Our new, upgraded watering system is helping out a lot with more blooms and healthy plants, but grass springs up from the beds once it gets a little moisture. Weeding will have to get more regular after this. I check in on some other recent and new additions to the back garden, too.
“In the garden…” is a series for A Gardener’s Notebook highlighting what is happening in my garden, my friend’s gardens and California gardens throughout the seasons.
“BIGG Success is an e-learning, coaching and small business consulting firm. We provide educational resources to entrepreneurs, professionals and the organizations that serve them, like Chambers of Commerce and community banks.
It’s your place for entreprenurturing™ — a learning community built around winning in life and business. We help you fight the fears and frustrations we all face on the way to finding freedom and fulfillment. That’s BIGG success!”
There is a great difference between Failure (with a capital F) and failure with a lowercase “f”, but sometimes it can be hard to see that. While it is part of the human condition to fail on occasion, and despite what we might learn from those failures, failure is never, ever, easy. Given enough failures, in fact, and you might start feeling like a complete Failure. This is a dangerous place to tread, though and can lead to greater problems down the road if you don’t come to some sort of understanding with yourself, your life and your career. Don’t let failure stop you in your career tracks. Face it, deal with it and then move forward.
How do I know so much about failure? Like all of us, there have been times when life and work weren’t going the way I planned or hoped. Failure after failure piled up until I felt I was carrying a burden far too heavy for my mind to handle. When I was in the midst of it, it felt like I would never dig myself out. Thankfully, one way I deal with failure is much like the character of Dory in Finding Nemo — “just keep swimming!” Except in the most dire cases, there is always a new day coming, a new world that is opening up to you. Sometimes it can take a lot of “swimming” to get there, though, but I find that that is often the only way through a crisis of failure, no matter how large.
I have been thinking about failure a lot lately, as I have been having one of those periods in my own life and career. There are several reasons for my failure thoughts. First, I am about to turn 50 years old, which is a point when many people start to take stock in their life — and in some cases — find it wanting. What you desired when you were 25 is almost nothing like what you desire when you are 50. Even the most successful people can look back and wonder if it was all worth it and what exactly they have accomplished.
Second, I am almost a year into my own career transition from day-to-day computer support to a role more focused on new media, social, media, podcasting and video production. As is almost always the case, income from your previous position often stops before income from your new position starts to come in. This leads to worries about money and makes you doubt your choice to transition and if the new position will ever be successful. Self-doubt is an insidious drain on your energy and your emotional outlook. After a few slow months it can wear you down to the point where it seems that Failure, with a capital F is catching up with you.
Hopefully it will help you to know that even in my darkest hour, I know that my life and career will get better. I know that doom and gloom is just part of the game we all play and eventually my transition will start to pick up speed and direction. While my worries might manifest themselves in the dark of night, when day comes and I can focus on new work, new goals and new challenges those worries do recede. It is important for me, and you as well, to not give overriding authority to those worries that crop up. Know that morning will come again and give you a new opportunity to move forward.
Don’t let life pin the badge of Failure to your chest. Everyone, even the most successful people, struggle on occasion and, I know it is true for myself, we all tend to judge ourselves more harshly than others when it comes to life and career success. I can guarantee that there are those around you that don’t consider you a Failure at all. They see someone striving to make their life and career better, even if it can be a bit difficult. It is only when we stop trying that we truly become a Failure. Giving up, while certainly one option, insures that you will never move beyond failure or even just the crisis of the moment. It may seem easier to simply give up in the face of adversity and failure, but I can assure you that the best that any of us can do is, “just keep swimming” our way to the career we deserve.
Now that the side bed has been turned into a raised bed, it’s time to plant. Today I put in short rows of green onions, Parisian Carrots. Cauliflower and beans.
“In the garden…” is a series for A Gardener’s Notebook highlighting what is happening in my garden, my friend’s gardens and California gardens throughout the seasons.
Despite the fact that I often talk about attaining raises and promotions in your career, I don’t often discuss their ramifications to both your work and your personal life. The fact is, when you move into an expanded role, especially a managerial role, the expectations of those around you are going to rise. Each new position brings about a new level of control and commitment. If you ignore this, your transition into the new role can be more difficult than it should be.
It is important to remember that when you receive a promotion or a raise in pay, you are accepting new roles and new commitments. You might not think it at first, but your manager is going to expect something more in response to your new status. Promotions and raises aren’t so much a reward for past service, but more an incentive for future services. Managers are going to expect you to “step up to the plate” and take a more active role in projects and day-to-day issues. Unfortunately, though, they often don’t take the time to explain exactly what their new expectations are. Too often, they simply assume that you will know how to take on the new role, even though it hasn’t been well defined or, perhaps, even described to you.
