Advice

Promoting Professional Geekery #46 – Find Your Coaching Specialty

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(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)

So you want to help people out in their careers – from a progeeky point of view – you can always coach them.  After all, people are glad to have someone provide their expertise to help them out in their careers – and even more so when it’s a fellow geek.

Of course, what good can you do as a coach?  I mean where do you start?

It’s simple, you figure out two things.

1) What you should coach on.

Are you an expert at the job search (like I mentioned earlier)?  Good with resumes?  Excellent at finding career paths for people?  There’s clearly something you’re good at – and like to coach on.

So find it.

Look you probably can’t coach on everything, and even if you could, you’d be better at some things than others.  So find your specialty.

Also, you don’t always want to coach on some things.  Maybe you’re awesome at cover letters but hate discussing them.  Fine, find something else so your attempts to help people don’t drive you nuts.

You can always branch out later if you’re underestimating yourself.

2) How you communicate best with people you’re coaching

So you know what you’re coaching on – but how do you communicate it best?  What are your personal, technical, and methodological preferences?

Perhaps you’re good at one-on-one.  Maybe you like to help in groups.  Maybe you work best by email.  You may have physical, locational, or financial limits or advantages to use.

So find how you can communicate with people best, and find a way to use your coaching skills via that method – or methods.

Really, that’s it.  Just find what you’re good at, how you communicate it, and go for it.  We’ve got enough progeeks and potential progeeks out there that need career help, and what you do will make a difference.

Hey you may even want to do it via blogging, which sounds kind of familiar . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

Steve’s Job Search 2012: Miscellaneous Findings

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Whew, well that was weeks of posts on what I found in the job search.  It’s just about over, but now that we’re done with what I found in general, I want to share a few miscellaneous findings and discoveries that don’t warrant full entries.

  • There are openings at least in some areas.  A lot of recruiters I talked to were very busy.  In fact . . .
  • There isn’t enough talent available for some jobs.  Yes, there are more jobs going unfilled (again in some businesses and locations) than you may realize.
  • HR and Recruiting is at times its own worst enemy because of speed.  People who really want jobs, and want them fast, don’t have time for slow recruiting processes.  No small amount of recruiters I talked to kept loosing people just due to the speed factor.
  • Job boards (and even job news) is not always a good measure of a company or industry’s staffing needs.  Sometimes that’s kept very quiet.
  • Odds are unless you’re a serious careerist, your job search skills are sub-par for this market at this time.  It’s so odd, unusual, and requires a lot of media savvy.
  • People who are very good at the job search probably set an unnaturally high standard for those in recruiting.  Someone who can make a killer resume, cover letter, portfolio, charm everyone at all interviews, and pass a test is awesome – but really how many people who are truly talented can do all that perfectly?  I think the ability to pimp out your job search materials and so forth has set unrealistic expectations.
  • Still, I think a lot of people are just plain lousy at the job search.  I think a lack of empathy is a big part of it – they just don’t realize how they come off.
  • More and more contracting places seem to offer benefits.  Some contract companies are doing what was big in the late 90’s – essentially treating contract staff as full-time employees.  That could be a good sign.
  • If you’re willing to take a longer commute, it may be an advantage.
  • Speaking of commutes, know the transport system of your target area(s) really well.  It may help you not only get to work, but shows awareness in interviews.
  • Everyone knows the job search is insane.  Everyone.  No one is sure what to do about it as a whole, but everyone knows it makes no sense.

So I wish you luck in your job search – and let me know if there’s any lessons you learn.  You can blog about them here!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/