Today’s guest is Jane Jackson. Jane is an author, podcaster and a career management coach who specializes in career transition coaching.
With over 15 years of experience, Jane has provided career transition coaching to over a 1,000 business professionals across Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Europe.
Jane is passionate about helping executives through the emotional roller coaster of a career change while at the same time working with them to create a roadmap to their dream career.
Jane Jackson is a regular blogger for the Huffington Post in Australia and has been featured in numerous high profile magazines and newspapers.
She also hosts a career podcast called Jane Jackson Careers where she provides career advice and interviews inspiring entrepreneurs.
Jane’s book, Navigating Career Crossroads – How to thrive when changing direction is an Amazon #1 bestseller, and will help you confidently take control of your career and secure your dream role in 7 essential steps.
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JANE JACKSON AUTHOR: NAVIGATING CAREER CROSSROADS – HOW TO THRIVE WHEN CHANGING DIRECTION
Jane wrote her book in order to reach more business professionals with her message. She is passionate about helping individuals successfully navigate what can be very stressful times. Her ideal audience for the book includes the following.
- People who feel stuck
- People who have been laid off due to redundancy
- Recent graduates who are looking to find the right position
- People who find themselves questioning whether or not they've made the right career decision.
- Mid-life career-changers
The book covers everything you need to know about navigating your career crossroads from answering the question, what is it you want to do with your career to onboarding for your new dream role.
CONFIDENTLY MANAGE CHANGE
Surprisingly and similar to Richard Kirby's book Fast Track Your Career, Jane starts her book off with an entire section on managing your mindset. Specifically, she tackles the stresses a career crossroad can impart on us.
Jane tells us our mindset is the number one priority in our ability to confidently market and believe in ourselves. Both are a must to overcome the challenges we face during this trying time in our career.
Confidence plays a huge role in our ability to change our career. Without it, our self-limiting beliefs will speak loudly to us every morning and will work to keep us “down” rather than help pick us back up.
Believe it or not, career change is one of the most stressful things we go through in life. It ranks high up on the “stress list” right near death and divorce. In this chapter, Jane Jackson provides an assessment for you to measure your current stress level so you can identify where your stress is coming from and how you can start to improve it.
ASSESS WHAT MAKES YOU TICK
Once we have our stress managed, Jane walks us through how to determine what makes us tick and how we can figure out what our dream role might be. The first step is to determine exactly where you are in your life at this point in time.
This is not a look only at your career but it's a look at your entire life. Similar to what Scott Barlow and I discussed, Jane recommends you take the time to complete what she calls a life inventory. Jane Jackson provides a life inventory sample in the book.
The life inventory will not only assess where you are right now in your career but it takes the extra step and looks at many other “things” in our lives such as our physical environment, personal finances, and even our relationships to name a few.
The life inventory helps you make values-based decisions as you move forward. You will also look at what motivates you and what demotivates you. As an example, a short commute to work might be a motivator for you. You'll review your skills, your traits, your experiences, and your knowledge base because this is what employers will be looking for when they assess you for your dream role.
RESUMES AND MARKETING COMMUNICATION
Jane Jackson offers a lot of great advice about your marketing documents. If you pair this part of our discussion with the podcast Wendi Weiner and I did, you will have some great practical steps to start building your resume.
Jane and I talk about and she provides fantastic examples on how to turn your achievements into results for your resume. Consider things you've done to save a company money, or processes you may have streamlined as an example. Additionally, any problems you may have encountered at work and the actions you took to resolve them.
Taking the action and the result and turning them into one cohesive sentence, becomes a bullet point on your resume to prove that you know your stuff.
Another key aspect of your marketing communication is to develop what Jane refers to as the 90-second pitch. The 90-second pitch is a perfect way to answer the dreaded “Tell me about yourself” question.
It breaks down into three parts.
- Your past – where you've come from
- Your current situation – even if you've been laid off
- Your goals moving forward
Close your pitch by ending with “I'm really looking forward to learning more about this role and how I can help”.
