With the job market improving steadily in many areas, especially in the Silicon Valley, it has become easier for people to land jobs of their choice in a relatively short order. In some technology and marketing areas (Big data, marketing analytics, gaming, UI designers, among others) the competition for the right talent is so fierce that it is not difficult to get multiple offers, without even looking for a job! During the past few months I have received many calls from my clients and prospects on how to deal with multiple offers and how to turn-off the less desirable offers at the right time. Some came to me too late for me to help them.

Multiple offers can also be a reality for those, who manage their job-search campaigns well, and who stage their interview process to land different offers in a short time window. One advantage of staging your campaign for multiple offers is that you can take the action from one target and leverage that to precipitate action from a more desirable target. This works really well if you learn how to use the right timing and approach to get the offer you want by pivoting a less desirable offer.

Regardless of how clever, analytical, and objective you can be about making a selection from a variety of choices, when it comes to choosing the right job—and the right offer—it is difficult to not get wrapped up in your emotions and to make a decision based on irrational factors. This blog is about some of the common themes that I captured from these recent client encounters. It is provided here as a guide to those, who may need to navigate through multiple job offers, without getting emotionally crippled by the choices and the risks associated with making an unwise choice.

1. If you are looking for a better opportunity, design a well-staged job-search campaign, so that you will have a series of interviews in a short time window (30-45 days).
2. Build interview momentum by leveraging action from one front into other fronts and try to make a sequential train of job interviews in a short order. Do not hide that you are also interviewing at other places, but without revealing their identity.
3. When one offer comes, first evaluate it and then decide how you want to negotiate it by first asking the person making that offer if there is any room in their numbers (there often is!). Start negotiating the offer before that offer is formalized in an employment letter. Once that letter is signed it is almost impossible to change the offer. Some may even withdraw their offer if you do that.
4. As the employer with your counter proposal is formalizing the first offer, immediately call those that are close to wrapping up the interview process and tell them about the offer you already have (no names, numbers, or details), and the timeline to which you are working. This often forces them to put a different priority on how you are being processed. It often causes them to move favorably if they are sitting on the fence and are not sure about you. Never lie about having an offer just to create action on the fronts you want. It is OK, thought, to say that you are expecting an offer to get them going on theirs.
5. Once you have multiple offers try negotiating each one based on what is happening on other offers. In one case recently, a client got his sign-on bonus bumped up from $10K to $40K, based on how he was able to leverage his other offers.
6. Once you have all the offers in hand, negotiated to your satisfaction, then decide in prioritized order which offer provides you the best career track (not just money) and momentum. Also, consider other factors such as work-life balance, commute, and the employer’s overall reputation in the market. Visit glassdoor.com and other sites to ferret out this information.
7. Once you have narrowed your choices and are satisfied with your package, call the company on the top of your list and ask the person in contact with you throughout this process if the package they gave you is their best and final offer. Depending on their response go through the finalization process and tell them that you are accepting their offer. It is critical that you ask them if there is anything that will prevent them from bringing you on board after you accept the offer. This is an important question to ask.
8. Do not turn off other offers until the time for their deadline has come. If you need to, make sure that you ask for an extension. One-time extension of about week is reasonable if you give them a good reason (“I need some time to reflect on this offer in view of my long-term career plan…”).
9. Before turning off other offers call your contact at the employer where you accepted the offer, yet one more time, and tell them that you are now declining the other offers and ask them if there is anything remaining in the process that will prevent you from joining them on the start date you agreed to (in #7). This will obligate them to make sure that there are no surprises looming. Resign from you current employer ONLY after everything is lined up (consider their counter offer, if any, in the same way as other offers, and do NOT accept promises).
10. If you accept more than one offer to protect your options and then give them a start date, only to renege when that date comes, be prepared to suffer the consequences of being blackballed from that company for future employment.

Good luck!

This is not the first high-profile person that has been exposed about a lie on their résumé. Many examples of high-profile executives have come to light in the past with devastating results for both the person and the company, where they found employment using that lie.

Résumé lies are not limited to high-profile executives. Studies have shown that even today, where facts can be easily checked, about 38% of the résumés have one or more lies in how they convey a person’s qualifications. The most frequent lie is about a person’s responsibilities, followed by accomplishments (inflated accomplishments), titles, academic qualifications, and finally, their skills. The reason skills are the last in this list of what people lie about is perhaps because in an interview they are the first to get scrutinized, exposing the person to a lie early in the game.

