Author Archives: Laura Machan

If you will indulge me, I am going to use this space this week to tell you about a great man that we lost yesterday. He certainly had a successful career but it was about more than the way he did his job.

My grandfather designed HVAC systems for manufacturing facilities.  He would tour a shampoo factory or an M&M factory (my favourite) and identify the issues with air flow, heating and cooling and then design systems to fix the problems.  He was proud of his role and he was generous with his time. He spent lots of hours with the “new fellows” helping them learn the business.  He kept in touch with former colleagues well into retirement.

But this was only what he did during the day.  In addition to raising three daughters, he acted in community plays, was a lay minister at his church, arranged to have exchange students stay in their house and developed very fine woodworking skills

As if that was not enough, he also worked with a man who had been in an accident and was a paraplegic.  My grandfather went to his house in the evenings twice a week to help with his therapy, both physical and emotional. He did this for years.

When he retired, he was naturally just as busy as before.  He took on a whole new set of roles.  He became a trustee at his local library and he and my grandmother helped serve lunches at a daycare centre.  They also volunteered at their hospital.   He and a friend took their mechanical knowledge and learned how to fix gurneys and wheelchairs.

It turns out they saved the hospital thousands and thousands of dollars.  Not just because they could fix the rolling stock but because they figured out how to get on the web, find the part numbers and then call the manufacturer and get the parts sent out for free.  Who can refuse an 80 year old man?

And he tutored people too.  He met a man in his fifties who, after a life of illiteracy, wanted to learn to read.  My grandfather met him several times a week to help him with letters and sounds.  They would go to the grocery store together to practice reading labels.   My grandfather was 90 and he was stilling helping people open new doors.

I am sure he did a lot more than this – these are just the things that he shared with me.  He has set a very high bar for me and the rest of my generation.  If we are going to truly follow in his footsteps, we had better get a move on.  There are a lot of people who need help and we have the best possible example as our guide.

I am at a conference in Ottawa this week.  Not just any conference but the annual meeting of the Canadian Nuclear Association.

When I tell that to people, I get a blank look in return.  Completely blank.

This is a not small meeting.  There are 800 delegates from across Canada and likely more post graduate degrees per square inch than anywhere outside a university campus.

These people are not just involved in generating power but also mining, food processing, nuclear medicine and more.  And it’s not just engineers.  The nuclear industry directly employs 60,000 people in Canada.

Yesterday was student day here and I can’t tell you how many students stopped by our Women in Nuclear booth to say they really knew nothing about the industry but someone told them they should stop by and check it out .  Did I mention the free food?  That could have been an incentive as well, I suppose.

So, here is an industry that is responsible for putting five billion dollars (yes, billion) into our economy and people don’t know about it.

How many other industries are out there under people’s radar?

If you are looking for something new to do, you have to stretch your horizon.  It may be lovely to work for a Fortune 500 company but there are so many other interesting, stable, well-paying options.

How do you find these out about these industries?  Stop where you are right now.  Identify six things that are in your immediate area.  Where do they come from?  Who made them?  Where did they get developed?  That’s a good way to start.

For example, I have a banana beside my computer.  I know to get that banana to me involved people working in shipping, importing, trade regulations and inspections, food processing, distribution and hospitality.

Could I work in one of those industries?  I don’t know but I think it’s time to find out.

I think that Family Day should be renamed Resume Day or Apply-for-Jobs Day.  There was a big spike in activity on job boards, corporate sites and especially LinkedIn.

This is not unusual long weekend behaviour. Traditionally, we see a lot of activity on Labour Day too.  While it’s lovely to get a lot of join my network invitations, I can’t help but think that people are spitting in the wind.

If you are genuinely interested in finding something new to do, then you need to plan a campaign and then execute it.  You can’t expect to find success by flinging a few resumes into the universe.

If you only have an hour every long weekend for your job search, then you might as well join the smokers outside or hang out in a hockey arena.  That kind of random networking will give you about the same results.

The first step is to give your search direction.  What do you want to do?  Specifically.  It can be based around an activity or a technology.

• I want to lead a team.
• I want to fix a broken process.
• I want to build something new.

These are the starting points.  Once you can identify that, the rest will fall into place.

Your resume should emphasize why you are qualified to do what you want to do.  Provide good, hard evidence of what you have done and where you did it.  It should be easy for a hiring manger to understand where you would fit into their organization.

Once you are happy with your resume, show it to at least three people you trust.  It is helpful if one of them is a grammar geek or at least a big reader.  You want to make sure it flows nicely, it logical and does not have any spelling mistakes.  This is key and cannot be undervalued.

Now, you are ready to move into the research portion.  You know what you want to do.  Where can you do it that is better than where you are now?

Check out eluta, Linkedin, simply hired and indeed.  Look for the right keywords and geography to see what is posted.  Apply with a short and pithy cover note.

There are some neat alerts/tools on each site that you can use to automate this part.  Once you know what you are looking for, these are handy and efficient.

I am not guaranteeing that this strategy will get you the next great gig, but it will give you a targeted approach to the market.

It will also help you solidify your goals.  Your ears will perk up when you hear the smokers or hockey parents mention an opening, and you will be ready to pounce all over it.

I ran into a friend this weekend. We have a really cool history together. Just over four years ago, she was a party planner.  She was pretty sure that it was not the type of job that she wanted for the rest of her life.

