Below is an archive of every blog post shared through this site since 2010. For posts by topic, check out articles on marketing, leadership, and building new products.
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When you’re switching careers you might get skepticism about how your previous experience applies to the role you’re applying for. HR tends to anchor on what you did most recently.
That's why it's so important to create *proof points* to show you can do the new job.
What are proof points
Proof points are pieces of evidence that SHOW, NOT TELL that you've been doing the job unofficially.
Read MoreAll advice is autobiographical. We know to take people’s advice with a grain of salt.
But there are other, more serious implications of advice being autobiographical.
In fiction, a foil is the person opposite the protagonist. The foil is there to show who the protagonist isn’t.
The foil dramatizes the main character’s traits.
In your friend’s mind, they are the protagonist. Not you. Just like in your own head, you’re the protagonist.
When friends make you the foil, they give you advice as “you in relation to them” versus “you as an individual.”
Read MoreEmployees used to swim in their own lane. That doesn’t work anymore.
At all types of organizations, I’m seeing more high-performers get rewarded when they can handle projects end-to-end. If a normal marketer is an infantry soldier, these marketers are Navy SEALs. They can parachute into unknown territory to quickly assess a situation. Then determine the best course of action.
They are highly trained, flexible, disciplined, and razor sharp in their execution.
End-to-end marketers have a vision, can develop a strategy, and can execute to bring their idea to life.
Read MoreA coaching client with 7 years of work experience at a medtech startup wanted to do a career switch. She wanted to move into consumer goods, so she did informational interviews.
The advice she got?
“Start at entry level and work your way up, so you can get your foot in the door.”
I was shocked. (And insulted on her behalf.)
Look, if you want to become an ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON… Then yes, you should start at entry level.
Any change less dramatic than that probably means you have SOME transferable skills.
Read More