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Standing Out in a Job Search

2011-06-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

By Careerealism

Sometimes, there is nothing wrong with defining who you are based on NOT being someone else.
Let me explain.

When I was in high school, I didn’t really stand out. Despite how hard I tried. Grew my hair long, dyed it green. Whatever it was I tried, it didn’t really work. I was still the quiet, unremarkable kid in the back of the class.

Then, one day the loud speaker announced, “Will Joshua Waldron please come to the principle’s office immediately.”

I turned bright red. The whole class started to chuckle, “this quiet kid got into trouble?”
“But wait”, I futilely tried to explain, “She said ‘Waldron’, I’m Waldman!”
“Never mind that, go to the principals office.”

And so I got my first badge of honor. Which I didn’t really deserve. So I thought.
But I kept explaining it wasn’t me. There was indeed a Joshua Waldron who got himself into quite a bit of trouble on a weekly basis, and it was NOT me.

Looking back, it was that one silly mix-up and then my defining myself as “not-Waldron” that turned things around for me.

I Am Not this, I Am That
I believe this same principle can be applied in almost any situation based on a principle found in a book called, “Made to Stick."

It describes the idea of a Meme, an idea-object that is easily grasped by others. The example of, “a pomelo is like a large grapefruit” can be better understood than a lengthy description of the exotic fruit.

By relating to something that others already know about, you can define yourself.

In high school, Waldron was notorious. By defining myself as not-Waldron, I became memorable to many people who I ordinarily wouldn’t have known.

Who Are You NOT - More advice and complete article

Top 40 Career Experts on Twitter

2011-06-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

by Adrian Granzella Larssen

Love Twitter? So do we. And what we love even more is connecting with others out there who help us bring the best career advice to young professional women like you.

So we’ve scoured the Twitterverse to bring you a list of experts who do just that. They range from big names you’re sure to recognize to lesser-followed, up-and-coming tweeters. But what they all have in common is a knack for tweeting interesting, relevant advice on getting the job, succeeding at work, and having a fulfilling career. Check out our 40 favorites!

Best All-Around

@Alevit
Alexandra Levit, named a best online career expert by Money, “helps people find meaningful work and succeed once they get there.” Tweets include tips like what to do with summer interns and how to communicate across generations.

@careerwomaninc
This “international consulting company dedicated to the advancement of women” tweets issues, trends, and topics to help women achieve both professional and personal goals.

@ExcelleNews
Monster’s “social networking community for career-minded women” tweets super- relevant tips like how to spot a toxic boss at the interview and how to minimize distractions at work.

@littlepinkbook
Tweets by the site that pledges to be “your path to a beautiful career and a beautiful life” cover not just work, but money, life, and style topics, too.

@nicegirlsbook
The co-author of Nice Girls Just Don’t Get It gives sharp advice to help women stop being too nice and start being more successful.

@PYPro (of course)
Our Twitter stream will keep you in the loop on our “smart content for smart women.” Plus, join in our chats at #GenYJobs for answers on your biggest job-related questions (our next topic: résumé tips & tricks).

@RulesforWork
Look for the Rosie the Riveter icon for “humorous, tell-it-like-it-is advice” from Kelly Love Johnson, author of Skirt Rules for the Workplace: An Irreverent Guide to Advancing Your Career.

@The_Grindstone
Fresh, funny, work-related content for professional women, from the serious issues (“Attention Women: the Media World Needs You”) to the lighthearted and cheeky (“Casual Fridays: Stripper Heels Are Meant For Strippers”).

@WomensAlly
Founder Diahann Boock takes seriously Madeline Albright’s warning, “there is a special place in hell for women that don’t help other women.” So she’s created a “dedicated place for women’s career advice” with great tips for workplace success.

@workawesome
Targeted at “people who want to be awesome at work,” this site’s tweets keep you informed on its own killer content (“How to Create Happy Employees” and “Workaholics Anonymous” are recent faves).

More Twitter Users and Complete Article

How I Did It: Dan Schawbel on Becoming a Personal Branding Expert

2011-06-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

By Scott Gerber

The founder of Millennial Branding talks about establishing his position as the personal branding guru for Gen-Y.

Dan Schawbel, the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding LLC, is a world renowned personal branding expert. He is the international bestselling author of Me 2.0, and the publisher of the Personal Branding Blog. He talks about how he created his own personal brand.

When I graduated college in 2006, I had to struggle to get a job at a Fortune 200 technology company, despite having eight internships, seven on-campus leadership positions, and a management roll at a small website design company under my belt. While in college, I learned how to sell myself through interviews along with using a website, business cards and a professional portfolio. But I was an introvert, intimidated by the idea of attending networking events and asking for jobs. As a result of my fear, my job search process was eight months long. After meeting 15 people and getting rejected for two positions, I finally landed a job in product marketing.

After a year of full-time employment, I read Tom Peter’s famous article in Fast Company called “The Brand Called You.” I realized immediately that Tom’s words reflected my own understanding and appreciation of the topic. I began searching online to see if there were any websites and experts who were already competing in the personal branding space and realized that no one my age was talking about it.

My friends were complaining about how tough the job market was and that there were no resources to guide them through the process successfully. It became my mission to help young individuals embrace their own brand identity so they could have a more fulfilling career. And since I was only 23 at the time, I could relate to what they were going through.

I took my passion for personal branding online, and started PersonalBrandingBlog.com, where I shared career and branding advice for students and young professionals. My age was my biggest challenge at first, and I was criticized for not having enough life experiences to draw from. So I started new projects that would reinforce my expertise. Within six months, I was publishing more than 10 posts per week, filming videos for Personal Branding TV, and writing articles for blogs and magazines. I also launched Personal Branding Magazine, which included an interview between Donald Trump and Guy Kawasaki, among other articles. For my efforts, my work was profiled in Fast Company, which positioned me as an expert in the field. The execs at my day job found the article and I was recruited internally to co-create the first “Social Media Specialist” position at the company.

Five Common Reasons Resumes Get Discarded

2011-06-15T07:57:00.000-07:00

Posted by Meghan M. Biro

Who can forget Elle Woods, cheerfully handing her resume to her law professor’s assistant. “It’s pink,” he says. “And scented. I think it gives it a little something extra,” she bubbles in reply.
But wait – maybe not so much.

In the annals of resume mistakes, ‘cute’ is near the top of the list. Let’s look beyond cute at five more common reasons resumes are discarded – often before they’ve even been read.

Spelling, grammar, punctuation
Tales of resumes with spelling errors are legion among hiring managers – from the pathetically funny ‘Pubic Relations Expert’ to the sadly amusing ‘Manger’ where Manager was intended. Spell check is adequate but not sufficient – use a real dictionary if you’re unsure how something is spelled, have a friend read the resume to you back to front to proofread for errors, have a parent read it, or, best option, retain a professional resume writer or coach for final review, edit and proof. Your resume is your proxy with prospective employers. Make sure to present your best face.

Objective statements
Once a resume standby, have fallen out of use. Stating your objectives on a resume is a triple-fail – it focuses the resume on what you want, rather than how your skills match the job description; it steals precious space for information that should be in the cover letter; and, except in cases where your job record may not match the requirements of the post you’re applying for, it doesn’t tell the recruiter anything they don’t already know. It may be ok to use an objective statement when you’re trying to position your experience in one field as applicable to a new opportunity in a different field, but even that’s a stretch. Avoid the objective statement to avoid the wastebasket.

Overly formatted
Cursive fonts, multiple fonts, elaborate paragraphing, excessive use of bullets, gratuitous boxes and margin rules, graphics and images – especially photographs – stop many recruiters before they’ve read word one. Communicate clearly why you’re the right candidate by including useful information about your skills and experience, and using formatting sparingly. Formatting your resume in such a way that it’s hard to read – or cute – is a mistake.

Too much information - More Information and Complete Glassdoor article

Meghan M. Biro, founder of TalentCulture, is a serial entrepreneur and globally recognized career expert in talent acquisition, creative personal and corporate branding.

Warning: This video will make you hate your job more than you already do

2011-06-14T05:11:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Chapman

It’s another Monday morning and you’re tired, your weekend was too short, and you probably uttered something close to the following last night: “I can’t believe I have to go back to that hell hole tomorrow.” Don’t you wish you could tell your boss how much the workplace sucks, even if you’re doing something you’re passionate about?

Back in the day, an employee telling their employer that they were unhappy in the workplace would have most likely afforded said employee nothing more than an “oh, I’m sorry; let’s go cry about it, shall we?” These days, it’s fairly well-understood that happier employees are more productive employees, but a vast majority of large corporations have a long way to go in the department of employee happiness.

With that in mind, companies like Google are paving the way to a model work environment with unheard of perks and niceties; thus, making themselves easily one of the most attractive companies to work for. To see what I mean — and to give you a reason to hate your employer about 100-times more than you already do — check out the video below to see just how much Google provides for their employees:

Check out the Video and the rest of the story

'They Don't Negotiate': Why Young Women College Graduates Are Still Paid Less Than Men

2011-06-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

Casey Ferguson was sitting in her car on Jan. 19 when she finally got the call she'd waited months to receive.

The voice of Jon Newman, the founder of the Hodges Partnership, a strategic communications firm in Richmond, Va., where she had recently interviewed, was on the line.

He was calling to offer her an entry-level position.
Ferguson, a 22-year-old who graduated in December with a bachelor's degree in communications from East Carolina University, began her job search in the summer of 2009, when she worked as a summer intern at Hodges. After the internship was over, she began a protracted courting ritual: Staying in touch with former colleagues through social networks and meeting up with ex-coworkers for lunch or coffee. She even brought homemade cookies by the office on more than one occasion.

But when she heard the word "offer," all of the lessons that had been drilled into her during college career fairs -- namely, that she could and absolutely should negotiate -- went flying out the window.
Even before Newman could finish explaining the full terms, Ferguson interrupted him to say that she accepted.

"After I said 'yes,' my boss immediately started laughing. He told me my first task was to enroll in Negotiating 101," recalls Ferguson.

It wasn't that she didn’t care about the money. The daughter of an elementary school teacher and a South Carolina cable company employee, Ferguson put herself through college by working a series of part-time jobs and taking out student loans, on which she still owes more than $15,000.

"Thinking of all my friends who have graduated and still don't have jobs, why would I get greedy?” she says. "It's just not in my nature to nickel and dime."

Ferguson is hardly alone in her discomfort with playing hardball -- especially among other women, and especially during a recession.

Even during the most robust of economic times, women are less inclined to negotiate. In fact, according to Sara Laschever, co-author of "Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide," 20 percent of women say they never negotiate at all. And in the current recession, which has made many job seekers feel grateful for any work they can find, even a part-time toehold can feel like a victory.

Based on several interviews with women under the age of 30, nearly all reported feeling almost guilty about asking for more money than was initially being offered.

The problem with this reluctance to ask for more is that women are still paid less than men. And as new research released last month reveals, young women often get the raw end of the deal.

A May study by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University polled nearly 600 young men and women that graduated from college between 2006 and 2010. The authors found that young men are not only out-earning young women, they’re doing so by an average of more than $5,000 per year. Male participants reported first year job earnings averaging $33,150, while young women earned about $28,000.

Another report released in May, this one by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, indicated that new female college graduates are earning 17 percent less than their male counterparts.

More Info and Complete Huffington Post Article

Career Gold: A Word From Your Sponsor

2011-06-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

Forget mentors. If you want to reach top management you'll need sponsors–powerful senior players who will stake their reputation on your behalf. While mentors offer informal advice and coaching, a good sponsor opens the doors of the promotion elevator and pushes a protégé through.

Star performers don't always find and use a sponsor well, however. Men are 46% more likely to have sponsors than women, according to a study released last December by the Center for Work-Life Policy. And some experts blame the scarcity of women and minority men in the highest corporate jobs on their insufficient sponsors.

As a result, at least nine big businesses have recently created sponsorship initiatives. They typically match promising leaders with sponsors or teach them how to earn one. These companies are already pointing to some successes, though it's still too early to tell if they'll be truly effective in moving executives up the ranks.

Not everyone is convinced formal sponsorship programs make sense. "They don't work because you're assigned to somebody," insists Stephen Miles, head of leadership consulting for recruiters Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. "Forcing these things doesn't deliver the right outcome."

Half of 20 women in an American Express & Co. pilot sponsorship program last year subsequently landed promotions or lateral moves, a spokesman says. The financial-services concern launched a formal program dubbed "Pathways to Sponsorship" in January. It involves a separate set of 21 female senior vice presidents worldwide.

At International Business Machines Corp. 45 emerging female technical leaders found executive sponsors through a program begun last summer. Five subsequently accepted posts "that will groom them for promotions,'' a spokeswoman reports.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP, the U.S. arm of the global accounting giant, paired 106 female partners with senior-level "advocates" under a nationwide initiative inaugurated in July 2010. Three of those women soon will take charge of a region for the first time.

PwC intends to create a similar sponsorship push for minority men, says Robert E. Moritz, chief executive. "I have to double down my efforts to get more women and minorities in leadership roles.''
Kathryn S. Kaminsky, an audit partner at PwC, obtained a more important role last January–with help from her advocate Mark J. Casella, a managing partner. PwC matched them in late 2007 through a prior program for New York-area female partners. They got to know each other through a series of formal and informal meetings.

Mr. Casella says he didn't know Ms. Kaminsky personally, but agreed to become her advocate at the request of a trusted senior colleague who praised her abilities. "There needs to be some trusted relationships that are being leveraged" in order for a formal program to succeed, he adds
Mr. Casella says he pushed to get Ms. Kaminsky an important "stretch" assignment last year. She spent about 11 weeks seated alongside the finance chief of an asset-management business, advising her about its imminent spinout from a multinational parent.

The asset-management unit had considered switching auditors. "Through Kathryn's efforts, we were able to win this work,'' Mr. Casella recalls. He endorsed her candidacy to become a market team leader. She now manages 110 staffers in that role.

Read The Rest Of The WSJ Article

How to Create Your Own Board of Career Advisors

2011-06-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

By Tim Tyrell-Smith

All companies have some sort of advisory board. The board’s role is to provide an outside perspective, strategic suggestions, and critical feedback.

Often these boards include people from different industries, much larger organizations, or different disciplines to bring new ideas under consideration. They help evaluate decisions on how the company will grow, how fast, and by pulling which levers.

In the end, the decision on which way to go falls with the company.

During a job search, career change, or as you seek to negotiate a promotion or pay raise, where are you getting advice and feedback on your career?

