A Career is something one is passionate about

This week, I'm going to focus on something a little different. I did not get much of an opportunity to get out to events last week and spent most of it working on leads. Instead, I would like to discuss some of the things that places like the One Stop centers have been trying to communicate to those individuals that are currently in transition.

Whether you are pursuing a specific career or starting up a business keep in mind what your vision is. Some people that I have met in the past may often fail in a particular industry simply because their passion for it was not there. In my entire career as an IT Professional, I spent a great deal of time servicing my customers whether it was the company that I was providing my valued services to or speaking with end users over the phone. Over the course of time, I learned to embrace the customer's needs. This was something that I worked on improving over the years as I learned how to communicate effectively with people with different points of view.

For example, in one place where they frequently had new rollouts and upgrades on systems, people would call in frequently trying to figure out the configuration settings. Not only did I spend the time walking them through what they originally called in about, I would also go over some other items with them using a check list to make sure other things were working properly. My reasoning behind this was so they would not have to make repeated callbacks throughout the entire day which normally disrupts their time if they have to do that. They really appreciated it whenever I spent just an extra amount of time with them just to ensure that everything else was working properly on the new setup. They would specifically remember my name whenever they called in for future services just because I would take that extra amount of time with them.

There used to be a time when this one woman that worked on one of our teams tended to focus more on the quantity instead of the quality of the work. She would often say that she did a certain amount of work compared to everyone else. I simply stayed focused on my own work to pay too much attention to her squabblings. There was one person in a leadership role that had challenged her when she first started the position by asking her the following question. "Yes I see that you did take these many calls but what I want to know is what you did to help them?" Of course the woman was a bit taken aback by this question and it was obvious that she didn't like to be challenged on things. She was a very intelligent person with a strong technical background but she managed to be lacking on the soft skills. The leader strongly emphasized, "Keep in mind that these people come to us for help, and instead of racing other people to push these people off the phone, spend just a little more time with them."

This was the same place where we as technical support reps were given the opportunity to earn some certifications including the widely popular HDI, Help Desk Institute certification. I decided to pursue that opportunity even though I planned on eventually advancing in my career. The woman that headed up that program for us, went to great strides in helping us learn the program and achieving our certifications. After that, I happened to be one of the first ones who had taken my test and earned that HDI certification. Later on, I learned about a group that meets quite often, the HDI group. Later on down the road, it was because of this person that I had known that I was able to make a good networking connection to some other individuals. Having the certification opened doors for me as well.

The same thing goes for selling your clients a product that you may not know how to support. For example, one place used to give out these devices to their users and if there was ever a problem with it, they were faced with calling in only to be told that this company does not support it. That was a safe way for the technicians who were giving this product away to cover themselves without having to say it's never been tested to see how it works in their environment. What would have been a better approach is to give them the number to the vendor that does support that product because someone has to support it if they allowed their users to have it. What I would do is take the time to find out what the root cause of the problem was and take steps to research information on this specific product and then document it. I can understand that it could be time consuming to walk a client through it but why give a product away and then not support it?

Valuable knowledge is key along with taking the time to ensure that the client is taken care of because that's what ensures that you will stay marketable and employed within this industry. If one lacks either of these passions, then they are going to have a difficult time with being in this industry . If they just see dollar signs when transitioning into this career, then they will only be disappointed. Also keep in mind that whatever you learn from the textbook is only a part of the entire picture. Each company has a different environment to adapt to. Whether you have the motivation and drive to learn that environment is what will make you either succeeed or fail.

When presenting your star stories during the interview, keep in mind what you brought to a former company's environment that helped them achieve their goals as a company. Their environment may be different from the past company you worked for, however, if you can emphasize in your star stories how you helped them to achieve the specific goal they were striving for, that's when you will be able to show them how well you can adapt to their environment. When asking them questions about what they need, use your existing skill sets that match what they are looking for to provide them with what you can offer them, then provide the star story example. Provide in this story what was going on in that particular environment and what you did to resolve that issue. The story itself doesn't have to be super heroic, it just needs to demonstrate how well you think on your feet to meet the needs of a specific environment.

One last thing, don't spend a great deal of time focusing on who's right or wrong. Instead, meet that other person half way.