Transitioning Military Women's Career Event In Austin

by Bryan Chaney

Republished with permission. Originally published at:

http://careerconnects.org

In partnership with National Charity League, Inc. the Texas National Guard will host a Military Women in Transition event to help women in all phases of the job search or career enhancement process.  

Camp Mabry in Austin – Sunday, February 16, 2014. There will be youth related activities for the kids 6+, refreshments and military and veteran resources available throughout the day. Sign up for free now.

• Don’t miss the opportunity to hear author, speaker and personal vision consultant Angela Loëb who will help you identify your unique talents and skills and leverage them to secure a great job.
• F7 Group Founder and CEO and successful entrepreneur Cassaundra Meigar-C’DeBaca shares the secrets to her success and her passion to share it with all military affiliated women.
• From Fatigues to Career Diva…Win a new business suit – perhaps one designed by Project Runway star Daniel Esquivel!  Visit the professional clothing closet to select new or gently worn items for your job interview.  Receive make up tips and giveaways from Mary Kay Cosmetics.
• Secure a Job through important social media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, GlassDoor and Google!  KP Partners Dr. Keri Pearlson is ready to help you learn about these valuable resources for your job search and to continue to use them to promote your career development.
• HR Pros are ready to Review Your Resume, Conduct a Mock Interview + Review Your LinkedIn Profile
• Be Confident Outside of the Uniform!  Military women know what needs to be done to get the mission accomplished.  Texas Veterans Commission Women Veterans Employment Coordinator Julie Puzan will help you take charge in the civilian world.
• Employers Want to Meet and Hire Military-Affiliated Women!  Participate in Business Round-table Discussions with local employers to ask them about their hiring processes and learn about their employment opportunities.

Register today for the 2/16/14 Military Women in Transition Event at Camp Mabry in Austin Texas; FREE to all military-affiliated women and female military spouses!! 

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NOTE:  AHRMA is proud a sponsor of this event through the Transition2Position Subcommittee of the Workforce Readiness Committee. AHRMA Volunteers are helping out by giving presentations, reviewing resumes and LinkedIn profiles, and conducting mock interviews. Please spread the word about this free event to any military-affiliated woman you know! Click HERE to register.

You Are NOT Just Another HR Professional

by Angela Loëb, Career/Personal Vision Consultant, InSync Resources

(Reposted with permission by http://careerconnects.org)

There’s one underlying question on everyone’s mind during the hiring process.  And, as an HR professional, you know this is the big one, whether or not you’ve ever been involved in the recruiting function.

That question is… “Why Should I Hire You?”

Guess what?  The answer lies not only in what you can tell them about about your qualifications, your hard-earned degree or certification and your fabulous work history.  While those things are all important, what I’m getting at is that your answer needs to go deeper than that. 

Why?

Because there are many other HR professionals in the market who also have suitable backgrounds and qualifications for the job opening.

The deeper and most important part of the answer is how you are different.  

In order to answer the question well, you must know HOW you are different so you can articulate it clearly and according to their needs.  

What’s So Different About You?

There is definitely something unique about you. You were born with this uniqueness.  Others know what it is because they come to you for it.  Since you’ve had this uniqueness all your life, you might be too close to it to see it.  You live in the skin you’re in, and it’s hard to look at yourself from the outside.

But there is, indeed, something unique and different about you.

A client once told me that she is known for being the glue that holds everything.  Another said that she is very tenacious and that walls only appear when she stops.  

These are great examples of compelling and memorable ways to describe uniqueness.

Uniqueness Formula

Over the years, I've developed an easy way to figure out your uniqueness.  I call it the Unique Promise of Value Formula, which is Talent + Passion + Impact.

It’s simple.  You identify your unique core talent – the one that you are most passionate about using – and then cross check it by determining how you’ve made an impact using it. 

For the Talent part of the formula, make an inventory your special talents and skills.  Write down everything that comes to mind, even if it seems too obvious.  Chances are what comes easy to you may be just what makes you unique and special.

