moving forward

Can you hear the holiday music playing? It's my retail opinion that the Halloween costumes aren't even out of the store before you can hear Bing busting out those warm and fuzzy Christmas carols. Although this post is not sponsored by your local shopping mall, there is a gifting message for you. Give the gift of a job ~ or at least a job recommendaaion. Some of you  might be aware that HR departments give employee rewards for referrals that result in sustained employment. That can be upwards of a couple hundred or thousand bucks. Hellooooo holiday presents.

~OR~

There is a new website that makes job gifting a breeze. It's called Top Prospect. Just found this sucker and it looks like a great way to look through your friends and match them up with open job positions which could result in YOU getting a little green (cash that is, not envy).

Point, click, and connect your way to good career karma. Yes, this does get your buddy a job but ask them to return the favor. Call it a holiday present. Now you don't have to regift the loud Christmas sweater crazy aunt Suzie gave you 'cause you are low on financial resources.





Today's post is brought to you by the letter 'E' for Employment.

rome wasn't built in a day

Have you ever read Moby Dick? I did for school. Was not a fan. Was a little slow for my little attention span. Wish I had the cliff notes. Today, however, I can share with you the cliff notes version of a recent job search event I went to. 

The Advertising Women of NY, or AWNY, is a local, professional association that has brought tremendous value to my life. The association has a career development arm that offered an event this month that focused on digital job searching. [would have been cool if they really took on the digital theme and streamed the event online] 

I saved my job search shekels and $35 later was registered for the two hour event. Half hour was spent networking and an hour listening to a panel talk about online job searching. Pammy Brooks from 24/7 Real Media (moderator), Rochelle Geller from Rochelle Geller Associates, MaryAlice Almendinger from Google, and Virginia Hanchar from Mediacom composed the expert panel. Here's what the ladies had to share about online job searching:

PB - 24/7 Real Media

• LinkeIn is a game changer.

RG - Rochelle Geller Associates

• LinkedIn is a great resource to use when romancing a company.
• Just because LinkedIn is available and convenient is not a reason to present an informal or unprofessional side.
• Right now hiring managers are looking for big picture thinkers and in the weeds workers.
• When delivering the experience of you, consider your intuitive and empathic sense of self. 

VH - Mediacom

• Aim for positively assertive when following up on a job interview. 
• Researching a company gives a candidate competence and confidence. 
• Take the time (or money) to have a complete online profile created to represent you. 
• Don't underestimate your relationships with people. It's like managing an PR campaign for yourself.

MA - Google

• When Google gets a resume, a real person reviews it. 
• Aim to make all your communications powerful and valuable. 
• Don't apply for multiple positions at one company at one time. 
• We use key words to create boolean searches for qualified candidates. 
• Google looks for four things in a candidate: experience, cognitive ability, leadership in your professional or personal life, and "Googliness".
• A candidate will be considered questionable if we see inconsistencies across resumes and online profiles. 

fail to plan and plan to fail

We all wanna make a buck. How do you do that quickly and with integrity? 

No, honestly, I am asking YOU. How do you do did? 

[email me if you have the answer - I promise a profit split]

Professional coaches have decided to accomplish this is by offering free seminars. Coaches are doing this to attract potential clients and gain back end percentages or fees. What does this mean to you, my digital career connecting crew? YOU can get FREE guidance and inspiration. Here's the deal...

Consultants and coaches offer no cost seminars over the phone or online video about a variety topics that might interest you. Here's a couple career-cash examples:

WouldYouHireYourself.com

• Dan Jessup, Groupon’s Head of People Strategy, discusses precisely how candidates can attract attention in fast-growth markets and land their ideal job.
• Jean Allen, partner at top search firm Heidrick & Struggles, is a veteran financial services recruiter and she discusses how she has seen candidates succeed in the job search so you can land the position you want at the company you want
• Dr. Ivan Misner, Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest networking organization, shares cutting-edge networking strategies to broaden and strengthen your networks. 

SoulAndProsperityEntrepreneurs.com

• Sage Lavine, Unlock your Purpose & Make Money Living It!
• Rha Goddess, Live Your Dream Now! How to Stay True, Get Paid, Do Good
• Pam Slim and Desiree Adaway, Partnerships: How to join forces with other business owners, non-profits and sponsors-for impact, for influence, for profit, and to change the world.

