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Repurpose Your Career | Career Pivot | Careers for the 2nd Half of Life | Career Change | Baby Boomer

Repurpose Your Career podcast brought to you by Career Pivot is a podcast for those of us in the 2nd half of life to come together to discuss how repurpose our careers for the 21st century.  Come listen to career experts give you proven strategies, listen to people like you tell their stories about how they repurposed their careers and finally get your questions answered.   Your host, Marc Miller, has made six career pivots over the last 30 years. He understands this is not about jumping out of the frying pan into a fire but rather to create a plan where you make clear actionable steps or pivots to a better future career. 
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Now displaying: February, 2018
Feb 26, 2018

In this episode, Marc answers questions with his trusty sidekick, Elizabeth Rabaey. You can learn about her career pivots in Episode 020. Listen in to this episode for insight on targeting a job appropriate to your age, dealing with your employer finding your side gigs, and ethical treatment of multiple employers competing for your services.

 

Key Takeaways:

[:44] Marc welcomes you to the episode and invites you to share this episode with like-minded souls. Please subscribe wherever you listen to this podcast, share it on social media, and tell your neighbors and colleagues.

[1:14] Marc gives an overview of the podcast series. This episode is the Mailbag or Q&A episode. Next, Marc will interview Marcia LaReau and Neil Patrick, co-authors of Careermageddon: Cracking the 21st Century Career Code.
[1:36] The next week, Kelsey and Matt Moore, owners of Coolworks, which is basically the Mecca of seasonal jobs, at places like the U.S. National Park Service and other cool places. Marc is working on a couple of interviews with travel bloggers and other interesting and exciting interviews.

[1:56] Marc introduces ‘trusty sidekick,’ Elizabeth Rabaey. Marc interviewed Elizabeth on Episode 20. Elizabeth encourages you to listen to her episode for details.

[2:59] Q1: I am pursuing a position as a third-party recruiter in a specialized market of which I have intimate knowledge. The hiring company has a 12-week training program for all new hires. The base pay is very low, but the commission structure can be lucrative. I submitted my resume but have not heard back. What should I do?

[3:27] A1: This is a typical ‘churn and burn’ position for young people who are not expected to stick around for long. You are not their target hire. Marc relates this to when he applied to teach high school math as a teacher over age 40. They wanted a younger person. Marc suggests moving on to something else.

[5:06] Look up Marc’s post, “Are You Discouraged Pursuing Millennial Job Opportunities.” Pursue something else.

[5:42] Q2: I am working on a consulting side gig to move to in a year. I do not want my current employer to find out. Should I put it on my LinkedIn profile?

[5:50] A2: First, determine the risk. If you put it on LinkedIn and your employer finds it, are they going to fire you? Are they going to be unhappy? Are they going to be OK with it? As long as you’re not competing, they may not be happy, but… First determine if they will fire you for doing this, then don’t put it on LinkedIn.

[6:35] Second, before you put it on your LinkedIn profile, figure out what’s the story you are going to tell them when they do find it. Marc tells about some side gigs he did when he worked at IBM. When he was discovered, IBM was not happy and told him to stop.

[7:17] Third, if you do put it on your LinkedIn profile in current jobs, make sure it is second or possibly third on your list of current jobs. The default is the first item, but immediately move it below your full-time job. Marc just moved Repurpose Your Career podcast host to his third current job. That way, it doesn’t come up in the header.

[8:59] The key piece here is to make sure you have ‘a story’ to tell your employer when they discover your side job.

[10:12] Marc was talking to an employee of a large technology company recently who wanted to retire in a year and move into real estate investing — and wanted to put that on LinkedIn but didn’t want the company to know he was retiring in a year. Honesty is the best policy. Make sure you have your story straight.

[11:07] Elizabeth points out that you’d better be ready to make the jump financially if your employer decides they don’t want to keep you around because of your side gig. Marc says that side gigs are becoming more common. All you have to do is figure out if it competes with your current position. It is especially common for older workers.

[11:47] Q3: I have interviewed with several companies and I’m about to get an offer for a pretty good position but I’m also interviewing with another company next week that I think I want more. How should I handle this?

