5 Ways to Use Google to Avoid Layoffs

by Susan P. Joyce


Being uninformed today is a dangerous habit.  Companies go out of business or have layoffs.  Divisions are shut down.  Products or services are discontinued.  Technology shifts business from one company or industry to another.  Manufacturing moves to a different supplier or country.
Most of those events result in the loss of jobs, or, at least, jobs shifting from one employer, industry, or country to another.
If you are employed, stay informed about what is being published on the web about your employer.  Use that information for career management and for financial self defense.  If your employer seems to be having a tough time, start thinking about moving on to another employer.  Read Job-Hunt’s Layoff Self-Defense ebook for suggestions about how to prepare to move on.
If you are unemployed, stay informed about potential employers so you can avoid pursuing employment with an employer who may stop hiring or may offer short-term employment.
Below, find 40 search queries in 5 categories of information that can be strong indicators of pending layoffs.


Business Uncertainty
Millions of business opportunities and threats happen all the time.  For example, consider the recent history of Eastman Kodak, and pity the Kodak employees who were ignoring the news and what was going on around them.
Eastman Kodak -

• 1995: ranked at 43 in the Fortune 500
• 2011: ranked at 327
• 1988: 145,000 employees; in 2009 down to fewer than 20,000 (Forbes magazine)

Obviously, the probability is high that if you were happily employed with Eastman Kodak in 1995, you are not working there today.  On the other hand, while film-based camera businesses like Kodak are shrinking or changing their business models, many other businesses are taking their places and rapidly growing.
Fortunately, it is much easier to be well-informed today than ever, with technology (aka, Google).
Using Google Search
Discover the bad news, or just speculation, about your employer so you can help address the problems, avoid moving into a group that is failing, or move out of a bad situation (the employer as a whole or one part of it).
Most Google searches are automatically “Everything” searches, but you may find the “News” searches to be more helpful.  You may also find that the “Videos” and “Images” searches may be helpful.
Select the type of search you want from the upper left side of the Google search results pages (inside the red box in the image below).

If you don’t see the ”Images,” “Videos,” and “News” options, click on the arrow beside the “More” button to find them.

Read the Google-izing Your Job Search article for useful tips on using Google search syntax, and learn the trick about using dots (periods) between elements of a phrase rather than quotation marks, as in some of the examples below.

Finding the Bad News
Try these Google searches.  Some will work better for you than others, and some may not be appropriate for your situation.  Use the search results you get to refine your search until most of what you get is best for your situation.

Note: In the search strings below, the brackets [ ] are around search terms for you to fill in with what ever is appropriate for you. 

1.  Drop in sales or revenue
Try these searches to find information about sales or revenue going down, which may lead to layoffs to reduce expenses -

• “sales drop” +[company.name] +[current year] 
• “earnings drop” +[company.name] +[current year] 
• “revenue dropping” +[company.name] +[current year]
• “negative revenue” +forecast +[company.name] +[current year]
• “negative outlook” +[company.name] +[current year] 
• “negative sales forecast” +[company.name] +[current year]
• “negative revenue forecast” +[company.name] +[current year] 

2.  Closure of a plant or office


See more search tips and complete article 

Top 10 Traits Of Highly Successful People

We have all read about people who are successful briefly. They win a gold medal, make a fortune, or star in one great movie and then disappear.…These examples do not inspire me!
My focus and fascination is with people who seem to do well in many areas of life, and do it over and over through a lifetime. In entertainment, I think of Paul Newman and Bill Cosby. In business, I think of Ben and Jerry (the ice cream moguls)…As a Naval Officer, husband, businessman, politician and now as a mediator and philanthropist on the world stage, Jimmy Carter has had a remarkable life. We all know examples of people who go from one success to another.
These are the people who inspire me! I’ve studied them, and I’ve noticed they have the following traits in common:


1. Repeatedly successful people respond instantly! When an investment isn’t working out, they sell. When they see an opportunity, they make the call. If an important relationship is cooling down, they take time to renew it. When technology or a new competitor or a change in the economic situation requires an adjustment, they are the first and quickest to respond.

2. They work hard! Yes, they play hard, too! They get up early, they rarely complain, they expect performance from others, but they expect extraordinary performance from themselves. Repeated, high-level success starts with a recognition that hard work pays off.

3. They are incredibly curious and eager to learn. They study, ask questions and read—constantly! An interesting point, however: While most of them did well in school, the difference is that they apply or take advantage of what they learn. Repeated success is not about memorizing facts, it’s about being able to take information and create, build, or apply it in new and important ways. Successful people want to learn everything about everything!

4. They network. They know lots of people, and they know lots of different kinds of people. They listen to friends, neighbors, co- workers and bartenders. They don’t have to be “the life of the party,” in fact many are quiet, even shy, but they value people and they value relationships. Successful people have a Rolodex full of people who value their friendship and return their calls.

5. They work on themselves and never quit! While the “over-night wonders” become arrogant and quickly disappear, really successful people work on their personality, their leadership skills, management skills, and every other detail of life. When a relationship or business deal goes sour, they assume they can learn from it and they expect to do better next time. Successful people don’t tolerate flaws; they fix them!

6. They are extraordinarily creative. They go around asking, “Why not?” They see new combinations, new possibilities, new opportunities and challenges where others see problems or limitations. They wake up in the middle of the night yelling, “I’ve got it!” They ask for advice, try things out, consult experts and amateurs, always looking for a better, faster, cheaper solution. Successful people create stuff!

