Lamplighter Newsletter Vol 6 Issue 1 February - March 2014

Volume 6, Issue 1 February-March,2014

a formulaic resume. He is an extremely bright, energetic individual trying to gain a toehold in a competitive field:

Doug, Resumes are boring. Your resume is boring.

Why? Because it is all about the jobs you have had, and not about you.

Look back over each entry on your resume, and ask yourself:  How is this entry different because Doug was in the job?  What were my accomplishments?  How did I do this job differently than anyone else?  How is this a description of me, and not the job?  Could this same entry have been placed on this resume if Joe Smith's name was at the top of the page?

Does your résumé knock 'em dead -or does it knock 'em out?

I’m often asked to look over someone’s resume and make suggestions. I always say yes, even though this is a truly thankless job, especially if you do it right. First you must explain to the person that their resume is not a magic bullet in the war to get a job. A resume is necessary, but not sufficient. Everyone is expected to have a resume, but the most you can really expect from a great resume is that it won’t be used to disqualify you in the first battle. Rule number one for resumes comes right from the Physicians’ Hippocratic Oath: “First, do no harm.”

I recently wrote to a young friend who had sent me

It is hard, but try to be as quantitative as possible (saved the company $1,000,000, 50% reduction in customer complaints, 5% increase in activity participation), or if not possible, list the qualitative things you accomplished (excellent feedback from parents to administration, successfully completed curriculum set up by teacher replaced, introduced children to some exotic topic).

Use complete active (no passive verbs) sentences where possible. Always, always avoid the phrase "responsible for." No one cares neither what you were responsible for nor particularly what you did—tell us what you’ve accomplished!

Once you’ve had a chance to rethink the content we can take a crack at the presentation.

Regards, Aaron 908-759-9069 P.S. We all know putting together a resume is hard work. The hardest part comes first—seeing yourself and your accomplishments in a new light.

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Volume 6, Issue 1 February-March,2014

歡迎 | ‫ | הבא ברוך‬Willkommen | Welcome } Bienvenido |환영 | Karibu It's the start of a new year and the start of a new season of Lamplighter. With us are the usual suspects: Jerry Clifford, Aaron Cohen, Rod Colon, and Carl Reid. And there is fresh talent brought to Lamplighter by Rod: Markirah Shaw and Tara Sosa.

As was stated above, this is a new year and a new Lamplighter. Aaron's cover article highlights the boring résumé and shows how to breathe life into a package that, for just about everyone who has ever written one from scratch , requires a degree in rocket science. Granted, that's a bit of a stretch, but the writer creates what seems to be a masterpiece, sends it to the prospective employer, and then waits as the prospective employer ho-hums and places the résumé at the bottom of the stack. Maybe something is heard, but most often not, and the writer is left to scratch his or her head and try again. Aaron gives a brief explanation of what is needed to keep the eyes and mind of the prospective employer open.

Change is tough, whether changing jobs or locations. In Walter Campbell's case, it was both; retiring from the Air Force — a home and location for twenty years — and settling down to the even more harrowing task of finding a civilian job. Who doesn’t worry when life is upset by inevitable changes? His story (posted by Liz Wheeler) allows you to see how difficult it is to leave the military for civilian life, but it also shows that the military prepares those who want to be prepared on how to face such inevitabilities.

Jerry Clifford has a slightly different take on the same thing. Where Walter Campbell ditched fatigues for a business suit, Jerry's character (you) has to turn in old habits, a daunting task that requires a spring-cleaning of mind and soul.

At the start of 2014, Rod Colón introduced two talented writers to the CEO of Me, Inc. — Markirah Shaw and Tara Sosa. Two of their articles appear in this issue.

The first, The Psychology of Confidence, shows how to build confidence in yourself and your abilities. This task is as daunting as Walter's article or that described in Jerry's A Timely Decision.