Many options are available to you:
• Start or be a part of an accountability group, meeting weekly to help keep members focused on key objectives. As a part of this group, you will get and give critical feedback.

• Hire a career coach, someone who is trained to provide guidance and directional feedback along the way, helping you negotiate new positions, think through a career change, or struggle with a new boss.

• Start or join a career or job-search reading group. Think of this like a study group from college. You pick up a great book, read it, and discuss the content against what’s happening in your career. Count on more support here but likely less critical feedback.

• Find one key person in your life to provide straight-shooting advice along your journey, career advice from a successful relative, family friend, or anyone who can be a voice of reason when you are unsure how to move ahead.

Did you know you could create your own board of career advisors?
If you are actively looking for work or career direction today, here’s how to get started:

Recruit Your Board
Identify three to five people who know you and would be interested in playing a role to support your career. Consider a family friend who is employed and review your situation with fresh eyes. Try a former supervisor, coach or professor who has worked with you in some capacity. Be clear as to what role you’d like them to play and how often you’ll need them.

Schedule the First Meeting
Find a quiet place like an office, conference room, or private room at a local restaurant. This first meeting should be no more than 90 minutes, including you speaking (30 minutes) then listening (60 minutes).
Present Yourself

For 3o minutes, share your story. If you are looking for work, formally present your marketing materials (resume, cover letter, one page bio, and business card), deliver your elevator pitch, and provide specific job search objectives (target industry, geography, job level, function and target companies). If you’re looking for feedback for a career change, help your board understand your motivations for the change, how you are a fit with the new industry or function, and your plans to ease the transition (education, internships, etc).

More Advice and Complete USNews Article

Updating a Résumé for 2011

2011-06-08T05:34:00.000-07:00

By ELIZABETH GARONE

Q: I am a senior executive and haven't looked for a job in more than 10 years. How can I make my résumé more current by today's standards?
--Boston, Mass.

A: While the résumé as you know it from 10 years ago is still alive and kicking, there have been a number of modifications to it. No longer do job candidates simply present a Word document of their qualifications. Today, they need to craft a package both online and off to present to a prospective employer. This needs to include both a résumé and an online profile as well as an easy way for a prospective employer or recruiter to move back and forth between the two.

Embrace technology. The biggest change is also the most expected one: a move toward technology. An online networking presence is no longer just an option but a requirement.
In today's executive search market, if you're not on LinkedIn, you don't exist," says Wendy Enelow, author of "Expert Resumes for Managers and Executives" and "Best Resumes for $100,000+ Jobs." Ms. Enelow suggests including live email links on your Microsoft Word résumé and live links to your LinkedIn profile. "Make it easy for recruiters and hiring managers to contact you with one click to your email and one click to your LinkedIn profile," she says.

Don't make assumptions. The job market is in a transition stage when it comes to applications and how they are submitted, says Mary Henige, General Motors' director of social media and digital communications. Therefore, a lot of how you present yourself should depend on the hiring manager's preference, she says. If you're not sure what that is, it's best to cover all of your bases. "I recommend that a candidate include both a link to his or her résumé and an attachment but to never assume it's one way or another unless it's clear," says Ms. Henige.

Expansion is good. The one-page rule for résumés no longer holds true, according to Howard Seidel, a partner at Essex Partners, a Boston-based senior level career management firm. "While one page makes sense when you have little experience, it doesn't make sense when, as a senior executive, you have 10, 20 or more years of experience," he says. "Executive typically do themselves an injustice by keeping the résumé to a page." Mr. Seidel suggests expanding to two or three pages but giving the first page enough punch to entice the reader to delve further.

Overused is out. At first glance, "team player" and "innovative" might sound like good words to use on your résumé, but that would be a mistake, according to Krista Canfield, a spokesperson for LinkedIn. The business networking site recently combed through millions of user profiles and came up with a list of the top 10 overused terms. These included innovative, dynamic, motivated, extensive experience, results-oriented, proven track record, team player, fast-paced, problem solver, and entrepreneurial.

"Your online profile is a valuable piece of professional real estate," says Ms. Canfield. "The problem with using generic words and phrases in your profile and résumé is that hundreds, if not thousands, of other professionals are describing themselves the exact same way." She suggests replacing the overused terms with descriptions of those specific projects that you have worked on, which resulted in concrete results for your clients.

More advice and complete WSJ article

What do hiring managers want?

2011-06-07T04:59:00.000-07:00

As a recruiter, I was just talking to a client, a Director at a mid-size company, about a couple of positions he’s trying to fill and specifics of what he wants to see in a good candidate.

I wish many of the people in my job search classes could have listened in on the conversation because he clearly answered what many job seekers want to know… “What do hiring managers really want?”

Certainly, in both of the open positions he has, he needs specific skills for those roles. However, more important to him than having all the technical/functional skills were characteristics that were critical for him to find.

Those characteristics could be summarized by…
Positive Attitude, Communication Skills, and Professionalism!
He related to me how he believed those traits were the most important, and somehow the most difficult to find. He recently had to let someone on his team go because although the person had strong technical skills for the job, they did a poor job of communicating with others in their job, and their professionalism (i.e. appropriateness, and attitude) was lacking. They did a good job of executing the technical aspects of their job, but did more harm than good when it came to working with others and helping them understand the requirements and process.

He told me about multiple candidates they’ve talked to that also had the technical skills, however, fell short when it came to projecting those other qualities. He expressed concern that he couldn’t afford, in this economy, to hire average employees. He needs people that can not only do the job, but represent his department effectively and positively to the rest of the company.

People come in to interview often express sour grapes rather than optimism. They dress inappropriately or sloppily making a poor first impression. They ramble on or give one word answers to questions, or generally don’t articulate ideas well. They are unprepared and don’t know basic information about the company or position. They can’t ‘think on their feet’ well. They act intimidated when talking to superiors. They are not very self-aware about their own strengths, weaknesses, or abilities. They try too hard to impress instead of showing sincere interest in others. They come across as overly concerned with what’s in it for them.

So often I hear from job seekers something like:
“I don’t understand why I didn’t get that job! I was a perfect fit. My skills and experience matched up exactly with what they said they were looking for. They don’t know what they want!”

Actually they do know exactly what they want, and usually within a couple of minutes of talking to the job seeker it becomes clear to me why they didn’t get hired.

Complete Article and More Advice From "The Wise Job Search"

5 LinkedIn Tips You Didn't Know

2011-06-06T05:05:00.000-07:00

BY Amber Mac

It may not be as dramatic as Twitter or as ubiquitous as Facebook, but LinkedIn attracts dedicated users who are serious about business. Here's how to connect with them using the fast-growing service's most powerful new tools.

Whether it's Mark Zuckerberg talking about killing pigs or a Hollywood blockbuster under its belt, Facebook has plenty of attention in our lives. Twitter falls into the same camp. From Justin Bieber's noisy 10 million followers to hordes of social media gurus tweeting the benefits of 140 characters or less, it's easy to discover how and what makes Twitter work. However, there is one social network that lacks drama but makes up for it with a devoted business community and plenty of compelling features.
Here are five LinkedIn tips you should try today.

1. Use "Signal" to discover relevant news and information
When you're logged in to LinkedIn, take a tour of a new-ish feature called Signal. This tool lets you easily monitor updates within your network, but more importantly you can filter information so you can also see what people in your extended circle (2nd and 3rd connections) are posting. You can also do the same filtering by industry or location, so you can weed through the noise.

2. Export your connections
Go to "My Connections" to view a list of all your LinkedIn contacts. This address book is a really handy way to get email addresses and updated information, but most importantly you can export this list. At the bottom of the page click "Export Connections," which will put all this contact info in a format suitable for your address book (Micorsoft Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, etc.).

3. Create a resume

If you've already filled out your LinkedIn profile information, it's easy to use it to create a foundation for a resume. The Resume Builder will suck in your professional past and you can use any of the pre-built templates to make it look good. From an Executive style presentation to a more casual layout, this tool will take some of the pain out of the resume building process. You can export the resume, share it easily, and edit as you wish.

Tips 4 - 5 and Complete Fast Company Article

10 Jobs With High Depression Rates

2011-06-03T05:45:00.000-07:00

No one said managing other people’s money was an easy job. But these days making investors happy is taking a toll on financial advisors’ own health.

A report from health.com lists financial advisors as one of the 10 professions where workers are mostly likely to experience major depression in a given year.

Others on the list include health care workers, social workers, administrative staff support and maintenance/grounds people.

There’s a lot at stake when managing someone’s retirement nest egg. Job performance doesn’t just impact an advisor’s own livelihood, but rather it means the difference between helping someone retire comfortably or losing someone a portion of their assets on a bad investment.

Deborah Legge, PhD, tells health.com, “There is so much responsibility for other people’s finances and no control of the market. There is guilt involved, and when (clients) are losing money, they probably have people screaming at them with regularity.”

Since the financial crisis there’s been an increase in the number of reported suicides among financial advisors. In March, a Toronto-based financial advisor was found dead in his home after being sued by investors. In February, a Smith Barney broker named to Barron’s list of Top Advisors jumped from a bridge to his death. Deutsche Bank broker Russell Smith left a note to some of his clients before committing suicide in October 2008:

“Since you are reading this, I have just taken my life. It was necessary because the alternatives were totally unpalatable. I consider you a friend first and a client second. That said, I had a fiduciary relationship with you that charged me with putting your interest first. I can say that I always tried to do that. However, some of the investment recommendations that I chose did not work.”

Here’s the complete list of depression-prone professions.

Start-Ups Tag Facebook for Career Networking

2011-06-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

By JOE LIGHT

LinkedIn Corp.'s splashy initial public offering of stock earlier this month underscored the company's status as a major professional network. But several start-ups are banking that the future of career networking is actually on Facebook Inc.

These start-ups point to Facebook's much broader user base: With 500 million users, Facebook is five times larger than LinkedIn.

But changing users' mindsets might be a challenge. Some Facebook users are loathe to mix their personal and professional networks, fearing some private information might damage their work reputation.
Recruiters, meanwhile, say that LinkedIn has already established itself as the most robust source for job-candidate information.

This month, BranchOut Inc., which makes a professional-networking Facebook application, said it raised $18 million in venture capital, bringing its total to $24 million. On the day of LinkedIn's IPO, Jibe Inc., which lets people use Facebook connections to bolster job applications, announced that it had raised $6 million.

Since January, BranchOut has gained more than 500,000 active users, Chief Executive Rick Marini said. The app helps users find Facebook friends at companies where they want to work.
Jibe CEO Joe Essenfeld said that its 200,000 active users have landed hundreds of jobs by sending applications through its service.

Mr. Essenfeld added that 26 large employers, including Amazon.com Inc. and MTV Networks, as well as 20 small businesses, accept résumés sent through the application, which lets users import connections from both Facebook and LinkedIn.

"Most people do not want to mix their professional lives with their personal lives," said a LinkedIn spokesman, Hani Durzy, in an email.

Even though the apps are gaining in popularity among Facebook users, right now LinkedIn is still the go-to site for recruiters trying to find suitable candidates, said Debra Feldman, a job-search consultant.

"They're using it over and above any other résumé databases, including their own," she said. That means that if someone isn't looking for a job but wants to field offers from headhunters, he needs a LinkedIn profile, she said.

11 Money-Smart Steps All Grads Should Take

2011-06-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

By Wise Bread

Graduation season is upon us, and now is the time for soon-to-be and recent graduates to start thinking about what their futures hold. Graduating can be a scary and confusing time for young adults who aren’t quite sure how to make the transition from college life to the real world, but here are eleven tips to help make the transition a little easier.

1. Get Educated About Taxes
The government is going to take money out of your paycheck, so you might as well learn about the different types of taxes, brackets, and deductions. By educating yourself about taxes, you can learn where your money is going and how to better shelter your income, ultimately keeping more money in your bank accounts.

2. Be Careful With Credit Cards
If you have credit cards, don’t overuse them, no matter how tempting it is. Only spend money you have and be sure to pay off your balance in full each month. If you aren’t capable of exercising restraint when it comes to credit cards, use a debit card or only pay for things with cash. Also, check your credit score on a regular basis to make sure it’s accurate.

3. Sign Up For LinkedIn
LinkedIn is like Facebook for professionals. It enables you to connect with your personal and professional contacts, showcase your resume, and make new connections that can ultimately help you find a job. Take the time to fully fill out your profile so you can be more marketable to potential employers.

4. Start an Emergency Fund
An emergency fund—money stored in case of an unexpected occurrence such as a job loss or sudden medical problem—is absolutely vital given the state of the economy. If you can, try to stash away some money each month so you have funds to fall back on should you lose your job (or, if you haven’t graduated yet, until you land your first job). Your goal should be to have enough money to support yourself for at least a few months – but any bit can help.

5. Get Educated About Retirement
It is never too early to start thinking about retirement. Educate yourself about 401(k)s and IRAs so you can start getting prepared. If you currently have a job or when you get one, find out if your company does any 401(k) matching. If they do, take advantage of it—it’s essentially free money.

6. Make Your Facebook Account Employer-Friendly
Go onto your Facebook profile and make it employer friendly. This means removing all inappropriate pictures and information or, at the very least, making your profile as private as possible so potential employers cannot see pictures from your crazy weekend in Vegas or your spring break trip to Cancun.

Tips 7 - 11 and Complete US News Article

5 Ways to Use Google to Avoid Layoffs

2011-05-31T06:13:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-26T05:13:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-25T04:24:00.000-07:00

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:

Why recruiters are no longer posting jobs and doing proactive LinkedIn searches instead.
How your lack of a picture is getting you discriminated against.
Why you Summary could be turning off hiring managers.
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

2011-05-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-19T04:52:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-05-18T04:05:00.000-07:00

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.

In Hiring, Firms Shine Images

2011-05-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-16T05:31:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-13T03:42:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-11T04:57:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-10T04:10:00.000-07:00

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

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Blogging Is Good Business – 8 Tips To Get It Right

2011-05-09T05:24:00.000-07:00

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:

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.
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.
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?
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

2011-05-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-04T07:43:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-03T06:19:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

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

6 Charlie Sheen quotes to make you a better entrepreneur

2011-04-29T05:25:00.000-07:00

Jason Baptiste

(Editor’s note: Jason L. Baptiste is the CEO and co-founder of PadPressed and co-author of the OnStartups blog. This story originally appeared at that site.)

