In fact, most people find that the more connections they make, the merrier it is for everyone.

… let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good  deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another …
Hebrews 10:24-25

Some of the most popular environments sponsored by churches are career groups, workshops and network meetings, where you can meet other Career Explorers, learn job search skills, get ideas and find referrals to others. It is best to meet as a group once a week at a regular time and place.

Meet with Others. 

Using the Workbook with others in a small group, in workshops or with a friend/mentor/coach is better than studying alone. The accountability, belonging and care with others multiplies your strength and wisdom. Here are tips for meeting with others:

1. Attend all the meetings.
2. Do all your homework before meetings.
3. Bring this Workbook and a Bible to every meeting.
4. Arrive early and plan to stay until it is over to take advantage of networking time.
5. Please pay attention to the facilitator(s), as well as to your fellow Career Explorers.
6. If you have questions, concerns or critiques, please share them with your facilitator(s).
7. Maintain confidentiality. What is said in the group should stay in the group.
8. Connect with others between meetings.

Effective Networking.

Effective networking starts with helping other people first. Seek to serve and add value to others. It is more blessed to give than receive. If you help enough people get what they want, you will eventually get what you want. Combine a positive attitude, courtesy and flexibility. Say what you will do and do what you say. Be creative, yet thoughtful of each person you contact.

It’s Better Together.

See if there is a Crossroads Career group located near you. You can also start a group in your church.

Also look for opportunities to connect with others through local business and professional networking groups; colleges and universities; job and career fairs; career and job placement centers – especially those sponsored by CareerOneStop centers.

Get Prepared – Career Crossings Ahead

Don’t wait until you are at a crossroads. Prepare in advance. Learn now how to navigate these decisive moments. First of all, start by thinking of yourself as a Career Explorer:

• Ready for adventure and discoveries.
• Reaching forward to what lies ahead.
• Finding jobs, careers and God’s calling!

Secondly learn and practice a 6-step process of walking through crossroads:

Notice in the diagram below that Attitude and Aptitude provide movement and direction that give your career Altitude, which leads to Searching, Sorting and Selecting. The first 3 steps are planning the work. The last 3 steps are working the plan.

Most people who are actively searching for new work are in steps 3 and/or 4. If you are exploring a career change, you might be in steps 2 and/or 3. Those who have been searching for a while may have walked through steps 1 through 6 and back again.

Many people find it helpful to know where they are, what is next and then to consider reviewing earlier steps to make changes in what they are doing based on what they have learned so far. Watch a short, online video that describes these 6 steps.

Write down the step you are in right now. Step _____.

While you are welcome to start anywhere you want, we recommend you begin with steps 1 and 2 as they are foundational to successfully walking through a crossroads. The most important part, however, is not in the 6 steps. It is to hear and follow God’s calling every step of the way.

Getting Started

To find the work God has prepared for you, get a copy of “Maximize Your Career” Workbook and use it:

• Online to search hotlinks
• In print to complete exercises
• With others to learn more

Check our locations or start a group with others:

• Workshops
• Courses
• Coaching

Explore crossroads in your career and discover that you are God’s workmanship – created for good works – which he prepared in advance that you walk in them.

Invest Your Time.

If you are unemployed, invest 40 hours a week. If you are employed, invest 7 hours a week. Smart planning and weekly commitment are required. Finding the right work is hard work that takes time!

• How long to find work? That is a tough question to answer, because it depends on your sense of urgency, how many hours you invest, what you are looking for, the market, your search plan and how well you execute it. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that the length of unemployment averages over 39 weeks!

• How long to change careers? It may take a few weeks to a few years. The more education and experience you need to change careers, the longer it will take. The key is to start now by discovering your strengths and targeting occupations and industries that need them most.

Invest Your Money.

In light of how much money you want to make, answer the question, “How much am I willing to invest?” Set a budget and consider including these potential expenses.

