In the Midst of a Major Career Change? Modify this Email Template and Send it to Your Network

Anyone who has made a major career change knows it can be an overwhelming, frustrating, long-haul process. It will challenge you to be bold, to ask for help, to wade through the mud in your mind as you navigate your way toward a more fulfilling future. Many of my coaching clients come to me when they've hit a ceiling in their career and are ready to make a big change. But how?! they ask, afriad that it won't be possible.

HOW can be a daunting word if asked to early in the process. Besides, as many of you long-time readers know, in Jenny Blake Land: there's a template for that.

Enter The Network Email Mad Lib Template

This isn't about cheesy networking or making a land-grab for contacts on LinkedIn.

First, it's absolutely critical to get clear on what you want, and what you bring to the table. If you're stuck, start by approaching your career like a caveman. Then move on to the Plan Your Next Career Move template and the Job Interview One Sheeter (the latter alone has been downloaded 20K times and helped many a reader land a new gig!).

Once you know what qualities of your ideal job or client would float your boat AND what strengths and superpowers make you stand out, it's time to let your inner circle know.

Today's template is about making a very clear, direct statement about what you're looking for so that others in your network can help keep their eyes and ears open for you. Even if they don't have an opening, they may hear of something a few weeks down the line.

Here's how to use it:

1. Personalize the Network Email Mad Lib Template to send to your existing network when you’re ready to put the word out about what you’re looking for. Keep it as concise and specific as possible.

2. Double-and-triple check: Make sure you double-check that all red {FILL INs} are removed.

3. Ask for feedback: Have a few trusted friends read it over for grammar, clarity and impact. Would they hire you? Make sure your talking points are specific and differentiate you from the pack — if you're not sure what your particular strengths are, this is where your close friends can provide great outside perspective.

4. Send! Put your email address in the TO field and make sure you put your recipients in the BCC field so that they don’t get spammed if someone hits “reply all.”

Like this template? I'd be grateful for you to share the love!

[click to tweet] Making a major career change? Modify @jenny_blake’s Network Email Mad-Lib Template and send it to your network: http://bit.ly/networkmadlib

I'd love to hear from you in the comments:

What strategies have helped you reach out to your network in the midst of a career change? 

What Does Your Major Have to Do With Your Career?

Written by Melissa Anzman I remember having to choose a specific major in college – it was a paper and pencil form that I had to fill out, penciling in the bubble of the major that I wanted to commit to for the rest of my life. Having never thought of that question before, let’s just say that it was nothing less than terrifying for this commitment phobe.

Choosing your major is declaring what you are going to do for the rest of your life. Well, it felt like it at the time. After trying on a business major and clashing with a little class called Accounting, I quickly realized that I needed to stick with something that I enjoyed learning about and landed in Communications.

It was the last time I really thought about the choice I had made.

My communications major was hardly mentioned when I landed my first job – it was in sales/marketing, in case you were wondering, or my second job in advertising. Apparently they wanted to hire anyone who would accept the measly pay.

But when I leaped for my third job, my “major” decision in college was questioned and picked apart.

“Why did you major in that? What did you hope you’d do with your life with a major in Communications? How did you think you’d apply those skills in the real world?”

Those were the decent questions, I won’t scare you with the ridiculous ones. I paused, and really thought about it.

What did my major in college, that I chose when I was a young adult, have to do with the current state of my life? Almost nothing, really. And here’s why.

1. Your major doesn’t matter as much as you think it does.

Whether you’re about to graduate or are 10 years into your career, your major is a snapshot in time of focus. What it helps recruiters and hiring managers know before they meet you, is which subjects you excel at and where your knowledge base starts.

That’s it. It’s the quick way of figuring out if you have the core knowledge and skills for any job. But it’s not even close to the whole story.

Your major is a part of your overall career toolkit – not the most important piece or the only piece, it’s just a piece.

Some of the most interesting hires I’ve had, were doing drastically different jobs than their degree “qualified” them to do. I’m talking about Engineering degrees working in Sales; English Literature degrees working in Finance; and so on.

If you aren’t going into a job that has specific training, your degree major isn’t as big of a deal as your Career Services team has been telling you.

2. You can always supplement your degree.

Not receiving specific training through a degreed program can be a barrier for certain jobs. But it’s not a deal breaker in most cases.

Let’s say you’ve decided to become a paralegal five years into your career with a degree in Marketing. Sounds like a big jump – particularly for a trade specific profession. But here’s where you can supplement your degree with relevant and pertinent experience. Take law classes through a community college. Seek out paralegal certifications. Train or intern to be a paralegal through on-the-job training.