The purpose of this blog is to suggest some strategies that make it easy for people to tell the truth, without jeopardizing their prospects for being seen as a qualified candidate. Here are some guidelines on how to manage your message so that your résumé is a paragon of verity:

1. Identify some key differentiators that you may have overlooked in articulating your value proposition. This will allow you to showcase your uniqueness in your résumé that will negate any temptation to overreach in how you present your message.
2. Stay away from a Functional résumé and stick to the Chronological design (with reverse chronology for your accomplishments). The Functional format lends itself more easily to misrepresenting something (the reason why people choose that format). Besides, that presentation raises red flags by its very nature in the readers’ minds.
3. Learn how to present your accomplishments in a compelling way using your leadership stories. Too much emphasis is given to one-line bullets with numbers that reflect your achievements. This design also can tempt one to exaggerate their claims. A great leadership story of accomplishments that takes a few lines to tell does not always need incredibly large numbers most people claim in their statements (sales rose 69%!) to impress readers. Factual numbers (sales rose 19%, despite the collapsing economy!) supported by a great leadership narrative can do wonders.
4. Synch up your résumé message with your LinkedIn Profile. Make sure that all facts are accurate and consistent in every message that you have out there for others to see.
5. Finally, if you are tempted to lie about your skills, at least qualify the level of your skill by using the right adjectives: “Expert at, ” “Proficient in,” and “Familiar with.” This way, if you have just purchased a book on a topic or merely enrolled in a certification course on that topic, but have never done any work using that knowledge, you can get away with using the “Familiar with” label. That way, in an interview, you can defend your entry in a tenable way.

In a tough job market lying on your résumé to get a job can be tempting; avoid this temptation at all costs by using these admonitions to protect your career and your sanity!

Good luck!

PS: From the time I started writing this blog and by the time I posted it (45 minutes later), news broke out that Scott Thompson has been now replaced by Ross Levinsohn!

During the past few months there have been so many “9-1-1” calls from new prospects to me, operating out of their “unconscious incompetence,” that I decided to write this blog as a compilation of these experiences. I am listing below the most common mistakes in a job transition:

1. Before you embark on your transition be very clear about your objectives. “I hate my job or my boss” is not good enough! You might soon run into similar problems at your new place!
2. Look at your career trajectory, your age, and where you should have been at this stage of your career (do not compare yourself with your colleagues). Most people feel that they should be doing better than they are. Make a realistic audit of your career and take a look at a typical job description of a position where you think that you should be. If you do not meet most of the requirements for that job, then you are just dreaming.
3. After the audit and making a list of the gaps gleaned from that audit find some ways to get your résumé upgraded to match the needs of the next position. You can do that first by seeking some opportunities at your current place, and by learning how to package your message better (see my blogs on Inductive résumés).
4. When embarking on a job transition identify your “A” jobs and companies. Find connections (from LinkedIn and other sources) that can help you get access to inside connections (hiring managers, recruiters).
5. Learn how to interview well. Merely preparing to give good answers is not enough. You must learn all the finer details of good interviewing skills. Practice job interviews with a coach or ask someone to help you.
6. You must build a pipeline of prospects where you are in different stages of the hiring process at different companies. You must learn how to leverage the action on one front to accelerate actions on other fronts. This requires some conscious effort and diligence.
7. When you get a rejection make every effort to learn what you need to do better. Asking properly the people with whom you have interviewed can be a great channel for this. Also, ask your inside contact to find out and tell you.
8. Do not worry about your current salary to claim your next paycheck. If you focus on your value at the new place of work you can negotiate a more equitable package somewhat independent of your last. This requires confidence in your own value proposition and an ability to negotiate based on it. Never lie about your past salary or anything else; employers often ask for your W-2s or pay stubs.
9. When you have multiple offers manage the acceptance timelines so that you are not compromising your most desirable landing. Learn how to convey your rejection to others. They could be players in your next job search.
10. Learn how to leave your current employer gracefully, and always leave with class!

Good luck!