Whatever amount you decide, set aside the money and invest it wisely. Keep good records. Costs related to job search may qualify as tax deductions. Check with the IRS, your tax preparer or an accountant.

Invest Your Effort.

This Workbook will work for you if you work hard at it. Read every page. Complete every exercise. Read and write every devotional. When you find tough areas, ask for help, encouragement and support.

Plan your activities and make progress every week using SMART goals:

Specific: Set goals that are measurable. Define exactly what you want to accomplish.

Moderate: Select 2-5 goals per week. Too many goals can be overwhelming.

Accountability: Show and tell somebody what you plan to do, and let them know how you did.

Record: It is helpful and motivating to keep a written record of your goals and progress.

Time-activated: Put in your calendar goals by days and times during the week.

You can start with SMART goals on the “Weekly Progress Review & Preview” Exercise. To achieve your goals and make progress toward fun and profit.

•  Get your free copy of our “Maximize Your Career” workbook.
• Find or start a study group near you to work through the book.

• Career, according to Webster’s Dictionary, means, among many things, “a course, a passage; a profession for which one undergoes special training and which is undertaken as a permanent calling; an occupation or profession engaged in as a life work.”
• Calling comes from the Greek kaleo, which means “to call anyone, invite, summon.” It refers primarily to a divine call as it relates to a vocation or redemption.

The way to combine career and calling is to focus on hearing and following God’s calling, while you are in the midst of career planning and job search.

How to Hear and Follow God’s Calling

Having helped literally thousands of people through crossroads in their careers, we have heard a variety of different ways that people discern God’s calling. Here are a few we have heard with regularity:

• Worship God:  There is no calling without a Caller. Take dedicated time to worship, glorify, praise and thank Him. Then as you live and work every day from waking until sleeping, do everything to honor Him.
• Read and Study the Bible:  The Bible is God’s authority and our manual for living. Consider it as bread, and feed from it every day. If you have never read the Bible, consider starting with the book of John, Ephesians or Psalms.
• Pray:  Be in conversation with God every day, perhaps multiple times during every day. He is always available. Pray for guidance. Read a Psalm as your own personal prayer.
• Listen to God:  Prayer is two-way communication. In a journal, notebook or this Workbook, write thoughts that come to your mind for later reflection and Bible study.
• Be with Christians:  Spend time with Christians whom you like and who like you. Study the Bible together. Pray together. Encourage one another. Follow the ABCs of Accountability, Belonging and Care.
• Seek Wise Counsel:  Seek wisdom first from above and then from other people. Some may be friends. Some may be strangers with whom we talk only once. Let the wise listen and add to their learning.
• Consider Unfolding Circumstances:  Be a good steward of the opportunities God gives you. Consider each situation with God in prayer. Always measure your prayer, counsel and unfolding circumstances in light of the truth of the Bible.
• Confess and Clear Your Head:  A clear head is critical in thinking through options and seeking God’s leading. It is easy to become confused, especially if sin is getting in the way. Confess it, and clear it out every day.
• Be Alert for God’s Peace:  As you consider various options and paths, be alert for the peace that transcends all understanding, even in the midst of the most chaotic of times.
• Keep a Journal:  Keep track of what you learn from your Bible reading, thoughts you have during prayer, advice you receive from your friends, unfolding circumstances and things that bring you God’s peace.
• Trust and Obey:  There is no other way! If you think the Lord wants you to do something, and it seems to be in alignment with everything we have been talking about, then do it! If you hear Him, follow Him. 

Is God Calling You?

The good news is YES!  God, who created the world and everything in it, wants to have a personal relationship with you. He made it possible by His Son paying the price of His life for your sin — the only thing that separates you from Him. By accepting His Son as payment on your behalf, you can have a relationship with the Creator of the universe, starting now and for eternity.

 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16

Even in the midst of the agony of defeats, it is possible to experience victories. You can discover that God is good. God is great. Seek Him and His righteousness, and all the other things He has prepared will be added to you. Work out your faith in Him upward, inward and outward. He made you for good works.

