Discussions, doodles, diatribes

In 1996, I had the opportunity to hear Helen Thomas (formerly of UPI) speak while attending a journalism conference in Washington, D.C. One statement she said has stuck with me through all those years and has provided inspiration for my life:

“Be voracious in your quest for knowledge, learn as much as you can, do as much as you can, experience as much as you can. Journalists don’t just need to know how to write, they need to know so much more.”

Well, more than 10 years later, multiple degrees later and many jobs later, I have started pondering that statement — not the statement itself, but the outcome of living by that statement. In my job search quest, I have spoken to many wonderful people, listened to many words of advice and challenged those telling me to “just find a job anywhere.” The one question, overpowering in almost every conversation, and yet unanswered succinctly is:

“But what do you do?”

My response is sometimes more confusing than the question itself. Then, following more discussion, the quizzical and conundrumical (if that’s a word) looks are replaced with statements of affirmation about my skills and desires to use my skills and passions in my field. Sometimes misunderstood, I believe a passion is different than a skill, which is different than my field. My passion is education, the arts and nonprofits. My skills are more tactical — design, writing, editing, new media, etc. The list really does go on and on. But my field of interest, and this is the real key to all these questions, is communications.

Attention job seekers, HR professionals, recruiters and hiring managers: there are differences between skills, passions and field of interest. My resume and experience proves that. Some quest for the holy grail, I have a quest to help people understand those differences. Because once they do, I’m sure I’ll have a job. (I hope.)

The transferable skills

I think I was meant to be the poster child for transferable skills. So much so that when I was at Disney I was hired to teach a Youth Education Series program about career paths and the importance of transferable skills. I was told that was the class that was the “best fit for me.” Part of me would like to teach that course to recruiters and hiring leaders.

In short, a transferable skill is a task broken down to its simplest form that can be applied from one job to another or one industry to another or from home to work, wherever. A transferable skill is something you know how to do and can do it at more than one place. For example, because I was trained to teach this class at Disney, I developed stronger facilitation and speaking skills. I don’t have to be teaching a class to draw on those skills. I can use those skills when I talk on the phone, negotiate a contract, run a meeting, lead a presentation, etc.

The challenge with transferable skills is that they are often misunderstood and not easily translated in the job search. Career service professionals, however, continue to push the importance. I don’t disagree. However, when applying for a job, if those transferable skills are not outwardly apparent to the recruiter and immediately translated as a keyword for the job database, your chance is over.

For me, the more I tweak, rearrange, reword and re-evaluate my resume, the more difficulty I have in determining where I fit for the algorithms controlling my success in the computer-aided hiring world. That is one reason why I believe so strongly in the value of networking and individualized attention during the job search.

A transferable field

Maybe my world of transferable skills is simply based on my field of choice: communications, more specifically public relations. Anyone in public relations understands the confusion, misconception and broad-based definition the term public relations has. And most outside the field really don’t know exactly what public relations is. Even I was told I didn’t.

In a field that has so many aspects to it (planning, management, strategic communication, writing, design, image management, events, etc.) and done in in-house at some organizations and at agencies for others, the basic profile of a “public relations professional” is skewed. So transferring experiences that are sometimes placed as guest relations, or marketing, or event coordinator or whatever it may be can easily get lost in translation by those looking for the best candidate for a job.

I understand the necessity to be systematically control the influx of resumes and job inquiries by using computers and I understand the time allotted to reading resumes (I’ve hired staffs of people before, I understand.). There must be a better way to be able to let those like me (and I’m sure many others) with varied experiences break through the noise and be heard.

The passion factor

Like many, I am often more energized and more excited to do something related to my passions. Because I am passionate about education, cultural institutions, nonprofits and the entertainment industry, I tend to gravitate toward those areas. The further away from those passions, the less excited I am about the experience. That does not mean, however, that my success in the workplace is based on whether I am fulfilling one of my passions at work.

Most people’s passions thread throughout their life – not just their career. I’m the same way. I want it to be a part of what I enjoy. If I am not able to fulfill my passionate desires at work, I tend to be more involved with my hobby of puppet making. It creates a balance. The job is part of that balance and so is my hobby.

The next step

During this time of reflection (out of work, unemployed and job searching) I am continuing to let Helen Thomas’ words grow inside me. I will admit I don’t spend 40+ hours on the job search alone as this blog seems to suggest, because I want to better myself in the process. Jason Alba has a great blog and I added some comments to that blog so I hope you’ll see how I justified my feelings.

I have continued to read blogs and books about social media (that’s one reason I’m trying to update this blog more), taken online classes and tutorials to increase my Adobe Creative Suite skills (Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc) and develop a stronger understanding of word of mouth marketing as well as SEO/SEM writing. All things that I want to know but things I can’t easily add to my resume.

Whenever I am hired somewhere, I hope the company appreciates my desire to learn and grow and develop a wide variety of skills, not just one subset of life. I was recently told that I wouldn’t ever find a job until I “pulled the trigger and decided on one thing.” Maybe I’m off base, but I feel like pulling the trigger on one thing may cause me to shoot myself in the foot, or worse yet, the heart (passions) or brain (skills).

Until then, thanks Helen Thomas. Your words were well received.