Over the past seven years, since its inception, LinkedIn has become a veritable boon for professionals in how they manage their career. When used properly by the professionals (vs. recruiters and employers) it can provide them with a powerful career-enabling tool that was previously missing. So, in this blog I am going to share a “typical” success story of my client who, after learning how to manage this tool well, derived the benefits that would otherwise be out of their reach. I am also providing some tips for you to make effective use of this valuable resource:

In the case of one client, Sally, she was at her company for over five years and had done stellar work to demonstrate her competency and loyalty to the employer. Yet, when time came for a way to acknowledge her contributions she heard the same refrain from her boss at the time of her annual performance review: The company is doing poorly; the economy continues to be sluggish, so we are being conservative in our pay raises; we cannot promote you just yet, as there are others ahead of you in line for their next promotion; etc.! She liked her job and liked the environment her company provided her with flex hours, telecommuting, short commute, and generous benefits. Thus, she was reluctant to go looking for other places to work just yet.

So, when she heard the same woebegone story at her review time from her boss, two years in a row, she approached me for guidance. Knowing her situation and her preferences, we decided to do something creative in how we could get her management to pay attention to her needs for a deserving raise and a promotion. We decided to use her LinkedIn Profile as a way of communicating her intentions clearly to her management.

So, a few months after her review, she decided to completely redo her profile and showcase her accomplishments. Her Summary narrative was spiced up with her accomplishments and with her influence in changing the way the company developed new products under her leadership. She also posted a professional headshot, with a great headline that trumpeted her value. Additionally, she asked for others from her past to post her strong Recommendations about her leadership, loyalty, and technical expertise, announcing at the bottom: Contact Sally for New Career Opportunities, Reference Requests, and Getting back in touch.

Within a week of updating her Profile this way, her manager with a sheepish grin approached Sally. He asked her for a meeting and in that meeting he asked her if she was unhappy in her job. Sally realized what was going on and what triggered this response. So, she played cool and told her boss, that she enjoyed working in her job but felt that the company did not appreciate her true value. When her boss asked pointedly if she was looking for other opportunities, she responded by saying if someone were to approach her with a good offer she might consider it, unless the company does something about it now!

Within two weeks of that meeting Sally received a special—and unexpected—raise that brought her salary even above where she wanted, with a promise of a promotion before the next review cycle. The best part of this great story is that Sally did not even have to go looking for a job and threaten her boss for a raise or a promotion as a counter to her new job offer.

So, what is the lesson: If you love your job and like how you are positioned at your current place of work, but are not being recognized for your value, try this Sally approach of showcasing your LinkedIn Profile by making it market ready. How well this works would surprise you!

After witnessing many such Sally stories here are my suggestions for you to leverage LinkedIn to advance your career:

1. Make sure that you have a strong Profile Summary with a great headline and a professional picture (headshot).
2. Have a well-crafted Specialties list below your Summary.
3. Constantly increase your network by inviting more people (the right kind) into your network.
4. Get Recommendations from people who matter: previous bosses, customers, suppliers, peers, direct reports, and others.
5. Select the right attributes in Contact information. Avoid using Career Opportunities as a choice when you select the options for others to contact you. It is much better for you to be passive candidate if you really want recruiters to contact you. In the case of Sally, she really did not want anyone contacting her, but just wanted the right people to know that she was market ready. It worked!
6. Actively participate in exchanges that take place on LinkedIn by frequently visiting your Home page.
7. Do a search using LinkedIn’s search criteria and see where you show up in results. Reshuffle your Profile and other text so that you land on top of the first page with the right search string. This is important if you really want to market yourself in a passive way.
8. If you are afraid that a complete makeover of your LinkedIn Profile may jeopardize your current job (the flip side of what you are trying to accomplish), then manage your Profile by changing it frequently and slowly, so as not to raise any suspicions.
9. Always keep your résumé current in case someone calls you from having read your Profile.
10. Be always market ready!

Good luck!

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. —Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965).

Some clients come to me when they experience a prolonged “flameout,” cannot re-ignite their engines, and need help to move forward with purpose. In most cases I explore to see what prompted this flameout and what the client needs to do to get their mojo back. I am writing this blog, as a career and a life coach, to share many of the common themes that I find in this exploration, with corresponding remedies. As the quote above suggests it is normal (even for a Nobel prize winner!) to experience these flameouts, so do not feel bad! In most cases, this flameout occurs over a period of time precipitated often by a single impactful event—such as a job loss—often exacerbated by the ensuing downward spiral of much smaller events over a period of time:

1. Major Loss:A major sense of loss ensues when you lose your job, a loved one, or when you are in the process of a divorce. Each person handles such a personal blow in their own way, but there are some basic strategies that help you deal with such a loss and regain your footing.One of the main factors in overcoming the sense of profound loss in such cases is not to personalize what happened, but to take what happened personally.

