068: Research Your Career Transition - Start With a Positioning Statement

This is part two of my three part series on how to change jobs or careers like a PRO!

PRO stands for Preparing, Researching, and Opportunity Seeking – three steps to guide your thought processes and activities to make a professional shift.

In Podcast 65 I gave you five ways for preparing, and today, I’m going to share my recommended method for Researching. You can check out all PRO information at EverBetteru.com/PRO.

If you’d like personal coaching to work through these stages send me an email at [email protected] and we’ll schedule some time to chat about where you are in your life and what you’d like to achieve.

Think about researching as it relates to what you want to do in your life. This is a YOU-centered activity. How cool is that? How often do you take the time to stop and think about what would work best for you?

While you’re researching, think about what you want to do in the short-term and long-term, keeping in mind that each job is a stepping stone to something else. With every new position you’ll gain experience, broaden your network, and learn more about what you like to do – and are good at – and identify responsibilities you’d rather stay away from!

As you think about the type of place where you’d like to work, the culture, and the day-to-day responsibilities you’d like to have, you’ll find that information will start flowing to you from companies that offer those opportunities.

The more clearly you can envision your next stop you’ll be more directed in your conversations and research, and you’ll start uncovering positions that you might never have known existed.

Also be open to finding or creating a role for yourself within your current company. That’s an option that’s often overlooked.

Positioning Statement

Get started by writing your positioning statement. I’m going to walk you through 10 unfinished sentences – and you’ll write the ending. It’s just a little like Mad Libs.

Answers might come easily for some and you might find others impossible right now! But as you focus on researching and thinking about your background and your aspirations, the answers will become more clear.

Set up a meeting with yourself on your calendar for two weeks from you first attempt at creating your positioning statement so that you can update your answers and start to fill in more blanks. You’ll find that even if you weren’t consciously thinking about your answers, some answers will have become clear to you.

Here are a few things you should know about the Positioning Statement.

There are no right or wrong answers! This is all about what works best for YOU at this point in time. And, this will provide you with guidance and clarity as you to start into the next phase of Opportunity Seeking.

You may want to do 2 or 3 positioning statements if you don’t have a specific focus yet.

As you work through these prompts you’ll have to think about what your day-to-day life might be like and that will help you to narrow your focus. Examples from people in two very different careers follow the template to illustrate sample answers.

Here’s the Positioning Statement:

I will work for an organization that helps: __________________________________

My role will be to: __________________________________________

My job title will be: ____________________________________

The most important thing about this job is that I will be able to: _____________________

My co-workers will be: _______________________________________________________

Supervising others is: ______________________________________

This organization is located in: ______________, or _____________________, or ________________.

I will work from: (home / an office building / a co-working space) _____________________________.

I will work _______ hours and earn $ ___________  per week.

I prefer a daily schedule working from _________ to ___________.

I need to learn more about: ______________________________________________.



After you’ve created one or more positioning statements, start researching those areas you need to learn more about. Here’s how:

In Podcast 65 I discussed setting up job alerts. After creating your positioning statement, you should review them to see if they reflect the position you just described. If not, create new ones and start closely reading descriptions that are sent to you for the answers.

Don’t get rid of the older alerts. You set those up for a reason. They reflected your thinking at the time and they may still lead you to the perfect job. Sometimes, even after we’ve done a lot of thinking and analysis, we find that our first reaction demonstrates how we truly feel about something.

Wish List of Organizations

You should also create your wish list of 3 or more organizations that match your positioning statement. Consider that the more specific your statement, the fewer organizations there might be that match your criteria.

Also consider that if you can’t identify a particular organization that meets all your needs, you may want to start your own venture. But that’s a topic for another podcast.

Search YouTube and Podcasts

To learn more about job titles, salaries, day-to-day responsibilities, I recommend searching YouTube and Podcasts. You’ll find video and audio recordings from people that have similar jobs or work for the companies on your wish list and you’ll be able to refine and update your positioning statement.

For example, if you search YouTube for “Foster care parents” you’ll get over 300,000 videos on the topic and if you search iTunes podcasts for foster care you get dozens of relevant podcasts.

And, if you search YouTube for “fashion industry marketing manager” you’ll get over 464,000 videos. And the search “fashion marketing” in iTunes results in dozens of podcasts.

You don't need to watch thousands of videos. Checking out just a few will help you to think of more questions, and hopefully get some answers, and you’ll be one step closer to our next phase – opportunity seeking.

If you spot someone in a video or podcast who you connect with – you now have a great opening line to ask them for an informational interview. You can send an email saying: "I watched your video on YouTube about fashion marketing. I’m researching the next step in my career and would like to ask you a few questions about what you discussed in the video. Could I speak with you for 15 minutes next week over the phone?"

Review all the steps in Preparing, Researching, and Opportunity Seeking (PRO) here.

If you’d like 1:1  coaching through your job or career change, send me an email at [email protected] and we’ll schedule time to chat.

 

 

Key Takeaways:

[:58] 5 Steps to help you prepare for a transition or career change.

[2:02] Researching is a you-centered activity.

[4:28] Create Your Positioning Statement.

[10:38] Next steps: Create your wish list of organizations and research using YouTube and Podcasts.

  

Mentioned in This Episode:

Ever Better

Ever Better Podcast Episode #65

Discover What’s Next Coaching

[email protected]

@EverBetterU on Twitter