What's your passion?

(pas-sion): a strong feeling or emotion

Speaking about motivation from passion gets me more excited than my morning coffee. You know when you meet someone motivated by their passion because they're ignited by a fire within and it shows in the way they speak and behave.

If you're currently looking for a new job, think about this time as an opportunity to ignite the fire within you. What's your passion? Think about the adage "do what you love and the money will follow". As a veteran career coach, successful business woman and living example of this philosophy, I would amend it to say "do what you love, focus your energy on a strategic plan and the money will follow."

Life will throw you curveballs, like any other time. Here are two of my favorite Real-Life Success Stories that prove, if you follow your passion, money and success will be yours.

Daniel Michael "Danny" DeVito Jr.
In a recent interview on the Biography channel, Danny Devito said:
"I remember one audition I went on early in my career. After handing the woman my headshot, she threw it back and me and said "No one wants a 5 foot tall character actor" "

I thought "Whoa!"

Many of us first met Danny DeVito in his Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning role as Louie DePalma on the TV Series Taxi. He, and wife Rhea Perlman, also own Jersey Films, a production company known for films such as Pulp Fiction, Garden State and Freedom Writers. He's currently back on TV in the FX Sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

I'm thinking the director who tossed back Danny DeVito's headshot has kicked herself quite a few times by now. There's nothing like a good dose of passion to get revenge on a nay-sayer.

Cesar Millan (aka The Dog Whisperer)
At 13 years old, on his way to a judo competition, Cesar declared to his Mother, he would one day be the best dog trainer in the world. He lived in Mazatlan, Mexico and spoke only Spanish at the time.

8 years later, at 21, he illegally crossed the border into the U.S. unable to speak English, and got a job at a dog grooming store working with the most aggressive dogs. Fast forward 20 years and Cesar Millan has his own TV Series The Dog Whisperer which is in it's sixth season and broadcast in more than 80 countries worldwide, has founded the Dog Psychology Center in Los Angeles, the Millan Foundation and written three (3) New York Times Best-selling books that have sold two million copies in the United States. (quite an accomplishment, take it from a fellow author)

In addition to the aforementioned, he's also released a magazine, Cesar's Way, and is working with Yale University to create a children's curriculum based on his work.

Making it real
When it comes to pursuing your passion, ask yourself:

• What ignites my fire?
• What do I love doing?
• What brings a smile to my face?

Keep the idea of how much you can make seperate from the questions to get to the core sense of what your passion is and how to pursue it. After all, I doubt Cesar Millan, or his mother, ever thought that being a dog trainer would lead to a global brand and business empire that he has today.

What NOT to do on Linked In

Ken Gutierrez might be thinking is a good thing his Linked In profile is being viewed as many times as it is, and by the names and titles of those viewing it, he might even be sitting on pins and needles waiting for his phone to ring.


Dear Ken,

I am going to give you some news that may surprise you but it's important to know. Your current Linked In profile is a shining example of what NOT to do. Listing "Unemployed-looking for work" as your headline is about as captivating as McDonald's listing "Full of fat" on their billboards. It may be true but there are plenty of other options to choose from that will capture the audience's attention and land you a job much quicker.


In your case, something along the lines of "NY-Based Online Media Ad Sales Planner" is truthful, eye-catching and 100% more likely to get the attention of prospective employers and the 73% of recruiters that spend their time online.


Moving through your profile, it's shocking to see anyone in sales and the online media industry in particular have only 2 connections. Working with clients is what you did, Ken. Get those fingers working and start reaching out to build your network base up closer to 100+ contacts.

Lastly, you did a great job of mentioning that you worked with clients and sales team members on accounts throughout the world including the U.S., Canada, UK and Australia however, there's no information on what size accounts (dollar value) you worked on or what type of clients (Amex, Travelocity, MillerCoors, Axe, etc). Give yourself credit for the work you've done and you will see the results of your hard work while at Heavy.com pay off with interviews and networking, online and offline.

---

If your profile feels like Ken's, don't worry. Many job seekers work hard to perfect the resume and then forget that Linked In is a virtual version of the resume. Your resume has one purpose: to land you an interview. With recruiters using Linked In as a tool to find high caliber candidates and employers sourcing qualified individuals from it's 65 Million professionals, make sure you've got a "Pimped Out Profile".

/A

Dallas or Bust

Dear Adriana,


I have decided I'm moving to Dallas, Texas by November 1st, job or no job. I'm either going to take a 6 week personal leave or resign from my current job. How should I answer this question in an interview?

"Why did you leave your last position?"

Dear Dallas or Bust,
Congratulations on making a decision to move and giving yourself a deadline. First, you may be able to answer this question easily, and honestly, by saying that you're currently on a leave of absence while you organize your desired relocation to the booming metropolis of Dallas, TX.

If you chose to resign from your position, focus on your answer on the employer and your decision to relocate rather than your former company. For example, "As you know, Dallas is ranked #1 as the fastest growing US city, it's tracking ahead of nearly every other city for economic development and more Fortune 500 corporations call it home than nearly any other city. When I began evaluating my career growth and advancement, I took location into account and decided I wanted to be a part of the best city, and state, in the country."

