Teachers in Transition

Teachers in Transition - Episode 77 - Checklist on 10 Things You Need to Know and Do if You Want a New Job or Career

September 16, 2020
Teachers in Transition
Teachers in Transition - Episode 77 - Checklist on 10 Things You Need to Know and Do if You Want a New Job or Career
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode of "Teachers in Transition," Kitty talks about the new checklist she just created entitled, "10 Things You Need to Know & Do If You Want to Change Your Job or Career." This list outlines all of the considerations one should take into account when thinking of changing their job or career. To get your free checklist, click here: 
https://kittyboitnott.lpages.co/10-things/
Kitty also mentioned how helpful a tool call Jobscan is in helping you tweak your resume every time you apply for a new job. To access Jobscan, click here:  http://jobscan.co.

Before downloading your checklist, listen in as Kitty talks about the importance of each item on it if you want to conduct a successful job search or career change in the near future.

For questions, email Kitty at kittyboitnott@gmail.com.

To make an appointment to talk with Kitty about her services, schedule it using this link to her calendar:  http://teachersintransition.com/calendar.

Speaker 1:

Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do. You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in helping burn out teachers, just like you deal, not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day to day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you to join me for teachers in transition. In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track. These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is kitty. Boitnott welcome to teachers and transition.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to episode. I believe it's a 77 of teachers in transition the podcast and the YouTube channel. My name is Katie[inaudible]. I am the owner of[inaudible] coaching and the founder of teachers in transition, a company that specializes in working with burnout teachers and mid career professionals who are ready to make a career change, but don't know where or how to start. I'm also a certified stress management coach and I alternate topics each week on the podcast between stress management one week and career transition strategies. The next week, last week, I talked about avoiding work from home burnout because that's a thing now that most of us or many of us, not everybody certainly, but a lot of us are working from home and having some difficulty, making a definition between home life versus work life. Because if you're working from home, it's a little more difficult to shut everything down and walk away from it than it was when you worked in an office environment or in a school. So today I want to talk about some specifics around the job search or career change round. And I want to share with you a brand new, um, in the coaching business and the online marketing world, and this would be referred to as a lead magnet or an opt in or a free gift, a freebie. And I just created it this weekend and had a graphic artist, CRE fancy it up a little bit. And if you're on the YouTube channel, you can see me holding it up. It's just a one sheet, 10 things you need to know and do, if you want to change your job or career. And the focus of it is to help you to figure out exactly what you need to do. If you're at the point of trying to decide, are you ready to take the leap? Do you need to make a change in your life? Is the job that you have completely stressing you out, causing you to feel such a sense of overwhelm that is threatening your mental and physical health. And if you are at that breaking point and thinking that it is finally at long last time to make a change, this check list will help you to determine what it is that you need to do to start getting yourself ready for the actual search. And I know that some people sort of linger around in the land of half half thinking, yeah, I need to make a change, but I don't know how or where to start. And yeah, I should've made that change a long time ago. And now I think it's too late. I want to tell you that it's never too late. I made my transition from 37 year educator to online business owner and entrepreneur at the age of 60. If I could do that, you can do whatever you decide you want to do regardless of your age, whether you be 42, 52 62 or 32 or 22, whatever you want to do, it's never too late for you to make that change in your life. If you are truly dedicated to making the change that you want, but I'd tell them to someone just last week who told me that he knew six years ago, that he needed to make a change. That teaching wasn't the career for him. And yet here he is six years later, you know, not having made a change, not, not having made a good faith effort. He's kinda sorta looked around. And what I think happens with a lot of people is that they keep hoping that if they put some hooks out here and there and let people know that they're maybe a little interested in making a change, that something will just land in their lap, that they'll hear of an opportunity and it'll just magically happen. And I wish I could tell you that happens. I mean, I guess it does happen rarely on, on, on occasion, but it's not, it's not going to happen if you don't put some effort into it. And they used to say to people that the job fair is not going to come knocking at your