Archive for November, 2007

Holiday Cheers for Changing Careers

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Changing jobs does not happen overnight. It requires planning, research, and hard work. Changing careers takes even longer – years, in many cases. Most of that time is spent in introspection (determining what you like and don’t like, and what skills you have), and investigation (determining what types of things are needed in industry). Where those two intersect is your dream job, but it can take a long time to put all the pieces in place (see Switching Careers Takes Time But May Be Well Worth the Wait).

But because the process takes so long, it’s important to keep it moving. If you’re not in retail, this time of year can be a little more relaxed, giving you time to investigate your options.

Many recruiters actually recommend stepping up your job search at the end of the year, to set yourself apart from all those who put their search on hold for the holidays. With less competition and generally good moods, it can be easier to get the attention of the people with whom you want to connect. Even if companies are not hiring, building relationships with key players now can set the stage for the future.

Family, community, and business groups often host holiday gatherings. These can be great places to reconnect with people you know, meet new people, and gather information. As with most things, the more you
prepare before you go, the better you’ll be able to take advantage of the event. While small talk is fine, what you really want to do is Start Meaningful Conversations with people, and build relationships for the future. Think of these events as places to meet interesting people, not places to find a job, and you’ll do much better.

Holiday cards are another great way to foster relationships. On a practical level, you find out if the postal address still works, and there’s something more personal about a physical card than a group of electrons in an email. Adding a few words of personalization goes a long way towards showing your colleagues that you remember and value them, and the relationship.

Posted in Career Fulfillment, Job Searching, Networking, Nontraditional Career Options | No Comments »

Starting Your Own Business

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

I recently had someone ask me about how to start their own consulting business. Since I get this question often, I thought I’d put the basics here, for all those who are thinking about this option. The three biggest issues have to do with business format, pricing, and scope of services.

Business Format:
There are 3 main options. The choice of which is right for you depends on how much risk you can tolerate, if you plan to have employees or manufacture a product, and so on.

1. The easiest way to start out is as a sole proprietor – basically, you are the business. You report the income with your personal income taxes, and do not have to fill out any paperwork to start or stop the business. However, since you are the business, if someone sues you for a business practice, they can go after your personal assets.
2. At the other end of the spectrum is incorporation – you create a new legal entity (the corporation), that is completely separate from you personally. The corporation pays its own taxes and has regulatory and reporting requirements. However, this separates personal and corporate assets, and makes it clear that you are a professional and in business.
3. In between, and probably the most commonly used method today, is to form an LLC – a limited liability corporation, which has some of the protection of a corporation without all of the expenses and legal paperwork of a full corporation.
There are some great books by Nolo Press that explain the details of each (but make sure to check what applies in your state).

Pricing:
Again, there are a number of different ways to set prices. The easiest is that if the job would pay a salary of $X,000 per year, a consultant should charge $X/hour to do the same thing. This has to be tempered by what the market will bear, what your competitors (if any) are charging, what other resources they have to get the work done, urgency, and so on.

Scope of Services:
This is highly personal, and depends on what expertise you have developed, what needs there are in the market, what you are legally allowed to disclose (for example, in light of non-compete agreements with former employers).

Consulting can be highly rewarding, both intellectually and financially. However, you can’t just hang out a shingle and have people throw money at you. It takes work – not only the consulting work, but marketing, networking, accounting, and much more. Just like a real business!

Posted in Career Fulfillment, Compensation, Nontraditional Career Options | 1 Comment »

Thinking about leaving the lab bench?

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

Are you thinking about leaving the lab bench, or maybe thinking about thinking about leaving the lab bench? If so, make sure to read the great article entitled Should I stay or should I go? by Kendall Powell, published in Nature Jobs. Lots of tips and advice (pretty much all of which I agree with), followed by brief profiles of several people who took the path less travelled, and why they did it. My favorite piece of advice? “Listen to your intuition and trying your hand at new things could place you in your dream career.”

Posted in Career Fulfillment, Nontraditional Career Options, Resources | 1 Comment »

A Big Career Transition…..

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

One of my great joys in life is helping people manage their career so are able to make a living doing what they love. Many people I talk to are okay with their job – it’s not great, but they’re not miserable enough to make a change. But why? Wouldn’t it be better if you had a job you couldn’t wait to get to in the morning, that you really felt good about? You may think that it’s too far from where you are to where you want to be.

