Reference :
Reiss, S., (2000) The 16 Basic Desires That Motivates Our Actions and Define Our Personalities Who Am I, Berkley Books, New York
Ashley Stahl in her TED talk describes how important it is to ask yourself: “What do I want and why do I want it?”
Ashley divides her talk into three sections. The first question is a positive rather than a negative one (e.g. what are my weaknesses?).
1. What am I good at?
This is an important question as it deals not with values or experience, but with capabilities and skills which relate to positive emotions. Because of the positiveness the capabilities and skills can be further developed and improved.
The second question deals with whether I’m able to ask for people’s feedback about my strengths and weaknesses.
2. What do people think I am good at?
This question assesses whether my understanding of myself and what other people think of myself is in alignment. This can be tested with the personality test by Steven Reiss (2000) in part 4.
The third question deals with my concerns, which can hold me back or even stop me from following my dream job.
3. What holds me back from pursuing my dream job?
This is an important question to ask as it helps me to prevent feeling remorse at a later stage in life such as why I didn’t try when I was able to do so or when I was younger and more flexible. This question also taps into the value system, i.e. what is important for me and why.
How can I develop my career and find my true calling in a dream job?
As in design thinking it is important to understand oneself by asking what do I want and why I want it, rather than following someone else’s recommendation and do as intstructed. In design thinking the first step is to do a lot of research about myself and the environment, then try to define the challenge and find as many options to overcome the problem. Once the thinking process has evolved into a plan then move into action with the tolerance that the activity need to be improved in the development stage rather than expecting end results.
The career development model demonstrates four steps to identify my potential career opportunities. These are:
1. Get to know yourself
At this stage it is important to understand what is important to me, what are my interests, skills, strengths and ambitions.
2. Explore my options with the support of my skills, experience and knowledge
At this stage it is important to research the job market, to analyse career trends and to discuss ideas with other people and elicit their feedback.
3. Decide on goals and create a plan.
At this stage it is important to prioritize, set clear goals and create an action plan with a clear road map with time lines and a description of the actions.
4. Take action and consider any improvements if necessary.
At this stage it is important to take action by writing CVs, cover letters, simulate interviews and connect with future employers.
Create your personal brand
Similar to product branding, personal branding focuses on establishing and promoting what you uniquely represent compared to others. Your personal brand consists of a combination between your special skills, experiences and knowledge. Putting them all together makes you different from other professionals in your field. For example, Emilie Wapnick in her TED talk describes two different types of professionals. The specialist and the multipotential have both clear branding definitions. One person may follow the vertical line in diving deeper into a topic by becoming the specialist, whereas, the multipotential focuses on the horizontal line by synthesising many topics with each other.
Every product brand tells a specific story and in personal branding one has to identify one’s authentic and professional story. The following steps may help you create your personal brand.
Reference :
Reiss, S., (2000) The 16 Basic Desires That Motivates Our Actions and Define Our Personalities Who Am I, Berkley Books, New York
Top 5 job search platforms (StepStone, indeed, glassdoor, Linkedin, Monster, XING) just to name some.
- Job title
Specify your job title and use it as a key word in your search
- Job market trends
What are the market trends? Is there a high or low demand for your job title?
- Employers
What can you find out about the employer? Is the company more innovative or traditional? What do other people say about the company?
- Work environment
What is the work environment like? What are the none monetary benefits such as flexible working, home office, and job tickets?
- Informational interview
What can you find out about the company from internal employees?
As you will see from the links on writing CVs, there are several ways to manage this topic. Firstly, there are two basic CV structures, among some others. There is the chronological CV structure and the Skills-based CV structure. Both have their strengths and weaknesses as well as their preferences by the recruiters. It is important to find out what the company prefers.
When writing a CV it is useful to start with a Master copy, which includes every little detail about work experience, skills and education. Surely, this master copy should not be sent to any company. It is like a database. From this master copy every CV sent to a company should be different or changed to the requirement of the job description.
