Introduction:
My name is George Walker. I am a career seeker. Over the last few days, I came up with some thoughts and I want to share them with all of you. It is becoming more and more evident how much I enjoy writing. I have a feeling the career I find will have something to do with creative writing. I hope my words help all of you in one way or another find what you are looking for.
Thank God we have the St. Andrew Career Ministry, the approximately 40 volunteers we have here, and the 60 other churches across the Detroit Metro Area that are helping in every way they can to help all of us find a new career.
There is so much valuable information available to us as job seekers. For awhile though, I was a bit overwhelmed. There is so much to learn at every step of the process, I didn’t know where to start. I knew if I thought that way, many of you may feel the same.
With that in mind, I decided to create a Linked In group. It’s purpose is to share with you my thought process, step by step on how I am planning to find my new career. As I go through this over the next few weeks and months, keep you updated on what resources I have found and how I used them.
I have been a practicing Catholic as long as I can remember. I rode my bicycle 4 ½ miles one way to church during the summer when I was growing up to be altar boy at mass. I figured out long ago that God is with us. God does have a long term plan for us. This job loss or in my case, time for a change in one of my jobs, could be the best thing that ever happened to us in our lives.
I do have to tell you, I have been laid off before. I’ll never forget the lay off that hurt the worst. I came home from work early. My wife was out with my two young children. When they came home, I still remember how miserable I felt when I told them I lost my job.
When I looked into their eyes, I wondered if I would ever be able to find work again, and what would happen to us if I didn’t. I felt hopeless and worthless. There was a depression that hung over me for awhile.
I sent out resumes and hunted for jobs for several months. I had one or two interviews at most.
Nothing was happening. Then an idea came up. I made a decision.
The depression was gone because I had come up with a plan.
That feeling of hopelessness, worthlessness and overall depression can paralyze you. A life changing event has happened to you, but you can’t let it beat you.
I have my own business that is not doing well right now. For almost three years I have worked a second full time job that I settled for. I told myself that the economy is too bad to even attempt to find something else.
I had to admit to myself recently, I am capable of much more. In addition to everything else, I see signs that the economy is improving.
Life is too short to let it pass you by. My advice to all of you is jump in and get to where you want to be. I have to tell you, in all my life I have not seen so many resources at our finger tips to get to where we want to be. Take advantage of them. Whatever questions you have, there is someone who can answer you.
Spiritual and Mental Preparation
Most of us in this group are practicing a religious faith of one kind or another. We have to approach the career search just like every other part of our life. Get God involved in the process.
Each day I am giving it my best shot to prepare myself spiritually and mentally to deal with anything that comes up each day.
Prayer For Those Seeking
Employment
This prayer is said at every Workshop I have attended
Lord there are many people among us who are in need of a steady job with sufficient wages to care for themselves and their families. Help unemployed persons remain diligent in their job search. Give them the needed confidence to succeed and the perseverance to continue on when they become discouraged.
Teach us to encourage those seeking employment and to offer whatever assistance we can give. For all the unemployed, we offer our prayers that they might find productive work that enables them to use and develop their talents and skills, and to meet their economic needs. Amen.
What helped me a great deal in this process was a presentation given by Michael Wickett
St. Irenaeus Catholic Church recently.
1) Give thanks to God for all your blessings. Being alive for a new day, your family, your friends etc.
2) Give thanks to God in advance for the job he will be sending you.
3) Visualize having the job that is the best for you
4) Power is in the feeling
5) The past is gone, let it go
6) Life in day tight compartments (Dale Carnegie)
7) Have a positive expectation, Expect a Positive Day, think of Breakthrough Ideas, The Career Opportunity is coming to you
8) See it, feel it, thank God for it.
The 5 top attributes of peak performers
1) A Crystal Clear Vision
2) 30 day goals - Short term
3) Absolute responsibility - No Blame
4) Mentally rehearse Results
5) Postive Expectation
Michaelwickettinternational.com
First things first
To keep the cash flow going while you are finding a new career, you must file for unemployment. I have to tell
you, it is much easier to file than it used to be. You can file online. The website is: www.michigan.gov/uia
If you have any questions, call them at (800) 500-0017. Be prepared for a long wait when you call. When I had some questions, I spent a couple hours getting a circuit busy please call later message. Then when I did get through, I was on hold for 15-30 minutes. But if you have any questions, or anything is unclear, I suggest you call to clear it up. Your money can be held up for weeks until discrepancies are sorted out.
What do you want to do when you grow up?
Whether you have lost your job, or you are like me and you have made a decision
to find a better job for yourself, now is the time to look inside yourself an ask, “What have I always wanted to do in a career that I have never tried?”. “Of all the careers over the course of my lifetime, what skills have I enjoyed using the best?”
