Careersthatdontsuck Career Changers’ Networking Group December Meeting Recap
Posted on | December 17, 2007 | No Comments
My apologies. I’m a little slow this week because I’m distracted by the holiday season. I love this time of year, but it’s sooo busy–the shopping, the shipping, the packing, the planning, the shopping!
Anyway, that’s my excuse for getting this wrap-up to you a bit late.
Well, enough said about that. The meeting was a good one. We had a nice turnout, even with a middle of the week, and in our new San Francisco digs. I want to extend a warm thanks and much appreciation to our venue sponsor, Organic, the best interactive marketing firm in the industry.
I also want to thank my fellow career changers for weathering traffic and hectic holiday schedules to come out.
DECEMBER MEETING RECAP
- We worked through an overview of the book StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath (See New Book, Renewed Focus on Your Strengths).
- We shared our 5 Strength themes…and our frustration that the book stopped just short of directing us to career opportunities that match our strength themes.
- I offered advice for finding or creating careers that allow us to do what we do best every day (work with our strengths)
- We talked briefly about careers that might be of interest to people with selected strengths
- I provided a handout that included a brief listing of careers that match selected strengths (I’ll provide a full list of jobs for each of the 34 strengths to Careersthatdontsuck Career Changers’ Group members and to Careersthatdontsuck.com members).
- By the end of the meeting, we ended with the sense that all of the books, assessments and inventories out there are merely starting points designed to help you begin to focus your career search on categories of careers that may be of interest to people with similar interests, skills and talents. But, many of us need more.
Here’s what I suggest:
1. Approach your career by asking yourself how you can leverage your strengths
2. Add your interests to begin narrowing the possibilities. For example:
- Strengths, Skills or Interests (as identified by the assessment or other career interest tool) + Your Own Interests (the ones you identified on your own based on your “likes”)==> Jobs that you may be good at and interested in
3. Next, add your work experience to further narrow the field. It makes sense to leverage your experience, even if you make a radical career change:
- Strengths, Skills or Interests (Assessment results) + Your Own Interests + Your Work Experience
4. Once you have a better idea of the jobs that match your strengths and interest you, consider your current situation and circumstances–your limitations, lifestyle needs and desires, your current employment situation. This will allow you to eliminate impractical temptations that might leave you jobless or homeless, or force you to re-visit the entry-level while supporting a management-level lifestyle. To put it another way, you don’t necessarily have to start from scratch, you can apply for a promotion or transfer or take on a new project at work to begin creating careers that don’t suck. Here’s the equation:
- Strengths, Skills or Interests (Assessment results) + Your Own Interests + Your Work Experience + Your Current Circumstances
5. Finally, cobble together your list of possible career opportunities (Don’t forget to include jobs with your current employer). Use the job boards to research new opportunities (I like Indeed.com). Then, apply the “Ideas for Action” (handout for members only).
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