In between the winning and being ringmaster of the year’s biggest media circus, Charlie Sheen has been spouting off a lot of one-liners that are becoming pop culture catch phrases. But mixed in are a lot of interesting quotes that can be applied to entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur, after all, often straddles a thin border between insane and brilliant.

Here are his best:

“Defeat is not an option. CBS picked a fight with a Warlock.” – Most entrepreneurs don’t end up losing because of market forces or what can be attributed to specific failures. At the end of the day, entrepreneurs fail because they decide to give up and accept defeat as an option. When starting a company, Elon Musk referred to it as the equivalent of eating glass and staring into the abyss on a daily basis.

It may be a hard road, but complete and utter defeat is NOT an option. Take a look at Airbnb. They failed to attract any attention and failed continuously for not only days, months, but actually years. Instead of accepting defeat, they persevered and kept going. Most startups don’t die due to specific circumstances, but because they commit “suicide”.

“Everyone will say: Don’t be special, be one of us! NEWSFLASH: I am special, and I will never be one of you” – No one will understand what you do. They will hear the entrepreneur word and think you are crazy or broke. To succeed, you have to ignore those that don’t understand us.

We’re a crazy breed and we’re special. If this were for everyone, then it wouldn’t be special. As an entrepreneur you have to have thick skin and trust that it will all work out. Even when it does, you will always feel as if the respect you deserve isn’t where it should be. Steve Jobs said it best with a quote that goes along the lines of “You have to be insane to do this and you have to love it. Any sane person would do what a sane person would: just quit and give up.”

Focus in on being different and drown out the noise. They will be fast to hate on you and they be move even faster to congratulate you.

“[My brain] fires in a way, not particularly from this terrestrial realm” – As an entrepreneur, you need to think at a level that is not from this world. Look back at the legendary Apple ad campaign about “Think Different”. The rest of the world happens to be a fickle bunch. On the one hand, they want to vilify you for being an entrepreneur and take you down a level or two. On the other, they want something that is outside the box and pleases them.

The only people capable of doing that are entrepreneurs. If what you’re doing is criticized as “tame”, then you are doing something very wrong. At the end of the day, you should seem as if your creation is from another planet. Your brain needs to think in a manner that is truly extra terrestrial.

Quotes 4 - 6 and Complete Article

What's In A Name? A Lot, Says LinkedIn

2011-04-28T05:20:00.000-07:00

By William Fenton

Names tell stories: LinkedIn locates divides by gender, nationality, and profession.

If I had my sights on the corner office, I'd do well to re-brand myself as "Bill." According to LinkedIn, that is. After scouring its repository of 100 million professionals, LinkedIn has released some fascinating data about first names and career paths, not to mention some delightful infographics.

Thanks to its global reach, LinkedIn has data on professionals from across the planet. Senior Research Scientist Monica Rogati started by combing the database for names over-indexed (over-represented) among CEOs. The results revealed a gender divide.

The top five CEO names for men were either short or shortened versions of popular first names: Peter, Bob, Jack, Bruce, and Fred. The top five names for women executives, meanwhile, tended to use full names: Deborah, Sally, Debra, Cynthia, and Carolyn. Of the contrast, Rogati cites Onomastics specialist Dr. Frank Nuessel, who posits that males use shortened names to "denote a sense of friendliness and openness," whereas females employ full names to "project a more professional image."

While monosyllabic names are over-represented amongst American executives, globally it's another story. The Brazilians have Roberto, Spaniards Xavier, Germans Wolfgang, and the Italians—I'm not making this up—Guido. And that's before season 4.

The Hunt - A Graduating College Student's Search For A Job

2011-04-27T05:17:00.000-07:00

Dan Treadway

Student, University of Texas

I opened my inbox to find yet another email with a generic yet familiar subject line. Its content was predictable:
"Reaching the final stage of interviews is an accomplishment, and as we mentioned, competition is extremely high for a very limited number of positions. While we were very impressed with your qualifications, regretfully, you will not be continuing on in the process."

As far as form letter job rejection emails go, it was surprisingly thorough, containing three whole paragraphs. A separate rejection email I had received a couple of weeks prior was only a couple of sentences long. I can't recall the copy of the email exactly, but in my mind it read, "You didn't get the job. Sucks."

I had made up my mind in September of my senior year that I would try to find a job after I graduated in the hopes of gaining some real world experience before eventually going to graduate school.

Naturally, I understood the economy wasn't begging for another wide-eyed communications major to be unleashed upon it, but I had a fleeting sense of optimism that I'd be a compelling candidate for something at least. I felt like I had done most things right throughout college: I maintained a high GPA, got solid internship experience, and somehow I had managed to never get arrested.

At first my optimism seemed warranted. I got a response from the first large company I applied to and subsequently was in contact with them until January. Following five interviews, I assumed that I was a shoe-in for the position. After all, I had answered and re-answered questions regarding just about everything except my dental history. But alas, one fateful Friday my phone rang and I was given a classic, "We really like you and think you're going to be successful, but we just don't think this was the right fit." Not the right fit after five interviews? That's one complicated puzzle.

I decided to change up my strategy and, in addition to applying to jobs, I attended the glorified meat market known as a career fair on my campus. While I was there I met a woman who thought I was a good candidate for the media organization she represented and I was encouraged to apply for a paid internship there. I kept in touch with her as I applied, and was eventually contacted by the organization and told that several shows were interested in me and that they would call me individually for interviews in the coming weeks. I sat by my phone, and, as phones have a tendency to do whenever one sits by them, it never rang.

From there I continued my search and somehow was selected as a finalist to drive the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile around the country. It started as mostly a joke when I first applied on my colleges career services website, and within a month it became a realistic possibility as I was flown out to Wisconsin to interview with 29 other candidates, of which 12 would be selected. The interview was fun, and everyone at the company was nice, but alas three weeks later I learned that I did not cut the mustard. I was Oscar Mayer humbled.

Now, eight months, dozens of applications, and six final interviews with various companies that resulted in generic rejection phone calls/emails later, I've begun relating to excerpts from the Upton Sinclair novel The Jungle, of all things.

"They were beaten; they had lost the game, they were swept aside. It was not less tragic because it was so sordid, because that it had to do with wages and grocery bills and rents."

Read The Rest Of Dan's Story @ HuffingtonPost

10 Tools You Need To Land Your Dream Job

2011-04-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

Ford R. Myers, Career Potential

You've spent hours crafting the perfect resume. The format is eye-catching, the paper feels substantial and the wording is practically Pulitzer Prize(r)-winning. But you'll need much more than a well-crafted resume if you want to land that all-important first job.

Unfortunately, most people don't know what these other tools are or how to use them. By integrating other elements into the job search - and not relying solely on your resume - you can add power, professionalism, and flexibility to your efforts.

To stand out from the crowd, every new college graduate should have the following 10 items in their "Job Seekers' Tool Kit."

It may take some time to produce certain documents, and to learn how to use them effectively, but it will be worth it. Building a satisfying career is much easier when you have the right tools.

Click here to see the tools >

Resources for Job-Hunting Seniors

2011-04-25T06:22:00.000-07:00

By TOM LAURICELLA

The tough employment market of the past few years has been particularly hard on people age 55-plus. But older job seekers don't have to go it alone. A number of online tools -- as well as in-person training centers scattered across the country -- can provide support.

The hurdles that older adults face in finding work today are considerable. They include basic age discrimination, as well as rapid changes in information technology. The latter, in particular, have transformed not just the workplace, but the job search itself, leaving many older adults at a disadvantage.

Statistics show the need for a leveling of a playing field that's tilted against older workers. In 2010, among those aged 50 and over and out of work, more than 53% were unemployed for more than six months, according to government data analyzed by Richard Johnson, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. In contrast, 46% of jobless men ages 25 to 49 were out of work for more than six months.

Older workers "really have a hard time becoming re-employed," Mr. Johnson says.

To help older workers, the Department of Labor in 2009 awarded $10 million in grants to organizations in Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Washington state and Wisconsin. This new program, called the Aging Worker Initiative, is aimed at helping anyone 55 and older who is unemployed or underemployed -- earning, say, close to the minimum wage. (The list of program managers can be found by searching dol.gov for the Aging Workers Initiative.)

This effort is in addition to the long-standing Senior Community Service Employment Program. SCSEP offers a job-training program for those in low-income families and the unemployed.

The Aging Worker Initiative programs generally start with the basics, such as training older workers to be more tech-savvy. That includes showing them where to look for jobs online. One prominent example: careeronestop.org, the Department of Labor-sponsored website offering thousands of job listings nationwide.

More Advice and Complete WSJ Article

Don’t Answer That Interview Question

2011-04-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

Inappropriate interview questions and how to respond (diplomatically).

By Lisa Vaas

He was in his early 50s, and he looked every bit of it.

The questions on the job application went right to his age.

After stewing over the form and discarding his first draft, he filled out a second copy. Then, he sat and waited for his interview. As he waited, an attractive, young woman entered the room for a job interview.
She was called in before him. She wound up getting the job.

He didn’t. He did, however, receive $50,000 after filing age-discrimination claims with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The above encounter happened to a friend of Matt Rosen, who shared the story with TheLadders but asked not to identify his friend.

Rosen has seen employment discrimination from almost every angle. He has been a certified labor and employment attorney since 1981, has worked in human resources since 1995, and recently found himself looking for a new job. He’s been on both sides of the interview table and witnessed many inappropriate questions that can lead to discrimination.

“Every place, it’s mind-boggling,” said Rosen, who recently began HR and legal work for Franklin Street Financial in Florida. “You are always asked for birth dates, for EEOC (-related information such as race and disability status). ... Places, in my viewpoint, just ask for too much.”

The reason interviewers ask inappropriate questions varies. Sometimes they discriminate, as they did in the scenario above. Sometimes they need the information for internal statistics, he said.

And then sometimes interviewers are simply trying to make conversation, according to Ellen B. Vance, senior consultant and advisory services practice leader for Titan Group, a Richmond, Va., human-resources consulting firm. “Many inexperienced hiring managers use questions about family as an icebreaker for interviews, not realizing that what seem to them as innocent inquiries about spouse, children, etc., are unlawful.”

Most job seekers don’t want to sue over these practices. They just want to know how to deal with them diplomatically. Job seekers want to avoid appearing combative and thus jeopardizing their chances of being hired and want to avoid handing over information that can be used against them in discriminatory situations. Knowing what questions to shy away from is the starting point, and knowing how to skirt them is the next step.

Answer the questions they should have asked
Vance typically advises job seekers to redirect inappropriate questions back to the interviewer. For example, if asked whether you have children, you can respond by saying, “It sounds like family is important to you — tell me about yours.”

“By redirecting, the applicant is not placed in the situation of being perceived as adversarial,” Vance said. If an interviewer presses, she suggests that another response option is, “I am perplexed by your question because I cannot determine why my age/my marital status/my nationality is critical to performing this job. Would you shed some light on why you are asking this question?”

“If that doesn’t cause the interviewer to catch their mistake, then the applicant is left only with the option of saying, ‘I would prefer not to respond to that question,’” Vance said.
Don’t answer these questions - to find out which questions and how to answer read the complete Ladders article

10 Tips for Effectively Using Your LinkedIn Status Update

2011-04-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

By Careerealism

One of the features of LinkedIn that tends to be underutilized is the "Status Update" (also called your "Network Update") in your LinkedIn Profile. Your status update "block" is a white box located just below your picture on your "View My Profile" page. If you don't see such a block, then you've not posted a status update.

From your LinkedIn home page or your "Edit My Profile" page, you can change your status update as frequently as you desire. EVERY time you update your status, the home page of ALL of your network connections is "pinged" with your status update. Status updates are also distributed to your network via email when LinkedIn sends you your weekly "Network Update." Your latest status update is always displayed on your LinkedIn profile.

Your status updated is limited to 140 characters - just like Twitter - so keep that in mind, particularly when cutting and pasting information into your status update "window."

Updating your LinkedIn status is a great way to communicate to your network on a frequent and ongoing basis. I update my status at least once each day with different types of information. 10 tips for effectively using your status update to distribute useful information are presented below:

1. Insert the title and a "shortened" URL link to one of your recent blog articles. Bit.ly is a great resource for shortening URL's.

2. Insert the title and a "shortened" URL to a blog article you read and really liked. Particularly one that is timely, informative and relates to your "brand" or area of specialty in some way.

3. A link to a newsworthy web posting or news item. Include the title and a shortened URL. Alignment with you brand "voice" or area of specialty makes it more powerful. I like to focus on POSITIVE news as opposed to negative news.

4. A great "quote of the day." A great source of quotes of to search the #quote "hashtag" on Twitter. Since Twitter updates are limited to 140 characters, you'll find quotes that fit the LinkedIn status update window.

5. A brief piece of advice relevant to your brand or area of specialty.

For tips 6 -10 Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/blogs/articles/25992/20110420/10-tips-for-effectively-using-your-linkedin.htm#ixzz1KAIhhxml

How Non-Profits Can Maximize Engagement on Facebook

2011-04-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

by Zachary Sniderman

he Facebook Marketing Series is supported by Buddy Media. Eight of the world’s top ten brands use the Buddy Media Platform to power their social marketing on Facebook. Find out why here.

It’s important for any digitally-minded non-profit to be on Facebook because of the sheer number of active users. So, great — you set up a Facebook account for your organization. Now what?
Best practices are pretty variable when it comes to social media. This is especially true with Facebook, which switches up its appearance, services and features every few months. We did our best to put together some of the best approaches for non-profits, with some serious help from three social media mavericks at top causes.

Read on for some dos, don’ts, and a golden rule or two for how non-profits can better utilize Facebook.

How Facebook Can Help You

“We have to remember that Facebook was not made for non-profits,” says Danielle Brigida, the digital media marketing manager at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). “Unlike Twitter, it is very hard for an organization to foster any individual relationships on Facebook, and it is almost best used as a discussion tool or for broadcasting.”
This certainly doesn’t preclude the ability to have conversations with your audience. However, the format does change how and what your audience will respond to. A question about IT staffing on Facebook may result in crickets, but that question would perform well on LinkedIn, says Holly Ross, executive director of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). “But if we ask our Facebook group what kind of music we should add to our hold lines, we’ll get twenty responses in an hour.” Ross sees NTEN’s Facebook community as a virtual water cooler — great engagement is about knowing what your community wants from your various social media profiles.

Golden Rules of Facebook for Non-Profits

“Ask open ended questions and use [Facebook] as a two-way street,” says Brooke McMillan, Livestrong‘s online community manager. “Always stoke conversation between you and the fan as well as fan-to-fan. We’ve seen some of the most supportive comments in the fan-to-fan relationship.” McMillan has helped build a vibrant online support community on Livestrong’s Facebook page, which has become a key component of Livestrong’s online identity. On the tech side, McMillan recommends posting at least once a day or as often as your organization has fresh content.