   What is the difference? Personalizing a loss entails finding where you went wrong in creating the outcome that you just witnessed, and then wishing that you had behaved differently. In the case of a job loss one may personalize this by saying to themselves something that they could have or should have done to prevent getting laid-off or fired. Such speculation is meaningless, but what IS meaningful is to take charge of what you need to do moving forward—taking it personally—to deal with it, to take charge of the outcome now.

2. Bad Situation: Bad situations can arise from a variety of factors in your personal or professional life. When dealing with your job or your career these typically entail your boss, colleague, or employer. In such cases I often find people either resigning themselves to the situation and quietly suffering through it to a point of their becoming a martyr. Another typical response is to run away from the situation and to start a new chapter in another company. Neither of these strategies works, because being a martyr is not ennobling, contrary to what some believe, nor is moving to another place of work. When you go to another place, human nature being what it is, you are likely to encounter the same or similar situation in short order. The best strategy in such cases is to learn to deal with such adversity and conquer your inner fears. When you take this approach you are more likely to be successful where you are, and no matter where you go.
3. Setbacks: Setbacks, such as demotion, having to accept lower income, a transfer to a less glamorous job, or having to move to a less desirable neighborhood are all seen by many as “failures.” Therein lies the root cause of despair. If you look at the life’s ups and downs as lessons that enrich our lives and give us perspective, one is less likely to suffer defeat with such setbacks. Once again, not personalizing your plight and having a concerted plan to moving ahead are the best antidotes when you are faced with such setbacks.
4. Betrayed Friendships: When a dear “friend” betrays you in the time of your need people are often surprised by how they are treated. Some sulk, transfer that betrayal to their other relationships, and withdraw from their otherwise rich social life. This can quickly cause you to be lonely and alone, which will exacerbate your feeling of powerlessness. So, the best strategy is to contain the betrayal to the only relationship that is damaged, and to maintain your relationships with the others with a healthy dose of caution and proper expectations.
5. Difficult Relatives: This is yet another cause for one to be brought down. Many of my clients feel overwhelmed when some of their close relatives try to interfere in their lives by giving them gratuitous advice, even in career matters, expecting them to follow it. In many cases my clients go into the avoidance mode and suffer through the difficult period of dealing with their relatives when they are going through difficult times. Such non-supportive relatives further add to their plight rather than helping them in their time of need. The best antidote is to politely tell the nosy relatives to mind their own business and to tell them that you already are seeking professional help.

The quote at the head of this blog suggests that when you are suffering from a flameout you need to seek inspiration from others. Such inspiration may not always be available from a person in flesh. A good proxy for reigniting your engines when you are feeling down for a prolonged period and are staying in a funk is to find an inspiring book or a movie to lift your spirits. Better yet, learn how to find inspiration within yourself, by reflecting on your own past successes, and by reminding yourself how you overcame some situations that originally appeared hopeless to you. Life is not always easy, but the challenges it throws at you are not to kill your inner flame; rather they are offered to you to discover your inner strengths yourself, and for you to learn from such experiences.

Good luck!

Having worked with thousands of clients globally I have kept track of some of the main reasons professionals come to me as my clients. This blog is about some of the most common reasons people get into trouble with their careers, and is also about some ways of either avoiding or overcoming those trouble spots (the remedies I suggest to them). If I look at the entire client population that I have worked with over the past decade it is a good mix of ages, cultures, careers, their areas of work, and employment levels. This prompts me to conclude that what I have codified here—in rank order of frequency—is a good summary of what most professionals need to focus on in their careers:

Communication: This skill manifests in a variety of ways. Most of those who come to me have been cited for poor communication skills. Although those labeled as poor communicators are mostly immigrants, this is a much broader problem that goes beyond just the language skill. So, what are different ways people get cited for poor communication? Here is a partial list: Inability to forcefully and confidently communicate a point of view in oral discussions (this applies to most, and is not limited to the immigrant pool); shyness and reticence in meetings (this applies largely to immigrants from Asia—China, the Indian subcontinent, and the Pacific Rim); frequent miscommunication; and poor writing skills, which includes not having a sense of how to even respond properly to emails. This is just a hit list of items in this general category. The actual list can be much broader.

Remedies: Depending on the client’s background I suggest a variety of remedies, which include: Joining the Toastmasters Club; expanding their working vocabulary; taking writing classes; speaking English, not your native language at home; watching some choice US sitcoms to expand the linguistic and cultural vocabulary, to name a few.

