Career Zen Chapter Five

C a r e e r   Z e n
by Larry Daly, 'The JOB DOC'

Chapter 5.   LONG-TERM CAREER DEVELOPMENT

The 16 Stages in a Professional Career
How high do you want to climb on your career ladder? Where are you now? What do you have to start with?
Career Stage 1. Basic Education, from primary and secondary, through high school and college, and then career courses, prior to entry into work force.
Career Stage 2. Additional career education by the employer, or in courses in the specialty, taken by the careerist, to enable and sharpen his technical skills in that kind of work.
Career Stage 3. Work itself is an education, as one learns on the job what to do and how, and why.
Career Stage 4. Self-Education: Reading, studying books and magazines and periodicals on the career and occupation and business field, by professional writers, organizations, etc.
Career Stage 5. Specific technical or other courses taken by the careerist for refreshment, advancement or specialization purposes, or just to keep up in the field.
Career Stage 6. Participating in research studies for the company.
Career Stage 7. Doing independent research, for career advancement.
Career Stage 8. Teaching the career to others. Giving classes, courses, seminars, workshops, tours, panels, clinics, etc. (Teaching is the best of all learning experiences.)
Career Stage 9. Writing about the career or profession in periodicals.
Career Stage 10. Writing book(s) about the profession or career.
Career Stage 11. Giving speeches, as company spokesperson or expert or authority on the subject, to the public, or (harder) others in the business.
Career Stage 11. Consulting, as an expert in your specialty.
Career Stage 12. Corporate officer, administrator, perhaps director, founder, etc.
Career Stage 13. Leading industry spokesperson.
Career Stage 14. Lawmaker or watchdog, in government, over that business field.
Career Stage 15. Media exposure as elder statesman in field.
Career Stage 16. Retirement (and maybe more, after; a late bloomer.)

Making Career Decisions
At some early point in your life you must decide: Are you just looking for a better job, or for a real career?   Do you understand the distinction between a job and a career?   Do you just want to go home at 5 and forget the job? Or do you want to make a substantial income and enjoy all of the other benefits and rewards of a career, really investing your heart and mind in it? Where do you personally really want to go with your life?
Then, "Are you really serious about getting ahead, climbing up your own professional ladder?"
After you have been working long enough to know some of the cold harsh truths of real life in that career, are you still very serious about getting ahead? Most important, are you now ready to do whatever it takes to build your career?
If you are certain the answer is yes, and are willing to work hard, begin with the following 10 tasks.

