State of DISUnion? Reinventing You and the Union

President Obama is currently telling the USA and the world about how this country will win the future by reinventing ourselves and our workforce. He says this nation is 9th in the world in earned college degrees! He says the future jobs will be won and held by innovators who are educating themselves and reinventing their skill sets. And I agree.

In my book, “Laid Off & Loving It for 2010,” I describe 30 people who built on their skills and reinvented themselves. America’s Job Coach has reinvented himself several times over the years. My advice to that 55 year-old college student the president mentioned in his speech, is that she should appear to be moldable and teachable when she goes on job interviews.

How about you? Can you be like the woman from (I think) South Carolina who is, at age 55, now going to college and studying biotech. More power to her–I hope she competes well with the 22 year-olds with their newly minted degrees. I vote for her in the job as she competes with those “kids” –life experinece rules!

Obama is also championing the role of teachers as nation-builders in the new world economy. How about you? If/when they actually do raise teacher incomes could YOU build our nation by building our youth? Millions of baby boomers are going to retire from classrooms in the next 10 years and there is a growing younger population due to current immigration and birth trends. Teaching is rewarding and important. How about YOU?

It may have been Mother Theresa who said we can make a better world if we start by sweeping our own back steps. Kinda ties in with the theme of Union inside yourself.

If you are struggling with knowing what to do, then here is your answer: DO SOMETHING. IF you have disunion in your head or your heart, take some kind of action and reinvent yourself.

So don’t be disunified–go out and do big things. Dream big and may God Bless the United States!

America’s Job Coach
http://www.americasjobcoach.com

Do You Look Good Enough to Hire?

A newspaper story recently told how 50-somethings and 60-somethings were going under the knife, etc. in order to look better as they competed for jobs with folks who didn’t have droopy eyelids or crooked, stained teeth.

There have likely been hundreds of studies about how attractiveness can contribute to your marketability and/or promotability. Similar stories and studies exist about taller people. But what do you think?

Will a 62-year-old suddenly wrest a potential job away from a 39-year-old because the 62-year-old suddenly looks like he is only 52? Will the smile of a 59-year-old who is fresh out of braces be better equipped to land a job than say, your typical 34-year-old?

You are right…there are too many variables to consider and make blanket statements. Perhaps the 39-year-old above was slightly overweight, very average looking, but had a more well-defined technical skill to peddle to a potential employer.

Maybe the 34-year-old above lost out to the 59-year-old because the older woman has 20 more years of industry contacts, thus helping her land the sales manager job.

Who knows? So, why are people, according to the article, doing all these cosmetic procedures? In a word: Packaging.

In my extensive career of hiring and placing people though, it is never just one thing that makes a person hireable or not hireable. They may be the best geek in the world for a techie job but the other techies who would have to work with him decided the guy is an arrogant jerk who they don’t want to spend most of their waking hours with.

Maybe someone is a smooth, good-looking, well-connected, persuasive, sales type person but they are just too disorganized to manage or build a territory.

In summary, it takes the total package. So if you want to do something to your physical presence in order to help you compete out there, go for it!

Just be sure you don’t have “blind sides” which sabotage your newly white, straight teeth or firm eyelids. Perhaps your forehead is now wrinkle-free but you resume shows you were the class treasurer of the your senior class of 1969. Not helpful when you compete for jobs with people who are your kids’ ages!

Think “total package” my friends. How does your total package look?

America’s Job Coach talks about packaging and first impressions in the YouTube video called “The Twittervator Speech.” The TwitterVator Speech is a blend of your Unique Selling Proposition, an elevator pitch, and a social media tool status update bar. Learn more about YOURS here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN7n0X8PzgI . Good common sense!

New Year Greeting From America’s Job Coach (audio)

Help Me Please This New Year…

Hi Everyone!

What are YOUR goals for the this exciting new year? Get a better job? Get A job? Get promoted? Quit and start a business? Start a side business? Invent something? Take action because a rut is just a grave with the ends dug out of it !!

I’ll be upgrading my content in 2011 — I need to build on the old title, “Laid Off & Loving It for 2010,” don’t I? I’ll be throwing out new and improved content either via this blog, a new one aimed at a narrower audience, and/or another book either in ebook or hardcopy format.

Question is, what should I call these? I have many ideas but seek YOUR input across this test market here on this blog. I look forward to hearing your opinions. You can add them by commenting here or by going to http://www.americasjobcoach.com and sending your comments directly to me that way.

Either way, Happy New Prosperous and Exciting New Year!!