It is also important to remember that those people who receive CVs need to see the differences between various candidates and if candidates only use standard formats then the risk is that the decision maker decides randomly, and this is inefficient. Therefore, it is important to think of a personal, or differentiated touch when writing the CV for a particular company.
A cover letter is different from a CV and therefore it should have a different format. A cover letter is the first written contact with a potential employer, and it needs to create a first and positive impression. Most importantly it should tell a clear story about me as the potential candidate, covering my past experiences, education, skills and my capability to simulate future scenarios.
Das Anschreiben sollte den allgemeinen Richtlinien für alle Bewerbungsschreiben entsprechen. Dazu gehört, mit einer Einführung zu beginnen (10% des Gesamttextes), der Hauptteil sollte so viele Punkte wie möglich abdecken, die in der Stellenbeschreibung beschrieben sind. Jede Tatsache oder Aussage sollte durch Beispiele gestützt werden, was ich getan habe, wie ich es getan habe und warum ich es getan habe. Diese Struktur zeigt Beweise für den Anstellung und es wird einfacher, die Glaubwürdigkeit des Kandidaten zu überprüfen. Dieser Ansatz ist leserfreundlich und wirkt sich daher positiv auf den Bewerbungsprozess aus.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. In his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” (2011), Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman refers to System 1 as the intuitive thinking and reacting system, i.e. in this system we think fast not always logical and are prone to making mistakes. Therefore, it is crucial to send the right messages about who we are, what we do and why we do it, through body language and speech.
For the recruiter not only is it important to understand your skills and experiences but it is also important to identify your competencies and values. This can be achieved by using the STAR model (Situation, Target, Action, Result) when dealing with competency-based questions. The methodology is to describe a believable and evidence-based story about one’s competencies.
For more information visit:
https://www.themuse.com/advice/star-interview-method
1. Questions that require to talk about yourself, your ambitions, your personality, your hobbies and interests
For example: Can you tell us something about yourself?
For more questions visit:
https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-answer-the-31-most-common-interview-questions
2. Questions that require you to prove you have researched the job and company you have applied for work with.
For example: What do you know about our company?
For more questions visit:
https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-answer-the-31-most-common-interview-questions
3. Questions that require you to demonstrate you have the skills and experience required for the job.
For example: What experience do you have that is relevant for this position?
For more questions visit:
https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-answer-the-31-most-common-interview-questions
The New York Times Best Seller list author and Social Psychologist, Amy Cuddy, refers to that we need to get out of the way of ourselves, so that we can be ourselves. Mostly, other people have no problem with us being our best selves. So why do we think we don’t have what it takes? Most of the time we are not even aware of our true values and therefore we are not able to communicate our values. In this case we need to imagine what our values are by “fake it till I make it”. This is not about tricking other people. Generally speaking, people have no reasons to doubt me. It is I who trick myself into doubting my abilities and capabilities. It is understandable that we lose confidence in novel situations and this behaviour belongs to our survival mechanism. However, today we can be confident about ourselves especially in new situations. To find this confidence it is important to go over the process in our minds again and again of thinking I can make it and after a short time it becomes a belief and finally a reality.
Prepare yourself with a Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA), coined by William Ury in his book “getting to yes – negotiating an agreement without giving in” (2012), it is important to focus on interests rather than positions. Knowing my interest, I’m able to explain why I want what I want, whereas if I only focus on my position than the other person sees me as less valuable.
By using a systematic coaching process model, SCRUM offers an agile approach to achieving a goal in a short time. These are the steps:
1. Set up a clear goal – this can be done by using the GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Will) model by Whitmore (2009)
2. Test whether your goal is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound)
3. Select the first topic, such as writing a CV and execute the activity with adding content to the CV by allocating 10 to 15 minutes daily.
4. Complete the activity and review the success with a coach.
5. Pick up the next topic, such as simulating interviews and execute the activity by allocating 10 to 15 minutes per day to the activity
6. Complete the activity and review the success with a coach
Throughout the coaching there will be several cycles for evaluating the results. Secondly, identifying personal strategies for strengthening one’s confidence. And finally, to experience and learn through action or by simulating interviews and optimising both CV and cover letter.