Preparing students to hit the ground running in the career field is the stated goal of most educational institutions. Unfortunately, this does not always happen because too many students are focused on getting the grade instead of the real-world experience. After all, they think, it’s the grades that show up on a school transcript, not the learning experiences. How can you prove to a future employer that you have done the work unless it has been properly graded and documented?

In order to better prepare students for their working futures, many institutions are adopting some form of work-based learning solution to ensure that individuals get the experience they need to prepare for their chosen fields and make better career decisions. There has always been a gap between theory and practice and by helping students implement and test their skills while they are learning them, it will help narrow that game and show them why it is relevant.

Two Types of Skills:

As students enter the job force, there are two types of skills that they need to master.

1. The first set is the job-specific skills. This could include everything from accounting to engineering to auto mechanics. These are the skills that you must have in order to be successful in your chosen career, though they tend to only be useful in that field.

2. Transferable skills, on the other hand, are those than can be a huge benefit in almost any career path. These might include things like critical thinking, communication, leadership and management, and much more. Whether you are getting a BS in management or a Master’s in aeronautics, these kinds of skills will serve you equally well.

In either case, both sets of skills can benefit from learning them in an experience-based environment. You can read about good communication skills, but you won’t own them until you actually start using them. In the same way, you can complete the core curriculum for a business management degree, but the only way to see how that knowledge is relevant to real world situations is through application.

Benefits of Work-Based Learning

Showing students how their learning relates to the outside world can be a bit of a challenge, but the advantages to this style of education can be very pronounced. Students that have gone through this kind of experience tend to develop the workplace competencies that modern companies need, and they seem to have a greater motivation to work hard and get better grades. When they can see exactly how their grades translate to real life situations (rather than just a couple points on a transcript) they will understand how their hard work will pay off.

*While researching this post, there were a number of resources that I found very useful. You can check them out at:

GettingHired.com
Bellevue Career Avenues
Department of Labor“

I’d like to say this only once – yes, there is a science to writing a resume. No, there is not only one way to do it. If you are trying to get the attention of a business owner, human resources director, or hiring manager, you want to make sure you are covering the three biggest points they are looking for. If you don’t include these elements, your chances of getting the job will be dramatically reduced as other job seekers who are following these rules will be taken seriously.

Mistake #1: Not targeting the job or the company

If you’re like most people, you’re spending hours online scouring the internet for jobs that sound even halfway decent or similar to your work experience. You find one that sort of applies to you, and you submit your resume for review. You barely read the description, you just saw that the job was full-time, near your house, and offered benefits. Score! The only problem is, you were only thinking about what YOU wanted, not the company. In order for your resume to be looked at for more than 8 seconds (which is the average amount of time your resume is viewed before being screened out), you need to include the information the company is actually looking for. Look for keywords in the job posting that you can sprinkle throughout your resume. What problems are they looking for this person to solve? How can you show that you’re the person who can solve those problems? Be clear about what you’ve done and what you want to do by writing a resume that applies specifically to that job.

Mistake #2: Stating job descriptions, not accomplishments

Almost every resume I’ve seen in my career (and I’ve seen a lot), cover basic job responsibilities, but never actually state the contribution the person made. I don’t really want to know that you were responsible for managing accounts and handling customer concerns. I want to know that you met, and exceeded your quota by 50% each quarter, while cutting back customer complaints by 25%. I want to know how you made the company more money, or saved the company money. Tell me about initiatives you started, problems you solved, new projects you managed. Be clear about what you have actually done, not just what you were hired to do. The people who can clearly communicate this information are the ones who will paint a clearer picture of their abilities and show the company that they are a top performer. Companies don’t hire people to spend money, companies hire people so they can advance, grow, and evolve. They need people on their team who understand this concept, so show them that by including information that reflects this on your resume.