For Brigida (NWF), her golden rule is actually the age-old golden rule: “I engage with people how I want to be treated on Facebook,” Brigida said. “I don’t post things that will not engage our members … or overshare.” The NWF has specific audience pages — for photographers, teachers, gardeners and more — which Brigida targets from message to message. Understand that your community may be interested in different facets of your organization and tailor your posts to those niches.

Definitely Do Not Do These Things

Our experts honed in on two major non-profit no nos: lack of purpose and being too promotional.
“You have to have a reason to be on Facebook,” says Ross (NTEN). “Are you recruiting volunteers? Cultivating activists? Stewarding your donors? You won’t find any success in Facebook if you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish.” McMillan echoed this, urging non-profits to keep their site active and their audiences engaged.

The other unfortunate truth is that no one really likes press releases. You don’t like writing them or receiving them, and your fans will get turned off by boilerplate messages. That said, your fans do want updates and information about your success and new campaigns. Ross recommends writing a post specifically for Facebook rather than copy/pasting a release. Adds McMillan: “In the [non-profit] world we often have really great studies and scientific papers that we want to share, but the general public doesn’t necessarily want to read an abstract for a research study — snoozeville.”

Find a way to deliver this information in an engaging way and your Facebook fans will reward you by actually reading it.

Trade Secrets - Read The Rest Of The Mashable Article To Find Out

Social Networking for Career Success - LinkedIn tips from a recruiter

2011-04-19T06:19:00.000-07:00

by Miriam Salpeter

I was so excited to learn yesterday that Sheryl Posnick, the editor in charge of my book at Learning Express, LLC, received the first copies back from the printer! I can’t wait to see the final version. It’s perfect timing, as I was just ramping up to share some tips here.

One thing I did when I wrote Social Networking for Career Success is tap my network of friends and colleagues to share advice and insights. While, in most (not all), cases, I could have written those sections myself, it made sense to me to provide an array of opinions — and, if they agreed with me (or I with them), all the better! When I headed up the career area at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health, one frustrating thing was how students could listen to me tell them something over and over again, but it wasn’t until I invited a hiring manager or recruiter in to say the same thing that they adapted their job search strategies. I figured the same point holds true with readers: having me tell you, “Do this, follow this advice” may be helpful, but backing it up with 100 other insights is even better!

In that spirit, and to start highlighting the terrific colleagues who contributed to the book, today I am happy to have permission to share insights from Craig Fisher (@FishDogs on Twitter) from his post today about LinkedIn. Be sure to read the full post with LinkedIn tips (from a recruiter), but here are some highlights:

- What should you have on your LinkedIn profile if you’re looking for opportunities? A candidate should tell a good story that describes who they are and what they do well. You also need detailed job descriptions in your work history going back at least 10 years. The more relevant detail and specific keywords that you include in your profile, the easier it will be for recruiters and employers to find you when they search for appropriate candidates for their openings.

- What are some LinkedIn tools that you should be using? Use the apps available on your profile page to import content into your page. Apps that automatically import your blog posts, SlideShare presentations, etc. help your profile to rank higher in search results. The idea is to get more eyeballs on your Linkedin profile. Also update your status once or twice per day with something that would be interesting to your targeted employers or prospects.

- Are there any mistakes or misconceptions about this method of job searching? The top misconception is that if you just create a Linkedin profile, then you should get calls from employers or recruiters. Not so. You must optimize your profile with plenty of specific information that relates to your skill set; and participate in Linkedin groups, Q&A, and status updates. You must also grow your network. The more active you are, and the more people you connect with, the more people will see your profile.

More Advice and Complete Article

Banks woo youth with social media

2011-04-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

Robert Cartwright drives a company car. He has a laptop, iPhone and video camera paid for by this employer, and rarely spends time in the Bridgeton headquarters of Vantage Credit Union.

Instead, Cartwright is often online where he chats with 'fans' on social networking site Facebook, posts videos on YouTube, microblogs to 'followers' on Twitter, and does the kind of stuff you'd expect from a 26-year-old.

But he's not goofing off. Cartwright is spokesman for the credit union's youth marketing program, a key effort to win the financial business of the young demographic group Gen Y.

Vantage and many competing financial institutions are connecting with their next generation of customers by speaking their language -- social media -- and reaching them on smartphones.

"This age group, Generation Y, it's what we're on all the time," Cartwright said.

Several banks are also rolling out new accounts specifically geared to Gen Y, with no fees if they get their statements online and deposit checks electronically instead of visiting a bank branch.

The group's age range varies, but it generally includes teenagers up to 32-year-olds. It was dubbed "Y" after following Generation X -- typically defined as those ages 33 to 46 -- that succeeded the baby boomer generation.

The focus on youth is a way to build brand loyalty for future banking relationships, bankers say. In 2010, Gen Y's personal income, $2.4 trillion, accounted for one fifth of the total personal income in the U.S., according to Javelin Strategy & Research, a California-based financial services research firm. By 2025, when the last of the employed boomers draw closer to retirement age, Gen Y will account for 46 percent of personal income.

Financial institutions have been slow to use social media, because of regulatory and privacy issues. That's beginning to change as they realize that social media and smartphones are the main way to reach this coveted demographic, which prefers to 'tweet' or text instead of visiting a bank branch. Banks are primarily using social media for marketing and connecting with customers instead of account activity.

"Gen Y is influenced more by the comments of their peers than traditional advertising" such as TV and radio ads, said Jay Sinha, an associate professor of marketing and supply chain management at the Fox School of Business at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Financial institutions are following the lead of consumer products companies such as Adidas and Victoria's Secret that have used social media to increase sales, he noted.

"It adds positive cache to a brand, provided that it's not crass commercialism. Gen Y is really turned off by that," Sinha said.

To make sure Vantage's marketing message gets out, Cartwright posts dozens of Facebook and Twitter messages a week, showing up at baseball games and movie theaters that he tells his hundreds of online followers about and giving out free tickets and gift cards. He writes five blog posts a week on his website, youngfreestlouis.com and creates videos he posts to YouTube with tips on saving money and other topics.

"Most college kids are really bad with their money," he said. "I wish something like this would have been around when I was 18." Vantage Credit Union, which has 15 branches, hired Cartwright last year as its first "Young & Free" spokesman.

The job, which pays $30,000, lasts a year. In June, Vantage will begin the search for the next spokesperson. Cartwright, who has a degree in education, got the job after he created and posted an audition video online that was voted on by the public.

The program has paid off for Vantage, says Executive Vice President Eric Acree. Since last summer, 2,500 customers have enrolled in its account geared to 18- to 25-year-olds, which offers free checking and additional benefits, and 40 percent of those are customers new to Vantage.

Read The Rest Of The St. Louis Today Article

How to Handle a Bad Boss

2011-04-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

By ELIZABETH GARONE

Q: I have worked at the same company for 12 years. I really like my job and all the people who I work with except for one: my new boss. He was brought in from the outside, and no one else in my department can stand him either. We're hoping he won't stick around long, but I don't want to count on that in this economy. I now dread going to work since his office is right next to mine, and he watches everything I do. Is it time for me to start looking for a new job?
Denver, Colorado
A: While looking for another job may turn out to be your best option, don't start your search just yet. A job you really like and coworkers with whom you get along are benefits you don't want to lose in the current economy. What a disappointment if you leave your current job, only to find yourself in a new job with a whole new set of problems. So, try to resolve your issues first.

If you aren't happy with your boss, you'll want to determine why you feel that way and then investigate and understand the root causes, says Gaylan Nielson, CEO of The Work Itself Group and co-author of Fake Work: Why People are Working Harder but Accomplishing Less. Then, take the initiative with your boss and try to resolve the issues you have with him.

Start by making a list of the essentials you need in order to be effective and happy at your job. Next, set up a meeting with him. The meeting can serve as an opportunity to bridge the gap between your needs and those of your boss. Mr. Nielson suggests discussing the company, the group, and the team strategies and priorities along with your boss's priorities and how you can best support them.

"Finally, after you have asked several questions about how your boss perceives your work and others' work, ask him for permission to discuss your issues about how he is treating you and others," suggests Mr. Nielson, using "I feel" statements over judgments.

Many times, new bosses are completely unaware of the discomfort their styles are causing, says Lydia Anti, a personal development coach and author of Develop the Keys to Successful Living. "He might not even know he is making you feel so down and agitated because, for all you know, he believes that he is doing his job," she says. "If no one tells him, how will he know and change certain aspects of his people skills if that is the issue?"

More Advice and Complete WSJ Article

How To Negotiate Severance

2011-04-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

Susan Adams

The other day a friend called and asked if I’d written anything about negotiating the best possible deal with your employer when you lose your job. A friend of hers feared she was about to be laid off and wanted to prepare.

Preparing for such a thing is a good idea, say career coaches and lawyers who advise workers on how to handle a termination. The emotional shock of a layoff can be devastating, so it’s helpful to try to make a game plan in advance.

Though public sector layoffs are headlining the news these days, and the private sector has backed off of mass layoffs since the bottom of the recession, companies are still shedding workers, coaches say, though the firings tend to come one or a few at a time. The Bureau of Labor Statistics bears that out.

According to Bureau data, the number of people who lost their jobs in layoffs of more than 50 workers at a time fell in 2010 to 1.2 million, versus 2.1 million in 2009. The BLS hasn’t yet released numbers for the first quarter of this year, but coaches say the trend continues. Companies are still shutting down whole departments. For instance, Cisco just announced that it will shutter its Flip camera business and reduce its workforce by 550. (My colleague Quentin Hardy wrote about the news here.)

Coaches say that workers who lose their jobs as part of group layoffs have a tougher time negotiating a better severance package. But it’s worth trying, especially if you’ve logged a number of years at your company and formed strong relationships.

The two most important pieces of advice offered by employment professionals: Take some time to digest your company’s severance offer, and do negotiate for a better deal before you sign anything. Employment lawyer Wendi Lazar, a partner at Outten & Goulden, notes that companies routinely ask departing workers to sign a document that waives almost all rights to sue under any federal discrimination statutes and state or local laws. At the same time, your employers might present you with an onerous non-compete agreements. Lazar says it’s wise not to sign before you consult with a professional, be it a lawyer or a coach, especially when it comes to non-competes. Those agreements deserve a separate article, but suffice it to say that the law requires employers to offer quite a bit of severance if they expect workers not to compete for an extended period.

Under the federal age discrimination law, Lazar adds, workers who are over 40 have the right to take 21 days to review a severance agreement. Lazar says this 21-day period has become routine in most companies for workers of all ages.

As for negotiating, coaches encourage you to ask for as much as you can get, starting with a larger severance payout. One job search professional, who doesn’t want to be quoted, emphasizes that most employers feel terribly guilty when they let a longtime worker go. “You play on their guilt,” he advises. “That’s how this game works.” This longtime job pro has seen departing workers double their severance, from four months to eight, and negotiate perks like keeping a company computer and BlackBerry, continued use of the office and payment for job coaching.

Read The Rest Of The Forbes Article For More Advice

Business networking start-up aims to break LinkedIn stranglehold

2011-04-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

By Michelle Hammond

A new business-oriented social network has launched in an attempt to break the increasing stranglehold of LinkedIn, which has hit two million users in Australia alone.
The new entrant, titled WhenTheMeetingsOver.com, was born from the founding member’s frustration at being unable to connect with like-minded people while away on business, not only on a professional level but on a social level as well.

Based in the United Kingdom, WTMO chief executive Stuart Dawson says the site provides an environment to “epitomise our time online”.

“It’s not designed for the Facebook generation of soul-baring wall writers, but for professionals that require a purpose-built social network to enhance their work/life balance,” he says.

However, Foad Fadaghi, research director of market analyst firm Telsyte, predicts it will become increasingly difficult for new entrants to compete with the likes of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

“Maybe the horse has bolted in the sense that the big guys have shown their market dominance,” he says.

Fadaghi estimates around 40% of professionals in Australia use LinkedIn.

“There are many non professionals on the site as well... LinkedIn has the critical mass that other sites don’t have,” Fadaghi says.

Read the rest of the StartUpSmart article

Nobodies: The New Somebodies

2011-04-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

Josh McHugh

Secret Sauce

I recently interviewed Guy Kawasaki at an event hosted by INFORUM at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club.

I’d heard from an entrepreneur the previous week at South by Southwest that Kawasaki is an absolute terror when you’re pitching him, so I was pleasantly surprised when he turned out to be as genial a guy as you could hope to interview.

Kawasaki’s new book, Enchantment, contains a lot of wonderfully anti-Machiavellian advice not just for entrepreneurs, but for nonprofits and pretty much anyone hoping to get the kinds of things done in life that require the cooperation of others. The pearl of wisdom underlying the entire book: “Be a mensch.”
But the section of the book that had me underlining, circling, and festooning its margins with post-it notes comes where Kawasaki deftly unhorses a marketing orthodoxy that has launched a million PowerPoint decks, a thousand marketing plans, and scores of recent startups: “Engage the Influencers.”
Kawasaki’s counterpunch: “Nobodies Are The New Somebodies.”

This is not likely to be a welcome message to the marketers and would-be audience-builders currently scrambling to throw enticements at Twitter users with high influence scores.

Social Media Influence Scores: Return of the Velvet Rope

One big problem with an approach that focuses disproportionately on established online influencers: there may have been 5 minutes at the dawn of Web 2.0 when you stood a solid chance of Robert Scoble or Ashton Kutcher replying to one of your tweets. But that moment has passed. You can ask Ben Stiller. Just don’t bother asking him over Twitter.

Want to know how to engage an “influencer” who has a PeerIndex or Klout score of 85? Have your manager call his agent. Don’t have a manager? Child, please.

Hanging your marketing strategy on getting retweeted by the likes of Kanye and Rainn Wilson is like pasting a Powerball ticket to the first page of your business plan. Because guess what? Those influencers are busy – converting the hard-earned attention of their thousands or millions of followers into cold hard cash.

Egalitarianism Pays -

“You still have to pay someone to suck up to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal,” Kawasaki said. “But you should also be sucking up to Lonelyguy15.” That’s because you never know who will end up becoming your project’s most impassioned and effective cheerleaders. Indeed – to cover his bases, Kawasaki sent advance copies of his book not just to the 100 or so usual traditional media gatekeepers, but also to 1,500 bloggers, Tweeters, and other assorted “nobodies.”