10 Major Career Tasks
To succeed in any career today, and in the future, there are ten things to do, which will put you ahead of 99% of all others for promotions and advancement, and all other job seekers for any particular job, and the best jobs in general.
By showing employers that you are more than a simple replaceable cog in the system, you can prove your real value to them, demonstrate depth and abilities and other significant qualities they need, in terms they understand.
These ten tasks will also help you build your knowledge base; your people base; your appreciation of your position relative to your company and its goals; deeper understanding of company goals; help you focus and prioritize your efforts; give you self-discipline; a sense of accomplishment and value; raise your self-esteem, aggressiveness, and confidence; and give you a measurable scale of going from where you were to where you want to be. Success here helps boost your initiative and feeling of achievement, as you see distant career goals getting closer and becoming more possible.
You will also learn some things that nobody can teach you in any school or course.
Your ten tasks are:
Task 1. Plan. Organize. Prepare. Make a list of everything that you need to have or do or have done for success toward your goals, from clothes and classes on certain things that you will need to know, to ID, skills, documentation, certification, etc. This is the Personal Learning List we have been discussing. Check off the things you already have and what you are working on, and, as you proceed, check the rest of them off, one by one, as you complete each. Make a list for this year, one for next year, one for five years ahead, etc. As you go along, add the things you did not know you needed, and develop or acquire these, and check them off. And reward yourself for each success.
Task 2. "Collect" people: Meet at least 200 new people a year, in at least 5 different business fields or disciplines, for contacts for networking, information, and other purposes related to your career goals, through work, by joining different clubs, associations, organizations, etc. You, like most other people, probably already know at least 200 other people, counting family, relatives, friends, co-workers, fellow students, etc., so by the end of this year you should have 400, next year 600, third year 800, and so on. But not just anybody - choose wisely. If each of them knows 200 others, in only three years you will have access to (200 X 800 =) 160,000 people, friends of friends, a people power base that can be pure gold to any career.
Task 3. Develop a personal support team for yourself, of 3 to 5 other like-minded careerists heading in the same directions. They will help you, but you must also help them in turn, meaning you have to negotiate deals, share, take action. This is the Career Support Team that we have been discussing. (See Chapter 8 for details.)
Task 4. Slowly, at the rate of no more than 2 to 4 groups a year, join at least the following:
1 political organization
2 business organizations (local BB or C of C can be one)
1 social/fraternal group
1 educational group
1 civic association
1 local community group
1 sports club
1 hobby club
1 library reading group or other literary connection
1 music, art, museum, or other cultural group
1 technical group, such as a computer club
1 travel or food or other leisure club
1 religious group, any kind
     Also, volunteer in at least 2 community events or projects a year.
In short, Task 4 is to develop a full social life in order to be seen as an active, community-oriented, and culturally aware person, and meet many other people and make valuable connections, and (planning long term here), aiming to meet political and business leaders, and thus possible future employers, business partners, investors, in a few more years. (You have how many work years ahead? ___ )
Task 5. Write. Since US schools and colleges have been turning out so many illiterate graduates for the past 3 to 4 decades, almost every company today is desperately seeking literacy in new staff and job applicants. [Companies are beginning to realize that becoming more involved and active in the daily public education process, from a to z, might alleviate this problem, but they don't yet realize that abandoning unrealistic expectations about public education and having their own private company schools would largely solve this and many other employee, staff, and management problems, very economically, and almost overnight, which is why I have developed my SASS Facilities to do for them.] You have great value to these companies (and to your career) if you can prove your own high literacy by getting several articles a year published in your local or regional press, or nationally, if possible. These might be about your career, factual writing such as a technical or scientific report on a new product or procedure or discovery, or an overview and broad analysis of your chosen field and your specialty in it, with some projection of the future, or people articles, or on politics, art, etc. If your target company receives clips of these, along with your resumé, this gives you awesome clout. This is a truly unfair advantage over any other applicants for the same position. If you plan so that you can easily update these as news comes out about that topic, to use again next year (or in different publications) you can soon become known as an expert in your specialty, greatly boosting your career potential.
Task 6. If all you want is just a job, that's all you'll find. If you want to develop a career, it takes more effort, but is worth more, too. First define your own goals and needs, and then target the specific few companies that can help you most, and you can help most, and collect information on each. Select only 5 to 10 companies you would like to work for, and what jobs you want to do in them. Do a brief (2-3 pages) study on each company, including products, locations, size, number of people, market segment, employees, current names and addresses of officers, etc. Write out a plan for each company, how you would advise it (as if you were a member of the Board of Directors) to grow in the near and middle future, beat its competition, or achieve whatever else it's major goals are. Tell also how you think you could personally benefit that company if you worked for them in the capacity you seek. When an employer sees you are this serious about his company, he gets very serious about you. This will take you a few months to a year, and it will not be easy, but will be well worth it.
Task 7. Visualize. Imagine your successes and achievements, writing it out as a fictional story or diary or in more worldly terms, your own career for the next 20+ years, with at least one major career change per decade. Then do everything you possibly can to make it come true.
Task 8. Plan and pledge your personal participation in a cause or act(ion) of real and serious benefit to humanity, nation, or a deserving group, that will justify your existence and cost you a substantial sacrifice in time and effort and money rather than for personal benefit. This will demonstrate your commitment and dedication to more than yourself. It must be something specific, unique, and ongoing, not just a quickie. For instance, you might pledge to help raise $20 million for the Red Cross Disaster Fund over the next 5 years. (This example is too average; choose something unique enough to show your personal interest and creativity to prospective employers and contacts.)
Task 9. Script your own video Internet resumé, indicating how you would direct, star in, and use it to help you obtain the position you seek, and detailing a few shots and specific actions, some dialogue, some things to emphasize, some to de-emphasize, and so forth. Where would you shoot it, and how many minutes, scenes, etc.?   Your Career Support Team will help in this (you will help them with theirs, in turn) and must be honest, and you are to identify some major problems and work out at least two possible solutions to each problem.
Task 10.   Be married. The numbers are conclusive about this. I do not understand it, and maybe nobody does, but employers do not give trust and raises and promotions to single people as much or as often as to married people. Being married is more than just having a spouse and kids, being a member of the community, having roots and affiliations and relationships - it is also being committed as few single persons can be, and maybe being so locked in that you must be as obedient as a dog, and therefore 99.9% dependable, in the eyes of the employer. Mortgages and other home and family responsibilities are very effective as economic 'anchors' and human ‘dog-collars'. That may sound cynical, but it's my take on it, from almost 60 years of observation.
Task 11 might be to use all the professional help you can get in each of the above, such as contracting professional and ghost writers to make your literary work the best possible, just as you would get a dietician to plan the best menu, a masseur to get the best body toning, etc. And don't forget to use the best possible career coach you can find. (212- 876-5483)