Traits 7 - 10 and complete article

What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast

By Laura Vanderkam


Mornings are a mad-cap time in many households. Everyone’s so focused on getting out the door that you can easily lose track of just how much time is passing. I’ve had hundreds of people keep time logs for me over the past few years (you can see some of mine here and here), and I’m always amazed to see gaps of 90 minutes or more between when people wake up and when they start the commute or school car pool.
That would be fine if the time was used intentionally, but often it isn’t.

The most productive people, however, realize that 90 minutes, 120 minutes or more is a long time to lose track of on a busy weekday. If you feel like you don’t have time for personal priorities later in the day, why not try using your mornings? Streamline breakfast, personal care and kid routines. Then you can use 30-60 minutes to try one of four things:

1. Play, read, or talk with your kids. Mornings can be great quality time, especially if you have little kids who go to bed soon after you get home at night, but wake up at the crack of dawn. Set an alarm on your watch, put away the iPhone, and spend a relaxed half an hour reading stories or doing art projects. If you have older children, aim for a leisurely family breakfast. Everyone talks through their plans for the day and what’s going on in their lives. If family dinners aren’t a regular thing in your house, this is a great substitute.

2. Exercise. You shower in the morning anyway, so why not get sweaty first? Trade off mornings with your partner on who goes out and runs and who stays home with the kids. Or, if your kids are older (or you don’t have any) work out together and make it a very healthy morning date.

3. Indulge your creative side. Lots of people would like to resurrect a creative hobby like painting, photography, scrapbooking, writing, even practicing an instrument. What if you went to bed a little earlier three times a week? Skip that last TV show or those last emails and get up a little earlier the next morning to put in some time at your easel before the day gets away from you.

Tip 4, More Advice, and Complete bnet Article

5 Tips for a Flawless LinkedIn Profile

FACT: If brown is the new black, then LinkedIn is the new resume. It’s not enough just to have a profile, you need to leverage your profile’s design to ensure it sends the right personal branding message. Brand or BE BRANDED! In this session of Brand ME! on CAREEREALISM TV, J.T. shares 5 basic tips anyone can use in less than an hour to make sure their LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and making a good impression on the people viewing it. You’ll learn:

1. Why recruiters are no longer posting jobs and doing proactive LinkedIn searches instead.
2. How your lack of a picture is getting you discriminated against.
3. Why you Summary could be turning off hiring managers.
4. How your Work History could be saying you aren’t a good professional.

And much more! This is a must-view for anyone who wonders if their profile is helping or hurting their career.

See The Video and More

5 Tips To Separate Personal And Professional Life Online

BY Amber Mac


"My life and biz is so intertwined in every way that it's hard to make that clean separation on and offline." That's what Candace Alper (@NameYourTuneCDs) said on Twitter when I asked about the importance of separating your personal and business life on Facebook. As an entrepreneur who runs a made-to-order children's CD company, she is comfortable mixing business with pleasure online. Monica Roddey (@MicaR) agrees. She says "my online persona = my 'real life' persona ... what you see is what you get."
I fall into Alper's and Roddey's camp. When I signed up for Facebook years ago, I opened it up to anyone and everyone. Although I now also maintain a fan page, it's still hard for me to refuse friend invites that make their way into my personal account. However, the majority of the responses I received disagreed with this approach. Matt Hall (@mattwiter) writes that "you simply don't combine the two to begin with ... that is a sure mistake." For Kathy Dabrowska (@_katdee), she says "you can't be ON all the time ... you need a place where marketing yourself is not needed."

In theory I agree that separation is a good thing. With more employers lurking on social profiles and more people oversharing online, it just makes sense to keep some things private. However, the reality is that sometimes the tools make it difficult to split up your networks. Here are five tips to help you get closer.

1. Use different networks for different purposes
Jon Lax (@jonlax) uses LinkedIn for business and Facebook for personal. This seems to be a pretty safe and standard approach for a lot of people. After all, LinkedIn just doesn't lend itself to the more personal information that is expected on Facebook. If you do this, it's important to warn people in your professional life who are expecting to be accepted as a Facebook friend. In other words, let them know gently that LinkedIn is where your like to do business.

2. Create a Facebook personal profile AND brand page
Mike Frey is a fan of separation, so he maintains a private account and a company page. This way it's clear that the latter is for professional networking only. To create a public page simply go to the Pages section on Facebook. You have the option to create a page as a Business, Company, Public Figure, Brand, or Community Cause. One thing to note, until you have 25 fans you cannot get a custom URL for your page (an important part of your overall branding).
3. Push your business contacts to Twitter


Maury Estabrooks (@maurye) thinks using Twitter as a professional networking tool and Facebook for personal relationships is ideal. Since Twitter works best as a public forum, this is a solid approach. The only downside to this option is that your tweeting profile lacks the infrastructure to expand on your business information and history, so it's limited as a professional tool.  

Read Tips 4 - 5 and Complete FAst Company Article

Jobety: A Job Search Tool for Web Developers and Designers

by Steve Gibson


Looking for a job can be nerve racking. I remember graduating college into the height of the dot com boom. Apprehensively I sent out cover letters and resumes, hoping against hope that I might somehow be selected. After a few interviews and rambling on about where I wanted to be in five years I found myself with a couple offers. Little did I know how easy we had it back then.

Nowadays things are much harder. With the slow down in the economy people have been scrambling to find a job. Whereas my initial interviews were more like pulse checks and introductions, now companies scrutinize every candidate. Every ‘i’ must be dotted and ‘t’ crossed to find a job in this economy.

Jobety Home

Job boards have been the haunts of those who find themselves out of work. Most of them include every type of job imaginable. Candidates typically only want one type of job though. We’re either software engineers or sales people, but not both. For the former case, Jobety was founded. It’s a web development job search engine that is built strictly for web designers and developers.