We all know Texans love their state, and Dallas dwellers love their city. What better way to connect than compliment their hometown and location while proving you've done your homework before you relocated. This answer will put the focus on your knowledgeable relocation rather than on your decision to resign and move by a self-determined deadline.

Go get 'em, Dallas.

Bake your way to a new job

Picture yourself on the rooftop of a popular downtown hotel in the middle of Chicago enjoying a glass of wine on a warm summer evening and mingling with friends. You've just found yourself networking.

That was where I found myself last night, although I was there, along with a fellow entrepreneur, to meet with an advertising agency that works with both of our companies. Despite sounding professional, I felt like I was the third wheel on a pseudo-date. To keep myself from being anything other than a wallflower, I struck up a conversation with the folks around us. Enter Jim and John. Jim and John met at the Air Force Academy in 1979 and, thanks to LinkedIn, reconnected a few years ago after Jim hunted John down.

A short while later, and a few mistaken conversations about boating and golf, we had begun an enjoyable banter about business, books and hiring. Jim is a Senior Vice President at a large retirement planning firm who, despite enlisting a talented recruiter to source quality candidates, prefers to hire from within his network of colleagues or from a trusted word-of-mouth recommendation.

Then there's John who shared with me the secret to landed a job with him, and apparently John and I as we quickly realized. Warm apple pie. You read correctly.

John is a human resources executive with one of the Top 5 audit, consulting, accounting firms in the country. This guy has seen his fill of CPA's, MBA's, MAAA's, CFA's and every other initial under the sun. What he had never seen before was someone bring a warm, homemade apple pie to an interview - topped with a helping of honesty.

The candidate was a woman who was recently widowed, needed a new job - as do many people in today's market - and she appealed to John's human side.  Whoa!

I was blown away. Wine glass down. Smile from ear to ear. This was no gimmick. It wasn't some crazy idea a marketing person thought of for her. It was the essence of personal branding done right.

• Did she go out on a limb? Oh yeah.
• Was it risky? Definitely.
• Could it have gone poorly? Maybe.
• Did she get the job? You bet.

As a chocolate loving, vegetarian I rarely eat pie, homemade or not. Be that as it may, there's a great chance I would hire a candidate who cared enough about working for my company that they baked me a pie, apple or any other flavor.

If you really want to land a job, find a way to brand yourself and make sure the interviewer remembers you when you walk in - and out - of the door.

Jenny Quits her Job and Gets Attention

How many of us have walked in to work so fed up with the shenanigans that we just wanted to quit? Before I owned my own practice I worked in corporate america, the very industry that Dilbert is based on, and I know this feeling all too well.

I have to admit that Jenny found a way to quit her job and garner so much attention that she will likely end up with a job offer, if not plenty of them, simply by the way she did it. Here's what Jenny sent to her office yesterday via email, rather than walking in for another day of work.

She sent an entire series of pictures telling her story of quitting her job to her 20 or so co-workers. Below is the last in the series of pictures.  Since quitting, Jenny has has 2,655 comments made on the one website that picked up the story and nearly 330,000 facebook people have posted her link to their pages to share with their friends.

Before you read on, I recommend seeing the entire collage of Jenny's style of quitting. It's entertaining, creative and a bit crazy.

Why would a career coach blog about how to quit? 

1. While it's smart to never burn your bridges, Jenny knew her boss was doing nothing for her or the clients (see farmville slide) and she felt confident leaving this way
2. Life's too short to be treated poorly, you're an employee - not a hostage
3. Jenny just informed nearly 400K people that Spencer treats his employees poorly and makes sexual comments about his assistant, without saying a thing or filing a lawsuit - smart girl
4. She's already got job offers from the blog comments alone
5. She took action and stood up for herself

The economy may be in a slump but that doesn't mean you have to be a victim to it. Do I recommend leaving your job like this? Not quite.

I do advise taking control of your career and being in charge of where you work and what you do. If you're unhappy, make a choice to do something about it. What you do is a representation of you. What Jenny did is a representation of her and her personality.

An Interview with the CEO of America's Top Employer

Given the downsizing from big business in America, I wanted to give you an inside view on what it takes to impress at the Top Employer in today's market. Who is that? Small Business.

If you haven't interviewed with a small business yet, there's a good chance you will in the course of your job search.  According to SCORE, the resource partner for U.S. Small Business Association and Counselor's to America's Small Business, you're likely to interview with a small business that you, your family and friends have never heard of before.

Today, small business is the #1 employer behind the U.S. government. Consider these facts:

• Employ more than 50% of the U.S. private sector workforce (a.k.a. non-government employees)
• Represent 99.7% of all employer firms
• Hire 40% of all high-tech workers

I spent an hour with the CEO of one of the nation's leading biohazard companies, who had spent the afternoon in interviews. As we chatted over chips, guacamole and delightful margaritas at Frontera Grill in Chicago, I asked him about an interviewee's attire.  His response surprised me.