If you think you can’t get there from here, read the article entitled “Breaking the Grass Ceiling”, about Susan Myers who quit her job as an investment banker to become high school football coach. Maybe you don’t need to make that drastic a change to be happy, but isn’t it worth making whatever changes you can? What would you like to change, to make your career more enjoyable, and to position yourself professionally for the future?

Posted in Career Fulfillment, Nontraditional Career Options | No Comments »

Fix Your Resume and Find Your Dream Job

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

No, I don’t mean that if you tweak the working on your resume, it will magically attract the attention of your ideal boss.

What I do mean is that if you spend the time to think about what you’ve done in your professional career, and what you want to do in the future, you can not only create a better resume but can also identify the career path you’d like to take.

Before you take pencil to paper (or fingers to keyboard), stop and think about your history. What are your most significant accomplishments so far? What have you done that you are most proud of? When people ask you what you do, what examples do you give? Start listing these accomplishments, using a context-action-results (CAR) format. Under each, list the skills you had to use to make that happen.This may take several days or weeks of real thought to complete. You may also want to talk to collegues and close family/friends, to see what they remember that you have forgotten.

Example Accomplishment:
Published book entitled “Nontraditional Careers for Chemists” in 2006

Skills Used:
Networking – to identify 75+ chemists in nontraditional careers who would consent to be profiled
Interviewing – to find out about their career histories
Organization – to group them in logical chapters
Research – to investigate various career paths, to provide background information
Negotiation – with subjects on what to include and what to omit, with publisher on contract terms
Writing – to actually write the content
Time management – to keep all chapters moving forward, and get them done by the deadline

Once you have five or 10 accomplishments like this, look back over the list. What types of things are you listing? What skills did you use to achieve these accomplishments? Perhaps those skills that appear over and over are ones you might want to use as primary parts of your new career. If it turns out that everything in your list has negotiation as one component, you might look into career that would let you do more of that.

Posted in Career Fulfillment, Job Searching, Nontraditional Career Options, Resumes/CVs | 1 Comment »

Tips for Technical Writing

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

After technical skills, employers say written and oral communication skills are the skills they most look for in potential employees. Polishing your writing skills will help your career, no matter what career stage you’re at.

Before you start writing anything, take a minute (or more) to think about who your audience is. What background do they have, what are their interests in this topic, why do they need to read what you have to say? For example, think about how you would describe what you did at work this week to the following people:

• your boss
• a fellow scientist
• a non-technical friend
• someone you just met at a cocktail party
• a potential investor in your company
• your mother

Each one has a different level of background knowledge, technical knowledge, familiarity with the issues involved, interest in the project, and so on. By taking the time to think about exactly who you are writing for, you can start to put yourself in their place. Try to get a picture of who they are, and why they should be interested in what you have to say. Why should they read this document – what’s in it for them? By doing this, you will better prepare yourself to write something that meets the needs of your intended audience. And by meeting their needs, you increase the chances that they’ll read it – which is what you need.

If you want to improve your writing skills but don’t have a lot of time, check out Confusing Words (confusingwords.com). This is a collection of 3210 troublesome words, grouped according to the way they are most often confused or misused. Next time you can’t remember if you’re having an “affect” or an “effect” on something, this web site will help you quickly choose the right word. Check it out!<

Posted in Nontraditional Career Options, Technical Writing | 5 Comments »

How Technical Writing Can Help Your Career

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

Every job requires communication skills. In fact, after technical skills, written and oral communication are the next things most employers look for.

A great way to improve your writing skills, and help yourself at the same time, is to keep notes at work. A recent blog suggests you should Cover Your Butt At Work with Thorough Notes. If your memory is like mine, you have to write things down or you won’t remember them. Writing things down also solidifies your understanding of events, and can help you discover gaps. And if questions arise later on, your written notes are going to trump someone else’s memory.

One reason some people don’t like to write is that they’re afraid of making mistakes. There are many English words that have subtle, confusing distinctions. The more you practice, the better and more confident you’ll get, and you won’t be tripped up by confusing words.

And who knows, you may discover that writing about things is your true calling, and move into a documentation career as a professional technical writer, editor, or science journalist. :-)

Posted in Nontraditional Career Options, Technical Writing | No Comments »

What makes a bad job?

Monday, November 5th, 2007

Do you have a job you love, but none of your friends understand why? Or do you hate your job, and your friends tell you it’s great, and you should be happy to have it?

