The Ultimate
Career Campaign™
Take Charge of Your Career,
Create the Work You Love,
and Earn What You Deserve!™
By Ford R. Myers, M.Ed.
Copyright © 2014, Ford R. Myers and Career Potential, LLC
About the Author
Ford R. Myers is President of Career Potential, LLC. Since 1992, he has been providing professional services in career consulting, executive coaching, assessment and training. After helping thousands of individuals take charge of their careers, create the work they love and earn what they deserve, Mr. Myers drew from his diverse experience to create Career PotentialSM – a powerful new approach to career consulting.
Mr. Myers has served on the staffs of three prominent career management firms – Right Management Consultants, Manchester, and Lee Hecht Harrison, where he was Vice President, Director of Professional Services. In recognition of outstanding business contributions, both Right Management Consultants and Lee Hecht Harrison honored Mr. Myers with professional service awards – including the prestigious President’s Award.
Mr. Myers is the author of The Ultimate Career GuideSM, the only comprehensive manual for career management and job search. Articles and interviews have been featured in such publications as Inc. Magazine, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, CNN-Money, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Crain’s Investment News, The Washington Post, US News & World Report, The Miami Herald, The Baltimore Sun, The Dallas Morning News, and The Seattle Times. In addition, Career PotentialSM publishes a monthly e-newsletter entitled “Your Career Advocate.”
Mr. Myers has conducted presentations at many organizations, including American Society for Training and Development, Society for Human Resource Management, International Society for Performance Improvement, Financial Executives Networking Group, Forty Plus, Princeton University, Harvard University Alumni Association, and Association for Psychological Type. He has also appeared as an industry expert on many television and radio programs, such as NBC-TV, Comcast’s CN8-TV, Fox-TV, Clear Channel Radio Network, Infinity Radio Network, and Bonneville Radio Network.
Mr. Myers’ education includes: a Bachelor's Degree in Communications, and a Master's Degree in Adult and Organization Development. He has studied extensively with The Coaches' Training Institute and National Training Laboratories. Ford is a qualified career consultant for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Strong Interest Inventory, Leadership Effectiveness Analysis, Personal Directions and other assessment tools.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Welcome to The Ultimate Career CampaignSM! 1
Doing Your Job vs. Managing Your Career 2
This E-Book is for You 2
How This System is Different 3
Your Portfolio of Career Tools 3
Common Misconceptions About Career Management 4
The Career PotentialSM Process 4
What This Is ... and What It Isn’t 5
The Power Behind the Process 5
Don’t “Read” this Booklet; “Do” this Booklet!! 6
The Two Basic Stages: Preparation and Implementation 8
Implementation of the Full Search Campaign 9
First: What NOT To Do 10
YOU Should Write the Book on Career Success! 11
Another Myth – “But they’re not hiring!” 12
Getting in the Door: Cover Letters 13
Different Letters for Different Purposes 14
Rules of Thumb for a Well-Written Cover Letter 15
Three Basic Parts of a Cover Letter 15
Sample Cover Letter 16
The Mighty "T-Letter" 17
More Examples of Specific Letters you can Adapt 18-26
Sample Letter in Response to a Newspaper Ad 26
Sample Letter in Response to a Personal Contact’s Job Lead 27
Sample Thank-You Letter with Specific Follow-Up Steps 28
Follow-Up Letter Combined with Another Selling Opportunity 29
The Networking Letter 31
Networking Letter Guidelines 31
Another Way in the Door – Working with Recruiters and Search Firms 32
Fee-Based Placement Agencies 32
Contingency-Fee Recruiters 32
Retained Executive Search Firms 33
You’re In the Door – Now What? 35
Types of Interviews 35
Common Strategies for All Interviews 36
Acing the Interview 37
Questions YOU Should Ask During the Interview Process 44
Interview Wrap-Up 46
Follow-Up Steps After the Interview 46
Sealing the Deal with Testimonials 49
Mid-Stream Recharge 54
Passions and Gifts (Outline) 54
Passions and Gifts (Sample) 55
Compensation Negotiation 56
Negotiating: Twenty-One Rules of the Game 57
Formula for Success 58
What to Say and How to Say It 58
First Round Negotiations – BEFORE the Offer 59
First Round Negotiations – AFTER the Offer 60
Second Round Negotiations 61
What You Need vs. What You Want 61
Example of a Need/Want Chart 62
Everything is Negotiable 62
Establishing the Real Value of an Offer 63
The #1 Most Important Salary Negotiating Tip 64
Evaluating More Than Money 64
Evaluating Competing Offers 65
Evaluating Offers Worksheet 66
On-Going Career Management………………………………………………………………………67
Assimilation into Your New Position 67
The First 90 Days 68
Perpetual Career Management 69
Career Resources 72
Weekly Productivity Tracking Chart 73
Productivity Tracking Chart Example 1 73
Productivity Tracking Chart Example 2 74
List of Great Websites to Assist in Your Career Search 75
Senior Executive Opportunities, $100,000 Plus 75
General Opportunities 75
General Career Support 75
List of Websites with Great Articles 76
Career Consulting Books 77
42 More Great Questions to Ask at the Interview 78
Words To Work By ... 80
Take Charge of Your Career, Create the Work You Love, and Earn What You Deserve!
