Mind the Gaps – Professional Skill Development During Times of

Illness

Who Am I? What Do I know?

• 1980 BA in Soc-Anthropology/Clinical Psychology from Western Illinois University (after 14 majors/minors)

• 1977-2001 Volunteered in various communities with low income and unemployed individuals to help find employment and develop job skills (Worked about 42 different jobs.)

• 2002 Pfizer downsized office and I began caring for family with significant long & short term illnesses

• 2005 Graduated from SNL with MA while caring for family• 2005-2008 Focused on skill development planning to help

friends and others with illnesses – got others jobs.• 2008- Present Part-time Job Coach / Developer for UCP in

Chicago

Mind the Gaps

Three Trends I have noticed:• Simply doing your job well and “knowing the business” is

no longer enough to get ahead.• Career development is no longer part of a corporate

ladder while knowledge of career mapping is expected at the interview.

• Manage your own job training expectations – There is a significant gap between what is expected to be known for your job at time of hire and corporate training return on investment (RIO) over the first 90 days.

The New Unspoken Rules

• Higher education no longer guarantees a job, higher pay, or automatic promotions. (Don’t count on employer to foot the education bill either.)

• Taking a yearly training course will not meet most employer expectations for performance of job skill or count as career development. (If it does- run.)

• The people not searching for a job or a career? Perpetual learners and self-reliant adapters, who can prove they are capable in dealing with life, health, and economic surprises by developing new skills in “gap periods”..

Understanding the Gaps

A Job is….• Doing• Now• Performance based• Growing skills or learn

elements of work• Titles may differ, work

remains the same• Jobs are added or lost

A Career is….• Become• Over Time• Recognized Expertise• Teaching skills or elements

to others• Clear identity of skill field or

industry • Careers change, but never

are lost

Know the Difference

Skills

• Focused on improving or growing expertise in some area (Life or Professionally)

• Done slowly over time in no set order

• Cross-over application

Career

• Industry or profession as success point

• Clear path of known steps or assessments over time

• Set or predictable time limit to achieve

Why Map?• Managing your Career and your skill development is a long

term investment of both your time and your money – don’t be cheap with either.– In 2007, a UK career education research study found that

life long skill development and career planning increases life time net income by over 45%.

– CareerBuilder reports job seekers admit taking 2-10 unpaid days from a current job in order to pursue new training or skills to increase their overall pay 15-30% in their next position.

– Control over development is based upon self assessment of current competencies and seeing gaps in career path or current job responsibilities

Sage Insights• Make sure the reality of your expertise lives up to

perceptions of those around you – if not, identify areas for improvement and fix NOW, not later.– Reality shows prove that many of us think we have

talents that make us stars or winners. – Mirror, Mirror on the wall. Who is the best worker?

Syndrome -Performance reviews and co-worker comments are not best places to see reality for career choices.

– Remember : Jobs are the things we DO. Careers are what we BECOME. Gaps can become the garden bridge between them.

Personal Mission Statement

• Simple one sentence statement

• Easily understood by 4th grader

• Able to memorize and repeat any time / anywhere / under any life stress

• Guides both personal and professional life

• Clearly defines passion and life goal

• Simply is a life compass – States boldly “This is what I am about.”

Mind Mapping

What is mind mapping?• According to Wikipedia: A mind map is a diagram used

to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea.

• Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

• A mind map is often created around a single word or text, placed in the center, to which associated ideas, words and concepts are added.

Mind Mapping

• Who Invented it, really?– Porphyry of Tyre (A.D. 234– 305), – Ramon Llull (1235 – 1315 A.D),

– Leonardo da Vinci (1451),

– Allan Collins (1960)

– Tony Buzan (1975)

Resume Gaps

• Any unexplained time period, usually noted in employment missing on a chronological or other styled resume

• Skills mentioned without apparent education, training, or employment as “how learned”

• Unlinked progression of job development • Missing data or information about career

during interview

How to use a SWOT ANALYSIS with a MIND MAP

STRENGTHWEAKNESS

OPPORTUNITIESTHREATS

SWOT ANALYSIS

A SWOT analysis is a popular project management tool used in business planning to determine a snapshot of where a project or team is, what it faces , and see gaps or connections not yet made.