What makes a job “good” or “bad” is highly personal. It’s mostly a matter of fit – do the content, actions, and responsibiliites of the position match your own personal goals and values?

A recent Wall Street Journal report talks about the 10 worst jobs – they define a bad job as one that pays less than the median wage, and has neither employer-sponsored health insurance nor a retirement plan.

Career columnist Penelope Trunk believes that a bad job is one that does not allow both engaging work and flexible hours.

My career as a freelance technical writer has no health insurance or retirement plan, but highly engaging work and flexible hours. Does that mean it’s good or bad? For me, it’s ideal. I love what I do, and have the flexibility to work around family obligations. While some jobs (clients and/or projects) may be less flexible than others, overall it has worked wonderfully for more than 15 years. How well does your career fit you?

Posted in Career Fulfillment, Technical Writing | 6 Comments »

How to Conduct an Informational Interview

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

As a technical writer, I spend a lot of time interviewing subject matter experts (SMEs). My goal is to learn about how the device I’m documenting (usually scientific software) works, so I can design a manual that tells the end users what they need to know, when they need to know it. The SMEs goal is usually to get me out of their office as soon as possible. To make both of us happy, I spend a lot of time preparing for the interview, and try to make the interview itself as painless as possible. Many of the techniques I use are also applicable to informational interviews, where the SME may know about a particular company, professional area, or career direction you are interested in learning more about. Here’s how to make the experience more pleasant for both parties.

Step 1. Prepare Beforehand
Before I interview an SME, I request, and READ, any existing specifications or design documents. If possible, I use the software and become comfortable with the interface. I find out which engineer is responsible for which parts of the design and implementation.

If you’re going to conduct an informational interview, do your research ahead of time. You don’t want to waste your SMEs time, so find out the easy, factual stuff on your own. Save their time for opinions, predictions, and personal anecdotes that you can’t get to any other way.

Step 2. Set up the Interview
For some reason, everyone thinks all meetings should last one hour. That’s a lot of time. Many SMEs will be much more cooperative if you ask for 30 minutes, then stick to that limit. You can always meet again later, once you’ve digested what you learned in the first meeting.

Step 3. Conduct the Interview
Start with easy, yes/no or short answer questions to get your SME warmed up. These may be clarification on things you found out in your research, general background questions, and so on. This allows the two of you to get to know each other, and get a feeling for each person’s level of understanding of the topic, as well as communication styles.

Listen carefully not only to the words, but to the SME’s tone of voice, body language, and so on. Nonverbal cues can be critical in identifying which information is most important. On your part, maintain eye contact (without staring), smile or not to indicate understanding, don’t fidget, and take concise notes – all of which indicates your interest in their words.

As the interview progresses, and you become more comfortable, you can move to move open-ended questions following up on earlier responses.

Step 4. Close the Interview
Once you’ve gotten answers to your questions, don’t be afraid to rephrase in your own words. This again shows you were listening, and ensures that you did not miss any important points.

A good final question might be “Is there anything else I should have asked, or that you think I should know?”

It should go without saying that you sincerely thank your SME for their time.

Step 5. Document the Interview
It’s a good idea to write up your notes as soon as possible after the interview. This limits the amount of information you’ll forget, or get confused with future interviews. Some of the material may require more thought later, but you can at least get all the facts down before you forget the details. Also, writing them down will help you digest what you learned, and point out holes in your knowledge.

If appropriate, send a copy to the SME and ask them to review for accuracy.

That’s it! Are there any other steps I’ve left out, or tips you’ve found useful? Post them in the comments!

Posted in Interviewing, Job Searching, Networking, Resources | 4 Comments »

The future of science in the US, and PhDs in the UK

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

Science Careers published a brief summary of a recent report from the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology. This report talks abou the future of science in the United States. It points out that the number of professionals working in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) has been gradually declining since 2001. Also in recent years, salaries of most STEM professionals have stayed even with the rest of the population, with only a few specialities (including chemists) had above average pay increases.

Also on Science Careers, UK Report Reveals Variety of Career Paths for Ph.D.s. Looking at recent Ph.D. graduates, they found that only 20% had a clear idea of where they wanted to go next. Fortunately, the “market is enormous and the options are huge”. The harest part may be narrowing down all your choices!

Posted in Resources | No Comments »