The Future of Work: Future-proof Your Career With Scenario Planning

Original Post: The Future of Work: Future-proof Your Career With Scenario Planning: "

Rounding off our week of features on the Future of Work, I thought it appropriate to consider methods of exploring the future, in particular ways to help you think about your career trajectory.

Perhaps one of the most well-known and used mechanisms for understanding possible futures is scenario planning. Scenario planning essentially helps construct “storylines” that draw together factors from various overlapping domains — politics, technology, culture, demographics — into narratives that can sometimes yield surprising, serendipitous insights.

Scenario planning has a long history of use as a predictive tool in the military and large organizations, but it’s also surprisingly applicable to individuals who wish to model, simulate and explore their own personal future.

A recent piece in Wired outlines a method for personal scenario planning to help workers consider and imagine their career future, and model the factors that might influence it.

Conveniently, Wired’s artilce distills scenario planning into five easy steps:

1. List driving forces. Which events, trends and variables affect your career? Categorize them under “uncertainties” and “relative certainties,” ranked by importance. These are essentially the determining factors in your career.
2. Make a scenario grid. Map your possible futures by selecting the most important uncertainties (from above) as axes of a 2×2 grid, you can then begin to populate each section of the grid with the description of a “potential future,” based on your chosen factors.
3. Imagine possible futures. Rewrite your potential futures as fictional, but plausible, news stories to make each scenario more tangible and real.
   
4. Brainstorm implications and actions. Here you begin to strategize how each possible future could be navigated. Begin with the implications of each scenario, followed by discrete actions. Some actions might work in multiple scenarios, indicating that these are the most secure paths forward.
5. Track the indicators. The scenarios you’ve established prepares you to absorb what’s ahead and recognize events and developments which signal if elements of particular scenarios are in play. Testing your actions against these indicators regularly helps you anticipate your reaction to various futures.

Wired’s article uses the example of an aerospace engineer seeking to future-proof his career over the next five years. There’s no reason the same methodology couldn’t be applied to the world of a designer, developer, consultant, journalist or any of the multitude of web working disciplines.

I recently took part in an Arup-hosted scenario planning session at TED Global 2009, in Oxford. Over the course of two hours, around seventy people teased out a set of priorities for addressing global problems, using Arup’s own Drivers Of Change scenario planning tools. It was a fascinating exercise in anticipating future developments, and something that I’m certain would work well on a personal and individual scale for managing a career.

I’d love to see an enterprising and imaginative group create a crowdsourcing-driven application for personal scenario planning. Perhaps we might even see the evolution of scenario coaches to assist freelancers, in particular.

Read more at “Your Future in 5 Easy Steps: Wired Guide to Personal Scenario Planning.”

UpMo.com Offers Uber Personalized Job Searches And Counseling

UpMo.com Offers Uber Personalized Job Searches And Counseling: "

With unemployment rates still high, the competition among online job boards is heating up. One startup is hoping to take a piece of the pie by offering a highly-personalized job search feature. UpMo.com has launched the Intelligent Job Hunt, a tool that determines a job hunter’s ideal career path and job opportunities based on an algorithm.

Intelligent Job Hunt’s algorithm identifies and prioritizes job matches based upon certain aspects of a user’s career, including past, present and future jobs, network (i.e. LinkedIn) connections, professionals they’d like to emulate and personality attributes. UpMo also attempts to pinpoints the activities you should be doing and the specific job opportunities you should be pursuing to increase your chances of getting the job you want.

Of course, the bells and whistles that accompany UpMo’s job search platform aren’t free. UpMo’s membership fee is $6.99 per month, whereas CareerBuilder and other job search engines are free. The algorithm itself sounds impressive and perhaps could be a powerful tool for those looking to get highly personalized job guidance, but needs to be tested further to prove its success in the space. And it’s a competitive space chock full of job search engines, including the fast-growing Indeed, Yahoo’s HotJobs (Which Yahoo may be abandoning) and Monster.

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7 Quick Rules for Networking To Your Next Job

7 Quick Rules for Networking To Your Next Job: "

Network your way to your next job by following these rules.

This a guest post by Yvette Francino.

1) Become familiar with the social networking tools like LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter

Networking has always been the most important strategy in finding a job.

