Today, we’re chatting with Kori Carter of Kori Elizabeth Events (www.korielizabethevents.com) in Boston, MA. Kori has her dream job planning weddings and other special occasions and is featured in my new book, How’d You Score That Gig?.
Alex: Describe some of the day-to-day activities of your job.
Kori: Some of my time is spent marketing my own business, and working with clients to plan and execute events including weddings, corporate events, and special occasions. I am also a sales and event manager for a high-end boutique catering company in Boston. I enjoy working on different projects with multiple clients and aiming toward a specific goal. Event planning is both innovative and creative and logical and planned.
Alex: How did you get your first paid position?
Kori: When I was in second grade I had a lemonade stand – not just any stand but a yellow wooden one with brightly striped curtains. Under my supervision, my friends sold lemonade, cookies, and candy to tourists coming out to the country to pick apples. From that point on, I was always on the hunt for an entrepreneurial challenge.
Alex: What's one piece of advice you'd give to recent college grads that aspire to become event planners?
Kori: The best advice I can give for those wanting to be an event planner is to work for a hotel or catering company as a banquet server or on the wait staff. Catering is the backbone of how an event flows, and the most successful event planners have a strong catering background.
Also, network with people within the planning industry to get your foot in the door, and explore creative options where event planners may be needed, such as historic properties, non-profit groups, academic organizations, design companies, destination management companies, and convention bureaus.
Two new career-expert friends have terrific books out that are great companions to my latest effort, How’d You Score That Gig? Starting out, my fellow Ballantine author Pamela Skillings has written Escape from Corporate America, an extremely detailed and thorough roadmap to assessing if leaving traditional business is the right move for you, and if so, how you can do it without going broke or losing your sanity.
What I appreciate most about Escape from Corporate America is its practicality. A veteran of traditional business herself, Pam understands while the corporate world has its disadvantages, it’s not necessarily easy or realistic to just up and quit. Her book provides a concrete approach to developing an escape plan – for example, how to set goals, determine your timing, and evaluate your financial situation.
Escape from Corporate America presents the reader with various options for discovering a meaningful new career – from fulfilling a creative dream to taking a job that “doesn’t bite” in a nonprofit or startup. It’s chock-full of useful resources and exercises for undertaking a career change, and I was engaged all the way through by the entertaining stories of Pam’s “corporate escape artists” – people who left Corporate America behind and lived to tell the tale. If you’re fed up with your corporate job but aren’t sure where to start to better your plight, this is the perfect book for you.
Next up is Kristen Fischer’s Ramen Noodles, Rent, and Resumes. When Kristen was interviewing me for the career sections of her book, what I remember most was her positive attitude about the time she refers to as “After-College.” This enthusiasm for post-graduate life shines through in her book, which addresses common twenty-something issues such as career, graduate school, living situation, finances, and emotional crises.
Ramen Noodles, Rent, and Resumes portrays a twenty-something life that college seniors can look forward to. With Kristen’s book in hand, you can be sure that you will grow and thrive during this period, and when you do run into one of the inevitable challenges, Kristen has a workable solution you can employ today.
A few months ago, I met Lia, a woman who has done what I think is a very sensible thing with her career – fulfilling her desire to make a difference in the world in the context of working for a large company – so I thought I’d share her story here.
When Lia chose to transition from the non-profit to the corporate sector, she wanted to continue to be actively involved in the philanthropic causes she had passion for. Beginning in college, Lia had directed and produced three large charity fashion shows for the Ronald McDonald House, a children's bereavement center, and an organization devoted to raising cultural awareness and ending prejudice.
Taking a job at insurance powerhouse Aetna, Lia was concerned about when she would find time outside of work and commuting to volunteer. But Aetna solved this problem for her, providing employees with opportunities to volunteer either during the work day or as part of company initiatives. While working in the Connecticut sales office, Lia volunteered at two Catholic charity golf events and was the team captain for the Light the Night walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And because Lia now has a more flexible schedule and is able to work from home several times a week, she has been able to start working for her local chapter of Hospice. She visits patients during her lunch hours, or right at the end of the work day.