Introduction
Welcome!
Welcome to The Ultimate Career CampaignSM!
You have taken a very important step in investing in your career by purchasing this “career success manual.”
Let me start by telling you how important this step actually is. What you are about to read, study, and work on should be taught in schools. But it’s not.
We go through 12 years of education, possibly 4 more years of college, and sometimes even 2-4 more years graduate school, and not one day is spent on how to manage your career, find work you truly enjoy, and make sure you’re well compensated for it with money and other rewards. NOT ONE DAY!
Employers should teach this material, too. It’s to every employer’s advantage to make sure that their people are proactively managing their careers, doing work they’re well-suited for, and are equipped to perform at even higher levels. But, of course, they don’t teach these exercises, tools, and strategies either. Not even ONE DAY is spent teaching employees these vital skills!
This career manual shows you all the things that are absolutely necessary to know and should have been taught in school or by your employer – but weren’t.
Once you develop these skills and tools, you will have a powerful advantage at every point in your career. This is not just a manual to help you get your next job (although it will certainly do that); it’s also a resource to help you always get the right job and manage your career in a much more effective way for the rest of your professional life.
Doing Your Job vs. Managing Your Career
For decades, people thought that “doing their job” – and doing it well – was sufficient to ensure long-term career success, plenty of financial reward, and job security well into the future. Here is what that picture looked like:
In this model, managing your career was only a tiny piece of the picture – something that only came into play rarely – when it came time to stop working for a time (in the case of parents wishing to stay home with children, for example), or under extremely unusual circumstances (such as when someone wanted to actually change careers!)
Today, working professionals typically change careers 5-7 times before retirement. You read that correctly – they change careers, not jobs, 5-7 times! Many people are still only equipping themselves to deal with the old reality and are unprepared to navigate in the new reality of career management, which looks more like this diagram:
This E-Book is For You
Maybe you’re in career transition (laid-off, downsized, unemployed, between jobs, or changing industries); perhaps you’re under-employed (not enough challenge, growth, or compensation in your current job); or you might be fully employed, but dissatisfied (wondering if there’s something better for you elsewhere, or concerned that you made some wrong career choices).
Whichever situation you find yourself in, there are proven steps you can take to maximize your opportunities, and get the most from your chosen career. I believe that with the proper knowledge and support, you can make your career anything you want it to be. That’s what this Guide is all about.
How This System is Different
A lot of career books include some practical how-to information. This Campaign guide – and the other ebooks in this series, including the full 5-part career self-study system of The Ultimate Career GuideSM (http://www.ultimatecareerguide.com) is 100% full of practical how-to information!
In fact, this e-book contains a complete “career campaign in a box.”
And it’s loaded with tools, resources, checklists, forms, examples, templates, and tips that will help you land a better job for more money – a position that’s a better fit with your particular skills, interests, personality, and goals. After all, that’s the whole point of a successful job search campaign, right?
That’s the good news. The bad news is that you, and you alone, are responsible for your career success. We can adapt the old Oldsmobile commercial tagline, “This is not your father’s career.” Times have changed! Your boss is not going to manage your career; the company is not going to manage your career; and the Human Resources Department is not going to manage your career. If you don’t do it, no one will!
