Ask Marcia, the Transition Chick

Social Networking-why bother?

I just read a blog-(weblog) on how employers/companies view social networking...
They think it has value & can serve as a best practices discussion, professional development, even helping retention by the employees having a community of employees that share being in an industry/position/ job seeking tips-within their company or in general.

So, why not use LinkedIn or MySpace, Yahoogroups...to help your job search?  You tap into the Hidden Job Market & begin networking!  80% of jobs are found through networking!

I'm dabbling in LinkedIn-wanna network? :)

In Abundance!
Marcia

Job Search & support...

I'm currently teaching my Get Hired Now or Hire Yourself! Telesries (next one starts next year-Jan. 10th!)  We discuss the job search process step by step... Some of the best things seem to be the support of the group (their team) & the on-going accountability to keep on track & follow the personalized Action Plan we devised together.

Whether it's a program, like mine or a fellow job seeker or a job club...that support makes a big difference!

I conduct/facilitate a CareerChat Meetup Group each 1st Wed. of the month at a local coffee place, The Evergreen at 2pm.  We meet, it' informal, a Q&A on all aspects of the job search, resume writing, company research, interviewing, career change...whatever!

Go to www.careerheromovie.com-it's an animation of the job search process I did!

You don't have to ride the "finding a job" roller coaster!  Get support-you don't have to go it alone!

In Abundance!

Marcia

www.eCareerCorner.com  Sign up for your FR*EE Transition Trimph Toolkit today!

i'm making a huge transition, wanna see...

Come & see what I've been up to http://www.wiifm.ws/index.php?paged=3  Planning to transition to Wordpress as now I'm quite used to it!

I've been doing this since Sun nite!

And you think Job search is a full time job!:)  More on this...shortly!

 

 

 

In Abundance!

Marcia -Listen at my Media Room-I'm on another radio show! Listen at www.v1370.com or www.WomanTalkLive.com, too!

Marcia Merrill,CCMC,JCTC

Marcia the Transition Chick!

Career/Life Transitions Coach

http://www.eCareerCorner.com

410-467-0811 (cell)410-303-6371 (fax)1-443-836-2402

Fall in love with your LIFE & your work! (in that order!)

Sign up for my FR*EE Transition Triumph Toolkit www.transitionchick.com

Watch Career Hero-Be prepared to be entertained-Careful, you might learn something!

www.careerheromovie.com Coming soon...

** Get Hired Now! or Hire Yourself! You can still join!

Class started Tues, Sept 18 @7pm EST- only 6 students max. (4 spots already taken)... Next one starts Jan. 10, 2008!

Includes seven -one hour sessions & a cookbook-approach manual to help with your career search...This small group teleseries is designed to decrease your stress, increase your happiness, keep you on track, prevent overwhelm & get unstuck, move forward to a Job/Life that FITS!

Easy to follow 28-day Action Plan & Proven System-Guaranteed to produce results IF you put in the effort & follow through!

www.eCareerCorner.com/transitions/gethired.htm

___________________________________________

Contact me for your 25 min. coaching strategy session-only 1 buck-less than a cup of coffee/latte…

Sessions by phone with follow up emails/mail/fax. Appts. arranged to Suit Your Needs!!

Book Signings Meet the Author (ME!) Sept. 20 6-8pm www.WomansIndustrialexchange.org

Sept. 27 th 6-8pm Meet The Author-informal Meet & Mingle Mystickal Voyage www.mystickalvoyage.com

Life-career, being a part, is All about change...

Life has been on "warp-speed!"  In a week, I'll have an animated video-Career Hero-you can see a quick YouTube video at my web site!   Scroll about 1/3 way down-on right! 

Why am I telling you all this?  It's all about Transitions!  One of the Team leaders in my product class is 74... another, 24, but, most are midlife/boomer women, like me, & like the majority of my coaching clients!

Career change, be it truly changing career fields, or changing jobs or going from career to entrepreneur...they are all about change.

