Career Search Action Plan

Tweetchat today in #careerchat was on your Career Search Action Plan

Here are some of the highlights -
What are the main components of a career action plan?

• Where you are, where you want to be and the plan is how you are going to get there
• Plan should be broken up into time frames - 3 months, 6 months, 1 year 5 year etc.
• A start point and an end point. Know how you will start and have a reachable goal in mind, with room to adjust.
• As with any plan - C.A.P. must be SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely
• An interim step... figure out what you want, then make SURE that is REALLY what you want. Volunteer, Intern, job shadow.
• I like looking at LI profiles of people who do what I want to do. Great info on how to get there.

How do you get started on putting together an action plan?

• assess skills, find ones needed, how to obtain the new skills, how to market yourself once you have the new skills
• You might want to use sites like the @Vault or @glassdoordotcom to help you research
• Make 3 column list of jobs that interest u, traits/skills nec., & how u will acquire those skills.
• Prepare Short term and Long term GOALS 5. Prepare action plan to sort the achievable
• Conduct info meetings with colleagues and referrals of people who have the job you are after. Learn how they got there! 
• Your HR Department may be a resource for career plan help, especially if you would  like to stay with your existing company
• Studies show if you articulate it (tell someone) your goals, you're MUCH more likely to do it.

When do you need to adjust/revisit your action plan?

• You should look over it often, even it's just quarterly. If you have gone astray, it's time to kick it back into motion.
• whenever you attain an original goal, you need to reevaluate, you need an if/then philosophy
• If something isn't working or you found a new direction
• Know your PERFORMANCE EVALUATION system-very important thing to do to keep track of career action plan as an employee
• If you find yourself dreading work more than loving it, time to re-evaluate
• Don't wait until you've been laid off or are in a tough spot to start thinking about your plan, it'll be too late
• Career action plans must be PROACTIVE not REACTIVE
• Do you stick to the same profession or change completely? yes, if there is growth potential, if not change!
• Have you written your career plan or is it all in your head?

If you are working on your career plan, you can use http://www.illinoisworknet.com/vos_portal/residents/en/Prepare/ as a resource to help you in the planning and assessment process.

We are on Alltop

KCDEE's blog is now included with the cool kids on Alltop.  You can find our career advice along with others by visiting  http://careers.alltop.com

KCDEE publishes an article weekly and posts it for your reference.  Other places where you can find our resources include:
Webpage - http://www.kcdee.org
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/KCDEE5
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/KCDEE5 

You can subscribe to our twice monthly e-news by linking here.

If you have topics that you would like to read more about let us know.

Where the jobs are in 2011

In the 1-9-2011 issue of the Wall Street Journal Sunday was an article discussing where you will find jobs in 2011.  Here is a synopsis of what they said:

• Service jobs - retail, IT, tech jobs
• Health care - nurses, medical scientists, physician assistants, skin-care specialist and dental hygienists
• Information Technology - to upgrade and customize equipment, provide technical support and to teach people how to use the upgrades.
• Financial Services - as business builds, lending activity will increase
• Scientific and technical jobs -research and development positions for companies to bump up production
• Sales and customer service positions
• Business development and marketing

Temporary positions - as businesses begin to expand, temporary positions will fill the need of additional employees without taking on the overhead of actually hiring them onto a companies' payroll.

Avoid public sector positions and non-profit organizations that depend upon government contracts. There will be cuts that will impact positions in both of those areas.

Career Goals 2011

What are your career goals for 2011?

Are you in the job search mode?

• What new tools are you planning on using or learning to help in your job search? 
• Do you already have a LinkedIn account? 
• Are you going to check to see if it is being the most effective it can be for you?
• Do you use Twitter to look for jobs?
• Have you investigated the job search component of Facebook?
• Are you networking?
• Have you joined any new industry related associations?
• Are you participating in informational interviews?
• Have you decided to volunteer to keep your skills up to date?
• Are you planning on changing careers?
• Does that career change include learning new skills?

Are you working? What are your plans to enhance your current career?

• Are you taking a class or learning something to keep your skills current?
• Do you need to address a character flaw that is keeping you from a promotion?
• What one thing can YOU change that would make your job easier?
• What one thing can you address with your supervisor that would make your job easier?
• Is this job a career or do you need to check into another path?

Are you going to school?