Heresy, perhaps, to a generation of marketers steeped in the sociological topology frequently ascribed to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point.It may be unfair to Gladwell, but for better or worse his book popularized the notion that success in marketing depends on identifying a relatively tiny group of key influencers in any given sphere and winning them over.

Past Results Do Not Guarantee Future Performance - Read the rest of the Forbes article

How iPad Apps Are Transforming Job Search and Recruitment

2011-04-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

By Stephanie Taylor Christensen

New apps make it easy for "discreet' job seekers to search for a new gig from the office, or find the most innovative companies at job fairs.

Just one year after the release of the Apple (AAPL) iPad , more than 15 million people are now proud owners of the mobile tablet device. While emailing, web surfing, playing games, and reading e-books top the list of user activities on an iPad based on a survey conducted by NPD Group, companies are also integrating the iPad into their daily operations. On a January investors call, Apple shared that more than 80% of Fortune 100 companies were using or testing the iPad. Despite that an iPad actually has less traditional functionality than a PC, iPad users are increasingly drawn to it thanks to portability and ease of Wi-Fi connectivity. Its slick interface and ease of use by practically anyone with a fingertip has transformed doldrum tasks like web surfing, checking email, and reading into a more sensory experience.

It stands to reason that more and more job seekers are turning to the iPad to seek new opportunities. A recent survey conducted by Robert Half International indicated “Forty percent of seekers will be more inclined to look for new hiring opportunities once the recession is over.” As such, companies who want to stay competitive must adjust their online recruitment functionality to work in tandem with iPads features.

Monster.com , the flagship brand of Monster Worldwide (MWW) reports that “the highest usage of Monsters website is during normal business hours.” Searches are conducted by what it terms “discrete seekers” -- those who search and apply for jobs at work. What better place to conduct a secret job search than on the handheld mobile device, easily concealed from prying eyes? In January 2011, the company announced the release of Monster for iPad, a free app that integrates existing Monster user accounts to work with the best features of the iPad, including the ability to utilize GPS technology in job searches, access application history, and stored resumes and cover letters. In its review of the new app, PC Mag summed up the new service as one that “makes looking for a job less of a job.”

Read The Rest Of The Minyanville Article

Howard Schultz on How to Lead a Turnaround

2011-04-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

By Bobbie Gossage | @bobbiegossage

In his new book, Onward, the Starbucks founder describes how he overcame slumping sales and quality control issues that threatened to destroy the company he had built.

Howard Schultz took a small Seattle coffee store and turned it into a global business with more than $10 billion in annual sales. Yet one of his greatest accomplishments, says the Starbucks CEO, was making it through the past few years. In his new book, Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul, Schultz chronicles his return to the helm of Starbucks during one of the most tumultuous times in the company's 40-year history.

After stepping down as CEO of Starbucks in 2000, Schultz, who remained chairman of the company, found it increasingly difficult to sit on the sidelines. "In letting go of the CEO post, I had essentially agreed to trust in the decisions of others, even when my heart suggested those decisions were not wise," he writes. "Like a parent standing back and watching his children make their own choices, the entrepreneur-as-chairman role had its unique emotional challenges."

In 2007, Schultz dashed off a now-famous memo to the management team criticizing the state of the company's stores. A year later, Schultz was back in charge and working to restore quality control, going so far as to close all 7,100 U.S. stores for one evening to retrain employees. But as the slumping economy drove consumers to cut back on $4 lattes, he was forced to lay off thousands of employees and shutter some 600 stores. Schultz, 57, spoke with Inc. senior editor Bobbie Gossage about what it is like running Starbucks the second time around and how he got the company back on track.

You write that taking on the challenges of a troubled company was completely new territory for you. How was that experience different from running the company the first time?
There's an energy and excitement when you're building a company. You have so much tail wind. You're planting new seeds. But it's also scary, because there's no safety net. I really enjoyed that experience. At an early age, my mother gave me this feeling that anything is possible, and I believe that. If you look at where I came from and where we are today, my story is like a Hollywood movie. I was able to achieve the American dream. It's not that it was easier or harder the first time I ran the company, but I would say that the feeling that goes with building something—especially when you get some success—it's a wonderful carpet ride.

It's different when you're trying to turn something around, especially something that you built, at a time when so many constituents—the media, Wall Street, competitors, ex-employees—are all saying that Starbucks's best days are behind it, and that Schultz is never going to be able to bring it back. It's not that they underestimated me, but they underestimated the power of our culture and values and the resiliency of the brand and our people.

In many ways, it's much more rewarding to be here today, having made it through the past few years, than it was building the company. It was difficult, because during the financial crisis, there were no navigational tools. No one had experienced anything like this. You couldn't really talk to anyone or read something. You had to make big decisions based on things you believed in your heart were the right things to do.

What did you learn about this new environment?
There's been a real sea change in consumer behavior. And those companies that are consumer based must appeal to the consumer in a different way today than they did two or three years ago. And it's not all based on value. Cutting prices or putting things on sale is not sustainable business strategy. The other side of it is that you can't cut enough costs to save your way to prosperity.

I think the question is, What is your relevancy to the new life of this consumer, who is more discriminating about what they're going to spend money on? The customer today is very well informed. In addition to price and convenience, there's something else they are influenced by, and that's what the company stands for: how it treats its employees and its customers. We've found that consumers are willing to walk another block and potentially spend a little bit more for companies whose values they truly trust.

How do you maintain quality as a company grows and grows?
Read the rest of the Inc. article to find out the answer and more.

6 new LinkedIn updates you need to know about

2011-04-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Before discussing the new, exciting changes coming from LinkedIn, let’s define what LinkedIn is:
LinkedIn is really a huge database of professionals. Unlike other social networks, like Twitter, which lacks profile depth, or Facebook, which is all over the place demographically and is also hard to find people, Linkedin standardizes information entered by users into predefined “Profile Headline”, “Summary”, “Education”, “Company”, etc. categories. In addition to this huge database of information, LinkedIn provides an awesome search tool to allow you to pinpoint the person you are looking for depending on a number of very specific factors.

I read an outstanding update about LinkedIn and 6 new LinkedIn updates and thought I would share

1. ‘LINKEDIN TODAY’ IS A NEW PAGE YOU SHOULD VISIT EVERY DAY: LinkedIn.com/today, a new mashup of LinkedIn and Twitter, is one of the most useful ways to start your mornings. As one of the new LinkedIn updates, it displays, in an easy-to-read, easy-to-share and easy-to-save manner, the most shared items among your LinkedIn contacts. It’s also broken up by industries you are interested in, which makes it even more useful professionally.

2. THE NEW RESUME BUILDER IS VERY USEFUL: One of my favorite new LinkedIn updates is the Resume Builder at resume.linkedinlabs.com. It takes your LinkedIn profile and creates an instant, customizable resume that you can save as a PDF or share on the web with privacy settings. There are several templates to choose from, including “classic,” “business,” “law” and more. Here’s my new resume, (which I haven’t done any editing or customization on yet); you can compare it to my LinkedIn profile at LinkedIn.com/in/sreenivasan. (A tip about the profile URL that I learned from LinkedIn’s Krista Canfield, who teaches journalists on using the service better: try to customize it with your full name, not just your last name — since that’s how LinkedIn’s search engine work. I need to fix mine).

3. LINKEDIN LABS HAS COOL FEATURES: LinkedIn’s experimental Labs page at LinkedInLabs.com, which hosts the Resume Builder, is filled with new things you’ll want to check out. Among them: InMaps at inmaps.linkedin.com, which makes visualizations of your network (see my wife’s above); Swarm at swarm.linkedinlabs.com, which shows you the most searched companies; Year In Review at yir.linkedinlabs.com, which shows you who among your connections changed jobs in a year; in 2009, 607 people in my network changed jobs; in 2010, 922 people did; so far 267 have done so in 2011).

Updates 4 - 6 and complete blackbox article

3 Questions for Career Path Nirvana

2011-04-09T05:41:00.000-07:00

Aaron Kahlow

Your career has the single biggest impact on your life. (Sorry, significant other.) You will likely spend two-thirds of your waking hours devoted to your career. It offers the potential to give you support, security, eventual freedom, and most important – fulfillment you need for happiness. A job, on the other hand, is something you do. Something you wake up to and work through with the goal of getting it done. The iconic Dunkin' Donuts commercial comes to mind – the one where Fred the Baker, who looks like a character out of Nintendo's Mario Brothers, trudges off to work repeating the mantra, "Time to make the donuts."

If you're in online marketing or seek to be, don't let the opportunity of a lifetime slip away by doing what you should do versus what you want to do.

Now that I've stated the obvious, let's address the three big choices you must make to have a career instead of a job. Ask yourself:

Why do you want a career?
What career path do you to take to become a generalist or specialist?
How are you going to pave the path and take action?

In digital marketing, it's quite easy. You just need to answer and act.
Choice no. 1: Do you want a career or not?
When the alarm clock goes off, we have two options. Get up or hit snooze. If you consistently hit the snooze button, that's a sign that your job may not be an inspiring career. But, that's not the question you should ask yourself. The questions you should ask are:

"Am I excited about the day ahead? Am I excited about the challenges I need to address, the project I am working on, the people I am working with, and the path before me to build my career? Am I mentally jumping out of bed or am I begrudgingly going in to make the donuts?" Again, the most profound things in life are usually the most simple. But most people don't do this kind of self-assessment. Why? A) They are afraid of the answer and what it takes to actually change that and B) they feel too busy with busy work to think about the big picture.

Maybe the question should be a statement, "Wake up to your happiness and stop hitting the snooze button of fear or malaise."

Choice no. 2: What path you do want to take?
Do you prefer to be a generalist or specialist?
This question comes up a lot on our Online Marketing Summit Spring/Summer Tour across the United States and around the world. Basically it means you either know a little bit about everything or a lot about one thing. Inherently, it's a great thought because it means you must decide where you should beef up your skills and focus your education. That's where the journey between career and job diverges. Those interested in pursuing a career take the initiative to educate themselves, by reading, taking courses, and learning from others.

Back to the question, a generalist usually suits certain personality types and career aspirations. For example, if you are someone who wants to manage or run the entire web services or e-commerce division of your company or future employer, then becoming a generalist will serve you well. Why? You can keep a handle on all aspects of the business, from analytics to user experience, email marketing to SEO and beyond. Also, if you are not juiced about one single facet of the industry, you should consider following the path of generalist. For many, becoming a generalist may be your initial path; you may become a specialist after you get a feel for all the disciplines. It's the old adage that I have repeated many times, "How do you know what you want to do in life and career, until you have actually done it?"

The specialist usually emerges quickly. This is someone who loves details and peels back the onion again and again. Analytics is a great example. Digging into the data and the constant quest for answering, "Why?" or "What does this mean?" has web analytic experts jumping out of bed in the morning. For many, social media is deeply fascinating because of the human behavioral aspects. In contrast, those engaged in social media because it's all the rage will be left in the dust of those passionate about it. The specialist, too, is usually someone who likes to get into the nitty gritty of the initiative at hand and is less apt to wanting to coalesce the group or manage the masses. Consultants, analysts, and real gurus fall here.

Over the past decade in online marketing, I've noticed one other issue: many people fall into a confused state or lull because they have become a specialist by default because they worked in a certain department or company for a few years. But they are really like the more gregarious generalist who excels at pulling together projects and working with a team to do so. My advice: don't let your career be driven by your past; let your past serve as a path to what you want to do and follow your passion.

Sometimes this means taking a half step back to give you the room to take the leap forward down a new, more exciting career path.

Question 3 and Complete ClickZ.com Article

How a LinkedIn title created a qualified lead

2011-04-08T05:51:00.000-07:00

This guest post is by Jeremy Epstein, founder and chief marketing navigator at Never Stop Marketing. According to LinkedIn, he is member #146,795 … out of 100,000,000.
Frank sent me an unsolicited e-mail inquiring about my consulting services.
I had no idea who he was at all.
Being the (hopefully) good marketer that I am, I asked, “How did you hear about me?”
The answer shocked me. “I liked your title on LinkedIn.”
As he explained:
I found you kind of randomly. Michael R. accepted my LinkedIn invitation (I have known Mike probably 10+ years) and your name was 1st on his list of friends with the words “Marketing Navigator” by your name.
I found the title intriguing – especially because if Marketing Navigator meant what I hoped it meant, it would be exactly what we need.
It sounds like you could potentially really help us, and if I understand correctly, as your many testimonials suggest, you not only consult, but manage implementation.
Did you read that? A unique title caught his eye … and led to a qualified lead. Pretty low-cost marketing via LinkedIn.
Unfortunately, nondescriptive titles that don’t grab attention and tell stories to would-be connections are just one of the many ways that LinkedIn is completely underutilized.
Another big one is when LinkedIn is not used for pro-active, focused networking.
This has two sides to it.

First, it reflects poorly on you.
Second, you miss opportunities to grow your network.

Let’s take the first scenario.
I am frequently surprised (and frankly, mildly irritated) when people send an e-mail asking “do you know anyone at Company X?”
What this note communicates is that the person is lazy. Pretty much my whole network (and probably a good chunk of yours) is on LinkedIn (here’s the network map) and the person didn’t even bother to look.
The second can be illustrated with a recent example from my trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil.
As a committed networker, I have two rules when I travel for business.

Always see something that is unique to that city.
Always meet at least one new person in that city for each day I will be there.

Here’s how I (and you) can use LinkedIn to leverage your network and narrow your search.

First, I turned to LinkedIn and clicked on Advanced People Search. I put in the keyword “Brazil.” (Note: I did this two months before I went there.)
When I got the results, I sorted by “relationship.” I was looking for all of the first level connections. In other words, I could approach them directly.
I found 15 people who met the criteria of having some connection to Brazil. This was my initial target market.

That was half the battle. The next part was LinkedIn outreach. So, short and sweet, I went with this approach:
It’s been a while, but your name came up in a keyword search on LinkedIn. The keyword was “Brazil.” I’m going to Sao Paulo, Brazil, at the end of January and am looking to meet/network with

Entrepreneurs
Marketers
Technologists (particularly around the sugar cane/ethanol, but also IT)

I’m going to be there for a wedding, but figured I’d also just grab 20 mins for coffee to expand my horizons (and hopefully), provide some value in return. Do you have any contacts down there who might fit the bill?