[12:01] A3: These are good times! Marc gives a case study of navigating two potential positions. First, say nothing until you have a formal offer. Second, with the formal offer in hand, find out how long they will give you to respond.

[13:00] Third, go to the second company and tell them you have a really good offer in-hand. Ask if they can speed up the interview process; if you are ‘attractive enough,’ they will. Don’t do anything until you have the first offer in-hand on paper or DocuSign. There is still room to negotiate the offer if it is not just what you want.

[13:46] Marc returns to the case study. The second potential employer sped up the process to one week. They did not, in the end, make an offer, but as they were prompt, the interviews did not interfere with his accepting the position from the first company. The applicant renegotiated the original offer with the first company.

[14:09] The key piece is that no one’s working for you. A headhunter is being paid by the employer, not by you. Be careful with them. As you draw out the first offer, make sure you treat them fairly and don’t drag them along. Make sure no one is deceived. Once you have that first offer, others will speed it up if you are an attractive candidate.

[15:06] Marc says we live in good times. He has had, in the last year, multiple clients who’ve gotten multiple offers. It’s kind of nice, being loved! Marc has also had several clients who’ve gotten five-figure signing bonuses, in their 50s!

[16:10] It’s all about making sure you have that first offer in-hand and it is official. You don’t do anything until you have it in-hand.

[16:22] Marc says those were good questions. If anyone in the audience has a question for Marc and Elizabeth, please go to the contact form on CareerPivot.com or send a question to Podcast@CareerPivot.com, and Marc will get back and add it to the queue, or respond to the email if you are subscribed to the podcast or the CareerPivot blog.

[17:03] Marc hopes you enjoyed this episode. He leaves his closing words.

[18:30] Check back next week when Marc interviews Marcia LaReau and Neil Patrick, co-authors of Careermageddon: Cracking the 21st Century Career Code.



Mentioned in This Episode:

Careerpivot.com

Careermageddon: Cracking the 21st Century Career Code, by Marcia LaReau
and‎ Neil Patrick

CoolWorks

CareerPivot.com/Episode-20 with Elizabeth Rabaey

Are You Discouraged Pursuing Millennial Job Opportunities

DocuSign

Please pick up a copy of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, by Marc Miller and Susan Lahey. The paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats are available now. When you have completed reading the book, Marc would very much appreciate your leaving an honest review on Amazon.com. The audio version of the book is available on iTunes, Audible, and Amazon.

Marc has the paid membership community running on the CareerPivot.com website. The website is alive and in production. Marc is contacting people on the waitlist. Sign up for the waitlist at CareerPivot.com/Community. Marc has two initial cohorts of 10 members in the second half of life and they are guiding him on what to build. He is looking for individuals for the third cohort who are motivated to take action and give Marc input on what he should produce next. He’s currently working on LinkedIn and blogging training. Marc is bringing someone in to guide members on how to write a book. The next topic will be business formation and there will be lots of other things. Beta groups will be brought in 10 at a time. This is a paid membership community where Marc will offer group coaching, special content, and a community where you can seek help.

CareerPivot.com/Episode-67 Show Notes for this episode.

Please subscribe at CareerPivot.com to get updates on all the other happenings at Career Pivot. Marc publishes a blog with Show Notes every Tuesday morning. If you subscribe to the Career Pivots blog, every Sunday you will receive the Career Pivot Insights email, which includes a link to this podcast.

Please take a moment — go to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or Spotify through the Spotify app. Give this podcast an honest review and subscribe! If you’re not sure how to leave a review, please go to

CareerPivot.com/review, and read the detailed instructions there.

Email Marc at Podcast@CareerPivot.com.

Contact Marc, and ask questions at Careerpivot.com/contact-me

You can find Show Notes at Careerpivot.com/repurpose-career-podcast.

To subscribe from an iPhone: CareerPivot.com/iTunes

To subscribe from an Android: CareerPivot.com/Android

Careerpivot.com

Feb 19, 2018

Uncertainty is stressful. Marc Miller describes the process of planning, preparing, and waiting to move to Mexico and how uncertainty manifests itself in the process.