In order to keep your career on track, you need to take the initiative to clearly define any increased expectations. This can range from the simple realities of new meetings you should be attending to the specifics of who you should be supervising and mentoring within your group. Have this important conversation with your manager as soon as possible after your new promotion is announced. Otherwise, you will find yourself in a sort of limbo between positions.
I am sure you have seen newly minted supervisors who spend their first few weeks wandering around in a daze, trying to figure out their new place in the organization and the expectations of those around them. You want to insure that your transition is as smooth as possible, though, so you can start being effective in your new role from the very first day.
Subtleties
Beyond your official work role, there are more subtle expectations that can effect your work life. These can be even more troublesome than the issues above, as there are fewer guidelines available to you and they can have an insidious effect on your work life if they are ignored.
First, there are expectations about who you will associate with in your new role. I am sure you have heard stories about rank-and-file workers suddenly elevated to a supervisor or manager role. Suddenly you are no longer one of “us”, you are now one of “them”. This can be a crushing blow for some people, as it removes the work support structure carefully built over the years. Worse still, this happens before you have built any sort of support structure in your new role. You can feel adrift as you try to navigate the passage between the two. That said, you need to understand the unique culture of your company. In some cases, there won’t be a problem with you continuing to lunch with your former peers. In other companies, this will be seen as a social faux pas of the highest degree.
Second, the subtle cues of work attire are almost sure to be an issue. Jeans and polo shirts might have been appropriate in your past position, but now, suddenly you are elevated into the world of suits and ties. Again, it depends on your individual company, but you are well advised to be aware of these expectations, as well. While I personally detest the affectations of business dress codes (perhaps this is one reason I work for myself), you ignore them at your peril.
Finally, not only will expectations rise in your new role, but you should also expect them to rise. It only makes sense that new positions will bring more and different responsibilities. Any attempt to ignore this fact will hamper your transition into your new role and could derail your career entirely. While your work performance is certainly the most important part of your career, you must also deal with the more subtle world of the expectations of those around you.
I interview my wife, Dr. Rosanne Welch on her recently published essay, “When White Boys Write Black: Race and Class in the Davies and Moffat Eras” in the collection, Doctor Who and Race published by Intellect.
I interview my wife, Dr. Rosanne Welch on her recently published essay, “When White Boys Write Black: Race and Class in the Davies and Moffat Eras” in the collection, Doctor Who and Race published by Intellect.
The Dog Days of PodcastingChallenge this month has got me stretching my podcasting muscles a bit, so it finally seemed time to create a Minecraft Let’s Play, after playing the game for over a year and recently resetting our server world to start afresh.
We have a few close friends on our multiplayer server and I always enjoy that more than playing by myself. It creates surprises and new adventures as other “citizens” discover new biomes, spawners, temples and villages. We can also join together for big quests like beating the Ender Dragon and the Whither.
So, welcome to WelchWorld and my first episode of MineFull!
So, as of today we are 15 days into the Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge. It has been somewhat easier than I thought, as I have a number of shows I try to produce regularly, so I only have to fill the holes that remain. Still, it as also gotten me moving on some ideas I have had for a long time.
Today’s podcast, MineFull – A Minecraft Let’s Play, has been in my mind for a long time, but I never had enough motivation to get moving on it. Things always seemed to get in the way and the thought of doing a podcast about playing a game seemed a bit frivolous. That said, it is a different form of podcast than anything I have done in the past, so it is a great stretch of my podcasting muscles.
I had also been meaning to do many more interviews for all the podcasts, but most especially Career Opportunities. I think it is so important to introduce readers and listeners to new people, new jobs, new careers and new ideas in order to help them grow. Again, the Dog Days finally got me moving on that project, along with some new equipment that was purchased for producing a series of videos for a client. I now have a better video camera, better mics and, most importantly, some decent lighting for shooting indoors, especially for interviews. I have recorded 3 interviews so far and will record another one today. I will probably be releasing them once per week for the next several weeks.
I thought at the beginning of the challenge I might have to fill in with more stream-of-conciousness audio podcasts in order to fill all the podcast slots, but that hasn’t happened. That said, I may still do some of those merely as a way of playing around and showing the possibilities of Podcasting and New Media.
Of course, now I want to hear what you think about the Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge as we head into the downhill portion of the month. Has it been illuminating, boring, challenging, frightening, enlightening? Have you listened to or watched other podcasters who are taking the challenge? You can find all our podcasts over the on Dog Days of Podcasting web site and associated RSS feed. You can even subscribe to the feed and have each days podcasts automatically downloaded and moved to your iTunes, iPod, iPhone or iPad.
Leave some comments to tell me what you think AND what you’d like to see and hear in the next 15 days of the Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge!
Career Conversation: Jennifer Oliver O’Connell of Tuesdays with Transitioners
Douglas talks with Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, founder and leader of Tuesdays with Transitioners, a job group in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. We talk about career transition, some misconceptions about transition and even how employers can work with transitioners to find great employees.