America’s Job Coach
http://www.americasjobcoach.com

Mayor Suttle–“Laid Off & Loving It?”

As mentioned briefly on my linkedin page…Mayor Jim Suttle of Omaha, Nebraska is in the fight of his political life. Enough signatures have been gathered by Omaha people to force the mayor into a recall situation. If he loses the January “election of one,” he will lose his job!

Will he then be “Laid Off & Loving It?” Will he need my book, “Laid Off & Loving It For 2010?” even though it will be 2011?

Follow the story here!

America’s Job Coach
http://www.americasjobcoach.com

What Is YOUR Self Promotion Tool?

The TwitterVator Speech is a merger of your Unique Selling Proposition, your elevator speech, and putting that together in a format acceptable to Social Media. When you put all this together in 140 characters (spaces and letters), you have your very own TwitterVator Speech.

America’s Job Coach can prepare yours for you today!

See how here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN7n0X8PzgI

America’s Job Coach

“I’m a Goof-Up…Hire Me!”

Will you work again after your layoff? Did you put in a lengthy, and maybe even a well-paid career and then get laid off before discovering that it is HARD to find something close to your old level? And did this happen when your are supposed to be at your earnings peak? According a September New York Times story, 2.2 million of the 15 million unemployed are over 55 years old !

So what to do? Will the economy be able to absorb those 2.2 million “mature” workers?

A blog commenter recently told me employers usually look at younger employees as “cheaper.” And, on paper they are, but we concurred that the EXPERIENCE “older” workers bring is invaluable and diminishes the perceived savings younger workers offer.

Why? Because of the MISTAKES you have made along the way. Employers should hire you because you have goofed up. You have (I hope) learned how to NOT to make those mistakes again. A younger person has to LEARN those things yet–on his/her employer’s dime.

You’ve been through the probation period and as they say, are “closer to money,” instead of costing employers money.

So, turn all the dumb things you have done over 20 or 30 years of working into an ASSET. Share with an employer how you are immediately productive and know where all the bodies are buried (good Halloween metaphor). Why should they invest in a slowly developing “project” (inexperienced person) when you are available to AVOID all those costly mistakes right now?

Use this philosophy when you feel potential employers think younger people are more hip with the latest technology (they usually are) and more flexible (they often are–learn from them!).

…But YOU can learn the tech stuff AND go on to help your employer navigate through the graveyard of this economy toward a less terrifying bottom line!!

How do you share this new asset with the world? Through your TwitterVator Speech of course. Your TwitterVator Speech is your elevator speech and your USP put into 140 CHARACTERS or less. It is a tool explained in my book, “Laid Off & Loving It for 2010.” Have one and show employers that you too are “hip.” You don’t even to have to use www.twitter.com to have a TwitterVator Speech, but don’t tell anyone that!

I’m in a Trick or Treat mood…I’ll give away 5 treats this week…the first 5 people who contact me via this blog or through my website, www.americasjobcoach.com will get a free TwitterVator Speech from me. Send me a note and you’ll be on your way to a free, cool, hip, and importantly, HELPFUL TwitterVator speech!!

And remember to keep goofing up a little…that means that you are still learning and still trying!

Paul David Madsen
America’s Job CoachAuthor: Laid Off & Loving It for 2010 — Rebuilding Your Career or Business With Social Media’s Help

Will You Ever Work Again?

Just read an article about “older” workers (45 and older) who fear that after they have been laid off they’ll never work again. Frightening !

They put in lengthy, sometimes well-paid careers and after they have been cast aside during a layoff or downsizing, they can’t find anything close to what they had. And this happens during the years when they are supposed to be at their earnings peak. According to this New York Times story 2.2 million of the 15 million unemployed are over 55 years old.

So what to do? Will the economy be able to absorb 15 million people who are now out of work? Or even 1/2 of that amount?

What will you do if it can’t?

I’d love to hear your comments here: Share with the readers how people you know (or you yourself) have reinvented themselves (yourself).

Do you know of a corporate accountant who now runs an antique shop? How about a purchasing director who now is a locksmith. Are they “making it?” Tell us your story and inspire others!

Paul David Madsen
America’s Job CoachAuthor: Laid Off & Loving It for 2010 — Rebuilding Your Career or Business With Social Media’s Help

Tell Me A Story = Getting a Job

I know a guy who got a great job by walking in and after their first qeustion, just told the interviewer STORIES about what he had done at another company.  Anecdotes sell !!!

Thanks to DICE News for this blub:  Dice News – Interview Questions and the Stories You Must Tell the Hiring Manager.