Career Management Alliance Blog

In the course of writing our books and columns, we have interviewed multicultural professionals from all walks of life and asked for opinions on a variety of topics, including the characteristics needed for success. We compiled their answers, added our own experiences, and identified twelve factors for a successful career — a career that positively coexists with a fulfilled life, uses your talents and skills to their full potential, and maximizes your opportunities and growth.

You are the Architect of Your Own Destiny

• Life and career success can only be defined by you for you.
• Taking the time to develop your definition of success is essential to achieving career satisfaction.

The following are twelve characteristics you should master to achieve career success:

Know Yourself

• Evaluate your interests, values, knowledge, skills, abilities, contributions, accomplishments, uniqueness and worthiness.
• Understand your cultural programming, if any, and how to transform those gifts into career assets.
• Embrace your attributes, family history and culture.
• Craft your combined attributes into a foundation to launch or grow your career.

Develop a Goal that Inspires You

• Develop a vision of what you want to accomplish in life and your career.
• Arouse your passion and desire to be successful at whatever you do.
• Allow your goals to be courageous to drive your career forward. Your objectives should not be self-limiting.
• Make sure your goals, no matter how large or small, contribute value to others.

Believe in Your Personal Power

• Trust that you are the most important person in your career.
• Embrace your personal power to fuel your career power.
• Activate your career power so you can be proactive in your job search, manage the process and to respond well, rather than react, to the events you cannot control.
• Learn to adapt and transform any self-limiting cultural programming into power centers.

Learn to Dance in Both Worlds

• Recognize that adapting to an employer’s workplace culture is neither selling out nor changing your cultural identity.
• Build a cultural bridge that crosses from one environment to the other that we can walk on and help others to cross.
• Know your culture and share it gently.

Create Opportunities and be Prepared to Take Advantage of Them

• Initiative and networking create opportunities.
• Preparation and practice are often the difference to career success.
• Keep your attitude positive and picture yourself as lucky.
• Use tested strategies to overcome any job search FEARs (False Expectations Appear Real) you may have.

Persistence and Success Go Together

• Remember that it is not the fastest or brightest job seeker but the prepared and judiciously persistent candidate who generates an interview and secures employment.
• Recognize that job search roadblocks are only minor detours that you can find an alternative route, outwit, or avoid altogether.
• Work smarter and use the increasing number of Latino specific, diversity friendly, networking generated and skills focused access doors at employers.

Build Your Personal Career Brand

• If you do not develop a Personal Career Brand, others will label you.
• Paint a compelling picture of who you truly are and the unique promise of value you offer to an employer.
• Building your reputation or Personal Career Brand increases your confidence and job search power.

Make Learning a Life Long Process

• Life-long learning maintains and enhances your employability and upward mobility.
• Continuous professional and personal development improves your career staying power, agility and marketability.
• Your commitment to self-improvement validates an employer’s Return on Investment (ROI) in you.

Be Flexible

• Keep your job search and career options open.
• Be open, adaptable and accommodating to different approaches and opportunities
• Be willing to weigh job offers and career opportunities on how they fit into your career goals and plan. Don’t just look at the money.

Create a Strong Support System

• Grow your Career Board of Directors, a network of a people who will be there for you in the various capacities that aid your job search and career management.
• Nurture your network through maintaining contact, being thankful and giving back where you can.

Know When to Let Go

• Being willing to let go should not be seen as a negative. It is often liberating, empowering, and leads to career success.
• You may have accepted a job that turned out to be the wrong fit or your work situation may sour to the breaking point. Choose to move on.
• Your duties may have changed or you have or a team approach may be more productive requiring that you give up some control. Recognize that it is time to let go.
• Learn to accept your mistakes and use them as learning experiences. Leave them behind.

Remember to Give Back to Your Community

• Appreciate the multicultural professionals who were among the first in their career fields who blazed a trail for you to follow.
• Helping  your colleagues or those coming up behind you opens up even more opportunities for other multicultural professionals.
• Giving back adds to your own value and helps build your Personal Career Brand.
• Leadership and volunteer positions offer professional development opportunities that may not be available in the workplace.

Posted by Murray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias 

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As an executive resume writer, I have the opportunity to see a lot of resumes that are in circulation, but failing miserably at their job.

They’re not capturing the attention of hiring decision makers reviewing them among possibly hundreds of others. And, if they do manage to get some attention, they’re not differentiating the job seeker and positioning them above the pack.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but these are what I consider the top 10 worst offenders.

