At Crossroads Utrecht community every talent is needed, can be immediately used and more than welcome to support the growth of this new church plant.

If you are curious to find out which talents YOU have been given and how you can best use them to serve the community of Utrecht then this workshop is for you:

“Discover your God Given Gifts to serve your community”

 In this interactive, hands on and insightful half day workshop you will (re)discover your unique talents and how you can translate these talents into specific services for Crossroads Utrecht. At the end of the workshop you will find answers to questions such as:

• What are my natural talents and gifts?
• What activities are energy boosters for you?
• How can you apply them in your community to help the community grow and reach out.

When:

Saturday 12^th May 2012 from 10:00 – 14:00

Where:

Myself At Work office and training location, Sint Annahof 9, 3764 BA Soest

Max. participants:  6 people

Registration: If you want to sign up, please shoot a mail to chiyeun@myselfatwork.nl. Be on time with signing up, as it is: First come, first serve!

Costs:

This course is for free. Any contributions for the course can be made as donations to the Crossroads Utrecht community.

Information about Crossroads Utrecht

Happy to announce that Myself At Work is leading sponsor at ESN International Congress: “Brand Yourself” and will be giving two career workshop rounds

Preparing for your career? Always wanted to know how to do the best job interview? Or have the most impressive CV?

Learn how to brand yourself at the ESN International Congress!

This day will be all about how to develop yourself into the employee every company wants to hire!

There will be workshops on formal flirting, social media branding, and many more. Keep an eye on the event to keep track of the developments.

Date: Thursday, 10th May 2012

Time: 10:00 – 16:00

Where: Plaza Danza, Boterdiep 20a, 9712 LN Groningen, Netherlands

More information: http://www.esn-groningen.nl/content/workshops-speakers

“Je hebt een dal nodig om een berg te bereiken, en het uitzicht is op beide plekken mooi.”

“To reach the mountain you need to go through the valley. The view is as beautiful from both spots.”

One of the most crucial elements when you are in the job searching process is to have an elevator pitch. YOUR elevator pitch. Why is that? People need to know who you are, what you are good at and what kind of job you are looking for. It is the most crucial part and the starting point of networking for a job.

As crucial as it is as much dreaded the elevator pitch is. People feel like they have to sell themselves. They think they have to  pretend to be someone they are actually not. Naturally, the elevator pitch comes over stiff, unnatural or as a poem you had to learn by heart as homework. (Just to get it over with asap). Or, worst of all, it is being avoided at all.

Do you recognize these “elevator pitch dreading symptoms”? Let me share with you seven mind switches that will help you to actually love to give your elevator pitch.

The crux is to turn around the wheel: You are not s e l l i n g yourself. Rather think that you are spreading your elevator pitch because:

1. You want to serve the other with your expertise
2. You want to help that person who needs your specific skill set, that only you possess
3. You want to do a big favour by sharing and offering your resources
4. You want to contribute to someone’s success
5. You want to be the solution to a company’s problem
6. You want to be generous and sharing and let your environment benefit from your special value. 
7. And most importantly: If you are not sharing your elevator pitch you are actually mean and selfish:You are withholding something very valuable from your environment, your unique value.

Does that sound too exaggerated in your ears? Perhaps, but that does not matter in this case. As long as it helps you spread your elevator pitch in an enthousiastic and sparkling way!

© 2011 Chi-Yeun Gulickx-Lee

A lot of my clients are not satisfied with their job.They feel this itch, this urge  to move forward. But where to? What should be the next step? Not so much to make promotion but to do a job that is aligned with who they truly are. Where they can experience an overlap between their interests, talents and their daily job activities.

When asking them if they had a clue about what that ideal job might be, you can count on the initial reaction “No idea”. Pause.  Followed by a hesitating: “Well, I might be interested though in…” Then they come up with long dreamt wishes, ideas about what they would love to do for their living.

The funny thing is that people actually DO know their dreams, before they even ask for help. But your self-knowledge about your own core qualities and passions can be buried deep inside you.  – I am not counting those lucky few individuals who have and live their childhood dream. –

The crux is that before moving on with your career you got to know yourself. Discover, explore and inventorize yourself. You can compare it to the process of making a dish; unless you know what ingredients you need for it, you will not be able to prepare it.

Why is it important? It is crucial because only if you know what your unique value is you will, firstly, be able to find your ideal job that is aligned with who you are. Secondly, you will clearly distinguish yourself yourself in the jobmarket.

If you want to gain more self insight in order to define your ideal job, then these 5 tips will help you to (re)discover your talents:

1.    Remember what you most enjoyed doing when you were a kid
We all have a blueprint of inherent talents. Back when you were a kid you lived and played them spontaneously. Dig it up! If you can’t remember yourself, ask your family if they can. Take out old photos and see which activities made you happy or made you laugh. Were you the leader of the Indian tribe,  creator of new games or instructor for the new tree hut? Write down those attributes. They reveal your talents.

2.    Consult  your friends, family or colleagues  what they think you can do much better than anyone else. Most likely you will be surprised by their response because you think that is so natural to do. But it is not. It is one of your core qualities.

3.    Identify the activity where you most have the feeling that time is flying.
“Time is flying when you have fun”. Identify what you are exactly doing (or not doing) in that time flying activity and what the circumstances are. When having fun, you obviously enjoy what you are doing. You would not mind doing it for another hour. Bet that is does say something about your intrinsic interest. Write that down as well.

4.    Visualize you  won the lottery
You could do whatever you wanted to do without having to worry about the financials.  Got the picture? Can you imagine that situation? Too good to be true? Yes, probably. Write down how you would fill the day, where you are, what you do, with what kind of people you are surrounded by, etc.  Just brainstorm and pencil down the words and activities that pop up. They reveal what you enjoy doing the most, where you are most at ease, about your wishes and dreams.

5.    Who are the people (politicians, celebrities, artists, people you know personally) that you get most inspired by?
… And more importantly WHY? What do these people stand for? What makes them famous? Do you identify with them or do you want to learn something from them? This will reveal your own values and potentially what you find important in life.

A combination of these elements can give you an idea of what your ideal job might look like. It’s not a formula, of course. But it does bring you closer to what makes you tick and gets you going – effortlessly and with passion.

© 2011 Chi-Yeun Gulickx-Lee

I have stopped counting them anymore – those hilarious and frustrating moments when people try to repeat or spell my name (see the picture). No one can articulate it in one go! Can you?!

The bottomline of what I have learnt about my name drama is based on the good old (but ever so true) cliche of that famous glass that’s either half empty or half full. Go for “half empty”, this is an inhuman tongue twister. Go for “half full”, I can appreciate the  exotic swing that brings an international flair to my name.  

The thing is that we tend to complain about our shortcomings. Though, if we allow ourselves to look at them from a different angle it could actually be our unique selling point. That what makes you special, stand out from the crowd and differentiates you from others.  

Everyone is born to shine and that light can be hidden in the most various areas of your personality. Even where you would least expect to find it.

Take a closer look at your own shortcomings (or rather, what you believe to be your shortcomings):

• Is it true that your shyness is a weakness? Or isn’t it your strength to be modest?
• Is your nitpickiness actually based on the fact you being a very thorough person?
• Is your impatience actually a sign of you being energetic (sometimes just a bit too much)
• Is your lack of attention for detail because you are a strategic, visionary thinker?

Challenge yourselve to get to the core value of your imperfections, turn them around to make them one of THE special things about you. That what  makes you unique. It can be either a clue or a mere initial inspiration in your process to build your own brand but it can be a crucial starting point.

Have fun discovering yourself from that different angle. And if you love the 70ies music as I do, you might find some inspiration in this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.