Being Remarkable

Be Ready for the New Employment: Jobs for the 21st Century

Lesson 9 - Remarkable

Becoming Remarkable.

Seth Godin talked about becoming ‘remarkable’ in his book Purple Cow.  As Godin presented the concept, he and his family were in France and as they drove they noticed all the cows in the fields.  So colorful, idyllic so they thought.  But as their drive continued, they didn’t even notice the cows – the cows were now ‘commonplace’.  He makes the point that the only cows that would have appeared on their radar at that point would have to be really different – like Purple Cows. 

The idea of a purple cow is really to be REMARKABLE – to stand out among the others. 

Do you need to be a purple cow?  How are you going to stand out with the millions of other people looking at careers in your area from around the world?

So, how do you become remarkable?

It isn’t really from the appearance – a purple cow would still out; a person interviewing in a purple suit (maybe with a bright orange tie) would stand out, and would probably not be hired (“too weird”). 

So, some thoughts on being remarkable:

·         Be great in your field

·         Have a great attitude

·         Have experiences that make you remarkable

·         Have a great personality

This lesson is vital to you!!  If you are average, bland, blend in with the others, your chances of being hired are average as well.  You must be remarkable.  That is also an attitude.

Be Great in Your Field:

Be great in your field:  If you are in the same field in your job change, you will have some credentials that will help you stick out. But, if you are making a career change, how can you be ‘great’ in your field?

Are there certifications in the field that can show you know the field?  If you are in accounting, earn your CPA.  If you are in Computer Security, get your CISSP (or other) certification. 

If you are moving into a new field without certification, you MUST be able to demonstration that you really know the area. 

There is an old example “Two hours ago, I couldn’t spell ‘salesperson’, now I is one” – yes, you might have been hired as a salesperson, but being great and remarkable in sales takes more than a title.  Great salespeople research sales techniques, work on their pitches, follow up with clients.  Great salespeople have great attitudes, great personalities and great soft skills.

I had the title of Professor.  Yes, I had earned a doctorate degree – with a lot of work and a dissertation.  I started as an instructor.  I had to document my teaching, research and service to be promoted to assistant professor; and then to associate professor and finally to full professor.  My application for promotions were huge and in three binders – volumes of teaching evaluations, comments from students; then the papers that were published or presented were in a binder; and finally my service was documented.  I had to verify that I was remarkable enough to be promoted. 

I later sat on the Promotions and Tenure committee and on that committee, we carefully scrutinized the applications – were the individuals applying for promotion (or tenure) worthy of the rank?  Were they remarkable in their field?  The Promotion and Tenure committee did approve some and also disapproved some.  Some just were not remarkable enough to be deemed “Full Professors”.

If you are making a career change after completing courses or a new degree, it is going to be really hard to be recognized for being great in your field.  For discussions sake, let’s say you are an accounting major.  How can you be recognized for being great in your field?  Good Grades?  Maybe.  Great faculty recommendations?  Maybe.  Great internship experiences?  Maybe.  Service in the community to non-profits or to third world countries?  Maybe. 

How about some out-of-the-ordinary ways to be remarkable?  Could you publish an academic paper with a professor that gets into an academic journal?  How many undergraduates are published in academic journals?  (Not many). 

Could you develop and implement an accounting system (or appropriate for your field) for non-profit organizations that wins recognition in a competition?

Could you work with a computing student to develop a new and innovative way for secure payment processing, maybe for secure payment on a smart phone using your finger logon component?

Could you work with a government agency (like the Internal Revenue Service or FBI) to fully analyze fraudulent accounting reports?  Or work with the Small Business Administration to set up accounting systems for new businesses – especially for those who have no accounting background.

To compete – you have to be great!!

Have a Great Attitude:

Having a great attitude is almost always remarkable.  We go through life with the ‘average’ folks, so seeing somebody smile, somebody says “have a nice day” and really, really mean it, to stop and listen to the person you are talking with. 

This ebook has talked about attitude before.  What is your attitude?  Have you changed it in a positive way?  Are you upbeat – always?  What to you is a “Great Attitude”?

Have remarkable experiences: 

Some of the remarkable experiences can go with your major field; but you can have others.   Work in a soup kitchen, climb Mount Everest, do marathons and triathlons, take a Boy Scout troop (or others) wilderness camping for three weeks, organize a community wide event.  There are many ways to be remarkable and to demonstrate it.

When making a career or job change, find ways to make your remarkable experiences into relevant job experiences. 

Having remarkable experience can be like being an entrepreneur – can you demonstrate that you are a ‘self-starter’?  That you can get things done?  That you can work with little or no supervision? 

Why is having done two marathons relevant to a new career?  In lots of ways – you have trained, (i.e. practiced) for hours, you have built up your stamina; you have set a high goals and kept your attitude focused on completing the marathons.  That is definitely relevant to a new career or job.  You can translate the hard work in doing marathons into the hard work required of your new job.

If you are average, and have average experiences how do you complete against somebody who has some remarkable experiences and has demonstrated greatness in the field?

Have a Great Personality:

Having a great attitude is part of having a great personality.  Think of people who are very personable.  People you’d like to just sit and talk to.  How can you be that ‘instant’ friend and person that people will recognize quickly and say “Definitely a team player and definitely one that we’d love to have on our team”.

You might have to work on your small talk, learn how to network, develop the ability to use soft skills of language, body language, poise, and attitude to build a great personality.

Assignment:

·         Think about what you can do to be remarkable – to be a ‘purple cow’ in a black-and-white cow world.  Write an essay about how you are going to make yourself remarkable this year.

·         Develop goals to become remarkable

·         Research certifications in your field – what might you need to do and learn to be certified?  Just a test or do you need experiences as well?

·         What kind of remarkable experiences might you do? 

·         How can you build your soft skills to be a better communicator?  Are there groups like Toastmasters in your area where you can build skills?

Quote for today – being remarkable sometimes can get you in trouble: ““If you are too afraid to offend anyone, then I'm afraid you may not be able to do anything remarkable” ― Bernard Kelvin Clive