Listen in for ideas on preparing for major changes in your life.

 

Key Takeaways:

[:44] Marc welcomes you to the episode and announces that downloads continue to exceed his expectations. Marc invites you to share this episode with like-minded souls. Please subscribe wherever you listen to this podcast, share it on social media, and tell your neighbors and colleagues.

[1:25] Marc gives an overview of the podcast series. This month, the series is out of the normal order. Two weeks ago, in Episode 64, Marc interviewed Camille Knight, a logical creative who married her love for data and creativity into making beautiful Tableau dashboards for executives. She transitioned in her fifties.

[1:58] Last week, in Episode 65, Marc interviewed Hannah Morgan of Career Sherpa fame. Hannah started in the career space right before the Great Recession. Marc interviewed her about job searching in 2007, in the present day, and about her projections for 2028. It’s a really good episode.

[2:32] The third in the series is a topic of Marc’s choosing. This week it is an episode about uncertainty and FOMO or fear of missing out. This affects Marc and other people about to make a major change. Marc’s major change is his planned move to Mexico.

[2:49] The last episode in the series is the Mailbag episode where he answers your questions with Elizabeth Rabaey.

[2:54] Marc introduces the episode, a discussion of what’s going through his head around his to move to Mexico.

[3:02] Marc was driving to a workshop in Dallas the previous weekend and was listening to the Freakonomics podcast --  “An Egghead’s View of the Superbowl.” On offense the players knows the play. The defense is always on their toes, not knowing what is going to happen.

[3:34] Stephen Dubner, the host, said a lot of social science research tells us that uncertainty is exhausting. We make really poor decisions under uncertainty. Marc has been going through a lot of uncertainty for about the last year-and-a-half, and it is exhausting.

[4:02] Marc retells how he decided to move. Listen to Episode 55 to hear the full story. Around October of 2016, Marc’s health insurance bill went up by 50% and he didn’t know what to do about it. They got on the Healthcare.gov site and found a plan, but things were really uncomfortable. Then came the election of President Trump.

[4:51] Worrying about healthcare insurance created a lot of uncertainty. Marc and his wife decided that they would start exploring leaving the country. Mrs. Miller is just over a year away from Medicare, while Marc is several years away from it. They are both self-employed and they were worried.

[5:14] In 2017, the Millers spent $25,000 on Health Insurance and Healthcare, and they didn’t reach their deductible. In 2018, it is worse. In 2017, they spent a lot of time exploring options for moving and spent some time in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Mrs. Miller had health issues there, but she neglected to follow up with a doctor.

[5:57] Several months later, the Millers went to Cuenca, Ecuador, at 8,000 ft. elevation and Quito, at 9,000 ft. Mrs. Miller crashed. They came home early and she was admitted to the hospital. Her condition is being resolved, but they have uncertainty. Meanwhile, Marc’s business went down 60% in the first half of 2017.

[6:44] Marc attributes the drop in business to uncertainty about the current U.S. president and what the government will do. Marc has a strong dislike for both U.S. major political parties, and the current president. Marc is affected by all the uncertainty.

[7:12] Marc has decided to move forward with what he was going to do. They started making plans, and the next step was to visit Ajijic, Mexico, outside Guadalajara. They made the decision that Ajijic would be the place where they would start their expat life. It may turn out to be their final destination.

[8:02] The Millers will spend a month at Ajijic starting in the middle of March, shopping for doctors, insurance and rental property. They found an Airbnb one-bedroom condo to rent for a month at $800. They will come back and then move down, probably semi-permanently, in June or July.

[8:41] Marc started wondering if he was making the right decision. They started getting rid of things like books. They’ve already down-sized in 2009, from 1,700 square feet house to a 1,000 square foot condo. Now they have to start getting rid of important stuff.

[9:10] First thing to go will be George, a massive, 8-foot-tall, 45-year-old ponytail palm on the third floor balcony. The YMCA will probably take that. Next is Marc’s mother’s furniture and her unburied urn. The next question is what to do with the cats. It is all uncomfortable for the Millers.

