Jennifer McClure`

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Written by Jennifer McClure

Exploring Career Opportunities Without Jeopardizing Your Current Job #AskJennifer

Are you happily (or contently) employed, but at the same time wonder if there are better career opportunities out there?

(Email subscribers click here to view the video)

If that’s the case, you may wonder how you can position yourself for career growth – either inside or outside your current company – without making your employer nervous – or even worse – risking being blackballed or fired because they consider you a flight risk.

I’m diving into this topic on this week’s edition of Ask Jennifer – a new video series where I’ll be answering your questions – in five minutes or less.

Except this week’s episode is slightly longer. Oops.

Let’s chalk it up to inaugural excitement about the new format. 🙂

In Episode 1 of Ask Jennifer, I’ll answer the following question for “Valerie”, a woman who recently attended a workshop I led on “Defining and Communicating Your Personal Brand for Career Growth”.

Valerie has been with her current company for almost 20 years. She’s not unhappy. But she would like to explore career opportunities to understand how marketable her skills are – and if the grass really is greener somewhere else. But she also doesn’t want to send any red flags to her current employer that she may be looking. (Smart!)

Want to know what advice I have for Valerie?

Take a few moments to watch the quick video to learn more about the 3 steps I recommend to Valerie (and others) who want to get noticed for opportunities without causing any drama.

  1. Update/fully complete your LinkedIn Profile.
  2. Talk to/offer to help Recruiters that reach out to you.
  3. Attend and get involved with your local professional networking association.

Have a question related to growing your career, your leadership or your skills as a speaker or presenter?

Send it my way!

I’d love to hear from you, and maybe your question will be featured in an upcoming episode of Ask Jennifer!

 

 

Categories: Blog, Career Development, Job Search, Personal Development
Posted on July 10, 2014

Written by Jennifer McClure

5 Action Steps To Refresh Your Online Brand

Mid-year is a great time to reflect on your progress towards your goals – and it’s also a great time to review your online presence to ensure that your profiles are up-to-date and on-point with your personal branding strategy.

Your life and career are continuously evolving, and social and online platforms are continuously changing, so it’s important to set aside some specific time each year to do a thorough review of your online presence to ensure that it’s accurate, current and presented in the best way possible.

[Read more…]

Categories: Blog, Personal Development
Posted on July 2, 2014

Written by Jennifer McClure

Interested In Career Growth? Let’s Chat! #VZWHRChat

Do you currently have a job – or a career? Chances are, you have some version of both, or you’re aspiring to claim them.

Unfortunately, most of us only think about our careers when we’re looking for a J-O-B, but the smart ones (that’s you) know that nurturing a career is an ongoing activity.

One aspect of managing your career is maintaining an attitude of continuous learning. Reading articles, blogs and news related to your industry and your profession will always be helpful – and so is networking and connecting with business leaders, industry experts, and fellow career navigators to learn from and help each other.

I’m excited about co-hosting one such learning and networking opportunity next week on April 22, 2014 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm ET, and I’d like to invite you to join me!

I’ll be partnering with several HR and Recruiting leaders, job seekers and seasoned career professionals for #VZWHRChat on Twitter.

This Twitter chat is the first in a #VZWHRchat series, where the team from Verizon will be partnering with HR experts across the Midwest to host various Twitter chats related to finding a job that’s more than a job – it’s a career.

Why is the team at Verizon coordinating these Twitter chats?

Because they’re convinced that by sharing information and helping professionals to grow in their careers, a few sharp-minded, solution-oriented folks might be interested in joining their team. They’re growing – and growth fuels careers.

However, you don’t have to be interested in a career with any specific company to receive value from joining in. During the hour-long Twitter chat, we’ll be discussing the following:

  1. During an interview, what should you ask to determine growth opportunities at the company?
  2. Once you start the job, what critical steps should you take to advance your career?
  3. What are examples of career development programs/training that prepare employees for individual success?
  4. You’ve been in the same position for years and haven’t been promoted. What should you do?
  5. What should you avoid doing that could hinder your ability to grow with your company?
  6. What lessons have you learned working for (or with, on the HR side) companies that both provide/don’t provide opportunities to advance?