One of the problems with looking for a job is you need to go to all the major sites to check and see what’s available. By navigating to Jobety you can enter the types of skills you have and your location, and it will return results from a variety of sites. It gives you a quick overview of up and coming work in you area.

Jobety’s web design job search engine gives you a few filtering options to make it easier to sift the results. First is filtering based upon the date the job was posted. It allows you to indicate how far back you’d like the search results to go. Next is to adjust the distance you’re willing to travel. One thing about working office jobs that I’m dead set against is commuting. There’s no single way to better evaporate one’s time than sitting in a car going to and from work. Hence, I’ve resolved to always move closer to the office in order to reduce the commute. Now, if you’re riding a motorcycle then that’s a whole different story, but I digress. Once the results are displayed Jobety lets you sort them based upon relevance, date, or distance.

Once you’ve found a few positions that look interesting you simply click on them and it takes you out to the site. Jobety’s job is complete. From there you can follow up through whatever protocol provided by that particular job board. Beyond that you only need be perfect in every way for the next 3-6 weeks to be welcomed into the ranks of the employed.

Read The Complete BusinessWeek Article

8 Tips for Using Social Blogging to Grow Your Business

By Carolyn M. Brown

Social networking. The big corporations have bought into it. Smaller companies, too. Even independent consultants use Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to do business. It is a great way to get the word out about your product or service. It boosts brand awareness, it builds loyalty, and it attracts and retains customers.

But more companies are exploring ways get a bigger pay off with social media. The next frontier of social networking and weblogging is social blogging. This ever-changing construct represents a way of communicating for people who like to inform each other about their daily activities and share common points of interest, according to Wikipedia authors Lambert M. Surhone, Mariam T. Tennoe, and Susan F. Henssonow. This is usually done through continual updates that often include text, pictures, audio, or video.

In general, you want to use social media to increase your visibility, improve your search engine results, and drive more traffic to your company's website, which stands a good chance of increasing sales and growing the business. Social blogging is simply another tool to add to your overall social media strategic toolkit.

Business owners whose companies are at all levels of growth, from promising start-ups to established and mature firms, are looking for effective promotional tools that are also cost-effective, says Gail Z. Martin, author of 30 Days To Social Media Success. "Though social media is one of the most exciting new communications tools to emerge in the last twenty years and can provide cost effective marketing, it's one of the most misunderstood mediums," says Martin.

Social media, be it weblogging, microblogging (i.e., Twitter), or posting status updates, is a different kind of marketing. It's not about creating a sales pitch for your product or service. Instead, it's about generating interest and keeping your audience current on news, events, and the latest product developments. A social blog is essentially a form or combination of microblogs (short posts) and status updates. Users post content such as short sentences, images, or video links to large groups of friends, followers, or co-workers. As with traditional weblogging, users can write messages on topics that range from "what am I doing right now" to thematic ones such as "best places to eat sushi." These messages can be transmitted via posting, text messaging, or e-mailing.

Businesses can use the concept of social blogging to provide up-to-the-minute news as they will find the need for quicker, current, and condensed information far more useful to their audiences, say social media gurus. But social blogs and status updates on Twitter and Facebook, for instance, aren't just limited to news content, businesses also can use these as effective forms of communication to reach large groups of consumers and associates instantaneously to learn about their needs and wants.

Starbucks Corporation is a social media giant when it comes to engagement, including incorporating blogs, status updates, tweets, and forums. When the trendy Seattle-based coffeehouse chain realized that its sales were stagnating and that competition was becoming fierce, it had to find ways to solidify and expand its market share. In 2009, Starbucks launched the interactive MyStarbucksIdea website and corporate blog. While some industry analysts doubted whether the site would catch on, well over 100,000 internet users had visited the site by the end of its first week online. The site allows users to submit ideas for new drinks, food items, packages, even store designs. Suggestions are voted on by Starbucks consumers with the most popular ones getting highlighted.

But Starbucks took it a step further, adding an "Ideas in Action" blog that gives updates to users on the status of suggested changes. Starbucks doesn't just communicate news and business developments with its audience, but it also lets them know which of their suggestions the company has really taken to heart. Starbucks also has fully embraced Twitter beyond notifying consumers about bargains; @Starbucks focuses on sharing interesting events and music information or brand- and charity-related topics the company would like to address. It's not a one-way monologue. Followers are not just entertained. They are being engaged in a brand and conversations around it.

Like Starbucks, Zappos embraces microblogging to manage customer relations. Tweets @Zappos are used to highlight interesting facts, and to talk to customers in a way that is friendly, helpful, funny and trustworthy. The Brooklyn Kitchen keeps foodies up to date on events from notices about the new book club in full swing to the next skills knife class kicking off. Amateur chefs Taylor Erkkinen and Harry Rosenblum opened The Brooklyn Kitchen in 2006 after scouring the neighborhood for kitchenware and coming up empty-handed. Today, their homegrown shop is crammed wall to wall with tools for both serious cooks and hobbyists. The duo focuses on providing useful and targeted information in their posts whether it's through their website, weblog, or twitter account. From videos on how to shuck oysters or saber a champagne bottle, Erkkinen and Rosenblum always provide real value for enthusiastic cooking fans.

This type of added-value and engagement translates to increased brand awareness and direct sales. These companies demonstrate the effective use of compelling and condensed content aligned with tangible business objectives. Here are some tips to help you make the most of social blogging:

1. Position yourself as an expert. When people are looking for a product or service, oftentimes they will first look for information about the subject on the Internet. In general, blogging is about having conversations in a public space that position you as a subject matter expert. "The type of discussions you ideally should have ought to be answering questions that people out there on the Internet are searching for," says Adria Richards, Organic Technology Consultant and blogger. "For me, social blogging is a way to have conversations with potential customers and to draw traffic to your site." For instance, you can answer questions from consumers via Twitter, which is a popular thing to do.