There is a distinction between talents and skills.  Talents come easily to you – they’re inborn abilities.  Skills are what you have learned to do.  Skills may or may not be related to your talents.  Some of your talents may still be raw and undeveloped.  For example, maybe you had natural music ability when you were younger but never had the opportunity or perhaps chose not to develop skills like reading and writing music or playing a musical instrument.  Start with the skills you enjoy using and see if they track back to a natural talent that you have enjoyed developing. 

When it comes to Passion, you should think about the talent that you have the most passion for when using it.  If you need help figuring this out, pay attention to what tasks you do that energize you or that you enjoy doing so much that you lose track of time (in a good way, of course!).  

If passion isn't a word that resonates for you, try approaching it as what makes you feel deeply satisfied and contented.  Like everything is right in the world during the time when you’re working or performing that particular activity.  Basically, you can’t not do this… whatever it is.  In fact, you’d do it (and probably already do it) for free.

When you're looking at the Impact part of the formula, look at those accomplishments that came out of the work you really enjoyed doing.  I’ve noticed that many of us have the tendency to be good girls and boys who get results because we are trained to be that way or because we need to get the gold-star recognition or because it’s the right thing to do when we’re on someone’s payroll.  What I’d like you to focus on is what you did to make a difference because you were all in.  

The core talent you’re so passionate about using that you can’t not do it will have a positive impact in some way.  So look for examples of results that validate the other parts of the formula.

You make a difference – and add value – when you do something that not only gets results, it ignites you and satisfies your soul.

Pull these three elements together, and you’ll be able to articulate why they should hire you.  You’ll be able to tell them why you are NOT just another HR Professional. 

“Everyone has been made for some particular work 

and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” 

– Rumi

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Angela Loëb has been in the career services field for over 20 years and is the author of two books about job search. Connect with her at http://about.me/angelarloeb.

And if you want to learn more about the importance of finding and leveraging your own uniqueness as an HR professional, please come to the 2013 CareerConnects event sponsored by AHRMA on September 26 at the Long Center.  Click HERE for more details.

Take Control of your Finances During your Job Search, or your Finances will Control your Job Search

by Dan Medlin
Originally published at Dan Medlin's Blog.
Reprinted with permission.

In the STAR Career Workbook, I discuss the “Barriers to Launching and Continuing your Career Transition.” Clearly, money is a major issue. And as I listened to Dave Ramsey say “You have to make money behave,” in one of his Financial Peace Workshops, I thought, “Do I control my expenses, or do they control me?” Now as I think through the planning involved in Career Transition, it becomes clear that you can take control of your finances during your job search, or your finances will control your job search.

You have a number of choices to make:

• in which job search resources you will invest,
• which networking events you might attend,
• what opportunities you will pursue, and ultimately,
• how you will negotiate for a fair offer from your next employer.

If you have your finances secure, you will be able to make the choices you want to make instead of those you are forced to make.

Here are 3 tips to start you on the right path:

1. Plan to reduce your expenses.
Career Transition will often require some investment of resources. If you have had an issue in the past with managing your finances or you are strapped with unnecessary debt, take time now to learn about budgeting and managing money. You might consider this a burden, or you might consider it an opportunity. Think about how you can reduce your monthly budget and start cutting those costs NOW, before they mount into your growing debt. In the STAR Career Workbook, I provide a simple worksheet with some suggested expenses you might reduce.

2. Continue the Discipline of Saving.
Dave Ramsey would also start you out on a simple path. His “Baby Steps” start with saving, which is a discipline that begins a harvest of peace. You might not consider a time of career transition, especially if you are in between jobs, a time to begin saving. Consider at least Baby Step 1, to set aside and maintain a minimum of $1000 in savings.