• Will you be finishing your training this year and looking for a new job?
• What are you doing now to network or prepare in advance for that job search? Check out the items above.

Do you have some personal goals that will make your life easier or improve your self-esteem level to give you a better outlook on life?

• Do you need to be more fit or drop a few pounds?
• Do you need to de-clutter?
• Do you need to stop smoking?

Whatever or whereever you are in your life, you cannot reach a goal if you do not have one.  Set a goal, make a plan, and start working toward your goal.  If a long range goal is too scary, set several interim goals and reward yourself along the way. If you need to loose weight and your ultimate goal is 25 pounds, set those in 5 pound increments.  If you need a new job and make a plan that might include researching two new companies and what jobs they have to offer each week.  Add a new task as you go.

What other suggestions do you have?  What are your goals?

Holiday Job Search Tips

The holidays may offer time for reflection and resolutions, thoughts about family and future from Thanksgiving through the new-year.  The season also presents challenges and opportunities for people seeking employment.  KCDEE reminds people who are unemployed or facing an uncertain future to understand that jobs are available and for those individuals considering a career change, this is an excellent time to explore training and education possibilities.

We offer these “Holiday Tips” to inspire people to be diligent in their pursuit of education, training and employment opportunities and to ensure that they take full advantage of our Illinois workNet Centers.  The workNet staff works hard to satisfy the demands of our customers - unemployed individuals and companies who seek good employees. These  “Holiday Tips" are presented to encourage people to not despair during this season and instead make the best use of our resources in their quest to satisfy their personal career goals and to meet the needs of their family. Check the Illinois workNet website to find a center near you.

                   Kane County Department of Employment and Education Offers

                             Holiday Tips for Dislocated or Unemployed Workers

1. Continue to apply for full time work during the holiday season.  Make sure your application and resume are there for employers when they are considering hiring new people in the New Year.
2. Seek part-time work during the holiday season.  Many people are hired to fill positions created by holiday vacations or to meet year-end demand from customers.  Some employers evaluate part-time employees for full-time positions.  This is your opportunity to shine and make a good impression.
3. If there are any career fairs – dress for success and show-up with a resume.   Job fairs offer a great opportunity to meet potential employers face-to-face.
4. Network yourself, at gatherings, to people who might be aware of job openings.  Many referrals for jobs come from employees, talk to someone you know who works for a company where you would like to work and get the inside scoop on jobs.   In social situations maintain a level of professionalism.
5. Utilize resources from any training institution, college, university or school you have attended to help you discover jobs that may not be advertised or posted on an Internet job search website. 
6. Keep a watchful eye on expenses.  Focus on the many good things in your life and not the materialistic demands of the season.  Many successful people look back to tight financial times, when they focused on family and friendship, as some of the best, most meaningful moments in their lives.
7. Explore the services available to you through local agencies to improve your resume and interviewing skills. Help is available from the Illinois workNet Centers for job counseling, job search and access to a number of websites. 
8. Be positive and patient.  Understand that job loss, unemployment and job seeking are stressful situations.    There is truth to the fact that the hardest job of all is finding a good job.  
9. Get organized.  Write and design a new resume, list employers that offer good career opportunities.  Be methodical about your job search and set goals for contacting employers by keeping a daily contact log. 
10. Be courteous and understanding when you follow up with potential employers - your attitude on the phone may be the deciding factor in getting an interview or job offer.  A positive attitude to your job search and interviews will help you be successful.  “Thank You” notes and letters after the interview offer you another opportunity to sell yourself to an employer or to drive home a point you may have overlooked during your interview.
11. Try to be flexible in your approach to your career. Understand that you will always be acquiring new skills and adapting to new technology in almost every occupation.  Many people will change jobs or career paths with their current employer many times in their working life.  

The Illinois workNet Centers offer services from a group of partnering agencies, at a one-stop location, to assist job seekers find employment and where employers can meet their workforce development goals.   There are Centers in Elgin, North Aurora, DeKalb and satellites in Aurora and Yorkville that will help you.

The workNet Centers offer various workshops to help you improve your resume, your interviewing techniques and other skills to help you improve your job search activities.  Career counseling, labor market information about jobs in demand in your county and access to education and training resources are just some of the services available at the center to assist you in your job search.   