Your Portfolio of Career Tools
An integral part of this proactive career management process is the development and maintenance of an exceptional portfolio of career tools, which should be maintained at all times.
If you already own The Ultimate Career ToolkitSM, then your portfolio of tools may already be complete. If not, I strongly recommend you work with a professional career consultant (or purchase The Ultimate Career ToolkitSM) so that you will be completely prepared and “fully armed” with the right tools to make the campaign we are about to embark on as effective, quick, and easy as possible!
If you thought you only needed career tools when you were out of work, you’ve been misinformed (but you’re not alone)! You should always be prepared for a career transition, whether you’re currently looking for a new opportunity or not. This is all part of managing your career in a responsible and intelligent manner.
Common Misconceptions About Career Management
Let me share with you some other common misconceptions about career management from my 15 years of experience helping people just like you:
1. The most qualified candidate gets the job offer.
2. As long as I have a job, I don’t have to work on my career.
3. My professional education stopped when I graduated from school.
4. Employers always offer the most generous compensation they can afford.
5. If I just do a good job, my position will be secure.
6. My resume is the only document I need to search for a job.
7. Recruiters will find me a job, so I don't have to search for jobs myself.
8. Employers are responsible for managing my career path.
9. Networking is for entrepreneurs and jobseekers – I don’t need to network now.
10. Most good jobs are listed on Internet job sites and in newspapers so they’re easy to identify.
So, if all these commonly held beliefs are untrue, what are you, the proactive and conscientious career manager, supposed to do? How do you start working on something you might not even have been aware needed work until this moment?
The answer is: READ THIS E-BOOK. I’ve made every effort in these pages to explode the kinds of “career myths” outlined above, and to provide you with real-world, hard-hitting, practical tips and techniques to successfully change careers, move-up in your organization or get a new job!
The Career PotentialSM Process
You might be asking, “Where did all this material come from, and why should I buy into it?” After working at three of the nation’s largest career consulting companies for almost 15 years, I saw the need for a new approach – an approach that would combine the methods and resources of large outplacement firms with the personal attention and flexibility of small career counseling practices.
This new concept became my successful career consulting firm, Career PotentialSM. We provide an innovative, efficient consulting process that produces outstanding career results.
This self-study program is based on my experience helping thousands of individuals successfully navigate our unique Career PotentialSM consulting process!
What This Is ... and What It Isn’t
As I said above, this manual is a hands-on, step-by-step, example-rich guide to launching a professional-grade career campaign that will help you take charge of your career, create the work you love, and earn what you deserve!
The truth is I’d love to be able to sit down with you and talk one-on-one about your specific career experiences, goals, challenges, and opportunities. And then we could work together on your career campaign – covering everything from networking to interviewing to negotiating your compensation and everything in between.
But I couldn’t possibly work with each individual person that needs solid, proven career advice. So I systematized everything I know, do, and say with my clients in a 1-on-1 situation into this program material that you’re reading now!
The Power Behind the Process
After I’ve been working with a client for a while and they’ve gotten deeply into the campaign stages of the process, they invariably tell me that developing their career skills and tools is NOT just about creating attractive, well-written documents! In an “ah ha moment,” they realize that this process generates a sort of internal transformation!
I’ve seen it hundreds of times. The client “suddenly” discovers a sense of confidence, control and self-esteem.
But that’s not all. They also realize that they have focus, clarity and direction about their career path – often for the first time in their lives!
The responsibility and power of developing this mindset (and experiencing your own “transformation”) is now in your hands.
Of course, you could just flip through the pages of this book and skim it, but that’s unlikely to generate the results you want.
Only action creates results.
So DIG IN to this material.
Absorb all of it fully.
Actually write-out and explore each exercise.
Don’t “Read” This Booklet; “Do” This Booklet!!
First of all, if you’re reading this manual on your computer screen – STOP!!!
Right now, I want you to PRINT THIS OUT. That’s right – print it out in hardcopy so you can WORK it, FEEL it, WRITE on it and make it truly your own.
Complete each checklist, form, and activity. Dog-ear the pages, write in the margins, get out your highlighter!
The more actively you engage in working through this material, the quicker your toolkit will be developed, and the better your results will be!