Posted on April 3, 2007
Filed Under Lemons 2 Lemonade | Leave a Comment
One of the most common issues faced by most employees is - a lost promotion. If the end result does not match with your “objective” evaluation of yourself, then an immediate response is to to hole up and lick the wounds. Whatever the kneejerk response is, there is a degradation of trust between the employee and the supervisor. This, unfortunately, is a lost cause.
Instead the smart response is to strategize a long term plan, with your manager. Map out a development plan, spanning the next few years; partner with manager and peers and measure progress.Here are somethings you may want to put into the development plan.
- Identify specific skills you require to be successful at work.
- Advertise your Goals & Objectives.
- Scour the organization for opportunities.
- Identify the steps required to acheive each of the goals.
- Clearly layout the expectations from your manager (if you need his help).
When one has a plan, partnered with their boss, then it becomes more about whether you have accomplished X, Y or Z. There’s a difference between not getting something you want and not getting something you’ve earned.
Technorati Tags: Lemons to Lemonade, Loss of Promotion, Development Plan, Careers
Posted on March 15, 2007
Filed Under Lemons 2 Lemonade | 2 Comments
We all have had to endure interviews, and for the less fortunate ones (myself included) we have also gone through the process of rejections. In most cases a rejection is demoralizing, but an educational experience. I have failed in quite a few interviews, and almost always I know before hand how I fared. So instead of feeling bad about the results, I plan on my next interview equipped with lessons learned from my failure. If this happens to you, try these:
-
List names of all interviewers, their positions and contact information. If you collected business cards, you already have that information. Add them to your contact database, for later use.
-
Ask for feedback from the interviewers. Whatever medium you choose to approach them by, remember to thank them for their time. Assimilate the feedback received, and assess your strengths and weaknesses.
-
Memorize the questions that were asked and your responses. Analyze how you could have answered these, if you were given a second chance. Craft a strategy on how you would handle it, the second time.
-
Did you put yourself in any uncomfortable moments? Why were they uncomfortable? How could you have avoided it?
-
Determine the fit. Did the job profile match your interests? Were you capable of delivering for the role? Would you have earned the respect of your peers and/or respected them?
- Don’t Start mentally kicking yourself, or contemplating if you should have worn your lucky shirt/dress. Focus on where you went wrong, and what you learnt.
The idea of this exercise is to objectively assess what went wrong and how one can learn from it. Hopefully with the learnings, we wont make the same mistake again. If we do, either it is an attitude issue or one of competency.
Technorati Tags: Lemons to Lemonade, Interviews, Rejection, Learnings
Posted on March 9, 2007
Filed Under Lemons 2 Lemonade | Leave a Comment
Just read Dave Sifry’s State of The Blogosphere report to understand how many blogs & bloggers are out there. While corporate blogs are catching on, there are still plenty of organizations that frown upon blogging.
Back in 2005, Mark Jen was fired from Google after blogging about some of his experiences there. He wasn’t on the streets for long. Jen has joined Plaxo. On his blog he says
“recruiters started contacting me. this was a very unique experience; while most job seekers have to go to great lengths to get a foot in the door, i was being aggressively pursued.”
Jen’s career is now on a fast track, he cashed out big. Many other stories abound the net where bloggers have struck gold. I am in no way suggesting that people should start blogging at work. My point is more around how a blog can be used as a marketing vehicle. Use it to promote your thought leadership skills, promote your company’s products/services et al. If you need to blog at work, try to integrate into the fabric of the organization.
Technorati Tags: Lemons to Lemonade, Blogging, Marketing, Branding
Loading ...