Just as Walter's story and Jerry's article strengthen the Darwinian claim of adaptation, so does the second of Markirah and Tara's articles, Proactivity: Putting the Mindset to Action. Granted, "Proactivity" is freshly minted, but its meaning is clear: adapt and grow or remain sedimentary and wither. Hard and soft skills that get workouts on occasion have a much greater chance of assisting you in meeting your goals; those that get few uses often prevent you from even attempting to meet your goals.

Of course, there are the unusual suspects, those sections on new technology (Barb Daisak's Tech Tips) and old technology (Writer's Block). Writings From the World Wide Web contains some ideas which may be useful for you, either now or later.

So, get ready to find some relaxing yet provoking writing for the start of the sixth Lamplighter season.

By the way, there may be some items that haven't been listed. You are in for a late Winter-early Spring treat.

Eric Please click on any of the titles below to link to the different articles Does your résumé knock 'em dead Writer's Block CEO of Me, Inc. and the Psychology of Confidence Lamplighter Survey

Welcome Tech Tips by Barbara Daisak Writings from the World Wide Web Lamplighter Contributors

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Walter Campbell: A Man with a Plan Clifford's Notes: A Timely Decision Proactivity: Putting the Mindset to Action Lamplighter Staff

Volume 6, Issue 1 February-March,2014

Walter Campbell: A Man with a Plan Posted by: Liz Wheeler, in Featured, Job Search Advice, networking, Opportunity Expo, RecruitMilitary Shared by: Aaron F. Glover Transition Patient Advocate

Walter Campbell wanted to make sure he covered all his bases when it came to finding a civilian job. By day, the Air Force Technical Sergeant is part of the 314th Recruiting Squadron in Burlington, New Jersey. In his spare time, he moonlights as a stand-up comedian, having performed at colleges and churches for 18 years, including frequent gigs with Sinbad.

After serving for 20 years in the Air Force, Campbell will be retiring in April 2014. As soon as he decided upon his retirement date, he began looking and planning ahead. First, he registered as a candidate on RecruitMilitary’s job board as well as other boards, so employers could find him. He ramped up his LinkedIn profile, joined Twitter, and jumped on various military websites to begin networking and learning about job openings.

Resume Hits and Misses He next focused on his resume. “My last resume went back to 1993, a year after I graduated high school. I think I listed basketball as one of my skills,” he jokes. It was time for a serious revision.

After taking a resume course offered at his local base, he sent drafts to colleagues to proofread and provide feedback. At their suggestions, he improved how he translated his military jargon.

One colleague said, “Write your resume for the job that you want.” That begged the question: what did he want to do? After some soulsearching, the answers were clear: human resources/recruiting, and logistics, which mirrored his military background and skills. So, Campbell wrote a separate resume for each type of job, and used them interchangeably. “Once I brought out the skills I had for the careers I wanted, I felt much better going forward,” he says.

Networking and Career Fair Success Campbell attended RecruitMilitary’s Philadelphia career fair in November 2013 with the intention of spending 50% of his energy on job searching and 50% on networking. He met re-

cruiters at a previous RecruitMilitary event, and had stayed in touch. They had passed information and job leads on to him and he stayed in constant contact with them. “They kept me sane,” he relates.

He recalls standing in a long line to speak to a wellknown defense contractor, and noticing that the Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) table nearby was quiet. He initially wasn’t going to go over, but something eventually made him ask if they were hiring for HR roles. AIM Admissions Director Woodrow Day read over his resume and said, “I’ll call you tomorrow.” Sure enough, Campbell interviewed the next day and received an offer on the spot.

The news that dad had gotten a job was not lost on Campbell’s’ seven-year-old daughter, Legend.

He had texted his wife earlier that he thought he might receive an offer. He arrived home to this sign:

“She knew that dad was looking for a job, and that it was important,” he says.

See Walter’s Top Five Tips for Veterans at this link: http://search-and-employ.com/waltercampbell-a-man-with-a-plan/

10 Words Often Misspelled in Business Correspondence Posted: 08 Jan 2014 08:45 PM PST Most word processing programs have a builtin spell checker, but business correspondence still goes out with misspelled words that a checker would have caught.