Mistake #3: No personality

This point is probably the most controversial, especially for the people who say they are in “non-creative” jobs such as accounting, insurance, or law. Every job, and every industry is creative, it’s just about understanding what creativity means in a given industry. Researching the field and knowing what is important to them is key. For example, if you want to work at an accounting firm, you probably don’t need to be highly artistic. But, you do need to be organized and thorough. How can you represent these skills on your resume? By making sure everything is laid out logically, simply, and with all the necessary pieces, you are showing that skill without saying it. You may even want to create a resume that looks like an annual report (only much shorter). Add some personality to your resume by tailoring it to your audience and allowing it to speak to your unique skills and talents. This will help your resume stand out and be seen differently by the people who are used to seeing the same old thing.

As I stated above, spelling and grammar are key as well. If you’re not so hot in this department, find some proof readers to help you. There may be a service at your local library, or a friend or family member could help you. Don’t let a few typos be the factor standing between you and your job. Lying is definitely a HUGE no-no, so don’t even go there. Be clear about the top three elements outlined above, and make sure you know what you are applying for each and every time. Avoid job search burnout by focusing on each job individually and putting in the effort to show why you are the best person, each and every time.

Gunner the Weimaraner

These last couple months of summer I have been interning with Angela at 365 Degrees Consulting as Public Relations Specialist.   So far we’ve worked on a few projects and I’ve been able to attend a few of her seminars – which have been awesome for helping me come up with a personal brand and a vision for my future! The last project I worked on was editing and putting together a promotional video clip for the Women Business Owner’s Alliance for their annual Women’s Night of Comedy.

As editor of the video, I was able to choose, rearrange, add, and delete and I had full creative power to adjust the video however I saw fit.  I chose the music, added titles, and chose pictures that represented the event and would be appealing to the viewers.  As I sat there (with two adorable Weimaraners at my feet!) dragging pictures and video clips from folder to folder on the computer and then selecting the best pictures and cutting out the extraneous footage that would not be effective in the video an idea popped into my head. What if people could begin to see themselves as the Creative Directors or Editors in their own lives?  I know a lot of people who choose to see themselves as passengers in the journey of life and go on with their lives as such. They go to school for 12 years, go to college because they are told they should, get a boring but well-paying job, basically they choose to do things “by the book” so to speak.

My question to these people is: are you happy doing this?

After editing that video, I began to take a look at my own life and realized that there were a few things I was doing that either A) didn’t make me happy or B) wasn’t good for me.  I knew these things were not beneficial however with these issues I was choosing to accept them into my life.  After I edited the video I went home and decided to commit to taking my own advice.  I made a list of things in my life that don’t bring me happiness or are not beneficial for me.  I made a pact with myself to begin to gradually weed these things out of my life, because as editor, I had the power to make these negative things go away!  One thing on my list that has been a recent annoyance is waking up late and not having enough time to make a sandwich for lunch.  This results in either being starving at work and caving to go buy food at the campus eateries or having to wait until after 5 to eat something healthy!  My simple yet effective solution to this problem was to start taking a couple minutes before bed to make my sandwich and pack my lunch before going to bed.  I was able to stay in my warm, cozy bed for an extra ten minutes each morning and having my lunch ready to go was one less thing to stress about before having to walk to the bus stop.

Having this attitude of being the creator of your life is really cool because it really opens your eyes to seeing just how much choice you really do have in your life, if you accept the challenge!  You don’t have to be subjected to anything you don’t want to be and it is your job as editor to pick and choose exactly who and what is in your life.  You have the power to create your own happiness and create a wonderful life that is perfect for you – because, given a little time, you can know yourself better than anyone on the planet.  I’m not saying that this is an easy task, and it certainly takes a conscious effort to change your mindset if this is not the way you’ve viewed your life before, but I can tell you that it’s amazing what you can do if you set your mind to it and take a more proactive role in creating (and editing) the life you want!

My To Do lists from this week

I’m an insane list-maker. At times, I think that I would lose my head if I didn’t have my lists. I cling to them like the lap bar on a roller coaster. Without them, I fear the worst might happen. After attending SARK’s workshop last weekend, I walked away with a ton of new perspectives and ideas. One of her simple-yet-brilliant points was about the concept of receiving. She talked about how to receive compliments, receive money, receive good things from others. This is one of those acts that should be easy, after all, who doesn’t like to be given accolades or tokens of appreciation?

