Networking is tough. If you are in management long enough, you have definitely had the experience of someone who wants a job being extra clingy when it comes to making sure that their name is top of your mind. You know what they say, “all things in moderation”, but there comes a time when it crosses a line to both the uncomfortable and the unprofessional.
I don’t have a selling bone in my body.
I remember as a kid having to sell fundraisers for my school. My customers were my parents and my relatives and that was it out of pure sympathy. It wasn’t like it was a bad product. Anyone remember “World’s Finest Chocolate”? I mean it’s chocolate for heaven’s sake, surely I could sell that. Not a chance.
It doesn’t matter what time a day or what season we are in, it seems like there are always a multitude of fires to put out. Whether it’s the daily mundane of the dog barking because it’s time to eat or something much more complicated, there are 100s of things we are thinking about daily.
Another day, another meeting. When done wrong, meetings might be the one of the biggest barriers to productivity in modern history and it has gotten a lot worse in the last five years. At least it used to be a little bit harder to hold meetings, but after the pandemic the use of video conferencing exploded from something that used to be a novelty to integration into everyday use.
In today’s world we are constantly being put into echo chambers with those who agree with us. Social media algorithms will feed you content you agree with, while at the same time vilifying those you don’t. This is a daily problem not just in our politics, but in our parenting strategies, philosophies on work and life, and even how we feel about truth and science.
It’s no secret that it’s getting harder and harder to face the job market. Competition is fierce, AI is taking market share and the industries in need are constantly changing. All this to say that a “good enough” application package 20 years ago won’t get you a sniff today. Good has to become great and in some cases great as to become exceptional. So what does exceptional look like?
Interviews can be an incredibly stressful time! It can feel like your whole world is riding on this one hour but we have to stop and take a minute to acknowledge that this is one part of a large puzzle that will determine if you get the job.
Depending upon where you look there are different definitions of the various generations from the most current, Gen Alpha, going all the way back to what we definite as the “Greatest Generation” who were born generally in the first 25 years of last century. One constant throughout the last 125 years seems to be that the generations change with technology. Since technological changes have seemed to grow exponentially, it’s no surprise that current generations are defined by a shorter time span (~12 -14 years) versus older generations which tend to be about 20 – 25 years long.
While most in the private sector are used to a one to two page resume, those in the federal workforce have been accustomed to a much longer format than most human resource officials would recommend. Very recently that has changed and resumes will now be limited to two pages. This week we’ll dive into how to be a distiller of information in order to maximize the impact of your resume.
I’ve heard a lot of people say “I hate small talk, it’s the worst!” I totally get it. There are many times when you just don’t feel like striking up a conversation. Especially those of us who are more introverted. Let’s be honest, we’re talking about networking here.