Targeted Cover Letters
I just edited a cover letter to add in more specifics about the position and correlate the person's past experience with their needs. Usually, those letters are more effective than the ones that simply talk about your experience.

A cover letter is a marketing tool. The goal of any marketing is to demonstrate that you understand your market's challenges and have the experience and skills to help them meet those challenges.
Thus a great cover letter will make the case for why you (the product or service) are the right person for job (solution) at the company (your market).

A great cover letter will help an inside connection make the case for you, too.From my own experience writing and editing hundreds of cover letters, two great marketing tools for a cover letter are:

* Do the analysis for the employer

* Speak the employer's language Here's a simple way to construct a targeted cover letter: take the lead responsibilities and craft sentences that blend your experience with language from the posting, to show the match between your background and their need.

For example, this is the first responsibility of a job for a facilities and space planner at a financial institution:- Understand key business and market drivers and develop workable long-term and implementation plans that support business needs and meet annual and multi-year portfolio performance targets.

For the cover letter, I take key words and write a sentence something like this:At [name] Investments, I developed and oversaw the implementation of many excellent and workable facility plans that enabled a range of internal clients to increase their business effectiveness and meet their performance goals.I used the words "implementation," "workable," "business" and "performance" from the posting to match my experience to that responsibility. Using the word "workable" was key to because it is an uncommon word that is specific to this posting.

Words like "implementation" and "performance" are likely to be picked up on a key word search. I also could have used the phrase "business and market drivers" because it is clearly a buzz term for the company. In a complete letter, I would probably insert this phrase somewhere else to reinforce that I understand their core business needs and fit in with their culture.Hope this helps!
Posted by oyedeji victor
Labels: "right fit" job, cover letter, culture, how-to, job search, key word, marketing, marketing tool, tool

Becoming a Consultant
I've worked with a few people to develop a consulting "brochure" to help them make some money while looking for work. Generating income is one big benefit of being a consultant. Another is keeping your skills current. A third is having a reason to get up in the morning and having actual work to do.

All that may be obvious. A less obvious benefit to developing a consulting brochure is that you get to look at what you really want to do, what skills you love to use and are really good at, and the value you deliver sufficiently to get paid for it. It doesn't have to be fancy and printed; in fact, it's better as an electronic PDF attachment to an e-mail. You can use it to network, announcing to people that you are launching a consulting practice and they should feel free to pass this on to people who might be interested.

In this way, your name gets out there attached to precisely the kind of work you want to do full-time. You never know what will happen. Just yesterday, one person just landed a full-time job doing exactly what she described doing in her consulting piece.Knowing what you can and want to do is the key to finding your "right fit work" whether that is working at a job or starting your own business.

Being a consultant is your own business.Often, the biggest challenge is shifting your mindset about how you get paid. Employees get a salary and usually work whatever hours they need to get the job done. Consultants get a fee, usually on a retainer or project basis, and sometimes with a daily or hourly rate. Your time and expertise both are resources, and consultants need to understand the relationship between the two. Here are some ways to start thinking about Fee Structure.1. How many hours can you give each client a week or month?

* that determines your ideal number of clients* can have a range of services, some more time intensive than others - all are valuable* no client needs to know what you do for the other

* Managers have multiple clients all the time; as long as you meet the client's needs, they don't care who else you work for (with some bizarre exceptions)2. How much client turnover do you expect? Meaning how long will clients sign up for to work with you? AND how much time off during the year do you need, are you willing to give yourself?

* rule of thumb is to figure 40 weeks of the year working (sometimes people figure 32 or 36 weeks, depending on how constant the clients are)* some of your time has to be focused on marketing your services and getting new clients* your fees are sufficient to cover all your costs; shared among several clients, you can give them a relative bargain AND make what you want to make3. What's the basis on which you want to get paid? Here are some options and what they mean.

* Monthly retainer, where over a year the client gets an average number of hours a month, with some months heavy and others lighter. This is best all around because you and they can count on regular income and expense, so it's great for budgeting. Only caveat is you must produce enough outcomes for the client to be satisfied with this monthly outlay. This is a great method when you are involved in a lot of different projects or areas with a client, including "soft" projects like advising, coaching, and strategizing with a senior person.

