ONLY YOU are in charge of your personal, professional and career development. Your boss or manager CAN be an ally, a fan, an advocate, and an influencer ... but ultimately, it's up to you to figure out your interests and direction, and then chart a path and plan for achieving that direction.
YOU are in control, YOU must invest the time and energy, and YOU must take responsibility for MAKING your wants and desires a reality. It's truly up to you.
How CLEAR are you on where you want to go NEXT?
Do you have a plan to get there?
Are you fully aware of the obstacles and challenges, and are you taking steps to mitigate or eliminate those obstacles and challenges?
Is your boss, manager, board, etc. in support of your direction? If not, why not? Who else is supporting you on this path?
What action (or actions) do you have underway or in play
NOW that put you squarely on the path to the direction you seek?
How WELL have YOU taken charge of your development?
This is a true story as told to LatPro.com, the worldwide leader in providing online employment resources for Hispanic and bilingual professionals. LatPro is the largest diversity employment site in the U.S. and the most complete personal career advancement service for Latino and bilingual professionals. Read the following interview with a Freelance Journalist and get started on your job search today.
For a number of years, I had dedicated myself to becoming a history professor. I received a degree in history and economics from Western Washington University and took a year off to teach abroad as I decided what I would do next. That year changed my life-and my husband’s-forever. … Read more
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Posted on Mar 04, 2012 under
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Considered pursuing a career in the Finance Industry? This interview will take you through the ups and downs you can expect, what it takes to land the job, what you can expect to earn and more. This is a true career story as told to DiversityJobs, the leading site for job postings directed towards professionals of diverse backgrounds.
I am a partner at a venture capital firm and I have been in this line of work for twelve years now. We focus mainly on tech start-up companies, though we are not limited to that. Primarily, I help do financial analysis of potential start-up companies and decide how to allocate money and investments. This means I sit down and look at the … Read more
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Who can improve on
What Color Is Your Parachute, the all-time best-seller in the careers field? Who other than the cofounder/chairman of LinkedIn,
Reid Hoffman.
From his lofty seat at the top of the top professional network in the world - through which daily flow valuable job postings, job searches, candidate searches, and networking requests - Reid has a unique vantage point for observing the life cycle of careers in 2012.
Along with his co-writer Ben Casnocha, he brings into question the idea that each of us has a specific calling that requires only that we discern the color of our particular parachute to know what we should do with our life. This prevailing cultural myth is challenged, and rightly so in my opinion, by Reid's particular insight into the way most people's careers actually develop.
Reid says that careers develop according to the interaction of your assets, your aspirations, and market realities. And that where we end up can be very different from where we started. He also says that often you can perceive an inner logic to the journey. (This may be more where we see Richard Bolles ideas than anywhere else.)
... Read more
When your boss reviews your work, typically he'll suggest some improvements and correct some errors. It's the errors that are really dangerous to your career.…
... Read more
‘Staying on point’ – while acting on your carefully crafted
Leadership Career Growth Strategy – sometimes requires that you take a step back.
The step back could be voluntary:
- deciding to take a sabbatical;
- volunteering;
- fulfilling a public service or military service commitment;
- accepting a less complex (smaller) role;
- pursuing an Executive MBA (or the advanced degree best suited for your particular discipline) or
- taking the time to conduct a thorough review of your leadership career growth strategy.
The step back could also be involuntary:
- illness;
- responding to family needs;
- lay-off or
- termination.
It really doesn’t matter the reason.
For continued leadership career growth – when you need to take a step back… utilize elements of the Leadership Career Growth Wheel to ensure you obtain the greatest benefits:
A question for you to consider:
- When was the last time - you took the time - to take a step back?
... Read more
People come to me all the time because they are unhappy in their careers and are not sure what to do about it. They tell me the reasons they don’t have what they want; the economy, their company; some are...
... Read more
I interviewed Seattle career counselor Kate Nelson about personality type and career. Ms. Nelson is an expert in using the personality assessment, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), to assist people with choosing work that is a good fit for their personality. Kate, for readers not familiar with the MBTI, please tell us what the [...]
... Read more
Day 9 of 31 days to Creating Your Inspiring Personal Plan for 2012
I hope that reflection on your life purpose (
Step 8) was beneficial. Now that you have done so, you may enjoy reading about my own search for meaning. Just keep in mind that the life purpose you craft needs to fit YOU. Do NOT craft a life purpose to please others, or to impress others. What you want to discover is the life purpose that creates passion, for YOU, in all that you do. One that will help you to
Live in the Zone throughout 2012.
Here is a summary of my search for meaning in my own life and
my current thinking as to my life purpose.
... Read more
Day 8 of 31 days to Creating Your Inspiring Personal Plan for 2012
Having given thought to your desired legacy (
Step 7), it is now time to focus on the closely related issue of your life purpose. For Step 8, you will develop a one sentence description of your life purpose.
I want you to know that I have my flak jacket on to shield myself from the critics who have told me that it is ludicrous to ask people to define their life purpose in 24 hours. (How ironic that some of these critics are professionals teaching people to do all kind of things
without even considering their life purpose. How much sense does it make, for example, to learn how to use time more efficiently if you have not defined your highest life aspiration. You may not be able to select the
perfect life purpose in 24 hours, but I believe that by following my process (today and in tomorrow’s lesson), you will create, at minimum, a great starting point for further exploration.
... Read more