A sense of social responsibility is of the utmost importance to Lia, and she’s not alone. In attracting and retaining today’s twenty and thirty-somethings, companies like Aetna are wise to support volunteer programs and flexible scheduling to ensure better work/life balance. As for Lia, she has the best of both worlds. She’s able to make a good salary working at a prestigious Fortune 500 while living her dream of philanthropic service.
The lesson? Instead of lamenting how tragic and soulless it is to work in Corporate America, look around you for opportunities to do something meaningful. They might be right in front of you.
At the gym, I was thumbing through a new issue of Time Magazine. One of the articles was about college wait-listing. According to Time, the high school class of 2008, 3.4 million strong, is the largest in American history. As such, getting into a first choice college is a heck of a lot tougher if you had the misfortune of being born in 1990.
The article went on to offer some tips for wait-listed students, such as “don’t send information (or gifts) to the admissions officer that hasn’t been requested” and “With the exception of applying for financial aid, keep your parents out of the process.”
All the strategizing and rule-following in the world, though, won’t change the reality that 70% of wait-listed students won’t get a spot in the freshman class. They will have to re-write their plans for the future, and make do with scenarios they might not consider ideal. This will be a rude awakening for a lot of them, for members of the class of 2008 are also members of the empowered Millennial Generation. They’ve been told their entire lives that they are special, and that success will come their way because they deserve it.
In today’s workplace, boomers and Gen X-ers are up in arms over the Millennials’ sense of entitlement. I happen to like working with these twenty-somethings in most instances, but the volume of SOS calls I get from hand-wringing HR execs doesn’t lie. That’s why I think this wait-listing phenomena might be a blessing in disguise. It’s good for kids to learn early that you can’t always get what you want…in business or in life. But sometimes, you get what you need.
My friend Penelope Trunk has a clever little post to help you determine if you’re actually in line to get a promotion, or if it’s just wishful thinking. Some of it echoes advice I’ve given on this subject, but I think much bears repeating, so here are some highlights of Penelope’s quiz:
1. Are you friends with your boss? The hardest workers don’t get promoted, the most likeable ones do. Here is the big test for you: Did that sentence make you angry? You lose one point. That’s because you are wishing that you did not have to be likable and you are mad that people who work less than you do get promoted ahead of you.
2. Are you working on high-profile projects? Do you work on the project that everyone else wanted? Give yourself a point. Did you say to yourself, “Who knows? I don’t know what everyone else wanted.” You lose a point. How can you get yourself onto good projects if you are not in the middle of the fray finding out what’s available and what’s hot?
3. Are you paid at the high end of the range for your position? Investigate the salary range for your job. Check PayScale. If you’re at the top of the range, give yourself a point. If you’re at the low end, then you were not highly valued to begin with, so getting people to switch their opinion of you is going to be hard. You can do it by asking your boss to get you to the top of the range, and then back up your request by listing all the achievements you’ve made in your new position.
4. Do you work fewer hours than everyone else? If you work fewer hours than everyone around you, your boss and colleagues are probably annoyed. You should not be the hardest worker because that makes you look desperate, but you can’t work the fewest hours either, because then you look like you don’t care. If you find you have a lot of extra time because you’re a total genius and you finish everything early, spend more time networking at the office.
5. Do you feel like you are due a promotion because of your experience? No promotion is set in stone, so you need to constantly campaign for yourself. Do you spend your days focusing on doing your job, or do you do a little extra so you can be considered a star performer?
Want to see if a promotion is coming your way or if you need to go back to the drawing board? Take the full quiz over at Penelope’s blog.
Out of sight, out of mind is one of my least favorite qualities of human nature. I can’t tell you the number of relationships, which I thought were real and lasting, that went bust because I used to see the person every day at school or work and then circumstances changed.