These are just a few examples of video and tele-summits offered recently. The key to this free, value loaded info session is to participate live. If you miss the session then you more then likely have 24-48 hours to catch the recording. After that time, it'll cost you, usually around $50 for the series. Considering you can participate from anywhere there is a phone or computer and it only takes an hour and an email address ~ why not give it a try? 

Let us know if you find a series you really like.

expect what you inspect

I heart this online job search idea.

Let me introduce you to Bianca Cadloni. Bianca likes Chipotle, employment, and social media. Her online recipe for job success is to build the Bianca brand around her skills and interests. In this case, we're talkin' 140 bytes of burrito. Yup, this Mexican lovin' maven is tweeting her way into a job.

“When I saw the job listing for social media and public relations coordinator, my heart skipped a beat. It was as if my love of PR, social media and Chipotle came together to give birth to the job description I had been dreaming of since I took my first bite of a sustainable chicken taco. ” - Bianca Cadloni

Bianca has developed a personal website that reflects Chipotle's look and feel. This whole idea is a great way to approach a job search. What brands do you love? Is there a place who's flair or flavor you would consider becoming a champion for? If you could campaign and win entry, what brand would you embrace?

The business world would be a more *spicy* place if we could all go to work for our BFF brand.

don't put your eggs all in one basket

:-) = happy

:O) = clown

vizualize.me = new resume

We can all thank Eugene Woo for translating us from boring text versions of ourselves into fascinating infographics of ourselves. Yes friends, soon (it's in beta) there will be a web app that generates an infographic of your resume based on your LinkedIn profile. Vizualize.me is the key to a new colorful career.

Check out what Vizualize.me whips Woo's wesume to wook wike ;-P

Wouldn't use this as the primary source of career collateral but it's a fun supplement especially if your chosen field uses visual flair. It's free and within a couple clicks you could see your working history in a whole new way!

it's crunch time

Think Amazon's 1-Click ordering. Think social media buttons at the bottom of any internet article. Now think online job submission. This digital combo is LinkedIn's recent attempt at streamlining the web employment process.

“Our goal with Apply With LinkedIn is to help every professional put their best foot forward, anywhere across the web when they take that leap to apply for a new position,” - Jonathan Seitel, LinkedIn Technical Product Manager

Reviews are mixed about the Pros and Cons.

PROS

*Helps potential employees hit application volume numbers faster.

*3 clicks to application and 0 cover letter.

*Uniform and searchable submission data for employers.

CONS

*Mass employee impulse applications.

*Employees in the relationship building process are being undermined. Eroding LinkedIn's job board point-of-difference that it creates personal and direct connections from employee to employer.

*Increased time and money waste for employers having to sift through an even larger applicant pool. Good candidates getting the boot because there are too many considerations.

Technology help or hinderance? You decide.

the whole nine yards

Do you like me? Yes, it's my un-answerable question BUT in the new age of social media measuring, "like-ability" is all the online rage. Tell me what you think - is at the tip of our digital tongues. User reviews can tip the scale when it comes time to make a decision. In this day and age, you can Google 'best nyc hamburger' [editorial side note - I pick the Original 5 Napkin Burger, although I do like the S.S.] and make your choice based on the quality and quantity of ranked consumer stars. Example)

How does this relate to online job searching? Let me introduce you to Indeed.com where you can read and write reviews about employers. Consider adding to your job research what past employees say about working in an organization. Consider letting future job applicants know what your experience was with a particular company. For example, the company Reputation Institute looks like it has some work to do...

In this time of consumer generated media, I ask you friends, take to the internet and help a user out. Let us know where the great company culture exists or tell us about the never ending TPS reports.

Log on and unleash.

everthing from soup to nuts

Act One - Scene One

Employer:

Thank you for coming in today. We'll let you know about our next steps.

You:

Great, thank you. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Act One - Scene Two

[You are done with your interview. You really want the job. You are sitting there in your new suite and wondering what's next.]

----------------------------

Say it with me folks, THANK YOU NOTE.

Yes, you are psyched up that you had a great connection with your potential next boss. You are cool with the commute. You've even crossed out your bosses name on the business card he/she gave you and written in your own. This could be it. Your next job.