Summary: A Career is a Lifelong Process
Obviously you cannot do all these 10 items tomorrow, or this month, or this year, and you may not have to do all of them, but each one that you do, even partially, will increase your career potential, beginning almost immediately.
In short, your career is an ongoing process, lasting the rest of your life, which you plan, step by step, year by year, to achieve your personal and career goals, which decides how and when you do each of these items. It will certainly not come out exactly as you plan, of course, but far ahead of someone not having any plan at all.

Help Wanted Ads
If you want to be more than a clerk all your life, you have to beat out all others seeking the same good positions. An average of 30 people responds to every job ad in newspapers, and many more than that respond to a really good one. (When I was shooting videos, I placed an ad in the Village Voice for a video photographer helper, offering only $12.50 an hour, and got 322 phone calls from applicants during the next two weeks!)
The intelligent careerist seldom answers help wanted ads. You do not want to subject yourself to the slow and humiliating process of being weeded down and sifted through like a vegetable bin. The results are usually poor for both applicant and company. (Thus the current popularity of on-line methods?) Instead, to beat out all of those other applicants, you will seek out positions before the employer ever advertises them! I can show you how.
In some cases, you will create a job for yourself, in one of the companies you select, who needs someone like you, with some special talent or ability or knowledge or experience you possess. One company had no Department of Innovation manager, until one of my clients created that department, and that job there, for himself.
Let me repeat: Without exception, every company in the nation is always looking for people who will help them achieve their goals in sales, production, and every other purpose.
The only problem is that they can not know you from ten million other people who are definitely NOT what they want. They must use methods for employee selection which protect them from 'dummy overload'. So you must use methods to get through, past, or around those barriers, like the above, and the following:
The best of all is personal contact. Second is professional fame in your field, being so good at your job that everyone wants you, and they all call you, so you can pick your job, usually at your desired salary. Third is power in your field, which is almost as good. We will discuss other methods, too. They all depend upon your skill at the people arts, which is why I spend so much time on that subject, in this book, and in all my coaching programs.