* Project basis, where you get paid for producing a specific outcome over a period of time. Usually there are several payments, one upfront to get started, then one or more milestone payments tied to progress, and a final payment to be paid after satisfactory completion. This is the best method for facilitating an entire strategic plan (not simply advising), writing a funding proposal (or indeed any kind of writing where there will be edits), and delivering a specific product within a specific time frame.

* Daily or hourly rate, where you are paid for your work based on an estimated time involved. This kind of payment is best when you are doing something that is pretty straightforward and it is easy to give the client an accurate estimate of how much time is needed. Examples of such services are training, word processing, facilitating a retreat, advising on strategic planning, and one-on-one coaching.So think about yourself as a consultant.
What would you do? What services would you offer? What could you do for a client that they would love to pay you for? How would you talk about what you do?

What would be your 5-second pitch description of what you can deliver to a client? Chances are that's what you want to do in a job, too. You may even discover that you love being in business for yourself.
Posted by oyedeji victor
Labels: "right fit" job, business, consultant, consulting, experience

Creating and Using the Must Have List
Here's a living example of how I guided someone through the questions in the Must Have List, to help his identify what she wants to do next in his work life.What AC WantsSay in policy & ownership

* Recognition and appreciation of her value & skill
* Authority and responsibility to determine path
* Leeway to adjust
* Shared ultimate responsibilityReasonable scheduleCombine practical tasks with relationship building* Be organized
* Talk to people
* Small things toward a much bigger goal – steps toward achieving goalPeople she respects and likesDance (but not ballet)* Possibly more than one companyWell-paid, good benefits
* $100k
* Way to make as much as she wants to afford a house and car and put some away for retirementBased on this list, and looking at where she naturally goes, a few things became apparent. First, it seems that she is very senior in her industry, and that she is the peer of many of the power players.


Second,he is sick of working for people less able than he is.

Third, she craves diverse and varied work. Fourth, he really likes having a substantial positive impact without having the entire financial responsibility for a company on him shoulders. So here's the possibility that emerged:Go into business for herself as independent producer and/or company manager with several clients at a time.

This is a way to make money and have a broader positive impact.Obviously, there is a difference between going into business for yourself and working for a salary. I'll address Becoming A Consultant in another post.

Achieving goals
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." AristotleI am struck by some common themes when reading stories about people who have set and achieved their goals. * Many people have accomplished their goals. It is possible!* Everyone started. They began. They took action. And then they watched what happened.

* They say they've achieve the goals by taking things one step at a time, one day at a time.* Each one takes required action, consistently acting every day,

* These people take the long view, recognizing and reminding themselves that desired results usually are not achieved in a day or week or month.

* Each one demonstrates the qualities of patience, hard work, and willingness to stay committed to reaching the goal

* When people reach their goals, they keep up the same habits they developed along the way including sharing their progress and lessons learned with othersPatience, perseverance and perspective are keys to progress and success!
Posted by oyedeji victor