EXPRESS YOUR PROFESSIONAL IMAGE
It should be no surprise, expressing your professional image comes in many forms but the image we see as individuals really manifest's itself in the clothing you wear. Toi Sweeney would agree.
Jane Jackson tells us that people who look really sloppy, are considered to be a Dag. You'll need to listen to hear Jane's definition of a Dag.
Your image projects assumptions about your ability to do the job or role. Sloppy dress may imply you will work sloppy.
Also, remember to never be stroppy during an interview. Yes, you need to listen in to hear the definition.
EXPLORE JOB SEARCH STRATEGIES
I asked Jane if she believes job boards are dead. Jane doesn't think so. She believes they have a place and should be used as a part of your overall job search strategy.
As an example, she references how you can use a job board for research to identify open positions within a company and the job requirements for a specific role.
Like David Fisher, Jane Jackson tells us networking is an absolute requirement for finding your dream job today.
Once you've found a job you are interested in exploring further, review the job posting for a contact name or number at the company. If there is one on the job description, pick up the phone and call the person. Yes, this means actually talking to someone on the phone. Horrors, I know.
By not making the phone call, you are doing the same thing everyone else does. Go the extra mile and make the phone call. This is a great way for you as a candidate to stand out from the rest of the applicants. This may also help you bypass the ATS software and put your resume right in the hands of the hiring manager.
If you get the recruiter on the phone, you have an opportunity to sell yourself to them before they have even seen your resume.
RELATE YOUR VALUE AND SUITABILITY IN INTERVIEWS
By and large, interviews are still conducted in person with you sitting across the table or desk from the interviewer. This type of interview could take many different forms such as a group interview, or even a presentation on your part.
However, with the advancement in technologies Taylor Pearson and I discussed, it's now possible to conduct an interview right from your own home.
This will most likely happen over Skype. Jane sees these types of interviews happening a lot more often today.
Jane Jackson's advice for conducting a Skype interview.
- Make sure you have a good internet connection.
- Treat it like an actual face-to-face interview
- Dress appropriately
- Make sure to look into the camera when speaking
- Lift your computer up, in order to keep your chin up when speaking
- Speak slower than you normally would
- Have a backup plan in case Skype isn't working (i.e. provide a phone number where you can be reached as you start)
- Be prepared
Jane tells us you should definitely ask questions during and at the end of the interview. Remember the interview is as much you interviewing them as it is them interviewing you.
When appropriate you can ask them questions such as, “What would be the attributes of a successful candidate in this role?”, “What is the team culture like?”, “What is your management style?”.
The point with these questions is for you to determine your fit for the role and the company.
SUCCESS STRATEGIES IN YOUR NEW ROLE
If we've followed Jane's process as laid out in her book, at this point we should be in a good place to receive an offer from the company. Jane and I take the time to discuss how to handle negotiations.
Her first piece of advice is to not say “Yes!” immediately. You may want to but don't. The offer provides you with the opportunity to negotiate with the company. Tell them thank you and that you need time to review the offer letter or contract because there might be things you would like to negotiate.
Jane Jackson tells us the correct way to open negotiations with a company for important items such as compensation, is to first determine if there is room in their offer for negotiation. Once you know the answer, before you open up negotiations Jane recommends understanding your personal walk away point.
How do you determine your walk away point? By referring back to the life inventory, you completed as a part of assessing what makes you tick.
Make sure the negotiation takes place face-to-face. Have two or three items on your list and start with the most important item first. You may be apprehensive about doing this but Jane offers a really great explanation why you need to start the negotiations in this manner.
JANE JACKSON CAREER COACH WRAP
The Best ways to get in touch with Jane Jackson follows.
Web: JaneJacksonCoach.com
LinkedIn: Jane Jackson
Book: Navigating your Career Crossroads
eMail: Jane@Janejacksoncoach.com
Twitter: @JaneCareerCoach