[10:50] They want to move in phases, as they did when they moved into the condo. It looks like they will delay renting out their condo. They will go for three months and then come back. Mrs. Miller will retire from her job at that point. Marc worries what he will miss out. If they don’t rent out the condo they will be out the rent money.

[11:30] The Millers are uncertain about what rental properties will be available when they move down to Mexico. The visit in March is to take care of some of the uncertainty by finding a place for June. When they went in October of 2017 they took care of a lot of the uncertainty.

[11:58] Marc has a lot of clients and listeners who have a tremendous amount of uncertainty about change. We don’t know what to do and that makes it very uncomfortable. Marc lists some uncertainties for the Millers. Episode 40 was about walking into an unknown world when Marc left a corporation to teach high school math.

[13:17] All of the process of becoming a high school teacher was incredibly anxiety-provoking. No one wants to tell how you get hired to teach high school.

[13:41] Marc realizes now that all the uncertainty he felt before he started teaching contributed greatly to his anxiety. After two years Marc decided he could no longer teach high school math and he took nine months to figure out what was next. More anxiety. It was one of the few times in Marc’s career he was lost with no idea what to do next.

[14:11] Marc went through a whole variety of behaviors and feelings popped up. Many of you listeners who are trying to figure out what’s next are feeling the same thing.

[14:24] How much of this anxiety, the problems you run into, is caused by uncertainty? Make a list of things you don’t know that you will investigate. Marc bought a book on cats, including how to move them. Learn to manage your uncertainty.

[15:12] Marc’s final thoughts: What are you uncertain about? How can you manage that? How can you ‘not make stuff up’?

[16:06] The Career Pivot community website is in production. This is the only online community anywhere in the world focused on job seekers in the second half of life. Marc is now soliciting people for the third cohort. Join the waiting list at the link.

[17:17] Check back next week when Marc will answer listener questions.

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

Careerpivot.com

Freakonomics.com

CareerPivot.com/Episode-55

Healthcare.gov

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Cuenca, Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador

Ajijic, Mexico

Guadalajara, Mexico

Flexjobs

CareerPivot.com/Episode-40

Please pick up a copy of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, by Marc Miller and Susan Lahey. The paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats are available now. When you have completed reading the book, Marc would very much appreciate your leaving an honest review on Amazon.com. The audio version of the book is now available on iTunes, Audible, and Amazon.

Marc has the paid membership community running on the CareerPivot.com website. The website is alive and in production. Marc is contacting people on the waitlist. Sign up for the waitlist at CareerPivot.com/Community. Marc has two initial cohorts of 10 members in the second half of life and they are guiding him on what to build. He is looking for individuals for the third cohort who are motivated to take action and give Marc input on what he should produce next. He’s currently working on LinkedIn and blogging training. Marc is bringing someone in to guide members on how to write a book. The next topic will be business formation and there will be lots of other things.. Groups will be brought in 10 at a time. This is a paid membership community where Marc will offer group coaching, special content, and a community where you can seek help.

Please take a moment — go to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or Spotify through the Spotify app. Give this podcast an honest review and subscribe! If you’re not sure how to leave a review, please go to

CareerPivot.com/review, and read the detailed instructions there.

Email Marc at Podcast@CareerPivot.com.

Contact Marc, and ask questions at Careerpivot.com/contact-me

CareerPivot.com/Episode-66 Show Notes for this episode.

You can find Show Notes at Careerpivot.com/repurpose-career-podcast.

To subscribe from an iPhone: CareerPivot.com/iTunes

To subscribe from an Android: CareerPivot.com/Android

Careerpivot.com

Feb 12, 2018

Hannah Morgan is a speaker, author, and founder of CareerSherpa.net. She serves as a guide to today’s job search, delivering no-nonsense, actionable advice for job seekers. Hannah’s experience in human resources, outplacement services, workplace development, and career services equip her with a 360-degree perspective of job search topics.

Recognized by media and career professionals as an advocate for job seekers, Hannah speaks and writes about using social media, personal branding, and other modern strategies to help job seekers take control of their job search. Hannah is frequently quoted in local and national publications and she writes a weekly column for the U.S. News & World Report. Hannah is the author of The Infographic Resume.