Leadership via planning
I just talked to someone about developing his own leadership abilities, and how he can use strategic planning to help foster his leadership ability. he already encourages meetings for all senior staff to get on same page - a form of leadership for the entire organization. Now he can think of his role as promoting and enabling short-term planning. he's done a SWOT analysis for himself and the organization, as part of his individual development planning. It turns out his boss did one on the organization, but never shared it with any of the senior staff. The next step for the organization is a SWOT analysis with all staff, or at least the senior staff.
This man can promote that, suggesting to his boss that this would be a good way to promote staff alignment even if they can't do a full-fledged strategic plan. They can do an Action Plan that focuses on the next 12 to 18 months and lays the groundwork for a more thorough-going plan. In this way, my colleague can think of himself as a leader in helping his boss become a better leader.His boss wants more organizational alignment. Right now, staff is pretty divided between two parts.
The mission statement is very broad so it doesn't help guide people in particulars, and there are no common organizational goals and objectives. A broad mission statement is OK as long as everyone shares definitions and understands same meaning. This is very rarely the case, unless the staff have talked at length about what they mean.Mission usually isn't great for focusing internal alignment. Staff alignment usually arises more effectively when staff together arrive at a common vision for what the organization will achieve within anywhere from 18 months to five years. Coalescing about the specific impact desired is a remarkable team-building process. further staff alignment is achieved through the remaining planning process. This starts with agreeing on where the organization currently stands (using SWOT, PEST* and market analyses). It is critical for people to be able to voice and vent what they love, hate, fear and hope about and for the organization. I've used a great group-based activity that very quickly (1/2 hour) sifts through and identifies the top Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. A small team can distill the lessons of the PEST and market analyses for the entire group.
Simply reaching agreement on where we are and where we want to be forges incredible bonds - with about four hours of group time required.Additional alignment and team coalescing is realized through the discussions about how to get from where the organization currently is to where it wants to be - the strategies by which it will achieve its vision. This is where the major time and work takes place, and people learn how to work collaboratively. Some strategies are obvious while others require rehashing and rephrasing.
Once strategies are agreed on, smaller staff groups can go to work on major program goals and objectives. The entire staff group then discusses these. With such broad agreement on the major things, everyone on staff is headed in same direction AND there is room for shifting tactics, programs, detail. Individual program activity plans and the organization budget will stem from the broad strategies and goals.The entire Action Plan process can be accomplished in 4 to 5 months. An Action Plan is essentially done by staff, with the Board receiving the final plan in lieu of a standard annual plan. Board buy-in is very important because the broadly agreed-on ideas provide a framework for what I call "opportunity management" - how do we decide what opportunities to work on? While opportunities do present themselves to staff, it is more often Board members who propose inappropriate ideas. It is quite useful to point to a plan that fully articulates everything staff already are doing.It will be a very powerful leadership experience for this woman to promote such a process.
His boss doesn't need to know his underlying agenda of becoming an organizational leader. That's his personal goal. What's important is that she helps his organization develop, and hopefully positively affects him boss's leadership at the same time.Later I talked to someone about how to publicize a strategic plan given that it's a political AND marketing document. My initial feedback is that the public plan needs careful editing and word choices to ensure that the proper context is set, and that the language is clear and unambiguous, and compelling. In fact, an organization may need three levels of document: one for an internal audience that is quite detailed, one for the external world that provides a broad, birds-eye level look at the organization's plans, and one for stakeholders that provides enough detail to spark buy-in and interest in knowing more.
Posted by oyedeji victor

Maybe it's not laziness!
I recently heard from a very hardworking person that he felt he was lazy because he is spending time laying around and isn't producing much work. Here was my take on this."It sounds like you are taking such terrific positive steps toward realizing your dreams - the website (can't wait to see it!) and the lawyer (very, very smart move on your part). My take on the "laziness" is that you are not lazy, you are healing. This past year and a half has taken a big toll and it's not until we have some down time that we can see the toll. You've experienced a lot of loss (job, apartment, friends, community), a lot of anger and shame and letting go (or not...), a shift in identity, moving from your home base, working to establish new roots.
In my experience, it's impossible to keep going and going and going. Sooner or later, we have to rest and allow the subconscious to process everything, to incorporate the change into our being, and gradually adjust internally to the external changes. That's the essence of transition - not simply changing outside circumstances, but learning what the change means and choosing our response to the change. It's big stuff, and you now have some time in which to do that internal work - or should I say, to allow that internal work to occur, because there's very little "doing" that's required or even possible. Yes, that is frustrating for someone like me and you because we love to keep busy DOING.
Otherwise, I don't feel useful or necessary, and can lapse into depression. So the trick is to keep some perspective and allow it to happen. I like to mix in some writing to bring the internal stuff out and sort of complete the circle and realize what shifts are happening. And awareness of the process always helps me.
My own past four years of travail are finally coming to an end, and I now have a renewed sense of purpose and identity - not so dependent on other people now and coming more from within me and through my spirit. So it does have a happy ending! And your journey will as well.
Of course, then it will all start up again...for we are always changing and transitioning, if we so choose."

