By Career Coach, Meredith Haberfeld

Whether you’re about to be dumped out of your current position or bored to screaming point by work that used to be gratifying, one way to stay ahead of the unsettling see-saw of a career transition is careful preparation.

Most people find life transitions intimidating, especially on the work front. But now is actually a prime time to lean toward the next fulfilling adventure in your career.

Here are 10 steps that will help get you where you want to be going:

1.    Stay in reality: You need a well thought-out financial plan for your transition, including the time frame by which you want to be in your next job, and how long you can freely explore without running low on funds.  Important: take the time to do the math up front.  If you have six months worth of financial padding then the plan has to accommodate being situated in a new job where your basic life needs are taken care of in that amount of time.  (That’s not to say you can’t pursue a parallel path if your savings are insufficient, of course, but you may have to stick with your current employer or find an interim position that pays the bills while continuing to work toward your goal.) Don’t be impatient, be strategic.

2.    Hone in: Do a brainstorming-around your ideal dream job to hone down career choices.

a. Write out the elements you like in your previous work (e.g. being with people, exercising leadership, doing email, etc).

b. What elements do you want in your career that you have not yet had in your day to day job or from your total experience of working?

c. What elements do you want to not have in your next career?

d. How much money are you committed to making?

e. What jobs have you loved? And for each one, write out:

1. what you loved about it

2. anything you didn’t love about it

f. What are all the careers you’ve thought of in the last 5 years?
(Don’t worry about whether or not you have a PhD.  People think insularly.  Your task here is to broaden your thinking.)

1. Then, go back and make a bulleted list of each of the career choices, defining what it is about each career choice that interests you.

Examples:  Veterinarian–the pleasure of healing, being with animals.
Interior Designer—tapping into my artistic side, creating beautiful things and settings, working with people.

Notice how this leads you to a list of your own VALUES in your work life.

Choose the top 5-8 of the career choices that are most important to you. Now you have your list of ‘deal-breaker’ VALUES that must be there for you in your next job.
Then you can brainstorm and begin a fact-hunting mission to develop a written list of the handful of jobs/career choices that are a match for your ‘deal-breaker’ list.

3.    Soak up information like a sponge: Talk to everyone appropriate (which will be more people than you first imagine) about your interest in transitioning your career.  Most people are chasing a mirage, and far too often they make career choices based on fantasy thinking or simply on poor information.  Also our relationship to work is inevitably altered as we grow and change—the average person often makes several career changes over the course of a lifetime.  So being informed about such an important next step is vital.

“Live research” allows you to hone in on the very real elements you want to move way from and gravitate to the ones that you find match your desires. Get the word out to the people you know about what you’re interested in pursuing and ask them specifically who they know that would be useful for you to speak with.  Find every opportunity you can to talk with people who are in the jobs or fields for career choices you’re considering.

This is one of the MOST CRITICAL elements of a successful career transition and to make the right career choices, yet it is the piece that is most often missing.  Not only does this process refine your decision making, but the ancillary benefit is that the very individuals you reach out to for your “live research” become a critical part of your network that ultimately parlays you into your next job and career.

4.    Talk to people:  Get away from the computer!  Through every phase of your entire transition, authentically cultivate relationships.  This is the single most powerful force leading to successful job transitions.  Nurture and expand your network of friends. Don’t come off like you’re only interested in selling yourself but be sincere, get on their radar screen by fostering a genuine connection.

Go to industry conferences, parties, cocktails, morning breakfasts; and create and develop relationships.  Ask not what others can do for you, but what you can do for them.  This reciprocity will have you be “top of mind” when the right opportunity presents itself.

5.    The art of re-positioning yourself: If some of your career choices are in a new industry, spend time getting extremely clear about your “portable value”.  Know and be able to concisely communicate your unique worth and just how your skills will benefit your future industry and new employer.   Practice succinctly articulating – in your ‘elevator pitch’, as well as your resume – how your distinctive talents, abilities, and accomplishments perfectly position you for what you’re seeking to do.  Every person’s experience can be re-packaged to meet the demands of a new industry.  Spending the time to do this right makes an enormous difference     between success and failure.

6.    Find your ROI:  When preparing to look for a job in a new industry, clarify and focus on the measurable contributions to the bottom-line result you’ve achieved for your former or current employers, and show how it can work anywhere. Present your significant skills and explain how you’re ready to out-compete even in another industry. Every time you are asked “What do you do or want to be doing?” answer this question instead, “Why should you pay my salary?”

