Seeing Life through His Lens

It’s easy to get wrapped up in your life, to take your eyes off the prize – Jesus. When this happens, your life begins to take a different direction. But when you put your eyes back on Him, your life takes on a whole new meaning. It has a deeper purpose – one that fulfills your deepest desires and gives Him the greatest glory.

You were designed for a specific purpose that only you can fulfill … you ARE God’s masterpiece. He takes great delight in you. He takes your God-given gifts and talents and aligns them with incredible opportunities that are often too amazing to comprehend. See how this one student demonstrated that he IS God’s masterpiece, created for good works.

How to Demonstrate You’re God’s Masterpiece

1. Understand your individual God-given gifts and talents; find opportunities where you can put them to work. (Note: Registered Explorers can take a comprehensive spiritual gifts and assessment test for FREE – register now.)
2. Shower others with His unconditional love that knows no boundaries, regardless of who you encounter.
3. Excel in whatever you set out to do.
4. Become well-known and respected in your line of work.
5. Above all, spend time in His Word. Talk to Him. Listen to Him. Let Him be the one to guide your steps as to how He wants you to boldly demonstrate that you’re His masterpiece.

2012 Opportunities

With 2012 just kicking off, what steps are you taking to demonstrate that you’re God’s masterpiece? A simple way to do this is identify and track your SMART goals each week. You can now do this with ease by using the Review & Preview Exercise.

Used the Review & Preview Exercise before? If so, what were your results?

As I sit before a blank computer screen reflecting upon the end of 2011, I thank God for His kindness to share a clearer vision for Crossroads Career Network:

To be a thriving, Christ-centered community that helps
everyone find jobs, careers and God’s calling

Reflecting Upon His Vision for Crossroads Career Network

I appreciate too God’s revealing the unique combination of values which I believe guide us into realizing His vision:

1. Love Upward, Inward, Outward. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39
2. Hear and Follow God’s Calling. “Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls …’” Jeremiah 6:16
3. Walk as God’s Workmanship. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
4. Serve Others as We are Gifted. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10
5. Be Better Together in Him. “Grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:15-16

Adding An Additional God-inspired Value

I also want to give thanks for God’s revealing a 6th value which I share with you today.

6. Go therefore. Make disciples. As we are we are walking through our everyday lives, let us be prayerful, intentional and alert to make disciples – that is – students and followers. It is not just about helping everyone find jobs and careers, but rather also to hear and follow God’s calling into a relationship with Him.

Wherever we go and with everyone we meet, we can be witnesses to what God has done in our lives, testifying to the positive and meaningful changes Jesus has caused in each of us. As Jesus said in His very last words Jesus …

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and
you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

How About You?

As you look into the beginning of 2012, what is God calling you to do to make disciples?

While you can’t control the world around you, you can control what thoughts you choose to entertain and what words you allow to come out of your mouth (which are often a reflection of what’s in your heart).

Take Action!

As 2 Corinthians 10:5 says we are to ‘take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.’ So if you’re confused, frustrated, anxious, or maybe feeling hopeless, it’s time to take a stand.

Don’t wait for someone somewhere to create a new job. Take control of yourself. Don’t wait for anyone else anymore. You got the power – use it!

Start with Prayer.

The One Who made you, and the work prepared for you, wants to hear from you. If you have not called Him in a while, do it now. It is not better later. Tell Him how you really feel. If you want a job … maybe even THE job … tell Him! Ask Him what steps to take. Pray for others, and ask them to pray for you.

Connect with People.

You cannot do this thing alone. Join a team or start a team job creation team. Help each other figure out what you can offer to people who will pay. Teammates can provide each other encouragement, counsel, contacts and accountability.

Do the Plan.

I can count over 21,500 people on our website who signed up for our workbook and resources. We have hundreds of volunteers across the country helping people do the plan. The plan is a simple 6-step process. Notice, I did not say easy. It takes hard work to get work. The secrets to making the plan work is our new 2012 Workbook – Maximize Your Career and:

• Praying to hear and follow God’s calling.
• People helping people every step of the way.