3. Create a Detailed budget.
If you have not worked out a detailed budget, it’s critical you do so during career transition. Every dollar should have a name on it before the month begins. Chart out your fixed expenses, your variable expenses, and your “God only Knows” (unexpected emergency) expenses.

Don’t let all this work go to waste by “pity-party” spending, lonely spending or unexpected emergencies. There are no unexpected emergencies when you have planned for them. Start practicing that beautiful ancient word, “No,” and remember that “it’s not in the budget” is also a perfectly acceptable response.

The STAR Career Workbook will help you get on the path toward a rewarding career. This is a workbook, not a romance novel. Get out your pencil and prepare to spend some time in here.

This is the tool belt for the whole career search lifecycle. Tools for direction, communication, networking, interviewing and negotiation.

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Dan Medlin is a Senior Human Resources Business Partner with 14 years of HR experience, preceded by 10 years in higher education administration and teaching.    He is also author of the STAR Career Workbook, available on Amazon.  Come meet and talk to Dan at the upcoming HR CareerConnects event on September 27, 2012. (http://bit.ly/HRCCtickets) He'll be moderating our 2nd-session panel.

Looking: 3 Tips For Better Time Management and Balance

Reprinted with permission by careerconnects· in career tips, careerconnects, networking, Time Management.  

A few years ago, I came across a startling statistic. Two-thirds of job seekers spend a mere 5 hours or less per week on their job search.

I can understand spending only 5 hours on your job search while you’re still employed, but if you’re unemployed, that’s just not good time management.

However, let me clarify something… if you’re an unemployed job seeker, I don’t mean to suggest that you should devote a full 40 hours per week to your job search either. I love to write, but I wouldn’t spend 40 hours per week only writing and nothing else.

So even if you love to search for a job (which I seriously doubt), you need balance the way you spend your time during your job search. Instead of “work/life balance,” I call this “job search/life” balance.

Work Smarter

No matter how many hours you spend on your job search, there are ways to work smarter rather than harder in order to get fast results… and achieve better job search/life balance, too. Here are three time management tips that can help:

1. Time Spent Online

Since only 13% of jobs are advertised, that means you and a whole lot of other job seekers are going for the same small pool of jobs online. Even though it’s a low return-on-investment activity, it’s still necessary to answering postings on job boards and at company websites. To manage your time more effectively, I suggest you block time to do this during the non-prime time spots on your daily calendar. Spend time on the computer responding to ads and doing whatever online research you need to do during the early part of the day, like from 8:30am to 10:00am, and then again in the late afternoon at around 2:30 or 3:00pm.

2. Time Spent Networking

Statistics on getting a job through networking vary between 33% to 80+%. Still, even the low end of that percentage range is significant. Networking is a critical job search strategy. So, since it’s such a high return-on-investment activity, it should be acted upon during the prime-time parts of your day. Not only is this smart for your energy expenditure, it’s very logical. Between the prime business day hours of 10:00am and 2:00pm, you’re most likely to interact with people. That’s when you’ll be able to schedule coffee and lunch dates, exchange emails, attend luncheon events, etc.

3. Time Spent Off

Studies prove that exercising increases your chances of getting hired quickly. So be sure to schedule it into your calendar. Also, make room on your calendar to enjoy yourself just like you did when you were fully employed. It’s also been shown that executives tend to hire most on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday… not Monday or Friday. Consequently, since Friday’s not the best day to be interviewing, why don’t you make that your personal reward day for the week’s successes?

Though you might still do some job search activities in the morning, meet a friend for lunch. Take some time off from your job search just like you might take time off from your job once you’re employed. Job search can be stressful. How you balance your time, energy and stress levels will influence how well you come across to your network and to prospective employers when you meet them. Give the impression of well-being, and you’ll be a more attractive job candidate.

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Angela Loëb has been in the career services field for over 20 years and is the author of two books about job search. Connect with her at http://about.me/angelarloeb or at the upcoming Austin HR event.

