City Slicker’s Alternative Business Career Search Alert!
Serious job seekers may be surprised to learn that their most exciting alternative business career search options could best be uncovered in small town America.
The Milken Institute, a private think tank, annually ranks the job growth in cities, according to Time Magazine. 11 of the top 20 cities had populations well under 1 million.
The study showed that many smaller regions share characteristics that act as job magnets. These include lower costs, tax breaks for employers, funding for entrepreneurs and a deepening pool of skilled and educated workers.
Many are college towns, seats of government, or home to a big company that nourishes others. Thanks to the internet and to satellite technology, a company in Iowa can be as connected as one in Los Angeles.
So, if you thought all the job opportunities are to be found in large cities exclusively, the evidence shows the contrary is true. And if you’re looking around, this may be the right time to consider that small town environment you always dreamed about.
Job seekers who once thought their alternative business career search was in major cities and turned their noses up at small town positions . . . well, times have changed and now they’re eagerly seeking small town opportunities while pickings in the big cities are suddenly slimmer.
How do these towns come up with desirable jobs? How can they fulfill your alternative business career search aspirations?
Companies don’t move to these small towns on a whim. It generally takes money in the form of incentives. For example, Arkansas has spent 0 million on roads and airports around Fayetteville over the past decade. Cities like Fort Myers and Santa Fe offer tax abatement packages to big and small business in exchange for creating jobs.
If you’re in the job market, small town America may be your best alternative business career search choice. Of course, acclimating to smaller-town life can take time, especially for former city slickers. But, for a lot of folks, their biggest concern is that small town job opportunities may suddenly get very popular.
Whatever your geographical preferences, there’s one very important tip you’ll need to understand. You will NOT be successful if you insist on using old-fashioned job search techniques!
That’s because hiring decision-makers in small towns or large cities are not going to rely on your resume to make a hiring decision about you. That means you must be prepared to take advantage of powerful alternative job search strategies.
For example, you must discover how to develop and nuture “career partners.” These invaluable personal contacts can literally bring opportunities right to your doorstep. And you can be in the enviable position of selecting your next job rather than settling for it.
“Career partners” is just one of the many innovative techniques that can have you entertaining high-paying job offers in as little as two weeks!
The dictionary states that accountable means to be responsible for
your own actions. When it comes to building a career working from home, the buck stops with you. You may be tempted to initially try self coaching. You might want to
create systems for daily, weekly, monthly and annual goal tracking.
You need to identify your highest activities that put you in the best
position to achieve your goals, and then do those things first .
Reading books about coaching might also be a good place to help you
get started.
Be Accountable in Your Business Career At the end of every week, before working on the next week, it is
important that you conduct a Personal Assessment of how you have done
the previous week. Have you been true to your Objectives, have you
fulfilled your priorities. In what areas do you need to make
adjustments so that you can do better in the upcoming weak. Some people may not be suited for certain careers. They need to have
someone looking over their shoulder telling them what to do in order
to hold themselves accountable for getting the work done. Tips for holding your self accountable: 1. Set achievable goals. Write them down, and check them every day
to see your progress. Do not try to accomplish all your goals at once.
Start small and you will get to the big ones. 2. Track your progress. Make yourself a calendar. Write down
everything you have done for the day. Check it at the end of the week
and see if you have been on track. If not, do not worry about it, you
are exactly where you should be. Move ahead. 3. Give your self incentives. Write down something that you would
love to do. Post it where you always see it. When you finish your
first goal, go do it, do not wait, celebrate right now! 4. Get your self a running buddy. Someone that will hold you
accountable for your actions. Make a commitment to talk to them at
least once a week on your progress. Remember, Personal accountability is the willingness to claim 100%
ownership for your results!
“My career goals coming to business school were really to find out more about what’s out there. The Career Development Office is very involved from day one in understanding your specific needs. With the small class size, you become a face and name that are linked, as opposed to just one more person looking at a private equity job.”
A Woman Overcomes a Little Slip That Slowed Her Business Career
Ms. Carole Chehab was born into a loving family in Lebanon which pampered her as the eldest child. She was fortunate to be able to attend the finest schools and receive much encouragement at home. With such a sound foundation, it’s easy to assume that her life would flow effortlessly forward toward her dream of becoming a lawyer.