50 Top Careers for 2011

The following is a summary and this writers thoughts on a tweetchat on 12-7-2010. The discussion was with Alexis Grant tweeting as @USNewsCareers.  Here are the results:

How do you determine what careers/industries make the list?
Our list is based on job-growth projections from the Labor Department. We look for jobs with above-average incomes, and high job satisfaction, etc. Those job-growth projections are a great measure of stability, they tell us how much growth is expected between 2008-2018. We also talked with people who work in these jobs to gather anecdotal evidence about employment prospects and job satisfaction.  The report excludes careers that don’t have large numbers of positions, because they provide opportunity only for small number of people.  The list looks to diversify in terms of category and education requirements to offer a wide variety of solid jobs. USNewsCareers uses the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics to determine the initial numbers but all of the factors are taken into consideration.  They also analyze past lists and many of the careers transfer onto the list from year to year.  One participant said, "...if (the list) changed too much from year to year, they would be great jobs, not careers."

If you are searching for a career that isn't on USNews list, you can go to www.bls.gov/oco or to http://www.onet.onlinecenter.org/ .  O*NET is a useful site as it gives a total picture of the career path as well as similar titles.

Seven careers that were removed from the list this year were: loan officer, funeral director, cost estimator, plumber, landscape architect, security system installer, market research analyst.  Some of these were affected by the economy.
The new seven included:
Athletic trainer – http://bit.ly/h0jFnL. Largely b/c of high demand in high schools.
Interpreter/Translator – http://bit.ly/gYiohJ. I find this one fascinating – high demand because of global economy.
Sales manager – http://bit.ly/gF2o9f. This job is recovering along with the economy. Highest median salary of $97K
Education admin – http://bit.ly/fBTQfk. For example, a high school principal. Ranks high 4 job satisfaction. 
Heating, Air conditioning and refrigeration technicians did well partly because of demand for green energy compliance. 
For the full list:http://usnews.com/careers Check this link: http://ht.ly/3l9Xg

Many participating in the discussion were amazed that Funeral Directors were being booted from the list because you cannot predict when people will die and with the aging of the Boomers, there should be a large prospect for that career field.  Perhaps tho, the Boomers are living longer and "flying in the face of death".

The question was raised about whether entrepreneurs should be on the list?  Thoughts on this were that isn't everyone who starts a business an entrepreneur?  Isn't everyone who is an entrepreneur performing multiple careers at one time - CFO, COO, CEO, marketing, sales, and on and on. But while entrepreneurs are a growing path for many people, in fact, they are often sole proprietors.  Employment data is much more difficult to calculate on sole proprietors.

What top skills are hiring managers looking for?

Skill sets! As part of each career profile, we’ve included tips and advice for people who work in the industry on landing a job. Look for this advice at the bottom of each profile.  Hiring managers are looking for achievement oriented people who can do for their company what they have done for others. They want to see multi-talented individuals - but who still fit the "mold".  Know what your skills are and how you can apply them. Not only do you need the right skills, but  be able to fit within the new corporate culture and team. Along with job-specific skills, many hiring managers said “people skills” are also super important – being able to communicate. You can also see USNewsCareers slide show with advice for landing jobs on our list:http://bit.ly/gmfCSP.  

For some jobs, having business savvy was also cited as helpful. Besides job skills, soft skills are important - things like communication, team work, conflict resolution and about 10 others.  Soft skills are so vital in the business world. if you don't have them, you wont get far. Many employers prefer someone who displays these skills - they can't teach someone (workplace skills) but, they can teach job skills. Even the president of Southwest Airlines says "that you can teach skills, but you can't teach behaviors". You can hire for attitude and train for skill. Because no one career is right for everybody, USNewsCareers include 50 jobs on their list, with variety. Hiring managers are interested in people who can solve their companies problems.  Being able to explain how you helped your previous company achieve their goals will be a good selling feature for you.

This article was given as a resource - Inside the Hiring Manager's Head at the Job Interviewhttp://ow.ly/3lp75
Strong speaking skills + strong work ethic most sought in#jobseekers by employers per NACE studyhttp://on.wsj.com/grThmX 

One participant asked "Does anyone have a good list of hard skills for each industry/sector or know where I could find one?"  My answer to that would be use O*NET.  Here are the skills needed for an athletic trainer for example.

What jobs are in the most demand?

