Please note: On a somewhat infrequent basis, Quintessential Careers asks noted
career experts five questions related to their expertise and publishes the interview
in the current issue of QuintZine,
our biweekly newsletter. Here is one such interview.
Bill Dueease is a business coach and president The Coach Connection.
Q:
What's the one job-hunting secret you share with clients/students
but that may not be widely known?
A:
One of the most important factors people use to decide upon which
applicants to hire is the applicants genuine enthusiasm and desire to
perform in the job. The more applicants can show that they have a
strong personal desire -- almost passion -- to produce the results
desired by the company (because they really will enjoy performing the
duties of the position), the greater chance they have of being hired.
In essence, employers will hire applicants who really want the
position and can show that they will perform exceptionally well in
the position with little management, motivation, and involvement by
employers. Virtually all positions will require some form of
training, because of company policies, standards, methods, and the
uniqueness of the positions. Applicants who show a strong desire to
learn every aspect of the new jobs on their own, because they love
performing in the position, make great employees.
People should not try to fake enthusiasm, or look at the potential
salary as the motivating force behind seeking a job. Their eagerness
has to be very genuine and be focused on performing the job itself
and not on the compensation levels available.
People must discover beforehand, which job positions will allow them
to fulfill their passions, desires, and priorities, and that will
result in the genuine enthusiasm discussed above. They will rarely
develop this enthusiasm during job interviews or during the
application process. Instead, they will want to research which jobs
exist that allow them to perform the job functions they are eager to
do. Then, they need to find which industries and companies have the
jobs they really want. They will want to apply for only the specific
jobs they are genuinely enthusiastic about, within their own personal
limits, whether the jobs are known to be open or not.
Applicants will be amazed how receptive employers will be to
unsolicited applications for very specific jobs, when genuine
enthusiasm for the position is shown, whether the positions appear to
be vacant or not. In fact, employers give specific, focused,
passionate applications serious consideration. In the specific
position being so eagerly applied for, employers may have
disgruntled, non-performing employees or employees who are likely to
leave. Or the positions may be vacant, a fact that the employer has
not reported to avoid the typical stampede of general applications.
One of the reasons employers lean toward younger applicants rather
than more experienced older applicants is that the degree of
enthusiasm is normally greater in the younger applicants. Older
applicants' cautiousness and protectiveness of their egos and pride
often prevent them from revealing their true enthusiasm.
Q:
Thinking "outside the box," what's the best way for someone who
just has no clue of the type of job/career he/she wants -- perhaps a
career changer -- to figure out what career will give him/her the
greatest happiness?
A:
The very best way for anyone to discover what career will provide the
greatest happiness is to engage the services of a career coach. In
fact, having someone provide true objective, honest coaching is the
only way people can figure out what they really want to do in their
work and lives.
A career coach will act as a truth-seeking mirror to reach in and
pull out and then reveal the true passions, desires and priorities,
beliefs and values, and talents of the people they are coaching. A
coach provides an objective, nonjudgmental, non-critical view of
their clients' inner workings in the same way a mirror on the wall
reveals a picture of a person's face. People cannot see their own
face, head or back, because their eyes are looking out. Similarly,
people cannot see their own passions, priorities, values and talents
without someone acting as an objective, honest mirror. When a person
uses a coach, to discover the truth about him or her, he or she will
become "The World's Leading Expert on Himself or Herself."
Please notice that the coach will not discuss strengths or
weaknesses. Why? Because a coach only uncovers what is there and does
not make any judgments.
Once the coach and client uncover their true desires, passions,
values and talents, they can then work as a team to develop, build,
create, find, those income positions that will allow the client to
fulfill passions and priorities, follow values, and maximize talents.
In essence, coach and client build the positions to fit the person.
They then work together as a team to actually get the that best fits
the client at the time.
It is my personal opinion that assessments mislead test-takers by
providing conclusions that are frequently wrong. Assessments are
based upon statistics. The assessments consider the percentages of
how test-takers follow patterns set by the control group and reach
conclusions using these percentages. Far too many variables enter
into the determination of the conclusions of the assessments to allow
much, if any accuracy. Some of the variables that affect the accuracy
of the assessments include how the test-takers feel; how the
test-takers read and interpret the questions; how the questions are
composed; the relevant accuracy of the questions themselves to the
control groups that created the results; the interpretation accuracy
of the assessment evaluator; and the relevance of the purpose of the
assessments to the test-taker's goals and expectations.
It is my opinion that assessments should be used sparingly and only
as one of many different tools to uncover the truth about a person.
Personal coaching, when conducted under the four conditions it was
designed for, will provide the most accurate and most valuable
insight into what a person really wants to do.
Q:
What's your advice for the job-seeker who is returning to the
workforce after an extended absence (because of for example, raising
a family), to re-enter the workforce?
What do you feel are some of the biggest mistakes career-changers
make? What's the wrong way to go about making a career change?
A:
Most of us spend approximately 25 percent to more than 67 percent
of our waking hours working. Eventually, most everyone will want to
work in a career that they enjoy doing and are paid well enough to
live a prosperous life. Yet, far too many people end up being
miserable in their job and find themselves stuck in a career that
they did not choose and do not like. Yet, there is really nothing
wrong with the people who are stuck and miserable, and there is
really nothing wrong with the people they are working for. Instead,
they are just working in the wrong position for them. They do not
fit. This misalignment does not have to happen, but does because
people do not take control of their career-selection process. Here
are the two most common and most disastrous mistakes people make in
making their career selections.
Mistake No. 1: Following the normal trial-and-error career-selection process.
Many people follow the same trial-and-error path to work. They take a
job that appears to be the best opportunity and try it out. They
adjust to what their employer requires to achieve advancement. They
bend even more to the wishes of their employer because they are
normally rewarded with praise and advancement for doing so.
Eventually, they discover that they have adjusted so far that they
are stuck in a job or a career that they really don't like. If they
are lucky, they might find another job and try it out, using the same
trial-and-error process. They eventually end up at the same unhappy
position. Unhappy people rarely do well at their job or position and
lose income favor or both. Unfortunately, many people then get down
on themselves and think they are not that good, when in truth, only
their selection process is flawed, and they will excel at the
position that is right for them.
Mistake No. 2: Following a career path to please others.
Many people feel obligated to follow a career to please others or
that they feel they should pursue. Spousal influence, peer
pressure, family tradition, parental pressure, societal pressure, and
other outside pressures are frequently allowed to dictate career
paths. In these situations, they end up working to suit the needs,
wants and expectations of someone other than themselves, and deep
conflicts arise. These conflicts become a festering sore that will
eventually seriously strain or damage the relationship with the
person or group they are trying to please. What a rut to be in. They
end up working at a position they do not like, and they become
strained from the people they wanted to please in the first place.
Q:
Given that most employers would prefer to hire someone with
experience for any given opening, what are some ways that
career-changers can demonstrate their enthusiasm for a new field, and
more importantly, their ability to do a job they may not have done
before?
A:
First, I do not believe that most employers would prefer to hire
someone with experience. Employers want employees who will require
the least amount of training, effort, management, or time to reach a
high level of performance at their position. Past experience of
applicants is just one of the many indicators of their capability to
perform in the position.
The first way to demonstrate enthusiasm for a position is to
determine, in advance, what jobs you really are enthusiastic about
and apply for them only. In addition, research the position, the
company, and the industry to discover as much as possible about what
the position entails, before the interview. That way your enthusiasm
will be genuine, and you will more confident in expressing it.
Employers can easily spot fake enthusiasm. Another way is to ask
questions about what you can do in the position to create more
profits and value for the employer, so that the employer will be
assured of profiting from your employment. Focus on the results
desired and ask the best way to achieve them. Show your enthusiasm
and willingness to produce the desired results on your own.
Employers want people who will produce greater than expected results
with the least amount of management on their part. A high degree of
genuine enthusiasm for a specific job, coupled with enough experience
to show an employer that you can perform the job, creates an almost
unbeatable new employee.
Bill Dueease is a business coach who is the president The Coach
Connection (TCC), which he co-founded in May 2001, to assist people
to achieve their greatest results from life and career coaching. More
than 96.5 percent of TCC's clients have achieved their initial life
and career goals because they were assured that the four key
conditions to successful coaching were met before engaging their
coach. Fortune Magazine, Female Entrepreneur, The Brazen Careerist,
and The AMEX Platinum Card Newsletter have described TCC to its
readers. Bill had previously founded other very successful companies,
including a Texas petroleum company in 1980, a New Zealand ski area
in 1982, and a nationwide US office products distribution company in
1992. Bill was featured in a 30-minute 1988 documentary film produced
by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the New Zealand
Government describing how a simple sheep-grazing mountain was so
successfully converted into the Cardrona NZ ski area. Bill's
educational articles on career and business coaching solutions have
been published more than 97 times throughout the US and Canada, by
71+ magazines and periodicals. Bill can be reached at
The Coach Connection
or via e-mail at bill@findyourcoach.com.
Bill Dueease is a business coach who is the president The Coach
Connection (TCC), which he co-founded in May 2001, to assist people
to achieve their greatest results from life and career coaching. More
than 96.5 percent of TCC's clients have achieved their initial life
and career goals because they were assured that the four key
conditions to successful coaching were met before engaging their
coach. Fortune Magazine, Female Entrepreneur, The Brazen Careerist,
and The AMEX Platinum Card Newsletter have described TCC to its
readers. Bill had previously founded other very successful companies,
including a Texas petroleum company in 1980, a New Zealand ski area
in 1982, and a nationwide US office products distribution company in
1992. Bill was featured in a 30-minute 1988 documentary film produced
by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the New Zealand
Government describing how a simple sheep-grazing mountain was so
successfully converted into the Cardrona NZ ski area. Bill's
educational articles on career and business coaching solutions have
been published more than 97 times throughout the US and Canada, by
71+ magazines and periodicals. Bill can be reached at