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Continued at Misspelled Words

Volume 6, Issue 1 February-March,2014 Misspelled Words

I’m not talking about words like bare and bear, which are both English words acceptable to an automatic spelling program, but words like definite and separate, which have no homophones, and typos like standarad for standard (one of my own recent embarrassments).

Writers need to keep two things in mind about spell checkers: 1. They cannot catch any misspellings if a writer doesn’t let the application run.

2. They cannot be entirely trusted to catch every spelling error.

For whatever reason–overconfidence or sloth–the same misspellings continue to appear in business emails, advertising copy, resumes, and on blog sites. The writer’s best defense is to take a good look at the most frequent misspellings and zero in on every letter in the word.

Mastering a few at a time is a better way to approach the task than scanning long lists.

Here are ten of the most frequent misspellings, their correct forms, and tips that may help you remember the differences.

Keep reading here: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-wordsoften-misspelled-in-business-correspondence/

8 proven writing tips that can help you write amazing texts

By Kathrin Tschiesche | May 14, 2013 This article is based on the free eBook “Be A Better Writer” You may not be a professional writer. Yet no matter what type of profession you are in, chances are you will need to write something on a professional level at one time or another.

Examples include: articles, web content, reports, emails, cover letters and resumes.

In this article freelance writer, speaker, and writing coach Suzanne Lieurance provides you with general writing tips you should consider no matter what type of writing you need to do. Seize this opportunity to improve your overall writing skills.

See the tips of the writing icebergs here: http://bookboon.com/blog/2013/05/8proven-writing-tips-that-can-help-you-writeamazing-texts/

Email Matters

by Maeve Maddox The ease of dashing off an email is both a convenience and a deadly snare.

Emails are not as public as a Twitter tweet, but can lead to grief for the unwary. We’ve all heard the horror stories of the jokester who says something outrageous intended for the eyes of a friend, and then hits the “Reply All” button by mistake.

Because there’s always the chance that an email might go astray, the best practice is what I call the “Klingon rule”: Don’t say anything in an email that you don’t want a third party to read. (I think it was General Chang in StarTrek VI who said he never uttered anything he wouldn’t want to be overheard. Klingons are always under surveillance.)

One way to avoid embarrassing situations with clients or employers is to make a habit of treating every email with care, even the ones you dash off to your friends. Human frailty being what it is, there’s probably no way to avoid saying or typing something stupid at some time or another, but a few tips can save some embarrassment.

Common courtesy is the key to writing an email that won’t come back to bite you.

Read the full article (with bullet points) at this link: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/email-matters/

Email Subject Lines...Say What?

Kara Trivunovic | December 29, 2013 Subject lines have been an email marketing topic of conversation for more than a decade, yet we still don't seem to have it figured out. In speaking with marketers, the actual act of composing a subject line is often one of the last elements considered and sometimes even just "slapped" on by the email manager as it goes out the door (confessed to me in confidence by a brand…but a secret is a secret). I imagine this is true at a number of brands - you just don't know it or don't want to admit it.

Consequently, it's an effective subject line that initiates an interaction with your recipients and should receive its due. So today we are taking advanced email marketing practices back to basics, providing some insights into elements we should all consider about the subject lines of the messages we send.

Article continues at this link: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2261637/emailsubject-linessay-what

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Use these tips for a strong LinkedIn profile – one that tells employers why you’re an asset to their organization, while capitalizing on your ability to freely promote your skills: Read more at http://www.careerealism.com/linkedinprofile-unemployed/

Welcome to your First Tech Tip of 2014!

New Year & a New Year Start!

Job Search Resolutions For The New Year

By Arnie Fertig

How are you seeing the new year? Is it a time of dread, highlighting the ever-greater length of your job search? Or do you see it as a time for unleashing your potential in new ways? Moving into 2014 can be an opportunity to step back, gain perspective about your attitudes and actions and reset your daily priorities.

