-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueBox Build
One trend is to add box build and final assembly to your product offering. In this issue, we explore the opportunities and risks of adding system assembly to your service portfolio.
IPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Tom Lavoie on Career Planning and Professional Development
March 27, 2019 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Tom Lavoie is a former HP D-level executive now president of Consensia IT Partners and a certified Focal Point business coach. In this interview at the IEEE Rising Stars Conference, Lavoie discusses why he attended the conference, how he helps entry-level technical stars get their careers started with a plan, and helps experienced executives enhance their professional skills.
Nolan Johnson: I’m talking with Tom Lavoie, and you’ve been talking to the attendees who are college students and recently graduated young professionals. Can you tell us about what you do and what brings you here?
Tom Lavoie: I franchised with FocalPoint Business Coaching early last year and one of my former HP colleagues, Bill Gris, reached out to me to do a presentation at a Riverside event about six weeks ago for a similar audience as here, and that went extremely well. I was approached by one of the national IEEE leads after the presentation; he asked me if I would be interested in coming to this event. Initially, we tried to get a presentation spot, but there just wasn’t enough time so I agreed to attend and sponsor this year, and I’ve committed to present next year.
I have a passion for coaching both senior-level and entry-level employees. I like to help the younger generation get into the workforce and know what to do to get the right job because it’s different today compared to the mid-‘80s when I graduated from college.
Johnson: What are some of the things you might do for an entry-level professional talking with you?
Lavoie: My son is a sophomore at the University of California, Santa Barbara, so I’ve been coaching him a lot. What’s interesting about entry-level employees is they’re extremely bright. They study very hard at college. Most of them are straight-A students in engineering and computer science—technical degrees—but they don’t necessarily do their homework as far as learning what to do to get the job. What I find is they have a haphazard “apply to random jobs that are out there” mentality, and if they’re lucky, they get a job—the key point being “if they’re lucky.” Most struggle to get a job because they don’t have a plan. They don’t know the process to get a job. It’s very different today compared to the mid-‘80s.
If you don’t understand the game with how managers hire, you’re going to have a hard time being the one who gets selected. I feel there’s a lot that they can learn from coaching. There are many resources on the internet that they can be told to go out and research, but most importantly for me is that they must have a plan.
One of the main services that I provide is building a strategic plan—both short-term and long-term—for their career. That will be something they evolve every year because things change, and if you don’t have a business or life plan, you’re not necessarily going to achieve your goals, so that’s the key deliverable.
Another service I provide includes interviewing technique and skills. There are a lot of people who will coach behavioral interviewing, and I was trained at HP to interview based on behavioral patterns in the past, but it’s more than that. I also provide an assessment—which I heard one of the other coaches talk about yesterday—about knowing what behavioral style you are, and whether the person you’re interviewing with has a different style.
That’s huge knowledge because if you don’t recognize that, a lot of people fail the interview based on just having a disconnect between behavioral styles; they don’t understand why the hiring manager appears to be acting indifferent or inconsiderate.
To read the full article, which appeared in the February 2019 issue of SMT007 Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
Marcy's Musings: The Growing Industry
04/16/2024 | Marcy LaRont -- Column: Marcy's MusingsAfter decades of steady decline in the U.S. and Europe, the PCB industry is finally growing, especially in China Plus One countries. The U.S. for example, which seemed to have abdicated its title as the world leader in innovating high-technology cutting-edge manufacturing processes, is now in a race to regain what it lost and then some. The PCB fabrication industry is growing in the West, thanks to DoD funding, the CHIPS and Science Act, and hopefully, the passing of HR 3249, the Printed Circuit Board and Substrates Act.
PCB007 Magazine April 2024 — The Growing Industry Issue
04/15/2024 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamAfter more than two decades of steady decline in the U.S., the PCB industry is finally growing in the West thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act, DoD funding, and hopefully, the passing of HR 3249, the Printed Circuit Board and Substrates Act. The U.S. is now in a race to regain what was lost and then some. But what does “growing” look like for the organizations that have received DoD funding, and for the rest of us? How can we sustain this growth?
It’s Only Common Sense: Here’s What To Do After IPC APEX EXPO 2024
04/15/2024 | Dan Beaulieu -- Column: It's Only Common SenseYou had a great time last week at IPC APEX EXPO 2024. Now you’re back home and ready to go on to other things. Au contraire mon frère. Now the work really gets started, and you must capitalize on all the good work you did last week. Follow up on the connections you made, the leads you created, and the partnerships and relationships you developed.
Dan’s Biz Bookshelf: Seeing the How
04/11/2024 | Dan Beaulieu -- Column: Dan's Biz BookshelfI might say this about a lot of books, but this one is a must-read. The author addresses a whole new way of doing business. It’s not like one day we woke up and there it was, a new way to get a ride (Uber), a new home away from home (Airbnb), a new way to get groceries (Instacart) and (DoorDash), and so on. The flood gates have opened, and there’s more to come.
Spring Into the Latest Issue of IPC Community
04/09/2024 | IPC Community Editorial TeamYou’ve put away the winter gear, the bulbs are in bloom, and the latest issue of IPC Community is ready for you. A few highlights from this issue include: Dr. John W. Mitchell’s update on what’s happening at IPC APEX EXPO 2024 this year; what’s on the horizon for IPC-7711/21; a longtime IPC member, Phil Kinner shares the tale of his 15,000-mile, six-year journey and so many more stories from the IPC community around the world.