The thing is, it’s really not that easy at all, especially if you are a perfectionist like me. (This is another important epiphany I had this weekend, I never realized I was a perfectionist until she told us the perfectionist’s anthem: “Not yet”). I am always raising my bar and telling myself to keep moving, keep going…and the result is that I keep overlooking the small wins and joys that come with every day. Something completely amazing could happen, and I wouldn’t celebrate the accomplishment or opportunity, just think about how I could have done something better, and oh, what’s next?

When you have this mindset, it’s hard to be happy with your accomplishments, hard to fully receive the abundance in your life, and hard to feel like anything you do is ever enough. People are constantly telling me what great work I’m doing, how inspiring I am to them, and how they wish they could be as productive as me. My response is usually something along the lines of, “yeah, but I’m not where I want to be yet” or “thanks, but I think I could be doing more.” Wow. Talk about a person who is not taking the time to stop and appreciate her accomplishments!

Do you do this to yourself? Do you downplay what you do? Have you figured out why? Part of me doesn’t like to take credit for what I’m doing because I don’t want others to feel bad if they’re stuck, another part of me doesn’t believe that what I’m doing is that fabulous (this is my inner-perfectionist speaking), and a teeny tiny part of myself is extremely happy that others are noticing how hard I work. From now on, I’m going to fully receive and acknowledge what others have to give me. I’m going to stop overlooking big milestones and just enjoy each one. Today, I made a list of all the amazing things that happened to me this week. The list was really long! A few hours before that, I was thinking that I wasn’t doing enough and that I should spend more time on big projects. It’s amazing how a change in perception has already helped me see that I’m doing enough. To quote SARK:

“You are enough ~ You do enough ~ You have enough” *you might want to consider writing this down and hanging it close to your computer, on a mirror, on your steering wheel, anywhere that you can be reminded of this, like I did!

If you’re like me and always wanting more, join my new Anti-Perfectionist Movement (APM). You don’t need to sign up or anything, just make a silent promise to yourself that you won’t beat yourself up for not doing enough and allow yourself to enjoy each and every little bit of progress you do make. SARK reminded me that life isn’t about suffering and needing more, it’s about delighting in yourself and every gift, talent, and beautiful thought you have each and every day.

Part of my new Anti-Perfectionist Movement includes this swell “Receiving List” that is hanging about 5 feet away from my computer. It’s time we stop making “To Do” lists and start thinking about what we are giving and receiving from the world by renaming what we do and how we do it. Let’s put our energy into acts of love to give to the world, not pointless tasks and grueling admin work. My only caveat if you’re joining the APM  is that you have to promise yourself you’ll only make a “Giving List”  if you promise to make a “Receiving List” as well. The “Giving List” will replace your old “To Do” list and the “Receiving List” is the new addition to your life to remind you to stop and acknowledge all the wonderful gifts you are receiving, no matter what they are. Feel free to share your stories with me if you’re experiencing a new take on life. I’ll be chronicling mine here, and would love to add yours as well.

Happy receiving!

This baby is 5 feet long and ready to go!

He now has a new project he’s working on, and it’s about helping people better understand social media tools. I went through a private training with him the other day (that sounds so fancy, doesn’t it?) and learned a lot! He gave me some great tips on how to save time, make the process simpler and more effective, and how to measure results. I wouldn’t mention it if I didn’t think it was a good use of your time as well. So, if you’re trying to promote yourself and you’re finding that using social media isn’t working, it might be a good idea to check out his training! His next training webinar is June 2nd. You can get all the info here: http://www.web180.com/

The one hour class goes over: Social Media, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, your web site and your blog! Does it get any better? Probably not. He’s also throwing in a few cool bonuses, like the “Top 10 Internet Strategy Mistakes” and an exclusive email marketing guide. If you have an hour and want to improve your internet communications and create the right messages for your audience, check out this online workshop!

I believe he’ll be having many more, so if June 2nd is bad for you, just keep checking back for upcoming ones. Have a nice Memorial Day weekend everyone.

With Croix Sather, Fire-Eater Extraordinaire!

Yes, I did it. I punched fear in the face last Saturday morning. A few weeks ago, Croix Sather, fellow Toastmaster and friend asked me if I’d be interested in sharing the stage with him during his presentation he would be giving at the upcoming District 53 Toastmasters Spring Conference. He said that my job would be the one who eats fire.