Fast forward to now.  She is enjoying a very successful career as a project administrator working on some really important projects for a very large engineering firm. She feels challenged and satisfied. And most important, she now has dental coverage and a pension – not common in the party business.

This came about because of a temp assignment that I was working on.  It took some convincing of both her and the client that the skills that she used to plan corporate events were the same as the ones needed for coordinating massive proposals.  The both require the ability to juggle gzillion small details, wrangle documents from technical experts and a general sense of calm and unflappability.   She nailed the interview and the rest is history.

This worked out because there was a facilitator (me) who was able to point out the similarities.  In a situation where you are applying to a company directly, it is up to you to show what you know and how it will solve the company’s problem.

Don’t just use the same resume over and over.  Do some research.  Figure out how to explain why your candidacy is not as weird as it might seem at first glance.

I am not suggesting that you can perform a root canal because your neighbour is a dentist.  (Although I had someone try to convince me of that once.)

In a case where what you can do will really be beneficial to the hiring manager, make a strong and confident case.  Support it with some relevant examples and offer references who can back up your story.

Perhaps one of your references has a connection into the company you are targeting.  This is worth investigating.  Having someone sing your praises before delivering your resume is excellent.  It positions what you can do before someone passes judgement on where you have done it.

Big moves are possible.  Just ask my friend Susan.

It’s been a rough week for a lot of people.  Most of us are probably connected to someone who just learned that they have lost their job.  They might be at Target or Sony or maybe they work in the oil business.

We have a lot of support to provide to our friends, peers and former colleagues.  It must feel a bit like going to the Oscars when you are nominated but you don’t win.  I think it was Kevin Spacey at the Golden Globes who described this feeling.  It was his first win after multiple nominations.  He said you are total winner when you are nominated but if you don’t get the statue, no one will even make eye contact with you at the after party

Getting a job with one of these companies was a great achievement.  Don’t sell yourself short.  Squeeze all the stories, examples and lessons learned out of your two or three years.  That’s the material to get your next great role.

Stay connected to your co-workers but also with your vendors and the other people you met in the course of your work. They are your new foundation.

Take advantage of every networking opportunity.  LinkedIn should be burning up with soon-to-be-former Target folks.  Sure, you were too busy before – make it a priority now.  Connect. Connect. Connect.

Above all, keep an open mind about your next opportunity.  Do your research so that you are prepared for your interviews. Turn your concerns into questions – no one will think less of you for being thoughtful and cautious.

Finally, if you have been offered outplacement services, take advantage of every part.  I can’t tell you what you will learn but there will definitely be some gems.

One of the hardest things to do is to keep on top of news and events that are outside of your everyday life.  Some days, I barely have enough time to worry about socks and underwear, let alone what’s happening with the companies on my dream list.

The Dream List.  We all have one.  The companies that we have read about or drive by on our commute that we wish had a great job for us.  Maybe they do.  How do you know?

Google has a great little tool called Alerts.  You fill in the box Google gives you with the keywords (product, company name) and then you select how and when you would like the information to arrive.

You will get an email everytime something about your target is mentioned.  Pretty neat.

This is really handy if you want to look for job in another town or you want to keep an eye on a group of companies.  You can also add things on the fly.  Say you read an article on LinkedIn about a person doing some cool work. Just use their name for a google alert. You will be able to stay on top of what they are doing and when you decide to reach out the them, you will have all kinds of material to use in your note/call.

Here is the last tip about google alerts.  Set one up for yourself.  Even if you think you will never be mentioned, this is a good idea. Let’s face it.  Your name on the web will be either point of pride or embarrassment but you want to know when it happens so you can either call your Mom or your lawyer.

Let’s face it. We are going to watch a whole bunch of moves over the next couple of weeks.  We will be nursing hangovers, escaping family or just enjoying some high quality couch time.

Netflix and On-Demand movies give us so many choices.  How will you decide?

Here are my recommendations for great movies with a career lessons built right in. I am not saying they will cause you to edit your resume the moment you are done, but you might want to keep your laptop handy, just in case.

Working Girl – classic comedy with Melanie Griffiths, Sigourney Weaver and a very young Harrison Ford. A great story and it’s pretty neat to see all these stars when they were just starting out.

9 – 5 –  dated but very funny movie about the ladies in the secretarial pool taking over the world. Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily to Tomlin round out this cast.

Mrs Doubtfire – Robin Williams shines as a divorced dad who has to take on a whole new career to be able to see his kids

Tootsie – Dustin Hoffman transforms himself into a soap opera actress ” of a certain age” to get an acting job with hysterical and unpredictable results.

Wolf of Wall Street – Leonardo de Caprio brings us the whole career of the infamous trader who won and lost a huge fortune.  There are lots of lessons here.

Catch Me if You Can– an another Leo de Caprio character study. This one is interesting because the main character is a con man who takes on a dozen careers throughout the movie. A good study of how far street smarts and a little nerve will get you. (Although it’s helpful to have a broken moral compass too).

Margin Call – a young analyst played by Chris Pine learns about the ugly side of the Wall Street careers with Kevin Spacey leading an excellent cast ensemble.

Patch Adams –  you will need a couple of tissues for this one but it is worth it. Robin Williams takes us through the true story of a man who rose to become a well known physician, clown and author.  Enough said.

Feel free to post a comment about your favourites.  I am sure there are lots more.

Happy holidays!