Posted by oyedeji victor know as yes you can work. [Nigeria own's number one]


How to Land a Job in this Market
I heartily endorse the sentiments in this article:

YOUR ON-LINE CAREER TRANSFORMATION COACH. Ideas and tools for transforming your career, improving your work life, and fulfilling your mission.

Launch
Under my own name, at last, a blog. It's for my opinions, ideas, suggestions, themes, rants, poems, jokes. We'll see what appears. I think it will focus on the non-profit world, ethics, work and occupation. Politics? I'll try to focus it or at least separate topics. This could be the start of a website of my own. Stay tuned!

Have Confidence!

Have Confidence!
Have confidence that you will land the right job for you! It's the theme of the week. Several people have told me about the little negative, hopeless voice that plagues them. You know the one: "I'll never find the right job!" "It's hopeless." "I've been looking so long, what's wrong with me?" My stomach just turns over when I write these words. They are so demoralizing and depressing. And NOT TRUE!I suggested to each person that they adopt an attitude of confidence that they will find the right job. And each one of them said "yes, I do know I will find something." So even in the midst of their fear and quasi-despair, each person knew at a fundamental level that their search would be successful. Each person simply had to be reminded of that fact. And each immediately calmed down, leaving that space of anxiety and entering a space of serenity. Now, each one also hedged their bets right away by saying something like "yes I know I will get the job I want BUT I don't know when!" Somehow, it wasn't OK for them to remain peaceful and confident. Perhaps worry feels like you're doing something. "Well, at least I'm worrying!" It creates the illusion of activity. One of the hardest things to do is take action and let go of the results - really let go, including not worrying about the result.Sometimes I do something and then think about it later and it occurs to me there is something more I can do. That's different from worry and anxiety, which are simply rehashing what I did and trying to foretell the future. I stay out of the future - it's a scary place of "I don't know what will happen." The present, with all its complexity, is a far more comfortable place to be. I encourage you to quiet those anxious, hopeless voices with a few phrases:I have done all I can with this employer. It's now up to the universe. If it's the right job for me, I will get a call. I have confidence that I put out my best effort. I know deep down that I will get the right job for me. I am getting closer to my desired job. The more specific I am about what I want to do, the closer I am to getting it. I am gathering information about my industry and field, information that helps me get clear about exactly what I want to do. I am doing all I can to find the right job. I am open to new ideas about where to find my "right fit" job. I ask for help and suggestions from people who are experts. I use information to refine my search, I don't let it control my mood. I have a unique set of skills and ability that will be incredibly valuable to the right employer. I allow myself to have some fun so I stay balanced and happy while I search for work.I read career blogs and articles to get new ideas and perspectives for my search.It's OK for me to feel down for a little while, as long as I vent it and then move on.The right job is out there for me - I know it in my bones!Every day, with every action, I get closer to landing the right job for me.I have so much to offer, it's inevitable that I will be working soon.When I know what I love to do, I am assured of a way to do it.I leave no stone unturned in my job search.I thank people for their advice, suggestions and information, and then take what is useful for my search.I am clear about the challenges I love to tackle, the problems I love to solve, and the impact I can make.I know exactly how to answer the question "so what are you looking for?" so people know how they can help me.My resume presents me effectively so people know what I have done and would like to do again.When I am stuck, I get even more specific about the impact I want to make.A final note about the value of being specific: My friend JY just sent me an update. I helped her figure out exactly what she wanted to do, which was very different from what she originally thought. Because of my non-profit background, JY asked me for help in switching from financial services into non-profit work. However, she was not applying for jobs or networking - even though she knew she should. We went back and reviewed her core accomplishments - things she is proudest of doing and really loved doing. Lo and behold! It turned out that what she really loves is training and development, and she'd done that in all her positions. Her new intention was to get a training and development job in financial services. Within 2 weeks, the job of Director, Training and Development opened up at her employer. And within 2 months, she was in that position. Here's what she said:Just checking in - I haven't worked this hard in over a decade and I'm loving every minute. It really underscores just how important it is to be true & honest about what you want. Sounds trite but so true. Thank you again for leading me to the trough.
my real name is oyedeji victor know as [yes you can work]Nigeria own;s No-one.