Though I’ve had this happen over and over again, it still disappoints me each time. I know people are busy – blah, blah – but if someone is fond enough of you to want to spend their lunch hour with you five days a week (as an example), you would think they’d be invested enough to send you an occasional e-mail once the lunch dates have ceased. But they usually aren’t. I don’t know if people are just scatterbrained or lazy, or just find it easier to pay attention to someone who has taken my place right in front of them. They don’t do it to be mean or inconsiderate, but it’s annoying none the less.
Obviously, out of sight, out of mind doesn’t bode well for lots of things pertaining to networking and getting others’ cooperation at work. The hard truth is, if you want something from someone, you have to proactively get in that person’s line of sight and stay there. You have to make your needs known and then follow up to make sure they haven’t forgotten about you. You don’t want to take this too far, of course, in trying to contact someone for help who you don’t know very well. Instead of succumbing to stalker networking, practice what I call the 3/6 rule. Contact the person three times in a six week period – once every two weeks – starting with e-mail and graduating to phone. If they don’t get back to you after that, move on. As my grandmother used to say, there will be another bus along in a minute.
Last week, I participated on a T&D Magazine webcast with Bill Byham, the CEO of Development Dimensions International, a leading human resources consulting firm. It got me thinking about a great DDI white paper I saw recently written a white paper on the qualities that predict leadership success. According to DDI, effective leaders:
Since we often talk about differentiating yourself in a crowded market around here, I thought you might like to know that twenty-something branding phenom Dan Schawbel recently launched a new magazine, Personal Branding. As you might guess, the magazine is about establishing a professional and memorable identity in order to drive your career forward, and it provides concrete advice you can use today for leveraging online avenues like blogging, social networking, and multimedia.
I would trust anything Dan has to say about personal branding, because he has done it so expertly. In just a year or so, he has firmly established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the career blogosphere. As a result of the smart way Dan has presented himself in his networking efforts, he’s managed to secure contributions from the likes of Jim Stroud, Guy Kawasaki, and Joel Cheesman. He’s a thriving example of how you don’t have Microsoft’s marketing budget to do personal branding successfully.
Each issue will be sold quarterly as a pdf document in the months of February, May, August and November, and 50% of the proceeds benefit The American Cancer Society. And best of all, you can try before you buy. Check out a sample, and let me know what you think of Dan’s latest effort!
What’s the one time it’s okay to gossip? When you’re looking for a job.
Discussion of your job search should not be reserved for close friends/family or headhunters or official networking events. If you’re looking for work or thinking about looking for work, you shouldn’t hesitate to tell everyone you know the particulars, and encourage those people to talk to the people in their networks. This is because you absolutely never know when you will meet someone, or be introduced to someone, who will be in a position to help you.
Here’s an example. One of my friends recently moved from New York City to Cambridge in the UK as a result of her boyfriend’s job. For her part, she was in need of a senior-level position in a financial services firm. So instead of relying on her resumes and cover letters to make their way across the pond, my friend simply started talking. Turns out one of her good friends from college currently worked with a woman from Cambridge who was well-connected in the financial industry. The college friend was able to set her up for several informational interviews as soon as she arrived in town.
Within three degrees of separation, my friend had a plum job offer in another country. Not too shabby!
I love watching George Carlin specials on HBO. Even after all of these years, his cynical, grumpy-old-man schtick is still funny to me. The other night, I saw an episode in which Carlin commented on how ridiculous it is when you are in mourning, or going through a hard time, and someone says, if there’s anything I can do to help you, please don’t hesitate to ask. “Sure,” says Carlin, “like they really mean that. Like they’ll really be cool with you asking them to come over and clean your house or paint your garage.”
Carlin has a point here. We had a lot of family in town last month, ostensibly to help with the baby. But I noticed that everyone who visited had specific ideas about the best way to assist. For example, I might be eternally grateful if my stepmother-in-law would offer to take a feeding off my hands, but she is nervous around newborns so she’d rather do a Babies R Us run instead.