How to Know More About God’s Calling

For much more information and practical application of how to hear and follow God’s calling, get and work through all 80 pages of our “Maximize Your Career” Workbook – online, in-print and with others.

On the other hand, he was very unhappy working for his boss. “He is always on my case!” So I asked Ray to give me examples. “My boss complains about my office being messy, but I know where everything is. He hates it when I make personal phone calls at work, but I get my work done. When I am a late for work, he gets upset, but he doesn’t mind keeping me late. I need to find a better job!”

I sympathized with how Ray was feeling, but my career advice to him, before he starts looking for another job, was to do exactly as his boss asked for 30 days. “Let’s see if anything changes if you keep your office clean, make calls outside the office and always be on time. Think of it like an experiment, and let’s connect next month.”

A month later, we got back together. Ray started by saying “My boss has changed. He is complementary and supportive … even happy. We get along great. My job is better than ever!”

Career Tip Lessons Learned

If you are anything less than fulfilled and fruitful in your job, you might be contributing to the problem without even realizing it.

If you are doing anything less than your very best in your work, you could be short-changing yourself, your employer and God. If you have a bad attitude about your job, your boss, your coworkers or any other aspect of your job, that attitude could be spilling over into your performance and relationships.

To maximize your career in your current job, consider this …

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.
It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:22-24

Does this describe you and how you work? Are you working heartily and with sincerity of heart? Are you serving God in your job? Maybe you are thinking, “Yeah, but you don’t know my boss.” You are right, but consider this …

… submit yourselves to your masters with all respect,
not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.
1 Peter 2:18

Improve Attitude and Positive Motivation

If “harsh” describes your boss, it is especially important to take your attitude, positive motivation and your performance to their highest. One way to improve your attitude and work performance is to evaluate and improve your Character First. You may discover your situation changes for the better, because you have changed how you are working.

If you find your current work situation too brutal and/or lacking in opportunity, then do your best in your current job and start exploring new careers and jobs. Get a copy of our “Maximize Your Career” Workbook and use it 3 ways:

• Online to search hotlinks
• In print to complete exercises
• With others to learn more

You can make bad work better!

Career Transitions Lessons Learned

From stress in the home to managing your financial decisions, here are the top tips I have gathered through hundreds of interviews with experts and job seekers.

1. Be aggressive in reducing your expenses (house, school, haircuts, cable TV, etc.).  Transition can take much longer than you think.
2. Your spouse is a secret weapon and key success factor. Reinvest in your marriage. A married couple often struggles in this journey, and yet the spouse can be the most important asset (in multiple ways).
3. The 3-foot rule – a simple concept to help people recognize the importance of being willing to share with people they meet that they are in a job search (most try to keep it a secret).
4. Marketing 101 – Don’t be a “Jack-of-all-Trades” – be clear/concise about what you want to do. Target companies – especially the small to medium ones. Don’t wait for job openings – be proactive!
5. Have a Plan – Don’t “Wing it” – far too many get paralyzed in the process because they are overwhelmed. It’s not complicated and there is help in this regard! Use weekly review and preview exercise.
6. There is a “New Normal” – the world of work has changed. By the year 2020, 50% of all work will be done by self-employed contractors. Get creative and look at non-traditional jobs (part-time, consulting, etc.).  For more on how to thrive in this new normal work world, visit A Better Way to Make a Living.
7. Attitude is Everything!  Most allow their fear and trepidation to show in networking and even in interviews – I’ll provide a strategy to fight this challenge.  Read and work through Step 1 Attitude of 6-step process in “Maximize Your Career” Workbook.
8. Don’t Walk Alone – Let me reinforce the power of C3G small groups and other career ministries. “A cord of 3 strands is not easily broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12. Find and connect with groups near you.
9. Keep God in the center of your journey!

