferences in terms of communication?  For example, when I have a question or issue, is it best to e-mail you, call you, or stop by your office?
•  How often should I check in with you about the status of my work/projects?
•  What pet peeves do you have?  What behaviors should I try hard to avoid, lest I drive you nuts?
•  What characteristics do you value most in your most successful team members?
•  How do you tend to act if/when you get stressed?  And what can I do in these situations to help you?
•  Would you mind if we touched base like this every 90 days or so to make sure I’m on the right track and doing everything I can to meet your expectations?

By initiating this kind of conversation with your next boss, you’ll be demonstrating a profound amount of emotional intelligence and likely identify many hidden “land mines” that you’ll now be able to avoid, having surfaced them.  Maybe your new boss will tell you he hates it when people don’t update him daily on their status…or when they ask too many questions…or when they e-mail, versus just stopping by his office.  Or maybe she’ll tell you there’s nothing she hates more than having “whiners” on her team.  Whatever the case may be, you’ll be in a far better position to maneuver effectively within the organization, politically, if you don’t have to learn these lessons the hard way!

So give it shot.  The next time you’re hired, ask whether the boss would open to holding a quick “entrance interview” to discuss how you can best support him/her and to help you navigate the new company culture in effective fashion.  From my standpoint, any halfway-intelligent manager would welcome the chance to hold such a meeting and would appreciate the proactivity and consideration such a request would demonstrate!

City University: Laid-Off Worker Scholarships

I just heard from my good friends over at City University of Seattle that they are in the process of launching a special new Laid-Off Worker Scholarship program that will provide over $2.7 million in tuition grants to help unemployed professionals participate in some of the school’s outstanding graduate/undergraduate degree programs.

I salute the university for this effort — and wanted to send out this quick post announcing the news, since I figured this program might be an excellent opportunity for those folks out there who are thinking of acquiring some further schooling, but may not have the financial resources available at the moment to pay “full freight” for a degree, themselves.  And as most of you know, additional education can be a terrific catalyst both for making a significant career change, as well as increasing your overall marketability for available positions!

If you’re interested in learning more about this innovative program, additional details can be found here…

Rays of Hope?

Call me crazy, but after months of seeing the airwaves saturated with depressing developments, I was struck by the fact that I saw not one, not two, but THREE distinctly positive stories today on the news!

Stock market rallies
ACS is hiring 200 call center positions in Auburn
AT&T hiring 3,000 positions

I know, I know.  These little “glimmers of hope” may not be the harbinger of any huge economic turnaround, in the short term, but holy cow were they still refreshing to see — kind of like that one fragile little flower bud that’s poking out of the snow in my yard…

Keep in mind, too, that the condition of the marketplace is almost entirely based on consumer psychology, so if a few positive stories like these continue to materialize, we might eventually reach a tipping point that starts moving things back in the right direction.  The recovery has got to start somewhere, right?  It’s never easy to see such things at the time, but looking back, there WILL be a day (if not today, another day) that historians look back on and say “That was the day after things hit rock-bottom and the market started to finally turn around…”

So again, perhaps these three stories were isolated incidents, and possess no symbolic value whatsoever, but something in me still felt compelled to share them — because I know they made ME feel temporarily hopeful, and that’s a feeling I know has been in short supply as of late!