This Christmas – Create Your Own Job.

Start with prayer. Connect with people. Follow the plan. All I want for Christmas is job creation for you and me. Write me with your comments, questions and critiques.

Merry Christmas! May Jesus’ love grant you peace as you remember who controls our tomorrows.

Validating Your Online Identity

You see, over the last several years, it has become common for recruiters and hiring managers to “look at you” online before they hire you. In fact, a recent survey indicated that almost 90% (yes, 9 out of 10) U.S. companies will use social networking for recruiting in 2011. So what does this mean for the average job seeker? And will this make an impact on the average person’s job search?

First … let’s do a simple test. Using both Google and Bing, search for yourself. Try both your legal name and your common name – for example, if your first name is William, also look for Bill. By looking carefully at every entry returned on the first two pages (probably 40 lines total) of results from Bing and Google, answer these questions:

1. Of the 40 or so results returned by both searches, how many of them were definitely you and not just advertisements with your name displayed? If the result is 20 or more, you have a strong start on a digital identity, if it’s less than 5, then you are not well identified. Anything in the middle is a minor digital identity.
2. Looking just at the results that are definitely related to you from step 1, are they presenting you as a strong professional, are they showing you in an un-professional light, or is it something in-between? If over 25% of your results are showing the “professional you”, then you’re on the right track.
3. And of these professional results from step 2, is there at least one result that was provided by another professional that is referencing your professional work or your professional skills? If yes, then you have a modestly strong peer-relevance…a good thing.

If you can say that you are easily located and identified using both Bing and Google and that the findings are professional and others recognize your skills, then you are on the way to having a decent digital career identity!

However, if the results are mostly photos of you dancing on the table at a keg party, or text from online discussions where you are ranting about Obama-care or the Bush Tax Cuts, or your name didn’t show up much at all, then you have a potential digital career identity problem. You see, most companies that might want to hire you will want you to effectively represent them to their clients. And if the first (or most dominant) things that they find of you online are un-professional or undesirable, then they will pass over hiring you … they have plenty of other candidates to choose from.

OK, so let’s assume for the moment that the results from the above test were inconclusive (or you want a 2nd opinion regarding the diagnosis), try out some of these sites:

• Here’s a decent online identity calculator that uses a similar approach to my steps above, but they drill down a little deeper in the analysis.
• If you’ve had any “public records” that are of a concern, the 123people or peekyou websites probably knows about it. Again, make sure to try out variations of your name (e.g., Bill, Willie, William)
• Of course there’s LinkedIn … how complete and engaging is your profile? You need a solid summary, at least a 90% profile completion, and 3 or more recommendations to be taken seriously.
• If you are active with Twitter or Facebook, then check out Klout or Branchout to see how you compare with others (shows interaction with others of significance).

Improving Your Digital Career Identity

Now that you have a sense of your current digital identity, what do you do to make it better?

• As I said in my previous post, start a blog that shares your professional and technical talents (not what you had for lunch today, or political rantings, or your beliefs in alien abductions).
• Spend some time in LinkedIn and post some well-considered questions or answers in the Answers area. Focus on answering questions to show your skill and knowledge in your profession or to refer to an expert in your network, thus showing your industry knowledge or connections.
• Find a few profession-oriented blogs and discussions on the Internet and engage in debate or opinion that shows you’ve studied — offering references to well-respected professionals shows you are well read and capable of research.
• Locate the job/career related social sites that are less well known and post your profile there – places like Spoke, Plaxo, Visible.Me, and others.