So drop in on April 22, 2014 and chat with us from 12:00pm – 1:00pm ET!

Answer questions, ask questions, share your experiences – and help others. It’s an open event, so please invite anyone that you think may benefit or have something to add to the discussion. (If you’re new to Twitter chats, there are useful tools like TweetChat.com that can make following live chats easier.)

I hope to see you on April 22nd! I’d love to hear from you!

Be sure to visit the Verizon Job Center to learn more about career opportunities with Verizon your area.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have received compensation from Verizon to partner with them on this initiative. Regardless, I only recommend products or services that I believe will add value to my readers. For real. 

Categories: Blog, Career Development, Events, Interviewing, Job Search, Networking
Posted on April 15, 2014

Written by Jennifer McClure

Invest in Your Career – Sign Up for The Career Summit!

Five years ago next month, I was fired from my job.

It wasn’t a surprise. I knew my day was coming. In fact, I’d been suggesting the demise of my position for quite awhile. I’d even been encouraged by my CEO to look for a job while still on the payroll – since it was only a matter of time before the axe would fall after the sale of the company where I worked.

But I didn’t do anything to find a new job.

In some sort of Gen X loyalty play gone awry – I told myself it would be wrong to look for a job while still having a job.

Dummy -> Me.

Go ahead. Judge me. (You know you want to).

Now stop judging me. (It’s not nice.)

The truth is, I had quite a few reasons excuses that were causing my career paralysis, including:

  • I’d been “too busy” focusing on what needed to be done in my day job and had developed very few professional relationships outside of my current company.
  • As an Introvert, I found the very thought of “networking” to be exhausting.
  • Job boards, applicant tracking systems – and even email (gasp!) – were all new pieces in the job search puzzle since I’d last looked for a job.
  • I was burned out and not sure what I wanted to do next. (A start up, three high growth environments and one successful turnaround & subsequent company sale can do that to a person.)

So I stuck my head in the sand and I did nothing.

Until the day I was invited to leave.

Once I was forced to confront the process, I reached out to some really smart and wonderful people – including one awesome Career Coach – who shared their expertise, thoughts and advice with me. And with their help I was able to learn how to follow a process for building relationships (i.e. networking) that helped me to identify and connect with the “right” people and even find the courage to try something new in my career – which involved a change that wasn’t even close to being on my radar. Ever.

In other words – it took a Village (of Experts) to help me get my career back on track and headed in the right direction. And I’m grateful for the career wake-up call that getting fired gave me. It’s one of the best things that has ever happened to me. For real.


Maybe you’re stuck in your own version of an Ostrich Moment. If so, then check out The Career Summit – starting online October 26th and running weekly through November 17th. There, you can access your own Village (of Experts) who can help if you are:

  • unsure about how to develop an effective online presence and navigating “job search 2.0”.
  • confused about how to deal with HR and Recruiters (who isn’t?).
  • currently employed and looking to figure out your next career step on the down low.
  • dissatisfied in your current job, but unsure what you want to do next.
  • currently employed and find it difficult to attend seminars or webinars that are held during work hours.

This really is a great opportunity and I’m excited that my friends Laurie Ruettimann and Mark Stelzner have pulled together a stellar cast of characters to help you in your career journey.

I encourage you to register and join us online for the weekly live presentations, or access the recordings as often as you like via the archives. By signing up, you’ll also have access to several free career resources, books and articles.

You can even be proactive about managing your career by eating Cheetos while listening in your pajamas if you want. And you don’t have to get fired to start the process.

How cool is that?

*p.s. – Don’t miss my Session on November 10th at 3pm ET – “Great Brands, Great HR: Demystify the Recruiting Process” – where I’ll be interviewing Richard Cho – Recruiting Lead at Facebook, Jeremy Langhans – Senior Recruiter | Talent Engagement at Starbucks and Heather McGough – HR & Recruiting Professional at Microsoft.  We’re going to break down what happens in the hiring process and how job seekers can get noticed by recruiters, HR pros and hiring managers. It’s going to be awesome! 🙂




Categories: Blog
Posted on October 22, 2010

Written by Jennifer McClure

Is Stinkin’ Thinkin’ Keeping You From Getting What You Want?

