Move Like a Startup And Make Career Advancements

Do you feel stuck in your career? Looking for a new direction? Take a little advice from startups, and pivot!

“YouTube started as a video dating site called Tune in Hook Up. PayPal was a way to exchange funds on Palm Pilots. What, I wondered, can actual human beings learn from the lessons of great startups?” says Bruce Kasanoff in his article, Pivot Yourself! (Career Lessons from Startups).

Here are some ideas that Kasanoff gleaned from The Startup Owner’s Manual, written by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf. They can help you pivot your career and move toward what fulfilling your goals.

Startups fail, and fail often. That’s what they do. And it’s what you can give yourself permission to do, as well.

1. Change the Routine

Startups are known for doing things out of the norm. They seek out and listen to potential customers because they have to — they need them to survive and thrive. And you should do this, too.

“If you are dissatisfied with the course of your life, you have to break out of your routine and meet an entirely different collection of people. Hanging out with your old college friends is not the path to a successful personal pivot; to find new ideas, you have to meet new people, have different conversations, and gather new facts,” says Kasanoff.

2. Help Others

Startups don’t work because they get stuck on an idea and not on the problem the idea can solve. In other words, they forget the ultimate goal is not to help themselves but to help other people. This is also often a personal career issue, as well. For both startups and individuals to succeed, both need to help others more than helping themselves.

3. Test Quickly

So you hang out with new people, you come up with a solution to a problem others have and you are off to the races, right? Not so fast. Test your new ideas first, and test them quickly before you fully commit. Continue reading →

Should I Follow My Career Passion Or Not? A Primer On Finding Your Dream Job

Milton Kiang

In Steve Jobs’s famous 2005 Stanford University commencement speech, the iconic tech leader tells young graduates to do what they love, that their time is limited, and that they shouldn’t waste time living someone else’s life. Jobs tells them that one should live each day as if it were his last. In final, he advises them to, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

I concluded that it came down to three factors that “made or break” someone’s future job happiness: their boss, the activities they performed on a day-in and day-out basis, and the people they worked with

The speech went viral and was shared by millions. The speech was discussed and commented upon by countless newspaper reporters and columnists.

The question you’re asking yourself, as you embark in search of your dream job, is whether you should follow Jobs’s words of advice. “He was a successful entrepreneur, a powerful visionary, running one of the world’s largest tech corporations,” you’re thinking. “He must know what he’s talking about.”

The truth – as is the case with most maxims or adages − is that it’s half-right. This means it’s half-wrong, and for these reasons:

1. Follow your passion − yes, but only if have the talent, and the resolve to see your lifelong dream through. But thinking you have talent, and actually having talent, are two different things. Sad things happen when people aren’t able to differentiate the two.

2. You’re time isn’t limited. (Well, technically, it is limited because one day, you, me, everyone, will die.) But the point is, you have more time than you realize. But we all tend to waste it by browsing Facebook, watching too much TV, playing too many video games.

3. You shouldn’t live your life as if each day was your last. This leads to bad decision-making, and the sacrifice of long-term gain for short-term satisfaction. If you’re Steve Jobs, yes, you can live each day as if it was your last, because you’ve already made your billions. But for the rest of us, we should be spending time building up our skills, learning new things, reading, improving ourselves. These things take time, because skills build up slowly over years of practice. Nothing worthwhile ever happens overnight.

4. Despite what Jobs tells you, don’t “Stay Foolish,” unless you want to get ridiculed or fired. If you’re Steve Jobs, by all means, revel in all things foolish. Who’s going to fire Steve Jobs?

So what does all this mean to you?

1. Finding work you love involves a lot of trial and error, and − as much as I hate to admit − luck. Jobs was lucky when he met Steve Wozniak, the engineering genius behind the first Apple computer. Jobs was, again, lucky when Microsoft in 1997 made a lifeline investment in Apple, saving the company from bankruptcy.

Let’s face it: the fate of your job rests on your boss. If you have a good boss, one who ensures you get the right training, mentors you, gives you constructive feedback, then count yourself lucky.

2. Do follow your passion, but to a limit. Here’s my adage: the more creative, the more glamorous the job, the more competitive it becomes in finding monetary success. Space is limited for the next Lawrence Olivier (stage and film actor), Alice Munro (novelist), Walter Cronkite (television journalist). It takes talent, yes, but also luck. Think of the thousands of equally-talented authors, artists, journalists who toil in obscurity, never attaining stardom, recognition, or decent or high income. If you’re passionate about writing, music, or what-have-you, and you have the talent, don’t turn your back on it. But also remember that luck plays a role. Continue reading →

Weird Idea from your Boss? Handle it like a Pro

FreshGigs.ca Team

No matter your relationship with your boss, he or she is still your boss. So when ideas get pitched from the cushier chair at the end of the table, you are usually expected to respond.

