More on Networking – It Works

I’m grateful for people like Terry Sullivan who talk about what it means to really network. It really does matter when you network and reach out to others. It really does help when you remember it’s not about you.  I’ve written about networking before here, but today I want to tell you more about my personal experience.  I originally wrote this as response to LinkedIn post from Terry about networking.  I believe there is great value in sharing it with you here too.

I was one of those behind-the-computer-only people for a couple of months. I heard a presentation on the benefits of networking, but it freaked me out. It wasn’t until January of this year that I stepped from behind the computer and started getting in front of people. I’ve been busy ever since. I have had opportunities to speak with and get to know some amazing people including you.

Bloodborn Pathogens Team Instructional Design Project

The process of developing appropriate, efficient, and effective materials is a major undertaking when done by one instructional designer.  In this graduate school project, I served on a team with five other designers.  We were tasked with creating an online and instructor led training module on a topic we chose together.  Here is one artifact from the endeavor as well as a link to the LMS our team created.

Instructional designers link people and ideas to client goals.

Blood Borne Pathogens L3Group Facilitator’s Guide

Team Created LMS Course

http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launcheval/19932/Course37019/Launch.html

The New Network

Seedy characters, late evenings, boozy breath, cigarette stench, and a scratchy chin are what I used to think of when it came to networking.  Horrible image planted in my mind.  But this image is wrong.  Networking is not something to fear.  Networking is a gift.  My mindset has changed on what it means to network.

I’m looking for a new opportunity.  The job I want may or may not already exist, so how do I find that seemingly impossibly nonexistent job?  I have to do the thing I don’t want to do, and so do you.  To get to where we’ve never been, we have to do what we have never done.  This may not be easy for some of us.  It wasn’t for me.

Take A Minute to Rest…No Really

Job searching can be both fun and exasperating. On the one hand, you’re excited to explore new opportunities, but then you get freaked out or stressed out at how much you have to do; or maybe the search isn’t really going the way you want it to go. It could even be that you’ve been networking yourself silly, meeting people, making calls, and attending countless seminars to get linked, booked, tweeted, or pinned. I know…I know; it really is a lot to take in, but today I’d like to share my latest AHA! moment.

I’ve been really going for it in the job searching – looking, researching, applying, and even seminar-ing all day and almost everyday except Sundays. Sundays are my Sabbath – a breather. My search has nearly been boundaryless.

Stir Up the Gift

Reblogged from The Human Impulse:

I begin and end with one of my favorite scriptures in the bible.  It’s all about purpose, talents, abilities and using them for the glory of God (my loose interpretation – I’m no theologian), but here it is from 1 Timothy 4:

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.  

Read more… 488 more words

live by being and let the being become what you do

Just “Be” You in the Job Search

I’m looking for a new career opportunity. There is no shame in that.  You need to know, if you’re in transition, there is NO shame in the career search journey.  You have a wonderful opportunity to delve deep into the meat of what you really can and want to do with the sweat of your brow and work of your hands.  What will that thing be?  In your career search, are you only doing all the things you’re supposed to do?  I thought I was, but I am finding there is a more complex story unfolding.  I must address it I am truly going to be effective, productive, and purposeful in the new work I choose to do.

I am a Christ follower.  I believe God’s word. I believe what it has to say about God, about Jesus, about the church, about me and who God wants and made me to be, and how to live this life.  I believe God’s word is so relevant to my life now more than ever.  It gives me hope, direction, life, and light.  If you heart needs lifting, read on. Want to get better at job searching?  Read on.  Just want to read?  Well, please do.

That ole pesky impulse…

That ole pesky impulse is back at it again.  I’m sure you’ve felt it at one point in your life too – that nagging naysayer voice that rings out any time you take a positive leap forward deviating from the norm of your life.  I’m writing a book.  GASP!!!!  I didn’t intend to, but there it is.  It is now one of the goals I am actively pursuing.  I’ve always liked to write, but now I’m putting my own feet to the fire, giving myself the pep talk I’ve given so many other people… “You can do it.”  I often struggle coming to grips with it, but it’s too late now because I’ve already begun.  My head say yes while my heart says, “whoa there, cowgirl;” yet I’m still inching forward.  Arrghhhhhhh!  If you could only really hear my screaming because I am screaming.  I’m a little out of my element.  Maybe that’s how pursuing a dream is supposed to be – unsettling – because you are settling into a new you, a new reality, and new sense of “be”-ing.