Before we had social networking tools, we dug out our list of contacts and blindly went out trying to find people that might be able to help us with our job search. There are “leads meetings” where people exchange business cards and give their elevator pitches. These methods are still useful ways to network. However, by using tools such as LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter we are able to be much more intelligent with how we network.

Social media tools allow us an easy way for keeping in touch and expanding our networks, finding mutually beneficial relationships. These tools, particularly LinkedIn, are absolutely essential in the modern day job search.

There are also many tips and tricks that are particularly geared towards helping job seekers.

2) Don’t wait until you need something

The best time to network is before you need anything.

Networks can help with a lot more than a job search. A community of people can help each other in many ways. Building up a strong network when you are happily employed can help you progress in your career and build lifelong professional friendships. Don’t wait until you’ve been laid off to connect with your colleagues in LinkedIn and Facebook.

However, if you’re new to the social networking scene and are in need of a job, it’s not too late. Go ahead and get start building your networks using social networking tools and by getting involved in communities of interest. Invite all the friends from your email address book (not just those that you think will help you with your job search) to join your networks.

3) Seek to help and support others

Participate in your networks, looking for ways to help others.

Join networks aimed at job search and pass along tips and tricks. Help your contacts find leads to companies they’re interested in by searching your own network. Pass along what you learn from others. By helping other people you are also helping yourself become established in the community as a resource.

But don’t limit your help and support only to job seekers.

Look for opportunities to help people in your area of expertise. Connecting with friends on Facebook or Twitter allows an easy way for you to stay up-to-date on what’s going on in your friends’ lives. Simply giving them a quick message of friendship can spread a feeling of happiness.

4) Be personal and genuine

I’ve heard advice from several people that when you’re networking you shouldn’t tell people directly that you’re looking for a job. You befriend them, find out more about them, help them with something, and then in the course of the conversation they will find out your in the job market. I understand that this should be the philosophy in sales.

Build the relationship first before you start selling.

However if you’re meeting someone specifically because of a job search, I think it’s important to be upfront. Let people know that you are looking for a job, but don’t “sell” yourself. Enjoy the friendship and support you receive and give it willingly and genuinely to others. And don’t limit yourself simply to email or social networking tools. Meet new people often – not with the sole purpose of finding a job, but with the purpose of meeting new friends and getting to know people with shared interests.

5) Have a confident attitude

One of the hardest things I ever had to do was fundraising for Leukemia and Lymphoma.

I had committed to raising $4000 which meant I had to ask a lot of people for money. I hated putting them on the spot until one man – someone I barely knew whose son was in remission– donated $500. The next time I was raising money, I asked him again, but told him I didn’t want him to think I was taking advantage of his generosity. He gave me another $500 and said, “I would be hurt if you DIDN’T ask me. Be proud of what you’re doing.”

Though not everyone has this generous attititude about giving, I realized that when we are asking people for help, our attitude makes a world of difference.

When we ask someone to meet so we can talk to them about a job opportunity, we shouldn’t be apologetic or feel that we’re imposing. Certainly we want to be grateful for the meeting, but we are not only learning from them, but sharing of ourselves. Initiating a new relationship, whether or not it results in a job, is something to feel good about. Don’t go about networking as though you’re a charity case.

Go in being proud of what you can offer to others.

6) Thank those who help you

An attitude of gratefulness is one that helps keeps your community strong.

When someone helps you in your job search, make sure they realize how grateful you are. Social networking tools can help you keep in touch and keep up with your friendships. Of course, for people that have gone out of their way to help you, personal contact is better than an email or Wall message.

Treat your biggest supporters to lunch or surprise them with a gift in thanks for their efforts. And certainly offer to return the favor of help in any way you can.

7) Pay it forward

When someone helps us, we know how good it feels and we naturally want to spread that feeling to others that might need it.

One of the best things about community is the contagious feelings of happiness it can bring to pass on to others the support that we’ve received. Social networking tools have made it simple by allowing us to easily share advice or information that we find useful. With Twitter, we simply have to “Retweet” to pass along information. With FaceBook and LinkedIn we can easily post links to our status pages of helpful information passing along to our own networks.

If you found this article useful, you can help me by spreading the word through your networks. Additional articles about social networking and the job search can be found on my blog. My contact information and connection information for LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can be found there. Looking forward to having you in my network!

About the Author

Yvette Francino blogs about social media at geekgal-yvette.blogspot.com.

This article is part of the 3rd Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest. If you want Yvette Francino to win, share this article with your friends.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more ideas on job search networking with social media.

