Succeeding in a “Final Jeopardy!” World

This month’s Career Collective topic is re-tooling / re-focusing / organizing your job search...

Yes, I’ll admit it. Upon seeing this month’s topic, my first association was Jeopardy!  Perhaps it was the listing of categories in search of answers, but in a flash, I was thinking, “l’ll take re-tooling for 100, Alex.” And in my rapid free association, the answer “commodities” came to mind, quickly followed by, “What do you call transferable skills?”

As a career coach, I’ve long believed that one’s ability to identify transferable skills was the biggest part of the battle in conveying value to a potential new employer. And perhaps, at one time, it was. No more.

Today, any effort to re-tool, re-focus, or re-organize your job search and career management, means giving up past career models so you can re-align your efforts to meet today’s reality. And today’s reality calls for much more than a bullet list of transferrable skills put at the top of a resume and regurgitated in a cover letter. 

Even if they hope against hope that that the old approach will work just one last time, I think many people know this.

You need only look at career advice columns to see big themes like re-invent, re-focus, re-launch, and re-brand – often accompanied by a list of five to ten things you should do now. Sometimes, the advice is good. More often it’s shallow. For the new reality is that job search and career management has grown in complexity. It’s no longer your skills, your credentials, your track-record – or even your brand. Nor is it your ability to package all of that in a clever elevator pitch.

Today, we live in a relationship economy where our worth is validated within the context of a community whose members know what we do, why we do it, and how we make a difference for the people we serve.  And they know this not because they’ve all seen the transferrable skills listed on our resume, but because they know our story, and have experienced it coming to life as we’ve actively engaged them in conversations that matter and lead to meaningful relationships. As a consequence, they’re more predisposed to send opportunities our way because they know, like, and trust us.

Frankly, it seems like we’re now living in a “Final Jeopardy!” world. The answer is relationships. And the question is, “Today, what will drive your success?”

What did other Career Collective members have to say? Here are links to their posts:

Personal Branding to Fire Up Your Job Search, @DebraWheatman

5 Steps to Retool & Jumpstart Your Job Search, @erinkennedycprw

Your Job Search: Let's Just Start Again Shall We? @GayleHoward

Checklist for Spring Cleaning Your Job Search, @careersherpa

5 Ways to Spring Clean Your Job Search, @heatherhuhman

Ten Surefire Ways to Organize Your Job Search, @KatCareerGal

Put Spring Into Your Job Search, @EliteResumes @MartinBuckland

Toes in the Water, @ValueIntoWords

How to Revitalize a Stale Job Search, @KCCareerCoach

How to re-think your job search, @Keppie_Careers

Wake Up and Smell the Flowers: Spring Cleaning Your Resume, @barbarasafani

Spring Cleaning and Your Personal Brand, @resumeservice

Spring clean your mind clutter first, @DawnBugni

Managing Your Career 2.0: On Giving Something Up To Get It Right, @Chandlee

Clean up, Chin, up, Shape, up, @LaurieBerenson

Comments

[Gayle M. Howard]

I love this Walter. Sometimes I see phrases that really resonate with me and I just want to frame them and hang them on the wall!

For me, this phrase from you was one of those "wow" moments:

"Today, we live in a relationship economy where our worth is validated within the context of a community whose members know what we do, why we do it, and how we make a difference for the people we serve. "

I sure hope jobseekers who read are similarly inspired!

[Career Sherpa]

Walter,

Bravo!

Transitioning requires more than the list of transferable skills on your resume is so true. Isn't that why we list accomplishments and tell PAR/STAR stories? We want people to feel they know us and have seen us in action, even if they haven't.

I love how you state that we live in a relationship economy. People do business with people!

Always a pleasure to read your work!

Be memorable!

[Master Resume Writer]

Well done, once again, Walter.

You're so right about the 'relationship economy' where our work is validated within the context of a community ..." The 'what, why and how' we do/make a difference IS so critical.

Love how you drove all this home with the idea of our 'story' and how others in our community must experience it via conversations with them.

I DO believe the resume can be part of that 'story' if done creatively vs. the ole' bulleted, starchy traditional resumes of the past.

Finally, that you wove in the word 'trust' to your post, and in particular, at the closing of the post, is important!

Thanks for another engaging post!

Jacqui

[Walter Akana]

Hey Gayle!

Thanks for your comment…and for sending a “wow” moment back to me! It’s not every day someone wants to frame one of my quotes!!

This is a theme that’s been very much alive for me for a while, and it keeps picking up steam! Frankly, all the usual career criteria – credentials, competencies and track record – are still relevant. Yet, today, the world requires more. Indeed, I think it requires even more than a simple personal brand statement.

I think we truly are seeing a time where it is the convergence of our story and our community that will provide the opportunity to create value!

I sincerely hope that many more job seekers – and others – find that inspiration!

[Walter Akana]

Hi Hannah!

Thanks for your terrific comment! I always enjoy having your perspective.

You make a great point about PAR/STAR stories being a way to convey what we look like in action. Those stories are important in interviewing, and handled well can provide an opportunity for “shared narrative” – okay, fancy words for swapping stories – that can create a bond for with the interviewer.

Yet, those same stories can be relationship builders for us within our broader professional communities. Not only do they convey what we do, but spark others to share similar stories. Ultimately, shared experience creates a “one of us” feeling that can predispose others to know, like, trust – and bond with us!

Yup, relationship economy!

[Walter Akana]

Hi Jacqui!

Thanks for your astute comment!

I love the concept of relationship economy. Actually it belongs to Scott Allen, Jay T. Deragon, and other authors of “The Emergence of The Relationship Economy: The New Order of Things to Come.” Yet, in my view it seems a fitting way to describe the importance of brand community – which I’ve written about before.

Conveying our stories to our brand communities is a way of sharing experiences that create a “one of us” perception within the community – and predisposes a knowing, liking and trusting over time. Much of this happens over the course of many small interactions – and typically well before anyone looks for a resume.

This doesn’t mean a resume is unimportant – even if tired lists of transferable skills are!

Done well, a resume will involve using an introspective process to unearth the many small stories (or scenes) that support a large theme that’s central to our brand story. And the finished product should give the reader a tantalizing view of what the individual behind the resume stands for. In a way, a resume can be as powerful as a movie trailer – motivating the audience to want to invest more time to see the full-length feature!

Hopefully, more people will begin to see the light and begin to tell their own powerful stories and better engage their communities!