The Results? Find out the results and read the complete article

How To Optimize Your LinkedIn Company Profile For Recruiting

2011-04-07T04:46:00.000-07:00

Sharlyn Lauby

(Mashable)

LinkedIn offers companies the ability to provide more information about their organization via their company pages. On a company page, you can include information about your products and services along with information about job opportunities.

This is a relatively new feature, relaunched back in November 2010. Several Fortune 500 companies were part of the launch of this new feature including Dell, Eastman Kodak, JetBlue and Microsoft. But company pages are not exclusive to only large businesses—Harvard Business School, Rypple, Squarespace and other well-known, successful organizations have LinkedIn company pages.

Since one of the primary purposes of LinkedIn is career networking, it only seems logical to make sure your company profile is being leveraged as much for recruiting as it is for marketing. Here are five things to consider including in your LinkedIn company profile to attract candidates.

1. List job openings

This might sound very obvious but sometimes the obvious gets overlooked. Candidates expect job openings to be listed under the “Careers” tab on your LinkedIn company profile. Job openings should be current and link to information regarding how to apply. Here’s a great example from CVS Caremark Corporation.

As an example, if you select the first position, it takes you to a page with a job description, desired skills and company description. It also indicates how to apply, whether it’s via the company website or an introduction from a connection.

If the position selected doesn’t look like a good match, a candidate’s time has not been wasted—similar positions are listed at the bottom of the screen.

2. Employee profiles provide information

Eve Mayer Orsburn, CEO of Social Media Delivered, an international social media optimization firm that offers consulting, training and marketing services, says “90 percent of information in a LinkedIn Company Page comes from employee personal profiles.” As such, it only benefits a company to make sure its employees know how to use LinkedIn properly.

One of the places that information is aggregated is in the statistics section located at the bottom of the “How you’re connected” box on the Overview page.

This section offers some very valuable information, as reported by employees. For example, it includes annual company growth, years of company experience, as well as highest degree attained.

Orsburn adds, “If your company really wants to rule the LinkedIn universe and recruit top-notch talent, make sure all employees have completed and fully-optimized personal profiles to improve content and effectiveness of the company page.”

3. Let employees tell your story Read Tips 3 - 5 and Complete Article

Career advice from iconic leaders

2011-04-06T05:01:00.000-07:00

By Alina Dizik, CareerBuilder

Just because icons like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison aren't alive today, doesn't mean their leadership lessons should be forgotten. And since history always repeats itself, there is some career advice that never seems to change.

Here, we take a look at the leadership philosophies of iconic leaders and how they can help you get ahead in your own career.

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure."
-- Colin Powell
Career lesson: When it comes to your career, it's impossible to take the easy way out. Most of those who've found success don't have some secret connections that have helped them get ahead. Moving up in a company or building a business is always done the old-fashioned way -- by striving to do your best.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
-- Thomas Edison
Career lesson: Not everyone gets it right 100 percent of the time, and the ability to rebound from career mistakes is just as important as getting it right the first time around. Companies are most interested in workers who can work through problems instead of giving up.
"Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere."

-- Albert Einstein
Career lesson: These days, innovation is a buzzword, and knowing how to think outside the box is a valuable skill. Companies aren't simply looking to hire clones, so understanding how to differentiate yourself in a corporate environment is a plus.
"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Career lesson: There's never a perfect day at work, and dwelling on past mistakes or having a negative attitude can prevent you from making progress. Remember that most of your superiors and managers have erred in the past but somehow managed to score that promotion.

More Lessons and Complete Article

How to Create a LinkedIn Company Page

2011-04-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

by Neicole Crepeau

If you have a small or medium-sized business, you should take the time to create a basic presence on LinkedIn. 36.5 million people visit LinkedIn every month, and LinkedIn results appear in Search, one more opportunity for your business to get seen.
To build your LinkedIn presence, take the following steps:

Create your company page
Optimize each employee’s personal profile to promote the company
Have each employee “link” to the corporate page

Create Your LinkedIn Business Page

To create your page, log into LinkedIn. Then, in the menu bar, under Search, enter your company name and select Company from the dropdown. Click the Search icon to search for your company.
Hopefully, your company page isn’t already taken. If it is, you’ve got a problem and you’ll need to contact LinkedIn if you should rightfully own that name. Or use a variation for your company name, “Inc” versus “Corp” and so on. When you have a unique name, click the Add a Company link to create your corporate page.
On the Add a Company page, enter the company name and an email associated with it. Check the box to verify you are a representative of the company. You’ll be sent an email and will need to open it and click the link to verify the account. Then, you can enter information about your company. To create your profile, you’ll need:

A list of company specialties (keywords for which you want to be found)
The blog or feed URL for the company
The corporate website’s URL
The Twitter handle for the company or the employee whose tweets you want to appear (if you’re on Twitter)
Basic information about the company: number of employees, address, founding year, etc.
A logo graphic to upload

When you receive your email, click teh link to go to your page. Enter the information you’ve gathered and upload your logo.

Adding Products & Services

You can create separate pages for each of your products or services, describing them. For each product or service, you’ll need:

A paragraph description of each product/service
An image for each one
A bulleted list of features or differentiators
A URL to link to for each particular product or service
If you have a promotional (such as a discount or free service), you’ll need a description and a URL for it
If you have a YouTube video for this product/service, grab the URL for it
Any disclaimer for this product/service

To create a product or service page, go to your company page and follow these steps:

In the tabs, select Products & Services.
Click the Add a product & service button.
Use the wizard-like form to add your product or service.
On the right, add the URL of the landing page for this product/service.
Add contact information—who in your company to contact about it.
Add any special promotions, and any videos.

Optimize Employee Profiles - to read the rest of the article

Using Twitter For Career Networking

2011-04-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

Evan Britton, ResourceWebs

There is an enormous amount of activity happening on Twitter each minute. This activity opens up endless opportunities for businesses, marketers, and individuals. One rarely talked about strategy for utilizing Twitter’s widespread popularity is the seeking out of career connections on Twitter.

Many career experts discuss how to get hired from LinkedIn and how to find a job on Facebook; and while these continue to be solid job searching options, countless job seekers are already doing this. One advantage of taking to Twitter for your career networking and job search quest is that you will be differentiating yourself and potentially giving yourself a chance to stand out from the crowd.

The first thing you should do is clean up your Twitter profile. Make sure that your Twitter profile picture is a good head shot of yourself and also make sure your Twitter user name is professional. You can easily change your Twitter user name if you don't feel it is appropriate for potential employers. Lastly, make sure your bio talks about the sector for which you are seeking work.

Your Twitter updates should include relevant Tweets about your industry. It is of course ok if some of your Tweets are personal, but it is wise to Tweet about your industry and job sector as it will show your passion and interest in your craft. You should also Retweet others who post updates about your niche.

Read The Rest Of The Article and more: http://www.businessinsider.com/using-twitter-for-career-networking-2011-4#ixzz1IZYzV41w

10 Differences Between the Job Search of Today and of Yesterday

2011-04-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

By careerealism

Modified from the forthcoming book, “Job Searching With Social Media for Dummies.”

1. Google Has Replaced the Resume
Recruiters are now using Google and LinkedIn searches to find talent, instead of paying for job-board or talent databases, like they used to do. In fact, many companies are even mandating every new application go through a Google screening process. So that means the first page of your Google results matter more than they ever did before during a job search.

2. A Summary is Enough
Today, the resume is used mostly in the screening process while actual decisions are made after interviews. And because there are so many candidates competing for each job, HR people (or hiring managers if they are tasked with recruitment) often scan resumes very briefly. In fact, the average time on a resume is 30 seconds.

3. Social Proof is a Must
Social proof, testimonials or recommendations seriously reduce the perceived risk of you as a candidate. The most costly mistake a hiring manager can make is to hire the wrong person. Some say that if a new-hire leaves within three months, it costs the organization one and half that person’s annual salary. And with the economy as tight as it is, you can understand why hiring managers are so risk averse.

4. Resumes and Cover Letters Are Not Read on Paper Anymore
Most organizations are not receiving paper resumes and when they get them via email or their application system, they don’t print them. So expect your resume and cover letter to be read on a computer screen. This means you have to format your documents in a way that makes screen-scanning easy.

5. Relationships First, Resume’s Second
Resumes are not used as introductory documents much these days. In fact, “send me your resume” is often an after thought after an introduction is made. And if an introduction is made online, then your online profile offers much more information than a resume. So shift your priorities from, “Oh crap, I have to get my resume done!” to, “Oh crap, where can I meet some more people today?”

Read differences 5 -10 and more: http://www.ibtimes.com/blogs/articles/25216/20110324/10-differences-between-the-job-search-of.htm#ixzz1HrLq05lT

Special thanks to the following people for their valuable insights for this post:
Sean Harry, career coach and author of Careers 2.0
Vicky Lind, career counselor and marketing coach
J.T. O’Donnell, founder of CAREEREALISM.com and career coach
Joshua Waldman is the founder of Career Enlightenment and specializes in helping job seekers leverage social media to find work quickly.

48 Facebook Pages for Businesses

2011-04-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

Facebook is not just a social forum to share pictures with friends anymore. Businesses are pushing traffic to their ecommerce sites, increasing brand awareness and now making sales on Facebook stores.

I looked at the top ten brands on Facebook with the most Fans as analyzed by All Facebook’s Page Statistics, an unofficial Facebook page tracker updated daily. The ranking data is current to Tuesday, March 22, 2011. Just browse the top brands on Facebook and study what they do — and don’t do — to help generate innovative ideas for your own company’s Facebook page.

I then observed the top celebrity and branded Facebook pages running Facebook stores to see how they run their individual stores.

In total, I looked at over twelve-hundred Facebook pages and pulled the most interesting and innovative pages either by ranking of total Fans or just for their news and practical advice.

Top 10 Brands on Facebook with the Most Fans

These pages are the top ten branded Facebook pages, but their true overall ranking ranges within the top fifty pages on Facebook. I removed celebrity, game and interest pages to distill this list down to only business brands. These top ten prove that you don’t necessarily have to sell anything on Facebook to make good use of the platform.

Facebook. Facebook’s very own page is second only to a Zynga game app page on Facebook itself and although expected that Facebook would be highly ranked on its own platform, it does some interesting things on its page from live streaming of current events, live chat, a resources page with links to tips for businesses and developers and much more. Ranked 2 overall with 36.4 million Fans.
YouTube. YouTube posts contests and Fan participation events like its recent “Life In A Day” personal video upload event as well as ranking of the top videos on its site from news to music to the bizarre – all of which can be easily shared and viewed right in Facebook. Ranked 6 overall with 29.5 million Fans.
Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola’s Facebook page focuses more on the lifestyle of the brand’s users rather than selling anything at all on Facebook – it has dozens of pages for Facebook oriented events, Fan participation, virtual gift giving of digital Coca-Cola buttons of products to other Facebook users, music and even downloads – all for free. Ranked 13 overall with 23.7 million Fans.
Starbucks. Features live streaming of Starbucks events, Starbucks job search, links to over thirty international Starbucks Facebook pages and more. Ranked 22 overall with 20.3 million Fans.
Disney. Disney provides easy access to and easy-Liking of its dozens of branded Facebook pages, boasting a total of 144.4 million Fans across all of its pages. They offer free desktop wallpaper downloads, movie ticket buying for the latest Disney film in theaters, trailers and Fan discussion boards. Ranked 31 overall with 18.3 million Fans.

Disney on Facebook.
MTV. One of the ultimate youth brands is also popular on Facebook with news from the entertainment sector, contests and game apps even a social network-oriented weight loss program for its Fans. Ranked 34 overall with 17.9 million Fans.
Oreo. Several pages dedicated to Oreo cookie recipes, fun interactive Fan games where users can upload pictures of themselves as well as a call to all Oreo Fans to share pictures of themselves with the product. Ranked 35 overall with 17.4 million Fans.
Red Bull. A clear lifestyle-oriented page, Red Bull has dozens of games for Fans to download and play, and videos and profiles of alternative sport athletes the brand sponsors — all for free. Ranked 43 overall with 16.4 million Fans
Skittles. Featuring regular photo upload contests for Fans to win prizes, humorous posts on its wall news feed and more. Ranked 45 overall with 15.6 million Fans.
Converse All Star. A simple page that mostly relies on pictures of the product and videos of artists, musicians and athletes that love the brand or are sponsored by it. Ranked 49 overall with 14.7 million Fans.
Celebrity Facebook Ecommerce Stores
These are five of the top celebrity pages with the largest amount of Fans on Facebook also operating Facebook commerce stores — all within the top fifteen overall Facebook pages with the most Fans.

Facebook Pages 11 - 48 and Complete Practical Ecommerce Article

25 LinkedIn Tips for Job Seekers

2011-03-31T10:57:00.000-07:00

Submitted by HRgorilla

The vast majority of employers and recruiters search LinkedIn before deciding whether to interview you. If you're conducting a job search, do you know how to optimize LinkedIn to your advantage? Here are a few ideas. Please add additional ones in comments!

1.After your title, add your industry (if that's the one you want a job in) and then pump it up with your brand if you wish: "Go-to SAP Project Manager"

2.In your summary, nail your value proposition and competitive advantages.

3.Use the common keywords recruiters or hiring authorities would use when searching for someone like you.

4.Put in a comprehensive list of keywords under Specialties to attract search engine attention

5.Under Experience, just hit your main achievements and contributions. Use numbers whenever possible.

6.If your title isn't the one a hiring manager would use to search for someone who does what you do, put your formal, legal title in, then a slash, and then the title that you would have in most companies: "Business Continuity Analyst / Business Continuity Manager"

7.Make your profile as complete as possible. Include links to any websites or blogs and to your Twitter and Facebook pages.

8.List all your educational institutions, training, associations, and memberships to provide keywords that may help other users find you.

9.Include a headshot. Make it professional even if it's taken from your digital camera.

10.List your interests, community involvement, and extracurricular activities. They give you individuality and make you memorable. Also, studies show that skill in one area (swimming) tranfers to perceived skill in your professional area (Program Management).

Tips 11 - 25 From HRgorilla

4 Lame Excuses to Not Assess Yourself

2011-03-31T05:23:00.000-07:00

There's something I tell all professionals looking to advance their careers. When it comes to marketing yourself to employers, remember this piece of advice:

You are not special, but you are unique.
Those who know how to leverage their uniqueness are the ones who create satisfying and successful careers. There is no point in looking for a good job if you aren't 100% sure what ‘good' is for you! Which means, you need to identify and embrace what you want to leverage about yourself so you can find success on your own terms.

