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Are You Ready? by Ron Moore

I was recently part of a training program to offer services to an organization. At the end of the program, most of us still questioned how ready we were. This is despite hours of reading, instruction, and in-class practice that we received.

The same can happen when you’re amidst a career change. This change could look like any number of things:

• You might be changing fields.
• You might be changing occupations.
• You might be moving into a leadership role.
• You might be starting a business.

Are you ready?

Getting Stuck

These changes and many others can leave you reluctant to move forward. Despite your current skills and knowledge, you may need one more training course, certification, and a month to prepare. You’re convinced you’re not ready for many reasons.

The Unknown

When career change takes us somewhere, we haven’t been before; we don’t know what to pack. Do we have all the items we need to bring? What if we prepare for one climate and find it completely different when we get there? Something is probably missing, no matter how well we planned our list.

Skill Lag

After just a few years of experience, most of us learn an important lesson – studying an activity doesn’t give us the skill needed to perform that activity. So we certainly have an advantage over someone with no training. But we’re also aware that our skills aren’t where they need to be.

What is Ready?

The definition of ready reads in a suitable state for an activity, action, or situation; fully prepared. The troublesome words are the last two – fully prepared. For most tasks, the only people who are fully prepared are the ones who have been doing those tasks for multiple years! Therefore, we will never feel ready if we focus on this part of the definition.

Getting Unstuck

Fortunately, you don’t need to remain in doubtful inaction. Your preparation has likely put you in a better position than you realize.

Compensating Advantages

Experience provides us with advantages that can compensate for our lack of job-specific skills and knowledge.

• Knowing what we don’t know: We’re more aware of what areas we are lacking in.
• Quick learner: We’re also faster at determining what’s essential and concentrating on that.
• Problem-solving: We know how to find a solution to most problems, even if we don’t know the most effective response.

Rethinking Ready

Remember the first part of the definition of ready – in a suitable state for an activity, action, or situation. Even when we’re not fully prepared, we are often in a suitable state to face new situations and engage in new activities.

So…

Have you researched? Have you studied? Have you prepared? You’re ready – move forward!

Embracing C-O-M-P-E-T-I-T-I-O-N by Qaddafi Sabree

Competition is always a concern if you’re an older professional searching for that next opportunity. With young people coming out of college every year, the outlook for senior professionals seems bleak sometimes.

However, mature professionals bring characteristics and traits that younger workers lack. An experienced professional with years of knowledge has accumulated qualities that will set them apart from younger candidates. 

The first is confidence. Age has its advantages. Years of working in any capacity will give you a leg up over any young person looking to start their career. In addition, those years should give you the confidence to express to others why you’re the best candidate. Employers like confident individuals, and with your accumulated knowledge and wisdom, confidence should be a given.

The second trait that mature workers should have is the ability to be organized. Being organized is a trait everyone appreciates at all levels of an agency. This trait isn’t unique to older workers, but it’s more noticeable if an older, experienced worker is unorganized. So, work on it, perfect it, and implement it into your routine.

Market yourself as a mentor. Mentoring is something that helps organizations to flourish. For example, when younger workers come in fresh out of college, it helps to have someone to guide them in the organization, whether it’s learning the organization’s culture or business processes. Mentors are a plus for any organization serious about cultivating talent.

Professionalism should be ingrained in all of us looking for a job. However, it can be lacking in some younger workers who are more used to the relaxed college atmosphere. Not to be confused with stuffiness, you can use professionalism to your advantage when interviewing through your choice of words, your style, and how you articulate your accomplishments.

It should go without saying that experience is on your side. Someone fresh out of college isn’t going to have the knowledge that you can provide the organization. Reminding a prospective employer of your professional experience will set you apart if it’s between you and a younger professional.

Young professionals need training. So it’s only logical that the experienced person teaches the less experienced. Even if you’re a new hire, your overall experience will put you at the top of the list to train others, which is one more thing to add to your arsenal of skills and abilities.

The word influencer has come to mean something different in social media, but your influence should be evident as a mature professional. If you conduct yourself as an experienced professional, your impact should carry across the organization, especially to those in your immediate department. Use your influence to your advantage in the interview and on the job.

The time that you’ve spent in the workforce is a plus. Time has allowed you to observe things around you and make solid decisions based on those observations. However, even if a young professional has the experience, professionalism, the ability to train, confidence, and influence, time is something that only a seasoned professional can claim.

Along with time comes insight. Whether making a decision based on experience or having the knowledge and understanding that comes with experience, insight is something that prospective employers cannot overlook. Once you’ve seen enough scenarios, you can be guided by intuition and have the insight to make wise decisions.

Along with insight comes the ability to be objective. After witnessing both sides of numerous conflicts and outcomes, impartiality is essential when dealing with multiple personality types. Objectivity isn’t a given, but mature professionals put their biases aside.

As the elder in the organization, you have to nurture those coming behind you. If you’re going to be a mentor and someone who exudes influence, the ability to help others is a must. Selling yourself as a nurturer can be extremely valuable, especially to an organization with a young demographic.

So when you think of competition, think of a confident, organized mentor who’s professional, experienced, can train and influence, and has amassed the time and insight to be objective and nurturing when dealing with other employees. As a mature, skilled worker, you bring all the traits employers value. So, promote these characteristics in your interview. Then, it will be hard for any employer to overlook you, and it will be difficult for other candidates to compete with you because you are the competition.