Uhm. What?

Yes, eat fire. I’ve never done it, nor have I really thought about doing it, but I was immediately intrigued by the idea of it. So, my answer was yes. Yes, I would eat fire on stage with him in front of the crowd.

When Saturday morning came and I got in my car to drive to the conference, I wondered why I wasn’t better at thinking things through. What had happened to my decision making skills lately? What compelled me to say yes to such a request? Was I missing that piece of the brain that helps make more rational decisions? Or had I completely lost my mind years ago and this was just sealing the deal?

Actually, it was none of those. My answer was simple and came easily because of one simple element.

Trust.

I trusted that Croix wouldn’t intentionally put me in danger. For many reasons:

1. Toastmasters look out for each other. Because it’s not our job to actually toast each other, just be better at speaking.

2. Croix is building a career doing this sort of work, so he wouldn’t offer if he wasn’t certain he could pull it off.

3. I’ve seen others do it, and as long as the technique is right, it should be safe. Right?

A few minutes before Croix called me up on stage, I got that familiar feeling – the one that makes me feel like I either need to scream, cry, run away, or puke. Fortunately, I did none of those. I got up on stage and followed Croix’s directions. If you want to see if I burned my face off, you’ll have to watch the video.

The lesson I learned on Saturday is not the obvious one of overcoming my fear of eating fire so that I can then do anything I put my mind to. The lesson was about trust. Trusting myself to pull something like that off, and trusting someone else to keep me safe.

I think that often times we like to believe we are in fear of something external and that is what stops us from moving forward, when all along the real issue is that we don’t trust ourselves enough to pull it off.

So, instead of focusing on external factors and allowing your fear to stop you, trust yourself to do the right thing, even if you don’t know what that is in the moment. You’ll be surprised what you can do.

#1. THE IMPORTANCE OF PURPOSE: First, determine your number one purpose for being part of this network. Are you looking for a new job? Do you want to hire top talent? Are you trying to network and learn more about what other people in your industry are doing? Are you here to share your knowledge and be looked at as a resource, or something else? One you have determined your purpose, you will use this as your starting point to create your profile.

#2. MESSAGE IS EVERYTHING: Once you have decided why you are here, you need to be able to tell people why they should pay attention to you. What makes you different from other people in your field? If you don’t know the answer to this question, ask friends, family members, co-workers, and past acquaintances to help you. Ask “If you could define me in one word, what word would you pick?” This is a great exercise because it helps us to start thinking outside of ourselves and it gives us a good starting point to build a message around. For example, if the most popular response you receive is “creative”, this gives you a foundation for a message that tells people you are an excellent problem solver who doesn’t always look for the most obvious solution (or something else that says creativity is your game). Have fun with it and create a solid sentence or two that really defines what you have to offer. This will become part of your personal brand on the site. You could also include some interesting work experience that tells the reader in 3 or 4 lines what you have done. This is NOT an opportunity to cut and paste your resume! Keep it short and simple, like this: “I’m  known as a “Creative Maverick” by co-workers and friends. I turn nothing into something. Awarded Employee of The Year in 2009″.

#3. FIND YOUR PASSION: Let’s face it, there are a lot of people who don’t care about their jobs. On the flip side of that, there are many people who are excited to get the opportunity to do the sort of work they do. If you are in the latter category, make sure you communicate that! Tell us why you care, why your work is important to the world, and what you are doing to change the future of this industry. If your work is more than a job to you and you are going to revolutionize the way business is done, tell us! It’s not only important to tell us why you’re here and what you want us to remember about you, but it’s also nice to know that you are one of the leaders and what you are doing to create change. If you haven’t thought about the impact you are trying to make, today is your day to figure out what that will look like.

#4. POST CONTACT INFO: There seem to be a lot of people who are afraid to post their contact info on social networking sites. My thought is that if you are here, let people know how to get in touch with you. If you are serious about making connections, put your work phone on your profile. Post your website, email address, profiles on other networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc), and let us get in touch with you! Networking doesn’t start and finish online. This is a place to build connections that you can cultivate beyond web interactions.

