Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in
coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt
from the most recent session with Nicola
James, Managing Partner of Thomas
Brooke International.
During this week’s coach call, Nicola fielded a lot of questions about career transition. One caller in the luxury real estate market is trying to transition into another career (for obvious reasons). This poses a double problem since their compensation package is out of line with what they can realistically expect to get in a job transition.
Nicola’s view is that is possible to make a transition, even in the current job climate. All hires are being made based on perceived value. When you stay in your comfort zone, it’s much easier to show your value and for the party on the hiring side to perceive that value and understand it. When you are in transition, you are outside that comfort zone which means you need to try a different approach. First you have to do a lot of soul-searching and determine who you are at heart. What makes you tick? Once you know understand what really motivates you, you can more easily present your value as it relates to a company or position you are considering.
As
part of the self-assessment, you will need to determine what your
characteristics and skill sets are. List those characteristics that are not
industry-specific or require special knowledge or expertise. Make a list of
those abilities that are common to the job or company in which you are
interested. These are your transferrable values. Nicola compared the process to
creating Lego blocks; breaking your expertise into components that can be
reassembled to see what else you can build. Now you can present these innate
values to managers at the hiring company in a form that makes it easy to show
how you can be of value to them. Don’t leave them questioning how you fit.
Once
you have identified your basic value proposition, you can start looking at
adjacent business segments; those with the same sell cycles. Showing common
ground between your experience and the needs of your target company makes the
hiring authority more comfortable and open. Remember that companies are looking
for someone who offers something with a bit of a difference; someone who
understand their needs but with a fresh perspective.
Compensation
was also central to this discussion. One caller noted that many job sites and
applications require a compensation figure. What’s the best tack to take? Base
comp? Total comp? With or without benefits? Nicola’s advice was to cite base
comp but make sure it’s the minimum you need. If you can demonstrate your value
then companies will discuss compensation. If you are unsure about salaries for
a new arena look at resources such as www.salary.com.