48 RULES FOR CAREER SUCCESS
Most people labor all their lives at boring jobs, not at all understanding the path to even the least career and personal success. While a few people do know some or many of these 'rules', and some work them out over a lifetime of mistakes, few people realize and follow enough of them. This list of helpful directives has never before, to the best of my knowledge, been put down in a single complete set. I offer it here as a basic set of rules (and more to my Career Coaching clients) to apply as each sees fit in his or her life and career situations. You can now do the same.
With each item below, consider its costs and benefits, order, and other considerations, if and before applying it in your life and toward your career needs. Please forgive any apparent duplications - some things are worth saying twice, and others have several aspects.
Career Rule #1. Never rely on one job or income - always have at least two sources of income at all times (repeat, at all times), and the second job or income-producing work preferably in a field different from the primary; you always want to be prepared for downsizing, seizing opportunities, making moves fast, getting out of a bad situation, asserting, and to be able to appear equal to anyone else, independent, and able to stand up for your principles, etc.
2. Always develop another person, your #2, to take over your job so you can instantly move up and take over the next job up the ladder, or go on vacation, or seize other opportunities before they cool off, and to have time to prepare yourself for speeches and other activities and opportunities. Train him well, and have him sub for you, so you do not have to worry about the job being done as well as or better than you do it, motivating him with promise of having that job permanently, or promotion up the ladder with you, as appropriate.
3. Help the person above you get his promotions so you can get his job when he moves up; learn his job by helping him, and even doing it for him (subbing for him when he goes on vacation, etc., just as your #2 subs for you, above), and making sure he knows you can do it, and that others (especially his boss) know you can do it, too, so you are the first (and preferably the only) person thought of when they need a stand-in (or replacement) for him.
4. Know the people as well as the job - the people doing and managing the work are at least as important as the work itself. Get credit from management for your workers for their efforts and their good job. Study each and what motivates him or her as an individual, their personal preferences in carrots and sticks, goals, needs, desires, fears, etc.
5 The more friends you have, the more options you have. Make friends. Every single one you possibly can.
6 Socialize, go to every meeting and gathering, every possible convention, event, ceremony, function, outing, etc., and simply meet as many people as you possibly can.
7 Collect people. Research each person you meet: Who are their friends, and friends' friends, and circles, to what clique belong, power and influence of each, overt and covert, connections, etc.?
8 Show respect, to get respect; courtesy, to get courtesy.
9 Build alliances; alone you can do nothing. Lateral, horizontal, and in depth, and diversity, so you have alternatives, options, power of cooperation, resources, knowledge, experience, abilities, talents, etc., to draw on when needed.
10 Succor, to be succored. Not only to obligate others, but help to be helped when you need it
11 Become known, seen, stand out, get others to talk about you (co-op with a friend - talk about him, promote each other, but never state it, just imply help me and I help you, so he talks about you and promotes you in turn.)
12 Take sides and positions; build a reputation for judgement, impartiality, strength, dependability, etc.
13 Find out dirt, where the bodies are buried; keep stationery, duplicate lists of clients and customers and co-workers at home, prepare for retaliation if screwed, and to help alliances. This is big power, but never to abuse, or use lightly.
14 Use power, or lose it. Be seen to use it, but for beneficial causes only, never to hurt or vindictively or petty.
15 Remember 4 Ps: Praise in Public, Punish in Private.
16 Speak at public events, give introductions, keynote addresses, cornerstone layings, openings, etc., and to meet others of power and prestige being seen at the same.
17 Entertain at home and out, and to meet others
18 Be married, and have children, even if you have to adopt. Make sure spouse knows and understands your goals and goes along actively, or at least will not delay, interfere, sabotage, damage by stupidity or ignorance - keep your spouse informed, up to date. Get your spouse to help in keeping people files, making calls, correspondence, entertaining, etc. You cannot do a career nearly as well without a cooperative and involved spouse.
19 Have interests and hobbies; be active in arts, sports, etc., to appear multi-dimensional, balanced, whole, and to meet others. Invite business connections to these events, and these people to business events when appropriate, to build your reputation, prestige, and contact base.
20 Volunteer, plan, contribute, be active in charity, benefits, local schools, hospitals, community events; bring others, help raise money for, meet others. (But never touch any money itself, or any dispensing of it, yourself - that is where the crooks go and you do not want to be associated with them in any way, or with people who make mistakes, or misuse funds; you are in administration, management, governance, not the tawdry details anyone can do.)
21 Participate in politics, especially in local community, doesn't matter which party, and to meet others and make connections and find chances of speaking, community involvement, etc.
22 Join associations, clubs, societies, brotherhoods, and as many other kinds of groups as possible, and be active in them, to meet others, become known, establish reputation.
23 Join and be active in a church, synagogue, or other religious institution, especially helping the poor, and in other beneficial community activities, and to meet others, etc.
24 Take classes, read, study, continue to constantly improve yourself, your abilities and skills. Take a memory class if necessary, so you can remember the names and personal and business details of all people you meet.
25 Teach, mentor, lead, build a dependent following, help them get ahead, so they support you, in turn, down the road.
26 Join and be active in committees, take responsibility, and to meet others.
27 Write, report, get credit for and get your name on the work of others by editing, helping them with researching and writing it, etc., and get billing at top, help other writers get published and known, for credit in it.
28 Get all possible periodicals and books in your specialty, and build a small personal library about it, and even hire a clipping service if necessary, to keep up with latest advances, equipment, methods, news, events, and especially the people in it, and write to them, send congratulations on their successes, approve and support their causes, etc. Share this knowledge with others, and impress them with your expert knowledge, and make connections.
29 Court the press, be a stringer, invite media people to events, give copies of your speeches, introduce reporters to others, get reciprocal inside track.
30 Become an expert in at least one field or subject - get published, even if you must pay for help at first - good investment, establishing reputation, getting known, etc.
31 Praise and extol others (without sucking up) to appear knowledgeable, discerning, aware, perceptive, etc.
32 Cultivate your extended family, their connections, etc.
33 Diarize. Record ALL social interactions, connections, record all commitments, events, who was there, said what, did what, spoke to whom (to know their connections).
34 Get a p/t secretary, send out mail, write to editors, etc.
35 Accumulate titles and credits, so you can have a newsworthy bio when interviewed by press as an expert, to add weight, authority, to suggestions or speeches you make.
36 Collect every possible certificate, accreditation, award, diploma, etc., as these impress the hell out of some people, and add weight when they recommend you to others for a job or promotion. Help others get awards, certificates, etc., so you can recommend them, in turn.
37 Network. Give and participate in recognition functions.
38 Treat all others well; your friends as if they will become enemies someday (never share too much, or all your tricks and secrets and knowledge and connections), and treat your enemies as if they could someday become partners and friends (respectfully and honorably) - because it happens so often in real life you must be prepared for it. (Your records and files on them all will help and guard and guide you.)
39 Have a career plan, and a life plan, meshing, and plan all activities accordingly, avoiding wasted effort, mistakes, etc., and review them every few months, to keep them detailed enough to be useful, flexible enough to allow for real life change, opportunities and emergencies, new ideas, different people, jobs, etc.
40 Participate. Do something. Observation, inspection, study, learning, analysis, logic, thinking, decision, are all vital, but they don't get it done, until you take action.
41 Go out and do things with others; turn acquaintanceships into friendships - you can never have too many friends. Loners incur suspicion; be seen as gregarious.
42 Be a star, model, example, role model for others to follow and emulate.
43 Motivate others.
44 Ask for help, and offer help. Volunteer. This makes friends out of others. They see you as human, like them, imperfect, understandable, when you ask for their help.
45 Get it in writing; a diamond may be a girl's best friend, but a contract is the best friend of any career - minded guy or gal.
46   Team up; do more together than individually. Find a way to use a buddy system on every possible occasion.
47    Never work alone. Always have witnesses you can trust to stand by you later, should there be a dispute about what was said or done by you or another to or for you. CYA (Cover Your Ass), but you should be cool about it, think it out ahead of time to make it go smoothly and gracefully.
48 Take acting lessons, to learn body language, control your own body, gestures, reactions, posture, expressions, to give to others the best or most desired or effective messages.
There are two more Career Success Rules we will get to, next.