This boomer has been & will continue to be changing...has book-signing gigs all over Baltimore-on my new Events on my www.eCareerCorner.com web site!  All my books will be for purchase & also on Marketplace on the web site!

And, here's another BIG change!  Once I get back from a meeting with my joint venture partner on putting together a telesummit, (more later-shh!)  Well, about Sept. 29th, I'm launching the Transition Chick Chat radio show on the Internet!  Another change!

Change is a part of life-how you respond to change is a typical question on every employer's mind...As a savvy job seeker-you can talk of how you handled change in your industry, career, why you decided on changing career fields-whatever is your story & helps "sell" you to a prospective employer.   You've probably experienced Lots of Transitions...changes. 

I know this summer has been one of learning & growing & changes for me!

What would you say about change in an interview?  Read "Who Moved My Cheese?"  a short, but great book on how we all deal with change!

 

 

 

In Abundance!

Marcia -Listen at my Media Room-I'm on another radio show! Listen at www.v1370.com or WomanTalkLive.com, too!

 

Marcia Merrill,CCMC,JCTC

Marcia the Transition Chick!

Career/Life Transitions Coach

http://www.eCareerCorner.com

410-467-0811 (cell)410-303-6371 (fax)1-443-836-2402

 

Fall in love with your LIFE & your work! (in that order!)

 

**Starting next classes Sept 18 @7pm EST-Get Hired Now! or Hire Yourself! Sign up to get notified when you can register!

Includes seven -one hour sessions & a cookbook-approach manual to help with your career search...This small group teleseries is designed to decrease your stress, increase your happiness, keep you on track, prevent overwhelm & get unstuck, move forward to a Job/Life that FITS!

Easy to follow 28-day Action Plan & Proven System-Guaranteed to produce results IF you put in the effort & follow through!

Sign up at www.eCareerCorner.com/transitions/gethired.htm

 

___________________________________________

Contact me for your complimentary 25 min. coaching strategy session

marcia@ecareercorner.com 

Sessions by phone with follow up emails/mail/fax. Appts. arranged to Suit Your Needs!!

 

Get 7 FR*EE Lessons from Teachers in The Secret!

http://www.lawofattractionthinking.com

5 Guaranteed Ways to blow an interview...

I'm all about helping my clients with job search "roller coaster".  My Get Hired Now Teleseries  (http://www.eCareerCorner.com/transitions/gethired.htm)is designed to combine accountability with support & guidance all in a small group(6 people max!) environment!

We speak of interviewing Do's & Dont's-folks always remember the Donts! :)

These are sure things, GUARANTEED to bomb in an interview!

1.    Be negative!  Find something to complain about-the traffic, the job requirements...Whining works wonders, too!

2.    Exaggerate what your skills are-so what, if you don't know EXCEL...you can fake it, right?  Wrong!
Now, if you've worked with similar programs, learned quickly, feel confident you will quickly be proficient-fine...But saying you're an EXCEL expert?  Not!

3.    Talking, but not listening to the interviewer's questions.  After all, every interview is the same, so why listen anyway?  The interview can be a conversation-talking & listening-2 ears, 1 mouth-Think about it!

4.    Be such a cocky "know-it-all!  Strengths?  Of course, you have a ton!  Weaknesses-never!  Not any!   You have nothing to learn...You're a perfect person!  No one is...

5.    Just go in cold.  You're good at thinking on your feet, right?  Why be prepared?

BONUS-Make sure your references never check out-better yet, lie on your resume and about your past work history!

If you do ANY of these, the interviewer's radar is alerted!  Do all of these & guaranteed, you'll get to do it all again...you'll still be interviewing...

How many are you "guilty" of?

In Abundance!
Marcia The Transition Chick!
Career/Life Transitions Coach
www.eCareerCorner.com

What not to do in an interview or in life...

