In bestowing the new honor to Career Strategies, the BBB noted, “Your BBB Accreditation status makes a powerful statement about your commitment and consistent efforts to maintain a strong sense of accountability and responsibility. As a BBB Accredited Business,” they continued, “you work to uphold the trust and respect of your customers.”

According to the Better Business Bureau, the Accreditation and A+ rating is based on 16 different factors, including advertising, sales practices and service delivery, among others. Being granted Accredited status, said the BBB, “demonstrates your commitment to truth in advertising and gives consumers an assurance of your business’ commitment to stand behind your products and work.”

“We are deeply honored to be recognized by the Better Business Bureau,” said Bruce Blackwell, who founded Career Strategies in 1992. “We are especially proud to be given an A+, the BBB’s highest rating.” The rating system, like many schools, goes from A+ down to F.

In the all of New York State, only two Career Counseling and Outplacement businesses have been given Accredited status by the BBB. “This is a very rare honor indeed,” said Blackwell.

Accredited businesses are required to meet all applicable standards for the BBB’s Code of Business Practices, advertise its services honestly, ensure that all written materials clearly and accurately describe its services and “approach all business dealings, marketplace transactions and commitments with integrity.”

Career Strategies provides career testing and assessment to help clients identify their viable career options. It also assists job seekers by preparing resumes and marketing materials, creating personal marketing plans, distributing client resumes to companies and recruiters, and providing interview preparation and job search coaching. The company has served several thousand executives and professionals in career transition.

Career Strategies is located at 188 East Post Road, Suite 304, White Plains, NY 10601. Main line: 914-437-9230. Fax: 913-437-9229. Website: www.careerstrategiesgroup.com.

Bruce Blackwell, founder and Managing Partner of Career Strategies, has been invited to be one of three prsenters at a Bar Association seminar on career planning for attorneys.
The seminar, entitled “Starting Early: Your Career Plan,” is being sponsored by the New York City Bar Association. According to a panel organizer, Carol Welch of Pace University School of Law and a member of the Career Transition committee for the Bar Association, “The goal of the program is to instruct the audience on the importance of creating, maintaining and revisiting a career plan from the earliest days of their legal careers.”
The program, to be held December 7, 2011 in New York City, is the first in series of three that the Bar Association will be presenting in 2011-12 on the theme of “Starting Early.” The other two sessions will be on “Business Development” (Dec. 19) and “Building Your Brand” (Jan. 19, 2012).
“I think it is wonderful that the Bar Association has recognized the need for younger attorneys to start planning their careers, building personal brands and learning the ins- and- outs of rainmaking,” said Blackwell, who has counseled several thousand attorneys on career transitions.
“So often,” he noted, “lawyers don’t really have career plans except to hope for the best and try to grow within their firms. Many of my clients have been totally at sea when they suddenly find themselves having to compete for jobs against other lawyers with similar credentials and experience. They have no ‘brand identity,’ no way to stand out from the pack.
“Even more shocking to many, especially when they become partners, is that they are no longer given work — they have to go out and generate work! They are often totally unprepared to be rainmakers. Young men and women don’t go to law school because they want to be salespersons … but succeeding in the legal profession means you also have to succeed in the sales profession.”
Career Strategies has traditionally focused on the career needs of attorneys in mid-life, but increasingly over the last few years has been assisting much younger lawyers on career development issues.

Bruce Blackwell, founder and Managing Partner of Career Strategies, has been invited to be one of three prsenters at a Bar Association seminar on career planning for attorneys.The seminar, entitled “Starting Early: Your Career Plan,” is being sponsored by the New York City Bar Association. According to a panel organizer, Carol Welch of Pace University School of Law and a member of the Career Transition committee for the Bar Association, “The goal of the program is to instruct the audience on the importance of creating, maintaining and revisiting a career plan from the earliest days of their legal careers.”The program, to be held December 7, 2011 in New York City, is the first in series of three that the Bar Association will be presenting in 2011-12 on the theme of “Starting Early.” The other two sessions will be on “Business Development” (Dec. 19) and “Building Your Brand” (Jan. 19, 2012).“I think it is wonderful that the Bar Association has recognized the need for younger attorneys to start planning their careers, building personal brands and learning the ins- and- outs of rainmaking,” said Blackwell, who has counseled several thousand attorneys on career transitions.“So often,” he noted, “lawyers don’t really have career plans except to hope for the best and try to grow within their firms. Many of my clients have been totally at sea when they suddenly find themselves having to compete for jobs against other lawyers with similar credentials and experience. They have no ‘brand identity,’ no way to stand out from the pack.“Even more shocking to many, especially when they become partners, is that they are no longer given work — they have to go out and generate work! They are often totally unprepared to be rainmakers. Young men and women don’t go to law school because they want to be salespersons … but succeeding in the legal profession means you also have to succeed in the sales profession.”Career Strategies has traditionally focused on the career needs of attorneys in mid-life, but increasingly over the last few years has been assisting much younger lawyers on career development issues.

