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The Career Change Challenge: Jullien Gordon’s Career Search Resource

There is a new movement taking place in the “careers industry” which seeks to connect the world with leading jobs, careers ideas and resources, and unique professional advice. Careers entrepreneurship is, in my view, an up and coming industry that will definitely continue to grow and will hopefully accelerate the pace of growth in the economy.  After all, we did just recently experience once of the worste recessions of the past century.  A prime example of a pioneer in this movement is Jullien Gordon, Stanford MBA class of 2007, and founder of Career Change Challenge.

Jullien Gordon has taken on the herculean challenge of providing human capital resources that will revolutionize people’s careers, particularly those who are interested in entrepreneurship. The Career Change Challenge is his newest initiative, where he posts a number of helpful presentations and videos aimed at helping people to “identify the “right” purpose-aligned career path” and then take actionable steps down that path.  As a part of his services, Jullien sends out periodic emails with videos and online content that information that is useful to his readers.

Another leader in the movement is my good friend Marquis Parker, who recently wrote a post about Jullien as well (click here to see Marquis’ post about Career Change Challenge).  Marquis started the second or third “major” business school blog ever back in 2003, and as it turns out, I originally met Jullien through Marquis, who was  one of Jullien’s classmates at Stanford Business School.  And Marquis can attest, that ever since Jullien earned his MBA in 2007, he has been dedicated to the cause helping people triangulate their careers around their life purpose.

Personally, I’m excited about Jullien’s new website, and I hope you will be too. It’s clear that Jullien is not only passionately about his own entrepreneurial ideas but also about helping people find their purpose and find ideas to transform their careers.  And in my view, that’s especially important now given the current economic situation.

To obtain new resources to assess your own career, even if just out of curiosity, take a look at Jullien’s new website. And if you know someone else who might benefit, forward his site along to them as well.  Because one of the most important things that any great leader can do is not only ensure that they are on the right career path, but also that they’re proactive to get insights and perspective from others as well.

Dean Sally Blount’s First 100 Days at Kellogg

Hi everyone, I have some exciting news to share.  Back in late July, Kellogg’s new Dean Sally Blout decided to start blogging about her experience as the new Dean this year.  Until now, the Kellogg community, like most business schools, relied on press releases, interviews, and other meetings and conferences to hear about everything that was going on.  But now, you can real time, up-to-date information not only about what she’s working on, but also about her thoughts for the future.

The title of the site is “Dean Blount’s First 100 Days,” and it’s purpose is to capture her weekly reflections on Kellogg and management education in the 21st century.  She’s already posted ten or so posts over the course of the past few weeks, and I suspect she’ll really start to pick up the pace a bit now that the new Kellogg class of 2012 – her first class as dean - is about to begin.

In my view, the dean’s decision to blog is a very good idea, though you might expect me to say that given I have a website of my own.  That’s because a leader’s ability to lead effectively in any organization, especially in today’s interconnected internet-driven world is directly correlated to his or her reputation.  A reputation as a thought leader and someone with vision for change.  Someone with a proven ability not only to come up with big ideas but also to persuade others and communicate the ideas to the masses.  And blogging provides a great venue to start building your reputation and delivering your message.

After reading through the dean’s blog, it looks like she’s hit the ground running and I look forward to seeing what the longer term message is.  For all those interested in Kellogg, affiliated with the university, or interested in the MBA community more generally, please join the dean’s ongoing conversation along with me.  I suspect that she’ll channel great insights about business and would love to hear what you think about her ideas.

And Dean Blount, thanks for your engagement in the univeristy and for sharing your insights about the MBA world as you take the helm of Kellogg.  We look forward to reading along and interacting with you throughout the year.

Click here for see the Dean’s new blog.