Listen in for trends in job search you need to know.

 

Key Takeaways:

[:44] Marc welcomes you to the episode and announces the download numbers for January. They are almost double the numbers of three months ago. He appreciates the great feedback from listeners and hopes to continue to meet your expectations of a podcast that inspires.

[1:20] Marc has lined up a travel blogger and hopes to interview the owners of Collworks.com, a website that connects people with work in parks and great outdoor destinations. Marc is working on a number of other great guests.

[1:50] If you enjoy this podcast, Marc invites you to share it with friends, subscribe to it at CareerPivot.com or iTunes, share it on social media, and tell your neighbors and colleagues.

[2:13] Marc gives an overview of the podcast series. This month the series will be out of the normal order. Last week Marc interviewed Camille Knight, a logical creative who married her love for data and creativity into making beautiful Tableau dashboards for executives. She transitioned in her fifties.

[2:40] Next episode is an interview with an expert. That is usually the first episode of the series. This week, Marc will interview Hannah Morgan of Career Sherpa fame. Hannah started in the career space right before the Great Recession. Marc will interview her about job searching in 2007, in the present day, and about her projections for 2028.

[3:10] The third in the series is a topic of Marc’s choosing. He is thinking about an episode about FOMO or fear of missing out. This affects Marc and other people about to make a major change. Marc’s major change is his planned move to Mexico.

[3:29] The last episode in the series is the Mailbag episode where he answers listener’s questions with Elizabeth Rabaey. Last week’s episode was the Mailbag.

[3:34] Marc introduces the episode and reads Hannah’s bio.

[4:40] Marc welcomes Hannah. She calls herself an introvert who loves nothing better than just hanging out by herself at home, or carting one of her two teenage sons to Lacrosse, football, or other sports-related activity.

[6:12] Hannah started in the career business over a decade ago. Marc ‘rewinds time’ to 2007 to ask about job search then. There was no LinkedIn. Networks were the focus and job seekers had to rely on often out-of-date email addresses and phone numbers to build networks. It was almost impossible to find the names of people in companies.

[7:27] Networking was incredibly different. There were still a lot of jobs being posted in the newspaper. People were still sending resumes by hard copy or fax. Marc remembers faxing resumes.

[8:14] We really have seen a lot of change since 2007, making things better and easier for job search. Job seekers used to bring 20 copies of their resume to a job fair. A lot of money was spent on good resume paper with matching envelopes. Then there were printing, word processing, and typesetting costs.

[9:21] Marc talks about joining LinkedIn in 2006 and working with Indeed and Jobvite. Things have changed in twelve years, and where you are in the country impacts how quickly local companies embraced the changes in recruiting methods. In some areas, until a few years ago, you may have been emailing your resume to individual people.

[10:52] Marc jumps forward to 2018. What has changed? At the end of 2017 and early in 2018 a couple of things changed. We’re starting to see the job market be in the job seeker’s favor because of the extremely low unemployment. Employers are doing more to attract candidates. They are putting job centers on their websites.

[12:37] The majority of job seeker and companies have embraced LinkedIn as the primary spot to be seen and found. Applicant tracking systems are everywhere. Companies are realizing the value of company employee referrals.

[13:18] Marc recalls the interview with Gary O’Neal (in Episode 58) and the anecdote about a company with 1,300 resumes in their tracking system, all of which were being ignored. People were hired by emailed resumes and referrals.

[14:33] Some companies are implementing chatbots that will make it easier for people to get through the application process.

[15:44] Some of the biggest problems in hiring today are inadequate screening processes for applicants and resumes, so a lot of good people don’t make the cut, there’s a communication gap, where job seekers don’t know how to prove to employers they have what the employer is seeking.

[16:49] The resume is the primary document, even on LinkedIn. In order for your resume to be attractive to an employer, they have to understand what you’re talking about. Candidates have not been taught how to write a good resume or promote themselves.