Only you don't get it. Why? Because you were one of the 22 percent of people who didn't write a follow-up thank you note. CareerBuilder released a survey that shared, "more than one-in-five (22 percent) hiring managers say they are less likely to hire a candidate if they don’t send a thank-you note after an interview".

Good news my electronic community, 89 percent of hiring managers say sending this follow-up acknowledgement through email is cool. Heck, 50 percent prefer it! I know you are disappointed about having just bought a bunch of forever stamps. Write your mom instead. 'Cause an email is a quicker, cost effective way of becoming a real contender for employment.

Consider the following best practices before you press Send:

• send it immediately after the interview
• thank the employer for the interview
• restate your interest in the position
• give one or two keys reasons why you feel you are the best candidate for the job

-END SCENE-

as clear as mud

Remember grade school? Remember getting back your test results in math, history, or science class? Remember wishing with every fiber of your little kid heart that you did well and got a gold star? 95 questions right - 5 questions wrong. Sure you did a good job but 5 questions were wrong. I believe this is the beginning of focusing on The Wrong instead of The Right. We spend more time looking at our weakness then our strengths.

To be clear, I love looking at the wrong and fixing it. It's part of my Restorative strengths. My Restorative strength has been identified through Gallup StrengthFinder assessment. This online resource tool is "based on a 40-year study of human strengths, Gallup created a language of the 34 most common talents and developed the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment to help people discover and describe these talents. The goal was to start a global conversation about what's right with people."

In the book, authors share that people should basically give up what they don't do well and focus on their strengths. The assessment takes 20 minutes. In the end you get a report on your strengths. My top five are: Restorative, Futuristic, Command, Intellection, and Input. What are yours?

Once you know your strengths, revisit your resume and online candidate profiles. This is a whole new context to reframe what you do well. More then likely, your happiest or most productive times at work involve you using your strengths. Your next move is to build success stories around your strengths and share.

Holler your online communities (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) about your next success story, emphasizing your strengths in the workplace and the positive impact of your results. Give prospective employers something to chew on. Demonstrate your value. Celebrate your accomplishments.

comparing apples to oranges

Did you go to college? I did, Ohio (think Bobcat not Buckeye) and Columbia University. Let's go back to those good old college days. Regardless if you went for the education or experience - your affiliation can still pay off. Most schools have a career department you can access online.

Pictured above is the online presence for Columbia's Career Education department. This web resource is an untapped gold mine for Employers, Students, Alumni, Faculty & Admin, and Parents. We're looking at Columbia's site but check out your own institution of higher learning. In fact, check out any universities online career resource section. Not all college websites are password protected. Anyone is free to jump online and avail themselves of the resources and recommendations.

The website College Prowler issues a report card to universities based on their career centers. Pick one of these A+ collage career centers for more EDU JOB support. Within these electronic education employment areas are tools like: online assessment tests, exclusive job boards, community directories, and webinars to name a few.

What's your online alma mater look like?

finally in your element

Getting a job can be such hard work. Isn't there an easier way?

Indeed there is, Constant Online Reader! Winning it.

In this day and age, winning a person, place, or thing is not out of the question. Heck someone can win a chance to meet David Beckham. Someone can win a trip to Mexico. Someone can even win an iPod.

{Wouldn't it be great to win all three?! I can just picture me now ~ ~ sitting on a beach in Mexico, listening to my iPod while my companion, David Beckham, turns his head and smiles at me. Sigh, I don't even need a frozen concoction to help me hang on ~ ~}

Outside of fantasy land, real people like Chris Michalak and Colleen Lewis, are big winners. Job winners that is. Really and truly, Chris and Colleen found out about a career contest, submitted, and won. Chris was offered a softwear engineering position at Interactive Brokers. Colleen was awarded a field scout gig at Glacier National Park for BACKPACKER magazine. There are lots of candidate contestants out there like Chris and Collen. Are you one of them?

No joke, popular prankster Ashton Kutcher is looking for second chair to his position as President of Pop Culture. If you are a social networking, salty dog or BBQ Betty, YOU might be the perfect person for the Popchips position.