On a day-to-day basis, it's easy to let tasks of daily living take precedence over careful time management in productive job-hunt activities. Here are a few resolutions to help refocus and recalibrate your job search in the new year: See the complete article here: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outsidevoices-careers/2013/12/24/job-search-resolutions-forthe-new-year

How To Write A LinkedIn Profile When You’re Unemployed

by Laura Smith-Proulx Are you wondering how to write a LinkedIn profile when you’re unemployed?

This may sound odd, but if you’re unemployed, you actually have BETTER opportunities to promote yourself on LinkedIn than other users.

Openly displaying your personal brand and skills is simpler than fretting over the possibility that your boss is reviewing your Profile changes with suspicion.

Still, marketing yourself on LinkedIn when you’re openly seeking a new job can be daunting. What should you disclose about your job search and goals – and how much?

7 Ways The Internet Can Boost Your Job Search December 10, 2013 Some job seekers look at the Internet as both a blessing and a curse. While having instant access to jobs through sites such as the NPT Jobs Career Center is helpful, it can also be a little overwhelming. Being bombarded by information can be an issue but, as Marshall Brown explained, the Internet on a whole can be a big boost for your job search when used correctly.

Brown, who is CEO of the career coaching company Marshall Brown and Associates, wrote on his site that the web is the ideal place to market yourself to potential employers. Within a matter of minutes, your resume and cover letter can be seen by thousands of hiring organizations and recruiters, something that seemed unfathomable to those who looked for work in the days before computers.

Yet that ease of distribution is the reason you have to take extra precautions. To conduct an online targeted marketing campaign, you need to have some selectivity over who reads your resume and a way to reach those you want, wrote Brown.

See the full article at this link: http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/jobs/7-ways-theinternet-can-boost-your-job-search/

Have a social media, tip-n-trick, or “knowhow” article to read and share? Email me!

We will publish it in upcoming issues... bndaisak@verizon.net And many Thanks to Eric for a seemingly endless supply of news to use!

Your posts are always welcomed!

Check our next issue for another great Tech and Social Media Tip!

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Volume 6, Issue 1 February-March,2014

A Timely Decision

By Jerrold (Jerry) Clifford

How would your life be different if you didn’t have to work? Would you sleep late? Play more golf?

Learn to fly? Travel? Of course, some people who enjoy their jobs might choose to work anyway.

If you chose to work what kind of job would you have? Would it be the same one you have now (or the last one you had)? Or would it be in a new position, perhaps one you would really like but were never able to pursue?

Most people do have to consider money, both in terms of bills and expenses and future earnings. Determining current needs and future wants and potential is important. But if money truly were no object, work passion becomes an important consideration. Because of the economy and other factors you may be in a position for a while and a job you do not like can feel like drudgery.

Enjoying your job can even partially compensate for a lower than desired income. Knowing what you desire in a job is important because it helps define your target when you search for a position.

Making a list of job “must haves” defines what you need to make you happy to go to work every day.

Unless money is the absolute controlling factor in your being happy in any job, to help you in determining whether you have considered all the important “must haves” is to take money out of the equation and ask yourself if you would still like to do the job even if the salary were not there. On the other hand, if you were so passionate about this job that you would do it even if money were no object why aren’t you seeking it?  Sometimes “life” gets in the way of our doing what we want. Often, this is due to

money needs or concerns; we need money for paying bills, paying college tuition, health insurance, taking care of parents, or other family obligations.  Sometimes momentum takes hold - we may not be doing what we really want to do but we are “comfortable;” we have experience doing it and we have learned to do it well. We are accustomed to the environment, know many people doing the same thing, have a reputation.

Change is difficult.

It means leaving the familiar and entering the unknown ... This takes effort. If the familiar takes no effort, why bother? And besides, who has the time?

When you are between jobs you have the advantage of time - time to reflect on whether you want to make some changes and what you would do differently. In order to make changes you must first make the often difficult decision that you want to make changes.

