Author Archives: Laura Machan

I started the day today with five thank you notes.  Actually, I did them after my first two meetings.  I had them on my list yesterday but I just didn’t get to them.

It was not hard to come up with five people who needed recognition.  My local Women in Nuclear chapter hosted our Annual Conference a couple of weeks ago and there were a ton of people who contributed to an absolutely great day.

My notes were just brief emails – a bit like Jimmy Fallon does on Thursday nights.  I really didn’t think too much of it.  It only took a few minutes.

Guess what happened after I sent them?

Every time I came back to my desk, there was note back.  People appreciated getting the note but also took the opportunity to share what they enjoyed about the day as well.

I did not expect to get responses – that was not the point.  It was just to recognize a special effort made people who don’t have a lot of extra time on their hands.

That they responded in such a positive way was a real gift to me.  I filed each one in my Feel Good folder.  (Yes, I have one of those in my inbox).

This kind of genuine and spontaneous act can make a real difference in your career.  Not only is it totally uplifting to send a nice note, but it’s something that people really remember.  It’s the sort of differentiator that lends well to moving into more senior roles.  It is an indication of two things: that you can get your head out of your ass long enough to think about other people and that you can carve a few minutes out of your schedule to do something about it.

Trust me:  those two things will set you apart.

The holidays are coming and there will be plenty of opportunities to try this out. Can you fit in one nice note per week?

We have spent a lot of time over the last few months talking about the glass ceiling.  In this case, it was one of the biggest, thickest, glass ceilings in the world.  It did not get broken.

What about your own glass ceiling?  I talk to many people who tell me that they cannot advance their careers because of their current manager.

They hear things like “what would I do without you?” and “I don’t think you are ready for that role”.

The first one is tricky.  We take this as positive feedback to what we are doing.  We feel flattered so we go on our merry way, feeling good about staying in the same place.  But trust me, flattery is fleeting.  It will not get you through the tough days.

When a manager tells you are not ready, it may be more a reflection of their needs than of your abilities. 

Not all managers have your best interests at heart.  Some do and they are truly interested in supporting your career development.  Others are just more focused on their own objectives.  They probably don’t hold the doors for people either.

So, what do you do if you have the non-door holding type of manager?

Find a mentor – someone else in the organization who can help you navigate other areas and introduce you to new people. (Hint:  the lunchroom is a good place to start looking.)

Get a coach – talk to HR or your personal network about finding a coach who can help you identify your path forward and the steps to get there.

Talk to your manager – ask about the future of the company and your work group.  Find out what he/she sees happening and ask about how they see your role changing.  If there is no mention of a change for you, ask why and then ask the more important question:  what should you learn or do differently to change that?  How does he/she think you should go about it?

This should provide you with enough information to decide if your future lies within the organization or whether it’s time to start exploring and taking those head hunters calls.

Do you have any military veterans in your work group?  Are there any in your company?

As we stop and pause on Remembrance Day at 11:00, we need to think about not just  the veterans from the Great Wars but from the more recent wars.

Every year more than 4,000 men and women leave the military and transition to civilian life.  Their average age is 37 and they have a lot to contribute.

Veteran Affairs Canada has a really neat chart that describes some common military roles and lays out their responsibilities.

Did you know that a Combat Engineer is responsible for building and maintaining roads, airfields and bridges?  We may think that road work is tough in our hot summers. I bet it is nothing compared to doing it in Afghanistan.

Supply Technicians take care of purchasing, warehousing and inventory control of food, fuel, tank parts, clothing and a host of other items required to keep a large group of people at optimal performance in crappy conditions.

These are big jobs being done far from home with pressures and obstacles that can be daunting.

We would be hard pressed to have employment conditions that are as difficult no matter how fast our company is growing or how much pressure we feel from the investors.

You can check out the Veterans Affairs web page for more details and for information on different programs being offered to employers to help connect them with former military folks.

There is a really cool program called Helmets to Hardhats that is supported by construction companies and unions.  The program works to remove barriers and increase awareness of the skill sets that are available in this remarkable group of people.   You can read more about it here.

We owe to veterans and to our companies to talk more about this.  They have already served us.  Now it is our turn to serve them.

It is a good idea to keep up with jobs being posted in your industry.  You can set up alerts on indeed or LinkedIn or use a site like Follow That Page.

If you see something good, apply.  That’s career management 101.

But if you are really looking to make a change, you need to be way more proactive.

The hidden job market is not hidden because the recruitment process is secret. It is hidden because people get hired for roles that had not been created.

Say you have had three progressive roles where you fixed some important stuff.  You have great stories to tell about big impact projects and corralling the experts and the dollars to get the projects to the finish line.

You were able to convince and cajole people to adopt the new way and now it is a standard practice.

This is a totally scalable achievement.  You could be a coordinator or a vice president – it all counts.

If this is if the kind of challenge that gets you up and excited every day, then you need to find somewhere else to do it.  It might be another department in your current organization or if that is tapped out, you might need to go somewhere else.

It is not too bold to email or leave a voice mail for a senior leader in a target company letting them know that you have fixed some pretty big stuff especially if you do some homework first.

Read industry news, blogs, association websites, regulatory websites, Glassdoor, anywhere you can find the things that are going wrong in companies.  This is where opportunity lies.

A company that has just had a recall, for example, may not have had time to go through the process of posting a job. I would  seem pretty likely that if a VP of Quality got a message from someone who had great industry cred dealing with similar challenges they would respond and it would be pretty quick.

