Leveraging "Stretchwork" – Career Advancement Without Experience

According to Siobhan O’Mahony, Asst. Professor of Neotiations, Organizations, and Markets at the Harvard Business School, if you are a contractor or temp you need “stretchwork” to bridge the gap to a more rewarding position and enable them to manage and advance their careers in the less predictable world of contract labor. Stretchwork is work that fits with an individual’s previous experience and yet extends their skills in a new direction.

Here are 4 Stretchwork strategies from O’Mahony:

• Differentiate competence. Anyone hoping to advance must distinguish his or her performance on the job. This is particularly true, however, for contract workers—because they are paid for each short-term job, their employers are likely to subject their work to close, freque nt evaluation.
• Acquire referrals. Because high-tech contractors tend to work with a number of clients, brokers, and fellow contractors, they enjoy a broader social network from which to draw referrals than most permanent employees. In the film industry—where most hiring is done based on a production manager’s previous experience with an individual—referrals are a vital aspect of getting any job, particularly if it stretches a worker in a new direction.
• Framing and bluffing. “This is one of the most creative attributes for obtaining stretchwork,” O’Mahony notes. “People who are good at presenting their prior experience in a way that allows for an easy translation to the desired job can narrow the gap between their past experience and future capabilities.” Adopting a hybrid job title to identify oneself—”director-screenwriter,” for example—can also help establish authority in more than one area.
• Discounting. Accepting pay below the market rate is a temporary disadvantage some contract workers are willing to accept, if it means gaining the experience and exposure that will lead to a new position. One technical writer put it this way: “I turned down solid offers from three companies, all paying over $100K a year…I would take a job at $55K if they’re using a totally new technology so I learn something…It’s like playing pool…You hit the green ball with the white ball, and the point is to place the white ball to get the next shot. So I take that job in order to learn skills for my next project.”

Career Advancement Without Experience. [HBS Working Knowledge - Siobhan O'Mahony]

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn

If you are not yet a user of LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) you should be. It can boost your career considerably. Guy Kawasaki VC and successful innovator and author writes about the ten ways to best use LinkedIn:

1. 1. Increase your visibility.By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results (which is a major plus if you’re one of the 52,000 product managers on LinkedIn), people would much rather work with people who their friends know and trust.
2. Improve your connectability.Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.

   You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all your credentials, which would be awkward if not downright strange, as an attachment.

3. Improve your Google PageRank.LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high PageRank in Google, this is a good way to influence what people see when they search for you.

   To do this, create a public profile and select “Full View.” Also, instead of using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name. To strengthen the visibility of this page in search engines, use this link in various places on the web> For example, when you comment in a blog, include a link to your profile in your signature.

4. Enhance your search engine results.In addition to your name, you can also promote your blog or website to search engines like Google and Yahoo! Your LinkedIn profile allows you to publicize websites. There are a few pre-selected categories like “My Website,” “My Company,” etc.

   If you select “Other” you can modify the name of the link. If you’re linking to your personal blog, include your name or descriptive terms in the link, and voila! instant search-engine optimization for your site. To make this work, be sure your public profile setting is set to “Full View.”

5. Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.LinkedIn’s reference check tool to input a company name and the years the person worked at the company to search for references. Your search will find the people who worked at the company during the same time period. Since references provided by a candidate will generally be glowing, this is a good way to get more balanced data.

   Companies will typically check your references before hiring you, but have you ever thought of checking your prospective manager’s references? Most interviewees don’t have the audacity to ask a potential boss for references, but with LinkedIn you have a way to scope her out.

   You can also check up on the company itself by finding the person who used to have the job that you’re interviewing for. Do this by searching for job title and company, but be sure to uncheck “Current titles only.” By contacting people who used to hold the position, you can get the inside scoop on the job, manager and growth potential.

   By the way, if using LinkedIn in these ways becomes a common practice, we’re apt to see more truthful resumes. There’s nothing more amusing than to find out that the candidate who claims to have caused some huge success was a total bozo who was just along for the ride.

6. Increase the relevancy of your job search.Use LinkedIn’s advanced search to find people with educational and work experience like yours to see where they work. For example, a programmer would use search keywords such as “Ruby on Rails,” “C++,” “Python,” “Java,” and “evangelist” to find out where other programmers with these skills work.
7. Make your interview go smoother.You can use LinkedIn to find the people that you’re meeting. Knowing that you went to the same school, plays hockey, or shares acquaintances is a lot better than an awkward silence after, “I’m doing fine, thank you.”
8. Gauge the health of a company.Perform an advanced search for company name and uncheck the “Current Companies Only” box. This will enable you to scrutinize the rate of turnover and whether key people are abandoning ship. Former employees usually give more candid opinions about a company’s prospects than someone who’s still on board.
9. Gauge the health of an industry.If you’re thinking of investing or working in a sector, use LinkedIn to find people who worked for competitors—or even better, companies who failed. For example, suppose you wanted to build a next generation online pet store, you’d probably learn a lot from speaking with former Pets.com or WebVan employees.
10. Track startups.You can see people in your network who are initiating new startups by doing an advanced search for a range of keywords such as “stealth” or “new startup.” Apply the “Sort By” filter to “Degrees away from you” in order to see the people closest to you first.
11. Ask for advice.Linked In’s newest product, LinkedIn Answers, aims to enable this online. The product allows you to broadcast your business-related questions to both your network and the greater LinkedIn network. The premise is that you will get more high-value responses from the people in your network than more open forums.

    For example, here are some questions an entrepreneur might ask when the associates of a venture capital firm come up blank:

    • Who’s a good, fast, and cheap patent lawyer?
    • What should we pay a vp of biz dev?
    • Is going to Demo worth it?
    • How much traffic does a TechCrunch plug generate?