In working with planning gaps, this method allows a quick, compact view of situations or sudden detours that might otherwise cause gaps in skill development.

I call it the opportunity maker, as you can see problems and brainstorm around them.

Mind Mapping

The basic Rules: • Use colors, pictures, images, words, symbols, etc. • Use one word or very simple phrases• Use both straight and curved lines or arrows for branches• Use circles, boxes, etc to capture key sub-headings and place

in corners • Depth or focus on sub-headings should be placed on separate

“focus map”

How to Map the Gaps

Drawing a mind map: • Start in the center of a blank page and draw or write central

theme – This is the Career focus. The “Illness” is under career.• Place sub-heading in each corner - These are areas of life such

as hobbies, education, family, etc. • Connect sub-headings/areas of life with branches/ arrows to

central theme if a relationship to career or skill development opportunity can be shown

• From areas of life corners, more than one sub-heading activity can be placed.

• Consider all opportunities to learn or develop new skills and add to map with dashed lines and consider using colors.

Family

Career

Job (s)

Volunteer Education / Professional

Training

Volunteer

Family

Starting Point

ILLNESS

Looking for Opportunity

TEACHING

ILLNESS

Where & what can I teach? In my illness, What can I learn to share with others?During my recovery time, Can I add to my skills?

Charting the Gaps

• Look at the Big picture of how jobs and life fit toward career goals

• Look for Opportunities that have been over looked or never considered

• Skill knowledge or experience brushed off because not gained on a “job” or at school

• Chart skills needed for career goal and best choices of time / money use

Skill Gap Charting for Career

TEACHING ASSISTANT

Burger King Fry Cook/PT

Counter help

Child

ren

Sund

ay

scho

ol

Local Library Church

Sche

dulin

g

AM Paper Route

Timing

Cust

omer

Ser

vice

Burger King Fry Cook/PT

Tutoring

Medical Research

Listening

Lyn’s Illness

• Lyn’s illness – Sudden, unpredicted, and mysterious– Multiple doctor and blood testing visits, etc.– Forced to reconsider career

• Lyn’s career at the onset of illness– Full-time email engineer at a major corporation– Part-time IT instructor at a community college

Mapping 101

What she loved• Teaching others• Black /White ethical lines• Details • Finding errors• Working independently• Creating data analysis

reports or spread sheets

What are her skills • Natural gift for breaking

down ideas or concepts• Knack for editing and

proofing anything• Managing projects alone• Maintaining ethical self • Ability to compile data into

easy to understand formats

Illness versus the Map

What Illness gave• Time to research field and

study for auditing exam• Met many new people and

made network contacts• Opportunity to reinvent self

and adjust career to illness• Insights to personal limits

What map gave• Clear goal path• Assessment of skills from all

areas of her life• Refocus on life and career • Learned what she is about –

Teaching and Resource • Targets without time limits

Minding the Gaps - Results

• Given the knowledge of illness ups and downs, Lyn could see down times as skill sharpening opportunities

• Gaps in her resume no longer are illness or job loss excuses, but have a planned purpose

• Planning for detours gave her options and control/power illness thus increasing energy

Lessons Learned

Before the Map• Paranoia and illness caused

performance to decline.• Checked herself into an

outpatient therapy.• Illness was main focus and

career/job was not on radar.• Illness was elephant in the

room, career wasn’t even IN the room.

After the Map• Saw relationship of illness to

performance issues.• Began to focus on career

skills and development. • Illness and career co-existed

and were recognized as equally important.

• Illness and career are treated like objects that move around in the same room.

Your turnIn the workbook, more details and actual breakdowns of elements.

• Define your main goal as the center topic of your map.• Next add your primary values to your map as free-floating topics.• Add primary topics, one representing each of the major life roles or

domains in your life (i.e.: work, family, church, hobbies, etc.) • Then add secondary topics, steps and strategies you will undertake to

achieve your goal within the context of each life role. (If your map becomes too cluttered, consider creating sub-maps to expand details of each life role.)

• You can assign numeral rankings to create action steps in your plans, allowing it to be easier to know where to start or what is next.

Thank You

Paulette M. Glass