Pat Faircloth, the Center Manager of the School of Education and Human Services at Oakland University has been a regular at many of the Career Ministry Workshops for a long time.
At every workshop attended, he offers the services of SEHS to us. There is a wide spectrum of Counseling Services the SEHS provides at no cost. One of Pat’s quotes is, “The services are no cost, but are not free. If you have paid taxes, you have already paid for these services.”
Another one of Pat’s quotes are, “If you find a job you love, you will never work again.”
What do you want to do next?
At this point of the process, we are talking about self-assessment. I would encourage all of you to schedule an appointment to see the one of the career counselors available to all of us.
A very important piece of information that I am taking advantage of is the results of career assessment testing. There are three career assessment tests available at Oakland University. I took one on Monday, July 12. I am taking the other two on July 19.
On the first test I answered questions on whether I think I would like certain careers or not, and if I like certain tasks or not. By the answers I gave, this testing will give me an idea on what careers I would do well at based on the answers I gave.
Secondly, after listening to Pat’s talk at the St. Andrew Career Ministry meeting on Thursday, July 8, I had more questions than answers about two or three websites he discussed.
Linda, my counselor had the answers for me when I asked about those websites.
The SEHS Career Counseling Center is a very valuable resource. I strongly suggest making use of it. As I mentioned above there is a wide spectrum that SEHS provides. If you have any problems or issues that are causing you pain, I strongly recommend you contact them on those too. You have to be at the top of your game to put forth the effort it takes to find a new career in these tough economic times. If there are issues bothering you, let go of them. If you need help to do that, the resource is there.
The phone number is (248) 370-2633
The website is: http://www.oakland.edu/sehs/cc
If you are laid off, you have an excellent opportunity to upgrade your skills. Also, if family income is under $40,000 a year, you may qualify for specific courses also. Both are subject to funds availability.
The Troy Career Center has a broad spectrum of services available to those who are unemployed and those who are just looking to find a better job. To find out more about this, contact the Troy Career Center at:
Phone: (248) 823-5101
Web: http://www.troycareercenter.com
You can contact Christy Rowe – A Career Consultant
for New Horizons Computer Learning Center for more info also. She is in touch
with Michigan Works.
e-mail:
Christy.rowe@nhgreatlakes.com Phone: (734) 853-2077.
Job Postings/Job Banks
The state of Michigan has a talent bank of jobs. It is pretty extensive. The website is:
https://www.michworks.org/mtb/user/MTB_EMPL.EntryMainPage
There is also Career Builder –
Monster.com –
And others
To find out where you want to go, you first have to determine where you have been.
I have a confession to make. When I first encountered Facebook and for several months after,
I thought it was a fad that teeny boppers used to trash each other out. About three weeks ago,
I found out how wrong I was.
Out of the blue one day, I typed in the name of the High School I graduated from in 1973.
Within 5 or 10 minutes, a sister of one of my classmates put in a friend request. In a matter of hours, there were 5 to 10 classmates that requested me as a friend or I requested at a friend.
Mind you, I haven’t heard from or seen any of them in 37 years.
My class was a very special situation. We had known each other since kindergarten. My High School graduating class numbered 30 students. I still chuckle when I think about that. Since college and encountering people from all over the United States, most High Schools had graduating classes numbering in the hundreds. My daughter’s class was around eight hundred.
I’ve traveled a lot of miles and been a lot of places since High School. I’ve written quite a few resumes too. Based on what I have seen and heard recently, I’ve come up with a theory.
I have a hunch and I believe it is a really good one. When many novice resume writers do their resume, they write it in what they believe it should be written. My hunch was confirmed at the Transferable Skills Workshop at the St. Jane Frances de Chantal Catholic Church in Sterling Heights. It’s key words. It’s always been about key words.
The world has become much more defined, compartmentalized, and keyword driven in recent years. I believe we have to think in terms of the computer who scans the resume or the Human Resource Manager who only has a few seconds or a minute to look at your credentials.
Resumes are a sales tool - You are a commodity. You have to identify the position, the skills related to the position, and using the same words that are in the job description, sell the person reviewing the resume and cover letter, in the interview, second interview etc., and in all other correspondence that you are are best man or woman for the job.
I believe this is the most important homework you can do for yourself. Take your resume out and print out the position you are seeking to interview for. Using the skills written down in the job description, step by step sell them using the words of those skills why you are the best candidate to get an interview for that job.