A good way to measure demand is with job-growth projections.  It tells how many positions are likely to be created between 2008-2018. To put this all in perspective, the average expected growth for all jobs based on data from BLS from 2008-2018 is about 10 %.

• Using job-growth stats from Labor Department: 
• Biomedical engineer is at the top for percentage of growth at 72%.
• Neetwork architects – 52 %
• Health care jobs - Dental hygienist = 36%, physician assistant = 39%
• Athletic trainer – a job that’s new on the list this year – 37%
• HVAC (also new on our list) - 28%.
• Leisure & Hospitality -12% 
• Professional & Business Services - 11% 
• Information - 10%

Illinois has a website - www.illinoisworknet.com that features a Key Sector area explaining the high-growth, high demand sectors for Illinois that include Agriculture, Healthcare, Information Technology, Manufacturing, and Transportation/Distribution/Logistics. 


Several participants sited career paths in IT - especially web developers, health care, and manufacturing. One poster said their hiring expectations for 2011Q1 is the most optimistic in two years. 


The best place to find the skill shortages in the marketplace is to track the volume of ads on job boards by sector/discipline. A good article re: skills not matching job openings:http://nyti.ms/h6HKsZ There are plenty of other articles out there. 

So many unemployed individuals have skills that are no longer in demand. Our economy has changed so fast and new skills are needed.  Workforce Investment Act (WIA)funds will help unemployed individuals learn new skills and can be targeted toward high-growth, high-demand careers.  If you are a lifelong learner, you will continue to build skills/attitude being able to keep up with the rate of change in workplace. People will have to adapt. Just as one example wind turbine repair technicians will have only  50% of the personpower needed by 2015 to maintain the wind turbines that are on-line right now. That doesn't take into consideration the effort to increase wind power into the future. 

Which careers on the list give a great salary for little education? 

Another article from USNewsCareers was: 10 jobs that offer a big bang for your buck: http://bit.ly/eGuh60

• Sales manager jumped out at Alexis, since you need a bachelor’s degree for a median annual salary of $97K.http://bit.ly/gF2o9f
• On the health care side, dental hygienists make about $67K with associate’s degree and license. 
• Physician assistants need 2-year associate’s degree plus certification, to bring home paycheck of $84K.
• Gaming managers - who work at casinos, make about $67K after vocational or dealer school, plus certificate.http://bit.ly/e5NZG5
• Meteorologists also do well, bringing in median of $85K with a bachelor’s degree. http://bit.ly/gKMRPH

Certifications and licenses are becoming more important, it shows you can actually do the work vs. take a test.
Service industry jobs are here to stay. It is one of the longest professions around.
One poster shared that you can research markets by asking what skills employers rate most important soft skills or hard skills. Alternately you could use a LinkedIn or a Twit poll.

One problem about which we have been hearing here at KCDEE is that employers want people with experience, but those who are retraining into new career fields may not have experience in their chosen new career field.  My question would be - How can you meld your transferable skills with your newly learned skills to impress upon a potential employer that you would be a great hire?

Which of the jobs on the list most interests you as a career path? 

Whichever career path you seek - technician, exec, etc., it is good to be proactive, knowledgeable, forward-thinking about your chosen industry. 
 
Some closing thoughts and resources that were offered include: 

• You miss 100% of the shots you never take- T. Paulson
• Read "The Hidden Job Report" to find jobs before they are advertised. http://t.co/s4E2IDm 
• 10 smart ways to use #socialmedia in your #jobsearch:http://bit.ly/e8ZMyK   
• This is a copy of the transcript for  #Careerchathttp://bit.ly/hgMvSo 

If you would like to participate in upcoming Tweetchats, you will need a twitter account. Then go to www.tweetchat.com.  Log-in using your twitter account enter the hashtag #Careerchat and type away.  Let me warn you that the conversation is fast and furious and you can miss things as you type your thoughts, but they are full of useful information.

What is your career path?

This blog article said that "The US Department of Labor has actually said that people born in the 80’s and 90’s will have 10-14 different jobs by the time they turn 38." read article  Personally, I have had 7, some simultaneously, some while still employed with the same organization.  But the days of my parents or grandparents who worked at the same company for 45 years and retired with the gold watch are becoming few and far between.

Learning what a new career path is can be a challenge.  If you are going to select an initial career or a new career path, you need to look into your magic ball and envision what jobs will be available when you are finished with your training that could take 6 months or possibly as long as 8 years (if you want to be a doctor).  No one can really see into the future, but there is a plethora of resources available to help you sort through what path you may want to follow.  I would like to share a few options with you.