After all people, all I can say about this is - it's a harsh job market. We gotta do whatever we can. We gotta work hard for the money, so hard for the money.

take it with a grain of salt

Among us brothers and sisters are people who HAVE jobs but are looking for something else. Perhaps daunted with the yo-yo unemployment numbers - they stay in bad working relationships. Feel for these employed but burdened brethren because Big Brother is on their back.

JT and Dale, at King Features, recently received a question from a job seeker that demonstrates why we should not covet thy neighbors job:

I am currently in a position I hate, working for an employer I dislike. I want to look for a new job while I have a job, but I have a challenge: My company uses some sort of service that notifies them as soon as someone posts a resume on a big job site using the company name. So how do I go about looking for a job when my current job will be in immediate jeopardy?

Yikes, right?! The crew at Talk Jobs subscribes to a Fishbowl Assumption theory that everyone finds out everything. Their advise? Go into stealth mode when looking and be prepared with a well-rehearsed "surprisey-face" or cover story for plausible deniability purposes.

Good recommendations just the same. Have a read...

the lion's share of the work

00001100001010100001000110000101010100010

That is binary code for - A New Job is Just Around the Corner. Ok, my binary code writing is a little rusty but it STILL represents some kind of data.

Making sense of Internet data, namely your online resume, is a huge undertaking for HR folks. To aid them in their search for the best-fitting candidate, many are employing technology that uses a semantic program to evaluate the enormous volume of resume data. To explain…

Scenario: pretend for a moment that you have a job. You’re an HR person and you need to match up an open job position you have with hundreds or thousands of candidates. Feeling a little ~ needle in a haystack?

Solution A: you spend weeks and weeks wading though resumes looking for top contenders.

Solution B: you spend a couple hours looking through resumes that have been selected for you by a resume semantics program.

Survey says – Solution B.

Alternatively…

You remember those 2D cartoons - fun, colorful, and entertaining but a flat visual compared to 3D. Think of the currently popular 3D CG animated films that literally jump off the screen and blow your mind. The 3D/CG example is the semantic programs for HR folks. It’s not JUST pinging keywords (2D). Semantic programs are making contextual relevance of your resume position descriptions (3D). This will yield HR personal better candidate results for open positions. Do yourself a favor folks and create context in your resume, the 3D version of you on paper, so that the hiring programs and people can find you.

let's agree to disagree

Facebook. Reason #862 why you didn't apply to that job yesterday. Getting on the massive time suck site can really veer a job seeker off course. Never fear my employment challenged friends, a sweet justification is near! Monster.com's FB page hosts many 'getting hired' handy tools.

Last month the company asked jobseekers to submit questions about jobs and the economy they’d like to have answered by the White House. Although there is a ton of responses already, it's been said that the most interesting questions (most "likes") will actually be answered by the WH. Bring it Barack.

Need a couple more justifications to spend time on FB that don't include stalking your ex?

• Connect with the almost 11,500 people who dig Monster
• Get informed and entertained by the nearly 60 videos
• Find job events near you
• Trash talk my old employer on the Wall (on second thought, skip that)

Maybe someday YOU could be on their Success Story tab.

water under the bridge

WARNING: it might be too late for you!

Yes, it's true, LinkedIn has a new online career tool but it's only good for college students. Although this new career connector isn't for seasoned professionals, it still acts as a good exercise to understand where you are and to start navigating to where you want to be.

Currently, Career Explorer takes the person's educational degree and indicated industry and displays traditional entry-level jobs. Depending how large your LinkedIn universe is, Career Explorer will then show you people who have the job titles that match your academic and professional experience. Next step? You know it, you electronic social butterfly.

How does LinkedIn refine their new online functionality? Let college student bang around on it and see what's popular and what needs more work. Select colleges have been given access to test out the new tool. When it's ready, the whole LinkedIn community will get access and a new career path is just a hop, skip, and jump away.

let's cross that bridge when we get to it

Good advise is good advise but for the ladies out there, these sites are female friendly AND a good resource for employment:

EVENTS

• Dames Bond

• The Boss Network

• Women for Hire

ADVISE

• James Has A Job

• She Takes on the World

• Works by Nicole Williams

SUPPORT GROUP/EMPLOYMENT CLUB

• Waggle Force

Happy navigation and participation!

don't throw anyone under the bus

HowIGotLaidOff.com is all I am going to say.

