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Wondering how to explain Liaison to your friends?
Point 'em to our new FAQ section. Just click on "FAQ" at the
top of our resources page.
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Summer
2011
Welcome to the Fall 2011 issue of SWOOSH, the 14th installment of Liaison's newsletter created to help us
stay in touch with our favorite creative and marketing talent. We started SWOOSH in 2006 to provide helpful
links and our own insight to the career-minded person. We hope you find it helpful, and we always welcome your
feedback. -
The Liaison SWOOSH! News Team
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| Two Heads are Better Than One |
By Mark Caddell
Director of Operations, Liaison Resources, LP
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• Apply to 18 new jobs. Check.
• Connect with 45 new LinkedIn connections. Check.
• Read articles about improving my interviewing skills. Check.
• Dry clean interview clothes. Check
• Find a learning partner - Huh?
Looking for your next job or career move can be stressful. If you are like most job-free people, you are busy doing lots of things to get a job and keep food on the table.
I invite you to take a deep breath. (Seriously, do it, and then keep reading...)
That's better. I never take deep breaths myself unless someone encourages me, so thank you for playing along.
We've talked previously in Swoosh about how to apply to jobs, how to get interviews and how to ace the interview. We've given lots of nuts-and-bolts advice about how important it is to pay attention to the employers needs, not to rush to submit your application, and to be picky in your search for your next position. But sometimes when you're out of work or trying to leave an unsatisfying job, the only thing you can think about is how badly you want the next job. But to really succeed, you need to get out of that headspace, and into a more thoughtful place. Now that we're breathing deeply, in this article, I'll show you one good way to do that.
OK, Just so you'll take what I have to say seriously: I've been unemployed. More than once. While I had a child on the way. Two weeks after my car was totaled. Within a week of my wife losing her job. So, I get it. It's stressful.
When I was laid off by the CEO of the company I was working for a few years ago, I didn't think I'd ever speak to him again. I wasn't mad at him - he was a good guy, but I didn't imagine that we'd be "hanging out" anytime soon.
About a month after the fateful day, however, I accidently pressed his name on my phone thinking I was calling someone else. He answered. I froze. Do I hang up and hope he doesn't figure out who it is? Somehow, I uttered, "Hi! It's Mark". It was truly one of more awkward moments I can remember. We began to talk. He told me that he had recently resigned from the CEO position just a few weeks after I had left. I shared with him a book I was reading: What Color is Your Parachute. He was intrigued and asked if we could read the book and work the exercises together.
This was shaping up to be an extra-weird experience. I had just signed up for a career exploration with the guy who laid me off - I can't say that's happened to me before...or since.
So, I read the book, and he and I met on the phone to discuss. We decided to do the exercises in the back of the book, and then meet for lunch to discuss what we learned. It was a powerful experience in two ways: One, I now absolutely know for sure that you never know what's going to happen, and to be as graceful and poised as possible when moving out of an employment situation. Secondly, I noticed how much more I learned and enjoyed working with another person. We used What Color is Your Parachute, which I highly recommend. But there are many books, websites, and seminars that you can learn from with another person. For me, it makes a psychological and biological difference to be in the same boat - even if it looks like it is sinking!
I propose heading on over to Launch Pad Job Club if you live in Austin or any local job support group in your town. There will be many people with whom you can share a book, or article, or seminar, and reciprocate the learning. I promise that it will be a more powerful and meaningful experience than sitting at home perusing on-line articles and job boards all by your lonesome.
I always wondered why it was easier to workout, or study, or even do manual chores with someone else than alone. Or why does it feel so good to help your neighbor with moving in a new sofa?
In The Tree of Knowledge, authors Maturana and Valela have the academic answer: "What biology shows us is that the uniqueness of being human lies exclusively in a social structural coupling that occurs through languaging, generating the regularities proper to the human social dynamics, for example, individual identity and self-consciousness, and the recursive social human dynamics that entails a reflection enabling us to see that as human beings we have only the world which we create with others - whether we like them or not"(1).
(If you had to look up "recursive," you're in good company.)
In other words, as my Dad from West Texas used to say: "Mark, hang out with those kinda people you wanna be like."
However you express the idea, it makes sense. If you would like to "structurally couple" with a powerful career exercise by yourself or with another bright person, please check out the 2012 edition of What Color is Your Parachute. I used to think that the book didn't change much from year to year, but I picked up this new edition, and observed that it was significantly updated.
The most important part of What Color is Your Parachute for me was the exercises in the back. After I read the book, I went to the public library for two mornings in a row and completed the exercises. Afterwards, I had a helpful visual representation of my thinking and preferences about my next career move. It's called the "Flower Exercise". It was an effective way to center on what was important to me, my natural talents, the workspaces I prefer, and what social component to my next job that I would most enjoy. Ten years later, I still have my flower chart. I used it often when I was interviewing to help guide me to ask the questions that would best help me decide if the opportunity was a good fit.
According to my Dad and some really smart PhDs, two heads are better than one. How about this checklist instead:
• Meet someone new this week;
• Propose that you work together on reviewing a book or article, or read and work the exercises in What Color is Your Parachute together;
• Discover new and sometimes forgotten dimensions of your talents, ideal work environment, and vision for your life;
• Search for positions that match who you are, your skills, and what's important to you;
• Speak about your learning and experiences with others.
• Apply to 3 jobs after meticulous research.
Good luck!
(1) The Tree of Knowledge, 1987 by Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela
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