Also, I should mention a few things you should avoid doing online that will not help your online career reputation:

• Don’t engage in the “banter” of responding to online news articles. There are inevitably people that will disagree with you and belittle you — and trying to defend yourself in these arenas is a useless effort that only serves to tarnish your reputation.
• Unless you are pursuing a life in politics, don’t ever discuss a political issue online. If you do, try to stay “center” and “neutral” — a strong liberal or conservative stance can hurt your opportunities with some firms. Also, avoid other “boundary” topics like religion, race, immigration, bigfoot, etc.
• Set your “visibility” on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and other social sites to only show your “public” face to people who are not in your group/circle/network. For example, in LinkedIn you can choose to have your photo or your education only available to your network and not the entire world.
• Go back onto Facebook and un-tag all the photos that are un-professional. No, on Facebook you don’t have to be someone you aren’t, just don’t let everyone see whom you happened to be when you weren’t thinking about whom you would want to be.

Let me leave you with a digital identity warning…the Web seldom forgets. It is almost impossible to clean-up or remove your “blemishes” from the Web. Some companies, like Reputation Defender, charge big bucks to help clean up your mess (or clear your name), but even these can’t resolve all your identity challenges. Be proactive and manage your identity by posting things you want your future employers to see. This way, when the recruiter or hiring manager is looking at you online, you can be all they want you to be!

Bottom Line: Building a career-oriented online reputation is key in today’s job search. Be aware of what the Internet knows about you. Make sure that you can be found easily via a web search and that it displays a modest amount of your professional talents, not just your social interactions. Take some time to clean up any items than might be a detractor for a potential employer and then spend time to propagate your “professional self” to key professional websites.

But back to the book I was reading … it was Keith Ferrazzi’s “Never Eat Alone” that got me thinking about networking and job hunting in the Digital Age. Much as the world is watching books slowly migrate from paper to e-paper, I’ve noticed that resumes and networking are making a similar shift. Most notable is the job search migration from a one or two page paper resume to a digital portfolio or for career seekers choosing to develop an online networking presence. Ken’s book (and his website) identified publishing newsletters and emailing them to your contacts as a key networking strategy. But since 2004, when he authored most of this book, the social media boom on the Internet has offered numerous alternatives to emailing (which is just so 90s). And while there are many online tools to consider (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Diigo, etc.), one of the most under-utilized in the job hunt is blogging.

How to Use Blogging to Boost Your Job Search

“Blogging? I don’t want to tell everyone what I had for lunch today and what TV show I watched last night!” Yes, that was one of the first responses I got when I spoke to a group of people about blogging. Most of them really had no sense of the great diversity of blogging and the images they conjured up of blogging’s less-than-stellar uses took me a while to get out of their heads. The new blog image I tried to impress on them was a digital repository of their skills and successes. Think of this as a way to share some of your accomplishments or insights relevant to your career with potential clients, employers, or peers. To do this effectively you need a strategy, so here’s a starter guide to developing a “career blog” that can be an effective part of your job hunt strategy.

Sort & Select

1. Make a list of all of your talents where you have some level of professional expertise clearly related to your job search. Pick one (or maybe two or three very closely related topics) and start writing a few 1-page (2-4 paragraphs) articles on various aspects of your experience in a brief and to-the-point fashion. This does two things…it gets you used to writing for other readers and also helps you decide if you have a variety of useful things to say on a specific topic. If the articles aren’t interesting to you, they probably aren’t interesting to me. If you need to, scrap that topic, pick another area of expertise, and try writing again.
2. After you have written 7-10 articles on a topic relevant to your career, get a trusted “reviewer” (spouse, co-worker, professor, etc.) to read your writings and give you some serious critique. Ask them to find at least 10 things to fix in each article. This will give them a “license to criticize” without which they may not really provide any useful feedback.
3. Now, with several articles in-hand, find a blog service (WordPress.com is my favorite, but Blogger.com or others are also fine) and build a basic “test” blog site. This is where you practice blogging, so set the Privacy setting to allow only you and your trusted reviewers to see the content. Work out the themes, the colors, key pages (an “About” page, a “Link” page, a “Resume” page, etc.), and all the other elements of this test blog. Put up at least the first 4-5 articles and get your trusted reviewer to look over the site for layout, professionalism and content.