Assessment -  there are tests on-line available for you to take so that you can understand your likes and dislikes.  They will survey your skills and talents.  One option for this is through the award winning Illinois workNet website.  Once you have completed this, you may have a better understanding of what draws you to a certain type of job over another.

Labor Market Information - You don't want to find yourself having spent a significant period of time training for a job only to find out that there are no jobs available in that field.  To help prevent "dead-end" training, you should investigate labor market data surrounding the career path you have chosen. Illinois, as well as other states, have information to help you determine growth and wages for certain occupations or groups of occupations. Check here.

• To find information about wages and occupation outlooks you would select LMI source
• For a more historical perspective you can check the Work Info Center
• A national perspective is provided at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Career Information - Once you determine your interests and selected several jobs that have anticipated growth into the future you need to research the career to make sure that it sounds like something you wish to pursue.  A couple of resources for that include Illinois workNet and O*NET online. Both give you the opportunity to find out the basic duties, educational requirements and so much more about a particular area of employment.  If you are interested in researching areas that are high-growth, high-demand positions you may turn to the Key Sectors section of Illinois workNet.

Education - Now that you have figured out what you want to do, do you possess the skills required to do that job?  You may need job skills training, or a full degree.  You can find out the types of training needed from the career information sites listed above. All of the options are identified on Illinois workNet under the "Learn" tab.  Local schools are identified on KCDEE's webpage. You can also reach the approved list of statewide training providers who offer classes to those receiving Workforce Investment Act training services.

Skills - sometimes your education is adequate but you may need to enhance your soft skills or other minor job skills like typing or update your computer software skills.  We have resources for that as well. You can find soft skills information in this blog, on KCDEE webpage, or on Illinois workNet.  Maybe you need to type better or faster.  www.learn2type.com helps you with those skills. Or you can improve your computer skills here. Goodwill Foundation offers software training for free.

No matter what the assessments say about you, there are a couple of other things that you need to take into consideration and that is your personal feelings.  One example I recently found out about was a woman could not work for any business associated with the tobacco industry because her mother had died of lung cancer from smoking.  How will your personal beliefs impact your decision to follow a particular career path?

How many careers have you had in your life and what is your next one going to be?

Top 25 Jobs with an Associates Degree

I recently read an article that listed the top 25 jobs that you can have with an associates degree.  The following jobs were listed with the national median wage average for 2009.  I thought I would expand on that list for this blog and share some additional information.

Illinois workNet has a component that explains about the 5 Key Sectors in which employment will be in a high-demand high-growth situation.  They include Agriculture (AG), Healthcare, Information Technology (IT), Manufacturing (Man), and Transportation, Distribution and Logistics (TDL).  Green jobs are included on the list but are found in all of the key sectors. Find out more here.

Additionally, there is a great deal of information on jobs and career paths on O*NET.  You can find Standard Occupation Codes (SOC) to describe or associate with any job or career path.   All of this information is especially helpful if you are trying to determine what career path you want to follow if you are in the midst of a career change.

Also listed is the wage - hourly and annually for our more localized area.  LWIA stands for Local Workforce Investment Area which, for our definition is bounded by Kane, DeKalb and Kendall counties in Illinois.  EDR is for the Economic Development Region that is the Northeast quadrant of Illinois.  Some of the occupations could not be found within a reasonable geographic area so I included the State wages.  I can't imagine commercial divers in the middle of an agricultural zone.

And if you notice as  you look over the numbers, there are only a couple of the jobs that are rapidly growing on this list that are not high paying or included in one of our other Key Sectors. But sometimes you just need to go with your passion.  If you love your job, is it really considered work?