Bruce Blackwell, founder and Managing Partner of Career Strategies, has been invited to be one of three prsenters at a Bar Association seminar on career planning for attorneys.
The seminar, entitled “Starting Early: Your Career Plan,” is being sponsored by the New York City Bar Association. According to a panel organizer, Carol Welch of Pace University School of Law and a member of the Career Transition committee for the Bar Association, “The goal of the program is to instruct the audience on the importance of creating, maintaining and revisiting a career plan from the earliest days of their legal careers.”
The program, to be held December 7, 2011 in New York City, is the first in series of three that the Bar Association will be presenting in 2011-12 on the theme of “Starting Early.” The other two sessions will be on “Business Development” (Dec. 19) and “Building Your Brand” (Jan. 19, 2012).
“I think it is wonderful that the Bar Association has recognized the need for younger attorneys to start planning their careers, building personal brands and learning the ins- and- outs of rainmaking,” said Blackwell, who has counseled several thousand attorneys on career transitions.
“So often,” he noted, “lawyers don’t really have career plans except to hope for the best and try to grow within their firms. Many of my clients have been totally at sea when they suddenly find themselves having to compete for jobs against other lawyers with similar credentials and experience. They have no ‘brand identity,’ no way to stand out from the pack.
“Even more shocking to many, especially when they become partners, is that they are no longer given work — they have to go out and generate work! They are often totally unprepared to be rainmakers. Young men and women don’t go to law school because they want to be salespersons … but succeeding in the legal profession means you also have to succeed in the sales profession.”
Career Strategies has traditionally focused on the career needs of attorneys in mid-life, but increasingly over the last few years has been assisting much younger lawyers on career development issues.

Dr. Edward R. Speyer, senior consultant at Career Strategies Group, has been recognized by Cambridge Who’s Who for demonstrating “dedication, leadership and excellence in career counseling.”

Dr. Speyer, who has been associated with Career Strategies Group for more than 11 years, has assisted over  700 attorneys and professionals in enhancing their careers.

As a Counseling Psychologist and career counselor, Dr. Speyer draws on his broad, 30-year background in academic administration, business and career management in both the public and private sectors. On a daily basis, he helps clients identify their viable career options using a variety of assessment tools. He also develops personal marketing plans, upgrades clients’ resumes and marketing materials, and provides expert guidance throughout the job search process.

In addition to his work as a career counselor, Dr. Speyer has served as a marketing consultant, and has advised companies and academic institutions throughout the U.S. on business development and human resources issues.

Dr. Speyer has held marketing and personnel management positions in government, colleges and universities, as well as with corporations in the private sector.

In addition to his Ph.D., he holds a Master of Arts in Counseling from New York University and an undergraduate degree in Psychology from City College.

Dr. Speyer is an active member of the American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association.

Over the next week we are going to be adding additional tenets.

BASIC TENETS

1. Knowledge Is Power – The more you know about the search process, about self-marketing, and about prospective employers, the more efficient and productive the campaign you can mount. The information you need in order to win is out there … all you have to do is go after it and use it.

2. You Have Control – You don’t need to feel powerless over your career or job search. You can take control of the process and guide your own destiny…if you choose to.

3. Look For Unfulfilled Wants And Needs – You can create a job where none exists if you understand a targeted employer’s wants and needs … even if the employer isn’t aware of them!

4. All Change Creates Opportunity – Change is constant, and affects every organization everyday. Whenever a circumstance changes — the competitive environment, a political or regulatory change, a technological development, a market shift — that change must be addressed. Watch for changes in a company or industry, identify the opportunities those changes may create, and use them to your advantage.

5. Pitch The Benefits – Focus on what you can do for your next employer, and on how you can help them   achieve their goals and objectives. People don’t buy facts, they buy benefits. Keep this in mind always.

