Coach
Mar 18th, 2010
Mar 18th, 2010
Memory Mining
Product Description
In today’s competitive market, experience alone is not enough–job seekers must stand-out and be able to sell themselves in resumes and interviews. Memory Mining provides that necessary tool for digging out gems from past good work then helps refine and polish those into quality usable nuggets which communicate value to an employer.
5 Responses to “Memory Mining”
Allan Hay’s Memory Mining: Digging for Gems from Your Past Good Work is itself a “gem” of a book: Short (under 100 pages), to the point, engaging and energizing the reader in the self-discovery related to success in the job market. The Memory Mining exercise which lies at the heart of the book (Chapter 3) is not an attempt to create a profile of one’s ideal job from preferences chosen from a sea of possible skills sets (such as what is attempted in R. N. Bolles’ What Color is Your Parachute?) Rather, Memory Mining is presented as a way to recover one’s achievements–as true stories of success and accomplishment–as they relate to one or more actual job descriptions. This keeps the exercise fun and reality- and goal-oriented rather than just another daunting task for the already discouraged. It ensures that job candidates really care about the work for which they are applying and this will give them a competitive edge.
Hay’s background is in sales and career advising, not therapy. This perspective brings a practical orientation to the book. Conducting a job campaign is indeed hard work, but hard work is not promoted as a virtue of character per se as one would find in Bolles’ work. The central virtues displayed in Memory Mining are caring, honesty and sincerity, virtues at the heart of any successful attempt to sell a product–YOU!
Rating: 5 / 5
Having worked as a Career Consultant I find the information Allan has put forth to be very accurate and helpful in making a career change or the decision to focus on moving upward in your chosen field.
The process Allan uses continues to be appropriate everyday not only in career transition but also everyday life. This book is worth reading time and time again in order to keep refreshed on the process.
Ed Kuntz
Rating: 5 / 5
I’ve never enjoyed reading career/job search kinds of books. Never, never, never. I also hate interviews, and I panic when I think about my résumé.
But Allan Hay’s Memory Mining: Digging for Gems from Your Past Good Work, at only 100 pages, didn’t bother me so much.
I met Allan Hay at PNBA Trade Show in September, and after listening him talk to other people about their job search issues, I figured this was a book that I actually needed. Besides, it was short. It couldn’t be too painful, right?
It wasn’t.
It was helpful; definitely what I needed to hear. Allan breaks down the job search for you, and focuses on having you figure out what you are good at, and how that meets the company’s needs. He understands that if you’re just looking for any job, you’re not going to be happy, and neither will the company.
Here are a couple of his main points that I found useful:
First: Job descriptions are rarely accurate. The job changes with the person holding it, and the HR people doing the hiring don’t always know the ins and outs of that specific position. So you need to break down the description and glean as much information from that as possible, and then do research about not only the company, but the position you’re applying for. So you start by breaking the job description down in to each individual function. Once you’ve identified all the possible functions from the description and your research, the memory mining begins.
Second: You have more experience than you think. Experience does not only come from your formal education and your previous job that was exactly like the one you’re applying for. It also comes from volunteer work, the books you have read, and the individual qualities you have. So you mine your memory for any example of you using a quality that matches each function in the job description and turn it in to a story or example of how you’ll be fantastic for them.
Third: It’s all about caring. That’s right–you have to actually want the job you’re applying for, care about your professional image, and put in some effort. I guess that’s not what anyone really wants to hear. We all would like to have one résumé that works for every job, standard answers to memorize for the interview, etc. But that just isn’t how it works. Every person is different, likewise, every company and every job are different, too. So you have to individualize your presentation.
Allan has easy to digest worksheets to make the memory mining process easier, and ways to apply the information you dig up on your résumé, cover letter, and interview answers. Above all, I like Allan’s attitude: you have to work hard to get the job you want, so you don’t want to settle for just any job. Allan makes it clear that just because you can do a job, doesn’t mean you’ll like it. And if you don’t enjoy your work, your employer probably isn’t going to enjoy paying you to be miserable. The bottom line: put in the extra effort to match yourself up with the right job, and every one will be happier. Bonus: Allan makes the process pretty simple for you. All you have to do is think!
Karli Clift
http://www.yourinklings.com
Rating: 5 / 5
There are a lot books on job finding out there. Most offer a minefield of methodologies, processes, and systems that absolutely positively guarantee success in finding the “perfect” career.
Allan Hay’s “Memory Mining” has something more useful. He focuses on a single strategy of self-discovery that literally compels jobs candidates to identify their skills, interests, and accomplishments by reviewing past successes. By “mining” these nuggets, the candidate builds a wealth of information on real achievements that have the potential to not only define career direction but also create the foundation for résumés and interviews. The term “memory mining” is the perfect designation for a system I have successfully used in my own career consulting practice.
“Memory Mining” is a modest book, barely 100 pages. But good things can come in small packages and like the other kind of mining, the results can be “the stuff that dreams are made of.”
Gary Kanter
Career & Resume Consultant
Career Management Resources
Bellevue, WA
Rating: 5 / 5
“Memory Mining” refers to one’s ability to remember successful work stories when applying for a new job. Allan Hay has developed the concept to assist job seekers perform better, particularly during the recruitment interview. The ability of a job applicant to be able to remember things they have done well is important in all interviews and particularly so when the interviewer is using a technique called Behaviour Event Interviewing (BEI).
BEI has been around for many years and is now used by an increasing number of recruiters. It calls for the applicant to recall past behaviour that may be similar to that required in the proposed job. So, applicants who can easily recall successful events will perform well in these types of interviews.
The nub of Memory Mining is contained in Chapters 3 and 4. Here the author lays out a simple way for job applicants to review their skills and compare then to the position for which they are applying. Once the applicant has identified and matched previous skills and work experiences to the job requirements, it is suggested to:
* Write the story from your perspective
* Pick a specific action you took or an ongoing job you perform that illustrates this skill
* Explain how you did it
* State the positive result
Good advice for all job seekers.
There are also many other tips for job seekers in Memory Mining such as how to update your résumé. However, I particularly liked the “cover letter” which is so often underutilised by job seekers. Recommended for anyone applying for a new job and particularly for first time job seekers.
Bob Selden, author What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers
Rating: 5 / 5