Nobody can do all of these, of course, but doing as many of them as you can, as applicable, will help you immeasurably in developing your career and your life.
What else?

End of Chapter Five
Click HERE to go to Chapter 6

Click HERE to go to the Introduction
Click HERE to go to Table of Contents
Click HERE to go to Chapter 1    Your Career, your Life Work
Click HERE to go to Chapter 2    People Study
Click HERE to go to Chapter 3    Your Career in Context
Click HERE to go to Chapter 4    Setting Your Career and Life Goals
Click HERE to go to Chapter 5    Long Term Career Development
Click HERE to go to Chapter 6    Career Strategies and Tactics
Click HERE to go to Chapter 7    Realistic Expectations
Click HERE to go to Chapter 8    Your Personal Career Support Team
Click HERE to go to Chapter 9    Team Management; Research and Writing
Click HERE to go to Chapter 10   How to become an Expert
Click HERE to go to Chapter 11   Miscellaneous, and Executive Summary
Click HERE to go to Chapter 12   Your Personal Career Research Resources
Click HERE to go to Chapter 13   Those Awful People At Work Problems
Click HERE to go to Chapter 14   Assumptions and Expectations
Click HERE to go to Appendices
Click HERE to go to Bibliography
Click HERE to go to Index
Click HERE to go to Personal Career Coaching FAQ
Click HERE to return to my HomePage, to access COP and other documents

Careerists, please contact me directly to obtain your own personal printed copy of Career Zen, more complete and up to date, especially with the latest on Internet career information sources and research.   Note that Career Zen is privately published, is only for my clients, and is not available in any bookstore or from any other source.

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