Informational interviews and job shadowing are great ways to be briefly exposed to a career field you are interested in by interacting with someone in the role. In the student career coaching we do, our package offers arrangement of at least one job shadowing opportunity. This is how valuable we feel this component to career exploration really is. The difference between the two is that an informational interview is just a conversation with the person in the job. It allows you to ask the person questions about how they got where they are, what the like (and don’t like) about
“Your daughter really stepped up to be a leader with all the kids today,” says one mother. “Really?” asks the other, “She wasn’t being bossy was she?” Why do we think as parents, and especially with girls, when our child steps up to take charge of a situation that they are being bossy? I heard a similar dialogue with a dear friend of mine, who is one of the best, if not the best mother I know. Her oldest daughter, who is a smart, caring and leaderful girl, stepped up to engage kids of all ages, who all really didn’t
Are you a leader that inadvertently tells people to talk all the time? Last week, we focused on how saying too much is like saying nothing at all when people talk too much and monopolize a meeting or conversation. As a leader, you may not be talking too much, but are you telling your people to talk too much because you give them all the attention? There is nothing inherently wrong with being extraverted and feeling comfortable vocalizing thoughts and opinions or being introverted and having less to say. However, it does become a problem when leaders neglect to give
Often students are afraid to ask, but when I talk to them about careers that match their talents, passions and values, I know they are wondering, well what on earth would I be doing in this job you’re describing to me? We miss the mark in exploring careers, oftentimes, because we assume that people know what they don’t know. Now what? Once you’ve made job matches and considered them through their demand in the marketplace, you have to actually learn about what you would do on a day-to-day basis in the jobs that seem like a fit for you. Your matches should lead
Leaders often have opinions and usually want them heard. They have also earned the right, so to speak, to be heard. But recently, in facilitating a management meeting for a company, I came to the keen awareness that no matter who you are, saying too much is like saying nothing at all. You see, there was one person in the group that monopolized most of the conversation. At first, he had a captive audience, but by the end of the meeting people weren’t even listening to what he had to say, some even were rolling their eyes when he went