Making Your Own Weather

Welcome to Making Your Own Weather™ – your guide to getting a better job faster

Being in Job Search

Finding yourself in job search can be stressful, confusing, scary, and lonely. Many of our financial, social, and emotional needs are met through our work and when that goes away, a big piece of us goes away with it.  But I have good news for you!  Through this course, you will learn about the job search process, meet some incredible people, develop new skills, be a resource to others in a similar situation, and of course you’re going to get a better job faster™.

Course Goal

Being in a job search requires skills that most professionals do not have by experience.  Essentially this is a big Sales and Marketing exercise and unless you come from both of those disciplines, why would you know about them?  We are going to learn how to develop and communicate your brand, master the outreach process, and ultimately how to close the deal.  There is definitely work to be done and there are no shortcuts but quality over quantity will play a large part in your success story.

My goal is to Encourage, Empower, and Enable you so that you have the skills and the confidence to amaze your next employer.   With these three key elements, the job search process will be more effective (a better job) and more efficient (faster).

A Little Bit about Me

For the past 10 years, I have been very active in helping people who are in job transition.  It started out when a friend of mine was in job search and I quickly became one of the folks he gave other job seekers to network with.  It didn’t take long to realize that many of the skills I had acquired in my day job were equally relevant for someone in career transition.  Beyond that though, I also observed that a job search is an emotionally draining process for many given the high level of rejection, the hurt they may be feeling from having lost a job, the separation from colleagues, the profound brokenness of the job search process (for candidates and employers) and the financial stress a loss of income causes.

I came to appreciate and embrace a true calling to Encourage, Empower, and Enable.  Encouragement comes naturally to me and I will almost always take a call if for no other reason than to try to inject some positivity into someone’s day.  But saying nice words isn’t enough, anymore than telling a hungry person you’re thinking about them helps versus actually getting them some food. Empowerment usually takes the form of listening to where someone is challenged in his or her search and offering some advice based on what I know may be holding them back.  Enabling is simply identifying folks in my network who may be of additional help to them on their way to their next role.  This is all well and good but the problem is it doesn’t scale, meaning I can’t meet one on one with so many people.  Thus was born this course to document what I have learned, as well as the feedback I’ve received as to what was most valuable to the hundreds of people I have had the good fortune to help along the way.  Of course, my hope is that you pick up some ideas here that you can leverage to land your new job that much more quickly.

My career has been exclusively in the realm of Sales & Marketing.  I was blessed to start my work life with two terrific companies, Xerox and Dun & Bradstreet, both who provided me with training I still use to this day. I have spent the bulk of the last 20 years with three of the largest marketing research companies in the world, having personally led the engagement teams for clients like P&G, Coca-Cola, and Samsung.  Needless to say, you learn a lot about Marketing from these world-class brands.  And maybe the most important thing I’ve learned is that there is a process for growing a brand.  These companies didn’t become household names by chance.  They understand the process for identifying needs, developing products and services that satisfy those needs, and then executing smart sales and marketing strategies to win in the marketplace.

The Process

The very good news for you today is that many of the same principles these brands use, you can apply to your job search and that’s what we’re going to learn about in this course called Making Your Own Weather™.  This system is rooted in being proactive. If you don’t like the rainy job search parade you’ve been a part of, then you need to learn how to make some sunshine. MYOW is about not being a victim but learning the things you can do TODAY to start to take control of your future.  Your Attitude is absolutely key.  This is about much more than positive self-talk or other tricks to temporarily get out of a funk.  You will learn how to confront and control both Fear and Confusion, the twin clouds that loom in the job seekers mind.

We will learn about developing your Message, how to craft and express your brand in compelling ways - your skills and accomplishments, your passions and interests, the problems you solve for potential employers.  You’ll stop fumbling when someone asks you to “tell me about yourself”. You’ll know what you should and shouldn’t have on your resume, and how to tell the stories during the interview that will get you the job.

Once your Message has been developed, you are ready to begin Outreach. You’ll learn how to network much more effectively by setting the right tone during a meeting, practicing what I call “good networking hygiene” and how to open doors that aren’t naturally open.  Employers are looking for creative problem solvers and we’ll learn how to create outreaches to targeted companies that get read and responded to by hiring managers, not ignored by resume-reading bots.  We’ll look at how you can organize your search to keep you on track.  Your job right now is getting a job and how you go about your search speaks volumes to potential employers about how you’ll go about your new job, so process matters.

Lastly, we will look at how to close the deal once you’re in an active Interviewing cycle.  I like to say, “The resume might get you the interview but the stories you tell will get you the job.” There is an art and science to framing the conversation you want to have with the interviewer that best casts your qualifications to meet the requirements of the role. When you are engaged in an active interview cycle, you may feel a ton of pressure to perform flawlessly, to be perfect, to not blow it.  We’re going to look at some principles and tools to make that pressure go away and instead fill you with a sense of confidence that employers will find irresistible.  The VERY good news is that you only need one job!  Unlike a company that needs to add more and more customers every year, you only need one prospect to say Yes.

Maybe it’s important to state at the outset, but I don’t have pixie dust or other magic to offer you.  What we’re going to talk about requires work on your part.  There is no shortcut and if someone tells you there is, well, it’s just not true.  We're going to focus on real strategies that will result in you getting a better job faster™.

Topics we will cover in this course

LESSON 1:  Attitude – Keeping an Even KEEL

LESSON 2: Attitude - Community

LESSON 3: Message – 4 C’s

LESSON 4: Message – Bake a Cake, Cherry on Top

LESSON 5: Message – Your Resume (Adjectives are not Accomplishments)

LESSON 6: Outreach – Most Powerful Question You Can Ask

LESSON 7: Outreach – How You Go About Your Search

LESSON 8:  Outreach – Making Your Own Weather

LESSON 9: Interviewing – Research & Preparation

LESSON 10: Interviewing – STAR (The Stories You Tell Will Get You the Job)

LESSON 11: Closing the Deal