Example

Suppose, as a marketing professional, your company had an under performing consumer product. Your boss assigned you the job of developing a campaign to increase sales for the product. He gave you a six-month deadline and a limited budget. Despite these limitations, the marketing campaign you came up with resulted in a dramatic increase in sales. Here is how you would separate the elements using the PAR formula:

P (Problem/Situation)
Needed to create and implement an effective marketing plan for an under performing consumer product and turn it’s sales around in less than six months, on a $40,000 budget.

A (Action)
Worked 80 hour weeks for a month and a half in the creation and development of an innovative, cost effective marketing and public relations campaign using targeted radio spots and local newspaper ads.

R (Results)
The marketing campaign was implemented under budget in two months. Sales increased 35 percent in first six months and have continued to improve at this level for the last three years.

The next step is to rewrite your accomplishment in a concise manner. Use the following guidelines:

Where ever possible quantify your accomplishment. This could represent increased revenues, money saved, time saved, man hours saved, etc. You can use exact figures or percentages, or approximate the numbers if exact information is not available (i.e. more than 25%).

Begin with action words, such as designed, developed, implemented, increased, saved, earned, etc.

Keep each accomplishment stories to about 30 words.

Rewriting the above accomplishment using these guidelines, this is the result:

Created, developed and implemented a consumer product marketing plan, on time and under budget, that increased sales 35 percent in each of its first three years.

If you worked with large sums of money, say millions of dollars, use the figure. If such were the case in the above accomplishment it might read:

Created, developed and implemented a consumer product marketing plan, on time and under budget, that increased sales $35 million in each of its first three years.

Put the results up front. You can increase the impact of your accomplishment by putting the results (R) at the beginning of the statement. For example:

Increased sales $35 million per year, for three years, by creating, developing and implementing a consumer product-marketing plan. The plan was implemented on time and under budget.

Try writing twelve accomplishment statements. Whenever you are in doubt if an accomplishment is strong enough to be included, include it, most men and women tend to undervalue their accomplishments. Once you have written the accomplishment you may find it stronger than you thought.

Completed Examples

Increased occupational medicine patient volume 93% with projected net income of $325,000 by negotiating a worker compensation contract with McDonnell Douglas Government Aircraft Division.

Developed and implemented a computer learning center which is projected to reduce outside vendor training cost 20% during the first year and 75% during subsequent years.

Conceived, designed and implemented a three year plan which secured degree granting status for a small British Columbia College. This required the passing of an act of the province’s legislature.

Assisted in raising over $400MM in equity within one week of issuance by preparing the prospectus and financial projection for the offering.

Earned recognition for sales achievements by consistently placing first or second place in every promotion in the past 9 out of 10 years.

Generated over $1 million annually by modifying and adapting a special instrumentation valve to an application for the semiconductor industry. The valve is now recognized as an industry standard.

• Strengths – Internal
• Weaknesses – Internal
• Opportunities – External
• Threats – External

By understanding the strengths and weakness, as well as the opportunities and threats of target industries and organizations, individuals in job transition can attain the insights needed to shape and focus their skills and experience as solutions to the problems of an industry, and more specifically, write industry focused Special Reports. Such reports are up to 10 times more effective in landing top level interviews than resumes and cover letters. Then by asking a series of focused questions during an interview candidates can utilize a SWOT analysis to follow up with a proposal demonstrating a significant return on investment (ROI) to the organization..

It should be noted, that internal factors – strengths and weaknesses are largely in control of the individual or an organization. Conversely, whether an individual or an organization, generally has no control over their external factors – opportunities and threats.

It is critical to allow enough time to study each of the four areas in-depth and as pragmatically as possible. Keep your lists in all four areas short, ideally no more than three items in each category. If a list is too long it becomes unwieldy and almost impossible to implement. So limit questions in each of the 4 areas to 3.

Check out the following websites for ideas and instructions on implementing a SWOT analysis:

www.mindtools.com/rs/SWOT.

For personal career or life strategy, www.mindtools.com/rs/LifePlanWorkbook

Look for problems, not jobs. There isn’t a  company anywhere in the world that does not have problems. Even if a company has no formal job opening there is close to a 100 percent chance they have a problem that is an opportunity for you to present a proposal demonstrating you have the savvy and initiative to solve and create significantly more value than you will cost.

Be visible in your professional association.  The best opportunities to present proposals come to those who are visible and  perceived as leaders. This means speaking, joining committees, heading special projects, running for offices, and writing articles for the newsletter.

Think like a consultant.  A management consultant does a lot of  research and information interviews with key industry people. In the process they develop “inside” relationships. This is exactly what  management and professional men and women in transition should be doing.

Modify your proposal for multiple companies. Proposals don’t have to be one-shot deals. In a well-focused job search the companies you approach are likely to have similar problems. Therefore you can modify your proposal many times. Word processing makes such modifications relatively quick and easy.