Relationships: This deficiency is agnostic and I find that most clients get into trouble because they underestimate the power of good relationships. Many believe that doing solid work is all they need to do to be in good graces with those around them, so they make no efforts to build relationships with others that go beyond merely transactional encounters. Building good relationships requires developing your Emotional Intelligence (EQ–a nurtured skill).

Remedy: Learn about EQ and how to build harmonious relationships with those around you, and with people that matter (influencers) in your organization. This is a life skill.

Cultural Integration: Although clients do not come to me for being cited as cultural misfits, it evinces during my first meeting when I start exploring their work habits. Those that are not culturally well integrated show habits of hanging around only in their “tribes,” and not mixing with others; speaking in their native language, even in meetings, when others may not understand their speech; making a statement at work about their “superior” culture in how they dress, behave, and interact, to name a few.

Remedy: Here again, I make my clients aware of the importance of understanding the cultural norms and integrating well, so that they are accepted by the general employee population, not just by their “tribe.” I recommend their watching a few popular US sitcoms to understand the emerging culture and how they can become a part of it. The other way to integrate well is to develop an ability to talk about popular sports and events, or even participate in them.

Managing upwards: This deficiency is pervasive and not just limited to the immigrant community. Merely doing good work or delivering what you are told to do (“order taking”) is not enough; this is an expected minimum for continued employment! Managing upwards means anticipating what your boss needs to do to look good and then working with them to make it happen.

Remedy: Developing a better understanding of how your boss is measured by theirs, and teaming with them to make sure that your boss looks good through your efforts that go beyond merely doing what you are told. Volunteering for tasks to become visible to upper management is also another way to do this.

Meetings: In this category the most common fault is not knowing what to say, and then saying the wrong things when you open your mouth, especially when the majordomos are present in such meetings. Yet another defect is not knowing when to shut up and when not to respond during the proceedings.

Remedy: One must develop their own sense of how they are coming across in such meetings. If you are not being re-invited to such meetings, it is a good sign that something is agley. Check with your boss and openly discuss your behaviors.

Teamwork: Being able to work well in teams is critical in today’s workplace. Knowing which teams are critical for your success, and then knowing how to work well in such teams can be a boon to your career; not mastering this team spirit can be a blow on its flip side.

Remedy: Similar to Relationship (#2 above), ability to work in teams is driven by EQ. So, develop the social skills to work well with others and know when it is best to work on your own. Also, remember, it does not matter how smart you are, what matters is how useful you are, overall!

Technical Expertise: I have some clients who are not comfortable with their technical proficiency in their area of work. I see clients in their mid-40s struggling to do things that are done expertly by 23-year olds. When you are competing in such space you must find other ways to show your value. Otherwise, this is a battle that is hard to win!

Remedy: Find your value proposition and re-channel your energies in that direction, so that your value comes from what you know best. Work with your boss to redefine your work and get yourself a transfer or another job.

Being aware of where you stand in your own place at work is central to your ongoing career growth. So, be vigilant and do the right thing for yourself!

Good luck!

In many cases this venture is in early stages of development—surprisingly, for many years. Clients have some sense of what they would like to pursue. Most of those, who admit to their entrepreneurial interests are–or were—technologists themselves, who have migrated to more glamorous corporate jobs (translation: where the money is). Now, they wistfully think that they can keep their entrepreneurial flame alive by tinkering with technology to yield them some unexpected riches and salvation, as they continue their subterfuge.

So, how do I guide them? Here is my typical guidance to these lost souls:

1. Make an assessment of where you are in the evolution of your venture and determine what resources you need to take the venture to a decision point. Make an accelerated plan to reach that point, and then decide if you want to shift your priorities.
2. Until you bring your focus to a single pursuit—career or venture—you are not going to be able to focus on either one to succeed. So, make a time-bound plan that forces you to decide on the direction you want to take after you reach that point.
3. Seek support from your family to help you navigate through this period, when you are aggressively pursuing your venture to a decision point, as you continue to slog away at your corporate job. Share you plans and timelines with them so that they can hold you accountable for your actions and end-points.
4. Seek professional guidance on your venture when it comes to evaluating business plans, making financial commitments, forming partnerships, etc. I cannot even count the number of times when clients came to me, as it was too late to salvage what they had started. This was because some very key elements were either ignored or were based on untenable assumptions.
5. If you are investing your own money in your venture set a limit to what you are going to invest. Technology moves fast and so does the market with other competing ideas. It is tempting to continue to fritter your retirement money away, waiting to hit the jackpot. This is almost an addiction, much like gambling. So, seek professional advice early in the venture’s life.
6. Once you reach the decision point and decide to move in favor of your corporate job, devote all your energies to your career and make an assessment of what you really want to do.
7. Find an area of work that brings you true joy (not just more money) and make a plan to engage in that area of activity. If you must do a transition to a new area requiring you to re-invent yourself learn how to do that by working with a professional.
8. Make a career-growth plan and measure yourself and your growth against that plan. Hold yourself accountable to your own growth.
9. Thank your family for supporting you through your conflicted existence and get back into financial recovery plan, if you have expended your retirement funds in pursuing your venture.
10. If anyone else approaches you with the next “sure-fire” venture for you to join them, learn how to say no!