Publish & Monitor

1. Next, once you have the test site looking just like you want it, create your public blog. This means selecting a meaningful URL/site-name, copying over your theme settings, populating the first few articles and setting the privacy to be open to the public. Make sure you enable comments so you can start to engage with your audience, but initially set comments to require you to approve each post.
2. Over the next few weeks, keep writing new articles on your test site so you always have a cache of 3-5 unpublished articles. Then about once a week, copy over one of the articles from your test blog to your public blog. If any comments appear, decide if you want to approve them and make sure to post a response to each of them.

Participate & Refer

1. Now that you have a few key articles that show off your skill and talent, you need to “advertise” your expertise. I find that looking for other blogs related to my industry, where I can engage in discussions or use the LinkedIn.com “Answers” feature to help answer someone’s query, provides a great platform for me to provide a brief insight on a topic that’s being discussed and to direct readers back to my blog for more details. (Don’t overtly advertise your site … as you might get marked as a spammer.)
2. After the site has about 10 articles, it’s time to link your blog page to your other key marketing tools. You might mention your blog in cover letters, put the URL on your networking card, enter it as your blog link or your website link in your LinkedIn profile, put the blog’s URL as part of your signature on your e-mail messages get your friends to add your blog onto their blogs as a favorite link. Also, if your site can’t be found from Yahoo, Google or Bing searches, try to get these sites to index your blog.

Tips & Hints

1. Make sure you keep this blog career-focused and not a social blog (put your favorite shows and what you had for lunch over on Facebook). While you’re at it, look over all your other social sites and make sure you’re presenting a strictly professional image to those people that you haven’t accepted as “friends.”
2. Make sure to keep the blog active … publish as least one article every week or two until you build up a professional collection of topics across your skill set. Ask your trusted reviewer to post a question/comment or two, just to set the tone for other readers that you are open and responsive to comments.

Insights & Identity

1. You should clearly set the tone throughout the blog that you are a professional on a certain topic and that you can offer insights and information relevant to your specialty or industry. If people are impressed with your writings, make sure they can easily find your contact information and can reach you in a timely manner. Your digital identity, including your professional blog, can be a great way for potential hiring managers or recruiters to learn more about you, thus giving you an edge when they are looking for something more than just a resume to lead them to their interview candidate.

Bottom Line: Blogging is a very underutilized feature of the job hunt and professional networking. You can reach a much wider audience and you can enhance your career opportunities by adding a blog to your digital identity. Write career relevant articles and publish them on a blog, make sure they are well-written and reviewed, connect your blog to your other self-marketing methods, and keep your blog active and professional.

Thanksgiving is a great day to announce our 2012 Crossroads Career Workbook “Maximize Your Career.”

Thanks be to God for the thousands of volunteers who have served tens of thousands of career explorers – from whom we have learned much about the latest and greatest tips and tools to find jobs, careers and calling.

Much has changed since we published our first Crossroads Career Explorer’s Guide in year 2000.

Update or Be Out-of-Date.

The world of work is dramatically different since we started, so now we update and upgrade our career resources throughout every year. To survive and thrive, your job search and career transition tactics and techniques must be up-to-date…

• It was not that long ago that LinkedIn was a fence, and Twitter was a bird.
• Today, social media are keys to open doors of opportunities.
• Once upon a time, only a full-time employed position led to job security.
• Now, you can string together a variety of contract jobs and build a new career.
• It used to be that you had to relocate to find a better job.
• Currently people can work around the world via web and never leave home.

If you have job search or career book that is even one year old, you are behind before you even get started. Get our 2012 Workbook for free and see!

God’s Calling Never Changes.

Jesus was clear when He was on earth. We are best when we love God with all heart, soul and mind, followed by our loving others as we love ourselves. Therefore, when you come to a crossroads in your career, hear and follow His calling to “stand and look. Ask for the ancient paths. Ask for the good way, and walk in it.”