Turn job and informational interviews into proposal opportunities. In your thank you letter you might write something like “I have several ideas which might be helpful concerning our discussion on …….” Follow up the letter with a      telephone call and say; “If you’d be interested, I’d be glad to put my ideas in writing for you.”

The “proactive” job hunter does not “react” to the known job market.  Rather they look at industry trends, target companies, and where there are problems that they can solve.  They are constantly asking themselves “where are their target organizations changing, growing, bleeding, or hurting.  What is going on in the industry, in my target companies where I can present myself as a change agent, where I can demonstrate that I’ll bring more value than I’ll cost.”  Answering these questions may mean 40 or more hours of intensive research, supplemented with networking in professional organizations and information interviews with industry insiders.  Such “proactive” approaches quickly distinguish job hunters from 95 percent of their competition, because most job hunters are “reactive”.

The courses includes (at no charge) a 223 page E-book manual and focuses on cutting edge strategies designed to help career oriented men and women find jobs ASAP in this very tough job market. Students work in teams of 8 to 10 designed to encourage each other, brainstorm ideas and hold members accountable for homework assignments. Strategies studied in the course include:

•Writing and implementing ROI focused industry reports
•In depth research strategies
•Writing and implementing targeted proposals
•Creating and implementing accomplishment portfolios
•Strategic interviewing: Demonstrating your value
to an organization in 30, 60, 90 days and beyond
•Industry branding: Becoming the first name that
comes to mind for excellence in an industry and/or function
•Social media including LinkedIn, Twitter, web sites and blogs
•How to write and present case studies verbally and online
•Negotiation strategies
•Structured brainstorming

The course will be led by John Hall who was awarded Pepperdine University’s Orange County Alumni Association’s 2010 Waves of Service Award for his work with Orange County’s unemployed. John is a retired executive career coach with 21 years of experience helping management and professional individuals through job transitions and co author of the book Adapt! How to Survive and Thrive in the Changing World of Work. He was referred to as the “John Wooden of career Coaches” in the April 25, 2011 edition of Newsweek Magazine. Assisting John will be experienced coaches from the Orange County chapter of the Professional Coaches and Mentors Association’s (PCMA).

The next Advanced Job Transition Course is tentatively scheduled for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM, in late January or early February 2012.

Brandman University:
16355 Laguna Canyon Road
Irvine, CA 92618
(949) 753-4774
Registration:
Mary Shelton at 949-341-9859
Email: shelton@brandman.edu

John Hall, Course Instructor
949.387.2004 Office
949.689.4846 Cell
Email: jhirvine@aol.com
www.advancedcareerstrategies.com

http://advancedcareerstrategies.wordpress.com/

Last November’s course included thirty high-level professionals – among them were a finance director, attorney, senior auditor, AT&T project manager, doctor of pharmaceutical research, hospital administrator, human resource specialist, advertising executive and several marketing and sales professionals out of work due to the toughest economy in the last 70 years. Each of them left with a concrete plan to be the A+ candidate and a branding strategy for continued career success.

The workshop is offered tuition-free throughout the year and is led by John Hall, a longtime job transition coach. Several coaches from the Professional Coaches and Mentors Association (PCMA) assist students through a series of intensive exercises, critiques, presentations and group activities. Classes run from 8:30 to 4:30 p.m. daily with an additional three hours of homework before each class, including the first class.

Professor Hall has coached hundreds of management and professional individuals through career transitions, and has taught at Chapman University and in the Graduate Career Counseling program at UC-San Diego. His passion is helping people transition through the rough economy by giving them the tools to succeed in today’s difficult job market. For his dedication to community service, John was honored in October with Pepperdine University’s Waves of Service Award for his work with Orange County’s unemployed.

Rohit Kaushik came to class with 17-years of experience in finance. He said, “This course helped me to focus by giving me straightforward direction. The biggest block I had was my own perception. I was thinking of myself as a job-seeker. John Hall taught me to market myself as a problem solver, not just someone who needs a job. His words had profound meaning and turned everything around.”

Professor Hall asks his students to approach the workshop as they would an MBA class. “In today’s market, you must be the A+ candidate.” He says, “In the past, B or even C level job seekers could find work, but that’s no longer true.”

Students are required to develop “power stories” that highlight their professional achievements. A student in the September workshop writes: “I had a job interview just a few days after completing the course, it was a great success. I had so many well rehearsed power stories, the interviewer seemed ready to hire me on the spot. Memorizing and rehearsing those greatly reduced my stress and put me in an empowered, autopilot mode. I received an offer letter today!”

They must also write a special report that focuses on problems and issues generic to 80% or more of the companies in a given industry, or a proposal that focuses on the issues of a single targeted company. These are approaches rarely taught in expensive outplacement programs or local workshops including state sponsored One Stops or Experience Unlimited. Hall says the bottom line is that teaching management executives and professionals how to approach companies using these techniques elevates them in a manner that resumes and cover letters cannot approach. “To the best of my knowledge, less than 1 in 2000 job hunters ever use either of these approaches,” says Hall.