6. Picture Your Desired Outcome – A positive attitude and envisioning success helps bring about success. If you think like a loser, you’ll be a loser. You must picture yourself being successful in something as you begin that process, then go for it!

7. Don’t React. Act! – Never wait for a company to call you. Call them! You can’t just send out a resume and expect a call. And you can’t simply react to opportunities that are presented to you … you must be pro-active and make opportunities happen.

8. Persevere – It takes time, patience and continued effort to be successful in a job search, or in any endeavor. Quitters don’t win … and winners don’t quit. Develop a plan, work the plan, and stay with it.

9. It Takes Just As Much Effort to Get a Job You Don’t Like As It Does to Get One You Do Like – You will spend most of your waking hours at work, and you have one life to live. Don’t waste it! Go for what you really want.

10. The Best Man Doesn’t Always Win — You’re competing against people who are every bit as qualified for the job as you, maybe even more so. The key to beating the competition is truly understanding the employer’s needs, effectively communicating your relevant strengths, and demonstrating how you, more than anyone else, can fulfill the mission of that job. The best man doesn’t always win; the man who is best prepared wins.

In order to prevail over the competition, you need to be doing several things. Here is a quick check list of questions to ask yourself about your job search campaign.

1) Have you identified your Unique Selling Proposition? What makes you a better candidate than someone with like kind and quality of experience? If you do not have a clear “brand strategy,” your search will take much longer. You will miss out on interviews for jobs you could have won.

2) Do you have a well-defined Marketing Plan? Have you identified your target market, the people who can hire you, the companies where you best fit, and the information sources you need to stay current about changes affecting your potential employers? Have you established a specific methodology for your campaign? If you have not, you are trusting to luck.

3) Are you being creative in your approach to the job market? If you are merely posting your resume on job boards, responding to advertised positions on the internet, talking with recruiters and doing some networking, you are taking necessary steps. But, you are also doing what everyone else is doing! Even worse, you are missing out on literally 80% of the available positions, since that is the percentage of jobs filled each year that are not posted on the internet or listed with recruiters.

4) Do you have a strategy for reaching the Hidden Job Market? Since most of the available positions are not advertised or listed with recruiters, you will need more than old-fashioned networking to reach into this “hidden” market. There are many job search tools available if you look for them and know how to use them. (Part 1 of our “Innovative vs. Traditional Job Search webinar” lists 8-10 lead sources. How many can you name?) Knowledge is power. How knowledgeable are you about job search?

5) Does your resume show your accomplishments, or simply your practice areas? Your competitors have had essentially the same duties and experiences that you have had. What makes you more attractive than they are? If your resume isn’t showing results you have produced, you are under-representing yourself.

6) Do you have a compelling telephone introduction when calling the people who can hire you? If your plan for calling the hiring executives is simply to ask if they have seen your resume and would they like to meet you, your chances of arranging an interview are minimal.

7) Do you have a plan for reaching companies that are passively seeking candidates? Many organizations are thinking about adding to staff or replacing an out-of-favor attorney, but haven’t pulled the trigger yet on that process. Reaching organizations when new jobs are in the formative stage is a great way to pre-empt your competitors.

If you have (honestly) answered “yes” to these seven questions, then we applaud you and you probably don’t need us. But if you have answered “no” to even one or two of these questions, then you are likely to be spending a lot longer on your job search than you need to or want to.

We have guided about 2,000 senior lawyers through successful job search campaigns. Perhaps we can do the same for you.

A key to success in marketing is to have a clear brand strategy — to create an understanding in the marketplace about how your product is different from, and a better value than, another similar product.   Without a clear brand strategy, you will not be successful in the marketplace. This holds just as true for job seekers as it does for consumer product marketers.

Back the day, when General Motors was the leading car company not only in America, but in the world, each product line had a unique brand strategy. Chevrolet was the budget model. Pontiac was the fun, sporty model. Oldsmobile was the conservative model for our parents. Cadillac was for the rich. Over time, GM amalgamated all of its models, and you couldn’t tell a Chevy from a Pontiac or an Olds, and even Cadillac dabbled with less expensive models (remember the Cadillac Cimmaron? It was just a re-badged Chevrolet!). They were all parity products build on the same platforms, with the same look and same engines.