-- Jacob Share, Job Search Expert and Professional Blogging Consultant

How Many Resumes do You Have?

Jul 29th, 2009 by Nut

If your answer is "one," then you're missing out.

Having one resume means that you're most likely to apply to just one type of job, and going to limit how many open jobs you apply to. Which means you probably won't find a job as quickly as someone who has four or five.

The reason is obvious: you'll have more options if you have several different types of skills so you can apply to different types of jobs.

So can you just fire up a word processor and create five different versions of your existing resume? Nope, that would be pointless.

Instead, try to get more experience at your current work. Freelance on the side. Blog. Get "another job" in the sense that you're still with your current company but you wear different hats and see what you're good at. You'll make yourself a more valuable employee and you'll get the experience you need to open up all kinds of different jobs when you decide to move on.

Take myself, for example. I was hired to do one thing and one thing only.

That was over a year and a half ago and now I'm not even doing that original job. Things have changed and because I was able to wear many different types of hats, I'm now doing several different things. Which is good because my time isn't spent doing just one thing (a little variety is always nice) and I'm expanding my skill set even further by adding experience.

Right now I could probably create at least four completely unique resumes. Almost like four totally different people.

So I don't have five or six…but I'm working on it.

Having several resumes is a good way to make sure you're expanding your skills and it will also help you when you go job hunting. You won't ever have to feel like you "have" to get a job in just one specific field. You'll have your choice as long as you have the skills to apply to several different types of jobs.

Image by woodleywonderworks

Budget on an Irregular Income [Budgeting]

from Lifehacker by Adam Pash

In this economy, many of us are looking for a little extra cash wherever we can get it, which means your income may vary greatly from one month to the next. So how do you budget accordingly?

Personal finance weblog Get Rich Slowly tackles the sometimes complicated subject of budgeting for an irregular income. The post is written from the perspective of a professional blogger, but it applies just as well to most anyone who's self-employed or does freelance work. In a nutshell, the author suggests projecting your cash flow as best you can and then building your budget with a couple of different bank accounts.

• The first is your "business" account (without quotes for those of you who actually own businesses), which is where you deposit all of your income. My business account is a high-yield savings account with ING Direct. (You might use FNBO Direct or some other bank. Just choose something with a high interest rate.)
• The second is your personal account, and it's from this that you'll pay your ongoing expenses. There's no need to open a new account if you already have one that will work. I just use my existing credit union checking account.

From this money, pay yourself as if you were an employee. Your monthly salary is whatever you calculated as your monthly budget, your minimum monthly income from the past twelve months.

Head over to the full post for a thorough rundown and several useful tips on the finer points of budgeting with your irregular income, then let us know how you've handled your budgeting in similar situations in the comments.

How to Budget for an Irregular Income [Get Rich Slowly]

Indeed Now Gets The Most Pageviews For Job Searches In The U.S.

Indeed Now Gets The Most Pageviews For Job Searches In The U.S.: "

With the unemployment rate still above 9 percent, a lot of people are hitting the job boards. One set of companies that are growing under these conditions, at least in terms of Website traffic, are the job search engines. But the one that seems to be growing the fastest is Indeed. In July, Monster’s job search engine was up 33 percent in U.S. pageviews, CareerBuilders’ was up 56 percent, and Indeed’s was up 90 percent (comScore).

Not only is Indeed the fastest growing job search engine it is also now the largest in terms of pageviews. In July, it passed CareerBuilder, with 171 million pageviews in the U.S. versus 159 million for CareerBuilder. Yahoo’s HotJobs had 96 million (which Yahoo is reportedly abandoning), Monster had 73 million, and SimplyHired trailed far behind with 26 million.

In terms of unique visitors, CareerBuilder is still larger with 10.1 million in July versus 8.7 million for Indeed, which is No. 2. But Indeed is growing faster in that metric as well (up 76 percent versus 19 percent for CareerBuilder).

All of these numbers are for the core job search at each site, and do not include other parts of their sites such as resumes, advice, or career tools.

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Real World Example: The Logic Recruiters Use To Find Candidates

Real World Example: The Logic Recruiters Use To Find Candidates: "

Knowing how recruiters reason can help improve your chances of being chosen as a candidate.

This is a guest post by executive recruiter Todd Porter.