So, how should you assess your unique combination of values, skills and interests?
Start by taking the time to write out on paper all the things that you excel at. Ask friends, family and even co-workers (they don't have to know you are looking for a job, you can just say you are doing some professional development work on yourself) to give their input as to what they see as your best assets. It's time to organize your thoughts as to who you are and what you can offer to potential employers. Think about it - how can you possibly convince employers to hire you if you can't articulate your values, strengths and interests in a compelling manner?

To give you an idea of what to consider, look at the list below.
Life Balance - How satisfied you are right now with the 8 key areas of your life. (They are Mental Self, Physical Self, Career, Finances, Significant Other, Friends & Family, Physical Surroundings, Hobbies & Recreations.)

Core Values - Your personal definitions of success for each key area and the priority they hold in your life. (Hint: No two people have the same definitions or priorities.)

Interaction Style - The way you communicate at work and how it is perceived by others. You can learn your interaction style by taking this FREE test. It's the same one we use in CareerHMO.com.

Work Style - The manner and preference in which you like to accomplish tasks.

Learning Preferences - The ideal resources and methods for you to learn on-the-job

Unique Gifts - The things you excel at naturally. Many people struggle to determine this accurately because what makes us ‘unique' feels so normal, that we don't see it as special.

Passion & Interests - The opportunity to observe how your unique combination of values, strengths and preferences are used when you do things you love.
I have to say, in my experience, the self-assessment process (as outlined above) is the most valuable part of any job search because it's not only a validation process, but also gives us the confidence to stop trying to be all things to employers. FACT: It is much more satisfying (not to mention easier AND delivers better results) when we stop trying to be "the best" and just focus on being our best.

Now...let's overcome your objections (a.k.a. lame excuses) for not assessing yourself:

Read the 4 Excuses and The Complete International Business Times Article

Guy Kawasaki interview on MPR talks Twitter Apple and Social Media

2011-03-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Guy Kawasaki discusses Enchantment, Twitter, Apple, Social Media
Guy Kawasaki is author of "Enchantment" and former chief evangelist of Apple.

Top 10 Tips For Building A Strong LinkedIn Profile

2011-03-30T04:45:00.000-07:00

Author Jay Markunas

Top ten tips for building a strong profile from LinkedIn:

1. Don’t cut-and-paste your resume. You wouldn’t hand out your resume before introducing yourself. Describe your experience and abilities as you would to someone you just met.

2. Borrow from the best marketers. Use specific adjectives, colorful verbs, active construction (ie..”managed project team” instead of “responsible for project team”).

3. Write a personal tagline. It’s the first thing people see in your profile. It follows your name in search hit lists.

4. Put your elevator pitch to work. The more meaningful your summary is, the more time visitors will spend on your profile.

5. Point out your skills. The Specialties field is your personal search engine optimizer when Recruiters are looking for candidates.

Tips 6 - 10 + Graphic + Complete Article

HOW TO: Land a Job at Amazon

2011-03-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

by Meghan Peters

Amazon‘s business model hit the ground running in the 1990s by revolutionizing retail and e-commerce. In recent years, the company has built on its success, transforming our reading habits and how we store data by selling e-readers and cloud computing services.

Now Amazon is bolstering its workforce to accommodate its growing line of products and services, which have doubled the company’s annual profit in the past three years. Its online jobs board lists 1,900 available positions at its Seattle headquarters alone. That’s twice as many openings the company had last year, reports The Seattle Times.

So how can you get in on the Amazon action that’s already 33,700 employees strong? Here are some tips and resources from the company’s recruiters for landing a job at Amazon.

Who Is Amazon Looking For?

Nearly half of the open positions at Amazon’s headquarters are tech jobs, but the company is also hiring recruiters, buyers and product managers at all levels of expertise.

Amazon has offices, fulfillment centers, customer service centers and software development centers throughout North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. There are currently openings in all geographies, says Susan Harker, director of Global Talent Acquisition at Amazon.

Read The Rest Of The Mashable Article to find out what the application process is like as well as about the culture.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma: The Key to Creativity

2011-03-29T05:13:00.000-07:00

August Turak

I was having lunch with one of my clients, the CEO of a rapidly growing mid-size company, when I casually asked for his job description.

He smiled and said, “Well, if you followed me around you’d probably think I do lots of things. But I only have one job. I build passion. Most people think talent is in short supply. Hell, the papers are full of stories about regular folks working miracles when something they really care about is on the line. Talent is not in short supply. Passion is. My job is showing people that what we’re doing is worth doing. I provide the whys so our people can provide the hows. Once passion is in place,” he said with a big grin, “my job becomes insisting that people use their vacation and trying to stay out of the way.”

In a previous article, 8 Keys to Innovation: Building Brands by Killing Frogs, I noted that prisoners are some of the most creative and innovative people. Turning toothpaste tubes into lethal weapons demonstrates their improvisational knack for engineering and product development; their creative selling skills, though usually manipulative, are legendary; and when it comes to applying the law in creative ways, jail house lawyers are second to none.

Obviously, education, training, prior experience, financial rewards, and traditional ways of measuring intelligence don’t account for all this creative achievement. So what does? More importantly if great leaders are creative leaders, what can we learn from prisoners?

The first secret is that prisoners have a high overarching mission that transcends engineering, product development, sales, or law. Whether applied to their fellow prisoners, prison regulations, or the prison itself the prisoner’s mission is freedom. Acquiring all the requisite skills is merely the by-product. The lesson here is that if we don’t have a galvanizing mission personally and organizationally all the skills in the world won’t spare us mediocrity.

Next, prisoners are not only emotionally committed to this mission they are in fact institutionally committed. Like Cortez burning his ships, they have no line of retreat. Freedom is not just a mission. It is mission critical. Prisoners live the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention, and they are living proof that great inspiration depends on some desperation.

Most of us are not creative because we fear commitment. We want guarantees that commitment will always produce successful outcomes, and since this is an impossible demand, we end up frittering away our creative juices “hedging our bets” and rationalizing that hedging represents a “balanced life.”

Read The Complete Forbes Article

Listen to Why Prisoners Are So Creative and How You Can Be Too with August Turak on Blog Talk Radio. Turak is a frequent guest with Doug Foresta on The Doug Foresta Show, previously Breakfree to Success. In this episode August shares his always unique and wise perspective, this time tackling creativity and spirituality. August poses the question: “Why are prisoners so creative?”

Is Twitter the New LinkedIn?

2011-03-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Posted by Katie Kindelan

Pulling a page straight from the Charlie Sheen playbook, a prominent ad agency just hired its summer interns based on a search conducted solely through Twitter. First Charlie Sheen and now an established advertising firm, it begs the question: is Twitter #winning as the new LinkedIn?

Twitter, the real time social network better known for introducing random thoughts in 140 characters or less, may just be moving into a new market: job search tool.

Sheen, the troubled actor turned Twitter phenom, was the first to give the Twitter job search trend a boost earlier this month when he turned not to Careers.com, Monster.com or LinkedIn to advertise for an intern.
He sent a Tweet.

And 70,000 people applied to his #winning hashtag, while nearly 100,000 people clicked on the link in the first hour, AllTwitter reported at the time.

And now, one of the nation’s top ad agencies, Minneapolis-based Campbell Mithun, for the first time put its annual “Lucky 13” internship search solely on Twitter, and got its largest response ever.

Read the complete SocialTimes.com post

12 essential ground rules for getting an introduction

2011-03-28T06:40:00.000-07:00

Megan Jones

(Editor’s note: Megan Lisa Jones is an investment banker who works primarily with companies in the digital media, technology, gaming and other emerging industrie. She submitted this story to VentureBeat.)

It’s absolutely true that the right introductions, from a credible and well-connected source, can jump-start a career or company. Partnering correctly, getting money from a top tier fund or making the right hire does add credibility to your venture.

But let’s be honest: Are you bringing something of value to the table or just trying to find an easier way?  A mumbled, “Can you please just talk to this person for a minute so they stop bugging me?” can kill your chances forever, while an “introduction” can help.

Having worked as an investment banker for years I’ve developed a contact base of CEOs, CFOs and capital sources such as venture capitalists.  Part of my role in counseling and guiding companies is to make introductions and facilitate their ability to grow into an entity that can go public, sell at a rich valuation or have the cash needed to buy other companies.

But I’ve also had to learn how to fend off requests for introductions that make no sense.  We all want to meet the success story and hope that their pixie dust rubs off on us.  And all service providers want access to successful CEOs. After all, asking for an introduction seems easier than making a cold call.

Last week, one too many request from the same person had me hitting the roof and talking to my computer screen (you don’t want to know what I said…).

So I decided to set a dozen ground rules.  Technically, they only apply to me, but many people in my position encounter the same frustrations. It might be wise to factor these in as you consider asking for an introduction.There’s a well known quote, attributed to an anonymous person, that says “It’s not what you know but who you know that makes the difference.” My guess as to why that speaker preferred anonymity is that he or she didn’t want to be inundated by people looking to expand their own list of those they “know”.

Both parties need to benefit from the introduction. Occasional exceptions can be made for my children, clients, friends and those that have proven their loyalty. Know and explain why the introduction makes sense.

If I make an introduction, follow up respectfully and professionally. I once agreed to talk to a company founder (an unwanted introduction on my end) who needed money and then stood me up for two phone calls. Then she wanted me to help her and make other introductions (as someone who is rude and irresponsible?). Impressions count for a lot.

When I tell you that making too many introduction to a certain in demand person will impact my relationship with that person so the introduction better be crucial to you – and you have me make the introduction – don’t ask for too many favors shortly thereafter (you’re willing to risk my career for yours so I won’t be as kindly disposed going forward).

Don’t ask me to make introductions for someone you barely know. Relationships can be lost based on credibility and judgment. What if they aren’t that great? Rely solely on your own insight, not that of others.

My Linkedin and Facebook contacts aren’t your personal calling list. Nor is my less public rolodex. See number one above.

Tips 7 - 12 and Complete Article

Use LinkedIn to Promote Your Personal Brand

2011-03-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

My friends over at Common Craft do some great work. There videos are simple, yet full of great information. Today I want to share with you this 3-minute goodie on using LinkedIn for more than just making contacts.

Here's the video.

The protagonist in this story used LinkedIn to grow her business. What can you learn from her, since you, as a job seeker, are the owner of your own business who’s sole purpose is to find you a job? How can you search your contacts to find people who will help move your career forward? Who do you need to meet? How can you use LinkedIn to facilitate an introduction?

Don’t forget theses 2 important keys to graceful networking (even online):

1. It’s not about you.
You may feel an urgent need to find a job. However, when networking you will turn people off if you show it. Approach people to find opportunity for them and their network FIRST. When they know you have their best interest at heart they will want to help you fulfill your needs.

Read Tip #2 and the rest of the article: http://www.ibtimes.com/blogs/articles/25215/20110324/use-linkedin-to-promote-your-personal-brand.htm#ixzz1Hcdi11U9

How I’m #winning with Charlie Sheen - Updated

2011-03-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough to make it to round three of the #tigerbloodinten selection process this week. As a recruiter I would find it interesting to see how they cut the field from 80,000 to 250. Round three’s task was to create a video on a specific social media topic and post it to YouTube.

I learned a couple of things while making the video.

Being a talking head is harder than it looks
I hope I come off more animated in person than I do on camera
If the camera adds 10 lbs where did the other 20 or 30 come from

The reactions of my family and friends to my pursuing this internship had been varied.

Some are: Why? This is an understandable response as I already have a great job with one of the coolest companies on earth. I think that this would be a really great opportunity to learn some new things and be on the ground floor of something that is still taking off. Plus, I think my team is cool enough that they would let me take a leave of absence for the internship.

Most are: Wow that’s awesome. It sounds like a once in a lifetime chance to learn some new things in an area that is really growing. Of course I agree with them.

A few are: An Internship?? Really? My response to them is that you are never too old to learn more and to contribute. I think one of the things that makes me unique is the varied work experiences that I’ve had and how I can bring that to any team.

After I leaned that I made the latest cut I tried to lock up a few pertinent social media names. I got WinningIntern.com and it is now pointed to my WinningIntern blog and it has been getting some pageviews. I also secured @BiWinningIntern from twitter. I haven’t picked up too many followers there but I haven’t been doing the typical follow everyone and hope some follow you back strategy. I have mostly been tweeting from it and then retweeting from my primary account. I figure that when I become “The Intern” then it will take off.

That is where we stand as of today. I hopeful / confident that I’ll make it to the next round and that I’ll be able to update you then. In the meantime I’m including my YouTube posting and I’m hoping you’ll show it some love.

Thanks!

Online etiquette flubs could crush your career

2011-03-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

More than three-quarters of HR executives said in a recent survey that technology-related gaffes can be hazardous to your job.
By Anne Fisher, contributor

FORTUNE --
Dear Annie: I absolutely agree with your post about office distractions like March Madness being no big deal, but it reminded me of a question I've been meaning to ask for a while now. To wit, at what point does multitasking morph into plain old rudeness?

Certain people where I work seem to be so addicted to their BlackBerries that they miss half of what is said in meetings. Then they waste other people's time afterwards asking about things that were covered while they were texting, checking their messages, etc.

Also, the same individuals seem to have no sense of boundaries, so they will send tweets that embarrass other people by raising issues that are really better discussed privately, one on one. A few people here also use texting abbreviations for everything, even in regular emails, so that half the time you can't tell what they're trying to say. Then there are those who constantly "ping" others with instant messages, which is distracting when you're trying to concentrate on actual work.

Sorry to rant, but I'd love to know whether it's just me, or do others find this kind of behavior unacceptable as well? What do you and your readers think? —Biting My Tongue

Dear BMT: Funny, isn't it, how some people seem to view technology as an excuse to abandon basic courtesy and simple common sense? Rest assured that you aren't the only one who finds this tendency alarming, or at least annoying.

Consider: 76% of human resources managers believe that "technology etiquette breaches" --including checking email during meetings -- could "adversely affect a person's career prospects," according to a report from global staffing giant Robert Half International.

"Mistakes like sending a confidential email to the wrong person, or impulsively posting an offensive comment on Facebook or Twitter, can have serious, career-impacting consequences," observes Robert Half executive Brett Good.

If you would like to help your clueless colleagues avoid such fallout (which I realize is a big "if"), one alternative to biting your tongue would be to suggest they download RHI's new, free online guide, Business Etiquette: The New Rules in a Digital Age.

