Professional & Personal Accountability

A Good Partner is like a Good Coach

We've all experienced periods of self doubt, scrutiny, intense comparison of ourselves to others, and other such negativity of our actions both personally and professionally. If these thoughts are left unattended they can be damaging to our future. Mentors are often our go-to people when these thoughts start creeping in, but they provide advice and guidance for the bigger picture. Who keeps us accountable once we've received that advice and guidance? Who checks in on us to make sure we're achieving the goals we've set? On a day to day or week to week basis, who's kicking your ass when you need it most?

This is where an accountability partner comes into play in addition to your mentors. They play good cop/bad cop. They keep you on track and don't let things get out of hand. They bring back ideas you said you wanted to work on and make you feel the pressure you need to stay the course.

In early 2014 I was miserable. I was working on a communications team for a successful start up about to IPO which was an experience that very few people can say they have lived through. Stress runs high, personalities change, and there's an insurmountable amount of work that needs to be done. It was all getting to me and I wasn't happy personally or professionally.  After leaving at the end of January and starting at a new company a few weeks later things became clearer, and questions started to form:

• What do I want out of my career for the next year, three years, five years, and beyond?  
• How am I going to get there?
• Am I taking the right steps now?
• What could I be doing better?
• Where are my weaknesses, and how can I improve?
• What are my strengths and how can I use them to make others better?

A close friend was also having these same thoughts and we found ourselves speaking a few times a week through the themes of professional development, health, and life. After a few weeks he brought up the idea of formalizing this arrangement to keep us both accountable.  It was like a light bulb and everything fell into place.

We formalized a lot of things to get us started, and at times it was hard to keep on track, and some sessions were missed. Moods were up and down, interests and passions were all over the place. Focus is sometimes not there. At the end of 2014 we had a two hour sit down dinner to go over what went well all year and what didn't.

We're still continuing down this path, and it's an incredible exercise each week that has benefited us both positively in the areas of life, work, and health. 

Agencies, Startups, & Corporations - Oh My!

Throughout the course of one's professional career there are some common decisions that need to be made: salary requirements, locations, degrees to pursue, and potential paths. However, the type of organization you want to align yourself with is sometimes an afterthought. Oftentimes we're too preoccupied with a certain title, or a specific job function, that if we get an interview, the type of place that it is usually comes after the excitement. Nor do we care about the difference amongst the types.

When I first graduated, I was looking for a job in the music industry and didn't care in what kind of capacity, as long as it was in New York City and I could afford to live. At the time a job was a job that was going to wind up being my career for life and I didn't understand the big difference between agency work and traditional company work. Well, the wide-eyed naive college graduate learned lessons the hard way, and went right to working for an agency, and a pretty big international one at that. Unfortunately it was not meant to be my life's work, but it taught me a thing or two.

Now, after significant amount of time having done both agency work & a company, the biggest difference simply broken down, is doing all of your work for one thing, or doing all of your work for many things.

An agency's bread and butter is the constant stream of new clients and new business. The bigger the account the better, but generally you work is spread throughout a couple of different clients and services. Each person can be responsible for their share of the company's incoming business.

In a traditional company setting your goal is more focused. You are working towards the betterment of that particular brand. This doesn't mean you couldn't be wearing many hats to achieve a goal, but unless you're in sales, you're not out trying to work on many accounts. Odds are there are teams put in place to make various arms of the organization work together.

A start-up is a whole different idea. Depending on what is starting up, it could be an agency or a traditional company, but it is in its beginning stages. The structure that you would find traditionally might not be there, but the amount of experience that there is to gain is exponential. You will wear many hats, you will work long hours, and you will make a lot of contacts. However, it could be very inconsistent work, there could be few monetary benefits, and little job security.

However, when it comes to job security at the present time, there's really no such thing anywhere, is there? Nothing's entirely guaranteed anymore.

When it comes right down to it, just do your research on company culture & history. During your interviews ask questions regarding the nature of the business and the future of the organization. While you are making your decision to work somewhere after an offer has been given, think about how you really want to spend your days and how important your specific job description is to you. Think it through - Good Luck!

Weighing a Job Offer

I'm going to share a little first-hand story with you. Recently, I've been involved in a very interesting situation that I feel could only happen in the current 'iffy' work climate of 2010. My whole process has been a bit backwards, so by telling you the story - I hope for you to gleam a few nuggets of information about taking a job and weighing an offer.

My job search started officially in January after I returned back to the States from living in Asia for 2.5 years. Originally, I interviewed at a few places in NYC looking for HR/Recruitment work. I talked to a few staffing agencies, and one of them loved what I had to say about my social media skills. They hired me on the spot and created a position for me for a two week trial run in February to get their social recruiting up and running.

