Outsourcing your qualifications

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

I tend to write a lot of supporting material to build my thoughts. I understand how that can make my writing difficult to read and convolute my points. It's a skill I'm working on. I'm going to excercise some benefit of the doubt you will be able to meet me in the middle on some of these points without the aid of reference. I'm fine with providing clairifcation if the conversation progresses.

Today I was looking into a professional profile of a friend and noticed he had listed each of his qualifications by years of experience. He must of had a good 30 years represented in the matter of an 8 year work experience. Looked good. It raises the point that a lot of people wear many hats. A lot of those responsibilities traditionally stood as stand alone positions.

Let's say you take a position that does not use all your qualifications. What do you do with the remainder. My portfolio is stacked and so I like to think I'd deserve a total compensation package that accounted for all of them. However, businesses tend to want to pay for only what they use- actually, in my experience, they aim to pay for less than they use.

If you are a receptionist doing a safety inspection, an inventory, etc, I would wonder if you could negotiate for a higher wage for the time you did that different class of work. Not likely in a traditional employment relationship. What do you do to account for all the differnet hats you might wear- because the employer knows you can? I know common sense work ethic makes this a wash. Let's look at this from the perspective you were a professional outsourcing services.

What do you do with all the qualifications you are not using in a position? They are usually lost as a resource available to the market and to you as a source of income. If you were making your services available on an as needed basis, you could quite possibly compete with corporate vendors and full-time employees who are likely being spread thin anyway. There's an opportunity cost to factor in your negotiation to make up for your risk in general job security. I think this takes the idea of doing your homework on salary to a new level. What's your price compared to market options for each respective skill and use of your time?

You know employers generally only want to see what they want specifically for a position and that is what they will agree to pay you for. Anything additional is a bonus to them, but generally a hiring manager disregards these things in the resume review process. It's a challenge to write a customized resume for each position applied for, even when you have as dynamic an inventory of qualifications as I do. I prefer to use a general resume with a focus on recent work and a canvass of most of my formal qualifications. This necessarily limits my opportunities for positions. However, it is a first step in my negotiation process for a job of choice and is an honest representation for what I feel I am worth and can provide to the right position. However, I've been thinking lately about how differently I might position my available "services" as an outsource professional.

More to follow.

Anthony

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

I've noticed there are many outsourcing resources coming up. I think they are probably more of a wash with the rest of the online and service solicitations out there. I bet more employers just look at the economy and decide their best option is just to work harder and take more upon themselves. This is preferrable to them rather than paying money to others for whatever. This is one of the reasons I think networking with business owners is a good idea. Simply talking shop might bring up challenges or needs they are not satisfactorily addressing. Wouldn't that be great if we could at least offer them some support? The approach here on Area Light should be passive. So we might share what we have available in terms of professional resources to anyone in the community. Maybe they are interested and looking. Or maybe it just comes up and we have something to offer. It would be great to talk to some of these people and get their views on outsourcing in general.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

I recently met a virtual assistant and was reminded of my Area Light Member Services concept. One of the main points I want to get out about networking for jobs is this: show what you can do. That is show what professional skills you have rather than just state them on a resume. If it is significant enough for you to call a professional skill, it probably is. However, if it is applicable enough to demonstrate in a professional environment, then why not here?

In my view, networking is a great way to go about getting a job. I would gladly recommend those I knew were performers upon such an opportunity being presented to my attention. In fact, since I plan to be a business consultant, I'm just as inclined to recommend solutions knowing I have the perfect person to outsource the job to. Not to be mean, but everything you do serves as a part of your professional resume. In the modern business environment, how you outsource yourself could be one major way to impress your way into a great position. I look at it like this, what could you list as outsourcable skills? In what context would they be optimized and a greater return on investment to the prospect? Then, of course, there is also the matter of negotiating your terms.

To organize this, I think we need to first begin networking on a professional to professional level. From there, we need to show our professionalism in moving forward. Take a look at what I have designed into Area Light Member Services. Is that something you can imagine being a part of? Of course, if you were getting paid presents one standard. Regardless, I have been staffing the member services on my own with no payment expected of members. I would be interested to know what skills you have available to present on demand, what your rates are for your clients on those services, and how you might like to benefit Area Light members by way of those skills.

Here is what i see our collective resume looking like...end of production credits. There are things we do as Area Light and as an enterprise that we do together. We can develop a professional reputation that precedes us. Then, as far as I'm concerned, the networking for jobs becomes more of a meet, greet, and compete for your attention.

Best,

Anthony