Employers are looking for soft skills, too

One of the hardest things to get across in a resume or traditional interview is your soft skills. (If you’re smart, you hope for a behavioral interview or you approach your interview from a core competency standpoint.) These hard-to-present skills are part of what interviewers are looking for, even if they can’t exactly quantify them either.

There are probably as many ways to demonstrate that you possess a soft skill as there are soft skills. Even more fun, some of these skills are easier to show than others.  Some soft skills are also more sought than others, simply because they’ve been defined as present in successful employees.

If you’re feeling out of touch with your own soft skills, you might consider writing down a list of things you’ve done and work up a list of what you have from there. You might also consider reading up on core competencies (which I found very useful when I needed to take a look at my own soft skills). Look at your resume as a story that presents not only your achievements, but also examples of these skills. Extend that mindset into interviews to further support showcasing your soft skills.

The benefits of keeping your word

In an age where grown-ups give their word and then either forget altogether or simply don’t follow through because they think they aren’t expected to, it can be hard to convince my students that they need to honor their agreements. When you actually strive to become a man or woman of your word, regardless of your age, interesting things happen. People start looking to you as a go-to person because you’ll suddenly have this reputation for being the person who can get it done. You might even find yourself with more important duties because you’ll find yourself labeled “responsible”. (Some of my students swear that’s the kiss of death, but then whine that their parents don’t trust them…)

Keeping your word makes people want to work with you because they view you as special. You bring something others don’t: the gift of being reliable. This is actually a very good thing.

Even if you aren’t able to keep your word, if you are up front about it, then it keeps your reputation intact, and people actually respect you more for your candor. Don’t make excuses. Just follow some great advice: own up to it, apologize, take care of it, and more value.

Everything you do, every decision you make reflects on you. Make sure the reflection is showing the person you are.

A great “Hire Me” page

I’ve been reflecting on my competencies, trying to figure out what picture they paint of me how to organize myself to best show them off. I’m still pretty much at a loss.

However, there’s hope. I saw a librarian’s “hire me” post, and realized that is a great format for covering a wide variety of skills.

In a conversational, yet still professional, tone, this page presents the librarian’s needs in light of what someone might be looking for. The best part, though, is the call to action. The last section is stated with such confidence without sounding off-putting.

This would even be a great start for anyone just trying to organize their marketable skills for the purposes of either creating something similar or starting a cover letter.  It could be used to cover soft skills that might not show up in your resume, or special talents that you can’t figure out how to fold into your resume. It can highlight special talents that are hiding in your resume that you want to be sure people see.

The post is a well-written advertisement for the librarian, and an inspiration to the rest of us to create something that sells our skills without making us feel like we’re selling ourselves out.

Walk out on the right thing

You’re tired of putting in sixty-hour weeks. You feel like your ideas aren’t being heard, that your work is rote. You can’t even remember the last time you were excited to come into work.

You don’t even have time for a life!

No one would be surprised if you started thinking a career change was in order. After all, that’s what all the career bloggers advocate, right? Find what makes you happy and pursue it as a career.

Well, what if you are actually in your dream career, but in a bad job? Is it necessary to completely change your life, or just change your workplace? Think about why you want to leave your career. Will changing your career make the situation any better, or would it be best to change your job?

Make sure you’re changing what really needs to be changed. It will benefit you more in the long run.

Exploring strengths and competencies

I’m starting to look through the list of competencies I copied down from the book. For now, I’m taking a competency and trying to develop examples of how I exemplify that competency. In a way, it’s been very nice. It’s been a chance to think back over everything I’ve done and find skills and experiences I’d forgotten about.

It’s also become a good chance to analyze how I feel I relate to the competency thanks to this set of questions. I never actually meant the CBR exercise to become so introspective, but I think it’s doing me a world of good. By the time this is all over, I think I’ll have a much better idea of who I am, what I am, and where I want to be. I suspect it will also direct this site’s redesign to fit within that view.

What do i do? Why do I do it? How do I feel about doing it?

How many of us ever really stop to explore our life this way?

Self-leadership

I have a great deal of respect for Rosa Say because she so often says so elegantly exactly what needs to be said on a topic.

Recently, she shared her twelve rules for self-leadership, and I think they nicely sum up core practices that can help leaders become great leaders. These twelve rules can help make a leader more authentic in their practices because they are essentially leading by modeling, and it’s been my experience that’s the easiest way to lead any group.