If the resume is vague, you are blown out of the water before you even start. If the resume has the skill sets the computer or the Human Resource Manager doing the screening is looking for, and has a good cover letter with it, there is a good chance they will pull it out of the stack. With any luck, you will be in the next round and get an interview.
What to look for
The O*Net Online Web Site is: http://online.onetcenter.org/
Go to the upper right hand corner, the box says, Occupation Quick Search and type in the name that best describes the career you are applying for. It will pull up a list of occupations. Click on the one which you believe to match your career experience.
Read through the Tasks, Tools, Technology, Knowledge, and Skills, Abilities, Work Activities, Work Context, Job Zones, Interests, Work Styles, Work Values, Wages, and Employment Trends.
Is this you? If it is, you know what skills you have to put on your resume. Are you less or more? At the top of the page, there are other careers listed. Click on the next one and see where you are at.
Do some of this personal skills assessment first.
You have to start somewhere. Run off the pier enthusiastically and start swimming!
When you have lost your job you go through a lot of stress, depression, and fear of the future.
This is a picture that I took when my son Kyle, myself, along with 7 other Boy Scouts and parents went on a 8 day backpacking trip at Isle Royale in August of 2004. Isle Royale is in Lake Superior, between the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Canada. Except for the two small villages at each end of the Island, it is all wilderness, with the trails cut through it.
You have to think of your job search as the greatest opportunity of your life. But you have to do the work to find this great opportunity. So, run off the pier with enthusiasm and swim for all it’s worth!
You have a job! The job you have is to find a new job!
A constant theme that I have heard across all the workshops over the last several weeks is.
You have a job right now. Your job is to find your new career. Like Dennis Nagle said at the July 14 workshop on Transferable Skills, “If you were working at a job, would your boss pay you to sit and watch the baseball game?” I don’t think so.
You have to make a commitment to yourself to work 30-40 hours per week minimum so you can land your new career. I would strongly recommend joining an accountability group.
One of the workshops I attended discussed the benefits of this. It keeps you focused, accountable, and responsible. It also is a good forum to give and receive encouragement, along with the sharing of ideas.
I e-mailed Vince VanDoorne one of the people of this team. He e-mailed me back with a Powerpoint presentation they presented at the workshop along with the worksheets.
They identified the major activities involved in a career search. I am going to share them with you. They are:
Job Postings – Searching and applying
1) Using the job classification from O*Net Online that most closely matches your skills, type that into your job posting websites
and see what turns up.
2) Personal Networking – Facebook, face to face etc. - It's a fact, 80% of all careers are found through networking.
There's such a thing as an elevator pitch. I've heard about it but haven't had a workshop yet. I understand the
importance of it, just haven't created one yet.
3) Professional Networking – Linked In – face to face etc. - This is the professional media site. It has all sorts of applications.
4) Cold Calling – http://www.milmi.org – The website I just referred to would be a good place to start. Two of the publications to pay the most attention to is the 50 hottest jobs through 2016 and Green Jobs.
Then from job classification you can go to the public library. There is a way to cross reference these jobs into actual companies. When I learn how to do this, I'll let you know how to do it.
Unpaid volunteering – Do some career mentoring. There are some things that you know that other people seeking employment don't. It is doing God's work to help others anyway. That goes with what we all are doing here.
Paid Work –
Interviewing / screening – prep, delivery, follow-up - I have a lot more questions on these than answers at the moment so stay tuned.
Marketing tools – resume, elevator speech, portfolio, etc. - I am in the same place with these as above.
Skill development - Go to all the workshops that you can. There is information on any job search related topic you can think of and even some that you don't. When you put your name on the e-mail list of one of the ministries, you generally get e-mails from all of them. This goes for job openings also.
Other - I'm sure there are some other topics, but what's above covers 99.9% of it.
Get started! Evaluate yourself (keep track of time you are working on each
Part of the process)
Through one of the resources above, pick out a company to apply to.
Look at the skills required for the position. If you are in the ballpark for the skills,
Research the company first.
Research the company through:
Annual Reports
Local Reports in Newspapers
Employee Forums
Wall Street Journal
Thomas Register
Hoovers
Do an internet search on those sources above or go to the public library.
(I haven’t been this far yet. As soon as I work with these I will update.)
The most important thing is to find out if the company is good to work for.
There are companies out there that aren’t good to work for.
Once you have determined you have an interest in the position offered for this company,
Write your resume and cover letter.
The resume and cover letter must be written to the skills required on the posting.
I have to talk to my Human Resource experts at our Career Ministry, but I would take the approach of following up with a phone call to check the status of my resume, and try to press the HR person on when the interview is going to happen.
That one I will have to run past them.
The interview
Followup Letter
Time management
These are more topics to be covered in depth later.