#	Occupation	Illinois Key Sector	SOC Code	Median Wage Illinois or Local 2009			Median Wages National 2009
		SECTOR	CODE	Hourly	Annual	Area	Hourly	Annual
1	Computer Specialists, All Other	IT	151099	$35.53	$73,915	LWIA	$37.02	$77,600
2	Radiation Therapists	Health	291124	$34.13	$72,668	EDR	$35.66	$74,200
3	Nuclear Medicine Technologists	Health	292033	$34.94	$72,668	EDR	$32.65	$67,900
4	Dental Hygienists	Health	292021	$34.61	$72,000	LWIA	$32.38	$67,400
5	Nuclear Technicians	Green	194051	$41.32	$85,947	EDR	$32.37	$67,300
6	Commercial Pilots	TDL	532012	N/A	$76,179	LWIA	N/A	$65,800
7	Fashion Designers		271022	$8.03	$16,704	LWIA	$30.90	$64,300
8	Registered Nurses	IT	291111	$30.03	$62,446	LWIA	$30.65	$63,800
9	Diagnostic Medical Sonographers	IT	292032	$38.49	$80,074	LWIA	$30.30	$63,000
10	Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay		492095	$21.13	$43,952	LWIA	$29.94	$62,300
11	Engineering Technicians, Except Drafters, All Other	Green	173029	$30.26	$62,952	LWIA	$27.66	$57,500
12	Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technicians	TDL	173021	$20.20	$42,012	state	$27.39	$57,000
13	Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers	Man	492022	$28.90	$60,100	LWIA	$26.71	$55,600
14	Insurance Appraisers, Auto Damage		131032	$23.43	$48,722	LWIA	$26.63	$55,400
15	Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technicians	Green	173023	$25.78	$53,619	LWIA	$26.36	$54,800
16	Funeral Directors		119061	$31.09	$64,680	EDR	$26.14	$54,400
17	Respiratory Therapists	IT	291126	$24.85	$51,676	LWIA	$25.64	$53,300
18	Geological and Petroleum Technicians	AG/Green	194041	$30.98	$64,430	EDR	$25.60	$53,200
19	Radiologic Technologists and Technicians	Health	292034	$30.81	$64,092	LWIA	$25.59	$53,200
20	Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians	TDL	493011	$25.14	$52,295	LWIA	$25.39	$52,800
21	Commercial Divers	AG	499092	$14.48	$30,108	state	$25.26	$52,100
22	Electrical and Electronics Drafters		173012	$28.91	$60,139	LWIA	$25.04	$52,100
23	Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Commercial and Industrial Equipment	Man/Green	492094	$18.69	$38,881	LWIA	$24.39	$50,700
24	Avionics Technicians	TDL	492091	$30.07	$62,540	LWIA	$24.31	$50,600
25	Occupational Therapist Technicians	Health	291122	$37.71	$78,453	LWIA	$24.16	$50,300

Let me know what you think.

How non-traditional are you?

At the fall Working for the Fox Valley job fair the Today Show filmed some of the job seekers for a piece that they were working on for Monday, September 20, 2010 http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/39267648#39267648  while none of the footage appeared in the segment, we did notice there were several men being filmed and interviewed for the piece. This clip noted that there are more women in the workforce today than men.


The Today Show discussion was based on an article in Newsweek this week on the new masculinity. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/20/why-we-need-to-reimagine-masculinity.html  But let's discuss what non-traditional means. Jobs throughout history have been segmented toward a particular gender. During World War II, for example, while the men were overseas fighting the war, there was a large push for women to fill the jobs previously held by the soldiers. Hence the name, Rosie the Riveter. When the men returned, most of the women went back to their stay at home lives. By today's definition, non-traditional occupations would be:

Men - nursing, home health care, teachers, customer service reps and stay-at-home dads.
Women - construction, truck driver, airline pilot, CEO, CFO, and many, many more.

Have you ever heard the term blue job or pink job? It was explained to me as blue jobs are those jobs around the home that would traditionally be performed by the male in the household - lawn work, home repairs, garbage to the curb, and a pink job would be those performed by the female - laundry, childcare, cooking, cleaning, errands, shopping, etc. What happens in a non-traditional experience is that the household duties are shared, as should the work world duties.

While the world is still a long way from having employment areas not be defined by "non-traditional", a quote from the Newsweek article states: In fact, men dominate only two of the 12 job titles expected to grow the most between 2008 and 2018: construction worker and accountant. The rest, including teachers (501,000 new positions), registered nurses (582,000), home health aides (461,000), and customer-service reps (400,000), remain heavily female. All told, the social sector of the economy will gain 6.9 million jobs by 2018.