Stop for a second, however, and consider where she is from . . . Lebanon. Life has been very hard for the Lebanese. During most of her youth, the country was ravaged by a continuing civil war. Residences that she lived in were even hit with missiles while she was away from home.
When Ms. Chehab graduated from high school, the civil war had recently ended. During the war, the government’s baccalaureate exam to decide who could go to a university had been suspended.
Ms. Chehab’s graduation year was the first year the exam was reinstated. The results shocked many. Poor students passed in some cases while good students failed after being marked down severely for trivial errors. Ms. Chehab was one of the latter, failing to make the passing grade by two points in physics.
Not wishing to waste any time, Ms. Chehab found a school where she could study to become an executive assistant, a far cry from her initial plan to practice law. But we all must move on when a little slip happens that shunts us onto one track instead of another.
Because her school work in learning to be an executive assistant was exceptionally good, Ms. Chehab obtained a position as an administrative officer after graduating. In addition to handling many activities for the company, she developed excellent skills in English, French, and Italian to be able to handle correspondence in those languages. She did well and stayed with the company for eight years.
Deciding that she could handle bigger responsibilities, she applied and was hired to become the assistant to one of Lebanon’s most highly regarded CEOs. In that role she handled tasks like ensuring proper implementation of executive decisions, planning and controlling corporate budgets, serving as project leader in a number of areas, and handling correspondence with the firm’s owners and banks.
After performing those duties successfully for five years, Ms. Chehab was ready for a bigger responsibility: Now, she wanted to move into a managerial position with her company. The time had come to earn an MBA. She was happy to find that three universities accepted her as an MBA candidate.
There was a problem. With a busy job that required that she work late, there was no time to attend classes at a Lebanese university. How could she avoid turning that problem into a slip that would cost her another educational and career opportunity?
Ms. Chehab had heard good reports from people who had earned MBA degrees from an online university, Rushmore. After checking out those reports and studying Rushmore, she decided that this school would provide her with the quality, credibility, and good investment she was looking for. She would supplement her MBA studies with seminars in areas where she wanted to build expertise.
Studying online on top of her busy duties at work would be difficult. At the time she started, almost all of her waking hours during the week were devoted to work or commuting.
By writing papers about running her company more successfully, Ms. Chehab developed new skills in applying theoretical knowledge that made her time at work more productive and increased her eagerness to learn more. At work, her accomplishments through these papers earned her recognition, and her responsibilities began to expand.
Because she had been working closely with the CEO, she understood a lot about the company and its markets. She used that understanding to develop powerful strategic insights into new choices for better performance with less risk.
Her world was shaken again, however, when conflict broke out between Israel and Lebanon. Once again, it was dangerous to live in Lebanon. It was difficult to work and her company faced major challenges as business dried up due to war-time conditions. Even if she could find time to work on a paper, there was no guarantee that she would be able to connect to the Internet to send the paper to a professor.
Would this fighting cause another slip? No! Ms. Chehab was well aware that you have to do your best no matter how difficult life is.
A favorite Zig Ziglar quote inspired her: “You want to soar up where the eagles fly, up there far in the sky, where you can touch the sun with your wings, you want people to know you have the ability and skills that take you to your place up there and appreciate you accordingly . . . No matter what . . . Always remember: It is never your aptitude but your attitude that determines your altitude.”
Despite the difficulties, she battled on and earned her degree in two years. Her company was so pleased with her work and academic progress that she was promoted to being the CEO’s Office Manager and Board Coordinator upon graduating.
What’s in the future for Ms. Chehab? For now, she’s enjoying a little respite from working long hours and studying during her limited spare time.
But there’s possibly a Ph.D. in her future. With her attitude, it’s likely that her career will reach new heights.
Ms. Chehab has demonstrated exceptional talent in solving strategic questions. With her skills, it’s likely she’ll be asked to run a business. When such an opportunity comes, I’m sure she’ll be ready for the challenge.
How can you adjust your attitude and skills so that little slips in the past won’t slow down the progress of your business career?