More information on Jennifer Oliver O’Connell and Tuesdays with Transitioners:
I recently did a Google Image search on the word “career” just to see what it would turn up. There I found lots of pictures of signposts and arrows, lots of uses of the word Career in various typographic styles and, of course, eager, young (almost exclusively) workers attired in suits, ties and/or skirts, often carrying briefcases. While I wasn’t that surprised by the search results, I find myself continually surprised by the icons from the past that we still use to represent work and career. Almost like the stereotypical usage of an old, rotary phone being used to represent a telephone or any type of call, the use of the briefcase or the suit and tie is just as outdated..
Yes, of course, many people still report to a standard office wearing the standard corporate uniform, but many others now work in companies, locations and even in attire quite different. In fact, I would say that the standard icons we use for career represent less and less of the modern workforce every day. They also highlight our outdated views of career at a time when we need new and more powerful ways of developing the career you deserve. The anachronism of these icons might fool someone into thinking that today’s work world is just like our parents, or grandparents time, when I think it is clear that today’s work world is very much different, much more complex and filled with so many new opportunities.
So, I am asking all of you. What do you think the new icon for career should be? What visual metaphors spring to mind when you think of your work and your career? What single image springs to mind when someone says the word career? I’d love to hear what you think and what might envision. Share your ideas in the comments on this column, on the Career-Op pages on Facebook and Google+ or reply to me via Twitter at @careertips. I’d love to see your ideas!
For myself, my own thinking about new career icons follows a number of tracks. Here are a few of my ideas:
Computer//Tablet/Smartphone
Since its invention, the telephone has always represented communication and, in many ways, business itself. “Let your fingers do the walking” through the Yellow Pages used to be one, major way of finding business and services and even customers that you needed. Today, with the ubiquitous nature of computers in business, along with the more recent counterparts, the tablet and smartphone, I think a good case could be made for making these devices the “briefcase” of our era. Instead of folders of documents, the daily newspaper, magazines and perhaps a lunch crammed into a briefcase, we carry our data and our knowledge around in these smaller and smaller digital “briefcases.” I think it is safe to say that the smartphone alone could become an icon for overall human productivity, not just career. So much, both good and bad, useful and not, occurs on these devices that it seems likely they will become the new icon of work and career.
A network of interconnecting lines and arrows
One clear truth about careers in this age, and even in the past to some extent, is that your career is made up of a host of connections between people, companies, data and more. A network diagram with lines and arrows going in every direction certainly seems to reflect the nature of career. Rarely do you walk your career path alone. You are constantly connecting with new people, new technology, and new information. I think a good visual icon for career should clearly represent this integrated series of connections where we live and work every day. Not only would it better represent the reality of our lives and work, but also reinforce the importance of these connections both for us and for those around us.
You
People often appear as career icons — the dapper professional, the uniformed plumber, the rugged construction worker, but too often they are both stereotypical and generic. As I often preach here in Career Opportunities, your career is personal — one of the most personal aspects of your life. Your career is, and should be, unique from any other career in order to match your wants needs and desires. Stereotypes are less and less useful today, as more people are developing what could be considered very non-traditional careers. They combine a unique blend of skills, knowledge and desire to create their own, personal career. Perhaps this means that the best visual icon for a career should simply be a picture of yourself, doing what you do. Maybe you are simply the best visual icon for your career. Someone as unique and individual as the career they develop.
What images come to mind when you think of career? Do they help you in the building of the career you deserve or do they hold you back with archaic ideas about work and career? Share your best visual career icons with myself and all the readers and listeners of Career Opportunities. Perhaps, together, we can find a new metaphor that represents career in a deeper and more meaningful way and move “Beyond the Briefcase!”
“In the garden…” is a series for A Gardener’s Notebook highlighting what is happening in my garden, my friend’s gardens and California gardens throughout the seasons.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about making your resume into a blog (See Your resume a blog, January 5, 2007) and today I want to go a little deeper into what information you might want to place there. Whether you are creating your new resume blog, or using the more traditional resume and cover letter, you should be specific about your career story. It is these details that will provoke interest in you and your work.
Read any book on good writing and nearly all of them will preach the gospel of specific and unique detail. If you want your writing to have power and emotional impact, you need highly detailed sections of description. Where a beginning writer might write, “The bird sat in the tree,” a more experienced writer would write, “The bright red cardinal, with its black mask and pointed cap, sat high in the tall, leafless, maple tree and sang its purdy-purdy-purdy song with gusto.” While this might be a bit of purple prose, it is certainly more engaging than, ‘The bird sat in the tree.” Details in the story make the reader want to know more about the cardinal and his story — details in your resume make the potential employer want to know more about you and your career.