[17:41] Employers don’t know how to write accurate job descriptions. They ask for everything, whether they need it or not. They also don’t know how to write about salary.

There’s a lot of salary information on the internet, and much of it is GIGO. Garbage in, garbage out.

[19:50] Job titles are meaningless now. Titles vary from company to company. LinkedIn just published their most promising jobs for 2018. The top job is Engagement Manager. Would you know what that job is? It could be a few different things. What about Customer Success Manager? It depends on the company.

[22:17] Marc has a client who wants to move from consultant to employee, for insurance benefits. Marc suggests he look on LinkedIn for people with specific job titles and ask them what they do.

[22:54] Hannah tells job seekers that everyone in a job transition is looking for a new career. The job they had at their last company no longer exists. It requires a major shift in thinking. It’s really about getting good at talking about the things that you did well. Marc has clients whose jobs disappeared in under five years.

[24:20] Marc had a director-level job seeker in engineering interviewing at a company similar to his previous employer but they couldn’t understand each other as they were using different terminologies. He didn’t get the job. Learn the language of your target company.

[25:26] Hannah would like employers to do more to simplify their recruiting language, and explaining their recruitment process to applicants.

[26:28] Marc jumps forward to the year 2028 and asks what has changed? Hannah predicts that will still be a lot of job seeking and hiring, and there will still be a large communication gap between employers and candidates.

[27:05] Hannah hopes that changing jobs will have become easier by candidates building relationships with companies before jobs become open. This could be done with an online talent pipeline. The companies could provide ambassadors to the online communities.

[28:07] Hannah suggests the resume should be replaced with a simple chronological work history. From that and the conversations and some other form of evaluation will be the interview process.

[29:37] The career lattice is the new norm. The career ladder is out. People don’t always want to be a boss, they may want a different challenge, and they go from place to place in the company or outside. Companies that only want a ladder climber may be eliminating good candidates. More and more people are moving laterally.

[30:44] The gig economy has been growing. It allows additional freedom to do things that would have been hard to do in a company. The only problem is health benefits tied to employers. To keep our economy growing, we have to allow people flexibility.

[33:03] Marc refers to Unretirement, by Chris Farrell, and the looming worker shortage as Boomers retire. Employers will have to bring back older workers. HR departments have a natural bias against flexibility for older workers.

[36:01] Boomers want to stay employed another five or ten years, maybe for less money and more flexibility. Millennials are the next largest group. They don’t want 9-to-5 jobs. Employers are going to have to listen to their largest employee groups and provide flexibility.

[36:46] Marc talks about moving to Mexico, and the tax implications. He has done a lot of research. He is taking his job virtually.

[37:18] Marc jumps back to 2018. What is the most important thought from this conversation? Hannah says that change is the norm. We all have to adapt and understand change and be willing to flex. Understand where you fit in today’s world of work, what you want, and what you are good at doing. Find a way to use that.

[38:58] Marc’s last thought. He likes Hannah’s comment that change is the new norm. We all have to stay nimble. Think about that.

[39:29] The Career Pivot community website is alive and in production. This is the only online community anywhere in the world focused on job seekers in the second half of life. Marc is now soliciting people for the third cohort. Join the waiting list at the link.

[40:54] Check back next week when Marc discusses FOMO and how it’s affecting his thinking.

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

Careerpivot.com

CoolWorks.com

CareerSherpa.net

U.S. News & World Report — Hannah Morgan

The Infographic Resume: How to Create a Visual Portfolio that Showcases Your Skills and Lands the Job, by Hannah Morgan

LinkedIn

Indeed

Jobvite

AustinHR

Gary O’Neal on Episode 58

Unretirement: How Baby Boomers are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community, and the Good Life, by Chris Farrell

Email Hannah at HMorgan@CareerSherpa.net

Please pick up a copy of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, by Marc Miller and Susan Lahey. The paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats are available now. When you have completed reading the book, Marc would very much appreciate your leaving an honest review on Amazon.com. The audio version of the book is now available on iTunes, Audible, and Amazon. Marc will be giving away one or more free copies of the audio version — follow his directions in this episode.