While flipping through radio channels on a road trip recently, I came across a call-in show where the topic of the day was How to Attract Your Ideal Man.

The host of the show was an author of one of the many books on “Law of Attraction” and although I’m not much of a believer in that stuff, I decided to listen in anyway. (Not at all because I’m single – I prefer to call it research.)

The first caller to the show – a single mom in her late 30’s – explained how she’d given up on finding a “good man”, as she had a history of attracting only Losers. To help her out, the host asked the caller to describe exactly what she was looking for in her ideal man. She rattled off a few things, such as:

  • I don’t want someone who can’t appreciate what it takes to be a single parent.
  • I don’t want someone who isn’t kind and considerate.
  • I don’t want someone who does not want to be in a committed relationship.

After a few minutes, the host stopped the caller and asked if she recognized that she was creating a list of everything she did not want versus what she did want in an ideal mate. Surprisingly, she hadn’t noticed.

He explained his theory that her negative thinking was a huge part of the reason why she hasn’t been successful in finding the “right” man.

The host then suggested that she take some time to write down all of the things that she doesn’t want, then go back and change the wording in each sentence to instead reflect what she does want. By doing this, she would be changing her negative thinking to positive, which would allow her to actually attract her ideal man – who would ride up on a white horse and take her away to live in a castle far, far away where they would live happily ever after. (Ok, so I may have embellished a wee bit with the last part…)

According to the Law of Attraction, thinking about what you don’t want applies energy and focus in that direction and actually brings those things into your life, while applying positive thinking and intentionally focusing on what you do want sends “positive vibrations” out to the universe and attracts those things to you.

I don’t buy the universal positive vibrations mumbo-jumbo, but I do notice when people position things negatively in terms of their businesses and careers and recognize how often that limits their thinking (and mine) to potential possibilities and opportunities.

Ask a client to describe an ideal candidate for a position and they might say “We won’t consider someone who has worked in a very large company – they don’t fit with our entrepreneurial culture”.

Ask a candidate to describe their ideal opportunity and you might hear “I don’t want to be micro-managed or work in a company where there is a lot of bureaucracy”.

With each of these statements, I have to guard against going into a negative frame of mind, where I start subtracting from a mental list instead of adding to it. I’m also curious to find out more about the bad experience(s) in their past that are likely associated with their concerns, and as a result, we end up spending a lot of time focusing on what won’t or hasn’t worked instead of exploring what can.

Take a moment to consider how you’re describing to others what you’re looking for in terms of your career, your job search or your business. Ask yourself what your ideal opportunity looks like and then write down your thoughts without self-editing (just do a brain dump).

Or, go ahead and make a list of all of the things that you don’t want in your ideal opportunity, because those things may be more clear to you than what you do want at the moment. Once you’ve created your list, go back through it and change any negative words and statements into positive ones.

By doing this, when you’re asked about your ideal opportunity in the future, you’ll not only be prepared to positively describe it, you can also create an action plan to make it happen! You’ll find it much easier to create an action plan around what you want to accomplish versus what you don’t.

Do you have some examples of how focusing on the negative or what is not desired has affected you or others? Was there a change in thinking at some point followed by positive results? It’s definitely possible to get in your own way by being a Debbie Downer in terms of your business or career (or love life).

I don’t want that for you.

Scratch that. I want much better things for you!

Categories: Blog, Career Development, Job Search
Posted on August 17, 2009

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  • Turning Passion Into Purpose: From Career Coach to Recruiting Tech Company Founder With Ariel Lopez
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  • How to Live Hard, Embrace the Future, and Create Success With Dr. Todd Dewett
  • Helping Leaders Succeed in Relationships, Work, Community, and Life With Mike Sipple, Jr.
  • Redefining HR: Embracing Modern People Practices To Fuel Business Success With Lars Schmidt
  • Turning Passion Into Purpose: From Career Coach to Recruiting Tech Company Founder With Ariel Lopez
  • Putting Yourself First and Finally Taking Control of Your Career With Laurie Ruettimann

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