Read Tips 2 - 7 and The Rest Of The Inc. Article 

Are You a Fit?

by Fresh Start

When you think of the word “fit,” what comes to mind? Clothing? Trying on a new pair of jeans at the mall?

You’re thinking: Do these jeans give the right impression? Will they work well with the shirts I own? Will they make a nice outfit? Can I afford them?

Funny enough, these are many of the same thoughts running through a hiring manager’s mind when interviewing candidates. Is he/she making a good first impression? Will they work well with others in the company? Be a good team player? Can we afford them?

Fit is much more than simply matching up your experience to the job description’s qualifications, writes L. Michelle Tullier, Ph.D., in her book The Unofficial Guide to Landing a Job (Wiley Publishing, Inc.). Fit is the unique package that you bring to the table. It’s how you bring to life the words on your resume.

So do you “fit” the job your applying for? Michelle explores three main areas in her book:

1. Value

What kinds of value would you bring to the organization? Yes, there are different kinds of value:

Content knowledge: The subjects you know about and overall expertise.

Transferable skills: These are skill sets you’ve acquired from many different aspects of your life. You might have learned how to manage multiple projects while volunteering or how to make deadlines through a position unrelated to the one you’re applying for. These are skills that will serve you for life and can be used in many roles throughout your career.

Personal qualities: The characteristics that you make you unique are valuable to employers. Examples include being detail-oriented or a leader. (Learn how to develop your leadership qualities, here.)

Experience: And of course, employers look at your value in terms of past performance and achievements.

2. Fitting In

“In an employer’s ideal world, all positions would be filled through personal referral.”

Company culture is important in organizations, and hiring managers want to find a person who meshes with the organization’s values. They’re looking at:

Personality: Will you work well with others in the company? Is it a good match?

Image: In addition to physical appearance, employers are looking at nonverbal characteristics like whether you carry yourself with confidence.

Values: Do you match the core values of a company? What drives you? Is it money? Competition? Helping people?

Work Style: Everything from being a talkative person to how many hours you expect to work relates to meshing with a company culture.

More Tips and Complete Article

In Hiring, Firms Shine Images

By JOE LIGHT

Employer-Branding Campaigns Try to Attract Most-Coveted Job Candidates

Companies have long set aside resources to develop and market consumer brands. Now, some are finding that to attract the best job candidates, they need to put similar efforts into their so-called employer brands.

Unlike a company's product brands—say Fritos or Dial—employer brands target potential employees to make a company seem like a desirable place to work.

The slow job market has brought the perception that job takers are plentiful, but already companies are finding that the most skilled candidates are in short supply, and are difficult to find, recruiters say. This has prompted some companies to launch employer-branding campaigns for the first time in several years.

Potentialpark AB, a market-research firm that specializes in employer branding, has seen the number of analyses it does for companies almost double in the past year, said Chief Executive Torgil Lenning, whose clients include Hewlett Packard Co. and Credit Suisse Group.

"There's a clear correlation with the economy. As companies realize they need to recruit, they'll spend much more effort improving their [employer] brands," Mr. Lenning said.

In the past, it came down to the logo outside the building. Now, marketing for job candidates involves intensive work and research, says Brian Kropp, a managing director with Corporate Executive Board Co., a business-consulting firm.

PepsiCo Inc. launched its new employer-branding campaign last fall. The company felt its previous campaign, launched a decade earlier, placed too much emphasis on its consumer brands—which include Quaker and Frito-Lay—instead of the actual positions available.

Candidates such as chemists and businesspeople sometimes assumed that PepsiCo only had roles for individuals with experience in the food-and-beverage industry, said Paul Marchand, vice president of global talent acquisition. The new campaign aims to capture candidates from other areas, such as consulting or entertainment, Mr. Marchand said. "We want people coming right out of college to consider us just as they'd consider McKinsey or GE," he said.

PepsiCo produced a series of short videos profiling employees. The videos can be seen on PepsiCo's careers website and on its iPad app, which launched in February and has been downloaded more than 3,000 times, according to Mr. Marchand. PepsiCo's brand logos are noticeably absent from the app, which lets jobseekers learn about work at the company and find openings. The company also revised its LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts to reflect the new campaign.

PepsiCo spent tens of thousands of dollars on research and the campaign, dubbed "Possibilities," Mr. Marchand estimates. He says the company's recruiters have told him it is helping to attract candidates.

The success of employer-branding campaigns is hard to measure. Unlike marketing for a particular product, which can be reflected a few months later in sales, a successful employer-branding campaign doesn't necessarily result in more job applications, Mr. Kropp said. "The purpose of an employment brand is to get the best applications, but for those who aren't the best fit for you, to get them to say 'that seems like a cool company but not the right place for me to work,'" he said.

Still, AT&T Corp. says it saw the number of visitors to its careers site jump 20% after it positioned itself to appeal to the technology-savvy crowd at this year's South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.

At the conference in March, AT&T's recruitment materials carried "quick response" codes—bar codes that are readable by camera phones and can take candidates quickly to a careers website without typing in a URL. They also handed out contact cards with "augmented reality" glyphs that when held up to a camera phone show candidates a Web video.

AT&T's director of staffing, Jennifer Terry, said that the company hopes the new technologies would signal to the conference attendees that AT&T had moved beyond its telecommunications roots. The company has a particular need for engineers, application developers and hardware and software experts.

"[Before], candidates might picture someone climbing a telephone pole to install something," Ms. Terry said. "If we focus on our digital presence, it helps recruit the right people and set the stage for the company we've become." The number of candidates who came to their careers website from the SXSW conference rose five times over the prior year, Ms. Terry said, and the company has five highly desirable job candidates identified for hard-to-fill tech jobs who found the company via SXSW.

