Answer:
Good for you. I applaud you for taking charge of your career and being proactive. A mentoring relationship can be rewarding and provide a lot of benefits to the protégé, and the mentor, for that matter. It can also be a lot of hard work.

To ensure that you get out of the mentoring relationship what you want, I suggest that you first determine what you want out of the relationship and set specific goals and expectations. Make sure you discuss your expectations with your potential mentor to see if it is a good fit or not.

Talk with several individuals before making a decision. It’s okay to shop around and interview folks. This is about YOU. You want to be sure you are working with someone whom you can trust and with whom you are comfortable. Your mentor doesn’t need to necessarily be someone older and wiser–a mentor can also be someone who is your peer or a few steps ahead of you in your career.

Another suggestion for developing a successful mentoring relationship is to be sure that your clearly state your expectations. You want to be sure they are clear about what they can offer you in addition to establishing time and other parameters.

Trust and respect for each other are also critical elements in establishing a successful mentoring relationship. Therefore, it is important for you and your mentor to share your values and beliefs early. It is important for both of you to reveal just enough about yourselves to increase intimacy, without being too forward. Discuss this with your mentor and be sure that you are both in agreement.

Let your mentor know how you would like to communicate, both giving and receiving information. Find out how they like to give information and feedback. Then, determine if that is the best way for you. Also, determine the frequency of your conversations.

In the hectic world that we live in today, finding time for this type of relationship can be difficult. Be sure that both of you are willing to make the time commitment on a regular basis. Make regular appointments to meet; be prompt and committed. I personally think the more frequently you can meet, especially early on, the better and stronger your relationship will become.

And finally, commit to each other that you will discuss the relationship periodically. Revisit it on a regular basis to be sure that both of your needs are still being met. If they are, then continue to move ahead. If not, discuss other options and perhaps other mentor possibilities. It is guaranteed that the mentor doesn’t want to work with a protégé if the protégé doesn’t want to work with them.

Good luck and let me know when YOU become a mentor for someone.

Published by Marshall Brown, “The Career Coach Is In” for the Washington Post.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/on-success/career-coach/

“Career Success Toolkit” Teleseries:
The Ultimate Unfair Competitive Advantage to Open Doors & Get the Job You WANT!
Coming September 22, 2010 to a telephone near you:
http://www.mbrownassociates.com/toolkit/index.html

In today’s job market, resumes have become PURE MARKETING. If your resume is to open doors for you—within 10 seconds of landing on an employer’s desk—your resume MUST sell your value, what you can offer, and what your unique value offer is.

->COMING TO A TELEPHONE NEAR YOU ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2010<-

The Career Success Toolkit Teleseries

In this teleseries you will learn:

· Secrets to creating a powerful resume that gets you noticed and opens doors
· How to create compelling cover letters and marketing letters that GRAB attention
· The best job search strategies for you, including how to assemble your own job search plan
· How to network like a pro, including how to develop a great 30-second commercial
· How to ace any interview, get the job offer, and negotiate for perks and more money
· The Top 10 strategies for ongoing career success…how to make it to the top and stay there

The “Career Success Toolkit” Teleseries is a rare chance for you to learn insider secrets, avoid making common mistakes, AND have fun! 

I will show you how to get to the front of the Help Wanted  line and get the job!

Click here to learn more!

Marshall

Maybe it’s you? A friend? An out-of-work colleague?

Getting Hired Is No Accident – Develop Your Job Search Strategy and Win the Job You’ve Always Wanted. You will learn how!

The Teleseries starts September 22, 2010 with career expert and Certified Career Coach Marshall Brown.  Don’t miss this unique opportunity to invest in your career success!

Read more about this important program here:
http://www.mbrownassociates.com/toolkit/index.html

Imagine…

• knowing how to write an amazing resume that knocks an employer’s socks off!
• knowing the right words to convince employers to hire you on the spot
• understanding how to launch a job search campaign that will actually work – no more missed opportunities, wasted effort, or wasted time
• getting expert guidance and coaching on the powerful strategies that will accelerate your career

Getting Hired Is No Accident!

