Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Career Development

Beyond Work is our line of resources for people and community leaders looking for something new and innovative, be it a new job, career change, or personal development outside of work. Read this category specifically for Career Development.

  • 3 Ways to Keep Your Adult Kids from Moving Back in with You

    The statistics are startling.  In 2009, 80% of college graduates moved back in with their parents according to CNN Money.  That’s just because the economy was so bad then you say.

    Probably not.

    Market Watch reported that a Pew Research Center Analysis determined that in 2012, 36% of adults ages 18-36 live at home with their parents.   That’s more than 1/3 of young adults in America not out on their own.  If you consider someone over 30 a “young adult”.  And Tim Elmore reports in his new book, 12 Huge Mistakes Parents Can Avoid, that in 2013 85% of college students planned to move back home after graduating.

    Many parents ask me what they can do to help their student be successful in college.  I think the better question is how can we help college prepare them to be successful as independent adults?

    In order to enable flight into the real world instead of a retreat back home, there are three things we need to focus on:

    1. Help them find a career path where their skills and talents are needed in the market place.  Not having a job or not having a job that pays enough to afford to live independently causes students to move home.  If we help them determine career direction and set them up to pursue that direction through their college experiences, then they will be more likely to find quality employment.
    2. Make them work.  With the above being said, just having an educational credential that is linked to a marketable field is not enough.   I recently had a parent of a college graduate call us to ask for help in getting his son’s resume in order to help him to pursue a job.  He had graduated from a top program in a marketable field, but had no job prospects.  He had moved back home with his parents.   When we got an initial draft of his resume from him, it was obvious why he wasn’t having any luck.   At age 24, the kid hadn’t worked a day in his life. On top of that, he didn’t have much involvement in student or leadership activities while in college.   We couldn’t make up experience for him to put on his resume. Simply pursuing an internship in the field of his major at the very least (where I know for a fact there are firms all over the campus he attended clamoring for interns and full-time employees) would have given him opportunities in his field and potential job prospects post graduation, not to mention the opportunity to learn skills and garner experience that can’t be developed only in the classroom.  As Dr. Elmore says in his book, “Work shapes us. Being productive is innately good for human beings.” In addition, working and being responsible for some of their own finances teaches valuable skills and can help with one of the reasons students can’t afford to go out on their own- student loan debt.
    3. Don’t do it for them.   The kid that couldn’t get a job in his field wasn’t calling me about his resume. His dad was.  After talking to his dad two or three times to try to arrange things, I finally asked him to tell his son to call me directly.   If his son had been given responsibility for his future without the crutch of his parents couch and his dad calling to get his resume drafted and pay for it, he might be out on his own now.  It’s just an example of a larger pattern in promoting lack of motivation and drive by doing and fixing everything for our kids.  We enable a can’t do instead a can-do attitude.

    I say this just as much as reminder to myself as a parent than anything. As I listen to my three-and-a-half year old scream that he can’t put his shoes and socks on by himself when I know his is fully capable of doing it on his own my mind flashes to him as a 30 year old at home on our couch.   I calmly tell him he can do it himself and walk away, hoping this doesn’t make us late. I haven’t always chosen this route.

    If your student is headed to college, who is filling out their college applications, writing their scholarship essays, asking for recommendations from teachers and scheduling college visits?  If we are doing all this for them as 17 and 18 year olds, what makes us think they are going to take ownership of things when they graduate from college (if they are even able to graduate by their own efforts) at 22 or 23?

    It’s sometimes easier said than done, but if we all want our kids to be successful in life, not just in college, we need to remind ourselves to think long term by helping them:

    • Discover who they are and help them match that to a need in the marketplace
    • Make them work to help them learn the value of being productive early on
    • Provide them with opportunities to do things on their own, without us constantly rescuing. This includes allowing them to fail when they don’t take responsibility for doing things on their own.

    Interested in more related topics? You may also like:

    Help Your Child Discover

    College Prep Checklist

    Help Your Child Create a Pros and Cons List not a Good or Bad List

    Be a Coach to Your Child

    What are you doing today to prepare your child for tomorrow?

  • 4 Ways to Take LinkedIn to the Next Level

    4 Ways to Take LinkedIn to the Next Level

    You’ve gotten a LinkedIn account set up, created a stand-out profile, built your network and have started searching for jobs.  Now what?

    Ideally your job search should lead to people seeking you out instead of you having to search and apply for openings.  This is done by creating a stellar profile and maintaining a personal brand that is consistent with your career goals.   Be active in your use of LinkedIn so that people will come to you.

    1. Manage your Skills & Endorsements to ensure the ones you want to be known for are seen (How to reorderthem)
    2. Get Active with Groups
    3. Get Active with Recommendation
    4. Be a Content Driver

    Have you taken your use of LinkedIn to the next level?  If so, what results have you seen?

  • 3 Steps to Get Your LinkedIn Profile Job Search Ready

    3 Steps to Get Your LinkedIn Profile Job Search Ready

    Ready to start a job search?  Know you need to have a presence on LinkedIn and other social media channels but don’t know where to start?  If you have no idea what LinkedIn is or don’t know where to start to create an account or profile, the first three levels of the LinkedIn plan below can get you well on your way to active social media networking and job search.