There are emerging jobs in the market place.  One of our partners explains them well - http://www.illinoisworknet.com/VOS_PORTAL/industry/en/home/EmergingJobs. If you are currently unemployed and determining whether you need to update your existing skills or find a new career path, you may wish to research the Key Sectors of employment defined in Illinois as Agriculture, Healthcare, Information Technologies, Manufacturing and Transportation, Distribution and Logistics.  Perhaps you might find an area that would interest you.

If you are interested in more non-traditional careers, an entire list can be found on this website: http://www.quintcareers.com/non-traditional_careers.html

Employed or not, perhaps you will investigate moving into one of those more non-traditional areas of employment.

Your Personal Elevator Pitch – Can you highlight your resume in an elevator ride?

Marketers and public relations specialists know that in many situations you have just the time it takes for an elevator ride to grab the attention of a reporter. Hence, the phrase “elevator pitch”, came to be to explain the amount of time you have to explain your business or pitch your story. Can this correlate to your personal elevator pitch when it comes to sharing the key aspects of your career with someone?

A career coaching company in New York suggests a two-minute pitch. That isn’t how long it should take to “get to” your point, but it should take no longer than two minutes to share the best points of your career with a tiny bit of embellishment. Richard Skaare, a communications specialist, suggests that your resume should be able to be boiled down to the 140 – 160 characters you would use in a text message. Now, those two concepts work in concert with each other. To verbalize and expound on the 140 characters could take about 2 minutes.

Unless you are in that dream situation - sitting on the Metra next to someone who just happens to need someone with your exact skill set - the concept of using a 140 character resume is reserved for Twitter or a text message. The principle behind both thoughts mentioned above is you need to know exactly who you are, what skills you own, and how you have used them. Better still you need to be able to communicate those same things in a short, cohesive, cognizant statement if time is limited.

A couple of situations where your elevator pitch will work perfectly are networking events or job fairs. Yes, you may hand someone your “real” professionally prepared resume, but, what will you say to that job fair representative that will make him/her put your resume in the “second look” pile. What will you say to those you meet at a networking event that will pique their interest and entice them to spend more time with you, finding out more about you in greater detail?

Creating your Personal Elevator Pitch

You want to include a few key statements about yourself:

1. Your position – I am an architect – This is your key statement
2. General Experience – in commercial development for 10 years – this gives listeners an idea of what level of expertise you have.
3. Your sub-pitch – I’ve supervised over xx projects ranging from 10,000 square feet to 130,000 square feet in 20 major metropolitan areas
4. Add interest - including Singapore, New York, Chicago, and Little Rock.
5. Apply it to your listener – My concepts attract new business from companies like …. – if you are using your pitch in a cover letter or interview, direct this last portion of your pitch to create a comparison to the businesses situation, perhaps their direct competition if possible.

Let’s go back to the 140 characters. Forced brevity sharpens the mind. Work with a trusted friend or counselor to keep your pitch brief. Just as in creating new marketing ideas, you may need to brainstorm ways to keep the word count down.

Using your Personal Elevator Pitch - You have created your personal pitch, but if you don’t memorize it, practice it and know how to modify it depending upon your audience, you could end up stammering and jabbering just as if you didn’t take all the time to create your pitch in the first place.

Tell me about yourself is a typical question you will be asked on any interview. When asked, you want your personal elevator pitch to just flow. To do that you need to write out your pitch, memorize it, practice it in front of a mirror, a family member, your employment and training rep, your dog, or the car in front of you in line at the drive-through. You want the words to just flow.
You want your message to be crystal clear. Refer to it enough throughout the interview, that if the interviewer is asked to tell their boss about you when your interview is done, you know how they will position you after you leave.

Remember that when you are speaking, use a personal level. Standards today are based on the medium of TV, using a conversational style that is friendly and one-on-one. Speak as if you are speaking to an acquaintance and tell the interviewer something in your pitch that they won’t read by going through your resume.

How we can help – We offer many resources to help you gain a new position on your way to a career. The Employment and Training Representatives at Kane County Department of Employment and Education can help you create a professional resume, refresh your interview skills, or help you find ways to network effectively. Visit www.illinoisworknet.com and click on the JOBS link, you can find additional tips to help you in your job search.

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• Elgin – 30 DuPage Court 847-888-7900 x 230
• N. Aurora – 2 Smoketree Plaza 630-844-6640 x 203
• DeKalb – 1701 E. Lincoln Hwy. 815-756-4893 x 240
• Yorkville – 811 W. John St. 630-553-8304

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