Exploring A New Career While On ‘Vacation’

Posted on June 30, 2008
Filed Under Job Seeking

Exploring A New Career While On ‘Vacation’

Ever fantasize about what it might be like to go into acting, run your own coffee shop become a chocolatier or work in the wine industry? Interested in finding a way to test drive a new career without losing a paycheck or risking the mortgage payment?

Missy Grohne did just that. She was working as a consultant in a LASIK eye surgery clinic, but she felt as though her real calling was in entertainment or acting. About 18 months ago, she saw a tiny advertisement about VocationVacations, a business that offers clients one- to three-day immersions with mentors in various careers and businesses. She discovered there was an opportunity to work with Kim Crow, a voice-over professional in Florida.

Grohne, who lives in New York City, was supposed to spend two days with Crow but ended up spending three.

“It was hands-on from the minute I arrived. She put me right through the paces and made me do it,” Grohne said. Crow also gave her lots of encouragement.

“To have someone so established and so renowned in Florida,” Grohne said. “She could have said no, but she said yes, yes.”

Grohne returned to New York with a voice-over demo tape and entered a professional voice-over school where she spent eight weeks perfecting her technique. Now she has her own burgeoning voice-over business. She hasn’t quit her job at the eye clinic yet, but she expects she’ll be able to do so soon.

“It cost me about $1,200,” Grohne said. “It’s probably the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. … This was exactly what I needed the kick in the butt. It got me motivated.”

Brian Kurth came up with the VocationVacations concept in 1999 when he was sitting in traffic on Chicago’s Kennedy Expressway during his long daily commute to his job in product management for a regional phone company. He started daydreaming about what he’d rather do in life make wine, guide tours, train dogs. He thought about how great it would be if there were a way to test an occupation for a few days.

“There were internships for 20-year-olds and there were volunteer vacations go off and work with sea turtles but not something that would allow me to take a few days and work with a winemaker or with a dog trainer.”

Eventually he left the phone company job and got a job with a dot com. When a pink slip arrived in late 2001, he went on a road trip. Along the way, he asked the people he met if they would be interested in a company that offered short internships for grown-ups contemplating career changes. He almost always received a positive response.

By the end of his journey, he decided to take a job in the wine industry and to move to Portland, Ore., but the concept for VocationVacations was percolating. He worked to develop the business as a hobby and then officially launched it in 2004.

Although there have been “vocationers” from Connecticut, none was available for an interview. However, Duncan Goodall, the owner of Koffee on Audubon in New Haven, is one of several Connecticut-based mentors for VocationVacations.

Goodall had worked for a market research consulting business but quit his high-paying position because he didn’t like the lifestyle and wanted more time with his family.

“Now I’m doing something I enjoy and it has meaning for me,” Goodall said of his coffeehouse business. “Doing something like this is very gratifying for me.”

He also enjoys the opportunity to share his knowledge with VacationVocation customers, to help others avoid the pitfalls he encountered in the business.

In his mentoring, he covers everything from understanding the market, to whether to buy a pre-existing coffeehouse or start a new one, to the ins and outs of buying or leasing equipment to how to make a good cup of coffee and ensure that employees do the same.

Kurth said that he makes an effort to find mentors, who like Goodall, know what they do, do it well and are born teachers. The pay for mentors, Kurth said, is a “relatively small honorarium.”

Kurth declined to discuss how many people have taken VocationVacations, but he said the numbers are rising, especially in what he calls the “disgruntled triangle” the region between Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C.

“This is where the bulk of our customers come from,” Kurth said. “They are not fulfilled in their current careers. They are fed up with commutes, yearning for something different.”

Other hots spots for job dissatisfaction include all of California and Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth. Very often, his clients work in information technology, corporate litigation, financial services or insurance. Sometimes they are doctors or nurses who enjoy helping people but are tired of the medical bureaucracy and insurance demands.

“We also get people from middle America seeking to do something different and something new,” he said.

The company now offers 150 types of vocation with more than 300 mentors across the country. The most popular vocations are those in hospitality (such as bed and breakfasts, hotels, inns and concierges); food preparation (bakery, catering and coffeehouse); entertainment (acting, voice-overs and television production); design (fashion and interior design); sports (sports announcing and baseball team general manager); and various jobs working with animals.

Other possibilities for vocationers include spending time with an alpaca rancher, a chocolatier and pastry chef, or a comedian or a film score composer. The cost ranges from a one-day brewmaster experience at $549 to a two-day Broadway producer/director VocationVacation at $2,999. Most of the vacations are two days and range between $949 and $1,199.

Kurth, whose recently released book is “Test Drive Your Dream Job A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding and Creating the Work You Love,” said that about 75 percent of the “vocationers” are making the trip as part of a career exploration effort and that most (about 80 percent) are baby boomers or Generation Xers. About 10 percent are in their late teens or 20s and using the experience to get an up-close look at a possible career. Another 10 percent are retirees.

Len Dest of Southampton, N.Y., was one of those who was retiring from a career in marketing and promotion with the aerospace industry when he began to think about what else he might do. He had always had an avocation for wine, so his partner purchased him a VocationVacation with a winemaker for his birthday.

What he discovered were the many different aspects of the winemaking business that he hadn’t before understood. “I didn’t think at my age that I could become a true winemaker,” said Dest, but he discovered that he could work in the wine industry by applying his skills in marketing and promotion.