7.    Action: Daily action is required. Create a strategic plan for your transition; with daily, weekly, and monthly goals.  Start with where you want to end up:  figure out what you need to know about your new career and each possible career choice, and what you need to do to get there. Build a pipeline of actions from there. Actions can be small; but be in motion.

8.    Build in accountability: Get a partner to hold you to your plan and keep your word, without regard for disappointments or your mood.  Ask people to champion you when you face set-backs, but to hold you accountable for sticking to your daily actions and driving yourself forward.  Too often people get bogged down by disappointments and then buy into in the belief that the work world is too tough right now.  Daily actions that stretch you, and maintaining accountability to your plan not only reduce overwhelm and anxiety, they’re a powerful impetus to get you to your ultimate goal.

9.    Momentum: There is an “effort equation” when starting something new; for example, for every 100 ‘units’ of effort you put in, you can expect 1 result.  As you gain momentum, this equation improves, to perhaps 1 result for only 50 ‘units’ of effort in.  This means…play…put the energy in.  If you’re impatient, you may get discouraged by not seeing the results as quickly as you want.  But it is mathematical.  Put the energy in, consistently, no matter what, and the results start flowing in.

10.    Courage: When setting out to do something different you may have a crisis of confidence; a feeling like “I am a charlatan” or “There’s no way I can pull this off!”  There is often a period of time when you are gaining credibility within yourself.  Have patience during this phase and know this period is finite.  In the mean time, fake it.  Don’t be wishy-washy: when introducing yourself – statements like “I’m trying to be an author” or “I’m sort of working on becoming a therapist” sabotage you.   Get in the habit of saying, “I’m a writer” or “I’m a chef”.  Hear yourself say the words–listen to what you are and be proud. Once you get your feet under you for long enough, your this turns to genuine confidence.

A final note: The days of linear careers are over.  Be pragmatic; take all your differing agendas into account, including how much you need to be making, what you love and hate doing, the legacy you want to leave, the transition time you have available for making a career move.  This will help you make the right career choices.

When you finally free up your thinking and accept that reality and desire can be accounted for – you discover so much more is possible – and you get to real actionable answers.  Now it becomes a matter of breaking up the transition into ‘Lego pieces’; individual manageable blocks that build on one other to get you out of your head and into action, and in the direction you want to take.  The horizon then becomes limitless.

To contact Meredith, click here on Contact Page or call 866-599-6535.

So, you’re one of the lucky ones. Name on your office door. Extra-glossy business cards. A bit of seniority.
Think again.

While recent MBA grads prowling for work face the unenviable task of breaking into the financial ranks for the first time (gasp!), the barrage of layoffs that’s spread into the upper ranks of the industry in recent months shows that title-toting execs face a formidable challenge of their own – protecting their hides. The recession’s official, more jobs will be cut and there’s no reason to assume your’s won’t be one of them.

With such rosy thoughts in mind, the folks over at BusinessWeek put together a helpful video detailing some of the practical steps you can take to protect your job. One suggestion, courtesy of executive coach Meredith Haberfeld, is to throw conventional wisdom out the window.

Keeping a low profile during tough times, she says, does nothing to secure your future. “Work your tail off,” she insists.”But make your successes and results visible. Not empty results.” She also suggests you find ways to show you care about the company’s bottom line, not just your own.

Elsewhere, the Harvard Business Review offers slightly less selfless advice. “Machiavellian as it may seem, holding on to your job when the economy softens is a matter of cool strategic planning,” write Janet Banks and Diane Coutu. And in addition to thinking like a survivor, they, too, encourage old-fashioned hard work. “If you’re not already wearing multiple hats, start imagining how you can support your company by leveraging experience your boss may know nothing about.”

“Work your tail off,” keep a high profile, and find a mentor, veteran job coaches say

By Carl Winfield

August 4, 2008

These are uncertain times for the U.S. labor market. Companies such as Merrill Lynch ( MER ), Sony ( SNE ) and Alcatel-Lucent ( ALU ), which have either posted losses or greatly diminished profits, are cutting staff as financial pressures mount. And while the U.S. unemployment rate has held steady at 5.5% for the last two months, there are no guarantees that workers—especially those between ages 50 and 60—will be able to avoid further cutbacks.

This does not mean older employees should start looking for positions at the local Wal-Mart ( WMT ) or the neighborhood car wash. Many have experience and knowledge they can leverage to keep their jobs. But with staffing budgets increasingly under scrutiny, it may pay to be proactive. The first and most important move workers should make: Look for new experiences with their current employer.