I know faithful readers, this is a blog about GETTING a job.

Well, sometimes we just need to blow off a little steam. Enjoy.

look at this from the 30,000 foot level

With all this blog talk we haven't really gone near the idea of making your own blog creation. Yes, yes, online friends I feel your hands trembling on the keyboard. Create my own blog? Yes. For those of you who have made the online journaling commitment - good on you! For the late adopters... come on, the internet pool is nice and warm and ready for you.

Do you have an opinion about something? Are you passionate about an area in your life? Do you need a forum to complain about your less then stellar love life? Then share it. NO WAIT - don't share about that last one ~ unless you are ready to be Carrie Bradshaw 2.0. Let's keep it to our online career topic. The whole idea here is to show potential employers that you can write, have a unique point-of-view, and embrace digital technology.

Follow these steps and prove to yourself and the online universe that you CAN do it!

• Choose what you want to write about
• Pick an online resource - Blogger & WordPress are both FREE and work great
• Determine some sort of publishing schedule - how often are you going to write
• Populate your posting with images, video, and anything that makes for a rich experience
• Start building your followers by asking friends and family to support your blog

The previous steps are incredibly simplified but it really is easy to set up and get going. There are also hundreds of sites, forums, and blogs that can coach you in blogging 101.

Still timid to try? Then YOU start following blogs that are already out there. After awhile you might even be so bold to comment on posting topics that interest you. This is a great way to start a conversation with pros in your chosen industry.

On your mark, GeT sEt, START BLOGGING!

knock the ball outta the park

Folks, Twitter is still here. Despite the confusion about its utility, there are ways to bring Twitter into your life without having to dress in a big bird suite.

For our purposes, we'll stick to how Twitter can be your 411 for job searching. First at bat, your Twitter bio. IF people like recruiters and hiring managers check you out, let them and your following audience know you are on a job search. Don't forget to point to other elements of your online presence and capabilities. Include links to your personal .com, blog, LinkedIn profile, or portfolio like the one we talked about earlier on Visual CV.

Submitting for a job online can seem like there is no real HR person on the other side the Submit button. Twitter can give you access to the faceless folks who are looking for good talent everyday. Find HR recruiters at companies you are interested in working for and follow them. They are sure to tweet job avails as they come up and you'll be the first to know.

Next at bat, identify a company you would like to work for then look within "your" department. Find your potential boss and follow him or her. You'll get a good idea if this is the kind of person you would like to work for. This also provides you with talking points if you can score an interview with the person.

Another area within Twitter to consider are hashtags like #JobAdvice. Find out what is going on in your industry and contribute back with interesting insights. Don't forget the law of Giving and Receiving. If you need a job - help others find one. If you come upon a Tweet for a sweet gig but it doesn't jive with what you are up to - pass it on to someone who could benefit from the posting.

Last at bat, take it easy on what you inform the world about. Yes, I would like to hear about an interesting job you found NOT what your cat just dropped off in the litter box.

It's your turn on deck friend.

let's pick the low hanging fruit

It's QR time. What's that you say? You don't have your QR code on you? Oh right, you just left it in your other bag. OR maybe you don't HAVE a QR code. Sans or con code, its arrived on the shores of America and YOU could use one. What am I talking about? I am talking about a two-dimensional bar code that was created in Japan. The "Quick Response" code captures information in a cryptic looking image so that it can be shared, mobile, and referenced quickly and easily. What we are talking about here is the image on the left. How it works is by taking your URL, maybe your LinkedIn profile or your online portfolio www, and using a free QR site to generate this image for you. That's all you need.

How are these codes used? Business cards. Hear me out. Yes you are looking for a job but you can still have business cards. There are a couple of companies out there that offer these business cards for free. [Note, they drop their brand name in small point on the back of the cards.] The QR idea being, add your customized QR code to your business card and the next time you are at a networking function, forget your portfolio, it's on your card! Some smart phones, like the Google Android, use the camera to scan and reference the image. Alternatively, people like recruiters also have personal scanners that allow them to quickly reference these codes that can point to vast amounts of data.

The only Q I have for U is - will you try it? Let me know!