Read The Rest Of The WSJ Article

Old Friends: 'the Holy Grail' of Networking

By Kyle Stock



When it comes to one's career, old friends may be better than new ones.

At least that's the claim of new research that says dormant contacts could be "the holy grail of networking strategy." Former colleagues and long-lost peers are even more helpful than those one speaks to regularly, according to the report: "Dormant Ties: The Value of Reconnecting," which will be published in an upcoming issue of the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Organization Science.

The report's authors -- Daniel Levin (Rutgers University), Jorge Walter (George Washington University) and Keith Murnighan (Northwestern University) -- rounded up 224 executive MBA students and asked them to solicit work advice from two people they had not communicated with for at least three years. One of the contacts had to have been a close friend, while the other was required to have been a "weak tie."
At the same time, participants completed a survey about advice they had already harvested from 15 people with whom they spoke regularly.

Turns out, the dormant colleagues provided more novel insight more efficiently than the contemporaries. Even the long-lost contacts that participants were never close with proved more valuable than many people the subjects talked to often.

"I thought the dormant relationships would be helpful, but I didn't think they would be this helpful," said Daniel Levin, the researcher from Rutgers. "Basically, you get a lot of bang for the buck by reconnecting."
The dormant ties were trusted sources and they were less likely to provide redundant information and insight, Levin noted.

Read the rest of the article

How to Answer the 5 Toughest Interview Questions You’ll Face

By Amy Levin-Epstein


Job interviews are a theatrical performance. In this case, a stutter could mean bad reviews — and cost you a perfect position. And in a competitive market, interviewers are inundated with qualified candidates, so they’re throwing out tougher questions than ever. Here are five of the toughest questions you may likely face during your job search — and how experts say you should answer them.

Tough Question #1: Why Should I Hire You?
How To Answer: Listen and learn, then use that information. “Throughout the interview, ask them specific questions on who they are looking for, what specific attributes stand out for them, discuss a day-in-the-life of the position, etc. Then once you understand their terms, their methodology, their process — you use those exact attributes in answering [that famous] last question, ‘Why should I hire you?’” says Laura Rose, founder of Rose Coaching.


Tough Question #2: What is your greatest fault?
How To Answer: Keep it relevant and simple. “Stay away from personal weaknesses, and don’t use a fake ‘weakness’ such as ‘I work too hard,’” says Charles Purdy, senior editor and career expert at Monster.com. If possible, mention something that you’re working to improve. Purdy’s example: “I am always working on improving my communication skills to be a more effective presenter. I found that joining Toastmasters was very helpful.”

Tough Question #3: What three historical figures would you invite to dinner and why?
How To Answer: If you’re asked a real off-the-wall question like this, the one thing you must do is remain calm. “When an interviewer asks you a bizarre or oddball question, they’re typically looking to see how well you think on your feet. Often, there is no ‘correct’ answer to what they’re asking…This is often your chance to incorporate a little humor into your answer or show your personality — so try not to stress too much about being ‘right,’” says Heather R. Huhman, founder and president of Come Recommended.

Questions 4 - 5 and Complete CBS Article

7 Interview Questions to Uncover Corporate Culture

By Scott Ginsberg

You won’t succeed if you think your co-workers are annoying. (Or vice versa.) So ask these questions upfront to uncover what’s really going on

You’re not the only person being interviewed. In fact, your perception of a company is equally as important as their perception of you.

Here’s the reality: You can’t work where you don’t feel comfortable. You can’t thrive where you don’t feel at home. And you can’t grow where you don’t feel welcome.
Therefore, the culture of the company you’re applying for carries tremendous weight on your decision to work there.

Today we’re going to explore seven questions to ask about corporate culture, along with an explanation of what makes them work. Consider asking a few of these on your next interview:
1. If you could describe your corporate culture in three words, what would you say?


This question accomplishes several goals. First, it’s creative. That positions you as a thinker, not just another resume. Second, it challenges the interviewer to boil down the essence of their workplace in only a few words. Finally, your interviewer’s response isn’t as important as how she responds. Watch her body language. Check her posture. And keep an eye on her facial expressions. Look for consistency between actions and words to get the true description of the culture. Because someone’s body never lies to you.

2. If you were going to give public tours of this company, what stops would the guide make?
This is another creative question to challenge your interviewer. What’s more, her answers will represent the “greatest hits” of the company’s culture. This delivers invaluable insight into what they perceive as the leading attributes of their company. After all, you wouldn’t make it a stop on the tour if it didn’t symbolize a core component to the company’s culture, right?

3. If the local paper were going to run a four-page article about your company’s culture, what would be impossible not to include?
Creative, challenging and counterintuitive. Also positions you in a positive light, regardless of the answer. And, similar to the tour question, this allows your interviewer to put her company in the best light. The secret is, by suggesting a newspaper article it reveals the parts of the company’s culture that she would want the public to know about. Transparency is key.

4. What’s the best part about working in this environment that I won’t be able to see from just a walk around the office?
This question digs deep into the true value of working in a particular company environment. You learn the culture behind the culture, as some workplaces are quite different once you’ve been employed there for a few months. This might be helpful in eliciting a little candor in your interviewer about the reality you’d be working in. Sometimes culture is hard to discern from a brief walkthrough or few weeks of work.

Tips 5 - 7 and Complete Ladders Article

How to think like Steve Jobs

By Erik Calonius



FORTUNE -- What separates the Steve Jobses and Walt Disneys of the world from the rest of us? And can you become one? Erik Calonius poses these questions in his forthcoming book, Ten Steps Ahead. In the following excerpt, Calonius describes how visionary ideas come to life.