Marc has the paid membership community running on the CareerPivot.com website. The website is alive and in production. Marc is contacting people on the waitlist. Sign up for the waitlist at CareerPivot.com/Community. Marc has two initial cohorts of 10 members in the second half of life and they are guiding him on what to build. He is looking for individuals who are motivated to take action and give Marc input on what he should produce next. He’s currently working on LinkedIn and blogging training. The next topic will be business formation. Groups will be brought in 10 at a time. This is a paid membership community where Marc will offer group coaching, special content, and a community where you can seek help.

Please take a moment — go to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or Spotify through the Spotify app. Give this podcast an honest review and subscribe! If you’re not sure how to leave a review, please go to

CareerPivot.com/review, and read the detailed instructions there.

Email Marc at Podcast@CareerPivot.com.

Contact Marc, and ask questions at Careerpivot.com/contact-me

CareerPivot.com/Episode-65 Show Notes for this episode.

You can find Show Notes at Careerpivot.com/repurpose-career-podcast.

To subscribe from an iPhone: CareerPivot.com/iTunes

To subscribe from an Android: CareerPivot.com/Android

Careerpivot.com

Feb 5, 2018

Camille is a logical creative. She is the confluence of creativity and mathematics. Camille grew up as a gymnast, dancer, ice skater, singer, and photographer, while, at the same time, was a member of the Mathematics Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta. She spent much of her career focusing on the analytical side of herself because that’s what the world was willing to pay her for. Over the last few years, she turned herself into a Tableau developer, where she gets to create beautiful, understandable business dashboards. She now gets to activate both sides of her brain and get paid pretty darn well for it. This was not an easy journey for Camille and there were some pretty painful patches for her, which we do not discuss on purpose. But she has persevered and moved on.

 

Key Takeaways:

[:56] Marc welcomes you to the episode and gives an overview of the podcast series. This month the series will be out of the normal order. This week Marc will interview Camille Knight, a logical creative who married her love for data and creativity into making beautiful Tableau dashboards for executives. She transitioned in her fifties.

[1:27] Next episode will be an interview with an expert. That is usually the first episode of the series. Marc will interview Hannah Morgan of Career Sherpa fame. Hannah started in the career space right before the Great Recession. Marc will interview her about job searching in 2007, in the present day, and about her projections for 2028.

[2:03] The third in the series is a topic of Marc’s choosing. He is thinking about an episode about FOMO or fear of missing out. This affects Marc and other people about to make a major change. Marc’s major change is his planned move to Mexico.

[2:22] The last episode in the series is the Mailbag episode where he answers listener’s questions with Elizabeth Rabaey. Last week’s episode was the Mailbag.

[2:33] Marc introduces the episode and reads Camille’s bio.

[3:38] Marc welcomes Camille. Camille grew up encouraged to express herself through the arts and athletics — drawing, writing, gymnastics, dance, competitive ice skating, and singing. She decided on business marketing major for a practical career. She was already good at math. Her Math score was the highest on her SAT. She attended UT.

[5:35] When Camille graduated, in the mid-eighties, the economy was “down in the dumps” and everybody was struggling to find a job. She wound up in an administrative position for the U.S. Senate. It was a great opportunity to learn about our government but it was not a creative job so she returned to school as an applied voice major.

[6:34] Camille spent six years as a professional singer. Then she came back to Austin. She worked a series of administrative jobs and was invited to apply for a business analyst job. She liked the idea and went back to school for a business analyst course at ACC. It made sense and she took to it like a duck to water.

[7:31] She thought she had discovered what she was meant to be doing all along. Then she took the project management professional training course and the sequel course. She started to feel that was her direction to follow. She went to work by contract at VMWare. She liked the freedom to work for a time and become a subject matter expert.

[8:52] While Camille was working in one contract job, her world changed again, in 2015, when she found Tableau Desktop. For many years she had been a power user of Excel. Using Tableau was love at first sight. It allowed Camille to be creative with numbers and to tell the story in a visual way. It married the two sides of her brain.

