ITCareerCoach Training - Coaching » online courses http://www.it-career-coach.net How To Take Your Career To The Next Level Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:09:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Live Up To Your Potential in 3 Steps http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/20/live-up-to-your-potential-in-3-steps/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/20/live-up-to-your-potential-in-3-steps/#comments Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:28:39 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3144

Live Up To Your Potential

Live Up To Your Potential

This question was submitted by a very young, exceptionally gifted and talented top performer who wants to know how he can live up to his potential.

Hello,

I am very young (23) and was radically accelerated through college \ graduate school.

By next year, I will have a BA (Math \ Religion), MBA (Management Consultancy), MSc (Business IT), PhD (Computing & Mathematics), and PhD (ABD), in IT from leading universities, as well as 9+ years IT experience, with 5+ years BA experience with stellar recommendations.

I do not want a career in university teaching or research … could you suggest a few viable directions to move my career forward in IT business analysis?

I feel “painted into a corner” and now am not certain which way to go at this point, as a Senior Analyst.

Just a few alternatives would be helpful.

Best regards and thank you.

How To Fulfill Your Potential

The first of the three most important challenges facing talented people is that of identifying their passion.

This is a big challenge because talented folks can do almost anything and succeed at it.

Another challenge facing talented folks is not doing what they love and / or following the money trail!

Because talented people can easily get high-paying jobs and get paid a lot more than their colleagues, they can be easily derailed from their true objectives.

Following the money trail is bad because it eventually leads to mediocrity.

Regardless of how talented one is, it is not possible to achieve your deepest potential if you do not identify your passion and do what you love.

The final challenge that talented people face is not taking their passion to market.

They pick vocations where they are unable to serve their community or their world because of money concerns or because of poor career recommendations.

Discover Your Passion

The first and most important thing that you have to do: “is to discover your passion“.

Your passion is something that you are deeply interested in doing because you love it, you have strengths in it, you enjoy thinking, dreaming or even speaking about it.

Your passion is not necessarily what promises you job security or what promises you lots of money.

Money and Job Security are used as the primary basis of making career recommendations and yet, they don’t truly matter because … guess what?

If you do what you truly love, the money will surely follow!

Discovering your passion is an exercise of the heart and not of the head.

You must be able to dream or envision your passion in your heart first and then use your head to figure out what to do.

Good folks get this heart and head mixed up all the time! Your heart is your instinctive, sensing personality and your head is your rational, logical person.

Do What You Love

The second thing that you must do on the path to self actualization is to: “Do What You Love”.

Doing what you love means working very hard at something that you love.

But it also means more than that … it means training yourself the way that world-class athletes do!

Though you can do several things exceptionally very well, you should concentrate on a few disciplines and hone your abilities in those alone.

You want to become so good in your chosen field, that your work in those areas will stand out in comparison to that of any others in your chosen field.

Think about this for a moment: world-class athletes have to invest considerable amounts of time into just training and honing their skills.

They understand that even through they may be exceptionally gifted, they cannot win unless they are much better than the competition or other equally gifted and talented folks.

And also get this … no world class athlete depends on their exceptional talents or giftedness alone!

Instead they put themselves through the most rigorous, skill-advancing training that they can find so that they can live up to their potential.

The issue is not really whether you are gifted. The true issue at stake is whether you will live up to your potential? I will advise that you read these two books:

  1. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  2. Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

Amongst other things, these two books point out that to become a world class player, you will have to invest a solid amount of time into just doing nothing else but honing your skills and abilities!

Take Your Passion To the Market

Starting a blog and getting on Social Media is the starting point for taking your passion to market.

The next thing that you have to do with your passion or the work that you love is: “Subscribe to the Publish or Perish” mantra which you are already used to coming from academia.

The main purpose of your blog is to create a market for your passion or connect your passion with an existing market on the internet.

Your market is the readers or subscribers of your blog and what you must do is: help them, talk to them, connect with them using your blog as your premier publishing or speaking platform.

Without sharing your passion with other people who love the topics that you care about, your passion dies with you … which is the definition of being boxed in!

Not having a blog means that you are not others learn or grow. It also means your own growth is incomplete because you are closed off from the feedback of your industry … and no one can develop your passion in isolation

Starting a blog does not mean that you must offer a service or sell a product.

Starting a blog does means that you have decided to make your world a better place by serving humanity with your gifts and talents.

The lesson here is that being wired or connected to others using blogging and social media is now considered essential for success!

One person that comes to mind in that regards is Jacob Nielsen, the world’s numero uno usability expert!

For several years, he has been conducting researches on usability and publishing his findings online.

From those findings, he has written books and he conducts training seminars around the globe.

You can see that Jacob is deeply passionate and extremely knowledgeable in his field and that he publishes more than most people in his field.