DON'T be a pest!  Following up even twice but not day after day!  That's quite ok!  But repeated calls-after told you didn't get that job-made that transition to a different career...It's even fine to call and ask for feedback to learn from about the interview-they may give it to you!  If not, by all means, don't call again-give it a week at least!  I just got my THIRD full of hype canned phone call from a well-known internet marketing guru!  I recently spoke on a Team call for this (products class I'm in)of how I really despise recorded phone call messages from the mega stars in my field.  I know Internet Marketing isn't the only way...nor is calling cold to get interviews!  You do get talked of and must be ready to be shot down or speak to the hiring manager...

YOUR EMAILS AND MESSAGE MACHINE should be representative of you-same for your email address...stinky4ever is hardly a good first impression.  you have to be there even when you're not alone!   I have a pet peeve with Internet-marketing!  The personal touch... Not being really there and hawking a new program by recording??  I don't feel unique, special or all warm & fuzzy and I'm very likely to not hang on to even listen to the tinny well-crafted marketing hype!

I think they've just lost touch with their customers and it's just a numbers game...Not personal at all.

My teachers of this class talk about helping the customer consume your product, emailing or calling( REALLY CALLING!) & asking how they're doing so far-giving helpful hints- on the phone or through autoresponders -shopping cart system, on how to get the most out of the ebook, program, mp3 set...whatever.

I had a question about his BlogWild affiliate-something didn't work... (now it does!) Andy Wibbels-super blog guru-get his book !  He called me-and it was really him...to check I got everything all right.
I bought Mastering Camtasia & Chris Austin, the creator, personally phoned to see how I was doing.
Mitch, a cool info-products and Internet Marketing guru has called to see how I liked his coaching program and Michael Port, the guy to call when you're tired of thinking small... has responded personally to emails.

That's impressive.  I know how happy my customers get & how shocked they are that I called or replied...

Customer service is important-I think even more important in this digital world!

(Links are my affiliate ones, but I'm a happy customer or I wouldn't recommend them!)

so, remember to smile, be sincere-you did lots for creating a warm, fuzzy feeling

People hire folks they have trust and feel the open-endedness but still want skilled workers

In Abundance!

Marcia Merrill

www.eCareerCorner.com

DON'T be a pest!  Following up even twice but not day after day!  That's quite ok!  But repeated calls-after told you didn't get that job-made that transition to a different career...It's even fine to call and ask for feedback to learn from about the interview-they may give it to you!  If not, by all means, don't call again-give it a week at least!  I just got my THIRD full of hype canned phone call from a well-known internet marketing guru!  I recently spoke on a Team call for this (products class I'm in)of how I really despise recorded phone call messages from the mega stars in my field.  I know Internet Marketing isn't the only way...nor is calling cold to get interviews!  You do get talked of and must be ready to be shot down or speak to the hiring manager...

YOUR EMAILS AND MESSAGE MACHINE should be representative of you-same for your email address...stinky4ever is hardly a good first impression.  you have to be there even when you're not alone!   I have a pet peeve with Internet-marketing!  The personal touch... Not being really there and hawking a new program by recording??  I don't feel unique, special or all warm & fuzzy and I'm very likely to not hang on to even listen to the tinny well-crafted marketing hype!

I think they've just lost touch with their customers and it's just a numbers game...Not personal at all.

My teachers of this class talk about helping the customer consume your product, emailing or calling( REALLY CALLING!) & asking how they're doing so far-giving helpful hints- on the phone or through autoresponders -shopping cart system, on how to get the most out of the ebook, program, mp3 set...whatever.

I had a question about his BlogWild affiliate-something didn't work... (now it does!) Andy Wibbels-super blog guru-get his book !  He called me-and it was really him...to check I got everything all right.
I bought Mastering Camtasia & Chris Austin, the creator, personally phoned to see how I was doing.
Mitch, a cool info-products and Internet Marketing guru has called to see how I liked his coaching program and Michael Port, the guy to call when you're tired of thinking small... has responded personally to emails.

That's impressive.  I know how happy my customers get & how shocked they are that I called or replied...

