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The “Bad News” Story Goes On, But It Doesn’t Have to Be Your Story

July 8, 2009 | Author: Promise Phelon | Filed under: Job Hunting, Layoffs, Moving Up, Setting Goals, UpMo News

I had initially planned to write a colorful and interesting letter this week juxtaposing a solo hitchhiking expedition I did through Ecuador to the Colombian border. It was to draw an analogy between a journey, for which you’re prepared and can clearly identify the milestones, with an adventure in which you’re not concerned with preparation but just “go where the wind blows.”

But last week’s news reshaped my message. Nearly 500,000 more jobs were lost last month, bringing the total number of unemployed Americans up to nearly 15 million and edging us closer to 10 percent unemployment. Whoa! This, just as we’ve all been exhaling; just as we’ve been hearing that the capital markets are loosening and the economy is, supposedly, on the rise.

As interesting as my travel story is, your story is far more important. In fact, your career, which funds your life’s other adventures, is one of your greatest stories ever. But…it’s not one in which spontaneity makes much sense. At UpMo, we’re mesmerized by the job numbers, confidence indices and the one little known fact that the average American family has three months in liquid savings—translated, the average household could survive for three months with the main breadwinner not winning bread. Clearly, being ready for job change is not only a professional ambition but a life necessity regardless of your employment status or interest in pursuing a new opportunity.

Well, let me step back; certainly, you can “just wait and see” if you so choose, but only at great risk to your career and your life. And since you’re reading this, I know you’re not the kind of person who knowingly jeopardizes life’s major assets. You’re not the kind of person to fall prey to a “bad story.”

So what can you do?: Get Ready. Hunt Smart. Move Up.

The UpMo Job Readiness Evaluator
In response to your feedback, UpMo is changing its tagline from “GPS Your Career” to “Get Ready. Hunt Smart. Move Up.” This reflects our new focus on helping you secure a job within 90 days when and if you need one. It also reflects our latest scientific tool—always free—the Job Readiness Evaluator (JRE).

The constantly-evolving JRE, voted the “Job Search Resource of the Week” by Vault, uses scientific factors like your motivation, habits, access to tools and relationships to determine your readiness for the job hunt. It dovetails with the UpMo service to help you plan for and answer questions like:

  • How will you structure your time should you be seeking new employment?
  • Who in your network will you tell first and rely on to help you figure things out?
  • How do you notify the universe that you’re looking?
  • How do you sell your experience in this economy?
  • Which relationships or networks will be worth your focus?
  • Which opportunities are really on your path? Which are distractions?
  • Which aspects of your most recent role should you highlight?

Specifically, the UpMo JRE evaluates five elements of your profile:

  1. Self-Awareness … of your next job, role, organization; of skills you’d like to use and develop; of your longer-term career path.
  2. Network Depth and Breadth … including the size and variety of your network and the number of professionals willing to serve as your reference.
  3. Outreach Behavior … such as how likely you are to proactively meet and interact with others; your ability to articulate what you need and offer; and how comfortable you are asking for introductions.
  4. Your Presence … including your resume and online profiles
  5. Job Hunt Systems … like those you use to monitor progress, manage contact with others and stay motivated throughout the hunt.

It doesn’t matter where you are in your career—in transition, considering a change or focused on moving up—you need to be ready to pursue your next opportunity. The old ways of hunting and trying to filter out the noise of thousands of wrong jobs costs you time, money, and opportunities.

So, in addition to providing you with the science to assess and boost your readiness for the hunt, UpMo is releasing a powerful job hunting technology later this summer that will uncover precision job matches in the context of your career planand walk you through the specific actions you need to take to secure those jobs.

Listen, the turns you take over the next few days, weeks and months are up to you. So get ready. Take the Job Readiness Evaluator now if you haven’t already—and write your own adventure.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 and is filed under Job Hunting, Layoffs, Moving Up, Setting Goals, UpMo News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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1 person has left a comment

I love the new tagline, Promise, as well as the new theme of “science behind career success.” I think you are successfully communicating the idea that UpMo is here to help you reach the next rung in the proverbial career ladder, no matter what your immediate need or unique circumstances.

Keep moving forward!

Greg Howard wrote on July 9, 2009 - 12:33 am | Visit Link

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