I negotiated an hourly rate over the phone for those two weeks after I discussed with a friend in the industry what some of the standards were for a smaller market. Now, this is where maybe I made a mistake because I assumed that this rate was for the temporary working situation, and not for the long term. I assumed (as I should) that there would be an offer letter made when the time came. If you ever get into a temp to perm situation, make sure you are clear on what the negotiation and schedule is.

After those two weeks of work, I was able to telecommute and work from home in Central NY. Today I was given an offer over the phone to think about, and I'm hoping to discuss further and get things in writing.

Now, some of the things to think about when weighing any offer should include (but are not limited to):

- What style of employment is this? Temporary? Temp to Perm? Contract? Full time?
- Will there be benefits?
- What is the vacation/sick days package?
- Will the offer be written and delivered via email or in the mail?
- What is the salary?
- Are there training benefits, conference possibilities, etc?
- Location? Travel?

When those questions get answered, and once an offer letter is in hand, do your research. This is the start of your negotiation.

Salary - www.salary.com is usually the site most people recommend but I would use www.payscale.com. It is much more comprehensive and gives an accurate portrayal of the position, industry, location. It also creates a PDF print out that you can give directly to your potential employer. PayScale is used by companies as well to find out what industry standards are and it also helps you to know your worth.

Cost of living - check with your College/University Alumni, or Career Services centers if you're relocating. They will be able to point you in the right direction. Do a quick search for apartments on Craigslist to see what they would cost. Make a list of your monthly bills and total it up. Think of your car insurance - will it go up if you live in a different city? Call up a local relocation company to find out what the costs of moving would be as well. Check cable/gas/electric prices in the area you're hoping to move to.

Do not accept an offer right away. When you receive one, thank the company, and tell them you'd like some time to look it over and think about it - they will be expecting this. This is your chance to figure out all of your concerns. Figure out your 3 most important factors - for example, Salary, Vacation Time, Hours. If a company can't reach your maximum salary, maybe they can make up for it with extra vacation days, or maybe working from home every other Friday. If the terms of your letter change, do not accept until it has been rewritten and sent to you by the company.

As with my story above and working a bit first, each company will be different, have varying expectations, and give different benefits and processes. Make sure that everything is always is writing, make sure offer letters are given, and always make sure that you negotiate and get things you deserve. Stand up for yourself, because no one else will. Once you take the job, put your money where your mouth is, and work hard for what you're earning.

The Art (and necessity) of Following Up

I am so guilty of not doing this, it is not even slightly amusing, which is the whole reason I'm writing about it. If I give advice and insight, I am then forced to not be a hypocrite and actually practice what I preach, right? Right. Gen Y-ers usually, if they're anything like me, have their hands in a dozen projects at once. We're always on the go, always trying to connect with others, and always thinking about a next step. But do we ever really double back and do the follow up, or do it well?

There is so much out there discussing the initial how-to's, networking tips, doing better searches, writing better resumes, gaining people's attention - but then what? Well, hopefully you grab the interview, impress the client, or gain the mentor. Whatever your goal is - once you've gotten past the attention stage, what do you do?

You Follow Up.

I am so surprised that this is rarely talked about, because in my opinion, it is most commonly everyone's true weakness, and so darn important. Think about it... you participate in a weekly chat on Twitter - you don't have any real goal other than just discussing and "meeting" some other really cool people in twitterland. The chats are usually only an hour long, they have a number of pointed questions/topics, and hundreds of people.

If you have a couple of engaging side conversations, you might decide to start following said people. But what happens after that first hour? Do a few days later go by and you haven't said a word to your previous twitter friend? That's when you should follow up. Strengthen those bonds, keep the conversation going.

A few tips I can think of (and goals I myself want to try and reach):

-Add the people that were interesting & relevant.

-Follow up on a conversation maybe 1 or 2 days later. "Hey, I've been
thinking about what you said..." or "So I tried your advice, it was great!"
something.

-Give that person a #FollowFriday shout out. Give them props.

-Reconnect with them the following week during the same chat (assuming
they're there). Consistency is everything.

-Add them on LinkedIn

The same goes for projects, mentors, work, anything. In my case, I'm a recruiter and I have so many amazing candidates, but very few jobs to fill. Recently I have been attempting to find new clients & business for my firm, so I've created a list and have been reaching out to people. A week later I must remember to call back, keep the conversation going, otherwise it was just a cold call, and I have then taken away some of my firm's credibility. On my database, I mark down dates, conversation tips, and reminders of when to double back and check in. If I get in touch with people, I offer to send our materials to them in case they ever need us in the future, and make a note to call back in a couple of months.

Relationship Building takes time, and lots of following up - keeping on top of things.

That statement holds true especially for networking. If you meet a great person who took the time to talk with you, share a few tips, make sure to follow up! Send a warm email occasionally to check in. If you think of a few questions group them together and send it out with a "Hey, I got thinking about these... could you share some light on it when you have a moment? No rush, thanks" etc etc.

There are dozens of situations like this... can anyone tell me of a time that they followed up and landed the job/gained an amazing mentor/had success with a project solely because they took action and followed up? Would love to share some success stories...

Good Luck.

Teach Me! Don't Mislead Me!

I've recently talked about being inundated with information and how to attack it in some of my recent posts. I've talked about how to gain attention if you're the one putting the information out there, and for the most part, some people really have getting my attention down. It isn't really hard per se, because I'm a sucker for new and creative ideas and any clean graphics like Apple or Google use.

I can't say with any real confidence that there's a single blog or website that I go back to on my own on any given day, but I will click on links from trusted twitter friends knowing that they will most likely be sharing interesting content at the very least, and a lot of times it is to a blog I have read before. One of my favorite websites however, Gizmodo.com, was something I used to check regularly but even that has gone by the way side because I wait for interesting headlines to cross my twitterfeed instead of actively seeking it out.

Being that there's so much going on throughout a day, if you've sold me on the "why" and I've clicked on your salespitch, then when I read whatever it is you're selling, I want some hard evidence. I want to be taught something. I want direct lessons to be learned. I want whatever it is the article is saying to have some impact, some oomph, some great resources and tips.

My example for this, is I recently read an article called, "10 Steps to Become a Great Salesperson." Which that was great, considering I'm doing a lot of sales work in my current business and could use a few casual tips. But when I clicked on this article all I got was, "Wake up in the morning and decide what you can do!" style ideas. Which is a great motivational stuff, but is that really a great way to become a salesperson? I was hoping for more concrete tips, an outline, examples - not motivation. With a title like "10 Steps to..." I didn't expect philosophy, I expected to learn. I expected a lesson.

If I'm in the desert and I'm thirsty, and you're the one going to lead me to water, the least I want to do is take a solid drink, not chew on more sand.

Anyone ever been mislead by articles/blogs before and not gone back to that particular site? Or stopped following someone on twitter because things didn't quite seem to mesh? Would love to hear your stories...

How Many Tabs is Too Many Tabs? Time Management is KEY.

This afternoon, a Sunday afternoon, I find myself putzing around my computer since I am hopelessly addicted to it. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE the outdoors, I get away from this blasted machine as often as I can, but really, I enjoy everything it has to offer and everything it can do.

However, that combined with my new found Twitter addiction I find myself following a LOT of creative, inspirational, helpful people, and they all post such interesting and useful tools. The problem with this is I now have 39 tabs open up on my Firefox browser and can easily spend a few hours just bouncing from link to link. My first four tabs are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Gmail. The next four tabs are various articles I've kept open for about a week but am determined to read. The middle bunch of tabs are job postings I intend to apply to that people have told me about, and the last few are all discussions from various LinkedIn groups that I would ideally like to post to. They do say job searching is a full time job in and of itself. This is true, but keeping up with it and managing your time well is extremely important to the search.

"They" recommend percentages for time: 20% on email, 20% on job board, 40% on networking, etc etc. I hate percentages. Everyone has their breakdown of how to manage their time and you have to do what works for you. If you're a professional this isn't new to you, but it is worth a good reminder especially now that social media has taken over your traditional job searching methods.

Give yourself a daily outline because technically, even though you're unemployed by a company, you are employed by yourself in a full time work at home job. Set your hours and your goals. It doesn't have to be 9-5 (if you're going to be unemployed, give yourself the one benefit of sleeping in a bit), but don't start at say, 2pm.

Don't spend more than an hour and a half reading about job searching, or articles, or tips. It all starts to blur together after awhile anyway, doesn't it?

DO spend an hour or so sending out emails for networking opportunities.

DO spend an hour or so replying to discussions in groups and getting yourself noticed in the internet world. And if you have the opportunity to get out to networking events put on for free in your area, by all means, do it.

Figure out the rest of your day after that. Guidelines are necessary. You wouldn't just come into a job without a game plan for your day, so why would you do that for your job searching?

And last but not least - Focus. I find this to be a tough one because I need background noise, but if you're giving yourself an hour to get something done, do it.

Good Luck! Happy time managing, and here's to x'ing out those tabs!