The result? Market confusion and a loss of brand identity. So what happened? GM lost its supremacy in the world market. It is not even America’s #1car maker anymore. Pontiac and Oldsmobile have disappeared. GM simply couldn’t compete against the other car makers whose products were easier to define and whose value was more apparent.   The same concept holds true for attorney job seekers. How is an employer supposed to tell the difference between legal job applicants who have the same experience in the same practice areas?  They can’t. This makes it much tougher for an attorney to prevail against the competition in the job market.

I have spoken with literally 20,000 attorneys over the last 20 years. That’s about 20 per week, week-in and week-out. They all claim to have the same core skills.   What are you good at? Write down 5 or 6 things on a sheet of paper, then come back to this blog article. (roll theme music from “Jeopardy) … OK, ready? Here’s what many of you will have said are your core talents:

1. research

2. writing

3. analyzing

4. problem-solving

5. advising

6. learning new things quickly

7. negotiating

If this is the best you can come up with, you need to do better. There is hardly a lawyer out there who cannot say that they lack any of the talents listed above. You can’t triumph against your competitors if you are making the same claims as they are.

I am not saying that these are not valuable skills. But you need to offer more. A Chevy and a BMW both have four tires and a steering wheel, and both will get you to work in the morning — but which would you rather drive?  If you think you are a BMW-level attorney, are you positioning yourself in the market as a Chevy?  If so, start doing some serious thinking about your brand strategy so you can gain a competitive edge in the hunt for a new job.

These were very talented attorneys. Each had experience in compliance, SEC rules and corporate governance. They each had managed outside counsel in complex nationwide litigation. They each were experienced in negotiating domestic and international transactions, including licensing deals. They each had administrative management roles beyond just the legal department … they were integral members of their companies’ senior management teams.

These were six very smart and successful General Counsels, each of whom felt they were special and uniquely credentialed.

But the reality is that each one was the same as the other. Competitively, they were at parity. There was no way an employer could tell the difference between them. None of these six people had a clear “brand strategy” to differential themselves from their competitors.

These six individuals were all creative problem solvers for their companies, but were conducting very old-fashioned and pedantic job search campaigns.

If you are a senior level in-house counsel, or if you are looking to become one, the competition is ferocious. The quality of the people who are competing for the top legal jobs at companies is extremely high.

In order to prevail over the competition, you need to be doing several things. Here is a quick check list.

1) Have you identified your Unique Selling Proposition? What makes you a better candidate than someone with like kind and quality of experience? If you do not have a clear “brand strategy,” your search will take much longer. You will miss out on interviews for jobs you could have won.

2) Do you have a well-defined Marketing Plan to guide your search? Have you identified your target market, the people who can hire you, the companies where you best fit, and the information sources you need to stay current about changes affecting your potential employers? Have you established a specific methodology for your campaign? If you have not, you are trusting to luck.

3) Are you being creative in your approach to the job market? If you are merely posting your resume on job boards, responding to advertised positions on the internet,talking with recruiters and doing some networking, you are taking necessary steps. But, you are doing what everyone else is doing. Even worse, you are missing out on literally 80% of the available positions. Fully 80% of the jobs that are filled each year are not posted on the internet or listed with recruiters.

4) Do you have a strategy for penetrating the so-called Hidden Job Market? Old-fashioned networking alone will not get you there. There are many tools available if you look for them and know how to use them. As a lawyer, research is part of your skill set – so use that skill to get smart about your job search methods.

5) Do your resume and cover letter show your accomplishments, or simply your duties and responsibilities? Your competitors have had essentially the same duties that you have had. What makes you more attractive than they are? If your resume isn’t showing results you have produced, you are under-representing yourself.

6) Do you have a compelling telephone introduction when calling the CEOs or GCs who can hire you? If your plan for calling the hiring executive is simply to ask if he’s seen your resume and would he like to meet you, your chances of arranging an interview are minimal.

7) Do you have a plan for how to get your resume to companies that are not advertising openings? Only 5-7 per cent of available positions are advertised. But beyond that, if a company’s Board is not satisfied with their current GC, they are certainly not going to post that job on their website!

If you have (honestly) answered “yes” to these seven questions, then we applaud you and you probably don’t need us. But if you have answered “no” to even one or two of these questions, then you are likely to be spending a lot longer on your job search than you need to or want to.

We have guided about 2,000 senior lawyers through successful job search campaigns. Perhaps we can do the same for you.