#5. GET PERSONAL: This goes along with the last one. Don’t be afraid to post personal information about yourself so your readers can get to know you a little bit more. If you are a proud father and want the world to know, add it! If you love animals or boating, add that too. It’s nice to read profiles that say more about a person than just their work philosophies and background.

Have fun with your profile and remember that the average attention span is 2.9 seconds! You only have a short amount of time to bring your reader in and make him or her interested to read more. Create something catchy and fun, and remember that your profile is all you have to represent what you stand for, until others interact with you. You can update it frequently, but try to keep the same basic information on there so people start to know you as the go-to person on X. If you have questions about how to do this, post a comment and we can discuss. Have fun!

Here’s a good one:

Without further ado, the “Employee Survival Guide”

By Bodo Albrecht

Keeping your job in a large corporation is an art. Not many people are masters of this art although there are various approaches to surviving the seemingly random ups and downs a company is exposed to. Up front: I knew I’d never make it so I started my own business. I did, however, study a large number of people I met, people “in transition” with a fresh experience of what didn’t work, and people who seemed to have a lifetime job guarantee for mysterious reasons. Here is what I learned:

The essence of corporations is predictability. Shareholders don’t like surprises, and this kind of thinking is passed on to the board of directors to the directors, managers and so on. Companies are expected to perform according to their five-year budgets or slightly better, and that’s it.

As a result, entrepreneurs are unwanted by corporations. Entrepreneurs are risk takers, they are the unicorns in a balloon factory (check out “Tribes” by Seth Godin for the full story), they fail every once and so often. In Sales and Marketing, your boss may tell you “I want to you act as an entrepreneur.” – Trust me, he doesn’t mean it.

Following this line of thought further, there is little reward for actually achieving anything. I remember complaining about my salary when I was about 28 years old, to which my boss said: “how much do you think you will earn when you turn 40?” – maintaining uniform pay schemes is the goal, not rewarding success in growing your business.
Instead, there is great risk at failing. Corporations are rather unforgiving when it comes to that. Since the economy is never quite as good as the so-called analysts would like it to be there is an ever growing pressure on top management to produce five year budgets that will please their shareholders more than the competition’s. The result is often over-promising, which is then passed down to mid-level executives, the folks who actually make things work. Now everyone is under pressure and, like in the Savannah, the game is: don’t be the single (note: NOT the slowest) antelope. The single antelope is the biggest risk taker, the one moving away from the heard more than others, the one that has a higher risk of getting eaten by the lion. By staying in the heard and knowing how to play the game of “staying alive” performance of the individual is not so crucial anymore. Check out this book to learn why.

If that’s what defines you, and it took me 20 years to find out, then accept the thought that sooner or later it will be your turn. And be prepared.

There are, however, reasons why working in a large cooperation can be fun and fulfilling. A couple of my friends work in large companies, and they don’t have trouble liking the face in the mirror each morning because they have found ways of adopting to their environment. Here are the key elements I discovered, in the order of importance:

1. Don’t bitch. Understand that the company will never make it 100% right for you. They may put you in economy class on overseas flights, they may ask for a contribution towards your company car, they may count the windows of your office. What matters is if the big picture still works for you. Do you still like your job? Does it provide for you and your family? Are you being treated with dignity AND respect, as a human being? If the answer is “yes” then suck it up, don’t complain about the downsides in the wrong places. It will give you a stigma of being difficult to work with. It separates you from the herd.
2. Don’t overpromise. If you are good at playing with the internal systems even hold things back and push them into the next fiscal year if you have to. That’s easier said then done. I have seen sales managers being pushed in a corner by phrases like: “you don’t want us to shut your business down, right?” This is perhaps the ONLY time when sticking out your neck will work in your favor. The only acceptable answer is: “Perhaps stopping is what we should be doing, and here is my plan to make things better”. I have seen this scheme work in 4 out of 5 cases and the mechanism is simple to understand:
a. You are being asked to overpromise because your boss already overpromised to somebody else. He has more to lose than you do.
b. By not playing the game you are handing the responsibility over to your boss. Rather than being on the menu at year end your boss now has to make decisions himself. And most bosses don’t like to decide because of the risks involved (see above).