The visionary is a pattern hunter. And as the patterns begin to take shape, the visionary paces the hall anxiously, staring out the window. The cognitive dissonance builds between what is and what will be. The visionary's sense of discomfort grows.


At some point when the thinker, exhausted, has stopped concentrating on the problem at hand, the brain slips into that single-mind immersion that Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi famously termed the state of "flow." Whereas we spend most of our lives thinking about the past and the future, the flow puts us into that narrow shaft of time called the present. It's a place the brain doesn't take us to very often.

MRIs show that, in the state of flow, the brain is quieting down. The flickering of activity recedes into weak flashes of color. The thinker, at this point, is probably aware of nothing at all. Whether it is intuition, or visualization, or the dawning of an awakening that draws the visionary near, at last the time of inspiration arrives. This is the famous Eureka! moment.

Steve Jobs "stood back": "You can't really predict what will happen," he said. "But you can feel the direction you're going. And that's about as close as you can get. Then you just stand back and get out of the way, and these things take on a life of their own."

John Lennon just took a nap: "I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good. I was just sitting, trying to think, and I thought of myself sitting there doing nothing and going nowhere. Once I'd thought of that, it was easy; it all came out. No, I remember now, I'd actually stopped trying to think of something. Nothing would come. I was cheesed off and went for a lie down, having given up. Then I thought of myself as nowhere man, sitting in this nowhere land. 'Nowhere Man' came, words and music, the whole damn thing. The same with 'In My Life.' I'd struggled for days and hours, trying to write clever lyrics. Then I gave up, and 'In My Life' came to me. Letting it go is the whole game."
Einstein closed his eyes and let his fingers wander over the piano keys. Then he jumped up. "There, now I've got it!" his sister Maja remembers him exclaiming as he hurried off into his study.

That moment when the new pattern snaps into place has been described many ways: like scales falling from the eyes, like a flash of lightning, like molecules of water bouncing randomly around and, upon reaching a freezing temperature, snapping instantly into rigid lines. Something new comes across your consciousness. It "dawns" on you. Says physicist Carlo Rubbia, "It's an irrational and an instinctive moment in which something clicks in your mind and you say, 'Why don't we do this -- I mean, why not?'"

The snapping of fingers perfectly describes the moment of inspiration (and makes you wonder if the opposable thumb was actually made for this purpose). For it is two opposing forces -- what is and what should be -- that are being resolved.

It is surprising how something as portentous as an epiphany resembles the punch line of a joke: "Does your dog bite?" Inspector Clouseau of The Pink Panther fame asks the hotel clerk as he sees a dog at his feet. "No," the clerk responds. Clouseau bends over to pet the dog and has his sleeve ripped off. "I thought you said your dog doesn't bite!" he remarks angrily. Replies the clerk, "That's not my dog."
We laugh at such jokes because the pattern change is unexpected. It comes out of the blue. "The punch line," according to Horace Judson, former professor of the history of science at Johns Hopkins University, "tells us that a set of things that we thought belonged to one pattern was really, all along, making another pattern."

Incredible as it seems, the brain's search for a resolution to dissonance is exactly what you might hear in a comedy club: When the U.S. Postal Service can't deliver the mail overnight, we get... (laughter growing) FedEx (FDX, Fortune 500)! When the Internet has billions of pages of text that are impossible to search, we get (chortles and applause) Google (GOOG, Fortune 500)! When we can't get a good cup of brewed coffee, we get (drum roll and rim shot) Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500)!

Read The Rest Of The Fortune Article


Dead Tree Version




eBook Version

Blogging Is Good Business – 8 Tips To Get It Right

Michael Brenner

You accepted a while back that social media needs to be an important part of the marketing mix. But resources are limited and maybe you find yourself asking “which social media tactics should I focus on?”
My own social journey (and years of procrastination) pushed me into starting my personal blog nearly a year ago. And with 93 posts, almost 500 comments, nearly 30,000 visitors and just over 47,000 page views later and I am convinced that blogging is one of the simplest and most effective forms of marketing.

Earlier this week I addressed the need to shift more of our marketing mix from interruption-based outbound tactics to customer-focused inbound marketing tactics. There were 3 data points on blogging that I thought were worthy of an entire post:

• 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their blog
• Company websites with a blog get 55% more visitors
• Inbound marketing leads cost 62% less than outbound

So we can safely say that businesses who blog will see results from their efforts. But what about the time and expense involved?

MarketingSherpa just released their Social Marketing Benchmark survey and I absolutely love this chart they provided in the summary. (You can register for the report on the MarketingSherpa’s website.)
The chart shows that Blogging is considered to be the third most effective social tactic after blogger relations and SEO for social sites. But you can also see that it is right in the middle of the pack in terms of difficulty.

So you can hit the Tweet button or add social sharing options to our websites with relative ease but as much effectiveness compared to other tactics. And while blogger relations and SEO are effective, they can be more challenging to execute.

Blogging falls right in the sweet spot of being effective and relatively easy to execute.

The B2B Marketing Insider Blogging Tips
After just a year, I am in no way an expert, but people have asked me what tips I can offer when starting a blog. Trust me, I have had some bomb articles and the inevitable writer’s block is something you need to really prepare for, but here is the advice I would offer the newbie blogger, for whatever it’s worth:

1. Define your objectives. Whether they are business objectives, personal goals, for therapy (it is for me) or just for fun. It is important to understand and even define your goals for blogging. See mine here.
2. Audience first. While I do find writing to be therapeutic, I write to share information, add some value, and present my point of view with my audience.
3. Titles are more important than you think. I know this from testing email subject lines. I know this from writing great and terrible blog titles. Using keywords helps. Top N tips… are good. How to…can work. And sometimes you need to take a firm stand on a controversial issue to generate some discussion. See: Is This The End Of Social Media?
4. Break it up. Lists make for easy reading. Whether they are numbered lists or bullet points. And photos or charts help to make an article easy to read and maybe more importantly, easy to scan.