Four things that too many executive resumes lack:

1. A clear job target. Without a specific focus, decision makers reading your resume won’t make a connection between you and the job they’re trying to fill. They don’t have the time or inclination to sift through irrelevant information to see if you’ll be a good fit. Everything in your resume has to point to the requirements for that specific kind of job.

2. Personal branding. Especially in an economic downturn, personal branding makes more sense than ever. Companies are looking for good fit and personal chemistry. Branding generates chemistry and makes the candidate come alive on the page.

3. Value proposition. The value you bring your next employer needs to be abundantly evident, monetized, and linked to your brand.

4. Career success stories. When you show the reader exactly how you’ve accomplished all the great benefits you’ve brought to past companies, they can zero in on what you will do for their company. Follow a “Challenge – Actions – Impact” kind of framework to illuminate your successes.

Six things that too many executive resume have, but shouldn’t:

5. A designated “objective” statement. No one cares what you want. Instead of leading your resume with a statement saying what you want from the job, tell them, in a powerful brand statement, just what you will do for them.

6. Densely packed, hard-to-read information. With more and more hiring decision makers reviewing resumes on BlackBerries, the need for concise on-brand, value-driven statements surrounded by plenty of white space is obvious. Make it easy for them to read and quickly get to what they need to know about you.

7. Too many pages. Keep it to 2 pages. Remember that today’s resume is not meant to be a comprehensive career biography. As a marketing document, it needs to incorporate just enough compelling information to generate interviews.

8. Typos, grammatical errors, and/or poor formatting. This probably goes without saying. Errors are the kiss of death. Keep the formatting attractive, consistent, and easy to read. And make sure your contact information is correct.

9. Overused resume-speak. You’re not like everyone else. Your resume should reflect and embrace what makes you unique. Keep the content interesting and don’t fall back on cliches like “results-oriented”.

10. Passive verbs and repetitive, boring job descriptions. Draw in readers and hold their attention with robust action verbs that indicate your vitality and relevant key words that highlight your niche expertise. Don’t waste precious space reiterating obvious responsibilities. Avoid the tired, boring phrase “responsible for”.

Posted by Meg Guiseppi

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As a counselor, I am continually striving to understand what is going on in the employment field, to better advise clients.  But I also need to understand the forces that impact employment in general.  Frequently, clients have no idea that interesting opportunities are available in seemingly unrelated areas, areas in which the client’s skill levels are readily transferable either directly or with a little training.  In fact, as we have seen industries pass their peak and new industries emerge, most people figure this out on their own. 

When considering the entire set of job search challenges, the list is actually quite short.  With many clients, perhaps most, their weaknesses in succeeding with a search is generally due to a poor career choice, poor job search tactics or a lack of motivation. 

It is not my intention to minimize the often complex and discouraging barriers people encounter as they move forward.  Nor do I ignore the long and often frustrating efforts required before finally succeeding.  What I do insist is looking for a job, or finding the right career is not rocket science.  Rather, it is the consistent and persistent application of a set of simple steps, applied with skill and determination that ultimately wins the day. 

The first, a good career choice, is ignored by too many people.  Being both successful and unhappy is not a job requirement, but so many people get so little satisfaction from their success, one might think they go hand-in-hand.  We can all understand when an individual is both unhappy and unsuccessful, often moving from job to job seeking a position that would bring a measure of happiness and a sense of accomplishment.  Unfortunately, too many have embarked on careers for which they are unsuited by temperament, values, element of risk (too much or too little), or a host of other factors, yet succeed very well.  Yet they are miserable, and don’t know why. 

When it finally dawns that a new start with a new career choice is necessary, that revelation can have an enormous impact on morale and motivation.  My personal job satisfaction increases when clients see that a new beginning is very viable and start building toward a new set of goals. 

The second factor, job search tactics, is the most straightforward.  Good resumes, good networking techniques, good interviewing skills and other job search tactics require both a little art and a little science.  Most require thoughtful planning, an objective view of your accomplishments, an informed view of what firms are looking for beyond the specific skills of the job, and a willingness to do the homework and take the time to develop professional job search tools.  Slapping together a resume and throwing it at Monster.com in the hope that it will stick, just doesn’t work.  

The final fact, motivation, can be the simplest or the most complex.  Finding a new career choice can be an immense motivator.  Frequently I encounter individuals who feel guilty because they are successful and productive with a favorable economic situation, but are nevertheless miserable.  They don’t want to rock the boat, but have to make a change.  I well understand when family circumstances are involved a career change can be a very big decision and traumatic decision. 

