After 50 years old, typically companies say a person is overqualified, out of touch with modern equipment or too expensive. What makes an older person impressive to hiring managers?

According to US World News & Report and AARP, older workers (50+) are recommended to do the following: (I would say all ages would do well using these recommendations!)

1. Share short, powerful stories of how you used your skills and strengths to help organizations’ bottom line. You most likely have a lifetime of rich stories you can share.
2. Emphasize how well you can relate to people, including people older than yourself. The articles encourages emphasizing easy communication with older people. On the other hand, I am thinking that with all of your experience, you may be able share a variety of stories communicating and understanding a wide range of people in all age categories.
3. Communicate your adaptability.
4. Don’t stereotype any ages or group of people. Be open to look in a fresh way at each person.
5. Pass your knowledge on in ways people want to listen. “We’re basically looking for [someone who has] the ability to share ideas, good interpersonal skills, and good communications skills,” says Walter Caldwell, manager of staffing resources at the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, California.

I’d love to hear what tips you’d like to add to this list. Please email me at Terri@SummitViewCareerCoaching.com.

Enjoy Monday morning as much as Friday afternoon!

Do you feel like giving up on your career exploration and hunt? Richard Bolles kept score with one man’s job hunt. Let’s call him Joe Smith. Joe did the following:

• Researched 107 places that seemed interesting to him
• Spent hours researching ‘thoroughly and well’ so that he was able to continue his search in an ‘extremely professional manner’
  
• Sent a total of 297 letters
  
• Made 126 phone calls to organizations in the city he wanted to transfer
• When he finally was able to go to these places in person, he narrowed down the original 107 places down to just 45 and visited all 45 places

The result was receiving 35 job offers! Richard Bolles writes, “When he had finished his survey, he went back to the one job he most wanted–and accepted it.”
Where are you in your job search? What is your story? I’d love to hear from you at Terri@SummitViewCareerCoaching.com.

Enjoy Monday morning as much as Friday afternoon!

If you’re not yet on LinkedIn, you need to be. Whatever the reason is for not being on LinkedIn, there is a 99% chance there is a better reason for using it!

When you google your name, what comes up? Can you imagine googling a company and not finding anything on it?

If you’d like a hiring manager to see others’ untampered recommendation of your services, LinkedIn is a tool you must use!

What are reasons people use for not being on LinkedIn?

• I don’t want to be contacted. The day is most likely coming when you will want to be googled and contacted by a hiring manager interested in offering you a position.

• I don’t want to ask others for recommendations of my services. Actually, what I have found for my clients and myself is that most people are glad to recommend our services if they see we have given them value.

Imagine being googled and people being impressed with you because of what others have said about you on your LinkedIn profile. People have actually been contacted and eventually hired because of LinkedIn!

• I’m too busy. The time to build your network is when you are busy since that is a time when you have the most opportunity to find people to recommend your service!

I offer a session on how to set up LinkedIn. If you’re interested, contact me at Terri@SummitViewCareerCoaching.com. Or, if you would like to see other career coaching services, go to Summit View Career Coaching. I’d be glad to meet with you for a complimentary, confidential 20-minute coaching session.

Enjoy Monday morning as much as Friday afternoon!

Career coach Randy Block shared an interesting tip in NETSHARE’s call this week. Randy believes every job seeker should create a Master Résumé. This document is not for distribution to anyone but it is an organizational tool and source for when you do need to create a résumé. Randy receives the credit for a lot of the bulleted items below.

What could be included in your Master Résumé?

• Core strengths & how you’re using them (how to write success stories)
• Name of company
• Position
• Promotions (if to management, how many are direct reports)
• Awards
• Certificates
• Conventions
• Seminars
• Volunteer roles

Include dates. One of the comments I receive from my clients is that they wish they had kept up their résumé. I really like Randy’s idea of keeping up a Master Résumé.

Packages are offered on résumé & cover letter expertise, career exploration, job search strategy, effective communication, strengths identification, career branding, networking, interview preparation and jump-starting a new position.

To schedule a 20-minute complimentary, confidential session, contact me at Terri@SummitViewCareerCoaching.com. No pressure given to sign up for coaching. For information on my services, go to Summit View Career Coaching.

Enjoy Monday morning as much as Friday afternoon!

Decreasing numbers of medical students are choosing to be family physicians each year. In fact Kurt Mosley writes in Recruiting Trends, “An alarming number of family practice training positions (16 percent) went unfilled last year.” Over half of the students who graduated in family practice and started their practice in the United States were from foreign medical schools.

Why are medical students not choosing to be family physicians?

• 57% of doctors aged 50-65 yrs old were polled and said they’d recommend not becoming a family physician. In fact 44% said they’d not choose medicine if they started over again. So, older doctors are not encouraging younger doctors to pick up the mantle.
• Takes 11 years of schooling and students typically start out with $120,000 of debt.
• Physicians have decreasing power. Insurance companies and federal agencies tell them what tests and they can and cannot order, what medicines they can and cannot prescribe.
• Today’s physicians are frustrated with spending countless hours in paperwork, justifying why they should be paid rather than use their training to save lives, enhance and bring life into this world.
• Family physicians are not the esteemed position they once were.

Are you exploring becoming a family physician? Or, are you a mid-lifer exploring your options? I can coach you with effective research tools so that the career you choose fits your core strengths, interests, and values well.

I invite you to a 20-minute complimentary, confidential coaching session. No pressure to sign up. Contact me at Terri@SummitViewCareerCoaching.com to schedule a session. To see more of my services, go to Summit View Career Coaching.