Customer service is important-I think even more important in this digital world!

(Links are my affiliate ones, but I'm a happy customer or I wouldn't recommend them!)

so, remember to smile, be sincere-you did lots for creating a warm, fuzzy feeling

People hire folks they have trust and feel the open-endedness but still want skilled workers

In Abundance!

Marcia Merrill

www.eCareerCorner.com

Your resume, don't leave home without it...

This past week, I did two rush resumes to meet deadlines-both career change candidates.  Both had not updated their resumes.
Tip-just put your new position and responsibilities on a resume in a file so you always have it ready, current & can send it that same day to answer a job posting or networking contact who will hand-deliver your resume!  It happens!

All's well, they got resumes, feel ready, I know they're both now, very marketable and the resume shows this!
And now, they both want cover letters!  And resume tweaks to tailor it to each position.

If you needed it now, is your resume ready to go?

In Abundance!
Marcia -Listen at my Media Room-I'm on another radio show!  Listen at www.v1370.com or WomanTalkLive.com, too!

Marcia Merrill,CCMC,JCTC
Marcia the Transition Chick!
Career/Life Transitions Coach
http://www.eCareerCorner.com
410-467-0811  (cell)410-303-6371   (fax)1-443-836-2402

Fall in love with your LIFE & your work! (in that order!)

**Starting next classes Sept 18 @7pm EST-Get Hired Now! or Hire Yourself! Sign up to get notified when you can register!
Includes seven -one hour sessions & a cookbook-approach manual to help with your career search...This small group teleseries is designed to decrease your stress, increase your happiness, keep you on track, prevent overwhelm & get unstuck, move forward to a Job/Life that FITS!
Easy to follow 28-day Action Plan & Proven System-Guaranteed to produce results IF you put in the effort & follow through!
Sign up at www.eCareerCorner.com/transitions/gethired.htm

___________________________________________
Contact me for your complimentary 25 min. coaching strategy session
marcia@ecareercorner.com 
Sessions by phone with follow up emails/mail/fax.  Appts. arranged to Suit Your Needs!!

Get 7 FR*EE Lessons from Teachers in The Secret!
http://www.lawofattractionthinking.com

Be prepared for the unexpected...

This is from personal experience.  I was unexpectedly stranded in Houston-mechanical problems with plane...no luggage-had to stay overnight-airline put me up-but, I got to thinking-what if I had an interview the next day??

So, for those job seekers who ever travel for an interview, here's some pointers I knew, but forgot!
1. Always pack a change of undies in your carry-on, a toothbrush and toothpaste also go in there.

2. In this age of cellphones-put the cellphone charger in that carry-on as well.      

3. A change of clothes would be just great!

I try to travel light so, extra clothes wasn't an option!

You should call the company you have the interview with ASAP-hey, it's not your fault-no one can blame you...it just is!

If you can swing it and have time to get another outfit- go to Walmart or find a good sale, go for it...If not, go to hotel, take a shower,  shave, for the guys, if can, -be as presentable as possible...

Hey, sadly, most people (employers, too) have had some time like this one, and should understand!
It may even "break the ice" & build rapport faster...and, that's what you want!  It's how you handle this situation that shows "grace under pressure", flexibility, sense of humor, and your humanity.  Don't sweat it!
Love to hear if you have had any experiences like this.

In Abundance!
Marcia -Listen at my Media Room-I'm on another radio show!  Listen at www.v1370.com or WomanTalkLive.com, too!

Marcia Merrill,CCMC,JCTC
Marcia the Transition Chick!
Career/Life Transitions Coach
http://www.eCareerCorner.com
410-467-0811  (cell)410-303-6371   (fax)1-443-836-2402

Fall in love with your LIFE & your work! (in that order!)