For others, lack of motivation could be related to a long string of unsuccessful efforts.  I have preached in these pages that giving up is not an option.  Those that succeed, succeed because they don’t give up.  Make sure the tools you are using and your approach is viable.  Do not ignore the possibility these difficulties stem from poor presentation, not a lack of value as a person or a professional.   

Finally, we have that very small group of people who lack motivation and have always lacked motivation.  They have skated through with family help or luck or help from. others but are now faced with a stark choice.  This is the most vexing and difficult group with whom to communicate.  Often the parents or a significant other are the driving force for change.   

For this group I have no answer.  We say life is what we make of it and in the absence of a calamity, each of us is the captain of his own ship.  Where we choose to steer it is up to us.

Judit Price

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An important step in managing and owning your online identity is to purchase a domain name of “your name” (example, “johnsmith.com”), before someone else beats you to it.

Dan Schawbel, a personal branding expert who coined the term “eBrand” to tag “a digital representation of you on the Internet”, recently suggested on his Personal Branding Blog:

“I’m still holding onto my future prediction that instead of a resume, video resume, cover letter, portfolio, paper business card, and references document, your personal eBrand will exist as a single URL…In the future, you will need to compile, centralize and store these elements into a master website (yourname.com)…One URL will tell your complete story.”

A number of careers industry thought leaders concur. Instead of having bits and pieces about your career history, activities, and achievements floating around in various places, it’s best to consolidate them all into one easily accessible online location.

What better Web address to present your online portfolio than your own name? Even if you don’t soon plan to launch a Website, don’t think you need a domain name, or don’t know what to do with one, it just makes good career management sense to claim your online name now, especially if you have a common name shared by others.

Registrars like Go Daddy make it easy and extremely inexpensive to do. If your “firstnamelastname” is already taken, be a little creative and try variations incorporating your middle name:

jsmith.com
johnrobertsmith.com
jrsmith.com
jrobertsmith.com

Hyphens between words (“john-smith.com”) are perfectly acceptable, but beware that you will forever have to remind people to “include the hyphen”. If they don’t, they will be led nowhere or to someone else’s Website.

Try for a dot-com first, because most people will assume it’s a dot-com and try to find you there. If all the viable variations are taken, move on to a dot-net as the next-best option.

Posted by Meg Guiseppi

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When President Clinton signed the executive order designating June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month he wrote “I hope that in this new millennium will continue to break down the walls of fear and prejudice and work to build a bridge to understanding and tolerance, until gays and lesbians are afforded the same rights and responsibilities as all Americans.” 

Much has happened since June 2000. According the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) more than half of states and thousands of corporations have expanded protections and benefits for their GLBT employees including 433 of Fortune 500 companies.

Below are a sampling of web resources including advocacy groups, professional associations, job portals and books dedicated to helping gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals advance their careers and contributions in the workplace, as well as, educating employers and coworkers to create more inclusive workplaces.

Advocacy Groups  

glbtworkplace.com‘s goal is to provide the knowledge, support and tools to enable a world where gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people can work openly and safely in a workplace that is welcoming and free of harassment and discrimination, regardless of occupation. The web site features articles, editorial comentary, discussion topics and opinion / data gathering polls. The Frequently Asked Questions by Managers Regarding GLBT Workplace Issues section is also a valuable guide for everyone.  

Human Right Campaign Workplace Project delivers information on workplace policies and laws surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity, and is a great resource for “how-to” information.  HRC publishes the annual Corporate Equality Index which rates companies on their GLBT inclusiveness. 

Out & Equal Workplace Advocates hosts a natioanally recognized annual conference, offers training programs and has regional affiliates for local networking. 

OUT For Work is a national nonprofit organization educating, preparing, and empowering LGBT students and their allies for the workplace.  

The vast majority of companies listed in the DiversityInc’s 2008 Top 50 Companies for Diversity have active programs to recruit GLBT employees, nondiscrimination policies that include gender identity, Employee Resource Groups for GLBT employees, gay/lesbian businesses in supplier-diversity tracking and corporate web sites addressing the GLBT community.