Clearly, the same rules apply for your resumes and cover letter writing. Don’t say the career equivalent of “The bird sat in the tree.” Of course, you don’t simply want to create a laundry list of hardware and software you managed, either. The details need to be wrapped up within a complete story. This is the difference between a telephone book and a novel. One is just information, the other is an engaging tale that can sometimes change the world.
For example, instead of simply saying, “I worked with Windows,” say “One major project included a national rollout (3 sites/1000+ systems) of Windows XP SP2 and MS Office in which I managed 18 staff members of all levels and developed solutions to software issues that prevented employees from accessing a critical, legacy, AS/400 system. These issues were caused by conflicts between our client software (X), network hardware (Y) and connectivity issues using AT&T leased lines. I created a task force with members from all these vendors, and internal staff to resolve the issues while still maintaining the project timeline.”
I am sure your own career stories are much better than this made-up example, but the concept should be clear. Again, as most writing books will tell you, every good story addresses who, what, when, where, why and how. Make sure you get all that information into your career story. Of all of these items, though, I think the most important aspects are the why and the how. Too often, we don’t do enough to expose our thought processes and methods to those around us. Concentrating on “why” shows prospective employers what you think and how you go about the process of setting up a project, while the “how” gives them specific information on how you implemented that project and the hurdles you crossed to complete it.
Pick and choose
Just as you don’t want to overwhelm your reader with laundry lists of hardware and software, you don’t want to try and tell all your stories in one novel-length resume. The traditional 1-page resume form means you have to pick and choose which stories are most important to each employer and which tell the specific story you want to relate to that particular employer. Again, just as a writer considers their audience, so should you. If you are applying for a position as a network manager, you should choose stories that reflect that experience. A different position will naturally require a different set of stories. Overall, I would recommend that you present no more than three individual stories in any resume. More than that could overwhelm the reader. Less than that might not provide enough information. Of course, your resume blog can contain as many stories as you like, since it is being accessed in different fashion. Your end goal, in any situation, is to be invited in for a face-to-face interview. Make sure your resume interests the reader so much that they simply have to meet you in person.
Even though you might not be a writer by trade, you can use the writer’s tools to craft resumes and cover letters that are filled with the specific detailed stories necessary to tell your career story in the best way possible.
Want a great way to find cool books to read? Visit your local library. That’s right, your library. Then locate the “Sorting Shelves.” Ask the librarian, if you can’t find themselves. Sorting shelves contain books which have recently been returned by other patrons and are being sorted by subject, so they can be reshelved in their proper locations.
You are almost sure to find something interesting here via pure serendipity. It only makes sense that those books which have circulated recently might be of interest to you, too. These shelves will be a great mixture of every genre, from cookbooks to philosophy, as well a collection of both new books and old.
Next time you are looking for something interesting to read, check out the sorting shelves at your local library. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Music: “Mining by Moonlight”, Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech.com, Creative Commons License
Want a great way to find cool books to read? Visit your local library. That’s right, your library. Then locate the “Sorting Shelves.” Ask the librarian, if you can’t find themselves. Sorting shelves contain books which have recently been returned by other patrons and are being sorted by subject, so they can be reshelved in their proper locations.
You are almost sure to find something interesting here via pure serendipity. It only makes sense that those books which have circulated recently might be of interest to you, too. These shelves will be a great mixture of every genre, from cookbooks to philosophy, as well a collection of both new books and old.
Next time you are looking for something interesting to read, check out the sorting shelves at your local library. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Music: “Mining by Moonlight”, Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech.com, Creative Commons License
Time to repair an older, but still serviceable, garden hose with some parts from the home improvement store and a little time. So easy anyone — yes even I — can do it! (LAUGH)
“In the garden…” is a series for A Gardener’s Notebook highlighting what is happening in my garden, my friend’s gardens and California gardens throughout the seasons.
I really like panoramic pictures and in this video I take about 8 of them and turn them into an interesting video. This is just another example, for the Dog Days of Podcasting, how many different types of media can be used to create your podcasts. Your show, your audio, your video doesn’t need to be like anyone else’s — and especially like traditional radio or television. Experiment with whatever you have. Re-use media, arrange it differently, mash it up with something else.
You can see the quality differences here between panorama done with my iPhone and those taken — in multiple slices — with my traditional digital camera. The higher quality the photos that come in, the higher quality the video out, so you may want to take some time to shoot and stitch the panorama before using it in your video editor.
Bill Farmer, The Voice of Disney’s Goofy, Talks about “A Career in Voiceover”
Douglas sits down with Bill Farmer, voice actor for Disney’s Goofy and many other well-known animated characters. We talk about a career in voiceover, how to build it, how to sustain it and career potential of becoming a voice actor today.
I rebuild one of the containers, removing some basil plants into other pots, remixing the soil with worm castings and some organic fertilizer and planting it up with carrots and radish seeds.
More information on Jennifer Oliver O’Connell and Tuesdays with Transitioners:
