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How To Create A Strategic Plan For Your Job Search

Searching for a full-time job can often be a full-time job. It’s hard work to find work. The last thing you want to do is follow the old "spray and pray" method of job searching, where you spend countless hours scrolling through random online job postings - or worse, circling jobs in the newspaper.

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Mentoring Vs Managing: Does It Have To Be One Or The Other?

Some of you may ask, is there a difference between mentoring and managing? Well, I heard on a MSNBC news report a little while back saying that 85% of Gen Y interns expect to be mentored through their internship experience. And, more than that, they expect that mentorship to be meaningful, engaging, and beneficial to their future careers. The same report also indicated what Gen Y's don't expect is to be managed. Mentored, not managed. To those of us who work with Gen Y's daily, this distinction is no surprise. The surprise is there is now a real conversation taking place about these two very different approaches. So, what is the difference between mentoring and managing? According to Webster's Dictionary, to manage is "to handle or direct with a degree of skill; to make and keep compliant; to exercise executive, administrative, and supervisory direction." Adversely, to mentor is defined as "to serve as a trusted counselor or guide; to provide expertise to less experienced individuals; to build a relationship based upon communication." From the definitions, it seems apparent that these two supervisory methodologies are polar opposites, mutually exclusive. But do they have to be? Is today's "manager" in place to keep the staff compliant, on task, and focused on the bottom line? Is it possible for a manager to also be a mentor? Yes, it is not only possible, but for the success of most businesses today, especially those hiring in Gen Y's, it is imperative leadership blend both supervisory strategies into their methodology.

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Lisa Lambert Snodgrass

Name: Lisa Lambert Snodgrass Twitter: @LisaSnodgrass LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/LisaLambertSnodgrass Personal Website/Blog: 4DPerspectives.blogspot.com Bio: Lisa Lambert Snodgrass helps professionals and businesses achieve the next dimension of success. Founder of 4D Perspectives, Lisa is a professional identity coach, career shift specialist, keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and writer. Creator of "Career in Shape," a career transition strategy, Lisa guides clients through a proven methodology to achieve the career success they've always wanted. Learn more about building a positive business and personal perspective by following Lisa on Twitter and LinkedIn. What's your favorite career related quote? "Think not of yourself as the architect of your career but as the sculptor. Expect to have to do a lot of hard hammering and chiseling and scraping and polishing.” (BC Forbes) What’s your favorite part about being a CAREEREALISM-Approved Career Expert? It's humbling to be part of a profession in which we effect real change in people's lives. To be part of doing so on such a large stage as CAREEREALISM.com and to share space with experts from across the globe, I am more than honored. I am very proud to call myself a "CAREEREALISM-Approved Career Expert!" Articles written by this expert: Does Your Profession Have the ‘Type and Temperament’ Standard? Mentoring vs. Managing: Does it Have to Be One or the Other? V2 Your Way to a Successful Career Search How to Know When a Career Shift is Right for Your Future Create a Strategic Plan for Your Job Search

How to Know When a Career Shift is Right for Your Future

In a 2005 Stanford University commencement speech, the late Steve Jobs advised the young graduates to "find what you love." He explained to the audience that our lives are limited, that death would come for each of us. Death is a certain fact. What isn’t certain fact, continued Mr. Jobs, is how we each proceed with the time we’re given. In the speech, Mr. Jobs told the students to "stay hungry, stay foolish" and to pursue a career that each loved. And Steve Jobs practiced what he preached - he did work he loved. Do you do work you love? Do you love the career you’re in now? Have you been thinking about a career shift but lack the confidence, the knowledge, the passion to take the first steps? Let Steve Jobs and my advice help you take those first steps. A successful career shift begins with The Now. The first step in the career shift process is to take an honest assessment of why you’re considering a change from your current career. Ask yourself a series of questions to help determine whether a shift is right for you. Example questions:

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V2 Your Way to a Successful Career Search

In 1993 a four-year-old Jessica was captured on video going through a nightly ritual, an energetic and passionate self-affirmation exercise. She affirms her like and love of her family, her hair, her cousins, her house and her life saying, "I can do anything good; better than anyone." The video was posted on YouTube in 2009 and went viral reaching 8,388,291 views at last count. Why? People are drawn to her energy, her passion, her positivity. Down deep, people want to be positive; they want to be happy. What does this have to do with your career search? Everything actually. Just as Jessica used positive self-affirmation, you can incorporate the power of positive into your career search. It is often said our thoughts influence our feelings, that our feelings influence our behavior, and our behaviors influence who we are. If this holds true, then incorporating positivity in our lives will increase our success. The key then is to change the way we think, the way we see and the way we speak about our career search. To energize and bring a sense of positivity, practice what I call the V2 goal setting method for your career search. Goal setting is a powerful way to affect true change and to do it completely, you must Visualize and Verbalize your success. Visualizing is actively seeing the successful completion of your goals. Verbalizing is actively speaking the successful completion of your goals. Using V2 daily is easier than you might think. Find ordinary "mind wandering" times and replace them with purposeful visualization and verbalization. For example, when you're brushing your teeth, mentally recite your goals for the day, the week, the month. Visualize the successes of the day ahead. When you're driving to work or on errands, speak out and tell yourself exactly what you plan to accomplish in your job search. Use this verbal self-affirmation as more than a simple verbal checklist, speak specifically about what you will accomplish. Used together V2 - Visualizing and Verbalizing is a powerful combination that will lead you to success. Bring positivity to your career search... See success. Speak success. Be success. Lisa Lambert Snodgrass helps professionals and businesses achieve the next dimension of success. Founder of 4D Perspectives, Lisa is a professional identity coach, career shift specialist, keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and writer. Read more » articles by this approved career expert | Click here » if you’re a career expert Image from Arcady/Shutterstock

Does Your Profession Have the 'Type and Temperament' Standard?

I recently returned from a four day AKC conformation dog show to which I took my eight year-old niece. While there we heard judges, breeders, handlers and owners talking about dogs' "type," "temperament," and breed "standard." These conversations felt a world away from my day job -- speaking a different language and interacting with equally different, professional people. Listening intently to the conversation, my niece made an intriguing connection. She said, "Lots of these handlers are so much like their dogs. See those agility handlers? They move fast, like their dogs do. And the conformation handlers for the Pugs, see how they walk with short steps and keep their heads up just like the dogs." With these simple observations, she introduced me to a new dimension of thought related to our professional identities. Out of the mouth of babes as they say. What does any of this have to do with professionalism or careers? More than you might think. Let's talk about "type and temperament" for a moment. In the dog show world, "type" stands for a set of characteristics common to a specific breed of dog. Type can include shape, color, coat, etc...basically, type is what makes one breed different from another breed. "Temperament" signifies the personality traits of the various breeds. It is defined by a way of being and reacting. Are there "types and temperament" in the professional world? There certainly are. For example, sales professionals must have qualities that make them competitive, must possess a high drive for success, as well as an ability to persuade. On the other hand, professional writers must possess the ability to communicate thoughts to a wide variety of audiences and must have mastery of language and a clear understanding of its power. Each profession requires specific characteristics and personality traits for maximum success. When you are exploring a career shift the key is to know what the standards are for your chosen profession. If I want to know the standards for a breed of dog, I go to the experts. Likewise, if I want to know the standards for type and temperament for a specific profession, I do my research. There are a plethora of resources out there. A great place to start researching a profession is The Career Guide to Industry on the U.S. Department of Labor website. If you have access, check out Plunkett Research for in-depth industry profiles and testimonials of young professionals in the field. So, do you measure up to others in your chosen profession? Do you look the part? Do you possess the characteristics, the structure, the temperament to perform the duties required? Gain the knowledge and know whether you are competing in a profession in which you meet the standard - for which you have the type and temperament. True success is knowing before entering the ring whether you will be awarded the blue ribbon and eventually earn your professional championship. Lisa Lambert Snodgrass helps professionals and businesses achieve the next dimension of success. Founder of 4D Perspectives, Lisa is a professional identity coach, career shift specialist, keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and writer. Read more » articles by this approved career expert | Click here » if you’re a career expert Image from Arman Zhenikeyev/Shutterstock