This is where the really great career moves come from and to quote my colleague, Lisa Knight, you need to manage your career, not let it manage you.

This post, according to my friends at WordPress, is my 301st.  So rather than pass along more thoughts and advice on jobs and careers, I am going to take a big pause to say thank you.

I started this blog in 2008 when we were in the middle of a big recession.  Companies were laying off way faster than they were hiring and we really did not have much in the way of jobs to talk about with candidates.  There were so many interesting and talented people looking. I started talking with them about networking and resumes and all the other things needed to propel a career.

Each week, a theme would emerge in my conversations and people really seemed to appreciate that I took the time to talk to them.  I started a blog to put this information out to the universe figuring other people might be interested as well.

A funny thing happened.  I started to get notes and comments from readers.  Honestly, at first it was just my parents (big shout out to them!) but then people would send a note that they enjoyed the tips or that they had read something useful and passed it along to their kids.

I started to share the material on LinkedIn and then a whole bunch of other people started to read it.  Clients and candidates provided both ideas and positive feedback.

It seemed that every time there was a black cloud over my desk, a happy comment would arrive in my inbox.  Last week, two colleagues asked me if it was okay for them to use articles for workshops they were leading.  That is certainly the highest form of flattery!

So this is my chance to thank you for spending a few minutes each week reading this stuff.  I hope it continues to be useful with a side of funny.

It feels awful when you read a job posting and it sounds absolutely fantastic.  It’s right up your alley until  you get to the skills requirements and you realize you don’t quite measure up.

This has been difficult to overcome in the past.  Time and money seem to be the enemies of further education.  Even if we have the money, most formal courses take weeks and weeks.  It requires a real commitment.

And this skills thing is a concern in our day jobs too.  The digital era is changing the way we work faster than ever and we need to make sure we have the right skills all the time.

Let me introduce you to Lynda.com.  It is an online platform with over 3,500 video courses on topics such as Advanced Excel, Statistics, Effective Presentations, Interviewing, Photoshop and more.  The courses are delivered in short video segments with exercises for practice and they are delivered by experts.

You might be tempted to think that this is just fluff.  Who really uses online learning?

What did you do the last time you needed to fix something at home? You hopped on YouTube, right? What did you do when you wanted to look up a recipe or craft you saw on TV?  Yep, YouTube again.

Video on demand is convenient and accessible.  What more could you want?

What if it were free?  If you have a library card, you can access it for free.  Really.

Since Lynda.com was purchased by LinkedIn and LinkedIn was purchased by Microsoft, they have cut deals with many public libraries and universities to give staff, students and patrons free access.

This is just too good to pass up.  Skip the burger lunch today.  Grab a sandwich and head to LinkedIn Learning.  You owe it to yourself to check it out.

I was a panelist at a job search workshop yesterday.  There were lots of interesting questions during the session and then in the one-on-ones afterwards.

One theme stood out – people trying to get into a particular company.

Three people asked about that.  “I have picked my dream company.  I have applied to postings and left messages for the hiring managers but no one has called me back.  What else can I do?”

My response?  Nothing.

Here’s why:

• There is a fine line between between follow up and stalking.  Repeated emails do not reinforce your message.  They make it seem like you have nothing else to do.
• You might think you have the perfect skill set  for a role but there are many forces at play in each hiring decision.  You might not be aware of issues on the existing team, upcoming changes in the division or a host of other issues.  These will affect the sorts of candidates that they want to spend time interviewing.
• There might be things in your background that they do not see as a fit.  This may seem arbitrary and it is.  It is their company.  They already work there.

So what can you do?

• Get specific about why it is your dream company.  Find more with the same qualities and apply.
• Keep target number one in your radar.  Talk with people in other areas of the company. Keep track of what’s happening with their products and services.  Other opportunities will come up – usually when you are not looking.
• Keep you information updated in their system.  Just do this quietly – no fanfare needed. Corporate recruiters will look at their own database first and you want to make sure your information is fresh, particularly your contact details.

Finding a job is not like buying shoes. You cannot pop in to a store, fall in love with a loafer, try on a few sizes and walk out with a perfect fit.  It is a journey that requires patience, perseverance and just a little creativity.

I read an interesting article in Fast Company today.  It talked about how to deal with being ‘busy”.   Lots of people complain about working 70 or 80 hour weeks.  But we know the truth: many of them are not complaining.  They are actually bragging.  Trust me, there are better ways to feel important.

Where this does become a problem is when people are too busy to advance their careers.

Managers love this.  When someone is too busy to breathe, it is pretty tough for them to refresh their resume or respond to a headhunter’s LinkedIn message.

The author of the article suggested two things:

• Think about a week as a block of hours
• Take a look at what is actually eating up your time

The first idea is kind of neat.  If you look at a week as 168 hours and you spend 8 hours sleeping each night (work with me here….) that leaves 112 hours for work and other stuff. Even if you work 70 hours, that still leaves more than 40 for things like your resume or responding to that message.  This feels more manageable than just looking at one twelve hour day at a time.

The second may reveal things you don’t like so be prepared.  Keep careful track of what you do for a week.  That includes Candy Crush, going for coffee and dallying on Pinterest.

See the patterns?  See the time you are using to procrastinate or just kill time between things?  That’s where you can make some changes and take back some control.

Maybe you can fit in time to meet a former colleague for coffee or update your profile.  And once you figure that out, you can even look at going to the gym more or starting a blog.

Check out the app store for your device.  Look under “time tracker” but be careful -there are a lot of choices and you don’t want to use up too many of your 168 hours.