Attacking the Boomer Blah-Blah-Blah

I’ve been around a while, and I’ve spent a lot of time around academics and Extremely Smart People. Along the way I’ve picked up the habit of using big words when small ones will do.

Today I have managed to read a few things that collectively make the case to simplify and energize one’s resume, cover letters, and online profiles. That shouldn’t be news, but as I look at what I’ve put out there, I realize that it comes nowhere near to conveying my excitement about what I do. In fact, it’s not entirely CLEAR what I do.

I have experience, yes, and I’ve been around a while, but my materials are as exciting as a dictionary! It’s time to stop droning on like a Boomer (I’m a late Boomer) and convey the passion and confidence that makes me an asset!

Two pieces you should check out too if you are in the job market- and especially if you are “mature” and entrenched in Boomer-Talk.

From the Employer’s Point of View: Get it Right in the Cover Letter

Guy Kawasaki on making over his LinkedInProfile

 

America’s What Not to Wear Apprentice

I’ve had a couple of great interviews lately BUT one must not wait for outcomes, one must keep searching and building and networking and all that good stuff. As I continue to contemplate the Subtle Mysteries of the Personal Brand OR How I Can Add Value to your Job/Life/Organization/Planet I wish I had the following resources:

Someone who will pay me to get back in Shape so that I can compete with Gen Y (America’s Biggest Loser?)

An image consultant (What Not to Wear?)

A marketing department (The Apprentice?)

Here I am! I am a reality show waiting to be discovered!

 

It’s a dessert topping AND a floor wax: Branding and the mid-career professional

There’s a great old SNL skit with Gilda Radner and Dan Akyroyd arguing about a new product called Shimmer. The day is saved by Chevy Chase (see Spokesman below):

Wife: New Shimmer is a floor wax!
Husband: No, new Shimmer is a dessert topping!
Wife: It’s a floor wax!
Husband: It’s a dessert topping!
Wife: It’s a floor wax, I’m telling you!
Husband: It’s a dessert topping, you cow!
Spokesman: [ enters quickly ] Hey, hey, hey, calm down, you two. New Shimmer is both a floor wax and a dessert topping! Here, I’ll spray some on your mop.. [ sprays Shimmer onto mop ] ..and some on your butterscotch pudding. [ sprays Shimmer onto pudding ]
[ Husband eats while Wife mops ]
Husband: Mmmmm, tastes terrific!
Wife: And just look at that shine!

—————————-

I am a dessert topping and a floor wax. I have a boatload of skills that transfer to a variety of areas. But how do I convey that?

For the last few years marketing has been all about branding. I don’t know if it’s still a hot topic for marketers, but in the Brave New World of Job-Hunting one must, it has been said, have a brand. When hundreds of people apply for single openings in a company, one had better stand out.

Like many folks of my certain age (48) who have worked a long time, I struggle not only to figure out where I am going next but how to characterize who I am now. Yes, I have a boatload of skills that transfer to different arenas, but no one wants to hear that. A potential employer wants to hear what you can do for them. So, my question is this: if one has decided to jobhunt in different arenas, what happens to one’s brand? Am I to be in one arena a dessert topping, and in the other, a floor wax?

 

What I’m Doing During my Unemployment “Vacation”

This week I had a very good job interview and am more hopeful than ever that my stint as a jobless person is coming to an end. I’m taking a moment to take stock of what I have done in these months- just in case I DON”T find employment soon, I need to feel that these have not been wasted months. And I’ll refer back to the words I’ve referred to as goalposts for this year.

CREATE

In these past few months I’ve begun to create a social media presence in three ways. I’ve bolstered my linkedin account, done a little blogging, and established myself on Twitter. I’ve created separate resumes and cover letters for each and every job to which I’ve applied, and there have been many. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I should be saying and doing on these forums.

MAXIMIZE

I’ve had a lot of time to give and I’ve used it with my immediate family, spending time with Husband in NYC, more time with my teenage daughter, and many sleepovers and dinners with my Mom. The last is particularly important to me. I’ll be working again soon, and there won’t be time for dinners and sleepovers any more. She now has lots of memories of evenings spent in front of dinners she has made, cooking once again for family, of “tubing it” and hanging around, of buying treats and toys for my dog, who always comes with me, and setting out snacks for my daughter. These things didn’t happen when I was working, and when I go back to work they won’t happen, but for these few months Mom has gotten some quality time. I feel good about that.

I am finally learning how to maximize social media and have started to make some very strong connections, related at present to networking and career stuff, but which will in the long run set the stage for a network of friends and resources to supplement what I already have.

MODEL

Here there is less to consider, it’s only recently that I’ve started to share what I know for about, e.g., twittering, with a few people to help get them started. I know I need to work on modeling healthy behavior for my daughter, and in these, the hopefully closing days of my unemployment, I will make progress.

 

New tools for creating one’s world

IN the effort to find and/or create my right livelihood I’ve been using tools that are relatively new in the scheme of things, and some that are fairly well entrenched now. Facebook, linkedin, and twitter are fabulous ways to connect with like-minded people all over the place, and in the process, help one to define oneself and refine one’s (dare I say it) personal brand. I don’t have a personal brand yet but I do appreciate the concept as an anchor for all these tools, and for my blog, and indeed for my resume.