Why?

Because you “are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God created beforehand that you walk in them.” He knows who you are, how He made you, and what He has planned for you … a future and hope. After all, the secret to a long successful career is simply to serve others as you are gifted, faithfully administering the grace of God. It gets even better when we team UP with others, each of us giving our best for each other.

Pass It Forward.

Luck is when opportunity meets someone who is prepared.

Give your family and friends a head start on the new year. Like a skipping stone on water, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year will slip through this month and next, and 2012 will be here!

The workbook not only has a job and career search guide, but also practical exercises, write and write devotionals and more than 200+ online resources to help people find jobs, careers and God’s calling.

Blessings for a Happy Thanks Giving,
Brian

Brian Ray
Founder and President
Crossroads Career Network

Are you willing to relocate? (Yes/No)

I really want to answer, “Maybe” — but that’s not a choice. To help you determine an answer, let me ask you a few other questions:

1. If they offered you an excellent salary, would you consider moving?
2. Are you absolutely bound to your current geography?
3. Is there a support network where they might move you?

I’ve personally always answered the relocation question as “Yes.” If the compensation was adequate (say around a 7-digit salary), I’d relocate almost anywhere. For me, it’s a balance of compensation versus inconvenience. Sometimes you can’t relocate due to external issues (aging parents, legal issues, etc.), so saying “no” might be necessary. But think hard on this … is your answer based on a valid constraint or just a preference?

Outside of these first two options, you have to decide if it makes sense to move to a new city, state or country. I would hate to be stranded in a strange city, far from friends and family, when the company pulled the plug on my new job. So, I’d advise the safe approach of accepting relocation only to locations where you have a support system in place in case you need it. Moving to within 50 miles of friends or relatives gives you access to resources that you might need to get settled in or to even help out if the job opportunity falls through once you’ve moved.

So, my recommendation for relocation is to say “Yes” online, but when they talk with you, your answer can be “Yes … it depends.”

How much are you willing to travel? (0% – 100%)

Sometime the posting doesn’t indicate if it’s a travel job or not. So what’s the best answer? First, determine if you can travel at all! Some people have physical limitations or other valid reasons to travel only rarely … if at all. You probably want to go ahead and mark 25% even if you can handle only a couple of days a month. This gives the recruiter a realistic idea that you can travel, but only rarely. In general, if you can handle a modest amount of travel, go ahead and mark 50%, as this sets the tone with the recruiter that you can do what the job requires, but you value a certain work-life balance.

If the job posting says that it’s a travel position, then the recruiter is probably filtering off anyone that selected less than 50%. There are many consulting jobs where you fly out on Monday morning and return on Friday night. These are a bit less common than they used to be, but the job posts usually indicate it clearly as a “high travel” job and the recruiter expects you to answer 75% to 100%. If you can’t handle being out of town for at least 3 of every 4 weeks for the next 18 months, then answer truthfully at 50% or less.

For a basic rule of thumb … answering 0% or 100% usually indicates you are inflexible or you are overly anxious to land a job. Generally you should avoid these two values unless you want to send that message. Think about the next 12-18 months when responding to this question … and feel free to negotiate when you talk to them. You aren’t making a commitment with this information, you’re just providing guidance.

Desired Wages or Salary?

This is a tough one. There are two schools of thought on this. If you leave it blank, then the recruiter might favor a person that has listed their salary. However, if you enter it, you might be eliminated because your compensation requirement was outside the recruiter’s preferred range. What do you do?

First, you need to understand your worth and your baseline. How much is someone else, with your similar skill set, worth in today’s market? You might try exploring Salary.com, or a Jobstar.com salary link, or to the salary info at the Bureau of Labor Statistics to see what’s the norm in your geography. Next, look carefully at your budget and expenses. Cut out the non-essential things (Cable TV, sports club membership, etc.) and get down to just what you need to feed your family and keep from going bankrupt. That’s your baseline. Now, you should have 4 salary points … our baseline, your current/recent salary, the industry averages, and of course your desired salary.