Your degree is not the only piece of paper you can earn in your area of interest – it’s a starting point. But there are so many different ways to expand your knowledge base and skillset, that it’s not a road block, just a detour.

3. Work experience trumps your major.

If you have a college degree in anything, about five years out of school, the conversation is going to shift from your major to your experience. It’s going to be subtle, you probably won’t recognize it. But it will happen.

Instead of being asked about Communications, I started getting questions like, “So tell me what you did in this role?” Or, “How did your degree help you manage this situation?”

Your value and worth comes from more recent life work experiences than classroom learning. This is especially true if your career path has veered off your degree path.

It sounds a little like the chicken versus the egg conversation – how can you work in, say Marketing, with a Finance degree, if you don’t have marketing experience to fall back on? Here are a few ways:

1. Repositioning things that you did learn from your degree courses into a way that makes them applicable to the position you are seeking.
2. Volunteer doing activities in your desired new space, to gain real-world experience doing it.
3. Start at the bottom and work your way up. Entry-level jobs tend to have less degree-specific requirements.
4. Take an internship position to grow in your new area.
5. Request a rotational assignment at your current company. It’s usually a short-term assignment where you become a member (full-time or part-time) of the other department, to learn the necessary skills and expand your knowledge base.
6. Go back to school - but only if you absolutely have to.

The bottom line is this: your major is important, but it’s probably more important to you than it will be for your overall career.  Which is comforting, especially as who can live with a decision they made at 18 for the rest of their life? 

PS - If you want to hear the Life After College Alumni peeps in action, check out Jenny and Paul on the Launch Yourself Podcast!

We'd love to hear from you in the comments below: How have you been able to "get around" your major? 

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About Melissa

Melissa Anzman is the creator of Launch Your Job  where she equips ambitious leaders with practical ways to grow their career. She is the author of two books: How to Land a Job and Stop Hating Your Job. Follow her @MelissaAnzman.

8 Questions to Finding Your Passion

Written by Paul Angone As I left college and attempted to "find my passion," I felt like a 3rd grader trying to attempt Calculus. I couldn't even understand the question, let alone scratch the answer.

Each year that passed I felt like a character in The Office, working a job I hated because I couldn't figure out what job I loved.

Finding Your Passion Ain't 1 + 1

Only now at the tail-end of my twenties, do I feel I'm beginning to smell my passion; like walking into the front door and catching that first whiff of homemade cookies.

My passion: To empower twentysomethings with overwhelming amounts of truth, hope, and hilarity as I narrate the unfolding story of my generation, for my generation. 

As I look back since I walked across that college graduation stage with such a passionate cluelessness, here are eight questions I've wrestled with these last eight years that have helped me find my passion.

8 Questions to Find Your Passion

1. Where have I failed the biggest?

Where have I embarrassed yourself like an 8th grader cracking his voice on his big solo? Where have I failed the biggest -- yet picked myself up and kept charging forward?

As I wrote in my book 101 Secrets for your Twenties:

"Your passion is not just something you do. Your passion is something you cannot NOT do...You find your passion when it’s totally failed, yet you refuse to let it fail."

For me personally that has been writing as I've sought to narrate the unfolding twentysomething story. No matter how many times I've burned these fingers in the process, I've refused to stop punching these computer keys. I learned to pay attention to those times I failed, but refused to give up. There's some secret sauce in this space worth putting a personal patent on. As Thomas Merton writes, "A man who fails well is greater than one who succeeds badly."

2. What are my top values?

Authenticity. Integrity. Right Relationships. Excellence with Fun. Perseverance through Pain.

These are the values that top my list. I've learned when I'm working outside of these values, anxiety tackles me like a security guard laying out a shoplifter. What are your top values? Make a list.

Your passion has to live inside the parameters of your top values or you will sabotage yourself.

3. What do people important to me say makes me come alive?

Pick three people closest to you and ask them when they have seen you come the most alive. Say it's for an assignment. Say work is making you ask.

You'll be surprised at the amazing things they say. Often times we won't give ourselves credit when it's due.

4. What are my favorite stories?

I've been on a five-month personal PR campaign for the movie Warrior -- about two estranged brothers and a father who are all fighting to change their destiny and find redemption. I've seen it three five times and can't help but shed a few cascading amount of tears at the end. It's up there with my other favorites -- Shawshank Redemption, Walk the Line, and Braveheart.

There's a powerful personal truth found in the stories that resonate the closest to you.

The common thread that runs through mine: the underdog who perseveres through pain, thrives from their authentic self, and succeeds at something sane people would never attempt. I can see my top values weaved into my favorite stories. How can I weave the themes from my favorite stories into the most important story I'll ever write -- my own.