“People like to do what they’re good at,” says Melaine Kusin, vice-chairman at Heidrick & Struggles ( HSII ). “But it’s just as important to volunteer for special projects and develop skills that can be applied to other parts of the business.”

“Be Visible”

Employees can raise their profiles when they make the effort to join special committees or even help organize a companywide social engagement. “Conventional wisdom may say that you should keep your head down, especially during an economic downturn” says Meredith Haberfeld , an executive coach in New York whose clients include Credit Suisse ( CS ) and JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ). “But my suggestion is that you work your tail off to be visible about the results you’re producing.” Haberfeld also suggests executives toot their own horns.

But other consultants, such as New York-based Dale Kurow, advise executives to be careful about what they say in the workplace. “You want to be the ’squeaky wheel’ in the sense that you’re proactive,” Kurow says. “But if you complain, you’re probably going to be the first one out the door.”

Becoming the life of the party may be a good way to call attention to yourself but, once all eyes are on you, workers have to put up or get shut out. The best way for executives to keep their jobs or move to the next level is to develop an understanding of the whole business, rather than the part that relates only to them.

“You need to take the lid off your thinking and take a look at how what you do relates to the rest of the business,” says Kurow. “If you don’t know how your part in the business is connected to the others, chances are you’re not going very far.”

Cultivate a Mentor

Workers who are more engaged with the day-to-day operations at their companies have a distinct advantage over those clock-punchers who focus solely on the tasks in their job descriptions. But staying in a job is also about building relationships. While it’s advisable to work well with your peers, it never hurts to develop a close relationship with a mentor, particularly with someone higher up who can help keep you out of harm’s way when the axman cometh.

“Partner with the CEO,” says Ana Dutra , CEO of the Leadership Development Solutions group for Korn/Ferry International ( KFY ), “and with the corporate leadership.”

The job market is getting tougher to negotiate for workers in all age groups. But according to coaches like Haberfeld , you can keep your job as long as you don’t mind maintaining a high profile. Establishing yourself as a leader could make the difference between moving up or being moved out.

“The main element in your career plan has to change from doing what you have to do to impress your superiors to doing what you have to do to impress yourself,” says Haberfeld .

When Lindsay North started working at Lehman Brothers 11 years ago she never expected that in her 40s she would be unemployed and networking nonstop.

But, as is the case with tens of thousands of others who have been laid off as a result of Wall Street’s turmoil, that is exactly how things panned out.

Being laid off in middle age can be devastating. But for some, like North, it is an opportunity to take stock of their lives, re-open old avenues or try something new.

“I’m really reassessing what I want to do with my life — and I have the time now to meet lots of different people outside my field,” North said. “It’s got me back to a lot of things I’ve been interested in for years but never got around to following up on.”

She is pursuing interests that she had when she was a student at the London School of Economics in the early 80s, such as social ventures and environmentalism.

But she is adamant not to let her experience in lehm real estate division fall by the wayside, perhaps going into environmental architecture.

“Maybe I would have got around to pursuing this eventually, but I have to take this chance now to really go for it,” she said.

Searching for employment at any age is tough, but for those over 40 it can be even more daunting, especially for those saddled with a mortgage and children’s tuition fees.

“After a while, you don’t want to be a novice in a field and people expect you to have a certain amount of expertise the older you are. Being a novice is harder the older you get,” North said.

Looking Around

North’s old firm, Lehman, is among the financial firms that have taken the biggest hit in the fallout from the U.S. mortgage crisis.

The financial sector as a whole has announced 85,258 job cuts so far this year, the most of any industry, according to a recent report by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

As a result, people are turning to some unusual places for help.

Colleges are reporting an increase in the number of financial industry professionals over 40 who have been getting back in touch, some of whom are wanting to change careers to be doctors, lawyers or teachers.

“The issue, though, is that the financial world puts these golden handcuffs on people and it is hard to go from $250,000 or more to being an English teacher for $80,000 or not even that,” said an alumni relations officer at a major U.S. college. She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing alumni privacy.

Attendance for career-oriented courses at a popular community and cultural center on the Upper East Side of Manhattan — an area where many Wall Street professionals live — has jumped 21 percent in the past year.

“Our adult education programs and personal growth lectures have become extremely popular,” said David Jacobson, adult education program associate at the 92nd Street Y, a community center, adding that attendees tended to be the 40-plus crowd.

The class “Ace Every Interview” sold out last month and another is on its fall schedule, Jacobson said.

