There are two kinds of harmful gaps in a job search. They are a lack of experience and a lack of skills. Both seem like insurmountable barriers because you can’t gain experience without work and it takes time to acquire skills. And yet, there is a way to bridge the gaps so long as you are willing to take off your fuzzy slippers.

In a society that exults in its uber-connectedness, it’s odd that distance is the defining culture of today’s job market. Everything we do, from networking with others and communicating with recruiters to contacting those who might be our future coworkers, is done – not at arm’s length, but at the tips of our fingers – as we sit at home in our fuzzy slippers and peck away on our keyboards.

No matter how much we revel in our connections and friends and follows, however, the net effect of such distant interactions is shallow relationships.

To read more of this column, click http://www.weddles.com/seekernews/issue.cfm?Newsletter=344 to reach the latest edition of my Newsletter for Job Seekers.

You can also sign up for this free newsletter at the top of my Home Page at http://www.weddles.com.

Work Strong,
Peter

That’s the secret to a successful job search, whether you’re looking for a new job or a better one. If you’d like to know more, read the column in my newsletter for job seekers. http://bit.ly/16NKhJN

Work Strong,
Peter

That’s the title of a recent column in my newsletter for job seekers. It explores what you must do to overcome the bias against the unemployed in today’s job market. You’ll find it at http://bit.ly/UgtFOQ.

Work Strong,
Peter

If your employer is like many others these days, it is constantly on the lookout for some new benefit that will help its employees feel the love.

So, the next time the HR Department conducts a survey and asks what new benefit you would most like to have, tell them a curriculum in career self-management. It’s the benefit that keeps on giving.

Traditional benefits – especially health insurance – remain important, of course, but they do little to differentiate one employer from another. Why is differentiation important? Because talent retention is now critical to business success, and distinctive benefits have a measurable impact on a worker’s decision to stay or go.

Unless you’re the CEO, your salary increases are barely staying ahead of inflation, so benefits are an important additional way for you to be compensated. While free meals at work and on-site day care are helpful, however, they have a short term impact on your wellbeing. Eventually, there are no more novel ways to serve mac and cheese and the kids grow up.

So, what should you ask for? The most revered benefit – job security – has now joined the rotary phone as a quaint artifact of another time. But, security does still exist; it’s just taken on a new form. Today, you can achieve “career security” – the ability always to be employed and always by an employer of your choice.

Even better, career security isn’t actually a benefit. It isn’t provided by your employer and therefore only available when the economy is strong and the organization is doing well. No, career security is something you give yourself, and it’s accessible whether the economy or your employer is up or down.

But here’s the rub. Career security doesn’t happen by wishful thinking or with a sprinkling of pixie dust. You must create it. And the only way to create it is to be fully educated in the body of knowledge and set of skills that enable to manage your own career effectively.

To read more of this column,” click http://weddles.com/primer/issue.cfm?Newsletter=65 to reach the latest edition of my Newsletter for Career Activists.

Work Strong,
Peter

Time is the greatest enemy in a job search.

The longer the hunt for a new job takes, the greater the frustration, futility and the possibility of making a mistake. So, the best way to conduct a job search is to use every minute of every day wisely.

Unfortunately, the Internet has caused a lot of people to adopt a quantitative approach to their job search campaign. They “pour and pray.” They shoot out a huge stream of applications to openings posted on job boards and employers’ Web-sites and pray that at least one will yield a response.

While making such an enormous effort may feel as if you’re investing your time wisely, however, the results indicate otherwise. The quantitative approach is almost always a failure. Why? Because you end up applying for a job you don’t want or can’t get.

Employers are risk averse and very finicky. When you apply for a job in which you aren’t very interested, they will sense your indifference and focus on applicants where they have a higher chance of success. And, when you apply for a job for which you aren’t qualified, they will quickly decide you’re a “trash applicant” and summarily discard your resume. In either case, all you’ve done is waste your time.

So, what’s a better approach? Use a qualitative application strategy that I call “select and succeed.” It involves using two screens to evaluate job postings so you only apply for those you truly want to do and can actually get. As a result, you use your time wisely and optimize your chances of being hired.

To read more of this column entitled “Don’t Waste Your Time,” click here to reach the latest edition of my Newsletter for Job Seekers.

You can also sign up for this free newsletter at the top of my Home Page at http://www.weddles.com.

Work Strong,
Peter

Here’s a startling statistic: in a bid to control health insurance costs, eight-out-of-ten companies are now incenting employees to stay healthy.

According to a recent Aon Hewitt survey, 79 percent of 800 large and mid-sized companies are using rewards – lower health insurance premiums – or penalties – higher individual premiums – to encourage healthy behavior by their employees.

What’s equally as important, however, is this: over half of those companies – 56 percent – are helping their employees to learn and practice healthy physical habits. They telling them what they must do AND they’re showing them how to do it.

And, that’s exactly what employers should also be doing with their workers’ career health. Incenting good career habits would cut costs and increase profits by raising the productivity of employees and the quality of their work.

Of course, employers are already halfway there: 100 percent of large and mid-sized companies use rewards – promotions and pay increases – and penalties – dead-end assignments and layoffs – to encourage their employees to take care of their careers.

Now, they need to do the other half. They need to help their employees learn and practice healthy career habits.

What are those habits?

As I explain in The Career Fitness Workbook, they encompass seven centers of activity. They range from pumping up your career cardiovascular system – the heart of your career is your occupational expertise – to pacing yourself by learning how to rest and rejuvenate your mind and body.

Much like a physical fitness regimen, these activities are most helpful when they are performed in a systematic way and on a regular basis. If they’re done in the right way and at the right frequency, they will optimize both the contribution a person makes on-the-job and the satisfaction they derive from their work.