Professional Associations 

National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce 

National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) National Lesbian and Gay Law Association (NLGLA) 

National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Science and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP) 

Regional LGBT Professional Organizations 

Job Portals 

There are niche GLBT career sites that provide job postings, career management tools and resources needed to successfully navigate in U.S. workplace.

gayjob.biz

progayjobs.com

www.simplyhired.com/a/special-searches/glbt-friendly

Books

Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace (Haworth Gay & Lesbian Studies)

Lavender Road To Success: The Career Guide by Kirk Snyder 

The resources listed above are but few. If you have additional sources to recommend to our readers, please post them in the comments section. 

Posted Murray A. Mann

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A few years ago I wrote an article for a careers industry newsletter re: why some resumes receive a continual stream of visitors but no tangible job offers. Inspired to write this during a particularly stressful time — I was attempting to sell my home, but people weren’t buyin’ what I was sellin’ — I felt a sudden empathy toward my resume clients frustrated at a protracted job search. My frustration with my house being on the market longer than the average was palpable.

I realized I needed to make some adjustments to hook the buyer and meet their emotional and pragmatic needs. Though initially I had felt the prep I did to communicate my beautiful home’s value was sufficient, I had a rude awakening that potential buyers weren’t seeing past the communication flaws that were glaring (and fixable), so I acted fast to better market my home, showcase the fine lines and benefits as a solution to their needs. It took a little roll up your sleeves research and effort, including a coat of paint in the main living quarters, but it netted quick results. Within a week, I garnered an offer and sold my home.

Are you like the ’stubborn’ home seller I once was, and thinking that you know what you’ve got to sell and how you are selling it will appeal to the buyer (employer)? Or, are you willing to research, listen, regroup and re-frame your unique value proposition to appeal to the readers’ needs and their areas of imminent pain?

To further underscore my thoughts here, I’d like to share a link to a Blog entry by Nick Corcodilos, Ask The Headhunter, which delightfully resonates with my sensibilities. Here, you’ll find his references to how to make yourself stand apart in a ’sea of mediocrity’ and ‘voluminous’ competition. The posting, titled, “Coveted, lucrative, and rare’ (great attention grabber!) also leads into a commentary on why ‘art’ is a key component (of 3 that Nick lists) in standing out in this sea of mediocrity. In other words, he advises, don’t just say that you do what other ‘accountants’ do well (i.e., follow the rules and run accurate numbers); but show your ‘art in accounting’ and how it involves your abilities to identify and capitalize on trends in your company’s finances.’ And to be able to make these claims, you must also be ‘advancing the art in your work’ on a regular basis. Nick’s Blog entry refers to a total 3 guideposts to ’standing out’ among your career competitors, but I wanted to zero in on this one for purposes of my post. To read Nick’s full entry, you may link to:

http://corcodilos.com/blog/48/coveted-lucrative-and-rare

To recap, I fear that many job seekers feel that if they are simply honest and straightforward in communicating in their resume ‘their’ favorite and most proud moments, results and qualities/qualifications, that the reader (decision-maker) will pursue them as the hot commodity they are. The problem, though, is that the owner of the resume often will miss the point in communicating what differentiates them from the pack of other talented job seekers, as well as what will resonate with the reader’s current needs and rolls up to their company’s bottom line … thus derailing the job seeker’s goal of surpassing the competition and cinching that next great interview conversation.

Jacqui D. Barrett, MRW

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To a large extent we are all independent contractors.  We must adopt a dynamic and active career planning process, keeping resumes up to date, continue to network and keeping current with your company and industry.  I am certain, from all that I hear from clients, human resource professionals, recruiters and my colleagues, that change that borders on continuous turmoil in our work lives will be the norm well into the future.

Therefore, taking a hard look at a career change, even when things are going well, should be on the table.The fact is new opportunities constantly emerge.  To take advantage of these new opportunities we have to create a mindset that encompasses a new reality, with openness and flexibility.  That is, we need to think about and consider and be open to possibilities that would be rejected in another era.

Many who have changed do so successfully, with new economic opportunities, new commitment and enthusiasm, or even just a more acceptable lifestyle.  In some cases additional training was necessary to complete the transition.  But experience is very applicable and useful in a myriad of endeavors.  An extraordinary amount of technical, organizational, planning, finance, management and other experience is readily transferable.

More importantly career change does not have to be a downsizing of our lives.  On the contrary, employers are highly receptive to new thinking from people whose experience in other fields can add value.  Organizations benefit from the new perspectives, new skills and the breadth of experience that industry changers bring to a new position.  In fact, some studies suggest that a significant number of job changers actually move into totally new industries when they change jobs.  Whatever the number, it is more common than readily recognized and changing careers or developing a succession plan over a lifetime must be an important component of the career mix.  A career change has led many to new and fulfilling professional lives, a wonderful breath of fresh air.

