Remember the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” How about, what SHOULD you be when you grow up?
I met Mike Ballard, the owner of Turning Points and True Path, online and our paths have crossed about once a year. He gave me a demo of True Path last year but frankly, I didn’t get it.
This week I got another demo and it gelled quite a bit more. True Path is a tool he uses with his own job search clients to help them understand who they are, what they could and should do, and how to communicate that. His logo says True Path is a “Career Branding Tool” and that you:
- Define your brand,
- Ace the interview,
- Create your job.
When you first login to True Path you’ll see a screen that walks you through a number of questions – going through these questions is what helps you understand your brand, strengths, passions, likes, etc. Here are the main categories… I would logically start from top left and go to the right, then the next line, etc.
At a very rough glance, my first thought was this was a touchy-feely thing that I didn’t need. I’m one of those types who already knows what I want to be when I grow up, and am cocky enough to think I’m above any kind of help or process like this.
However, as I walked through it with Mike this last time I realized that going through the questions is a very valuable experience. I think there are two significant values to this system:
- The Report: This is a summary of all of the stuff you put in the system. It provides a great deal of informtion for self-reflection and helps you compare who you think you are (or, what you think your brand is) with what the evidence shows. Perhaps you think you are a risk-taker but there is nothing to support that from the stories and experiences you put in the system! Either put better info in the system, or face it: you might not be a risk-taker!
- The process: Just filling out the questions helps you understand some of the thought process a career counselor would have you go through. I wouldn’t know where to start… using this system is better than starting with a blank piece of paper.
Information you get from this process and the report would be used in developing your brand, crafting answers to interview questions (with stories), developing your resume and online profiles, etc.
Mike Ballard is based out of Colorado.
Thanks for the shout-out Jason. I think Jason Alba is a great example of an expert that is effectively building his brand as an expert on job search and social networking. I would add to his description of True Path by emphasizing the importance of your Qualities, Values, Experiences and Success Stories in creating a focussed and hard-hitting career brand. We have all seen the importance of a Summary qualifications statement in resumes. That is your career brand, and a good starting point to use in other marketing tools, such as business cards, biographies, LinkedIn profile, elevator pitches and presentation statements (JibberJobber’s ‘Power statements’.) Once our marketing tools get is an interview, how do we demonstrate our career brand? Through our success stories. In short, my clients have found True Path to be a useful tool in: 1) formulating career branding, 2) compiling strong success stories, and 3) creating a diversified market strategy.