    Level 1: Getting Started

    Level 2:  Build your Network

    LinkedIn uses an algorithm for search results that is impacted by the number of connections you have.  Therefore, it is critical to build your connections.  If your profile is good to go, then the next best investment of your time is to grow your network.

    • Send out invitations to connect  (the link describes a variety of methods to connect) with those you know by customizing your invitation to them.
    • Aim to make at least 500 connections.   Create a timeline to manage growing to this number.
    • Endorse your connections. Create a strategy for endorsing 10-20 people at least once a week.  Endorse those skills that you know the person has, don’t just blanket endorse others.
    • Request to connect to 2nd and 3rd degree contacts with introductions.  You have five available introductions at one time.
    • Accept invitations of people you know or have an indirect connection
    • What are groups?
    • Aim to join 10-15 groups
    • Target, search and join groups by:
      • Industry
      • College Alumni
      • Company/Business
      • Conferences
      • Trade Organizations
      • Nonprofit groups
    • Search for Job Openings

    Level 3:  Get Active in your job search

    Once you have your profile in tip-top shape and a growing network to tap into, you can search and apply for openings through LinkedIn.

    How are you utlizing LinkedIn to maximize your job search?

  • Throwing compensation structure out the window

    I’m going to contradict myself (again). I seem to do this a lot, outlining a way to be process oriented by designing a traditional talent management program.  We’ve done this over the last couple of weeks by describing how to do job analysis, job descriptions and design a compensation plan. 

    But the key to knowing how to design any talent management program is to know yourself, or rather know your company. For mid to large companies, having job descriptions and a wage structure to define how you compensate people is more than likely completely necessary. It keeps things consistent, fair and easier to administer. 

    However, in a world where jobs are constantly changing and therefore the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to define jobs are also constantly changing, defining a job based on hard and fast definitions and then trying to recruit and retain employees based on these hard a fasts may be a tremendous challenge.

    Another approach

    Instead of defining a job and recruiting to that description, find the superstars, those who know how to constantly learn and adapt in a fast-paced world, and hire them, then define the job around them. Pay them what they demand (the superstars know how much they are worth) and then temper their demands with a structure that incentivizes results your company needs them to achieve. 

    Notice this doesn’t mean ever defining the job, but it does mean that you may do it after you make the hire. We’re pretty adamant about defining the job through the behaviors you want people to exhibit and the results you want them to achieve in order to measure and reward performance. 

    We’re in the process as a small company of doing this now. A compensation structure is not what we need to recruit and retain people at this time. What we need is a superstar or two that understands the core of what we do (career development and talent management) and has experience in it, reflects our company values, and is motivated by achieving the results we need achieved.

    One day we may need a defined compensation structure, but right now it isn’t what we need, so we aren’t going to try to cram ourselves into a traditional process that may inhibit our ability to recruit and retain talent. Your company, on the other hand, may need to structure in order to recruit and retain talent. Realizing the outcome we all want is great talent that stays doesn’t mean we all get to that end result the same way.  

    What processes (or unprocesses) do you have in place to make sure you get the talent you need?

  • Career Spotlight: Dental Assisting

    Career Spotlight: Dental Assisting

    Have you always known that you wanted to work in Healthcare, change peoples’ lives, and get to know your community better? Do you want to be a wife and mother who has Fridays off and gets to spend her nights at the ball field watching her children play? Do you want to serve others by providing them with a way to look and feel much better about themselves? Do you want the opportunity to [move up] in your professional career?

    If any of the above describe or are desirable to you, then Dental Assisting may be the career path for you!

    Education Required:  High School Diploma or GED

    If you are in high school, always strive to have strong grades and a solid foundation in Science, Math, English (Grammar) and Reading. All subjects will not only prepare you for college, but any kind of post-high school program. As a potential dental assistant, dentists look for someone who can learn quickly and can educate their patients about not just their teeth, but their overall health. The way you articulate and the grammar that you choose speaks volumes of your educational background and will therefore provide you with a greater chance of landing a job.

    Skills and Personal Qualities:  

    Focus on personal service

    Hard worker

    Punctual and dependable

    Strong ethical background

    Critical and quick thinking

    Ability to learn and move quickly

    Good personal hygiene 

    Ability to get along with others, especially other women

    Is the field growing?

    The dental field is always growing. At a growth rate of 22%, the field is growing much faster than average. As our society has become more educated on their oral healthcare, we have increasingly sought out professional dental care. Therefore, there is always a dental office looking for a trained dental assistant. 

    What is the pay like?

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    In our area, the pay is typically $9-14 starting out. There is always an opportunity to advance in the dental field and to receive a much higher pay. Many assistants go on to become dental hygienists, office managers, or in some cases, dentists. 

    If you are interested in learning more about dental assisting, please visit:

    www.ada.org

    Today’s guest post is from Dr. Maggie McKelvey, DMD. Maggie owns North Alabama Dental Assisting. She graduated summa cum laude from The University of Alabama with a degree in Biochemistry and Math.  She cheered for the Crimson Tide during her time there and was a member of Alpha Chi Omega Sorority.  She received her dental education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she graduated within the top of her class. Following graduation, she enhanced her dental experience working in private practice and pediatric clinics in Decatur and surrounding areas.  Dr. McKelvey is a proud member of the American Dental Association, the Alabama Dental Association, and the Academy of General Dentistry. She is passionate about her profession and is so excited to help teach others about a career in the field of Dentistry!