The Mission of 40Plus by Ron Moore

40Plus of Greater Washington D.C. serves experienced professionals in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. And we’ve been doing this for almost 70 years. We recently updated our mission statement to focus on three key aspects that are essential for employment in the 21st century.

Our new mission statement reads:

The mission of 40Plus of Greater Washington is to help experienced professionals know and effectively communicate their value with confidence in securing a new position or changing careers.

Here’s why we are focusing on these characteristics:

Value

Value is at the heart of any successful effort, whether it is running a successful business or working for someone else. Throughout our career, we held our previous positions because we provided value. And we will gain our new roles based on the value we have demonstrated in the past.

Yet, as we gain experience, we often lose the ability to see our own value. Our experience teaches us that our successes are often part of a team effort. It becomes difficult to separate out our specific contributions. And as our skill levels increase, we find that what we do well is easy for us, but assume that those tasks are just as easy for others.

40Plus provides several means to help experienced professionals understand their value. We schedule speakers throughout the year that provide insights into the many ways that people provide value. Problem/Solution/Result exercises provide us with success bites. These are concise success stories that we can use to identify and quantify the value we have provided in the past. And our course fosters relationships and frequent interactions with others of different backgrounds. These enable fellow students to see their value as others see them.

Communicate Effectively

We need to understand our value to make any progress in our careers. But knowing our value isn’t very helpful if we can’t communicate that to others. We need to be able to communicate value to co-workers, potential employers, and anyone who may help us along the way. And we need the ability to communicate value both in writing (resumes and LinkedIn) and verbally (interviews, and networking).

One primary communication tool 40Plus emphasizes is “Tell me about yourself” – TMAY. The TMAY is a 30-second to one-minute introduction that provides a clear statement of value and leaves the listener saying “Tell me more!” 40Plus develops this and other speaking skills through our weekly speakers and training course.

Communicating value through resumes is a sizable challenge for today’s job seeker. The challenge comes from needing to satisfy both automated systems and people. And the challenge is then compounded because you often only have 10 seconds to get the attention of the reader. The 40Plus program provides speakers that offer general resume-writing guidelines. More thorough instruction is available through workshops and our training course.

Our society has a growing reliance on written online communication through social media. 40Plus keeps our audience informed about the latest recommendations for these platforms.

Confidence

A successful candidate for any position must have confidence. After all, if we aren’t convinced that we can do the job, how will we convince a potential employer? Knowing our value and communicating it clearly form an essential foundation for confidence. The right mindset is needed to present ourselves to others as the one they can trust to do the job and do it well.

40Plus helps our audience grow in confidence in a variety of ways. We include speakers in our Monday morning series to present on mindset. We promote an environment where our participants receive encouragement from others. And through the relationships developed in our training course, our students learn to see themselves through the eyes of others.

So, a successful career is built on value, communication, and confidence. 40Plus exists to help our audience grow in these areas and present themselves as those others can rely on throughout their careers.

13 “must haves” for your job search

Great advice, from The Wise Job Search.

Speed up your job search with social media

Good advice, from LinkedIn.

Demystifying the Federal Employment Process 5/14

May 14, 2015
9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

The Maryland Professional Outplacement Assistance Center presents a FREE seminar

Demystifying the Federal Employment Process

Learn:

-How the federal hiring works

-How to navigate processes used in Federal hiring

-How to understand “federal speak”

-How to respond to job announcements

-How to write powerful KSAs and Essays

-How to apply online

-How to negotiate salary

cost: free

Register online now

location:
POAC
312 Marshall Ave.
6th fl.
Laurel, MD 20707

The First 5 Minutes of the Interview Often Determines Your Fate 5/9

May 9, 2015
8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Beltway Job Search Partners presents

The First 5 Minutes of the Interview Often Determines Your Fate

with Jean O’Brien

Hiring decisions are often made in the first 5 minutes of the interview. Sometimes they are made BEFORE you enter the room.

Jean will teach you how to position yourself so that you excel in those important first few minutes of the interview.

Treat these seminars as if they are professional job interviews. For men this means wearing suit and tie.

cost: free

Register online now

location:
Teq Corner
1616 Anderson Rd.
McLean, VA

LinkedIn Topics 5/11

May 11, 2015
7:30 p.m. – 9 p.m.

JobAssist presents

LinkedIn Topics

with Ken Horowitz

To reserve a seat, email DMarwick@JobAssist.org.

location:
Kemp Mill Synagogue
11910 Kemp Mill Rd.
Silver Spring, MD 20902

40Plus presents Change Your Patterns, Change Your Life 5/11

May 11, 2015
9:45 a.m. – 12 p.m.

40Plus of Greater Washington presents our free weekly Monday morning meeting:

Change Your Patterns, Change your Life

with Jennifer Katt

This event is open to everyone.

Plan to join us after the meeting for networking.

We usually go have lunch together at the nearby Brookings Institute cafeteria.

Doors open at 9:30 a.m. for networking and the program starts promptly at 10 a.m.

location:
40Plus
1718 P St. NW
Suite T-2, Lower Level
Washington, D.C. 20036

near Dupont Circle Metro

Sign up for our proven 4-week Job Search Seminar. Next class starts on June 15.