5. What’s my top strengths?

Where are you most confident, competent, and crazy locked in? No clue? Taking the StrengthsFinder is a good place to start.

Basically, where do you kick the most ass? Think about what you consider your three greatest successes. What were you doing? Were you leading? Communicating? Designing? Analyzing? Your strengths are a direct shot to your passion. Follow that arrow Robin Hood.

6. What’s my dream?

What’s your BHAG? Your Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal, as author of this amazing book called Life After College Jenny Blake helped explain in her book.

Feel like your BHAG is alluding you like Big Foot on a Vespa? Do this simple exercise. Envision your life 20 years from now in the year 2032. Where are you waking up? What’s your morning routine? What are you wearing for work? Where’s work? Home? 115 story skyscraper in the city? What do you do there? Map out your whole day. Don’t think what’s possible. Think big. Your BHAG is at the door waiting to be let in for dinner.

7. Is there a need?

Where is this world leaking that you feel like needs to be plugged? As Fredrick Buechner wrote:

“Vocation is where our greatest passion meets the world’s greatest need”

8. Am I willing to pursue greatness without ever being great?

Now picture your big dream, but it takes fifteen years longer to happen. Now instead of impacting the world, let’s say you change a neighborhood street. What if you never become great when pursuing your passion. Would it still be worth it?

Passion Evolves

There you have it — the eight questions to discover your passion. Remember though, this is not a one-time, catch-all answer. Your passion will change as you do. I was once passionate about wearing a different color pair of sweatpants for every day of school. We grow up and so does our passion.

We'd love to hear from you in the comments below: How would you answer one, two, or all of these questions about how to find your passion? 

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About Paul

Paul Angone is the author of 101 Secrets for your Twenties and the creator of AllGroanUp.com, a place for those asking "what now?" Snag free chapters from his book and follow him at @PaulAngone.

This post originally appeared at AllGroanUp.com.

The Big New Years Blind Spot You Might Be Missing (and How to Fix it)

Written by Jenny Blake The Big Ol' Blindspot you might be missing is not about how to set better resolutions, how to stick to them, or even how to ditch them.

It's that you might be glossing over the one thing most likely to help you feel happier and more successful: building on what is already working.

Build On Your STRENGTHS

“From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to our shortcomings than to our strengths.” ―Tom Rath, StrengthsFinder 2.0

It's so easy to fall down the rabbit-hole of what isn't working in our lives, particularly this time of year. What we suck at, the habits we are failing at, and the big promises we want to make to ourselves to correct some area of lack in our lives. Find a job! Find a mate! Lose some weight!

When working with my brand strategist Adam on JennyBlake.me, we often returned to the idea that the best ideas result from an expression of who you already are.

So instead of trying to incrementally mitigate your weaknesses, how can you bust a grand slam out of the ballpark with your biggest strengths? 

Research shows that building upon existing talents, strengths and marketable skills provides much more leverage than marginally improving on weaknesses. As Tom Rath says:

“When we're able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists. So, a revision to the 'You-can-be-anything-you-want-to-be' maxim might be more accurate: You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of who you already are.

The most successful people start with dominant talent—and then add skills, knowledge, and practice to the mix. When they do this, the raw talent actually serves as a multiplier.”

―Tom Rath, StrengthsFinder 2.0

Hustle & Flow

As I shared over on JennyBlake.me last week, my word of the year is (Hustle &) Flow.

After an often-confusing year with change so intense it was sometimes debilitating, I'm also choosing to re-focus on what is already working in my life and business. An excerpt from that post:

After a year of Alignment — the precision, structure, daily habits of meditation, yoga and not drinking — I’m declaring this the year of FLOW. 

The surrender, movement and momentum of Flow, but — lest you think I’ve fallen off the woo-woo reservation — served up with a healthy side of hustle.

Grit and grace. Focus and release. Strategy and surrender. Effort and ease.

If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give everything up. —Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

(Click here to keep reading Hustle & Flow)

Your Turn . . .

Before you go any further trying to fix what's broken, I want you to take an Inventory of Awesome.

Make a list of 25 things in your life that ARE working: habits, strengths, talents, creative ideas, even people and relationships. Now circle just one or two that, if you were to focus on elevating those through education, focus and practice, would take you from good to DAYUM I'm great!

See? That wasn't so hard. And you might even find a much greater sense of excitement and motivation by doing this exercise and narrowing it down to strengths you're jazzed about.

I'd love to hear from you in the comments: 

Resolutions, Schmezolutions. What strengths will you build on in 2014?