Kill two birds with one stone. Asking for more information both gives you insight and gives you more time to come up with a response.

But what if that idea is a bit, shall we say, crazy? We are not just talking one of those “interesting” ideas that pop up everything once in a while. We are talking something that isn’t just out of the box; it blows the box to smithereens … and not in a good way.

According to Sara McCord, in How to Respond to a Crazy Idea From your Boss, there are a couple of diplomatic ways to handle a doozy.

Reframe the Problem and Response

You don’t want to be the one to tell your boss he had a bad idea, and he doesn’t want to hear it.

“So, put the cushion before the ax by trying to find a universe in which the idea could work,” says McCord.

McCord set up an example like this:

The problem: “I once had a boss suggest that we ask an organization we were renting a space from to host the event—in its inaugural year. Before I launched into why you can’t go from paying someone to asking them to plan your event, I first acknowledged the universe in which he had a point—in this case that it would be mutually beneficial for both organizations to be involved.”

Reframing the response: “Surely, that’s something that might be of interest to them in three to five years. However—first things first—we have to throw a successful event to show them that we can draw their crossover audience.”

Ask for More Information

Kill two birds with one stone. Asking for more information both gives you insight and gives you more time to come up with a response.

The key is to ensure you ask in the right tone. Continue reading →

How to Do Cool Sh*t and Other Tips from the SociaLIGHT Vancouver Conference

Mitzi Figueroa

By now, you’ve read enough about millennials — those born between the early 1980s to early 2000s — to know that they seriously want to shake up the marketplace and change the world while they’re at it. The Gen Y workforce is not interested in climbing the corporate ladder the way their parents did. In fact, studies show that millennials are even willing to take a pay cut if it means they could work for a company that has a strong commitment to environmental or social impact. In today’s unpredictable job market, social entrepreneurship never looked so good.

We create labels and self-imposed limits to save ourselves from fear. You can live in the stories you tell yourself or you can face your fear, that’s our power.

Enter, Theresa Laurico. As a prominent producer at Much Music, a music-driven television network beloved by pre-adolescent Gen Yers, Laurico had an epiphany that would prompt her to trade in her modern luxuries for a chance to make a global social impact. In 2012, she launched the SociaLight conference in Toronto and gathered the brightest stars in the entrepreneurship arena including: bestselling author and marketing superstar, Seth Godin; founder of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson; and international bestselling author and founder of Zappos, Tony Hsieh. After three consecutively successful events, Laurico took the conference to the west coast with the first ever Vancouver SociaLight conference on June 7^th.

With a focus on startups, entrepreneurship, and small business success, the conference aims to inspire leadership that empowers people, planet, and profit. “At SociaLight, we look at what’s possible for you, what’s possible for the world and what’s possible for humanity,” said Laurico in her opening remarks. Continue reading →

Do You Have What It Takes To Get Noticed By Headhunters?

FreshGigs.ca Team

Call them headhunters, recruiters, executive search consultants or search professionals, they are all different names for the same job: people who find candidates for employer clients. You may have had them call you, you may wonder why they aren’t calling you or you may be considering submitting your resume to recruiting firms. Either way, it’s best to understand if you are headhunter material to decide if they are worth your time.

Many people will never even talk to a headhunter in their careers. However, this avenue can be a nice addition to your career search

First, according to Liz Ryan, author of Are You Headhunter Material, or Not?, you need to understand that headhunters do what they do to get PAID. The ways in which this happens vary; they may get an upfront fee and a percentage of a hire’s yearly compensation or they may only get paid once somebody gets hired.

Because of this headhunters are very selective on who they choose to talk to and even choosier about how much they will coach each candidate they do select.

Show me the Money:

How recruiters earn their fees really dictates the candidates they will be looking for. Ryan lays out the basic things to understand.

They aren’t career advisors – they don’t have the time to coach you unless they are really serious about a specific job opportunity. And even then, don’t expect much.
The job-seekers they are looking for are the ones that won’t be found through the usual methods. That usually means candidates that have specialized technical skills, specific experience or a mix of experiences that most job seekers don’t have.“Our client companies come to use when they want a very specific skill-set and they can’t seem to find the right candidate through their own efforts. When they come to use, they want us to bring them their ideal candidate – they don’t want us to send them candidates that are off the mark in any way,” says Hirestarter.com in its Headhunters – A Guide for Candidates.
Quirky backgrounds usually aren’t a fit. “When a hiring manager designs a job spec (however fanciful) and commits to paying 25% of a new hire’s first-year compensation to a recruiter, the hiring manager expects the recruiter to show up with a candidate who jumped right out of the job ad.”
According to Ryan, recent college grads and all-around marketing people, except for social media experts, are not generally headhunter material. Who is? HR and finance professionals with specific expertise (the expertise depends on what the employer is looking for), as well as IT and engineering gurus.