Personal Lessons Learned

My personal story is that I was a workaholic. I never met a job I did not like. I was fully consumed and overly committed to work. When I was rocking and rolling at work, I did not have time for God.  The interesting thing about crises – like going through career transition – it’s God’s special way to get our attention. As a friend of mine has said, “we never look up, until we are knocked on our back.”

If you are going through career transition, this is probably the perfect time to stop, pause and ask – “Lord what is it You want me to learn? Are You trying to get my attention?” I pray a lot for people to find work. I pray a lot more for people to find Christ in this process of making life decisions through career transitions.

In the United States, only 32% of workers say they use their strengths every day, according to 2007 Gallup® research.

You are God’s unique masterpiece created for good works. How different would your work life be if you could do what you do and like best every day? You would be happier and more productive.

Discover your strengths: gifts (experiences, abilities and personality) and passions (what you like and value).

Look for opportunities with your current employer to offer your best. One major corporation’s career development program found that:

• 30% of their employees were in the right jobs.
• 55% of their employees were in the wrong jobs and better fits for other jobs in the company.
• 15% left the company.

Don’t wait. Take charge of yourself and your career. Discover your strengths and target job opportunities.

Develop Your Strengths

All of us have natural strengths and weaknesses.

Once upon a time, training focused on everyone being good at everything, which meant that you worked extra hard trying to make your natural weaknesses stronger. The problem was no matter how much training you got, if you were not talented in a particular area, you would never be great!

Today, more attention is being paid to identifying your talents – your most natural thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Your talents are foundational and reflected in your personality, interests, values, spiritual gifts and calling. Add knowledge and skills to your talents to build your strengths.

Online Career Assessment for Talents

Everyone – including you – has talents. Based on a 40-year study of human strengths, the Gallup® organization created a language of the 34 most common talents and developed the Clifton StrengthsFinder® online career assessment to help people discover your strengths and describe these talents.You can discover your top 5 talent themes to which you can add knowledge and skills to develop your strengths. Over a million people have taken it. Learn more and buy the StrengthsFinder book with a registration code to take the online career assessment.

Combine what you learn about our talents with Step 2 of our 6 step “Maximize Your Career” Workbook to turn online career assessment into on-the-ground action.  You can find jobs, career and God’s calling – doing what you do best for people who need it most.

How about you? Are you fulfilled and fruitful in your work? Would your boss, coworkers, spouse and friends say you are happy and productive? Good career advice starts with an objective looks at your job satisfaction. Put a mental check mark beside each descriptor below that applies to you:

Unemployed because …

• Quit, laid off or fired.
• Nearly and newly graduated from college or high school.
• Recently divorced or going back to work after raising children.
• Relocated or relocating and seeking new job.
• Back to work after retirement.

Misemployed because …

• St-st-st-stress!
• Worried about losing your job.
• Actively disengaged in your job.
• Unengaged, bored and/or in a rut.
• Need or want to work from home.
• Working for a boss behaving badly.
• Just do not like or not good at what you are doing.
• Not enough money – too many hours – maybe both.
• Want to be an independent contractor or maybe own your business.
• Spending too much time “on the road again” either commuting or traveling.

Happily employed, but …

• Successful and prosperous, but lacking a sense of greater purpose, vision and mission.
• Half-way through your life and wondering about the “second half.”
• “You can get all A’s and still flunk life,” according to Walker Percy.

Fulfilled and called …

• Loving Mondays – passionate about the work you do.
• Using God-given abilities, interests, personality and values.
• Living and working with a sense of purpose, mission and fulfillment.
• Hearing and following God’s calling and maximizing you career.

Now that you have considered a variety of situations, which words best describe how you feel now …

Career Advice to the Max

If you are anything less than called and fulfilled, then what are you going to be about it? Continue to do the same old thing and get the same old results? I hope the answer is no!

My career advice is to explore the truth that you are God’s workmanship – created for good works. You can start today by taking this Career Explorer Quiz. Then get our “Maximize Your Career” Workbook for free. See if there is one of our locations near you. If not, maybe start one at your church.