As my quote collection recently reminded me, leadership is action. It’s not a place for “Do as I say, not as I do.” When you act, when you embrace these ideas for leading yourself, you are creating a situation where people can clearly see your vision. They don’t feel conflicted. They might even feel better, not only about your leadership, but also their role in your organization.

Governing yourself, doing what you expect others to do, strengthens your leadership and your credibility.

The first resume

If you’re just starting to your first job search, you could probably use a little advice (okay, a lot of advice) to help you develop the resume that will help get your foot in the door. Is this you? Then, you should read this article. It explains some of the less-understood, but very important, sections of the resume.

Of course, you might need some other advice, too.

Remember that school and extracurricular activities are perfectly well-suited for the first resume. Remember to proofread your resume (or have someone else read over it and give you feedback). Remember to tailor it to the job you apply for, and to not send out your resume indiscriminately.

Moving yourself along

Sometimes, your career can only move because you put things in motion. Here are some great tips to help inspire and advise you to become your own lit fire.

1. Ask and don’t take no for an answer: The best way to get what you want to is to let people know what you want. It’s a good life skill. I became a communicator because I asked for the job. Once I had communication experience under my belt, I started to ask for UX opportunities and unknowingly started structuring and restructuring information in help systems with better information architectures.
2. Just do it: If you see a need, fill it. Sometimes it may not be appreciated, but more often these kinds of actions are labeled as “proactive.” If you see a bad design, sketch a better one and show it to the most appropriate person, being sensitive to the group dynamics and company culture. Make sure you appreciate the effort already given and stress that you are representing the users’ interests.
3. Build relationships: with coworkers and managers, making sure to tell them your career aspirations. Tell them in terms of “this is what I do and this is how it can help you.” One day, when a developer or manager has a problem, she might think, “Theresa told me she could help me if I ever had this problem…” It takes effort (and constant vigilance!), but it can work.
4. Get a mentor: I’ve had several mentors over the years. At one company, the UI designer taught me task analysis, user analysis and UI design. He did several training sessions for the whole team. After joining the IA Institute, I found a mentor to help me identify my transferable skills and learn how to sell my services.
5. Get your foot in the door: Taking a communicator contract can be a foot in the door to a UX job. You can get in, do a great job, figure out the company culture and scope out the opportunities for UX work.
6. Take a class, network, moonlight: To gain knowledge outside a company, take a class on UI design or information architecture. Many websites have lists of these kinds of classes. Networking at local user experience groups is a great way to meet peers. Eventually, you might find small contracts you can do in your spare time. When you want to complete your move, you will already know people.
7. Do informational interviews: From your networking, you’ll know people. Meet them for 20-30 minutes and ask them what skills they use, what challenges they face, what they like about their job, what they think you can do to make the move, what the market is like. Keep in touch, keep networking. (Source)

1. Work quickly. Produce a lot.
2. Attend to details.
3. Be versatile.
4. Make an effort to learn.
5. Anticipate problems.
6. Set goals.
7. Display a positive attitude. (Source)

Climbing up

I decided to check out the new site Climber.com over the weekend. Unlike other job search sites, it’s intended for those who aren’t looking for a job to connect with their dream job, to climb up from where they currently are at the moment.

While I’m not terribly confident in the purpose, I find their set-up interesting. There’s a place to upload your resume, but you only reach it after you’ve gone through all of the site’s hoops. (I’m in the process of updating mine, so it’s not up yet.) The hoops include filling out a questionnaire that creates your “career fingerprint”, which I think means it suggests what your ideal career looks like. You also get to list your dream companies, words that you feel describe you, and skills that might impress a potential employer.

With my unusual background and skill combination, I haven’t been matched to any companies yet, but I’ll definitely be interested to see what happens as the site grows.

Web 2.0 marketing strategies

It’s written to target librarians, but this article is a great source of ideas how to get yourself known in the Web 2.0 world. Most of it just seems to be common sense: learn the ins and outs of social media, stand out, make your content available to rip-mix-burn.

In a Web 2.0 world, it’s really all about putting yourself out there, chatting with people, and putting your own unique spin on things. It’s about letting people get to know you, and letting them discover what value you bring to the party. In some ways, it’s more authentic than other means of promoting yourself.

Once I finish this restructuring, I’m hoping to finally apply some Web 2.0 marketing to my online presence.