He’s now executive director of a nonprofit organization that promotes the wines of Long Island. “Tomorrow, I’m going to a wine conference,” said Dest, “to explain to people why we believe Long Island merlot wine is a world-class product.”

For more information, visit the VocationVacations website at www.vocationvacations.com.

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Using Your Cover Letter To Turn Weaknesses Into Strengths

Posted on June 29, 2008
Filed Under Job Seeking

When applying for a new job, it can sometimes be difficult to explain a huge gap in employment, or lack of relevant employment, when all you have is your resume to do the talking. This is why it is recommended that you include a cover letter with your resume.

But what can a cover letter do for you? It can give the prospective employer insight into who you are as a person, as well as why you want to work for their company. And it can also give you the opportunity to turn what may look like weaknesses on your resume into strengths. Let’s look at a few ways this can be accomplished.

Focus on Your Special Skills

If you don’t have a lot of jobs to list on your resume, but you do have relevant skills that you’ve acquired over the years, you can use your cover letter to explain what looks to be a lack of experience. A great way to get started is by creating a list of skills you’ve developed that match the company’s job posting, mission and culture. Next you can use the cover letter to explain how those skills can enhance the company.

For example, you may be an expert typist capable of accurately typing 80 WPM, which is perfect for the data entry position you’re interested in. The only drawback is that you didn’t gain your expertise from your last 20 years as a housewife and part-time babysitter. Instead, you picked it up while volunteering as your church’s secretary over the past decade. In this case, you can use your cover letter to highlight this skill and turn around what might be perceived as a lack of job experience.

Hobbies Are Not Off-Limits

Many people have hobbies that they spend a lot of time focusing on and eventually want to turn into careers. For example, you may love to work on computers and have expertise with both hardware and software applications, which has nothing to do with your string of jobs working in factories.

You decide that you are interested in applying for a position with a small start-up company that needs an entry-level IT technician. You know you’re perfect for it but don’t know how to prove it. That is, until you remember that you keep up with all of the technology, have taken some classes at a local college, and have years of experience fixing computers in your community. By explaining all of this in your cover letter, you have a chance to showcase the experience you’ve gained.

Keep Your Explanations Simple

While you want to use your cover letter to fill in gaps in your job history, you don’t want the employer to spend too much time thinking about the possibility of you being a weak candidate. So instead of spending a lot of time explaining why your skills and hobbies are stellar, it is a good idea to instead keep this part as brief as you would in any other cover letter.

Having gaps in your work history doesn’t have to define your capabilities as an employee. So try using your cover letter to highlight your special skills. You might be surprised by the success that follows.

Heather Eagar is a former professional resume writer who provides job seekers with current, reliable and effective job search tools and information. Compare resume writing services to find the best one for you at http://www.resumelines.com


Winning At Job Interviews - Eight Steps To Get The Job You Want

Posted on June 28, 2008
Filed Under Job Seeking

Research shows that applicants who are confident perform much better at interviews than ‘nervous nellies’. The secret of success at job interviews is to imagine you are attending an ordinary workplace meeting. This will help you relax and perform at your best. Another way to build your confidence is to prepare thoroughly. Here are a few tips to get you over the line.

Step One: Get the details right

Know exactly where you are to meet, with whom and when. Repeat these details when making the appointment on the phone and write them down. Ask about parking so you don’t get any nasty surprises ten minutes before your interview is due to start.

Step Two: Research the organization as much as possible

An interview gives you a fantastic opportunity to showcase your initiative. Demonstrate your knowledge of the organization by finding out the number of branches, their locations, the types of products and services, current projects, future company directions, and much more. Be aware of any issues facing the organization (or industry) and try to think of how your qualifications or background experience could be an asset.

Step Three: Send your references a copy of your application

Although reference checking is usually the last step in the selection process, it’s easy to get busy and forget to contact your referees. Tell your referees the names of people on the interview panel who may be contacting them so that they will be mentally prepared when they answer the phone.

Step Four: Practice answers to possible questions you may be asked

The format of the interview depends on the type of organization, but most recruiters use behaviour-based questions. For example, Tell us about a time when you experienced conflict at work. How did you handle it?’

Step Five: Prepare questions to ask at the interview

When you attend a workplace meeting, you usually think ahead about what questions you want to ask. After all, you’re there as a participant, not just a passive observer. Similarly, when you attend an interview, you need to actively prepare questions to contribute to this meeting.

Step Six: Assemble a folder to take to the interview

Prepare a business-like folder to take to the interview that contains a complete copy of your application and any supporting documentation. This helps to refresh your memory and build your confidence.

Step Seven: Clarify facts and figures about former positions

Don’t wait until you’re seated across from the interviewer before trying to remember relevant workplace achievements or how your current salary package is made up. You may get a case of ‘ummmm disease’. Remember to talk about your complete salary package that includes superannuation, car, sales bonuses, etc., not your take-home pay.

Step Eight: Plan what you’ll wear to impress

Don’t leave this until the last minute or Murphy’s Law will ensure the jacket you want to wear has suddenly become too tight, has a button missing or has wine stains down the front. There are no hard and fast rules about what to wear except to make sure you look businesslike. Never wear jeans to a job interview unless you are applying for a position with a jeans company.

Dawn Richards is a popular guest speaker at Careers Expos and is the author of best-selling career books, ‘Selection Criteria Toolkit’ and ‘Get That Government Job’. She uses her background in marketing to teach applicants how to sell themselves in their applications and at the interview. For free articles on all aspects of careers, visit http://www.smartstartmarketing.com.au


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