Continue reading →

Watch Out! Recognizing and Recovering from Burnout

FreshGigs.ca Team

We live in some stressful times. We are working, and often expected to work, more hours than ever before, and we are burning the candle at ends we didn’t know we had. So, it is more important than ever that we recognize when we are approaching creative and mental burnout.

Get ahead of the problem. Do what you can to fix it rather than try to put a Band-Aid on a problem after the fact.

Burnout not only is hard on us mentally, it takes a physical, monetary, time and motivational toll, as well, according to Tanner Christensen in How to Spot Burnout (and Recover).

It comes in many shapes and forms, but according to The 12 Stages of Burnout, there are a few common red flags to watch for:

The compulsion to prove oneself obsessively
Working harder without the ability to switch off
Neglecting your own needs (sleeping, eating, bathing, etc.)
Revision of values (putting work before everything)
Denial of emerging problems
Withdrawal and possible addictions
Odd behavioral changes
Depersonalization
Inner emptiness and/or depression
Burnout syndrome: can include total mental and physical collapse; time for full medical attention.

Continue reading →

6 Signs On When You Should Leave Your Job

FreshGigs.ca Team

You have a bad day at work, and you spend your commute home fantasizing about marching into your boss’ office and telling him or her, “I quit!”

We have all been there. But, there are other reasons to leave a job besides having a bad day (or a series of them). Sometimes, it just isn’t challenging enough, sometimes you feel like you are in a rut or you are just in an “It’ll do for now” situation.

If long-term employees are keeping their eye out for other jobs, something is probably wrong

You might even be asking yourself, am I content or am I complacent? Complacency is the “danger zone,” says Camille Cho in 7 Signs You Should Leave Your Job (Sooner Rather Than Later).

“Complacency tends to generate excuses … and leads us to settle. Worst of all, complacency will eventually lead to fear. And fear holds us back,” Cho relates.

According to Cho, here are some telltale signs that complacency may be creeping in, and you need to seriously consider looking for other jobs.

1. Just spinning your wheels:
If you’ve been at the same company, in the same job, without a promotion or advancement in the past three years (and you want to advance) — move on! You should have seen some sort of movement within that time frame.

2. You don’t get feedback:
It’s hard to learn when you receive only vague feedback or none at all. Research shows that asking for and receiving feedback, while not always easy to take, is key to becoming more effective at our jobs. In a study of 51,896 executives, those who rarely asked for feedback (ranking in the bottom 10%) were rated at the 15^th percentile in overall leadership effectiveness. On the other hand, leaders who often asked for feedback (ranking in the top 10%) were rated, on average, at the 86^th percentile in overall leadership effectiveness.

With the clear importance of feedback, managers should be engaged in your career development and offer guidance and feedback, especially when asked. Move on if this is not happening or if any requests have been denied or ignored.

3. The learning stops here:
No new challenges? Nothing new learned? It may be time to find a new job. You have to be proactive in finding ways to learn new skills in your new jobs, but if the opportunities to do so don’t exist, you probably are working for a company that doesn’t want to invest in your career development. The answer? You guessed it! Move on. Continue reading →

Making Your Resume Stand Out Among Other Job Seekers

FreshGigs.ca Team

There is no doubt your resume is the foundation of your job search. You have surely read the stats that recruiters look at the average resume for only 5 to 7 seconds, an average of 250 resumes are received for most corporate job positions and one spelling or grammar error and a resume will be dismissed immediately.

Because of these, you likely have spent many, many hours refining and honing your resume, making sure it will stand out above the rest so you can get the important interview.

Here’s a novel idea: Instead of bulleting your day-to-day duties, describe the project you’ve completed and/or results your work has achieved.

So, this might feel like a slap in the face … there are likely some common ways that your resume doesn’t stand out from your fellow job seekers at all. But, all is not lost, according to Lily Zhang, in 5 Ways your Resume is Just Like Everyone Else’s, there are smart fixes. Let’s look at the ways your resume could be improved.

A Generic “Experience” Section

Let’s start with the heading of the meat of your resume. Everyone, literally, labels this section something along the lines of “work experience” or “professional experience.” But instead, Zhang suggest labeling it something more appropriate to the position you’re looking for, such as “Marketing Experience.”