door in the same way that it's not like glee to happen, that mr. Wright will literally knock on your door. I know I heard a story years ago about a woman who was looking for a soulmate and one day the guy knocked on her door. And I think he was a handyman there to do some work around the house. And then that's all she wrote. They fell in love and yada yada, but that does not happen frequently if ever at all. So let me share with you these 10 things you need to know, if you think you're ready for a career change or a jobs search. Now I do have a book, just FYI book of a similar title that is much longer. And this checklist simply sums up the 10 things that you need to know. So if you want the longer version of the list, you can also download the ebook 10 things. You need to know if you think you're ready for a job or career change, but I want you to consider the checklist for now, and I'm going to share it with you. And I'll also share the link so that you can get a copy for yourself if she would like the first one. And this is what I tell people all the time, when you, when they call me and they, they, they express an interest. I'm ready for a change, but I don't know what I want to do. I know what I don't want. They're very clear about that, but I don't know what I want to do. And the figuring out of what it is that you want to do next is the most difficult part of this entire process. So you have to start there. You can't jump into the middle of your job search by writing your resume or creating a cover letter and applying for a bunch of jobs that you think you might maybe kinda sorta be qualified for. Unless you've got all the time in the world of waste and money. In the meantime, to also be wasting, not getting down to the nitty gritty of what is it that you want to do will simply delay your ultimate success. So the first order of business is to figure out what you want to do next. If you haven't already figured it out. And there's some people listening to this, some people watching this may have already figured it out and good for you if you have, because you are ahead of the game, if you have, but if you haven't, you must, must, must take the time up front before you start the job search process and do the end or work first. Is it easy? No. Is it sexy? No. Is it going to make you comfortable? Absolutely not. I'm sorry. I wish I had better news about that. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Yes, because once you have figured out finally, after all these years, what it is that you truly want to do, then you can get on with a successful job search. Now, what happens if what you really want to do is still teach that happens. I have had clients who came to work with me. They were absolutely certain they wanted to leave teaching. And at the end of the day, after a lot of soul searching and taking of aptitude test and doing some reading meant to inspire them to think about other kinds of work that they could do, they come back and they say, you know, I was born to be a teacher. I'm just not going to be able to get around it. And so the possibility at that juncture is fine. You can stay with teaching, but you're miserable in your current position. So let's find a new position, a new school, a new principal, and his district, a new, some new leadership, a new community, some, a new grade level, a different subject, something that will put you in greater alignment with who you are, as opposed to what you're doing at the moment that's causing you so much stress and heartburn. So figure out what you want to do first. And then you have to stay focused on that to the point of being laser focused and creating such clarity around what it is that you want to do, that you stop applying for any old job that pops up on a job board that you think you might kind of, sort of be eligible for or qualified to do. Instead, you only apply for those jobs that you are really interested in and that, you know, you're qualified to do, because once you've been able to do that, you've been able to create clarity that allows you to explain exactly what it is that you're looking for. And more importantly, perhaps to write a resume that speaks to that job and your ability to do it. So create the clarity and focus that you need. Now, before you write your resume, I recommend that you sit down and do a research plan and a marketing plan that you take stock of all the things that you can do, all of the skills that you have, all the competencies you possess, all of the qualifications that you have, along with a list of all of the companies you're interested in working for and all of the different types of work you want to continue doing in the future. And then I encourage you to do some research before you spend a lot of time applying for jobs that you may or may not ultimately enjoy. Do some research know for sure that it's a job you would enjoy that it's a company that you wouldn't enjoy working for. That it's got the kind of culture and mission and vision statement that you can live up to and want to live into. And that takes, pre-work see, there's a lot of foundational work you need to do before you ever write your resume, writing the research plan, writing the marketing plan. That's part of that. Pre-work then finally you determine how you can write your resume to work with and around the first gatekeeper in the process, which is the applicant tracking system. Now I should say it just occurred to me to dimension. The first gatekeeper is up here