Takeaways included a 223 page e-book manual and targeted special industry reports about in-depth research strategies, job development proposals, career portfolios, strategic interviewing, personal branding and social media. Students added that the camaraderie and support they received from their classmates was a valuable benefit they didn’t anticipate. Professor Hall reports that most groups continue to meet regularly long after class has ended to network and provide support and feedback.

The six-day workshop is offered free-of-charge. The next class begins January 17, 2011. If you are interested in attending, please contact Mary Shelton at 949-341-9859 or e-mail, shelton@brandman.edu

Details:
When: January 17-28, 2011
Time: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. plus 3 hours of homework before each class, including class 1.
Where: Brandman University,16355 Laguna Canyon Rd., Irvine
Registration: Mary Shelton at 949-341-9859 or shelton@brandman.edu
More information: http://www1.chapman.edu/enhance/careermgmt.htm

Proposals, Industry Reports, Portfolios, Video Resumes,

Social Media, and Strategic Interviewing

• Land your next job Faster in this tough economy
• Create a “Career”, not just a series of “Potluck” jobs
• Get dramatically more interviews with “Special reports“, Proposals and Portfolios
• Learn the principals of “Strategic Interviewing“
• Learn how to use the Internet and Social Networking to “Brand” yourself
• Course members work in small teams with trained transition coaches

$249 registration fee returned , no questions asked, after 2 weeks, if not convinced this course will shorten your job search and benefit your future career growth.

Thursdays, April 1 through May 27, 2010 6:30 to 9:30 PM

For more information contact the workshop presenter:

John Hall: 949 387-2004 • E-mail: jhirvine@aol.com

A Special Report is a kind of “White Paper” based on problems that are generic to an industry. In other words 80% or more of the organizations in the industry will have these same problems. Whatever your industry or profession, you probably have some insight about how to make things run smoother, better, easier, more profitably, etc. A Special Report shares that insight and experience with potential employers and brands you as an expert–not just another job seeker.

A well-crafted Special Report has much more impact on potential employers than the typical resume because it contains colorful graphics such as bar graphs and focuses on these four areas:

• It emphasizes your potential contributions.
• Positions you as an expert.
• Is an interesting and colorful format and is more likely to be read than a resume.
• It has substantive value giving it much more self life than a resume

In a future posting I will share “How To Write and Implement a Special Report” and post a Power Point presentation on Special Reports on my LinkedIn profile.

The writing and implementation of Special Reports is one of the leading edge strategies I teach at Chapman/Brandman University in Irvine, California in a course titled: Advanced Career Strategies. For more information on the course go to: www.advancedcareerstrategies.com

Job security is an antique relegated to the annals of history like the typewriter, carburetor and the 40 hour work week. Employers from Fortune 500 companies to small entrepreneurial firms are doing more with fewer employees working more hours. In today’s global economy accounting, computer programming, customer service and even some medical jobs are going to India, China, Ireland, Mexico and who knows where else. In the last two decades there have been more mergers and acquisitions, many with foreign companies, than in the United States for the previous 200 years. Typically the management and executive employees of these acquired companies are out the door seeking another job.

We Are All Entrepreneurs

Bottom line: the typical management and professional job lasts 2.5 to 5 years. This means that most “Knowledge Workers” are entrepreneurs who must sell their talent, skills and experience again and again and again. So job security does not come from any single job, no matter how much it pays, how secure the company may appear or how much you may love the job. Real job security for knowledge workers must come from their developing a high profile for excellence in an industry and function. This is why “Branding” is critical for long term career and financial success in today’s extremely competitive global economy.

The Bottom Line

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that the average job seeker was out of work for 29.1 weeks, as of December 2009. Here is what this cost in lost income:

• If a knowledge worker earns $75,000, then every unemployed week he loses $1,442.
• If that knowledge worker earns $125,000 annually, he loses $2,403 every week he is out of work.
• Project this to 29.1 weeks and the unemployed knowledge worker loses anywhere from $43,000 to $70,000.
• If the position were a top level senior job, the lost income could go well over $100,000.

Because the typical “Knowledge Worker” will go through job transitions every few years there is a significant probability of multiple and painful income losses. These loses can easily compound to $100,000 or more in a decade or two. “Personal Career Branding” can reduce job losses and dramatically reduce the time between jobs.

Check our the article 

“Leaving the Rut Behind”

http://www.ocstc.org/pdf/ts122009.pdf

Why do the majority of 21st century men and women plateau well below our potential? I believe it comes down to seven factors that often start in our teen years:

1. Having to choose a career with little life experience.
2. Not knowing or considering core values and motivated skills.
3. Poor transition planning.
4. Settling for “Potluck” Jobs
5. Undervaluing the “Soft Stills”.
6. A lack of strategic career planning.
7. The lack of personal branding.