A compilation of advice from Robert Half's own executives and half a dozen etiquette experts and new-media gurus, the guide includes a few cautionary tales, like the one about a job candidate who, when offered a job by Cisco Systems, sent out this overly candid tweet: "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work."
Someone from Cisco tweeted back: "Who is the hiring manager? I'm sure they would love to know that you will hate the work."
Gulp.

Read the rest of the Fortune Article

50 Intelligent LinkedIn Tips That Could Change Your Life

2011-03-25T05:55:00.000-07:00

LinkedIn is sometimes referred to as Facebook for grown-ups. That may be true, as LinkedIn is a much more respectable site on which you can network, share information, and build relationships that can grow and support your career. Check out these tips to find out how you can use LinkedIn to make a change in your life and career.

General
Pay attention to your manners, be a real person, and follow these tips to do well on LinkedIn.

Be polite: Remember your manners when interacting with others on LinkedIn.
Stay active: Update routinely-you don’t want it to look like no one’s home.
Keep an eye on your competition: Check out the public profile for companies to see who they are hiring and more.
Research a company’s health: Look for former employees to get candid opinions.
Say thank you: Always remember to say thanks, publicly or privately, when someone does something thoughtful for you.
Write like a human: Avoid dry writing-robots are reading your profile, but people are more important.
Ask questions: Get answers and contribute to the knowledge available on LinkedIn with questions.

Job Search
These tips will come in handy for those working on a job search.

Make connections where you want to work: Get connected with people on the inside that can give you an in where you want to work.
Don’t advertise being unemployed: Avoid the temptation to advertise that you’re unemployed-recruiters believe that employed workers are better employees.
Look up potential employers: Before going into an interview, make sure and look up potential employers to find all of the information you can.

Networking & Connections
Pay attention to these tips that can help you with your network of LinkedIn contacts.

Send personalized connection requests: When you send an invitation, make sure you’ve for a personalized message to go along with it.
Connect your contacts: Provide a valuable social resource and become a more influential person by connecting your contacts.
Initiate a conversation: After you’ve made a connection with someone, keep the ball rolling with a new conversation.
Raise funding: Find mentors or potential investors with the help of your LinkedIn network.
Look up everyone you know: You’ll never know the connections you have until you find everyone you possibly can.
Get answers to questions: Ask your friends to help you out with tough business questions.
Reply to connection requests: When you accept connection requests, be sure to send a short message back.
Search in terms and industries: Connect with people you don’t personally know by searching on terms and industries.
Start a group: Become the center of information and a connector on LinkedIn by starting a group.
Do small things: Click "like" on shared articles, write short notes of congratulations, and find other ways to show others that you’re listening to what they’re saying.
Reach out to event attendees: If you’re attending an event, be sure to talk to attendees that you’re connected with.
Take advantage of travel: Check out your connections by location, and let them know when you’re going to be traveling to their area.

See Tips 23 - 50 and complete article

100 Of The Best Social Media Blog Posts So Far In 2011

2011-03-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

Niall Harbison in Social Media

I bookmark a huge amount of content and rather than keeping it all for myself I thought I would split down some of the best stuff in to 10 categories relating to social media and share the best 100 posts in 2011 so far. You are never going to be able to get through all of these in one go but they do all come from the best people in the business and there is a great mixture of inspiration, practical tips and ways of generally expanding your knowledge of social media. There is something to suit everybody here from twitter and Facebook to how to improve your own blog and also larger resources that you can digest in greater detail. Here is your full list of social media blog posts from early 2011…

Blogging

The Simple 5-Step Formula for Effective Online Content
Growing a blog to 10,000 subscribers in one year ; The stats
Build Your Community Before You Need Them
5 Steps to Captivating Readers with Your Secret Message
It Takes A Village To Grow A Blog .. Along With Your Girlfriends
17 Plugins to Improve Your WordPress Blog
Overcoming Blogger Fright
7 Key Elements to a Successful Business Blog
5 Steps a Newbie Blogger Never Misses
40 Dead Simple Ways to Get More Comments on Your Blog
What If You Only Had 20 Blog Posts Left?
26 Ways to Enhance Your Blog Content

LinkedIn Files For IPO; Revenue $161 Million
50 LinkedIn Tips, Many of Which are Awesome
7 Tips for Using Your LinkedIn Profile to Land Great Projects
8 New LinkedIn Features Worth Exploration
100 Million members and counting
LinkedIn for Bloggers – Branding, Authority and Traffic
Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile’s New Skills Section
Reid Hoffman’s 10 Rules for Entrepreneurial Success
6 Tips For Giving Your LinkedIn Profile A Facelift

Other Topic Areas Videos, Facebook, And MORE

15 Invaluable Websites for Job Research

2011-03-24T05:51:00.000-07:00

There are dozens of free sites on the web that help you advance your job search. From these you can learn all about a company including getting a candid insider’s view from those who work there. You can also get expert advice on industries, resume writing, networking, using LinkedIn, networking and more. Below are some of the best:

Quintessential Careers has over 4,500 pages of free content to empower your career success. This site has tons of expert advice, templates and career articles for all levels. If you have a question, you can find your answer here.

Job-Hunt.org offers a comprehensive list of useful job-search resources and services on the Web. All the sites listed are audited by the job-hunt.org staff to ensure they will add value to a candidate’s search and not compromise the job seeker’s personal information. Job-Hunt is a wonderful resource for helping clients sample multiple job search tools.

Spoke Spoke provides business data and detailed contact information on demand. It contains over 40 million people at 2.3 million companies. Spoke lets you create, customize, and promote your own online profile as well. Like ZoomInfo, Spoke is a great tool for finding decision makers. Spoke even has an interface with Simply Hired (a job aggregate board) that allows users to search for decision makers in the companies where Simply Hired has posted jobs.

Jigsaw is an online directory of more than 8 million business contacts. Users can access names, titles, postal addresses, e-mail addresses and direct dial phone numbers. Membership is free and you can get a contact by adding one of your own. For each one you add, you get access to any other in the Jigsaw directory. As an alternative, you can sign-up for a premium account and access 25 contacts for $25 a month. We all know that the best jobs are found through the hidden job network. Tools like Jigsaw help job seekers uncover the right person to talk to at their target companies.

FTT Research can leverage information on millions of domestic and international companies and provide in-depth coverage of thousands of the world’s top business enterprises to identify target companies and business contacts. FTT canvases an entire industry, geography, and job function to find the right kinds of decision makers across multiple potential targets.

Highbeam is an online library and research tool that collects millions of research articles from trusted published sources and puts them all in one place. You can access some information for free or purchase a very reasonably priced annual subscription. This is an excellent resource for you to use when searching for potential company targets or preparing for an upcoming interview. By thoroughly researching a company ahead of time, job seekers can have more engaging and thought-provoking questions based on what they have read about that company. This helps them gain credibility during the interview, and in turn, elevates their candidacy.

See the full list of 15 and the full CareerRealism article

Can we learn anything from Charlie Sheen's social media activity?

2011-03-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

Despite having nearly 3m followers on Twitter within three weeks, Charlie Sheen is on the lookout for a social media intern.

With all the coverage in the media at the moment I want to come from a different angle: is Sheen already in the middle of a social media strategy? If so, what can we learn from it?

Sheen has gained more attention on the internet than ever before, using his fame and behaviour as a catalyst for his successful online presence. His already famous interview with Good Morning America made people question his state of mind. From a social media point of view, he's executed his personal brand perfectly.

Within two weeks he has amassed nearly 3m followers on Twitter. Here's some more statistics (as of 17th March):

He's ranked 35th on Twitterholic (who gain ranking by number of followers). Every other profile above him is at least 18 months old.
He's only made 111 tweets. That's an FPT (followers per tweet) of around 26,000.
Has uploaded 8 photos to his Twitpic account, with a total of 7,641,030 combined views.

His internship within itself received a lot of attention. Over 82,000 people applied for the "Tiger Blood" social media position powered by internships.com, who have boasted over 1m unique visitors to the site. There doesn't seem to be any official number on who got into Round two (myself included). Whether or not he needs this intern is a good question. He seems to have it sorted already. His internship landing page even states that "Charlie Sheen has attained in setting the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to reach one million followers on Twitter'".

Is Sheen already in the middle of his social media strategy?

Patricio Robles covered how ad.ly acquired his profile and how Twitter made an exception to verify his account within 24 hours.

With a little pep talk on how to use hashtags and uploading pictures to twitpic.com, Sheen has been able to prove that he is indeed winning, online that is. His personal brand is more popular than the show he was fired from.

My theory on Sheen's strategy:

Thinking more and more about the recent interviews I've watched and heard made me realise this could be one big strategy to increase his personal career. And what is his job? He's an actor.
This may be true considering that people such as Joaquin Phoenix faked, for over a year, that he was retiring from acting to instead pursue a career in music - all whilst having a mental breakdown that was questioned after his infamous interview with David Letterman.

If this is all true and Sheen is in fact acting, he's utilising the internet to it's full potential and 'hiring' a social media intern has been the perfect way to enhance his profile within the social networking community.

What is clear is that what Team Sheen are doing right now is a case study of what to do if you're at a certain level of celebrity, it doesn't always matter what is said or done. Whether the publicity of the role is a strategy within itself is for us to evaluate once the intern's time is complete.

What can we learn from Sheen's strategy?

Read The Rest Of The Econsultancy article

Let LinkedIn help nurture your network

2011-03-23T06:21:00.000-07:00

By Lily Whiteman

The time to build your professional network is before you need it. Once you need help, it may be too late to find allies who are ready, willing and able to provide it.

Among the tools that can help you grow your network is LinkedIn. com — a free, searchable database of professionals in virtually every field.

Use LinkedIn to connect with current and former contacts, the contacts of your contacts and so on — just as you may use in-person opportunities to generate such connections. Also, use LinkedIn to initiate contact with strangers with whom you share common ground; find such allies by searching the LinkedIn database by name, keyword, employer or industry.

Once you register on LinkedIn, you can create a profile that includes varied features, such as your professional summary, a list of your educational and professional credentials, your photograph, as well as links to other LinkedIn members, relevant professional organizations, and websites that cover your work. You can also arrange for your LinkedIn profile to showcase written recommendations from your professional associates and a downloadable version of your résumé.

You can link your profile to those of other LinkedIn members who, at your request, give you permission to do so.

Alternatively, at your request, your own contacts or the contacts of your contacts may introduce you to members of their LinkedIn circles.

With these features, LinkedIn can help you:

• Arrange for hiring managers and other professional contacts to instantly access your résumé and professional recommendations online without you even having to e-mail these documents. To promote such access, change the online address of your LinkedIn profile to your own name, and then link to it from your private e-mail signature and your other private online communications.

• Find potential mentors who have held certain positions, gained experience in particular fields, conquered the same types of obstacles you are confronting or done anything else that may qualify them to advise you on your career choices or answer questions about issues in your field.

• Identify potential speakers for conferences, and identify experts to recruit onto work groups, advisory panels, conference panels or professional organizations.

More Tips and Complete FederalTimes Article

Guy Kawasaki’s “Enchantment” Really Does Enchant

2011-03-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

by Adam C. Engst

Baseball manager Leo Durocher has been much quoted for noting that “Nice guys finish last.” And certainly it seems that attitude, snark, and general bad behavior are guaranteed ways of attracting attention, whether on the Internet or in the real world. But attention doesn’t necessarily equate with desired results, and former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki (“The Macintosh Way,” “Rules for Revolutionaries,” and many other titles) argues in his latest book, “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions,” that there’s a better way of not just getting what you want, but also bringing about a voluntary and enduring change in others.

That better way, of course, is to enchant them, and while the word feels slightly stretched to fit into Kawasaki’s usage, the book repeatedly emphasizes that the goal is not to manipulate people into following your cause or buying your product, but to transform them into true believers and loyal customers. This separates “Enchantment” from many other business and marketing books, where the goals often seem to justify the means.

Despite a few humorous asides about the role of enchantment in marriage, “Enchantment” focuses on the business world, cutting across huge swaths of the work-life landscape and explaining how to employ enchantment regardless of whether you’re an employee with a boss, a boss with employees, a marketer looking to increase sales, an entrepreneur launching a new product, or even a community organizer trying to attract volunteers.

With twelve chapters, each containing a number of short sections, “Enchantment” is easily scanned and a quick read, though going through the book once in order is a good idea to ensure you’re exposed to the early chapters on likability and trustworthiness, personal qualities essential for creating enchantment. Next come four chapters on preparing, launching, overcoming resistance, and making enchantment endure — these chapters are the core of the book, focusing as they do on helping you achieve your goals in a successful and lasting manner.

Read Adam's Complete Review

The 101 Best Twitter Job Search/Career Experts Plus 6

2011-03-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

I’ve had several complaints that my #FollowFriday Tweets of great career and job search Twitter accounts are overwhelming. So, this is my #FF list, consolidated and broken up by category. I’ve tried very hard not to leave off anyone who is making a great contribution, and agonized about leaving off several to keep the number to 101 of the most useful.

Many excellent career Tweeps are not included in this version of the list because they are not currently active or not on-topic right now (new baby, new job, vacation time, whatever).

And, there are many other popular Twitter accounts which provide a mix of content with “personality” and they are not included here. But, they could still be useful to you – it just depends what you want.

Note: This has been updated numerous times, and I will continue to update it.
March 21, 2011, is the date of the latest update.

Find all these Tweeps and more on Job-Hunt’s Job Search Experts Twitter List.

Who is included here:

These are the people I’ve judged best at providing good content in their Tweets and trying to help people with the job search/career management process.
These people Tweet regularly, on topic with new, fresh information.
For me, the signal-to-noise ratio is usually good – these people are not focused on self-promotion or sending many off-topic Tweets.

I am acquainted with many of the people in this list. I’m happy to say that several of these people have contributed articles to Job-Hunt, sharing more of their advice and expertise with the world. If they have, currently are or soon will be, contributing articles to Job-Hunt, their names have been bolded. But, that wasn’t a requirement for inclusion, obviously.
If you have suggestions about accounts which should be added, or even deleted, let me know.
Keep coming back. I will post new versions of this every month, and, of course, this is Job-Hunt.org – there will always be more resources added soon.

The 101 BEST JOB SEARCH/CAREER TWEEPS:

Keep that social network profile updated

2011-03-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

Priyanka Joshi

Shruti Marathe, an MBA from Symbiosis College, created her business networking profile on LinkedIn two months after she completed her course. “I wrote about my college projects in details and even had work recommendations posted by seniors, who guided me during my internship,” she recalls. