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.
Meg Montford is a Business and Career Coach.
Q:
How do you define career-self-management, and why is it so important?
A:
Career self-management is accepting responsibility for the strategic
and proactive management of one's own career. It's no secret -- many
people have experienced fallout from the demise of the old entitlement
relationship between employers and employees. Although there are
current signs of recovery from the layoffs of the last few years, jobs
are still being outsourced and shipped overseas. Many people are
working in "bridge" employment at wages that are less than half of
what they earned previously, still hoping that their old jobs will come
back.
View your career as a work life map. There are many types of roads,
towns, hills, and rest stops -- some big, some small; some busy,
some remote -- but all part of the journey of one's work life. You
have choices throughout your career about the routes you take
and the places you settle. But they are your choices, and no one
else's. Even if you choose just to wander and stop wherever you
run out of gas, you’re making a choice.
Self-reliance is the key to the new employment game. Adopting a
career self-management approach can help you develop a
career-resilient mentality that will empower you to control your
own job satisfaction. Bottom line: No one owes anyone a job. In
fact, you must earn the right every day to just keep working. By
deciding to manage your own career, you ensure your right to
have choices.
Q:
What are the most important steps people can take to advance
their own career management?
A:
Following are the five action steps that I share with my clients to
help them advance their career self-management process:
Self-Assessment: What do you enjoy most about work?
Know yourself. Be open to change. Explore career options and filter
them through business reality before making choices. Don't be afraid
to take a chance -- know your options for executing your "Plan B." Most
people stay in a job only 2.8 years, so no job is really permanent anyway.
Self-Branding: How do you want to be perceived in the
marketplace? Cultivate that image through all you do. Know your unique
value and the key contributions you offer. Capitalize on your brand to build
and grow your professional networks for the life of your career.
Self-Training: How do you manage the lifelong process of
learning? Some ways to embrace learning include attending seminars,
asking for cross training at work, reading current event and industry
periodicals, staying on top of workplace trends, and perhaps even retooling
with some additional formal education. Special note to midlife workers:
Make friends with technology to stay competitive, as the use of technology
in the workplace will continue to grow.
Self-Talk: What is your communication style and how do
you flex it to meet the styles of others including your boss, colleagues
and customers? Communication drives business. Fine-tune your listening
skills. Ask questions instead of making demands. The Golden Rule rules.
Self-Action: What contributions do you make? Active
participation in teams, committees, group projects, focus groups,
networking events, and more, puts a spotlight on you. What you
contribute speaks to your value in the work world. Most will remember
what you give more than what you take. Leaving a positive impression
enhances your brand and fosters career self-management. If you have
to ask if an action is ethical, it probably isn't. Guard your integrity.
Q:
What do you feel is the most disturbing trend in job-hunting today?
A:
The most disturbing trend I see today is the passive job search.
Many employees are unhappy -- burned out, burned up and just plain
tired -- and working a lot of extra hours to pick up the slack created
by those who have been laid off. They are hunkering down to keep a
low profile in hope they won't be laid off, too. They would love to have
another job -- one with normal hours, one they want to get up in the
morning for and go to work to do -- but fear discovery of their job
search, which would result in losing the job they already have.
Besides, shouldn't they just feel grateful that they have any job
considering the plights of their former co-workers?
So, instead of networking, they dream about a recruiter finding them.
Instead of seeking training for future opportunities, they steal time at
work to scan online job boards looking for a needle-in-the-haystack
match that begs for their thrown-together resume. Instead of seeking
career coaching for professional support and guidance, they complain
to their friends and co-workers about cold-hearted bosses and being
stuck in a rut.
No plan exists for their great escape to a new and better job. Instead,
it all depends on luck -- or chance -- or desperation caused by an
employer's choice to eliminate their position. People fail to realize
that a new job rarely just happens. It has to be proactively designed
and pursued. People need to push past the inertia and take charge
of their careers to make their lives better.
Q:
What's the one job-hunting secret you share with clients
but that may not be widely known?
A:
We work in a "brand me" marketplace where everyone must promote
unique value to capture attention and demonstrate worthwhile contribution.
Two proven ways used by entrepreneurs to promote brand recognition are
publication and presentation. Why can't the same
work for job seekers?
Credibility is built with visibility. I suggest to my executive clients that
they publish articles on topics in their industry and make sure their brief
bio is attached. I encourage them to deliver presentations to industry
groups where word can spread about their expertise. Career self-marketing
can elicit attention from recruiters and hiring decision-makers. It can often
lead to exceptional career opportunities.
Q:
What's the biggest mistake job seekers make that your advice could correct or prevent?
A:
Most people don't understand that how they adapt to and manage
change defines their destiny. Nothing remains constant -- change is the
norm. However, human nature tends to resist change -- it can be
frightening, unsettling, and usually unwanted. In so many ways,
business takes place today in a brand new world from that of only
a few years ago. Educational degrees and credentials earned "back
when" will not sustain most careers into the 21st century. Many
people have to retool. Outdated ideas need to be rethought.
Career coaching is ideal for sorting through this muddle to figure
out not only how to change, but how to become a change agent.
With 15 years of experience as a recruiter, career consultant, and
business developer, Meg Montford, Business and Career Coach,
founded her career coaching firm,
Abilities Enhanced®,
in 1999. Since then she has graduated from two coach training
schools, Career Coach Institute and Corporate Coach University.
She focuses her career coaching business on assisting sales and
marketing professionals, and has coached almost 1,000 hours with
her clients. Since 2002, she has taught marketing to Career Coach
Institute students. Recently, she launched a new website,
CoachBizMarketing.com,
where she offers marketing training for coaches through teleclasses
and mentor coaching. Meg facilitates ExecuNet executive networking
events and moderates the ExecuNet Marketing Special Interest Group
forum. She writes a monthly column for the Association of Coaching
and Consulting Professionals on the Web. She serves locally, nationally,
and internationally with the Association of Career Professionals
International. Her credentials include Professional Certified Career
Coach, Career Management Fellow, and Credentialed Career Master.
Meg has contributed to 10 nationally published books and delivered
numerous career-related presentations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts
degree in sociology.
With 15 years of experience as a recruiter, career consultant, and
business developer, Meg Montford, Business and Career Coach,
founded her career coaching firm,