It’s hard to settle on a brand. For one thing, making that decision has the emotional feel of being cast in stone, and in times like these one desperately wants to be able to transfer marketable skills wherever they might be useful. But, in a country increasingly full of talented professional jobless folk, one has to transmit some kind of clear message or risk being seen as shiftless.

 

3 Guiding Lights for my 2009

Thanks again to Blogger Chris Brogan who laid out a pretty convincing rationale for selecting three words to guide one’s action in the new Year, in lieu of the ever ineffective New Year’s Resolutions concept. After thinking for a day or two I have my three. And I like them very much.

Create

Creation, the crown jewel of my guiding lights. As (evidently) said by George Bernard Shaw, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” In holding up the mantra CREATE I seek not only to become more creative on a daily basis, but I also own the fact that my life is something I create. Moreover, I can do even the most mundane of things in a more creative way. I can seek out the company and wisdom of others who share creative leanings.

Maximize

I wanted to say something about being the best I can be, whatever I am doing. If I am working, I should do it as best as I can. If I am not working (as in, NOW) I should be making the best possible use of my time to improve myself and improve life for others, especially my family. So, Maximize (and maximizing creatively is pretty fun too).

Model

I often forget that I am a role model for others, especially my daughter. Some days I feel I have failed to model positive behaviors in say, health and organization areas. I have achieved a lot, and I have earned a lot, and with those “lots” comes the responsibility to be a role model. Modeling also, for me, includes mentoring, helping others to reach their goals to the extent that I can.

I plan to reflect on these concepts and apply them day to day, and in doing so, I know I will grow and benefit in 2009!  What will YOUR guideposts be?

 

2009 and Three Words

The Englishman has a newer, larger, cleaner apartment outside NYC, with no view and no furniture. We camped out there for a couple of days with only a futon, a TV, one chair, a parrot and a westie. When a place is small and uncluttered, the car safely parked, the internet silenced and snow falling, simple pleasures like scrounging up dinner and hanging out with your best friend become that much easier to enjoy. And so we watched a twilight zone marathon, fell asleep early and woke up to a leisurely new year’s day drive back to New England. That is how we started our year- peacefully and slowly, together.

Three Words

And the calendar has turned over to  2009. THIS year I have a new framework, borrowed from blogger Chris Brogan.  Every year Chris selects three words that provide a framework for his day-to-day actions- not goals or resolutions, but guiding lights/signposts. You can find his philosophy here. Great stuff! In between applying for jobs (just finished one to the National Patient Safety Foundation) I’ve been thinking about my three words. One will of course be “create”. I’ve been mulling over something like “simplify” but I want to get closer to something more pragmatic- organizing and decluttering- my physical surroundings, my body and my mind. I’m not sure that weight loss and decluttering are captured in “simplify”. I’m also thinking about “model” where model implies “being the change one wants to see” and also captures the idea that I am a role model for my daughter and others in my life, so I should be more aware and more fully elevate that function in my life.

Try this exercise out for yourself. It’s inspiring and thought-provoking, and a fabulous way to procrastinate too.

 

Creating brief moments of one’s own heaven

Things have been really tough lately but from time to time I become aware of moments of heaven, so I will try to capture them when I can. Here is this evening’s little piece of heaven:

warm house with the wood stove slowly glowing along

candles of course

pungent smells of garam marsala filling the air (cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cardamom, garlic, nutmeg, and so much more)

favorite tunes playing (U2 .. van Morrison… Erykah Badu…)

and waiting for my love to come home.

 

Obama and creative expression

Yesterday our nation made history by electing its first African-American president. I’m enormously proud, and humbled, and worried, and excited. Other Americans feel this way too, and it’s been fun to see today’s editorial cartoons, hear songs,  and take in how people have relied on sound and image to express what their words cannot.

Here are some great op-ed cartoons as compiled by the Boston Globe- And videos:

Beautiful Day

Change is Beautiful

Student Views of November 4, 2008

Part of Obama’s magic is his own expressiveness. He is not afraid to inspire and manages to connect with people emotionally without seeming insincere. Those gifts, and his personal history, have hit the mark in a way we haven’t seen in this country in decades.

 

Clutter and Creativity

I’ve been spending time putting stuff out on the curb, freecycling, throwing things away. It’s going very slowly. Things are distracting, and each thing asks for at least one decision: stay or go. Sometimes a thing asks for a joint decision to be made by Englishman and myself. Sometimes a thing is to be kept, and then the next decision is “where”.  Sometimes the thing needs to be disposed of in different ways. I am finding that I am not inclined to try to sell things. That means more decisions (how much? where to advertise?) and then further delay in the goal: decluttering.

So the process to making things on the scale that I would like includes a prolonged and very necessary first step: clearing the decks. Things that are clean and empty, and things that are beautiful- these inspire creativity. Things that are vexing or high maintenance or ugly drain energy and waste time. Big free spaces inspire movement and thought: just watch a dog on the beach in the cool weather. Zoe for example races back in forth, joyfully,  in the free space. Blank canvas or paper have the same effect on people: energy moves, ideas flow.

Mind you, losing my job was not on the list of ways to declutter. But I do have brief moments, in between the long periods of being overwhelmed and anxious, where I see the clear canvas of my livelihood, ready to be filled with something new.