The following is a unique micro-perspective on the recruiting process as it applies to one specific search I’m currently working on (August 2009).

The classic recruitment problem

Hiring managers and job seekers often feel like they are being shortchanged in the recruiting process.

• Hiring Managers see too many candidates that don’t fit what they are looking for, whereas…
• Job seekers often feel that they are perfect and don’t understand why they aren’t being considered.

Have realistic expectations

Here is an e-mail I sent to one of our Israeli customers in Houston.  It explains why I had not been successful in filling a controller position.

This exercise had these goals as objectives:

1. Explain the points we thought were important in the search
2. Make sure the compensation range was right
3. Explain our main problem
4. Explain what type of candidates we are seeing
5. Let our customer know we are NOT giving up

From the information provided, the customer can adjust the search criteria or they can decide they will try another method to fill the position.

The e-mail said:

Avi,

I’ve been trying to analyze why the search for your Controller has been so difficult and why we haven’t been successful, “YET”.

I really don’t think the issue is compensation.  I think candidates with the skills you are looking for should fit into that (US) $70k to $85k base range, where you have asked us to search.

The trouble has been there are a lot of people that do not fit the profile.

If I condensed our interpretation of what you need/want in a Controller, I came up with these items:

• Nuts and Bolts accounting (preferably with a CPA)
• Small company as opposed to large
• Main Finance person at that company
• Must be a similar environment that relates to a your company (i.e. Manufacturing and Inventory)

I understand the environment of a ’smaller company’ that you want the individual to come out of.  I think the main problem is your COO’s point of reference is Israel, where there are 3,000 to 4,000 businesses.  Most of these companies are in the size (if not necessarily the industry) where an individual has to perform the type of position you are trying to hire.

I think the make-up of most (or a very high percentage) of the companies in the U.S. and Houston don’t fit this profile.  They are much smaller or very large.  On top of that, the vast majority of finance people don’t come close to the exact scenario you and the COO want.

First, most CPAs are probably going to have the wrong background with most just being Tax and Audit people.

Most large company Finance people or even Division Controllers aren’t going to have the breadth of Finance to do the GAAP, FASB…. type of accounting you need/want.

So, when we look for the types of companies and environments where these people live (or have lived), we then find them in these flavors:

Imposters

individuals faking it and not performing, willing to move but you won’t want or need

Climbers

just passing through and tough to land because of compensation

Plodders

not motivated to move to another position

Attached

fully happy with what they are doing and nothing could get them to look other places

Unemployed

not working for the wrong reasons.  At best - caught in a situation of either the economy going bad or internal politics or company being bought

Our goal has been to find those Attached individuals where we can motivate and convince them to consider your position. We’re also considering individuals that are unemployed, if for the right reasons.

We’re networking through the financial community and have partners assisting us on the search.

To see if the financial people you are looking for exist, we have skimmed the Internet resume boards looking for the right combination of characteristics.  Few candidates come close to fitting the profile and none of them have hit the bull’s eye of the target.

On top of all this we still need to spread your desire to have an individual with High Energy, Maturity, Right Chemistry to fit the environment…..

I had to go through this analysis in my head (and writing it down here) to better understand why we haven’t found the person and maybe come up with a different approach to solve the problem.

I don’t want you to think this is impossible or that we are giving up.  The number of candidates is just very, very limited. We’re adjusting and looking for new ways of finding the right individual, as well as convincing them to consider your opportunity.

We will touch base early next week.

Todd

Test your expectations

Almost every individual I spoke to about this opportunity thought they could do the job.  Many told me they were perfect.  Some could have probably done the job but few would have satisfied our customer.

The information in the e-mail allowed me to measure individuals on all the points, to know if they hit the target and more importantly, the bull’s eye.

Conclusion

The week after I sent this e-mail, we sourced an individual that hit all the bullet points.  The customer quickly agreed and told me, “…background and experience matches our search criteria.”

The interview is set for next week.

About the author

Todd Porter started H.T. PROF Executive Search in 1997. Located in Atlanta and Boston, the company recruits primarily for Israeli companies hiring anywhere in the U.S.  He can be reached directly at TPJOB [at] HTPROF [dot] COM.

This article is part of the 3rd Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest. If you want Todd Porter to win, share this article with your friends.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or
email and follow me on Twitter for the best insight from job search professionals around the Web.

-- Jacob Share, Job Search Expert and Professional Blogging Consultant