Good luck!

A good part of my own career coaching practice rests on helping clients through their reinvention. What is reinvention? It is taking your past experience in one area and repackaging it in a new and different area using your innate genius as a fulcrum. In my own case I have gone through four different careers, and now I am in my fifth (check out my LinkedIn Profile to see that progression). I have helped my clients move from high-tech to biotech, and from software development to product management. Some of these transitions are more natural progressions and others, quite radical.

One of the key elements needed to execute a successful reinvention is your ability to connect with people well outside your area of work. It is normal for people to join professional associations in their own areas of expertise. It is also easy for them to link-up with those, who work with them. For example, someone who is a project manager may join the Project Management Institute (pmi.org) as a member—a strong link—and hang out with its members during its events to soak in the proceedings. It is normal for professionals to affiliate with their own ilk to expand their knowledge and to keep their network vibrant.

What is not normal, however, is to expand one’s network in uncharted areas of professional expertise. In this case of the person above, if they were to be linked to someone who is an actor and join the SAG (Screen Actors’ Guild) then that would be a weak link. Why is that important? It has been proven that most inventions (fundamental breakthroughs in any area of work) come from people who possess deep-seated expertise in their areas of individual work. So, it would be expected that someone in an area of their expertise would be connected with others, who also are engaged in that type of work.

Major innovations (ways of creating new value from existing inventions), however, come from the outsiders more than they do from the insiders. This is perhaps because the insiders are not able to get past their deeply entrenched paradigms and thinking patterns. True innovations often come from those who are able to think outside the box (the lateral thinkers than deep linear thinkers). As a case in point, recent automobile models that Ford introduced exemplify this. It tapped mothers and parents of kids to get insights into car design and to understand better the everyday use of their cars, instead of talking to design experts, as it did traditionally. Result: They have some car models now that are flying off the dealers’ lots!

So, what does this mean to your career re-invention?

In today’s job market everything is in a flux. Fast-moving technology, global workforce, and shifting consumer priorities have placed new demands on professionals on how they create value. To stay relevant one must learn how to anticipate the trends and how to become a part of that trend to protect their career progression. This means one must always be vigilant in how they look at their career, and what they must do to stay relevant until their retirement. This is not easy. So, what is my prescription to stay relevant? Adventuring to manage change in your own career. Change is hard for most, but the alternative to change is to become irrelevant, which is much harder to deal with!

So, here is my prescription for a radical reinvention:

1. Periodically make an audit of your career momentum and see if it is waxing or waning. If you are experiencing good momentum and things are happening for you then it is time to think of the next chapter in your career, while you’re hot!
2. It is tempting to continue building this momentum and deal with any setbacks to it by rationalizing them as transitory. This is where your complacency is setting in—a danger sign. This is why you must think of your next step in your career while things are going well for you. You’ll radiate that confidence, which is critical in your reinvention. A little bit of swagger can allow you to overcome a lot of ignorance (I mean this in a good way!).
3. Connect with professionals who are outside your main area of work and hang out with them in conferences, meetings, and other events. Read about their work and learn how they practice their trade. Merely learning the language of their trade can give you insights about their thinking patterns and how they “operate” (their OS–Operating System in computer lingo).
4. Engage in brainstorming with the outsiders and seek ideas that may help you broaden your thinking. What comes naturally to the outsiders can be a breakthrough for you in your own area of work. This cuts both ways. Cultivate a habit of having such conversations and develop a comfort level in talking a language that may seem strange to you at first.
5. Explore how you can pivot your current career momentum in a new direction using some of the insights that you have gathered from one area of work to another. It often entails learning how to translate the language you already know, and ideas from one area to another and communicating those ideas.
6. Learn how to communicate well. I often find it disheartening that many people with great ideas lack the confidence to translate those ideas in a language that they can sell. Master your communication skill; it is fundamental to any professional endeavor.
7. If you already have a sense of moving your career in a specific direction then find out what resources are available in your destination career so that you can start affiliating with those who already belong to that profession. For example, if you want to move from software development to being a sommelier (wine or beer sommelier) then you must find professional organizations that cater to this community (for example joining the Court of Master Sommeliers, or the International Sommelier Guild), and even getting a certification, which can allow you to work in a restaurant as a sommelier, initially part time, as you are cutting code everyday in your day job! One of my clients actually did this and became a sommelier!
8. Expand your network as a habit. In the case of my client, who was a software engineer, and who went on to become a sommelier,  initially invited the upscale restaurant’s maître d’hôtel to join his LinkedIn network, during one of his routine dinners there, when his plan to transition was in its early stages. This would have been his weak link then.
9. Find out who the key players are in the destination career and field and explore ways to connect with them as a next step.
10. If you do not have a specific direction in mind start inviting different professionals in your social network and start hanging out with them to share and exchange ideas. Keep your day job until you are able to build some critical momentum in your reinvention and then take the plunge. You may be surprised how well this algorithm works!

Good luck!

1. When sending an urgent email and requesting a response for even a regular email always include your contact phone # in that message. Better yet, make it a habit of having your best contact # right in the email signature. Please also make sure that your full name is in the signature (not just a “Dave”). This simple approach provides the needed context, and an option for the recipient to call you back (a much more efficient way to respond, especially for urgent messages), no matter where the recipient is.
2. When leaving a phone message always start with your full name (not just “Dave,” again, and provide some brief context (“I met you at your workshop yesterday”) with your contact phone #. Leave a short message (15-30 sec.) and again your # at the end. People often retrieve their messages remotely and when the phone # (often garbled due to poor mobile connection) is only at the end of a long message it is annoying to have to play the entire message multiple times just to decipher the caller’s phone #. That phone # is perhaps the most important part of the message for the recipient.
3. Have a professional greeting in your voice mail, identifying clearly who you are. Replace the generic (and often robotic) greeting that comes with the product or service you purchased with a personal and professional greeting that announces your name and other details (“Thanks for calling. This is Dilip Saraf of Career Transitions Unlimited….”). About 10% of the people are either dyslexic or hurriedly misdial phone numbers (such as while driving). Unless they know whose phone they have reached you might miss an important call. If you do not have a personal greeting you may be viewed as too lazy to change it; not a good first impression!
4. When requesting an introduction to someone (especially someone more senior) from your contact on LinkedIn (or any other social network) make sure that your request is well presented. In my own case I get many requests from those who want to join my LinkedIn network. I simply ignore those that say, “Since you are the person I trust I want to join you in your network.” Before you initiate any such request for an introduction or for connecting someone that you think is worth your while, make sure that your request makes it worth their while to connect with you.
5. If you want people to remember you and to know who you are have your picture in your LinkedIn Profile. It is much easier to remember someone by looking at their picture and then forming the right context in your mind before connecting with them. Also, it is helpful to have a link to your LinkedIn Profile right in your email (as a part of your signature). With nearly 160 million members some common names can have thousands of entries on LinkedIn, as an example.
6. Regardless of how dire your situation is (e.g., being out of work for a long time) do not assume that that the world owes you something for your suffering. Always approach someone from whom you want help with the proper language and manners. If they help you make sure to acknowledge them through a generous Thank-you note.
7. When writing such notes make sure that you make specific reference to how their help made a difference. So, instead of merely writing, “Thanks for your help”, say, “I really appreciate your going out of your way to introduce me to Jim Smith. This introduction opened new doors for me that were previously closed. As a result, I was able to get a large contract from one of the referrals Jim gave me. If there is anything I can do for you please let me know; it would be MY pleasure! Once again, thanks a million.”
8. If someone goes out of their way to help you in your time of need, immediately acknowledge that help, and when your situation improves, do something special for them that they will remember.
9. When someone does great work (unrelated to what your needs are) acknowledge that and show your appreciation for a job well done. Everyone (including your company’s CEO) responds well to a genuine compliment. They are free, so use them generously.
10.  Don’t spend time personalizing your plight (“I should have done this and not that”). Instead, take the experience personally and learn from it. Live in the “Here and now.”

Good luck!

