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Please do not submit your career questions to this AskBLOG.
Feel free to read the 2007 WIN! Ask BLOG Q&A Archives, below.
Dear Dr. Arlene,
I tried to answer your questions and realized that I picked sales because this is what my dad does. I need to figure out what I want to do. What do you suggest?
Searching for Sales
Figuring out the career you should pursue requires guided soul searching. I think that you should read WIN Without Competing! and pay particular attention to Chapter 4: Your Core Identity: Know Thyself Now. After you determine your Right Fit career, then you can implement the Right Fit Method to capture your first Right Fit position. Be patient and don’t accept any job. Search for the Right Fit. You can achieve your dream job using my Right Fit Method.
REMEMBER:
Away we go!
Dr. Arlene
The September issue of the free, WIN Without Competing! Newsletter will be online by 8:00 PM pacific time, Tuesday, September 4. After that, I will take a Newsletter break to pitch WIN Without Competing!.
Visit the WIN Without Competing! website today to read three exciting Excerpts from the book as well as the Newsletters.
Dear Dr. Arlene,
I recently finished getting a college degree. I like the concept of criteria, but I’m not sure how to apply it. I decided to go into sales. Could you give me examples of criteria that I could use to help me figure out what is the Right Fit first job?
Searching for Sales
Your first position is important. You do not want to hop from job to job. Carefully craft your responses, and I will develop the criteria to help you capture your first position.
REMEMBER:
Away we go!
The August issue of the free, monthly WIN Without Competing! Newsletter is online now. Visit the WIN Without Competing! website today to read the newsletter and three exciting excerpts from WIN Without Competing!, and obtain a blogging username and password.
Dear Dr. Arlene,
I am an HR Director and have great difficulty Managing the Process when I talk with my CEO. We have about 100 employees and growing. He wants to hire on gut instinct, and I am trying to find the Right Fit. I read the Foreword to your book and the concepts of the Right Fit Method impressed me. I can’t wait to read WIN Without Competing!. Suggestions?
Frustrated
I think that you need to elaborate on the benefits of hiring the Right Fit. Approach it from a monetary perspective, showing how much money the company will save if they hire the Right Fit the first time. It’s not uncommon for companies to hire the Wrong Fit more than once for the same position until they find the Right Fit.Hiring Wrong Fits is costly. Strategize! Do the math for your company and present the savings. Impress the CEO with your analysis and Manage the Process to hire Right Fits.
REMEMBER:
Away we go!
Visit the WIN Without Competing! website today to obtain a blogging username and password.
Bloggers: Be sure to read Marriage Bound’s original Q&A under the July 20th posting
Dear Dr. Arlene,
I did it! I popped the question. He said, “yes” and we will be married in June. Thanks for teaching me how to Manage the Process.
Definitely Marriage Bound
Dear Definitely Marriage Bound,
I’m glad that my Right Fit Method worked for you. Continue to Manage the Process to win.
REMEMBER:
Away we go!
Dr. Arlene
Visit the WIN Without Competing! website today to obtain a blogging username and password.
Dear Dr. Arlene,
I was recently fired from my job because I played solitaire online regularly instead of working. I am preparing to go out on interviews to seek another accounting position. How should I explain my unemployment?
Sorry
When you are asked why you are unemployed, I think that you should be honest. You will need to reassure the employer that you will focus on business instead of amusing yourself. An astute interviewer will ask you if you enjoy what you do. I think that you should figure out whether the position you are seeking is the Right Fit for you. It sounds as if you are bored.Managing the interview process is not the real issue. Figure out what is.
REMEMBER:
Away we go!
Dr. Arlene
Visit the WIN Without Competing! website today to get your blogging username and password.
Bloggers: Be sure to read Jan’s original Q&As under the June 8th and June 15th postings
Dear Dr. Arlene,
It’s interesting to look back to the first time I blogged WIN! just a few weeks ago to see how I’ve changed. From being reactive, I’m now seeing myself as a self-employed entrepreneur determined to–yes–recreate myself to manage the entrepreneurial process in an orderly, expansive and imaginative way. But questions remain!
Two weeks ago, I was voted Freelance Journalist of the Year in the specialist journalists’ association awards. Lovely–but how to make the most of this opportunity to take myself to a new level (both income and acceptance/prestige)? I need to recognise different elements of my work schedule and their value to me in order to create slightly different goals.
There are issues that I’m passionate about (thanks for giving me permission to use this word) and here, together with the normal newspaper and magazine work, it’s probably business as usual–though with a more sensitive approach to making my pitches fit the demands of commissioning editors more perfectly.
Also, to get a financially sound and balanced life, I think must also formalise expansion into other fields:
* PR, for instance, deliberately seeking work in particular areas where I have contacts or an expression of interest. Can I/should I use my writing award to promote myself?