Work Strong,
Peter

Here’s another reason to attend the Career Activist Republic meeting on May 18th in Washington D.C.. Your son or grandson or brother or nephew needs you to.

There was a sobering news story in today’s New York Times. Women are moving ahead in the current economy, while men are falling by the wayside. Women may still earn less than men for the same work – an unconscionable blot on our society – but a growing number of young men aren’t earning anything at all. They’re simply unprepared for the rigors of the modern workplace.

Why is this happening?

Michael Greenstone, an M.I.T. professor puts it this way: “I think the greatest, most astonishing fact that I am aware of in social science right now is that women have been able to hear the labor market screaming out ‘You need more education’ and have been able to respond to that, and men have not.”

For whatever reason, the signals from the workplace sound like Klingon to young men. To be sure, those alerts are saying they need more education, but even that’s not enough. According to a poll taken by the Associated Press, more than half of recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed.

So what young men really need to hear is that they must acquire more education in BOTH a career field and career self-management. They must become expert in their profession, craft or trade AND in directing their own careers effectively.

How can we get young men to hear this new message? While admitting to some bias, I think the answer is the Career Fitness System , which is a part of career activism. Why? Because its metaphor works especially well with males. It uses the principles and practices of physical fitness to teach the principles and practices of career fitness.

So, come to the Career Activist Republic meeting for your own career and for the careers of the young men in your life. And, of course, come for the careers of the young women in your life, as well.

For details on the program, see my previous post or call me at 203-964-1888 to reserve your spot. The program is limited to the first 50 registrants. There is a fee of $59.00 to attend, which includes your lunch and a mid-afternoon coffee break.

Work Strong,
Peter

My face is an embarrassing shade of red right now. Thanks to the many email messages I received, I realize that the telephone number I included in the post below about the inaugural meeting of the Career Activist Republic is incorrect. It should be 203-964-1888. My apologies for any inconvenience the error may have caused. And, of course, I hope to see many of you at the meeting.

Work Strong,
Peter

There is a common theme to many of the comments on this blog. While we are each in our own unique phase of career activism, we all share a commitment to its power and promise.

That allegiance is the foundation for a community, and it’s time our community became real as well as virtual. Therefore, I‘m pleased to announce that I will convene the first meeting of the Career Activist Republic on Saturday, May 18th in Washington, D.C.

This one-day event will offer two important benefits:

First, it will be a chance to get a detailed introduction to the core elements of career activism: becoming a person of talent, practicing economic disobedience, and building career fitness.

Second, it will be an opportunity to meet and get to know other career activists. It’s lonely out there, so connecting with those who share your outlook will be both reassuring and invigorating.

I’m truly looking forward to meeting the participants and helping them strengthen their understanding of the principles and practices of career activism. The program is designed for both those looking for a new job and those looking to achieve greater success in the one they have or hope to have in the future. It is limited to just 50 individuals on a first-committed, first-included basis.

Here’s the agenda:

9:00 – 9:30 AM Sign-in and networking
9:30 – 10:00 AM Making Introductions & Setting the Day’s Goals
10:00 – 11:00 AM The New World of Work After the Great Recession
11:00 AM – Noon How Career Activism Prepares You for Success in the New World
Noon – 1:00 PM Lunch and networking
1:00 – 2:00 PM Identifying Your Talent – Your Unique Capacity to Excel
2:00 – 3:00 PM Practicing Economic Disobedience in the New World
3:00 – 3:30 PM Coffee Break & Networking
3:30 – 4:30 PM Building Career Fitness in the New World
4:30 – 5:00 PM Capturing the Power & Promise of Career Activism for Yourself

The “textbooks” for our meeting will be my two latest books: The Career Fitness Workbook and A Multitude of Hope: a Novel About Rediscovering the American Dream. As the program involves exercises drawn from both books, you must have them with you to participate in the program. They are available at Amazon.com.

The fee to attend this inaugural meeting of the Career Activist Republic is just $59.00. It includes your lunch and the mid-afternoon coffee break.

To register: contact me at peter@weddles.com or 203-963-1888. Registrations close on May 1st.

Work Strong,
Peter

Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, has caused quite a stir with her new book, Lean In. While her goal is to empower women in the workplace, however, her advice has equal value for job seekers of both genders.

She tells women to “lean in” rather than hold back if they want to get ahead in the office. Job seekers should be similarly proactive if they want to be successful in the job market, but they should “talent out.”

There are many facets to Sandberg’s message, but the book’s overarching theme is as simple as it is profound: you can’t just say you’re the equal of everyone else, you also have to act that way.

The idea doesn’t ignore all of the social and political biases women have faced at work. And, it doesn’t mean that women have to imitate men. The point – at least according to Sandberg – is that women have to overcome the self-limiting boxes they’ve put themselves in if they want to be successful in their profession, craft or trade.

Now, whether or not you agree with her prescription for women, the view that people are only as impactful as they believe they can be is an important truism for both women and men in the job market.

All too often, those in transition accept the label, the perspective and the self-definition of a “job seeker” – a supplicant for work. Consciously or unconsciously, they buy into the self-limiting notion that they are not the equal of employers when searching for a job.

That view fundamentally alters the dynamic in the job market. Instead of a respectful interaction between two parties for their mutual benefit, it becomes a situation in which one party makes a unilateral decision that optimizes its benefit while eliminating the benefit to everyone else save one –the single new hire. All the other job seekers can do is shuffle along to the next unequal interaction and the one after that.

If you want to know how you can avoid this trap, click http://www.weddles.com/seekernews/issue.cfm?Newsletter=339 to reach the latest edition of my Newsletter for Job Seekers.

You can also sign up for this free newsletter at the top of my Home Page at http://www.weddles.com.

Work Strong,
Peter