Enjoy Monday morning as much as Friday afternoon!

Many of you are artistic and dream of a career as an artist. You envision loving your work and it being in such high demand that you live a comfortable life style.

Artists create art to communicate ideas, thoughts, or feelings. The definition of an artist is wide-ranging. Employment for artists is expected to grow in the next decade.

Demand will most likely grow for the following artists according to the Bureau of Labor & Statistics:

• Illustrators who work on a computer will increase as Web sites use more detailed images and backgrounds in their designs.

• Cartoonists, in particular, who opt to post their work on political Web sites and online publications.

• Medical illustrators (currently a small number) will also be in greater demand as medical research continues to grow.

• Multimedia artists and animators as consumers continue to demand more realistic video games, movie and television special effects, and 3D animated movies.

• Web site development and for computer graphics adaptation from the growing number of mobile technologies.

• Animators who are finding work in alternative areas such as scientific research or design services.

Below are different types of artists according to the Bureau of Labor & Statistics:

• Graphic designers—or graphic artists—plan, analyze, and create visual solutions to communications problems. They find the most effective way to get messages across in print, electronic, and film media.

• Craft artists make a wide variety of objects, mostly by hand, that are sold either in their own studios, in retail outlets, or at arts-and-crafts shows. Many craft artists also use fine-art techniques—for example, painting, sketching, and printing—to add finishing touches to their art.

• Fine artists typically display their work in museums, commercial art galleries, corporate collections, and private homes.

• Medical and scientific illustrators combine drawing skills with knowledge of biology or other sciences. Medical illustrators work digitally or traditionally to create images of human anatomy and surgical procedures as well as 3-dimensional models and animations. Most cartoonists have comic, critical, or dramatic talents in addition to drawing skills.

• Sketch artists create likenesses of subjects with pencil, charcoal, or pastels. Sketches are used by law enforcement agencies to assist in identifying suspects, by the news media to depict courtroom scenes, and by individual patrons for their own enjoyment.

• Sculptors design three-dimensional artworks, either by molding and joining materials such as clay, glass, wire, plastic, fabric, or metal or by cutting and carving forms from a block of plaster, wood, or stone. Some sculptors combine various materials to create mixed-media installations. Some incorporate light, sound, and motion into their works.

• Printmakers create printed images from designs cut or etched into wood, stone, or metal. After creating the design, the artist inks the surface of the woodblock, stone, or plate and uses a printing press to roll the image onto paper or fabric. Some make prints by pressing the inked surface onto paper by hand or by graphically encoding and processing data, using a computer. The digitized images are then printed on paper with the use of a computer printer.

• Painting restorers preserve and restore damaged and faded paintings. They apply solvents and cleaning agents to clean the surfaces of the paintings, they reconstruct or retouch damaged areas, and they apply preservatives to protect the paintings. Restoration is highly detailed work and usually is reserved for experts in the field.

• Multi-media artists and animators work primarily in motion picture and video industries, advertising, and computer systems design services. They draw by hand and use computers to create the series of pictures that form the animated images or special effects seen in movies, television programs, and computer games.

Despite the competition, studios, galleries, and individual clients are always on the lookout for artists who display outstanding talent, creativity, and style. Among craft and fine artists, talented individuals who have developed a mastery of artistic techniques and skills will have the best job prospects.

The Bureau of Labor & Statistics gives tther workers who apply artistic skills: architects, except landscape and naval; archivists, curators, and museum technicians; commercial and industrial designers; fashion designers; floral designers; graphic designers; interior designers; jewelers and precious stone and metal workers; landscape architects; photographers; and woodworkers. Some workers who use computers extensively, including computer software engineers and desktop publishers, may require art skills.

As a results-oriented career coach, I work with professionals so that they enjoy Monday morning as much as Friday afternoon!To schedule a complimentary, confidential 20-minute coaching session, email me at Terri@SummitViewCareerCoaching.com. No pressure to sign up! To read about my services, go to Summit View Career Coaching.

Are you part of the Boomerang Generation? This generation was born somewhere between 1977 to 1989. Makes sense they’re called the Boomerang Generation because many went off to college, received their degree and are now back living with Mom and Dad while working hard at their profession.

The primary justification for this cycle is economic. Where the young person and parents agree to this arrangement, it provides tremendous financial relief to the young person while it may also provide income to the parents.

Interestingly, Wikopedia states that the arrangement tends to force family members to communicate and negotiate in ways they did not when the children were pre-adults. In the best case, this can lead to healthy adult relationships between parents and children.

Wikopedia also states other positives to having the Boomerang Generation move back home:

Moving back home can benefit parents when they reach old age. In societies where it is common for children to live with their parents into adulthood, such as Asian and Hispanic cultures, children more frequently take care of aging parents, rather than devolving the responsibility on a third party, such as a nursing home.^{[citation needed]} Whether the Boomerang Generation will follow suit remains to be seen, as the older Baby Boom generation ages.

To look at this issue from a different perspective, Michael Rosenfeld, a social demographer at Stanford University says almost 41% of singles ages 20-29 in 2005 were living apart from their parents, compared with 11% in 1950 and about 19% in 1880.

“The boomerang idea,” as quoted by Michael Rosenfled on USA Today, “flatters our parental sense that our adult children need us more than they think. They think they’re going to be independent, but we know they’ll come back to the front doorstep and need us again.”

What are your thoughts on the Boomerang Generation? I’d like to hear them! Write me at Terri@SummitViewCareerCoaching.com

Enjoy Monday morning as much as Friday afternoon!