Mads Singers

In my experience to many people focus on a job title or role much more then what I believe they should have focus on when looking for a job!

I am always looking for new and bigger challenges, I have loved working wherever I have worked as any job I have ever taken have been my choice, not because I was forced to find a job, but because it have been the challenges that I wanted. However one of the most essential things in choosing my challenges (or jobs if you want), is who I work with and who I’m working for.

I look at education a lot different than most people, I simply don’t believe in 20 years study and 40 years of work. I believe these two things goes hand in hand every day of our working life, experience is worth more then any studies, but the ability to learn from other people’s experiences and from other people view on everything, is the best way I can develop myself.

There is no doubt people learn things in different ways, for me ideal learning is a mix of experience and learning from others and learning from the best is the most important. It’s usually not a problem finding people you can learn from when it comes to what you shouldn’t do, the hard thing is to find the people you admire and the people you feel you can learn from. Who you need around you obviously depend on where you are in your career, but as I see it, the better the people around you, the better you become!

How do you find the right people to work for? Networking is again a key here, when you know a person that you want to work for, don’t be affright to tell them. They might not work in a place where you can work right now and they might not have available space in their team or workgroup, but if you tell any leader that you would like to work with them (you can either specify a job or not) you can be sure that’s something they will appreciate and if it get to a interview situation they know you interest up from and might even give you a heads up around a job opening (unless you have given them a very bad impression of yourself).
Another time to look at this can be in a possible interview situation, try as well as you can to get to meet who you will be working for, before you go into a interview.
If you have been accepted for a interview and say you would like to meet you possible manager/supervisor etc beforehand for a chat, this is first of all a way for you to see if this is not someone you want to work with at all or on the other hand if you get a good impression you can use this in the interview as it will show a big interest and a very serious approach to that job interview. If the person like you, he/she is also very likely to put in a good word for you.

Learning from the best

A good few years back I had a fantastic boss, I worked for her about two years and she was the first really good boss I had worked with at that stage of my career. She had made me realize what I wanted to do in the future and she has been a key part of my early development and I really admired her for her skills.
One day I had a bit of a “wake up” experience with her, we were having a regular coaching session, where she finished of by saying that she “didn’t feel she had anymore to teach me, as she felt I had learned what she had to teach”.
When she said this I first felt a good bit of frustration, as she in my eye’s still had a lot to teach me, but later when I got to reflect over the situation, she might unintentionally have though me one of the most important things I have ever learned by doing that, I started to understand the importance of not getting to comfortable and when things get like that, find a way to develop in a new place or position and find new people to learn from.

I have listed a couple of my personal key points around personal development:

• Find places, challenges and jobs where you have the right people around you.
• Working for a lot of different good people in your field, gives you the best learning.
• Always search for new challenges and opportunities for development and take them!
• The higher the odds are for failure, the more you will learn. Remember success is just as well the ability to learn from mistakes and the ability to fail with no loss of enthusiasm, give you the courage to go for even more.
• Try not falling into the “it’s comfortable here, no need to move” trap
• Just because you have got where you are, does not mean you should slow down learning, however the way you learn might change over time, as instead of learning theory you might start to learn from other people’s experience.

Networking – from day 1

Networking is one of the most, if not the most important way forward in the working world today.
If you are a good “networker” your chances of being successful in which ever job & business you are involved in increases more than you can imagine.

Networking from day 1 in a new company is one of the essentials, as when you start out your are likely to be introduced to people that will possibly become some of your most important contacts.

What is networking really about?

Networking is about helping people and the most important rule of networking is never consider what’s in it for you.

If you help people with something yourself (or even refer them to someone you know can help), it builds a relationship, trust and shows the person you know the area and what you are talking about and they will likely come to you if they have other challenges in the same area.

Why is this important? Well first of all a demand for your knowledge and skills is really one of the most important things in business, that’s how you develop and grow, it’s how you’re more likely recommended for anything and that could be a new job, an advisory role or anything else really.

The second is that when you help someone, they are a lot more likely to help you, so if you have a challenge and you could use their help, it’s usually a lot easier to get!

I have always said that the good things you do in life comes back 10 fold some day, so get helping people!

Is helping people the only way to network? No not at all, but it’s usually the fastest.

How do I start networking?

Well you started networking already, you know people and that’s a key, but how do you manage to make your networking more business focused and not just social?

First things first, take where you work, I’m sure there is people you can help even more than you do today. You also need to “get out there”, get to know people, not just in your own office, group etc, but meet people from all parts and layers of the company, and how do you do that? Again you need to seek the opportunities, attending social groups, courses, training classes, anything where you know you are very likely to meet new people that you haven’t meet before and then don’t be shy and sit in a corner talking with the one person you already do know!

What else can you do? What jobs or area’s interest you? Where do you want to expand your knowledge, you probably already know some people that you think are doing an interesting job, contact them and say you have some questions or are interested in the type of job role they do and if they would meet and discuss over lunch as you’re looking for some advise in that particular area etc. and again don’t be shy, people are generally very happy to help and yes most people eat once in a while, just remember though don’t be to pushy, while people like helping, they like helping friendly people

Another way of getting in contact with people is to be “referred” through a friend, if you again have someone you think does something interesting and you know someone that knows him/her, ask them if they could introduce you as you would like to get to know some more about the job that person does.

Mentoring is also a fantastic way to build very strong professional relationships, if you’re looking to develop in a particular role or to develop new skills, finding a mentor that is already very good in that area can be a massive boost – for both of you. (I will post a topic on mentoring later)

Networking, with who?

Everyone is the answer! Some people are very focused on networking only with people “higher” up the ladder than themselves and really you can grow your network a lot faster in the area you are in or people below you, and why would you do that? Well knowing the “big boss” is not a bad thing, but by knowing a lot of people around you are just as likely to have access to the same resource and maybe instead of using a lot of time getting to know one of them “big bosses”, one of the many people you get to know might introduce you to the “boss” when/if you need it. Personally I don’t care if people are above or below, the important thing is if they have skills and knowledge that I can use doing my job, taking particular decisions and of course the other way around.

Networking and that new job!

I will post a most specific “interview” guide later, but again when it comes to applying for a new job or having an interview for a new job, in the company where you are already employed, it’s key to make use of your networking skills and if you don’t know the person who’s going to be interviewing, get going, ask if they want to meet for a coffee as you are very interested in this new position and you want to understand a bit more of what they are looking for in a potential candidate etc. this is a must and it will help you big time, at least having had a good conversation with the person interviewing you makes a world of difference, both because  you’re familiar in his/her eye’s and because you are more conferrable with that person, also the more interest an interviewer can see you have in the job and the more eager you seem, the higher the chances of getting it.

Networking in networks where you are very skilled or want to learn about.

Nowadays it’s easy to find either forums, network groups and the likes in any area. If you’re extremely interested in finance go find a network/forum and start helping people with your knowledge, the more you help and the better answers the more your knowledge will be in demand.

Another key thing is that when you help people you learn, the best way of learning is teaching!