c. Refusing to play along is NOT an entrepreneurial decision in this case. Organizations don’t like radical changes (have I said that before?), so they are quite accustomed to restructuring here and there at a moderate level. In fact, moderate change is seen as a good thing because it may be seen as entrepreneurial activity. So all of a sudden you have become part of something new rather than being part of an unsustainable problem.
3. Set your priorities right. It hurts me to type that but: if you have a choice to meet your bosses’ deadline on supplying a document OR to call a customer back then you MUST deliver the document. You are marketing yourself every day, you are being judged by the visibility of your actions more than anything else, and you must make it your top priority. I realize this last bullet in particular is controversial. Check out this blog for more details on my reasoning.

The difficulty these days is that “good” companies are rather hard to come by. In the USA in particular mergers and acquisitions have lead to very significant changes in management style over night. Developing relationships coherently becomes increasingly difficult when people are dealing with new managers every two years, plus rules and working conditions overall may change very quickly, for the better or the worse. On the upside, if you don’t particularly like your boss you can rely on him/her to leave soon which will give you a fresh start. In fact, the constant reshuffling on a higher level can work as your job protection because no one has the time to look at the details (=you). Which is why the folks making the decisions in these environments ALWAYS need a parachute – if you are one of them check if it is operational.
What you can not afford is ignoring those changes; you need to watch them and, like a surfer, make sure you stay in the surf. I hope this collection of experiences will serve you as an instruction manual.

View my anniversary video here

PS-I did a contest last month for my newsletter readers – make and submit a video by March 31st and I would include them in my April newsletter. For those of you who aren’t subscribed (you can do so on my homepage), here are the winners!

Enjoy!

Top 5 Video Winners

I challenged everyone who reads this newsletter to create a video to submit to my contest. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, you can read about it here.

I received many videos that were a huge stretch for a lot of people who have never done a video in fear of doing it wrong, not looking good, feeling like it has to be perfect, and those who thought they had nothing to talk about. The funny part is, they did it anyway. They tried something new, scary, and uncomfortable. What I got back was interesting, fun, and creative.

So, here are the top 5 submissions I received for my contest, in no particular order. I rated them based on creative approach, effort, and overall message. Thank you to everyone who sent me a video and congratulations to everyone who participated. Doesn’t it feel good to take risks?

VIDEO #1

Submitted by: Damon Klotz, Brisbane, Australia

Why I chose it: His description changed the way I viewed it- “Watch how this young boy embraces the change every time a new song comes up. He doesn’t dwell on the past, he takes the change with both hands and dances to it. If a six year old can embrace the change this easily, can you?” Awesome!

Watch Damon’s submission here

VIDEO #2

Submitted by: Michael Chaffin, Pagosa Springs, Colorado

Why I chose it: This is the way awards should be given! I love how it’s so genuine and real. I was almost crying tears of joy for people I’ve never met, but wish I did!

Watch Michael’s submission here

VIDEO #3

Submitted by: Rex Williams, Everett, WA

Why I chose it: I’ve met Rex, and his innocent humor always cracks me up. This video is the perfect blend of hilarity and genius. Looking forward to what he does with the new project.

Watch Rex’s submission here

VIDEO #4

Submitted by: Martha Johnson, South Hadley, MA

Why I chose it: I’m really impressed with how far out on a limb Martha went to create this. It’s informative, has a great message, and she taught herself all the tools when she heard about the contest. The book is excellent too!

Watch Martha’s submission here

VIDEO #5

Submitted by: Bernd Nurnberger, Yokohama, Japan

Why I chose it: This video could have been shot sitting at a kitchen table, but no, Bernd shot it on location, in the shower. Really kicks it up! Remember, location, location, location!

Watch Bernd’s submission here

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Tom Bentley, California

The Knower of All Words…or…

View Tom’s Video

Judy Greenslade, Australia

Comparing my book to a glittery purple shoe!

View Judy’s Video

Igor Asselbergs, Amsterdam

Paint a room in less than a minute – this is awesome!

View Igor’s Video

Thomas LaRock, Massachusetts

He has a new book out and made a video about it!

View Tom’s Video