It is critical to objectively assess your job and career situation.  The near term situation may be fine.  Nevertheless, career planning should include a hard look at a potential career change.

A total skills inventory of self assessment is a good first step.  It is important to understand what you have to offer, not only work experience, but any relevant experience outside of work such as leadership posts in local organizations, responsibility for funds, organizing and planning activities and any other relevant activities. 

Match those skills with interests and values and how those values and how working style can fit an industry or job.  Then start looking around.  Be open to new possibilities, and make the career change option a permanent part of your career and succession planning.

 Judit Price

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Yesterday morning my client, a senior-level manager, was telling me about his good friend who “lost” $7,500.00 a few months ago to a “career services firm” who “promised” to find him a new job. Is this normal to pay that much money for career help, my client queried?

Normal? No. Not only is it not normal, some would describe it as a predatory practice. So what does this mean for you, the job seeker? Simply put, it means that you can easily be preyed upon, especially during periods of unemployment or when you’re in a job that you dislike with immense intensity. I have met various clients through the years who have invested significant sums of money with a “career services firm” that promised the moon and sadly, delivered nothing.

Beware, job seekers! Watch out! Keep your hard-earned money in your own pocket! Buy only what you need. Do not be lured by false promises and smooth-talkers who sell you something because you’re scared out of your wits wondering if you’ll ever find another job. Ultimately, and fortunately, the only person who is in charge of finding that next job for you, is you.

If you are considering investing in career services, please read R.N. Bolles 2008 Parachute, Appendix “A Guide to Choosing a Career Coach or Counselor” on pages 379-396. Within these pages, you will find superb guidance on how to choose a career coach or counselor.

Heed that wise old saying: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

posted by: Billie Sucher

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In our turbulent economy, U.S. companies are aggressively seeking competitive advantages in the increasingly diverse local and global marketplaces. It is a matter of not only growth, but for many, survival. These companies are not likely to be successful unless they understand the cultures and languages of their customers and employees. Multicultural experiences and / or language skills are very critical business assets employers are seeking in order to thrive in this new business landscape.

How can you communicate your multicultural experiences and / or language skills as an asset? First, you must convince yourself these attributes are advantageous and worthy of consideration.

Therese Droste, a Washington D.C. based career columnist, suggests writing a list of benefits you bring to the workplace. Below are few examples that have appeared on lists developed by clients and our readers:

• My language skills will be used to resolve cultural or language conflicts or problems between customers and colleagues.
• Being multicultural or multilingual demonstrates I can adjust my style to different people and situations. 
• Being multicultural or multilingual indicates I have experienced looking at problems and opportunities from different perspectives.
• Being multicultural or multilingual indicates I think before I act.
• Being multicultural or multilingual means I know how it feels to be misunderstood, and I also know what it takes to reverse misunderstandings.
• My accent will be seen as an additional competence that helps me communicate better with colleagues and customers from diverse backgrounds.
• I understand leadership and creative solutions within the context of my diversity.

The next step is to take that list you made and match them with positive experiences in your life in which your multicultural background or multilingual abilities helped you resolve a problem or communicate better with another person. It’s similar to creating a life resume. Yet because so many of our life experiences become distant memories, you have to ponder the past, target such situations and write them down. Your multicultural assets must be presented in a manner that proves that you can help drive a company’s business goals.

Let’s say you’re asked in an interview how you would deal with a problem situation with a colleague or customer. You could preface your answer with: “Partly because I know how it feels to have the shoe on the other foot…” and then fill in the rest with a specific example of how your background helped you solve a similar problem. Simply put, you provide the employer with an example of how you used your experiences as a multicultural and / or multilingual person to solve a past business problem or show how your skills helped you in a previous job. We suggest you read Be the S.T.A.R. of Your Next Job Interview and use the article’s worksheet to prepare your answers.

Once you’ve convinced yourself of how valuable your skills are, you will articulate them better and gain an employer’s confidence.

Posted by Murray A. Mann

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David Perry of Perry-Martel International writes:

Peter Clayton over at TotalPicture.com has interviewd Kevin Donlin and myself on our upcoming Boot Camp for job hunters. I thought readers of your blog might be interested.

http://www.totalpicture.com/content/view/580/1/

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