Most people sincerely want to lend a hand when their loved ones are undergoing stressful periods, but they will do it in their own way (which may not end up being helpful at all) unless explicitly told otherwise. This goes for the office too. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you want your colleagues to assist you, you must ask, and you must be direct about exactly what you want them to do. Sometimes people will still do what they want as opposed to what you need, but if you don’t verbalize your requirements, then you can’t complain when they aren’t met.
Here’s a disclaimer before you start reading this post. I’m not writing it to brag or leave you thinking that I’m the greatest colleague or employee of all time. I’m trying to make a point, so I hope you will look at it in that light.
Now that said, I’ve often been told that I am really great to work with. Some people have gone so far as to tell me that I’m their favorite person in the organization to deal with. They mean it too. And why? It’s not because I’m the smartest, most knowledgeable, most talented, most likeable, or most competent. It’s because I answer their e-mails and return their phone calls within 24 hours of receiving a message.
That’s it. Nothing special, but unique because so many people fail to respond in a timely manner – if at all – when others contact them. Our inboxes and voice mailboxes are flooded with hundreds of messages a day, and people understandably want to prioritize. They answer the inquiries from their boss and other people considered “important,” and they ignore everyone else. If you’re a salesperson or an entry-level staffer in nearly any field, you can almost count on the fact that no one will ever get back to you about anything.
I make it a habit to answer every person who gets in touch with me, even if it’s just to say that they have the wrong person or I’m not interested. This sets me apart, and strengthens my reputation as a team player and a considerate human being. It’s a good idea for you to aim for the same thing, but how can you pull it off without spending all day in Outlook or on the phone? I recommend setting aside an hour each day to return messages. Do not attempt to respond at other times unless the matter is urgent or the requester is your boss or someone on your immediate team. You may find that your productivity actually increases as a result.
Over at Employment Digest, Kit Samuels talks about how you can turn a rejection from a job into a second chance at a future opportunity. Bill suggests that you let go of your anger as soon as possible and e-mail a simple, clean, professional response to the rejection. Don’t let spite or even a shred of sarcasm creep into your message. Among the things you should include:
· Tell the hiring manager, or whoever you spoke with in person, how you truly appreciate the time they took to interview you. Be sure to thank them for this.
· Tell this person that you hope you’ll be kept in mind for any future openings that may arise.
· Wish his/her company the best of luck, and mention something positive that recently happened, like a new acquisition or a rise in sales. Why? It’s a reminder of your strong interest and shows that you’re aware of what’s going on.
Those of you who have read this blog for a while know I am a big fan of never burning bridges. The fact is that interviewing is networking, and even if you don’t get the job the first time, you’ve inevitably met at least one person who might be in a position to help you later on. A candidate who responds professional and courteously to rejection will be remembered, either a few months down the line when another position opens up, or a few years down the line when he or she is working somewhere else and is looking for great talent like you.
In the blogosphere, we love to throw the term “branding” around. Well, I’ve had almost ten years of marketing communications experience, and branding – what it means and how to do it – has been burned into my brain from a young age. I have been very careful that what I write on my blog and my website relates strictly to my brand as a professional, savvy, twenty-something workplace author and consultant. For the most part, this approach has worked. I’m considered a knowledgeable expert and get lots of requests to do speaking engagements and media interviews.
But I’ve noticed that it’s hard to get readers to join me in a conversation. I’ll throw out a question or request for feedback from time to time, and usually, no one will respond. I wonder about the reason for this. I know people are reading my stuff. Are they not commenting because they’re not sure who they’re talking to? Would that change if I allowed them to see, to know, a little more about what drives me, what I fear, and what I think is really important?
In honor of the 120 forthright, talented, and courageous individuals who are profiled in my new book on dream jobs, How’d You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Careers and How to Get Them, I’m pledging to loosen the collar of my branding. In the last episode of my 30/20 Vision radio show and podcast, I took a step in this direction when I talked about the insecurity I felt about my career now that I’ve had a baby. How’d You Score That Gig? has just been released, and in talking to people about it, I want to share the true reason I wrote it (to rip the lid off the elusive careers that everyone wants but thinks are impossible to get and provide instructions for breaking in that are actually useful instead of the frustrating vagueries put forth by other authors) and the critical takeaway point (finding meaningful work is totally possible, but you’ll have to bust your butt to get there).