Tips 5 - 8 and Complete Article

10 Rules for Beginning Your New Job on the Right Foot

Securing a new job is akin to a successful product launch. All that time spent running a well-organized marketing campaign and now the product is in the market. Well...you’ve landed your new job! As in the product launch, you want to continually work on product positioning and posturing for long-term success, right? Likewise, you want to do so for your long-term career success.

1. Get to Know the Company’s Key Players
Producing long-term results is more important than an immediate impact. Depending on the company and the reason for your hire, you will have a settling-in period anywhere from 30-90 days. Use that time wisely and get to know people and their roles; network; build alliances, etc.

2. Remember Names and Try to Use them from Time to Time
And always with a smile. It is important to always project a positive attitude. Most people when introduced to others immediately forget names. If this happens to you, look them straight in the eye and say, “I’m sorry, could you tell me your name again,” and then practice using it once or twice a week – it’s also flattering.

3. Do Not Over-do Conversation
Your weekend, evening, lunch is always, “Very good” quickly followed by, “and how was yours?” People ask, but they aren’t necessarily interested in more than that. If they get more than that before they really know you they will steer away the next time.

4. Observe How the Company Gets Things Done
This includes the company’s management style, your boss’ management style; leadership; company culture. Become a student of your managers and their leaders. I once heard said, “The best classroom is at the feet of an elder.” The bell has rung; so now take a seat and really pay attention.

5. Be a Class Act
Don’t get drawn into the chitter-chatter of gossipers. Smile, nod in agreement if you must, but do not gossip. If you do, people will not put their trust in you. Practice being a good listener and consider everything you hear, even if it plainly is gossip, as if it were most private. Bite your tongue and you won’t go wrong.

Tips - 10 and more: http://www.ibtimes.com/blogs/articles/26383/20110505/10-rules-for-beginning-your-new-job.htm#ixzz1La33E1Kv

5 steps to escape digital slavery

By Daniel Sieberg


Can't put the smartphone down at dinner? Prefer to email coworkers who sit right next to you? A few tips on breaking bad tech habits.

The hyper-business of keeping up with technology is overwhelming. Many of us can't tell when our personal time ends and the workday begins (or vice versa). We blast off emails like our hair is on fire; we quickly skim the surface of information online just to ingest something, anything; and we even obsess over colleagues on social networks (not to mention battle feelings of professional jealousy). It's no wonder, then, that the tag line for Microsoft's (MSFT) new Windows 7 mobile devices is, "a phone to save us from our phones."


I know how it feels to be slogging through digital quicksand, because I've been there. Some days I am there. But over the past year, I've tried to streamline my high-tech intake and develop a plan that works for others.

While much of the motivation was driven by problems with technology related to my personal life, I also came to realize it was negatively affecting my work life, too. But I love technology and I want to embrace it for the right reasons and the right occasions. Indeed, I have to -- it's also part of my job as a science and technology reporter.

I hope these tips prove helpful in managing your own situation:

1. Go with face-to-face contact
Limit the number of emails or instant messages you send to the people in your immediate vicinity at the office. Demonstrate your personality, your charm, and your ability to communicate by speaking face-to-face. It doesn't have to take much time, just make it valuable.

The person who sends 100 well-crafted emails will still probably be less likely to get that promotion than the person who takes a little time to chat with the boss, have coffee with them, or shake their hand on a regular basis. That's just the way it is. In nerd parlance, don't be the office warrior who always uses ranged weapons; endure some hand-to-hand combat on occasion.

2. Use tech to break your bad tech habits
Seek out time-management programs. Sometimes, we simply need to outsource our self-control to be productive. The good news is that there are many programs to help. One of the best is called RescueTime, which gives you a visual breakdown of where all your computers minutes go. It'll also limit your online time and even help with time-based billing for certain projects.

3. Put the smartphone down
During social outings with co-workers, don't leave tech turds. By that, I mean don't just dump your smartphone on the table and wait for a flashing light or vibration. That says the co-worker or business contact you're with is potentially less interesting than anything at all that you receive on your device. If you absolutely must have your smartphone handy then tell people why, and explain that unless that particular message or call comes through, they have your complete attention. Or just leave it in your pocket or purse.

Tips 4 - 5 and Complete Fortune Article

LinkedIn: 4 Biggest Mistakes You're Probably Making

Are you LinkedIn? I admit, I put in a lot more facetime with Facebook. And my experts tell me I'm missing out on opportunities. "Recruiters are using LinkedIn heavily now. You need to be professional — and findable!" says career coach Kimberly Schneiderman, founder of Career City Services.


Indeed, LinkedIn has more than 100 million members, including executives from every Fortune 500 company. LinkedIn's research team recently mined that information to determine the most common names for CEOs. Verdict? Peter, for a man, and Deborah, for a women.


But no matter what your name, LinkedIn can take your networking to the next level with just a little effort. Here are the most common ways people aren't making the most of their presence on the site — and how experts say you can fix that.


Having A Vague Headline
Say your current title is marketing manager. Many people naturally leave that as their headline, a huge error because it says nothing about what you actually do, says Schneiderman. Instead: "Use a headline statement that really describes your expertise and talent, like 'Executive-level Product Strategist' or 'Hospitality Executive — Expertise in Franchise, Operations, & Change Management,'" suggests Schneiderman. Then further develop it: "Create a summary about your career that fully describes your passion for your work, your impact in your company or companies, and your professional focus. People in an open job search can map out the kinds of opportunities they are pursuing next. Make it about 3 paragraphs and write in 1st-person using 'I' statements," says Schneiderman.