The “Career Success Toolkit” Teleseries is a rare chance for you to learn insider secrets, avoid making common mistakes, AND have fun… all under the attentive eye of top career expert and Certified Career Coach Marshall Brown who is dedicated to your success.

Click here to learn more about this program.

Many of us focus on what we want to have and not on saying “thanks” for what we have already. And for many people, especially those who have been laid off, it’s difficult to focus on their accomplishments, the successes they have had and what they can be thankful for.

Each summer, I spend a few weeks off to reflect on how I want my business to grow over the next year, some possibilities for my life and to envision what I would like to experience over the coming months. This year, however, I decided to focus more on what and whom I have experienced over the past year.

Here are a few things I am grateful for:

1. I have the ability to breathe, walk, hear, see and touch on my own.
2. I have been blessed with a loving family and supportive friends.
3. I have clients that I enjoy working with.
4. I love partnering with my clients for their successes.
5. I have a career and business that I am passionate about.

I would encourage you to think about what you are grateful for. It might change your perspective on what you already have. By no means am I saying NOT to focus on the possibilities. I am all about possibilities. I am suggesting that we focus on things for which we are grateful and all the possibilities that we have in life. Just as I have suggested putting your vision and purpose out into the universe, don’t forget about putting out also what the universe has already given you.
Please share some of the things you are grateful for with me.

Marshall

Original post from “The Career Coach Is In” from The Washington Post.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/on-success/career-coach/

Read other articles here:
http://www.mbrownassociates.com/articles.html

The peak of job search activity normally starts in September, right after Labor Day weekend. Despite the economic climate there are job opportunities out there. Now is the time to get ready!

No matter how impressive your education, experience and skills are, they will not land you the job if you can’t get in the door. A high quality resume gets you a job interview.

Take advantage of these resume services before September 14th and receive

Remember, your resume is your #1 marketing tool!

Federal resume services are also available. Please contact us for details.

We also offer resume evaluation, critique and assistance with developing a job search strategy in our Get Clarity Career Coaching Programs™.

Click here  to read more in depth details about these programs.

ANSWER:
Good for you for taking charge of your career and not waiting for your employer to tell you what to do. Most managers don’t have the time to do that. I really commend you for being proactive and wanting to show the company that you are a valuable asset to them and want to develop yourself as well.

Here’s one idea that I use a lot with my clients. Some of this is adapted from the work of George Johnson and Jeff Staggs, authors of “The 7 Entrepreneurial Skills”.

1. Why not survey the company and come up with a vision of what you can do to make the company better? Determine where in the company a problem might exist, a new challenge or something that you may have an interest in improving. Stumped? Ask yourself these simple questions to start the ball (and your mind) rolling:

• What current projects are being worked on?
• What are the company’s values?
• What are the unmet needs of the company?
• What are other like companies working on?

2. After assessing the needs of your company, start brainstorming ideas for a new vision or project. Don’t limit yourself. Think outside the box and ignore all those “I can’t do that” voices.

3. Develop an outline of the steps you would take to implement the idea. Ask yourself:

• What need will this project or vision fulfill?
• What is the niche this project will be filling?
• Who might you partner with on this project?
• What is the suggested time frame for this project?
• How will this idea be funded?

4. Get feedback. If you are able, ask your peers, your manager or your own staff for their feedback on your idea. Be sure you go to folks whom you can trust and with whom you feel comfortable sharing your idea. Listen to what they have to say and make changes if necessary.

5. Present your idea to management. Recap what you have done, including the assessment, your idea and a rough outline of the plan. Be open to a discussion on how to make it even better. Keep in mind that you are going to them with an idea. It might work, it might not. But you have done something that hopefully will help the company to move forward. What decision maker, president, CEO wouldn’t want that?

I also encourage those of you who have ideas or examples of what you’ve done to advance in their company to send them to me and I will post them on this blog.  (You can be anonymous if you want.)

