Career Transitioning Excellence (CTEx) – Part II – How is Career Transition Excellence Achieved?

Career Transitioning Excellence (CTEx)

Managing this Project for 21^st Century Professionals 

Part II – How is Career Transition Excellence Achieved?

A Process in Itself:

In Part I we introduced our audience to the concept of CTEx and shared its importance as well. We also concluded how at some point in our careers we have a dire need for CTEx. In Part II of this series we will share how the CTEx process works and as professionals what do we need to do to leverage the process and benefit from it.

Being coached and mentored by one of the founding Fathers of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and doing business as an associate with pioneers in the field has been a great blessing for me in my profession. The very nature of this relationship with my former mentor has helped me apply the principles of LSS to one of the most passionate things I enjoy doing, “Career Counseling.”  When I transitioned into my first job, I was fortunate that attending a simple campus interview was more than sufficient to bag the offer among other offers I had to put more effort toward. The game changed significantly within a year when I was into my first job where there were no campuses to go to and jobs board to sign up. As serendipitous as it could get, my colleague encouraged me to attend a national get together of professionals that just happened to be an hour away from where I lived. Here is where my second successful transition occurred.

My 1^st CTEx Experience?

During the 1^st two years of my job fresh out of graduate school in the early 90’s, I also registered with a professional association called ACS (American Chemical Society). It seemed that lady luck just shone onto my future and presented one “Dr. Roger Uhler,” a renowned and 36-year veteran chemist from Du Pont, who incidentally volunteered his time for a young scientist like me. The match making process of ACS seemed to bring us together in a rare occasion, as the odds of that happening was infinitesimally small. Talk about serendipity. In that period, Dr. Uhler viewed my resume that had already been brushed, twisted, cleaned, corrected, bandaged and what not, to produce its 11^th version.

By this time, I was already into the job and even sought a promotion to everyone’s envy, given that I performed beyond the call of duty as far as my immediate manager was concerned. So when Dr. Uhler shared the 11^th version of my resume, I literally swore on the telephone that he may have accidentally extracted the wrong resume given that he may be receiving several in addition to that of mine.  As the good books had it, he insisted that it is my resume dressed up to express an entirely different message.  I was simply astounded and ate the humble pie, however, discovered the language of the message in a resume. This version got me a face-to-face interview with an employer (I wanted to be with, in my first job, but didn’t qualify for some reason) at a lightning speed that was unexpected.

That was the turning point in my career and I used the same language in my presentations at work and any professional interactions I had then on in my career. It seemed foreign to several folks even senior to me, but worked wonders when I needed something done. This was what I framed as “Unique Selling Proposition,” a borrowed terminology from the good books of successful salesmen.  I realized that my resume has to reflect a unique selling proposition to the reader, which is usually the hiring manager. This language is still valid today and grossly missing in hundreds of resumes I come across each time I am reviewing the same.

Since this experience, requesting capital investment at work to implementing change in a process, justifying design modification in processes all fell under one umbrella for me – The famous “Return on Investment,” (ROI) factor.  I literally surrendered to the ROI concept when I started counseling professionals junior to me in age and experience. One of my former clients with an IT major swore there is no such thing as ROI in his industry to only concur with me a years later that it mattered more than he gave credit for. As I progressed in my career, counseling became so ingrained and fun that I started taking it up as a passionate hobby with my peers and other members outside of my employer’s that I networked with. In about a decade from the time Dr. Uhler started counseling me, he shared that it was time for him to hang his hat up and that I should turn around and start giving back to the community by taking that role to counsel. That is when I began framing in my mind as to how the CTEx process should or must work. Since then there has been several iterations of how the probability of success in the CTEx process can be increased.

How Does the CTEx Process Look Like?

Just as I was screened and selected for Lean Six Sigma training and application within GE (my 2^nd job since graduate school), it dawned upon me that this is also a process and it shouldn’t matter to me as to who I counsel but following the process brought me success like clockwork.  As I increased the number of professionals that I counseled, the CTEx process seemed to perfect itself each time. This meant it took less time, effort and resulted in a transition that wasn’t expected.

In Part II, we will discuss how CTEx was achieved for some of my clients over the years including sharing lessons learned on both sides of the isle (counselor and candidate).  The process is laid out in steps and each step is discussed in deeper detail on what is involved to achieve the pre-planned goals and objectives.

• Get formally introduced to each other.

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Formal Introduction Process

• Appreciate that this is NOT a freeloading zone but some form of a paid service</

It is a Service, Not your local 'Dollar Shopping Place'

• Validate roles and responsibilities upfront with clear documentation

Understanding and Accepting Roles and Responsibilities

• Ensure all forms and tools of technology are available on mutual sides