During my 10 years of career coaching, working with some 5,000 clients, I have encountered many situations that my clients had to face at their employers. Some of them came to me after realizing that they had done something wrong in their job or in their career that was now causing them grief. In some cases a person’s career nearly ended while they were still in their prime because they lost their ability to find employment as a result of their deliberate actions (see below). This blog is a review of those experiences and to remind the blog readers how to manage their career so that they do not inadvertently get themselves on the “career suicide” path. In simple terms a career suicide can be defined as any deliberate act that seriously jeopardizes your career momentum, if not your career. Such acts include, from an “innocuous” Facebook posting, to a downright refusal to carry out your boss’ mandate at work:

1. Subverting your boss:This is one of the more common approaches to career suicide when you do not support your boss’ agenda. Some clients do this actively by going around their boss and recruiting others in their camp to undermine their boss. Others do this passively (passive-aggressive behavior) where they find ways to subvert the boss’ agenda by predicting why their boss’ initiative would not succeed, and then working behind the scene towards making that a reality. Such behaviors, no matter how cleverly done, get exposed, and when they do, you have landed on a career suicide path. If you encounter such a situation, first find out the real reason for your stance and then see if you can reconcile with the agenda by actively working with your boss. If you cannot, then find yourself another job, either inside your own company or somewhere else.
2. Disparaging Your Employer:This is yet another path for career suicide. Spreading bad words about your employer to others in your professional circles is never a good idea. This can be particularly tempting in interviews, when you are asked for the reason for leaving your current employer. No matter how true it is and no matter how publicly known it is that your employer is a jerk, do not expressly state that or imply in your response during such interviews.When you are tempted to say something negative about your employer, no matter who it is, make sure that you avoid that temptation at all costs.
3. Having a Legal Battle:Some choose to take a legal avenue to deal with their problems or issues by taking their employer to court. Of course, this is an avenue available to anyone, but rarely such a course of action provides the relief you are looking for, long-term. You may get the satisfaction of vindication and of “showing” your employer that you mean business and that you have been harmed, but once the lawyers get involved and the proceedings begin on this track you often lose control over what happens, and its fallout can come back to haunt you long after the case is settled, even if you prevail.Pursue the legal course of action only when the circumstances are such that the harm you have suffered at the hands of your employer can only be remedied by going to the courts and that you are willing to take the “career suicide” risk if the outcome is not in your favor. Sometimes such an outcome, even in your favor, may net serve your career.Unless you are litigious by nature, try a prevention approach to such encounters by directly working with the offending party (your boss, colleague, or anyone else) through the available channels within your company (HR, Ombudsman, and others).
4. Value Mismatch: It happened in the case of Greg Smith at Goldman Sachs over the period of his 10-year employment there, when the growing rift between his personal values and those emerging at his company started affecting him negatively. Read http://nyti.ms/x4BPoz Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs, to find out how he handled it. So, if you see a trend of an emerging culture, as he did at Goldman, that is going in the opposite direction to your own moral compass, do not fight it, but simply get out and find yourself a more suitable employer. Rather than suffering the fallout of the growing mismatch, Greg should have seen the trend and found himself another place to work that was more in line with his moral values. Waiting this long and then exposing the employer publicly reflects poorly on his own judgment.
5. Employer Blackmail:In the case of one client he was not given the salary he expected at the end of one performance review. Without showing his disappointment and discussing that with his boss at the time of the review this client chose to wait for an opportunity to blackmail his company when, a few moths later, suddenly there was a problem in the workflow that only my client could solve. When his manager approached him to take charge and solve the problem, he promptly responded by demanding that he be given the raise he deserved, without which he would not work on the problem. Considering the options, his company relented and gave him a special bonus to make up for the “lost raise,” to get my client to solve the problem. Soon after that my client lost his favored position with management and was forced to leave the company the following year. Never blackmail your employer! It may work for a while, depending on the situation, but long-term it can only harm your career irreparably.The correct course of action is to confront the adverse situation positively and to resolve it by making a case in your favor. Most people want to avoid confrontation and conflict, but at the same time they are willing to let such conflicts pile up and then resort to taking drastic action—such as “going postal” to get revenge. This often backfires, as it did in this case.

When you are contemplating any action that can be seen as subversive or otherwise counterproductive reflect on it and see how it is going to affect your career long-term. If you are confused or are unsure, consult a professional to seek their advice. Once you take certain actions in your career they are very difficult to reverse.

Good luck!