Linking: 5 Things To Remember At Your Next Networking Event

Reprinted with permission. by careerconnects · in career tips, careerconnects, networking.

It is more than just going to a happy hour at a restaurant to visit with other people and enjoy tasty food and drinks.

It is a way of communicating your name and skill set to the business community so that you may improve your personal network.

The key points are not hard and fast rules by any means, but in actuality they are points that I feel that help me when I am out at networking events. I encourage you to try them and let me know what works for you by tossing a comment below.

Make deeper connections.

To be effective in networking, the goal is not in the quantity of people you meet, but in making each person you meet a true connection who knows a little about you and you know a little about them. Essentially what you are trying to do here is to be more than just a business card; you want to be able to remember the name/and story with the face.

Don’t make it all about you.

While your goal is to make connections to assist in your career path, don’t forget those same people probably have the same desire of sharing information that will make you a better connection for them. Many people you will meet will not have the same career path or work in the same industry. However that shouldn’t dismiss the benefit of networking with that person. It never hurts to have many in your network in and outside your career path. It’s always better to have a full network than one that is too little.

Networking doesn’t all happen at Networking events.

For example, if you go to networking happy hours, don’t think that the job is done. Networking is done not only in those engineered events but also during normal day to day life. You might even make connections doing something simple as buying groceries or having lunch with a friend. If you do meet a connection at a happy hour event, make sure to follow up with that connection, reference the part of your meeting that was memorable and connect with them on Linkedin.

Realize that not everyone wants to help.

Often in networking I meet people who show no interest in making a deeper connection, which is ok. Not everyone works the same way as I do or even as you may choose to. It can be frustrating especially when they are key people in the industry in which you work or want to work in. Remember that patience is the key to success in just about everything you do.

It’s more than just Quarterly/ Monthly meetings.

Today even after landing in my chosen career path, I know that I need to continually reach out to my existing contacts, and continue to grow my network. Remember that being complacent will cause your network of connections to become stagnant.

And we all love the call/email from a connection who only reaches out when they need a favor.

Networking resources:

• Being Memorable: Business Networking for Entrepreneurs
• Results are not linear in Social Networking
• How to Find a Job by Building Relationships
• Networking: Doors Open When You Know Someone
• 3 Ways to Make Networking Fun for Introverts and Extroverts
• How to Connect with Employee Referrals, the Source Employers Prefer
• 6 Networking Goals for Other People
• 5 Sure-Fire Networking Follow-Up Tips

Our first in a series of HR posts before the HR CareerConnects event, this one from HR Manager, Gillian Jacob.

New Resource Center for AHRMA Members - Launching July 30

The AHRMA Workforce Readiness Committee has partnered with a Career Development Ad Hoc Sub-Committee, headed by Angela Loëb, to develop a new members-only Resource Center for the AHRMA website.

On July 30, members will get to listen to podcasts on career management, specifically about career transition. Initially, these 10-minute podcasts, will feature advice from Subject Matter Experts in six important topic areas: resumes, networking, interviewing, on-line presence, assessments and salary negotiation.  Later, more career management podcasts will be included on such topics as mentoring and strategic paths.

The intimate, Q&A format of each podcast allows HR and employment insiders to focus on day-to-day issues they encounter in that topic area.  These unique perspectives help the listener gain clarity and insight into other, more traditional on-line resources.

The new members-only Resource Center will be fully expandable and can be adapted to any future AHRMA membership educational needs, such as Diversity, Workforce Readiness, Legislative Action, etc.  AHRMA will also have the future capability to add connecting links in each topic area or podcast for on-line and networking references to related or complementary topics.

In fact, soon after the Resource Center is up and running, more podcasts will be added.  And there is enormous potential for additional educational content in the coming months and years.  So starting on July 30, please go to the AHRMA website (sign in through the Member Area tab located on the AHRMA home page) to listen to one or more of the podcasts and start thinking about how to use and develop this resource to its fullest potential.