Successful career change requires a certain type of personality – mainly, someone who is enterprising and persistent. I’d like to think that I have those qualities down. But in my relatively new career as a writer and blogger, I’m learning that authenticity and yes, even a little vulnerability, are assets that can’t be overlooked or faked. I hope that some of you might be willing to help me reach my potential as someone you’d like to have coffee with on a Sunday afternoon.
It’s finally here. My new book, How’d You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Careers and How to Get Them, has just been released! The book starts with a quiz that tells you your job personality – be it an adventurer, creator, data-head, entrepreneur, investigator, networker, or nurturer – and then suggests several unusual and enticing careers you might want to check out. I selected the careers via a survey in which I asked 500 people to tell me about their dream jobs, and then set out to interview individuals in those fields about what it takes to break in and be successful.
I hope you’ll have a look at the book and let me know what you think. Join our Facebook group, write a review on Amazon, or chime into the 30/20 Vision Radio Show tomorrow at 9PM ET. I’d love to hear from you! In the meantime, though, here are some top tips for scoring your dream gig:
1. Learn about yourself. Take time to do a self-assessment of your values, how you like to work, and what you’d be compelled to do even if you never got paid. Research careers and industries that map to your skills and interests. Hit the Internet, set up informational interviews, take relevant coursework, and arrange to go onsite at a company in your chosen field.
2. Don’t be deterred by a lack of experience. In developing a resume and other promotional materials for the field you want to pursue, think about how your current skills and talents apply to the responsibilities you’ll hold in the new job. For example, knowledge of project management, client relations, information technology, and sales will take you far in most types of careers.
3. Ease into a new career one foot at a time. Perhaps this means earning a paycheck at your current job while doing a part-time internship in your new field or taking an adult education class or workshop on the weekend. The only way to find out if you’re passionate about something is to try it – ideally with as little risk as you can manage.
4. Remember that any progress is good progress. Even confident people stay in unsatisfying jobs because they feel safe, and because they’re afraid of making a bad decision. But in the quest to uncover a source of meaningful work, though, your worst enemy is inertia. Make an effort to do one thing, like e-mailing a networking contact or attending an event – that moves you a bit closer to your big picture goal.
Ben Casnocha brought back to life a very cool commencement speech given by David Mahoney at Rutgers University in 1996. Mahoney, then chairman of the Dana Foundation, a brain research organization, provided some compelling tips about why young people should adopt a "Centenarian Strategy" for life.
The central premise is that if you're a young person today, you have a pretty decent shot at living until you are 100 years old. Not only that, thanks to advancements in brain science, you have a decent shot at enjoying an "active fourth quarter" - that is, your 70s, 80s, and 90s won't be about wheelchairs in retirement homes and somebody reminding you what you ate for breakfast, but rather decades in which you'll remain intellectually vibrant and independent. Among the points are:
1. Diversify your career from the very beginning. Stop thinking of jobs in series, one after the other; instead, think of careers in parallel. That might mean engaging in an avocation in music or art while you are nurturing a career in business.
2. Take advantage of your opportunity to wind up a millionaire. The trick is to use the new tools the government is giving you to save, to avoid taxes in your IRAs and 40I (k) accounts, and to invest in broad index funds that are sure to grow. To the centenarian, credit-card living is out, leveraged saving is in.
3. Invest in your family dimension. The wave of the future, in the Centenarian Strategy, is to frame your life in traditional family settings. Do your market research in singlehood, choose for the long term, and then commit to marriage and have kids.
4. Pace yourself: it's a small world and a long life. The centenarian thinks about success differently, with a longer view. He or she measures success in getting to personal satisfaction, which does not always mean getting to the top of the heap.
It’s especially interesting that Mahoney intended these points for his audience of Gen X-ers, and Casnocha feels they are equally relevant to Gen Y-ers today.