The year 2012 can be the best year of your life. Take your career to the max!

New World of Work: Old Rules versus New Rules.
Employment for life versus 13+ jobs in a career.
Jobs in-house versus outsourced.
Full-time workforce versus part-time and contractors.
Retire at 62 versus retire ever?

It is a now a world of continuous career crossings. The problem is that most of us have little or no training in career planning and job search. You need career advice maximized!

Defining Career Advice Maximized

What do I mean? According to Dictionary.Com, maximize means to:

• Increase to the greatest possible amount or degree: to look for ways of maximizing profit.
• Represent at the highest possible estimate; magnify: He maximized his importance in the program, minimizing the contributions of the other participants.
• Make the greatest or fullest use of: Maximize your time by planning ahead.

Does that sound like your career? If not, here is career advice you can absolutely trust:

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
making the most of your time… So then do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is…
Ephesians 5:15-17

That is right! You can understand God’s will, realizing your gifts, passions and calling at work.

Understanding God’s Plan for Your Work

To discover what I am talking about, you have to commit to being a career explorer. Ready for adventure and discoveries. Reaching forward to what lies ahead. Working to find the work prepared for you! “Are you talking to me?” you ask. Yes! No matter what age or stage, whether you are:

• Unemployed searching for the right job.
• Misemployed wondering what to do next.
• Happily employed seeking God’s plan.

You are not too young. It is not too late. You are not stuck in the muck. You can survive and thrive.

Moving Ahead in Your Career

Sure, your next job is probably not your last job, but career crossing opportunities can bring out the best in you and the best for you:

• Discover new and different abilities, interests, values and passion.
• Find new and different work where your strengths bring greater value.
• Meet new people and make new friends as you reach out to find help, hope and fellowship.
• Count your blessings, reprioritize what is important and recommit yourself to them.
• Draw nearer to God as you seek to find what He has prepared for you.

You need career advice maximized. Get it for free in our workbook “Maximize Your Career: 6 Steps to Find Jobs, Careers, Calling,” and then pay the price of working the book through every step.

Career advice maximized only happens through action!

Valentine’s Day: It’s More than Just One Day

While the essence of Valentine’s Day boils down to one four-letter word – LOVE, we often equate it to loving a spouse/significant other, family and/or friends. But as 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” In fact, in Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus tells us “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.”

As a follower of Jesus Christ, your calling and purpose is to love our God completely, to love yourself correctly and to love others compassionately. To experience the true essence of Matthew 22:37-38, you should live out these disciplines on a daily (actually a minute-by-minute, or even a second-by-second) basis – in the order listed above.

How to Love …

God completely

• Invest in your relationship with Him so you can get to know Him
  1. Spend time reading the Bible
  2. Listen to the Holy Spirit
  3. Talk to Him
  4. Write to Him in a journal or a piece of paper
  5. Sing praises and worship Him
• Humble yourself before Him and seek Him first
• Surrender your thought life to Him, His plans are much better than we ever begin to imagine
• Trust Him, He knows the plans He has for you – plans to prosper you and bring you hope and a future.

Yourself correctly

• Allow God to be the only one to define who you are, not the world, your job or your past
• Renew your mind with His truths so that you can see yourself as God sees you
• Spend time reading the Bible and strengthening your relationship with God

Others passionately

• Look at them through God’s eyes
• Focus on the external side of life and live out His calling on your life
• Serve as an extension of Christ
• Trust God, in Him we have true and unlimited resources
• Remember that His love for us NEVER changes

Putting Your Love into Action

It’s one thing to read and agree with various statements and disciplines. It’s another to truly live them out and apply the lesson learned. What steps do you plan to take, or have already taken? What other statements would you add about how to love God completely, ourselves correctly and/or others compassionately?

*Thanks to Ken Boa, author of Face to Face: Praying the Scriptures for Intimate Worship who provided the essence of the message above.