If you are between jobs you have the opportunity to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of making a change without the pressure of performing within a current position. .

You are the head of your own organization.

When a decision has to be made the head of an organization is responsible for determining and evaluating options and setting the company’s direction.

Are you going to consider a new position? Are you going to seek a job identical (or as close as you can get) to the one you have now or recently?

You are the CEO of your own organization.

You get to set your direction!

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Volume 6, Issue 1 February-March,2014

CEO of Me, Inc. and the Psychology of Confidence

By Markirah Shaw and Tara Sosa

Studies* have shown that confidence affects work performance and may be a core component of four closely related psychological concepts: hope, self-efficacy*, optimism and resilience. While these four variables have been individually examined with regard to how they affect work performance, they have not been explored with a common core relationship.

That commonality would be confidence. Naturally, there is a certain sense of confidence in the acts of being hopeful or optimistic, where one might expectedly anticipate a positive outcome. Similarly with self-efficacy, it’s difficult to imagine someone developing a belief in their ability to do a specific task without a certainty, or confidence, in that belief. And how can someone be resilient enough to overcome an obstacle without confidence in themselves? Everything is so closely tied together, the terms almost seem to be synonymous despite small distinctions*.

Rod echoes this same reasoning that confidence can be found at the core of hope, optimism, selfefficacy and resilience when he says that acquiring mental toughness and positivity is crucial to finding the confidence to become a CEO. According to Colón’s equation, where self-efficacy and resilience can be considered aspects of mental toughness, and hope and optimism clearly are aspects of positivity, it’s easy to see how confidence would emerge naturally from adopting these traits.

Additionally, according to this research, Colón is right in teaching that a confident CEO mindset helps to bring about successful performance in today’s job market. Traditional motivation theories say that successful performance is dependent on both skill, someone’s ability to do something, and desire, how much someone wants to do something. However, it can be argued that another required component missing from this calculation would be confidence. An absence of any one of the three- skill, desire or confidence- impedes success.

Take this common example into consideration. An employee has a task that they would like to accomplish (desire) and also has the ability to do it (skill).

However, due to a fear of failure and lack of belief in her ability, she doesn’t even try or gives up easily. Confidence is clearly the forgotten variable*.

Colón breaks it down in layman terms what academics spend their entire careers researching.

And that’s exactly what Mitch Martin appreciates.

He told us that although there may have been similar career coaching approaches before, never so clearly has he found it laid out, and never with as much detail in regards to Colón’s “nuts and bolts”.

Martin, the Director of Predicted Medicine at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, found Rod Colón through a colleague who recommended Lead Your Career, an 8-week program held through the company BioNJ. This program aims to coach unemployed professionals from select Life Sciences companies back to employment through a series of workshop classes. Colón is one of the executive coaches teaching the Lead Your Career classes where the students are able to take advantage of one-on-one coaching.

After working with Roche Pharmaceuticals for almost 17 years, Martin acknowledged that he was a little rusty upon entering the job market again, considering he hadn’t gone on an interview since 1995. Martin is certainly not the only one to find himself in a “Van Winkle-esque” professional climate with an unfamiliar landscape. Imagine working with a company for 20-30 years and suddenly finding yourself without a job, only to discover that the job search territory looks barely recognizable to when you first entered. This sudden sense of unfamiliarity leaves today’s professional feeling a little lost. This is a point that Martin drove home when he said, “I mean there was an internet in 1995, I think, but it’s quite a different world so I had to really sharpen my tools and acquire new tools to be able to be competitive in the job market.” Martin continued, “Think of it, for the most part Rod’s working with people that are not in the sort of best frame of mind. You know for someone to go up there and say, ‘Hitch up, I can help you get you out of this mud hole you got yourself in!’ that’s helpful. Not just on a psychological level, but also in terms of the nuts and bolts. He does have an actually very effective, powerful approach.”