[9:47] Tableau is a data visualization tool that allows you to create various different kinds of charts using data to tell the story. Any news article that has a gorgeous chart probably uses Tableau. Camille likes to able to create something really quickly. The beautiful charts can help executives make business decisions.

[10:48] It was satisfying for Camille to marry the two sides of her brain. She took a two-day course in Tableau, took a certification exam at the Tableau Conference and became a Tableau Qualified Associate.

[11:40] For the last couple of years, Camille has been using Tableau to inform executive decision makers about the performance of several organizations in the healthcare sector. This work requires using mathematics to create the information needed from the data she is given, coloring each point according to the signals in the chart.

[12:53] Camille feels like she has found her niche. Using Tableau comes naturally to her. She was not really happy just doing pure administrative work.

[13:33] Camille had a BA certificate and a PMP certification. She enjoyed Business Analysis, but she was not very interested in being a Project Management Professional, as the work was word-focused. Analysis, reporting, and dashboarding was where she wanted to work. She could use the PMP skills in scheduling her workflow, however.

[15:50] Camille just went through a lot of interviews. One came out of nowhere. She went into the interview feeling she had nothing to lose, and she was just herself. It was a great interview and she got the position. She was asked to talk to a sales consultant at Tableau. When she did, she learned that she was a content developer.

[18:36] Camille had been nervous about the meeting but walked out realizing she was smarter than she thought. The nervousness came from ‘MSU.’ That confidence set her up for a good interview with the end user.

[19:32] Camille never imagined herself in such a job. She is also concerned about retirement, but she likes to work, so she is considering soft retirement. She doesn’t want to stop working. She would like the freedom to take four-to-six weeks off in the summer and option to work 20 hours a week, and take a break between contracts.

[20:43] Camille thinks this next job is a real positive step toward a flexible work schedule. She had had no idea she could make that happen.

[21:03] Camille’s job search has taken five years. Things didn’t quite turn out the way she planned. She hit Tableau at a very good time, when there are no experts. It’s too new. Camille gravitated to it and sucked it up. She dug in deep.

[21:50] Camille would advise job searchers to keep trying. Trying new things, trying to learn, trying just one more job interview. Doors didn’t open immediately for her.

[22:53] Camille used to be Marc’s neighbor. He has known her through unemployment, hard times, her BA certificate. He encouraged her to take a contract job. The first job they just hired her quickly over the phone. Camille likes the freedom of contracting. She won’t take six weeks off, but she might take a few weeks, and it won’t be a problem.

[24:09] Marc says everybody in his online community wants freedom to choose how hard they work, where they work, and when they work. For many in the second half of life that becomes really important but it is not available with full-time employment.

[24:34] Marc is really proud of Camille. She thanks him for all his help along the way.

[25:10] Camille is a survivor and continues to pursue her dreams. She started her new job last week and this is just another step in the journey.

[25:49] Marc explains how he will select the listener who will receive a copy of the audio version of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life.

[26:06] By the time this episode airs Marc will have the second cohort of 10 members for the online paid membership community. This is the only online community anywhere in the world for job seekers in the second half of life. Marc is now soliciting people for the third cohort.

[27:42] Check back next week when Marc will interview Hannah Morgan.

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

Careerpivot.com

UT

ACC

VMWare

Tableau

Please pick up a copy of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, by Marc Miller and Susan Lahey. The paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats are available now. When you have completed reading the book, Marc would very much appreciate your leaving an honest review on Amazon.com. The audio version of the book is now available on iTunes, Audible, and Amazon. Marc will be giving away one or more free copies of the audio version — follow his directions in this episode.

Marc has the paid membership community running on the CareerPivot.com website. The website is alive and in production. Marc is contacting people on the waitlist. Sign up for the waitlist at CareerPivot.com/Community. Marc has an initial cohort of 10 members in the second half of life and they are guiding him on what to build. He is looking for individuals who are motivated to take action and give Marc input on what he should produce next. He’s currently working on LinkedIn and blogging training. Groups will be brought in 10 at a time. This is a paid membership community where Marc will offer group coaching, special content, and a community where you can seek help.

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CareerPivot.com/Episode-64 Show Notes for this episode.

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