“Having a keyword in your section heading has a great branding effect on your overall resume,” Zhang explains. “This is especially useful if you have a diverse range of experiences, but really want to show off your experience in one particular area. You can have all of your relevant experience in one section at the top of your resume where the recruiter will first look and add an “Additional Experience” section for everything else.” Continue reading →

The Exciting SociaLIGHT Conference Comes To Vancouver June 7th

FreshGigs.ca Team

On June 7th a very exciting conference that if fusing the themes of leadership, entrepreneurship with a focus of socially conscious business is coming to Vancouver, BC.

At FreshGigs.ca we’re an official sponsor and recently sat down with Theresa Laurico who is the “Chief Visionary Officer” with SociaLIGHT conference to learn more about this event.

Also any members of the FreshGigs.ca community can sign up for this conferene at $100 off, simply enter the promo code “FGVIP” when registering and paying.

1. First off Introduce what SocialLIGHT is all about

The brand SociaLIGHT challenges the traditional “Socialite” with a new spelling and acronym. The LIGHT in SociaLIGHT, is an acronym that stands for L.eader I.mpacting G.lobal H.umanity T.oday. We challenge people to value one another for their impact and contribution vs. their monetary possessions and social status.

SociaLIGHT believes that business and entrepreneurship can be a force of good and can add to global solutions.

SociaLIGHT launched as a Conference in Toronto with over 1,000 delegates and after 3 successful events, SociaLIGHT is now launching in Vancouver BC for national impact. It has been called by You Inc. ” A Mecca For Emerging Entrepreneurs” and past speakers and contributors include Sir Richard Branson, Tony Hshieh, Mastin Kipp, Robin Sharma and more. The conference focuses on startup, entrepreneurship and small business success with an emphasis on leadership that embodies “People. Planet. Profit”

2. Who is the team behind SocialLIGHT, what are they into, and why are theydoing this?

SociaLIGHT was founded by Theresa Laurico, who is a serial entrepreneur and media producer. She used to produce for major networks across Canada including MuchMusic, CTV, CTV Creative. One day while on set, she asked herself if what she was doing was worth the only life she had. When the answer to the question was “No”, it lead her to launching SociaLIGHT, which would embody her greatest dream to empower and inspire leaders and produce content and media that made a positive impact.

She joined United Global Shift in New York, where she learned systemic leadership and systems thinking from the UGS team including Dr. Monica Sharma, head of leadership capacity for the UN.

Laurico’s accolades include a leadership award from the former Lietenant Governor of Canada, 2012 Lean Startup Machine Winner, and nominee by Toronto Board of Trade for Startup of the year and business excellence.

Laurico’s goal is to work with Oprah Winfrey, Sir Richard Branson, Jeff Skoll and others to create media content that shares stories, knowledge and insights about and for SociaLIGHTs around the world. Continue reading →

6 Habits You Can Steal for More Creativity

FreshGigs.ca Team

Do you jump out of bed every day with your mind whirling with creative thoughts, bursting with imagination and amazing ideas?

No?

Welcome to the human race. There are those awesome creative types among us that can really come up with some amazing things on a consistent basis with ease. But many of us have to work at least some of the time, if not most of it, to access that sustained creativity within. It isn’t just a flash-in-the-pan trait, but rather something you practice.

You have to be rested and healthy for your job in the morning, so you have to cut some things off, and resist the temptation to go to everything you’re invited to

Check out Sean Blanda’s tips to access and train your inner creative genius, as written in 10 Creative Rituals you Should Steal.

1. Write Every Day, best-selling author Cheryl Strayed

“I often recommend writing as a tool for self-discovery because it’s helped me so much. I use writing in different ways: I write as an artist, but I also write when I’m just trying to work through something or make a tough decision…That’s because it’s a way to essentially practice your thoughts and see what’s there. Writing forces you to locate your clarity,” Blanda quotes Strayed. Wondering if writing everyday helps those of us who aren’t authors? Clickherefor some pretty solid proof.

2. Keep Tear Sheets to Get Inspired, designer Sarah Foelske

Foelske saves tearsheets from magazines, invitations to events she enjoyed, appealing packaging and anything that she finds inspiring. She saves them in books, not in any particular categorization. When she needs inspiration, she will take the book out and flip through it for visual inspiration until something clicks.

3. Take a Nap, news anchor Pat Kiernan

“I’m super protective of my nap, and my schedule generally. You have to learn how to say no. I usually keep a pretty hard line about that. You have to be rested and healthy for your job in the morning, so you have to cut some things off, and resist the temptation to go to everything you’re invited to.”

Einstein actually had a theory on the perfect power nap timing. Click here for more info. Continue reading →