Do these 3 things (discover your passion, do what you love, take your passion to market) and you will succeed.

Jonathan, when you break into stardom, don’t stop telling people how I helped you, ok :-)

P.S. I am sending you my new ebook titled “Discover Your Passion, Do What You Love, Take Your Passion To Market“.

Best Wishes and Lots of Success in your Career

This question was published using [Ask IT Career Coach].

[Ask IT Career Coach] is a Career Advice Column for Information Technology (IT) professionals looking for answers to their most challenging career situations.

If you have a question about your career that you will like me to answer for you, go ahead and submit it using the [Ask IT Career Coach] Career Advice Service.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/20/live-up-to-your-potential-in-3-steps/feed/ 0 Take Your Career To The Next Level! http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/18/take-your-career-to-the-next-level/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/18/take-your-career-to-the-next-level/#comments Wed, 19 Jan 2011 03:05:39 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3073

STOP, if you’re about to register for our training and read this post now because we are only interested in the right type of participants for our online bootcamp courses.

In many ways, we are not like traditional classroom classes or most training schools.

For example, we focus more on experiential learning in the sense that we want you to perform well on the job and not just have a certificate that you can show-off on your resume.

Click here to read our thoughts on experiential learning.

Do You Want To Build Handson Experience?

Finding the handson experience required to move up the ladder, transition into a career or find a new job is critical to career success.

Several years ago, just having a college degree was enough to get you hired and once you got a job, you worked for that employer, for a really long time!

Employers felt responsible for providing handson experience to students in college through internship programs or training for those who had a job.

But today, internship programs are hard to get because employers don’t want to take on the burden of training and a college degree no longer guarantees finding or keeping a job!

What employers are now looking for is proof of performance and not more diplomas, degrees or certifications.

When it comes to proof of performance, employers are of the mindset that your previous performance is the best proof of your future performance.

Please click here to read the article on “why employers want proof of your performance“.

So you have to supplement your training and professional development through personal initiative, traditional classes or online training bootcamps

Traditional classes do not help you develop skills or experience using tasks or assignments because that amount of work will be too much for a traditional school to handle.

In a traditional class, students have to start and complete their tasks within a set amount of time or that school loses money because the next class is delayed from starting!

But our online training bootcamps are not designed like traditional training classes.

Our students are given practical tasks or assignments which requires them to perform assigned activities with the knowledge or skills they’ve acquired.

Do You Want To Have Your Questions Answered?

In a traditional class, you may not want to ask questions that someone else thinks is dumb or you may not ask questions because your manager wants you to keep quiet or because the instructor just doesn’t have enough time to answer all the questions from all the participants!

Why can’t traditional classes entertain, encourage or answer all the questions from all the participants in a course?

Traditional classes can’t because they have a set start and end date and a limited amount of time within which the instructor must go over the course materials.

We do not have the limitations of a set starting time and a set closing time facing traditional classes!

Our online course participants may start their courses at any time or complete it earlier.

There are no limits to how many questions that you can ask and you don’t have the problems of someone judging your conversations or the appropriateness of your questions.

Because we use a learning management system, none of your questions is lost by the instructor in a bid to answer everyone else.

Do You Want To Be Personally Involved?

Unlike traditional online or classroom training, where you get a certificate regardless of your personal efforts, our assignments require your personal time and effort because they are reviewed and graded by us!

Our online training bootcamps requires non-trivial hard work which may be an issue, if you’re only interested in a passive learning experience.

When you enroll in our online boot camp training, you will watch videos, take practice tests, write assignments, perform research activities or perform any practical tasks assigned to you … all of which are required!

Our online courses are quite unlike traditional classes where you’re not given the chance to get your hands dirty!

Do You Want To Ace Your Job Interviews?

Have you ever been in a situation where you knew the answers to the interviewer’s questions but were unable to form an answer in your mind in good time?

What happened is that you weren’t able to form an effective verbal response because you hadn’t practiced recalling answers to similar questions until it became second nature.

That is exactly why we give you practice tests or quizzes in our online training bootcamps … so that you will be practiced at recalling or formulating the correct answers to interview questions in a timely fashion!

Click here to read this post on: how to ace job interviews using practice tests

Do You Want To Be A Top Performer On The Job?

Becoming the top performer is one of the best ways of securing your job because employers no long hire for keeps.

In other words, the moment an employer thinks that your performance is falling or that your skills are not as good as that of someone else, you are marked for firing!

Being knowledgeable about your job is not enough to protect or secure it!

You also need to be skilled at responding with the right answers or solutions in a timely manner because that assures your managers that you know what you are doing.

This is where our practice tests can help you.

You will retain, remember or recall answers or solutions easily … so that you’re always ready for the next challenge!