Before adopting his CEO mindset, Martin saw himself as just one guy in a huge, global company.

Understandably, after a whole career of feeling like a small part within a massive network, it’s not always an easy leap to envision yourself at the very top. Once at the top, however, your way of thinking is forever transformed. When asked how his career has changed after adopting Colón’s

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philosophy he said, “It’s changed a lot. You know I definitely think of myself as more of a free agent who is always, constantly representing not only the company that has me hired full-time now (who I’m very happy with) but also representing my own company at the same time. And it’s not just either-or, you’re always representing your own company, wherever you are... And that is a mindset change.”

Martin emphasizes that with the CEO mindset you are always keeping an eye out for opportunities on the horizon. While you may be currently offering your skills and services to one company, you must never become complacent. Positions don’t usually last for 20 or 30 years anymore and that’s why it’s crucial to have this mindset as your artillery in case you find yourself in another unforeseen (although hopefully less shocking) job search.

The CEO of Me Inc., paradigm transforms the way you approach everything about your job search. It’s a two-fold mindset shift where you must first prepare your mentality before you can take action with this new perspective**. The mentally and emotionally exhausting nature of a job search demands that you cannot forget to consider your state of mind. The psychological support already inherent in Rod’s approach helps you to perform better and prepares you to combat future stresses. Developing mental toughness and positivity help to prime the new perspective that will make you viable competition in this century’s job race.

Your career is your business. You are the CEO of your own company. Your skills and services are your product. You have the responsibility of your company, as well as the control to how you manage your product. Your interactions with other people and companies are now viewed as “business-to-business” exchanges. Nerve-racking interviews have become simple meetings with a prospective business client**.

It becomes a mutual beneficial relationship where you have something to offer them and they have something to offer you. It gives you back some control.

That’s powerful. Every avenue toward your job search becomes a mark of stride instead of a hesitant shuffle.

With this mindset you are able to tackle Colón’s most important tool to a successful job search—the wellknown, yet under-managed strategy of networking. * Stajkovic, A. D. (2006). Development of a core confidencehigher order construct. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(6), 1208-1224. ** Colón, R. (2009). Win the race for 21st century jobs. (pp. 8499). ETP Network Press.

Tips for successful job hunting

By Tom Sowa | The Spokesman-Review Writer Hal Lancaster observed: “Getting fired is nature’s way of telling you that you had the wrong job in the first place.”

OK, but what do you do after that?

Several area job recruiters and human resources executives provided these tips for finding a good job in 2014.

The full article continues at this link: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/jan/05/ti ps-for-successful-job-hunting/

Three Reasons to Ditch the Elevator Pitch

By Steve Woodruff I don’t buy into the one-minute elevator pitch.

Let me clarify. I’m totally into the idea of a compact presentation of one’s self and one’s business.

I just have three issues with the one-minute elevator pitch.

1. One minute is too long.

2. You’re only in elevators 0.0000001% of the time. (Yes, I made that up.)

3. No one wants to be pitched.

The classic elevator pitch is too long, and it’s trying to accomplish too much, too soon.

As Seth Godin puts it, no one ever bought anything on an elevator.

For your opener, strive instead for a memory dart—a single phrase with a vivid image that can be delivered before the elevator door closes.

Play memory darts at this link: http://www.mpdailyfix.com/three-reasons-toditch-the-elevator-pitch/

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Return to the cover!

Volume 6, Issue 1 February-March,2014

Proactivity: Putting the Mindset to Action

By Markirah Shaw and Tara Sosa

A professional with a proactive personality is one who is able to take initiative and forge their own way towards a career position by way of smart decision-making, networking, and selfconfidence. The proactive professional is not a “passive recipient of environmental presses.” This type of person is able to adapt their old job search techniques to the more human and active nature of the 21st century job market. Today’s professional must have a proactive personality.