Second, decide where you are in the job hunt. For example, if you have been unemployed and your funds are getting tight, entering a number between your baseline and your geography salaries increases the odds that you’ll be contacted. If you’re employed and looking for a change, then using a number between your geography and your current salary is a good choice. If you’re looking for an advancement and expect that your strong resume is enticing enough, you can fore-go posting the salary or you can list your desired salary.

I suggest you try it out a couple of different ways over the period of several weeks. Track the contacts you’re getting and decide which one is working the best for you.

Bottom Line:

There are several questions asked on a job application and/or in an interview that are for the benefit of the recruiter and not really for the benefit of the job seeker. Questions about salary, travel and relocation are common on job applications and interviews. Assess the level of travel you can handle, but avoid the 0% and 100% answers. For relocation, I always like to say I’m open to considering it, but if you absolutely can’t move, then state it. And before you answer any questions about salary, understand your budget, your worth and your geographic impact on wages. But when in doubt, leave these questions blank. Knock ‘em dead!

But what if I had been a tank commander looking for a civilian job?

You’ve spent years of your life serving this great country of ours in the military. It’s now time – you are about to be discharged. How can you translate your skills and experiences into memorable statements that make your resume stand out from the pack?

Veterans Resume Writing Tip #1: Display Your Veteran Credentials in a Prominent Location(s)

Not only do employers appreciate your disciplined work ethics and hard-working attitude, they also realize that your military skills are an invaluable asset to their workforce. In addition, The U.S. Department of Labor now offers employers up to a $9,600 credit for hiring veterans.

When creating your resume file name, make sure to include the word
‘Veteran’, along with the specific division you were in (i.e. Air Force Veteran). Also feature it when listing your name and contact information in the footer/header of your second page.

Veterans Resume Writing Tip #2: Feature Results in Your Resume.

Demonstrate your expertise and performance with a few statements. Learn “how to be a STAR candidate.” It ss the simplest way to demonstrate results in which you describe an accomplishment in terms of a Situation you face, the Task to be completed, the Actions you took and the Results you got.

Remember to provide specific examples, results from your time in the military that clearly demonstrate your expertise are encouraged. For your resume, highlight the Situation and show the Results. Don’t attempt to explain how you did it in the resume – that’s what the interview is for. For example:

In the midst of military budget cuts by 10%, streamlined processes to reduce costs by 18%.

Veterans Resume Writing Tip #3: List Results in Top Half of the First Page.

Given the volume of resumes, most people usually only scan the first page. Give it your best shot right at the beginning. Make it easy for me to find your results.

When I see results that relate to the job I have to fill, I’ll stop and read further or put it in a folder for later viewing. If not, I immediately move to the next resume. Your resume will get an initial 7-second scan – zip, zap, done.

Veterans Resume Writing Tip #4: Keep it Simple & Direct.

Write your resumes for people who don’t read, but rather scan resumes.

• Use bullet points.
• Keep phrases and sentences short.
• Use a simpler word versus a longer word.
• List complete thoughts on one line.

Veterans Resume Writing Tip #5: Target Your Resume on Specific Opportunities.

Be specific about the occupation you want. You can translate your military work experience into potential target opportunities at My Next Move for Veterans. Use language in each occupation that interests you to share your experience and achievements.

The Bottom Line

Resumes that show results get results. What kind of results? Interviews where you’ve set up questions that you can answer how you got those results! For more info, check out our video, podcast and webpage about resumes that get results – or visit our webpage focused on Hiring a Veteran Career Resources.

If you answered ‘yes’ to one or both questions, you’re not alone. All of us, at some point, feel confused and do not perfectly understand the direction that God wants us to follow.

In High School, I Had No Idea Which Career to Pursue

I personally am an expert at being confused. At times, I become consumed in discovering the journey that I forget about the One who set me on the journey in the first place and can see it in its totality.