How to Change the World: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn. [Guy Kawasaki]

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

How to Follow Up With a Hiring Manager

 Here is some sound advice written by Perri Capell of CareerJournal.com:

Question: I recently sent my resume to an employer and want to know if the position is still open, when interviewing might begin, and if I’m a candidate. I’d like to call the human-resources department but don’t know what to ask. Any advice?

Answer:Following up your resume with a phone call to the company is a good move. But unless you want an HR job, why call the human-resources department? In most cases, you should be contacting the hiring manager for the job you want and trying to make a positive impression.

It’s a myth that HR staffers will be offended if you go around them, say senior HR executives. “To be perfectly honest, if I were her, I would be trying to get to the hiring manager,” says Patrick Manion, vice president of global human resources for Flextronics International Ltd., a Singapore-based electronics design and manufacturing company with U.S. headquarters in San Jose, Calif. “Everyone else is just a gatekeeper.”

By learning the name of the hiring manager and contacting him or her, you are demonstrating initiative, and you’ll be more than just a name on a resume. This shows qualities such as persistence, which many companies seek in candidates, says Paul Schaefer, vice president of human resources for United Retail Service LLC, a merchandising services organization with about 1,000 employees based in Kennesaw, Ga.

To learn the name of a hiring manager, call the company’s main switchboard and ask for the name, title and phone number of the person in charge of the area where you want to work. You also can search online through a business networking site, such as LinkedIn.com, or by calling people who know the employer and asking them for help.

Call the hiring manager early in the morning or late in the day when you’re generally more likely to reach him or her directly, Mr. Manion advises. Introduce yourself and express your interest in the job and working for the company. Explain that you have applied for the opening through normal channels and are wondering when you might meet, says Mr. Schaefer.

“If you take the initiative, you might get hired over other candidates,” he says.

How to Follow Up With a Hiring Manager. [Career Journal - Perri Capell]

Technorati tags: Interview, Career, Jobs, Motivation, Hiring, Human Resources
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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Then and Now – CEOs

Everybody starts their career somewhere,even CEOs. Below are some interesting profiles of CEOs and how they broke into the business world:

Gary Kelly

CEO, Southwest Airlines

THEN

• First job after college:CPA for Arthur Young & Co. in Dallas
• Responsibilities: staff auditor,CPA
• Annual pay (2006 dollars): $47,996
• College: University of Texas,Austin
• Degree:BBA, accounting
• Year of graduation: 1977

NOW

• Started with Southwest: 1986
• First job title: controller
• Current annual pay (2005): $748,699 Stock options (2005): 10,617
• Company sales (2005):$7.6 billion 
• Net income (2005): $548 million
• Employees (2005): 31,000
• Other companies on resume: Systems Center
• “[My first job] was an awesome learning experience about working with people and about business. And it was a lot of work. I had the second-highest overtime in the Dallas office”

Judy McGrath

CEO, MTV Networks

THEN

• First job after college: writer, WEJL, Scranton, Pa.
• Responsibilities: writing copy for radio DJs Annual pay (2006 dollars): NA (“I had six roommates in a one-bedroom apartment, if that tells you anything.”)
• College: Cedar Crest College, Allentown, Pa.
• Degree: bachelor’s, English literature
• Year of graduation: 1974

NOW

• First job title: writer, on-air promotion/creative director
• Company sales (2005): $6.8 billion
• Net profits (2005): $2.6 billion
• Other companies on resume: Condé Nast, Rock the Vote
• “Trust your own instincts, but know that the listener/reader is the boss. And music is the highest art.”

Andrew C. Taylor

CEO, Enterprise Rent-A-Car

THEN

• First job after college: RLM Leasing, a Ford Motor affiliate in San Francisco
• Responsibilities: leasing and sales
• Annual pay (2006 dollars): $54,409
• College: University of Denver
• Degree: bachelor’s, business administration
• Year of graduation: 1970

NOW

• Started with Enterprise: 1964
• First job title: car prep and management trainee during high school Company sales (2005): $8.2 billion
• Employees (2005): 65,000
• Other companies on resume: none
• “I started learning this business when I was 16, washing cars at one of our St. Louis offices. At the time, Enterprise was primarily local leasing company with few locations. Now we have more than 6,900 locations worldwide….I’m proud of our growth and dedication to customer and employee satisfaction — the things that have made this incredible ride possible.”

View more profiles at: First Jobs: Lessons Learned. [BusinessWeek Onlne]

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Implement the Kaizen Philosophy in Your Career

The good news first – Kaizen won’t require more than 30 seconds of your time each day. All that is required is that you pay attention so what you are thinking, and focus on setting simple and completely achievable goals. The Kaizen way suggests that you take small steps toward continuous improvement, instead of attempting to create radical change that you won’t be able to keep up with and sustain over time.

So instead of declaring, this New Year, what you will not do you might think of one small thing you could do every day that is easily attainable. This can be something as simple as deciding to eat one bite less of dessert or taking 15 seconds in the bathroom every day to breathe deeply three times. That’s all you have to do, just take one tiny step whether it’s a new thought, or a new action.

Kaizen is a gentle easy approach to problem solving that will enable you to attain your goal over time. When you implement simple small steps, you avoid triggering the fear and stress response in the brain, which are often what blocks success and the achievement of desired goals.

Sound too simple and ridiculous to be effective? Well consider this. After World War II, the entire Japanese economy was devastated. Dr. W. Edwards Denning introduced the principle of continuous improvement as a management strategy. Thousands of business managers enrolled into Management Training Programs and embraced the principle now known as Kaizen.

As we know, the post-war economy of Japan improved dramatically and productivity soared. Today the most successful business leaders in the world are starting to incorporate the Kaizen way into every area of their organisations.

Wikipedia Kaizen. [Wikipedia]

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com