322: Patricia Romboletti: How To Bulletproof Your Career

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What Do You Need to Know to Bulletproof Your Career as a Senior Level Leader?

Patricia Romboletti

Patricia Romboletti is the founder of the Bulletproof Your Career Methodology, a 4-phase coaching system for senior executive leaders, and the author of Bulletproof Your Career: Secure Your Financial Future and do Fulfilling Work on Your Own Terms…for LIFE.

After 18 years of experience as a retained executive recruiter, Pat chose to switch sides and expose the secrets behind the hiring curtain – giving her clients an unfair advantage against a rigged and frustrating hiring system. Her 4-phase system gives her clients a bulletproof mindset, a shortened search, a lifetime of financial security, and personal ownership over their career and destiny.

In addition, Patricia’s TEDx talk was a wake-up call for corporate executives, urging them to stop living in complacency and denial and to disrupt themselves before they are disrupted. Her advice — “think and act like a gigger.”

What We Discuss With Patricia Romboletti In This Episode

What is the gig economy
How to think like a gigger as a senior level executive in a corporate role
Reframing your sense of loyalty to an employer
Using LinkedIn to curate and nurture your network
How giggers approach training differently than typical executives
Resume writing tips
As a leader, how to help your people not get blindsided

Episode Transcript Highlights

The Rules Have Changed

The career strategy, job search and roadblocks facing senior level executives are different than for someone coming straight out of college or in the early to mid-stage of their career. One size does not fit all.

As a senior level executive, if you think like a gigger, you are more agile and nimble. You’ll do better in your current role and you’d also be better able to find your next role.

We’re all giggers whether we get a 1099 or W2 – it’s about thinking that way.

Companies used to be on the S&P for 33 years and are now heading down to 12 years, so that tells you that there is some instability there.

The rules have changed. Companies used to promise that they’d be there long term and you’d be good, but they can’t keep that promise anymore.

There are companies that started in 2019 that could displace a market leader by the end of 2020. That’s how fast disruption happens these days.

The Value of Your Network

Rather than being loyal to a company, nowadays you need to be loyal to yourself and your family who depends on you. That doesn’t mean you’re disloyal to the company you work for. When you’re there, do a great job for them. But don’t count on them, or make them the prerequisite for the rest of your working life.

In terms of your network, on a scale from 1 to 10, how well could you activate it if you lost your job tomorrow and needed to find a new one?

You may be on LinkedIn but it’s really just a database for most. In order to activate it, it takes some curating and nurturing.

Giggers know that they are always building a diverse network and a network of referral sources. They also curate a network of other connections. Whereas for a lot of corporate executives, their entire network is inside their company, and possibly even inside their department.

If you think like a gigger, you’re always curating and maintaining your network.

The senior level executives who are in transition the longest are those that have the weakest network.

If you say you don’t have time to do curate and nurture your network, you’re going to have plenty of time if you lose your current job because it’s going to take 6-9 months to activate it.

LinkedIn’s visibility for you is all based on your connectivity. It’s a connection platform not a search engine.

You should have at least 500 connections on LinkedIn but it’s not really about the number of connections, it’s how you curate and engage those connections.

As a CEO you’re the brand of that company, so you should have a profile that makes people want to work there.

Learning and Development Never Ends

For giggers, it’s learning and development all the time. They stay on top of the next new thing that their clients might need or what they hope they can sell in another part of the company.

In corporate, they usually offer learning and development and say it’s free. But it’s really learning and development that’s going to add value to them and not necessarily add value to you.

You need to think like a gigger and create your own budget for your training and development, aside from what your company might offer. It will pay off in spades, and it’s better that you invest while you’re working rather than waiting until you’re in transition.

The more volatile or rapidly changing your industry is, the more you’ll want to invest so you can stay two steps ahead.

When you’re interviewing for a job, they’re looking for reasons not to hire you; they’re not talking to you to find reasons to hire you. Risk aversion is their top priority.

When you’re out of a job, your first step is building and activating your network, building a target list of companies, and finding your way into those companies.

The thing to realize is that the time when you’re most attractive is when you’re already employed.

You’re not always changing jobs, but you’re always presenting yourself, curating your network, and growing yourself, so that you’re always ready to be ready.

What leaders need to know is that teaching your people to think like a gigger doesn’t make them a risk of flight, it makes them a better employee.

Episode Resources

Free Chapter of Bulletproof Your Career (includes access to weekly group calls with Patricia)
The Gig Economy TEDx Talk
Order Bulletproof Your Career on Amazon

Connect With Patricia Romboletti

Website: bulletproofyourcareer.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciaromboletti

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What Do You Need to Know to Bulletproof Your Career as a Senior Level Leader?