As a teen, I was so confused as to which career direction to take, which major and minor to study, and which college to choose based on my interests. In hindsight, it seemed like a guessing game.

My Journey to Discover Purpose

Fast forward several years to the spring of 2009. After much prayer and waiting patiently on God to give me clear direction, He answered me. God blessed me with a precious, new desire – to support and assist high school students in their career journey.

Shortly after that revelation, I enrolled in graduate school for my Master’s in school counseling. During this time, I wasn’t 100% sure of my next steps – but I trusted in Him.

Knowing a lot about surrender, from previous years of confusion, I once again surrendered all of my confusion to God. I took time to be still and wait on Him after I obtained my Master’s degree.

Discovering My Potential

After months of patience, God opened a door that I could have never opened or planned for myself, even if I had been given the privilege to do so. God blessed me with a position at Crossroads Career Network where I create teen career development materials.

It amazes me how well He knows me. God gave me these initial desires to do both school and career counseling years ago. Then He provided me a place where I would be able to live out His plan on a daily basis. What a gift!

So if there’s ever a time where you feel God guiding you in a certain direction that doesn’t seem to make sense, trust Him. His ways are so much better than your own – by far!

Career Planning for High School Students – Simplified

Now it’s your turn to start planning ahead – and we now have the tools to help you discover your purpose. With our new teen career development materials, you can prepare yourself for life after high school.

These materials cover a basic 6-step process that helps you learn how to:

• Identify what makes you unique
• Gain insight into your career interests
• Find experiences that matter
• Prepare for an interview
• Explore pre-college prep resources

What is Your Next Step?

Using these materials and resources, you will be equipped with useful tools, which will make your lifelong career process more exciting rather than intimidating.

Most importantly, I encourage you to keep your eyes on God; because, it is He who unconditionally loves and created you in order to do good works. As it says in Ephesians 2:10:

“You are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that you should walk in it.”

To learn more about our teen career development program called Explore! Prepare for Life after High School, visit www.crossroadscareer.org/teens.

The fear of failure hangs in the air, whether it is writing a resume, networking with people you don’t know or interviewing with someone who is judge and jury.

May I suggest we approach job search like you are going trick or treating on Halloween?

Dress The Part 

Getting ready is half the fun. What costume will you wear? What will likely make the best impression? Make you stand out from the rest? Pick something you think they will like.

Think of your resume as your bag of goodies, but instead of getting, you are offering. Don’t forget to take a big bag, so you can get lots of sweet offers and referrals. Decorate the bag with your best accomplishments.

Plan your strategy carefully. Go where there is the greatest potential – people you know and places that seem to be doing well. Figure out how much time you have and how many door bells you can ring.

Practice Your Part

Don’t just say “Trick or treat!” Knock on the door, and when opened you tell them the role you want to play. Try the new 15-second elevator pitch:

• My name is
• I am a
• I do
• I enjoy it because
• I am looking for

Then whip out your resume … the equivalent of a trick or treat resume bag of goodies. Update your resume:

• Make headers shorter
• Use a fresh font – Verdana
• List the R part of STAR – Results
• Write one line “tweet” bullets
• Quote testimonials

Follow up with a WoW Interview^TM if you get invited inside. Get ready in advance with PPQ:

• Be Prepared
• Be Passionate
• Be Qualified

… and finish with …

• What you can do for them
• Reduce their risk
• Ask for the job

If you like the tips above, you will love this “Un/Re-Learning Networking, Resumes, Interviews” presentation from recent CCN Leader Conference Presentation.

How to Face the Fear

Going door to door to face people you don’t know can still be a scary thing.  To get ready for job search fear while you are out and about, work this Face the Fear exercise and watch this Overcoming Fear at Work video.

You can overcome job search jitters. Get skills, practice lots and exercise power, love and a sound mind. You can turn tricks into treats!