Maintaining A Passive Profile
Filling out an attractive profile is just the beginning. "Most people create a LinkedIn profile, but then don't take advantage of potential connections that might be available through their existing network," says career consultant Shawn Graham, author of Courting Your Career. His suggestions: regularly identify and reach out to potential contacts, use status updates to congratulate those contacts on their successes, and consistently review the "People You May Know" section to identify additional connections.


Mistakes 4 -5 and Complete Article

LinkedIn helping to drive proactive approach to recruitment

Currently hiring 100 new employees itself, LinkedIn recently launched a new service called ‘Skills’.

This is a new functionality that job seekers should embrace quickly to add their specific skills to their profile, demonstrating to recruiters what skills the applicant themselves say they have expertise in and for how long, according to Declan Fitzgerald, LinkedIn’s international recruitment manager and, author of recruitment blog The Irish Cyber Sleuth.
“This information is important data for any profile as it gets indexed in LinkedIn’s ecosystem and may register on one of their ‘skills pages’ which could be an easier way for jobseekers to be noticed by proactive recruiters,” he said.

Creating an online employment brand

Fitzgerald maintains that when applying for a job there is now a new way to give yourself every possible chance of having your CV reviewed. He calls it “rebooting” your CV, or using social media to transform your application beyond the classical CV to create an online identity, or personal online employment brand that allows a prospective employer in a lot more detail get a flavour of who is applying for their job.
To do this, your first port of call should be LinkedIn, he said. “Growing by a user every second and having recently broken the 100m user mark, millions of professionals all over the world are ‘rebooting’ their CV and branding themselves online by placing their CV on the world’s biggest professional network.
“They are then breathing life into their profile by showing how many professional connections they have, adding Google presentation apps to their profile showing previous work they have done, placing in their Twitter feed, also their blog if they have one, and then adding recommendations to their profile.”

Companies proactively sourcing candidates online

It’s important to understand that some of the most successful companies in the world are now proactively sourcing candidates using internet technologies, he advised.
“They no longer rely solely on reactive tactics, hoping that candidates will come their way. They are proactively setting up internal sourcing teams with very well trained recruiters who understand how to mine information on LinkedIn to find candidates.
“This is an important shift in how recruitment teams recruit. They now spend huge amounts of time searching for online identities. These teams are continually becoming more skilled in how to interact with candidates in LinkedIn groups and Twitter feeds, as well interacting with candidates using blogs.”


Read The Rest Of The Article

How Social Media Can Help or Harm Your Career

By Alison Green


Employers are increasingly paying attention to what their employees and prospective employees are doing on social media sites. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you’re doing online.

Using social media sites wisely can help your career in a number of ways:


Building your knowledge base. No matter what field you’re in, there almost surely are dozens of blogs and websites where people with an interest in your field gather to share information and ideas. If you’re a regular reader of these sites, you’ll be constantly learning, and you’ll probably be as aware of coming trends as well-known experts in your industry.

Building your credibility. By blogging about your field, leaving comments on other people’s blogs, and participating in industry conversations on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other sites, you’ll begin to build credibility as someone who, at a minimum, has an intense interest in and passion for the field. Put yourself in the shoes of an employer—who would you rather hire, a candidate with a demonstrated track record of interest and ideas in your subject matter, or someone for whom it might be just a job?

Establishing yourself as an expert. If you participate enough in the activities above, and you do it well, you can even start to build a reputation as an expert in your field.

Dramatically expanding your network. This kind of online participation means that you’ll start to build dozens of professional contacts, people you can call on when you’re job searching or seeking professional advice.

But as much of a boon to your career as social media can be, it can also do harm if you don’t use it thoughtfully. More and more employers are Googling job candidates and current employees, and sometimes what they’re finding is damaging.

More information on how social media can harm your career and how to avoid those mistakes

What College Graduates Wish They Had Done Differently

Jacquelyn Smith

From Campus to Career

As the class of 2011 prepares to enter the workforce, they should know what their predecessors regret most. It turns out that seven out of 10 college graduates, ages 22 to 26, wish they had done more to prepare for the real world.

A recent survey conducted by staffing firm Adecco reached out to over 500 graduates of 4-year degree programs to find out how they are fairing in the current job market. The survey revealed that just over half are working full-time, and 71% feel they should have done things differently while preparing to enter the real world.

“Some many recent graduates still don’t have jobs, therefore so many think they could have done more to prepare,” says Kathy Kane, senior vice president of Talent Management at Adecco Group North America.
The survey asked them, “Knowing what you know now, if you could go back in time to before you graduated, what would you have done differently?” Respondents were given 12 options and were asked to choose all that applied to them.

Almost 30% said they would have networked more prior to graduation, a quarter said they would have applied to more jobs, and another quarter would have started their job search earlier.
“This is the most networked generation in history, but they didn’t know how to network with those who are making hiring decisions,” Kane says. “They should be connected to decision-makers and companies via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and even through alumni groups.”

Kane says it’s no surprise that so many recent graduates wish they had applied to more jobs or started searching sooner. “If you didn’t get a job, of course you wish you applied to more,” she says. “You should start the process at the beginning of your junior year of college, and once you start applying, keep going until you get responses.”

If you’re applying for positions online through job boards and company sites, Kane suggests applying for dozens of positions because the competition is fierce and your chances are slim. But if you’re doing on-campus interviews with recruiters, the possibility of landing a job is much higher and you can limit your applications to a smaller number.

Read the rest of the Forbes artice