The outcome of a job search is directly related to the amount of effort a job seeker puts into the overall process*. The current job search climate demands that there are more steps to the search and thus more effort is required. How often a person looks for new openings on online job boards, how far outside her comfort zone a person will go to expand her network of advocates, and how determined she is to have confidence in her skillset to successfully run her career as a business. These behaviors all require considerable effort and initiative, and will dictate the success or failure of a job search - that is, whether or not you’re offered an interview and then a position. Therefore, adopting a proactive personality is key to an effective job search.

In his book Win the Race for 21st Century Jobs, Rod Colón presents his unique, modern job search formula in which the individual can control his own success based on his level of personal accountability. Once you commit to becoming the CEO of your career, there is no room for shared blame. You alone must make the decision to find at least one new lead per day**; you alone must pick up the phone and stay in touch with a new advocate; and only you can take pride in your skillset and present yourself to potential clients as a mutually beneficial business relationship. These steps are crucial to Colón’s job search formula and anything less than a whole-hearted effort will result in a diminished chance of landing a job.

This proactive approach to career management must continue even after finding a job. In Win the Race, Colón warns against falling into a “complacency trap,” which is when an individual - who’s exhausted from an arduous trek from unemployment to landing a job - becomes too secure in his

new position and doesn’t keep up his network**.

Worst of all he stops behaving like a CEO. It is too easy, after settling in to a new job with a heavy workload, for a professional to lose touch with the very advocates who helped him get the job in the first place. It’s also easy to fall out of the practice of looking for new job openings because, after all, if you’ve already got a job why look for another so soon?

The key to proactivity in Colón’s methodology is not just an aggressive counterattack against your current situation of employment, but also the emphasis in preparing yourself for anything similar in the future. Manny Rey is one of the best examples of someone who has maintained the CEO mindset even after landing a new position. Similar to Martin, Rey was also working at Roche Pharmaceuticals until they closed down Rey and Martin’s location in 2012. Rey quickly tried to get his resume out to as many positions that he felt matched his skills in the unfeeling black hole of the job boards.

But his job search technique suddenly changed when a former Roche colleague informed him of the Lead Your Career program. Rey, who jokingly called Colón, “The Sergeant”, said that “ In a way without even saying it, his examples clearly were telling you, you can’t feel sorry for yourself, you can’t just say I’m in a hole and blame the hole for the reason why you haven’t done things. You’re responsible. You have to get yourself out. You have to do all that. No one else is going to get you out of there...He puts you on the cycle where you take charge and control your destiny. And that’s what he stresses the most."

Rey took his CEO mindset one step further.

While he believes it is important to manage yourself as a CEO internally even within your new company (whether that’s a promotion or moving to a different area), it is just as crucial to keep an eye on outside opportunities. Rey was always attracted to the aspect of entrepreneurship during his MBA studies. He flirted with the idea of having a business of his own so when the idea arose to embark on a restaurant venture, Colón gave him his full support. Colón reinforced that that was exactly what being a CEO was about-- prioritizing interests of Rey’s Board (family) as well as maximizing benefits. With his new position as an IT Manager at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, this was a move that could provide supplemental income as well as personal fulfillment, as it allowed Rey to use many of

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his other skills. Being of Colombian heritage, Rey is excited to be opening up a Colombian restaurant in Montclair, New Jersey. Rey says, “You should constantly be refining your salesmanship skills, your job skill set. I think you can’t just hang it up in the closet and not look at it until the next job reduction or elimination happens because you’ll be quite rusty. Which is what happened to me, basically.”

About Colón’s methodology, Rey said, “When change is upon you, you have two things. You have to let change drive you or you drive the change.

And what he did nicely was that he branded it very well into what is the concept, CEO of ME.” When asked about the overall impact of his experience with Colón, Rey said that he learned it was really about making a lifelong commitment to selling his services. It’s an ongoing task to see how he can better serve himself with his skills, better serve his family and better serve others. “It’s not a recipe for instant success, it’s a recipe for success through perseverance. And you have to have that element of perseverance. If you don’t have it, you’re just going to struggle.”