This is all about positioning yourself as a leader and a leader takes charge of his or her career. They create a vision, develop a plan to make it happen and then implement it. It’s now your turn to step up and become a leader in your company. Good luck and let me know how you do!

Original post from “The Career Coach Is In” from The Washington Post.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/on-success/career-coach/

Read other articles here:
http://www.mbrownassociates.com/articles.html

“Whether someone is in the midst of a job search now, “between successes,” or considering a career change in the future, I hope each person will gain invaluable resources from reading this blog,” Brown explained.

The subscribers of “The Career Coach Is In” have expressed their excitement in corresponding with Brown and have made it quite clear that they are hungry for insight to their burning questions on interviewing, resumes, networking, and the overall job search.  Brown plans to offer just that–specific solutions and details on these topics and others.

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was 6.8 million,” Brown declared. “These people can use all the advice and resources they can get, and I plan to give them all I can.”

Brown is a certified career and executive coach, an entrepreneur coach, and a personal brand strategist. He is also the past board president of the Washington, DC Chapters of both the International Coach Federation and the Association of Career Professionals International.

Brown also publishes his own monthly e-newsletter called “It’s All About You!” He also writes a monthly career column for Association Trends called “Ask the Coach,” and has published articles in leading association management magazines and newsletters.

As an industry expert, his speaking engagements have attracted hundreds of association and business professionals from across the country. He can be seen on Business Week Online regarding the benefits of hiring a business/executive coach.

 “Those who are looking for unbiased, professional advice on changing careers, managing the job search as a project, or have just been laid off will definitely want to subscribe to ‘The Career Coach Is In’ to get in on the conversation,” Brown says.

For more information about Brown’s programs, visit www.mbrownassociates.com

The e-resume

You first want to be able to develop and transmit effectively an electronic or Internet resume. Let’s begin be looking at the distinctions between the 2:
An electronic resume organizes and presents your qualifications in the order the computer wants them to appear. The information is stored in a database and typically will be searched by keywords. Therefore, you want to be sure you know the popular keywords and how to use them.

An Internet resume is typically sent as either an e-mail message (embedded) or as an attachment. (I have been told by numerous hiring managers that more and more prefer the resume embedded vs. attached due to “virus” possibilities when sending.) It is important to keep in mind that an Internet resume most likely will not transmit in the same format in which you send it.

Don’t just convert your “paper” resume and send it as an Internet one. It won’t convert bold lettering, italics, bullets, etc. The resume usually will print out in the font the recipient uses, not the font on your computer.

Regardless of which resume you use, I suggest simple fonts, such as Helvetica, Courier Sans Serif or Times, and size 10 or 12 point. And forget all the glitzy graphic techniques that your paper resume might have. Scanners and databases won’t be able to pick these up and most likely will not properly present your resume information.

I also suggest, when possible, follow up with a paper version of your resume via snail mail for 2 reasons:

Read more of this article here:

http://www.mbrownassociates.com/howtoemail.html

But how well does it work? And how hard is it to measure?

In recent years, there have been a couple of detailed, well-documented studies that put the ROI of major coaching engagements within Fortune 500 companies between 600% and 700%, depending upon how improved retention was calculated.

But studies of this precision—funded by the corporate clients—are generally too costly to be meaningful as a sustained way of assessing the business benefits of coaching even at the level of large corporations.

Moreover, the issue of the benefits of coaching is, if anything, even more relevant to small business. For many firms considering hiring a coach, the notion of funding a major study to assess the results is laughable, yet it is critical that they be able to associate the benefits they are deriving from their investment in coaching.

To a certain extent, the challenge of measuring the benefits of coaching depends upon why the coach has been engaged in the first place. In some cases, the goal of a coaching engagement can be fairly easy to quantify—improving meeting management skills, for example. You can measure how many meetings start on time, how many end on time and survey meeting attendees for their evaluation of the effectiveness of the meeting. With a little imagination, such measures could be converted to hard dollar savings or productivity increases and an actual ROI developed.

Often, however, the connection between the behavior and the result isn’t so clear.

Click here to read more of this article.