between your ears. It's your own mindset, your own attitude, your own beliefs system, about whether or not you're capable of making this change in your life. At this point in your life. First, you have to convince yourself. The second man gatekeeper is applicant tracking system, which is a software program that will eliminate your application. If you haven't included the appropriate Al number of keywords that suit their algorithm for experiences, that you've had skills that you possess abilities, that you have that apply to the specific job at hand. So the applicant tracking system is something you need to learn about. You need to understand how it works. You need to learn how to work with it and how to do a work around it. Figure out how to not always depend on the applicant tracking system, but to depend on other strategies, to help you get your resume and application into the hands of hiring manager and the decision makers in the company, then you do want to ultimately write a resume that speaks to your abilities, your skills, your experiences, and as you've done some of the pre-work, if you've discovered that there's a gap in your skill level and a certain specific area of experience that you need in order to be truly qualified for the job that you're interested in moving into, then before you write your resume, you need to take some courses that I don't generally recommend that anybody go back to school and start over that's unless you, unless you've been teaching for 10 years and all of a sudden you've decided you want to be a dental hygienist or a doctor or a nurse where you have to go back and start from scratch. I don't recommend that you do that instead. You may have some Steph, it sits in certain skill areas like, uh, it technology, some of my clients have been interested in coding and graphic design. And so they've taken coding courses so that they could learn the basics of graphic design. If that is something that sounds like it would be of interest to you, then you might want to take a look, where can you get a coding course? That's not hopefully expensive. And would allow you to play around a little bit with whether or not you'd be interested in that kind of work or not. I recommend to my clients all the time, you demi.com U D E M y.com. It's a great place to go, to get a cheap courses that are high quality. They're not cheap courses. They're inexpensive courses that are done by highly qualified facilitators and instructors and even professors. So if you need to beef up your Microsoft office skills, you need to learn how to do Excel. And that's never been a strength for you. If you see any platform that you need to beef up your skills on, or, um, some people have expressed interest in HR work. So you could take a beginner's course in human resources to determine if that really is what you think it is. Some people have mistaken ideas of just what's included in HR or human resources. So take some courses so that when you are writing your resume, you can point to these new skills that you've added on to your previous experience. Then you want to be sure, and this is something a lot of people skip over and don't don't think is as important as it is. You need to tweak your resume for every single job you apply for no exceptions, because every single job description is going to be different and unique. And you need to tweak your resume to speak to the job description. I've discovered that I just don't think people read job descriptions. They don't study descriptions the way they should. They scan them. They skim over them. They pick out the things that they think, Oh yeah, I could do that. And they ignore to their own payroll, frankly, the things that they don't know how to do, thinking it's not important. Something they can learn something they can maybe, um, talk their way through. They get, you need to tweak your resume for every job application you send in. Make sure that it's a tight fit. And I've, I've mentioned this tool before job scan dot C O is a terrific tool. You can run your resume through every single time. Along with the job description for the specific job you were applying for, and job scan itself will run the algorithm, just like the applicant tracking system would. And we'll give you a score from 25% to 95%. What match are you to the job? And what's really wonderful about job scan is it will give you specific suggestions for how to improve your score. If you want, at least a 60 to 70% match, don't bother to apply for the job. You're not going to be accepted as an acceptable candidate. So don't waste your time or theirs. But if you start out, I got one client a few weeks ago, we were using job scan together. She started out as a 37% match between her resume and the job description. I knew she had to be a tighter fit than that. She was clearly qualified for the job. She just wasn't using the proper key words. So we started tweaking and tweaked and tweaked and tweaked and tweaked. We finally got up or her up to a 70, believe it was a 73% match. She should be invited for an interview. I forgot one client up to an 80% match a few weeks ago. So use jus' tools like job scan.com and don't overlook the importance of tweaking your resume for every job description you apply for. Then also don't overlook the importance of writing a compelling cover letter, and don't make the mistake that so many people make, which is they regurgitate their resume in their cover letter. Don't do that. That's a waste of your time