Colón’s formula teaches that you should never stop networking, never let a business relationship grow lukewarm, and never stop looking to the future to prepare for possible setbacks.

As discussed in the previous section, it is crucial to have your network of advocates already in place before you need to call on them, to “dig the well before you need the water” as Colón describes it in his book**. It is also important to maintain the

tough, productive CEO mindset rather than to digress back into the powerless employee mindset.

These efforts are all part of running a successful business, the business that is your career. Colón’s job search formula is not a one-and-done method. It is a circuitous process of self-possession, networking, and proactivity that should never cease until you are ready to retire.

Become Your Own CEO To learn more about Colón’s job search formula, visit www.RodColon.com for tips, webisodes, and guidance on how to own your career like a CEO. There you will find out about the last two components of Colón’s formula - developing your Value Proposition (the carefully crafted triforce of: the job description, a targeted resume and targeted cover letter, which makes you an undeniable candidate) and his detailed 7-Step Methodology (a concrete and comprehensive procedure for you to follow in order to land an interview). You can also find Colón’s contact information to discuss one-on-one career coaching lessons with him. Finally, you can explore Colón’s method in more depth by reading his book Win the Race for 21st Century Jobs, available on his website. * Brown, D. J., Cober, R. T., Kane, K., Levy, P. E. (2006). Proactive personality and the successful job search: A field investigation with college graduates. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91 (3), 717-726. ** Colón, R. (2009). Win the race for 21st century jobs. (pp. 37-60, 62-82, 123-150). ETP Network Press.

Lamplighter Survey As you can see, a number of changes have been made to Lamplighter to make reading easier and more enjoyable. The articles have been crafted to be both light-hearted and informative, and navigation through Lamplighter has been made less clunky.

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Lamplighter Contributors

Volume 6, Issue 1 February-March,2014

Click a snapshot for the LinkedIn Profile

This 2-minute short film illustrates the power of words to radically change your message and your effect upon the world. Watch it, love it, and SHARE it... Your friends and family will thank you for it!

Watch - Power of Words >>

Doug Westmoreland Co-Founder LifeSecretsOnline.com PS - please remember there is no cost to be subscribed to this newsletter. Our service is 100% complementary. We hope you find it valuable in your pursuit of staying motivated, engaged and inspired!

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Lamplighter Staff

Volume 6, Issue 1 February-March,2014

ETP and You To Help Veterans Please share this with your network.

We are also looking for other volunteers and partner organizations to help with this initiative to get more military veterans employed.

Non-profit, Empowering Today's Professionals (ETP) is on a mission to help as many military veterans as possible land jobs in the next 90 days. SIGN UP is free at www.ETPnetwork.org - Since 2004 proven job search training, career management education programs and our book "Win the Race for 21st Century Jobs" by ETP founder Rod Colon, ETP has inspired thousands to safely land jobs.

As Chief Operations Officer [pro-bono] at Empowering Today's Professionals, I remember what it was like transitioning out of the United States Marine Corps and being on unemployment. I felt embarrassed, I had low self esteem and it hurt that my military service did not seem to matter much to non-military citizens. I would not wish those feelings on anyone. Leveraging my experience, I'm spearheading this initiative for those who served in the military as an ETP priority. With a global support network, Empowering Today's Professionals is doing it's part to get America back to work.

In your SIGN UP application Please type "VETERAN" and credit the person who sent you this email as the referrer. I'll be on the look out for your application to connect with you and provide a personal job search /career game plan.

We are also looking for other volunteers and partner organizations to help with this initiative to get more military veterans employed.

SIGNUP free at www.ETPnetwork.org - Empowering Today's Professionals Carl E, E Reid, CSI (USMC 1979/1980) Chief Operations Officer Empowering Today's Professionals (ETP)

Tel: 201-222-5390 Web: http://www.etpnetwork.org/ Carl is the author of the book: Win the Race for 21st Century Jobs)

July 20, 1969

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