* NEW areas: moving away from my long-term specialist field–writing, for instance, about winning without competing. How do I make myself a perfect fit in new areas?
Yours as ever, urgently seeking signposts,
Jan the journo from London, UK
Congratulations on your award: Freelance Journalist of the Year! You should feel empowered. Use the recognition of your journalistic excellence to become a “name brand” in other fields.
Create a written pitch in which you broadcast your technical and interpersonal skills, which can make you a “name brand” journalist in any field. Focus on the skills, not the field. Perfect and practice the written pitch to overcome objections. Then proceed.
Never say that you have no experience in a particular field. Only focus on the skills and Manage the Process with the commissioning editors to steer them away from the lack of experience in that field. Highlight your award to support your strong skills. Read about Laurie. I coached her to become the dean of a school, a position she holds today with a faculty of about 40. Laurie pitched herself to stardom with almost no managerial experience. The keys to success are packaging yourself to pitch and managing the process.
Remember, you want to set the standard to WIN!. You must intrigue the commissioned editors and give them the courage to step out of their comfort zone and take a chance on a new brand . . . award-winning journalist entering a new field. If you make them feel good about themselves, they will feel good about you. After all, you will make them look good. You will be their new star!
Before embarking on pitching yourself, determine the field or fields you want to pursue. For example, business with a focus on careers. Or you may prefer a broader business perspective. I suggest not taking on more than two new fields at once, keeping healthcare until you have a strong foothold in another field. Keeping your passions in mind, list the fields. Weight the importance of each, including healthcare. The sum total of all weights should be 100%.
Right now, you are a “name brand” as a healthcare journalist. Maintain that visibility. Visualize yourself as a juggler, an entrepreneurial hallmark. Just be sure to juggle those balls to achieve the goals established in your weighting scheme. It’s up to you to Manage the Process.
REMEMBER:
Away we go!
Dr. Arlene
Visit the WIN Without Competing! website today to obtain a blogging username and password.
Dear Dr. Arlene:
I read “The Imprisoned Candidate” and your newsletter. I realize that I kick myself regularly but, until now, I did not understand why. My career is going well but I need to fix my personal life. I am 48, divorced, with three grown children. For nine years I have been dating a man that I want to marry. I’ve hinted about marriage but he says nothing. Each time I hint, I give myself a little kick because I can’t move him. How should I Manage the Process?
Marriage Bound
Prepare a lovely, romantic dinner and propose. If your gut tells you that he will say “yes,” then you will not have difficulty proposing. If you feel uncertain about his response, perhaps he is not the “Right Fit” for marriage. You then have to decide whether you want to continue the relationship without marriage. Stop kicking and start doing.
REMEMBER:
Away we go!
Dr. Arlene
Dear Dr. Arlene:
I recently accepted a position as a COO. I really wanted a different COO job, but the president of that company could not decide to whom she would offer the position and I was tired of waiting. After I accepted the position I am in now, the president of that other company contacted me and presented the offer. I don’t know what to do.
Perplexed
It appears that you made the erroneous assumption that the president was not going to select you. Did you, prior to accepting the current position, tell her that you had another offer on the table?
It is up to the candidate to convince the employer that he or she is the Right Fit. The fact that the president took so long in making a decision is not a particularly good sign. If the president had a clear understanding of the specs of the Right Fit COO and you matched, she should have told you. You said that she could not decide, which supports that she didn’t know. Some indecision on the part of the employer can, however, be helpful to the candidate, if the candidate knows what to do.
I think you should stay where you are for now. If she really wants you, she will contact you again in the future. Always leave the door open.
REMEMBER:
Away we go!
Dr. Arlene
Bloggers: Be sure to read “Disillusioned’s” earlier Q&As under the June 22nd and June 29th postings.
Dear Dr. Arlene:
I do not have a “prenup agreement” because I was accepting a job at a small company; I didn’t think it was necessary. What do you suggest?
More Disillusioned and Disgusted
I think you should arrange a time to meet with your supervisor. Prior to the meeting, summarize in writing what you had agreed to as far as the base salary and commission structure. Do not prepare a letter. You want the employer to do this.
Discuss and agree upon the commission structure first. I don’t think that you are having difficulty with the salary. Then, bring out another piece of paper on which you have clearly articulated the reimbursed expenses and the unreimbursed expenses. Be very careful not to change the terms that were discussed at the time you were hired. If your employer wants you to stay, then you will succeed in eliciting the “prepnup” after the “nup,” incorporating the terms that were agreed on verbally. If the employer does not want to prepare a letter now, then it’s time to start looking. Do not pack your bags! Find the Right Fit position first.
REMEMBER:
Away we go!
Dr. Arlene