Gift of Knowledge
You have knowledge that you take for granted, as most people do. But one of the best gifts you can give is your knowledge. I talked about this a little at Thanksgiving, but there is more to consider. As you gather for Christmas holidays you will encounter students or people who may have been through a lay off or reorganization. Your knowledge may be invaluable to them.
The following is a process I went through with a student who is soon to graduate from college and is uncertain what types of jobs he should pursue.
He loves to write and loves sports. He wants to write about sports. He thought about it, and is “concerned about newspapers dying.” So he was ready to throw in the towel on the idea of writing for sports. I said, “Whoa! Back up, let’s see how you can follow your dreams.”
We discussed the types of media where he reads about sports, such as newspapers, blogs, team websites. On and on he went. I looked at him when he ran out of breath and said nothing. The light bulb went on. He suddenly realized there were hundreds of places where people write about sports. I encouraged him to pull together all his sports writing from school, and to continue to do more. Then he will have a portfolio to show somebody. A little bit of exploration has opened the future job hunt with excitement, not dread or as much fear.
If you are in human resources, you likely have knowledge of the workings of a company that actually very few people have insight into. Most of us only experience a portion of the process when going for job interviews. Help people understand how the organization chart is structured. If you can explain the hiring process at your company or general practices to your contacts in need, it will likely be very enlightening to them.
Help them think about looking for jobs in something they love to do. What competencies do you have? How do you describe your job skills so that you are quickly in the key employee category? How do you jump from being a resume filtered through the software, into a box in the org chart? What a wonderful gift of knowledge!
Cheers,
Lois
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