A Branding Exercise
October 29, 2008
I talk about it all the time: the most important thing that you must do for your career is branding your name. Your “Personal Brand” IS your career.
I happened upon an interesting thought exercise for branding when talking with Melina the other day. We were talking about her business, and I asked the following question:
“What problem do you want your clients to have when they think of your name?”
That’s an incredibly powerful way to conceive of branding. It speaks to all elements of what a brand is – what you’re an expert on, what you’re known for, and how you help your clients on a daily basis.
This is true whether you’re branding a business or developing your personal brand. Change it around for personal branding:
What problems do you want your boss/peers/colleagues to have when they think about calling you?
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Job Searches and Career Management
October 27, 2008
Over at his blog today, Jason Alba posted a bunch of comparisons of Job Search and Career Management, all in the form:
Job Search is to _____ as Career Management is to _____
I figured I’d post some additional ones:
Job search is to accident as career management is to plan.
Job search is to workout as career management is to training.
Job search is to dating as career management is to marriage.
Seth Godin on Choosing A Job
October 27, 2008
Seth wrote a post recently on the importance of where you work and its effect on your career. In the post, he said:
“And yet, there are plenty of books about getting a job, but no books I know of about choosing a job.””
That’s exactly why I wrote Forget the Parachute, Let Me Fly the Plane last year. One of the most frustrating experiences I’ve gone through while coaching people on their careers is to have them accept jobs without doing the background research on the company.
So, I wrote a book about how to get a job that actually works for you.
You know, I was going to write an entire post on this… but I said it best on pg. 74 of Forget the Parachute:
“But, what about Monster? What about Craigslist?”. That damn inner skeptic again. “Shouldn’t I just type in the name of my job on the internet and apply to anybody who has it?”
No. We’re going to align you with companies first. Then, you’re going to go get the job from them. Because you’re already like them and they’re like you: if we align right, it’ll be like you already have the job. They just don’t know it yet.
“But…”, I can hear your inner skeptic saying. “That’s not how I learned it.“
Of course it’s not. Because what you learned is what everyone else does. And it’s why I had the opportunity to quote the statistic earlier that 3 in every 4 people around you is looking for a new job right now.
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.
Then, you do a few exercises that help you to research and find companies that fit with who you are and what you’re truly looking for.
Seth has it right in his new post: where you work matters. A lot. So spend the time figuring out whether the companies you’re looking at align with who you are and where you want to go.
ChicagoCon – Recession-proofing Your Career
October 24, 2008
So, as I mentioned in this post, I’ll be doing a breakout session next weekend at ChicagoCon. The description on the conference website is:
“Information security is one of the most difficult industries to navigate a career in. The industry is new, and the skills are ever-changing. The nature of the industry is that the biggest threats are always in the newest technologies, which means that if you’re not actively running, you’re falling behind. Not to mention that there’s no industry standard for certification, for knowledge, or even for what “security” actually is. It’s confusing at the best of times.
And this isn’t the best of times.
As the industry gets more complex and the economy tightens, a solid career plan and the skills to pull off that plan are going to become ever more important. Industry veteran and respected career speaker and coach Mike Murray will work with the attendees of ChicagoCon to discuss the fundamental skills needed, and put the audience of this breakout session through exercises that will help clarify that plan, and move forward toward their ultimate career goals.”
But I wanted to provide some deeper information for those who might be interested or want to know more.
We’re going to talk about:
- Uncovering Opportunities – Finding a job in troubled times
- Life Jackets – Keeping your head above water until you’ve found that job
- The Art of Indispensibility – Making it harder for your company to let go of you
- Preparing for the Worst – Ensuring that you’re ready to go even before you get laid off
We’ll also talk about real situations that members of the the audience are having, and I’ll be working with people in the class one-on-one to help them prepare themselves for whatever is going to happen next in their careers.
The Dumbest Prediction I’ve Heard in a While
October 23, 2008
I was reading Hoff’s recent post on virtualization, and I found myself needing to write a bit of a rant. I don’t usually have much to say about what Hoff writes about, because virtualization isn’t an area that I spend any time on. But in Hoff’s critique of Tarry Singh’s latest post, there was something that blew my mind.
Tarry asserts in his post that one of the good things about hackers spending time finding vulnerabilities is that (and I quote):
“Security and Compliance will be core focus of all organizations (as regulators will come knocking at your doorsteps)”
Umm… I hate to say it, but that ain’t ever gonna happen. No matter how many regulators show up on someone’s doorstep, that counts as one of the least well-thought-out predictions I’ve ever heard.
Simply put:
- McDonald’s core focus will always be on making hamburgers.
- Nike’s core focus will always be on making shoes/clothing for athletes.
- Ford’s core focus will always be on making cars.
If those organizations ever make “Security and Compliance” their core focus, they won’t have businesses anymore.
While we may think that security is important, the day that it surpasses the core focus of any business (that isn’t in the security and compliance business) is the day that that business has taken their eye off the ball. By definition.
The best con you don’t know about…
October 21, 2008
So, next week will see my second time as an attendee and speaker at ChicagoCon. This one is undoubtedly the best little conference that you don’t know about.
The thing that I loved about ChicagoCon last time was the access that the attendees had to the speakers – there were about 100 total attendees, and the speakers were just milling around in the audience. I got to spend some time with Chris and Luke from the Tiger Team, Jack Koziol from Infosec Institute, and Matt from InGuardians. Not to mention that there was a real opportunity to get feedback from the audience and the people at the conference.
It made the conference feel more like hanging out with a bunch of friends than the typical experience of a Blackhat or RSA where the speakers are always so crowded and far away.
This time, I’m really looking forward to meeting some people in person – some of the speakers include Ed Skoudis (who I’ve always heard great things about but never met face-to-face), the pen-testing guys from Microsoft and my old friend Jay Graver from nCircle.
Beyond that, I’m doing something I’ve never done before – I’m doing a 2.5-3 hour breakout session on careers. The economy sucks right now, and people are scared. Rumors of layoffs abound, and I worked with Don to figure out how to offer the ChicagoCon attendees some value if they’re in that freaked-out place.
Can you tell that I’m excited? If you’re within driving distance of Chicago, this one’s not to be missed. Come find me and let’s grab a beer.
Managing to your People
October 13, 2008
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that great managers manage to the strengths and weaknesses of their people. That seems obvious, but it happens far too rarely.
I was reminded of this one today while I was reading Peter King’s weekly Sports Illustrated column. In it, he was talking about Mike Smith (the new coach of the Atlanta Falcons), and how he’s using John Abraham:
“[Managing him that way] hasn’t been just for preservation,” said Smith. “It’s been for effectiveness. Different players have different muscular efficiency, and what we’re doing here is trying to maximize that in our guys.”
It’s a fascinating article on what kind of productivity you get when you watch your people and manage them appropriately.