Jumping Ship

Not everyone is waiting to be laid off.

After 12 years working in a mostly booming industry, Kevin Callaghan, 52, quit his job in commercial mortgage-backed securities at Barclays Capital in New York, to do an MBA in China.

“Rather than stay in an uncertain business environment and accept the almost-certain major hit to my compensation for the next few years, I decided that it was a better use of my time to sit out the rest of this downward spiral and try to retool myself over the next few years,” he said in an e-mail.

“Worst case is that I end up back in the U.S. in 18 months, well rested and ready to enter what I hope will be a better job market.”

For middle-aged people on Wall Street who experienced the stock market crash in 1987, the current round of job cuts is deja vu.

Right Management in New York, an outplacement firm that works with nearly every Wall Street firm, is seeing an influx of candidates from many of the largest institutions, the same as in 1987.

“What is different now, however, is that a large proportion of people have been through this before or know people who have been through this, so they have benchmarks to make a comparison,” said Edward Witherell, Right Management’s market vice president. “Fewer are panicking.”

Meredith Haberfeld, a life coach whose clients are at large banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as well as smaller boutique firms, said few respond well to forced change such as a layoff.

Years later, however, “people have usually found and recognized benefits of even the moves they were forced to make.”

North said she is taking her time and looking for the right thing. And, while she liked her job at Lehman, she is in no hurry to return to the financial industry.

“The deals are a lot slower at the moment and so you’re not doing the same thing anymore. It’s much more fun to do when you’re sort of winning.”

(Reuters)

February 9, 2009

More than 11 million Americans are currently out of work. So as the job pool shrinks, many are dusting off those old resumes. It’s a good first step when seeking a job.

Of course, there’s often more than a sheet of paper standing between you and your next job. You’ve also got to impress your would-be employer in the interview.

“Your resume may get you through the door,” says Mitchell Feldman, president of the New York-based executive search firm A.E. Feldman and Associates, “but you’ve got to sell yourself if you’re going to get hired.”

Foot-In-Mouth and Other Foibles

Selling yourself sounds easy, but for anyone who’s sat across the table from an interviewer, finding your “hire me” voice can be pretty difficult.

“I had one client who spent so much time trying to craft perfect answers to each question, that his body language was completely off,” says Meredith Haberfeld, a professional life coach and president of Meredith Haberfeld Coaching. “He was so nervous that he wasn’t connecting with the people he was interviewing with.”

Though Haberfeld was able to work with her client and help him land the job, a lot of job seekers let their discomfort show and unknowingly ruin the interview. Others arrive at the interview too stressed to perform at their best, or even worse, show up late.

“You’ve got to give yourself time to relax,” says Haberfeld. “When you get to an interview late or in the nick of time, you’re going to look and feel rushed. That’s not the impression that you want to leave a potential employer with.”

Here’s How to Make Them Say “Wow”

If you’re looking to make a splash in your next interview, here is a short list of tips that can take you from unemployment to, “When can you start?”

1. Dress to blend in, not to impress. You may have a taste for expensive heels but, if you’re going into a business casual environment, dressing up to the nines may, in fact, put some distance between you and the interviewer. Do some research on the corporate culture and mirror it. Employers don’t want to know what’s in your closet, but they are looking for assurances that you’ll fit in.
2. When in doubt, smile. Nobody likes to be around a dour person and even fewer people want to work shoulder-to-shoulder with one. Show your interviewer that you’re a nice, polite, well-mannered person who’s pleased to be in the office by smiling. “You don’t have to go overboard,” says Haberfeld. “But interviewers are looking for a connection, and you can get that by smiling.”
3. Remember, the interviewer is a person too. You’re not the only person in a room with someone they haven’t met. The interviewer is not the executioner, they’re just trying to find out more about you. Be cordial and considerate. More importantly, do your best to make them comfortable. Not only will they appreciate it, but it may end up landing you the job.
4. Mirror your interviewer’s tone. Having the ability to empathize with others will serve you well in the interview and in life at the office. Pay attention to your interviewer’s body language and tone and do your best to match it. If they’re upbeat, you’re upbeat. If they’re not, rein your excitement in a little bit so that you don’t unnerve them.
5. Have a good time. Meeting someone for the first time can be stressful, but there is no reason that it has to be. Treat your interview experience like a party: Meet people, shake hands and enjoy the free coffee, tea or water. The interview will go a lot quicker and, even if you don’t get the job, at least you’ll be able to say that you had a good time.