Do You Want To Take Your Career To The Next Level?

Regardless of where you are in your career: whether you are a beginner versus an expert, looking for a job versus working on your next career promotion, learning a new skill or refreshing the knowledge you already have … we can help.

Our help is not restricted to paying clients or customers only! We will help any of our readers by answering their most pressing career questions.

To get your questions answered promptly, post them as a response to any of our blog posts or Submit a question to [ASK IT Career Coach] here …

What Do You Want From Your Career?

We do not just provide you with the knowledge needed to get your job done, we also provide the real-world, practical education or skills required for your professional success!

So, if you are only interested in theoretical knowledge and you don’t care about building skills or learning how to perform tasks, then a traditional college or diploma course may be good for you.

On the other hand, if you want to build your knowledge, skills and experience using an interactive coaching or mentoring experience or if you are looking to apply your knowledge in a real job, then our online training bootcamps may be what you are looking for!


What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?



What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/18/take-your-career-to-the-next-level/feed/ 0 Don’t Worry Get Married: How to Cope With An Ever Increasing Workload! http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/09/16/how-to-cope-work-life-conflicts/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/09/16/how-to-cope-work-life-conflicts/#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:59:10 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3002

don't worry get married

don't worry get married

This post is written for professionals looking for ways to cope with conflicting or demanding work and life commitments.

How to cope with an ever increasing workload? Tech workers are under increasing pressure to get more work done during office hours, vacation time, weekend time or even away from the office at home.

How to keep up with the demands of our careers? And IT professionals are worrying about how they can learn new technologies or sharpen their current skills because of the constantly changing face of technology.

So, we are going to address the increasing pressure on IT workers to get more work done in less time or keep up with the fast pace of market and technological change.

Let me tell you a story

In January, one of the business analysts attending our training from the United Kingdom, (UK) asked us for help on how to deal with a conflicting personal situation.

You see, she had enrolled in the Business Analyst Boot Camp, a few weeks earlier but was now in a dilemma that proved to be an eye opener for us.

A few weeks earlier, when she started the training, she knew exactly what she was going to do with her life. She was going to attend our business analyst training, pay serious attention to her studies and carry on with her work or professional duties.

But as we’ve all experienced at one point or the other, life happened to her and she fell in love and decided to get married!

So, this was her dilemna, “how to get married in January, take time off for her wedding and at the same time avoid disrupting her business analyst training schedule!“.

Here is the good news: in-addition to getting married, our priceless scheduling & time management feature built into our learning management / training system (LMS) allowed her to achieve a work-life goal without adding to the stress of her hectic wedding preparation.

How We Can Help You Achieve Work or Life Balance More Easily

You can manage or schedule the demands of your workplace, life or personal commitments using the scheduling or life-management features built into our learning software.

  • What happens if you miss a lesson?

    When you’re assigned a practice test, assignment or video training and you don’t complete it for any reason including work or life scheduling conflicts, you will start receiving late reminders.

    However, these late reminders are sent without any penalties because our learning system will keep your course active and waiting for as long as it takes you to get back on track!

  • What happens if you are unavailable?

    Assuming that you will be unavailable for a longer period of time or you simply don’t want to get late e-mail reminders, simply PAUSE the training from your learning software with no penalty.

    What this really means is that you may RESUME or PAUSE your training at-will and the learning management software will keep a track of what you’re working on now or what you’ll be learning next!

Every part of our training is designed for professionals living in the real-world. We understand that dealing with life or work scheduling pressures is important to you, so we’ve provided you with tools that allow you to take control of your schedule.

A Recap Of How To Cope With Life Or Work Scheduling Conflict

  1. You may take your training during office hours or at home or from any location that fits your schedule as long as you have a computer and a high-speed connection.

  2. You may submit your late assignments or watch your training videos at any time of the day or late … after they are due. There is no penalty for late assignments.

  3. You may PAUSE or RESUME your training because you’re going to be unavailable for longer periods of time This feature may also be used by you at-will.

  4. You can complete the training on time or late. There is no pressure from us or system constraint that forces you to get out of the training after a certain number of weeks or days.


What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?



What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/09/16/how-to-cope-work-life-conflicts/feed/ 0 Giving Effective Feedback to IT Professionals http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/10/giving-effective-feedback-to-it-professionals/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/10/giving-effective-feedback-to-it-professionals/#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:06:42 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2756

We Give Feedback!

We Give Feedback!

One of the challenges of self teaching, self learning, CBT courses or traditional class room training is the lack of personalized, one on one performance review or feedback.

Training courses where both instructors and trainees can post or respond to questions are few and far in between.

This is the case even when you pay thousands of dollars for traditional class room training!

This is because training providers typically have an in-flexible curriculum and a set amount of training time to communicate their message!