He said the first thing he looks at, if the guy is wearing a suit, is if it's tailored. If the suits not tailored, "forgettabout it." his words, not mine.

"If the guy comes in in a suit and it's not tailored? Come on. If the guy can't afford a nice, tailored suit it makes me think twice."

"The next thing I look at is his watch. Does he have a nice watch on?"

"Then I look at his shoes. Are they polished?"

"If he's got those three things going for him, he's probably going to do alright."

I chuckled and told him about Chapter 3, Impressive Interviews, in my book, Career Sudoku, and that I mention both the tailored suit and polished shoes. I go on to ask him about women since his answers seem to have focused entirely on men. He responds simply.

"It's nice if she's in a skirt and just looks good."

I prod a little further and ask if he means a tailored skirt suit and polished nails by "looks good" and he responds with "yeah, that's great."

"I look less at women's dress than I do at men. I'm a guy so I notice women more but most of the women I interview look good."

I just smiled as he ordered another round. Knowing he's a well-respected businessman that came from a Fortune 50 background, I'm confident that his comments are based in business rather than in sexual nature and it leads me to think that men need more pointers than women wen it comes to interview attire.

Guys, invest in a well-tailored suit or grab your current suit and get it tailored. If you're going to wear a watch, make sure it's a nice one or has the appearance of one and have your shoes freshly polished. Ladies, the same applies to us. Nicely tailored suit, simple accessories and polished shoes.

Look good for less tip: Nordstrom Men's Shoe Dept. does a killer job on polishing shoes, and it's reasonable, $5! Head to the men's dept, slip on those interview day shoes and look your best.

Resume TMI

Holy TMI (that's Too Much Information for those of you who don't live to text in short hand - aka, me). Late last week I got a request from a journalist for my input on an article about Resume TMI. As I sat down to write my response I had three distinct feelings come over me.

First, happiness because some of the things I see are so funny you can help but laugh. Second, sadness because you know as a career industry professional that a resume with this information will never get anywhere but File 13 (a.k.a. - the trash). Third, gratitude that we found each other someway whether it was through a search engine, LinkedIn, Twitter or word of mouth and now they have a resume that shows the rest of the world what I knew within minutes of talking to them - they are amazing, highly qualified people that just had wacky resumes.

Why am I sharing this with you? Reason #1. It's Monday and everyone could use a little Resume TMI on Monday.

Top 10 Resume TMI's (in no particular order):
1. Age 45 - listed directly under his name
2. Picture of bare leg and high heel with quote "this is what will get me in the door"
(she was applying for sales executive job, she didn't get it)
3. "Enjoy traveling abroad, golfing and competitive sports"
4. Every position held between 2010 and 1985. TMI for too many years
5. 15 page resume - all kinds of TMI on there
6. Pic of candidate in a bikini (oh yes, it's true)
7. Proud Step mom of two girls
8. Miss Coco, black chihuahua, 2 yrs old (listed under 'interests')
9. Vice President, St. Vincent's Catholic Church
10. Aunt, 4 nieces and 5 nephews

Are any of these things wrong? No. Are they all true? Yes. Do any of them belong on a Resume? NO!

In fact, most of them are legally protected classes. Parental status, age and religion are all protected classes for a reason and in each case above one of these candidates gave away a protected class that could have cost them the job.

More than just humor on a Monday, I share these with you because knowledge is power and we can all learn from others. If you're thing your resume has a case of the TMI's, check out Career Sudoku and make sure you end up with a Resume That Gets Results.

How to Answer the Top 5 Toughest Interview Questions

In today's market it's not the most qualified candidate that gets the job, its the one that interviews best. Know that led me to offer a Free Webinar on this very topic, How to Answer the Top 5 Toughest Interview Questions in June. Just today I was answering questions on LinkedIn and came across nearly this same question which made me think blogging about it today might be timely.

Given the high level of anxiety that exists for the majority of job seekers when interviewing, now is the best time to tackle those interviewing fears and walk into your next interview calm and with confidence. What's the best way to do that? Be prepared.

Nerves can start the week before, the night before or even 10 minutes before an interview and the less prepared you are the easier it is to get flustered. If you know how to answer the toughest interview questions you'll face during that sixty minutes of verbal volleying your anxiety will calm much easier and quicker than your competition. After all, this is a game and the goal is not just to beat the competition but to win the game and land the job.

Step One - Do your research (on the company and the interviewer)
Step Two - Prepare for the interview questions being asked
Step Three - Bring a list of well thought out questions to ask
Step Four - Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up

Do these four things and you'll be left with one last step, negotiating a killer job offer. I'm grateful to share with you this Free Webinar on How to Answer the Top 5 Toughest Interview Questions - with confidence and ease. Now go be an interview rock star and pick up a copy of my book, Career Sudoku, to find out how to negotiate the best job offer of your life.

/A