**Starting next classes Sept 18 @7pm EST-Get Hired Now! or Hire Yourself! Sign up to get notified when you can register!
Includes seven -one hour sessions & a cookbook-approach manual to help with your career search...This small group teleseries is designed to decrease your stress, increase your happiness, keep you on track, prevent overwhelm & get unstuck, move forward to a Job/Life that FITS!
Easy to follow 28-day Action Plan & Proven System-Guaranteed to produce results IF you put in the effort & follow through!
Sign up at www.eCareerCorner.com/transitions/gethired.htm

___________________________________________
Contact me for your complimentary 25 min. coaching strategy session
marcia@ecareercorner.com 
Sessions by phone with follow up emails/mail/fax.  Appts. arranged to Suit Your Needs!!

Get 7 FR*EE Lessons from Teachers in The Secret!
http://www.lawofattractionthinking.com

      

Blogging's not just for entrepreneurs...

Ever hear of digital dirt?  That's when your blog or comments on another blog or an unfavorable article online or misquote-it's there!  But, did you know that 60-70%of employers Google their candidates!

Showing your expertise-writing about your field of interest makes for a compelling blog post!
Many employers/coworkers may find your blog & read bits.  And with Andy Wibbels EasyBake weblogs course
was soo worth it!  Through easy, step-by-step classes-all by phone & an online forum to use to connect &  get ongoing feedback from other colleagues & Andy, on occassion.  I am so glad i took this blogging course-I set up my first blog ever in 15 mins-now, i do another one, too.  Both using Typepad.  Take his blogging course-starts Mon.  Here's my affiliate link for his blogging course.

So, what are you waiting for-can you do it without someone  helping you make connections-may lead to a job!

In Abundance!
Marcia the Transition Chick!

Staying positive while feeling stuck!

This summer has been one of flus, viruses, colds & falls.  I fell last week-forgive my absence!

 

We often feel overwhelmed so we don’t even try to begin. Is it hard to start?  Of course it is! I won’t lie to you!  Many speak of this-I'm here to say feeling stuck is natural.  Staying stuck doesn't help.

Not starting, results in feeling “stuck”. I hear this all the time. I know we feel that we’re the only one…but, hey many say they feel stuck! About 90-95% of my new clients tell me that’s why they decided to get coaching.

Starting’s the hard part. It takes courage to even say to yourself-I’m beginning. It may be the 5^th time-it may be your very first-it’s like doing anything that is a change…Quitting fried foods, beginning an exercise program, deciding to leave a job, go & find a career that fits. start a business…They’re all beginnings and a change from what was-what we’ve grown accustomed to…

As a writer & teacher, I know the horrors of the blank page & feeling stuck-somewhat lost as how to begin… I know what I’m meant to do-I love coaching and am a Transitions expert. I dread thinking of that unwritten speech or the product/service yet to be invented, the books I’ve yet to write & the teleclasses I’ve yet to offer.  I’m a creator/innovator  & know it’s natural to be stuck in the place of beginning. And, of course, everyone who wants to change-be it job/career, being a solo-entrepreneur or in “transition” is the creator of their own life! We can get so stuck there that we don't even start.

What if what I write/draw/speak and it (pardon my French!) sucks? What if my family/friends say I’m nuts for leaving this job/marriage/town? What if they laugh at me starting/running a business?  But, so what? How will you know you can do it-if you never begin? It’s a given, some time, you will FAIL, be a total flop-close on Opening Night! (I’m a theatre buff!) What would happen if we just came to terms that Failure is possible-even probable…So is fear of this. But, as one of my favorite quotes-reminds us…Feel the Fear & do it anyway! 

Especially, when it comes to the job search.  It's hard not to feel hopeful after a good interview...depressed after a not so interview!  But, the mere act of starting the job search "roller coaster" and refusing to mope at home just relying on the online job boards...Hey, there's more to the job search than online.  It's networking.  It's putting yourself out there & you're going to hear no.  That's a given.  Now, all pressure is off.

Failure is a part of success, but if we don’t risk failure enough we may not be as successful as we could be.

In Abundance!

Marcia