and theirs. They're not going to read that letter. Now they might be interested in why you're interested in the job. And especially, they're going to be curious about why you're applying for that job. If you don't have any real world experience, what makes you think that you're qualified for the job? So, especially if you're making a leap from one career lane into another, and you don't have any obvious experience, you need to draw a picture, connect the dots. Don't expect the person reading your cover letter to connect the dots for you. You have to be clear. You have to be explicit. You have to almost literally draw a picture for them so that they get it. Why you think you're a good fit for the job. Then you want to create an optimized LinkedIn profile. And on your LinkedIn profile, you can create a artifact that is sort of like your online resume, but it's so much more because you can include everything you've ever done. If you'd like, unlike in your resume, you need to keep your resume targeted to that specific job that you're applying for. But on LinkedIn, you can branch out. You can include video. You can include artifacts that you've articles you've written. If you'd like you can include recommendations from people who, who you have impressed over time with your skills and abilities. So used LinkedIn, for sure. And then customize your resume for each job description. As you apply, learn how to network in the world of COVID-19 used to be when you were job searching, you would find groups, networking groups to go to alumni, networking groups, meet ups of different kinds, where you'd be able to meet people in person and offer your elevator pitch, quote, unquote, explaining what it is that you're looking for, what kind of job you're seeking and how you believe you have something to offer in that particular area. We can't go places. At least we shouldn't. I, my new mantra during COVID is just because you can doesn't mean you should, because you can go out more now than you could add during the initial lockdown phase doesn't mean that you necessarily should, or that it's safe. You have to be extremely careful. And so it's safer by far to learn how to virtually network using your LinkedIn connections, finding virtual groups that you can join, like Toastmasters, where you can meet other people who are working in a field beyond your own field. Look for a specific groups, interest groups, conferences, places where you are likely to run into people virtually who may have an in, at a company that you're interested in, maybe doing the work that you're interested in doing. You might want to set up a virtual one-on-one 10 minute informational interview with those folks to try to learn more about what the job entails, but do learn how to network effectively in the world of COVID. And then finally you will need to master the skills of the interview. You need to be able to speak about yourself and your skills and your abilities and your experience with poise and Peneche. And there's a way to do that online differently from in-person as well. So those are 10 things that I've put on my checklist. I wish I had a better term than things. Strategies doesn't really cover it. Techniques doesn't really manage it. Either. Things is far too vague and too general, but here, those are the 10 things that I think every job seeker in career changer should be aware of before they start their job search. So if you'd like this checklist for yourself or for a friend, I'm including the link to the opt in and at the bottom of the show notes, and you may feel free to download it and have it for yourself. And if you would like to talk about your particular situation, feel free to set up a 20 minute complimentary discovery session. Let's talk about your situation where you are in your search. If you've started or you're in the middle, or you're frustrated because you've been applying now for awhile and you're not getting anywhere. If you need to talk about your specific situation, I'd love to chat with you and learn more about you. And that's it for today. If you have questions, email me@kittyboitnottatgmail.com on yes, kitty boy, not@gmail.com. And if you would please review this podcast, I'd increasingly hear from people almost weekly. Now that they've been listening to the podcast, they have found some comfort and solace and inspiration in it. And by your reviewing it, it will help other people like you to find it more easily. So if you listen on iTunes, please rate it and give it a review. If you listen somewhere else, do the same and spread the word. So that teachers and mid career professionals who have hit the wall of burnout, or perhaps their job has just disappeared in the midst of COVID. And they find themselves needing to undertake a job search or career change. If they need help, I want to help if I can. So that's it for today. Have a wonderful week. Stay safe, stay well, just because you can go out doesn't mean you should.

Speaker 1:

So be careful

Speaker 3:

She did. And I'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 1:

So there you have it, an episode of teachers in transition. I hope you enjoy the information and I hope you'll plan to come back, please subscribe to teachers in transition so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode, I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at kitty boy, not at Boyd, not coaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm kitty Boitnott and this is teachers and transition.