Mac Prichard is the founder and publisher of Mac’s List, an online community for people looking for rewarding, creative, and meaningful work. More than 80,000 people a month visit the site, which includes a job board, a blog, and courses about the nuts and bolts of job hunting and career management. A leading career expert, Mac helps people who are looking for a job during all of life’s transitions — Millennials getting a first job, midlife professionals switching sectors, parents getting back to work after raising a family, or baby-boomers who want to change careers. Mac is proud to own two registered B-Corp companies, which use the power of the market to solve social and environmental problems. He is the author of Land Your Dream Job Anywhere and hosts the weekly podcast Find Your Dream Job, which I was on earlier this year.
Listen in for actionable advice staying relevant to the job market you want to explore.
[:57] Marc announces his first audience survey on what demographic listens to the podcast, what you like, and what you would like to hear about in the future. Please take the survey at CareerPivot.com/PodcastSurvey. This will redirect you to a SurveyMonkey page. Marc will keep the survey going through 2017 to hear from you.
[1:34] Marc has released all the audio files to publisher ACX.com for his audiobook Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, and believes they will be ready for purchase online before the end of the year. Marc will send an email blast to CareerPivots Insights email subscribers once he knows more.
[1:57] Marc explains the schedule. This episode is an interview with Mac Prichard of Mac’s List. The next will be an interview with Gary O'Neal with Austin HR, on how he would search for a job. There will be no episode on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day, but Marc’s favorite episode of 2017 will be re-released on Tuesday, January 2nd.
[4:47] Marc welcomes Mac to Repurpose Your Career.
[4:59] Mac runs Prichard Communications (a social change communications company doing PR for foundations, nonprofits, and purpose-driven brands) and Mac’s List (an online community including a job board and resources about job hunting and career management for people looking for work with purpose and meaning).
[5:32] Prichard Communications and Mac’s List each employs about five people. They have one value in common: service. This core value — learned from his parents and his upbringing — has been central to the success of Mac’s companies and his career.
[6:08] When you give without any expectation of return, you get so much back and along the way, you can make a difference in the community where you live and work and on issues you care about.
[6:25] Marc and Mac discuss Adam Grant’s book, Give and Take. Mac follows many of Adam’s principles in his own career. Adam writes about givers, takers, and matchers. Givers are the ones that win.
[7:01] Marc talks about why he invited Mac on the show. Mac encourages listeners over 50 to reflect back on their own careers. You’ve already done some very different things. You had to figure out how to make switches in the past. Next, know what you want to do. Take an assessment.
[9:44] Once you know where you want to go, make the case for what you offer to that sector or employer. Spend time understanding what their needs are. Go on some informational interviews. Employers hire people to solve problems. Show employers what you offer to them.
[10:45] You won’t make a change on your own. Most of us are going to work into our 70s. You need to start planning that in your 50s. Find the balance between what you want to do and what an employer will pay for you to do. If you want to have a successful career you have to make investments in education or professional development.
[15:00] Marc asks about ageism. What can people do to combat it? It affects Boomers significantly. Millennials also worry about the stereotypes people have against them. There are laws against age discrimination, but it happens. Do you want to work for an employer who discriminates against older people? Intentionally overcome stereotypes.
[17:06] Marc recalls Episode 53, the interview with Thea Kelly. Thea gave steps people can take to overcome stereotypes of Boomers. One of Marc’s clients lost an opportunity because it looked to the younger interviewers that he couldn’t keep up. Marc tells an example of an older applicant overdressing for the interview. Learn the culture.
[18:58] Start with your online presence. Hiring managers will Google your name. Put a current photo and updated skills and professional accomplishments in your LinkedIn profile. Show that you embrace new developments in your field and new technologies.
[20:56] Google yourself. If there’s nothing, or something bad, that’s not good. Set up a Google alert on your name. Claim your own name as a domain name. Put a lot of content on the web to feed Google. If you don’t have a good Google presence, including a professional LinkedIn profile, you will not get an interview.
[24:32] Before the recession, more people planned on retiring on-time or early. Now people will need to work into their 70s to gather resources. Mac notes that many people have planned for retirement to some degree. Once you know what salary you need, get clear about what you want to do and what opportunities are out there to pursue.
[26:51] Having a timeline, 10 or 15 years into the future as a long-term view, is very helpful as you’re having this conversation. Chances are opportunities will change in that time.
[27:33] Marc says that the first 10 people in his online community are asking how to broaden their horizons. Career opportunities are endless. People just need to know about them. Educate yourself about them, just as you did coming out of school.
[30:39] As a Boomer, Marc was raised to be a career-long employee for one company. Later in his career, they changed the rules. He left IBM and looked for other opportunities. It’s like starting fresh just out of college.
[32:15] Don’t make stuff up. Learn the situation about each opportunity. Go talk to people who work in the organization you are targeting, before you make the decision to work there. Someone in your network may know someone there. Or you can find them on LinkedIn. You may discover it’s not what you want to do. Save yourself grief.
[34:49] Marc tells people to talk to someone doing what you want to do at a company and get the inside scoop. Your next job will come from a current relationship, an old relationship, or a new relationship. Someone will refer you. Marc was referred to his teaching job by his chiropractor. Whom do you know who might know someone?
[37:33] Most jobs get filled by word of mouth. 80% of jobs never get posted on a job board. Employers manage risk by turning to people they know for referrals. Employers also give back to their networks.
[38:59] After you serve someone, when you least expect it, you often get something back. Mac’s List was simply a list of job postings that came to his desk that he shared with his network. It grew over the years. After 16 years there are 25,000 names on it. The list carries about 600 job listings a month. Now it is a business with five employees.
[40:28] Mac’s List attracts more than 80K people a month. Mac started Mac’s List with no expectation of getting anything in return. The value that drove it is a big part of Mac’s success. Mac talks about how to get his new book.
[41:49] Marc invites you to take the Repurpose Your Career audience survey and to pick up a copy of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life. The next episode will be an interview with Gary O’Neal.
Mac Prichard on LinkedIn
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success, by Adam Grant
“When You’re Working in a Career Disaster Area,” by Marc Miller on Next Avenue
Mark Anthony Dyson’s Voice of Jobseekers podcast
Ryan Rhoten’s The Brand New You Show podcast
Please take Marc’s survey at CareerPivot.com/PodcastSurvey. This will redirect you to a SurveyMonkey page. Marc will keep the survey going through 2017 to hear from you. Taking the survey will help Marc to select Repurpose Your Career topics for 2018.
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 and ebook formats are available now. When you have completed reading the book, Marc would very much appreciate your leaving an honest review on Amazon.com. Marc expects to have the audiobook available in December 2017. Subscribe, and get a notification when it is available.
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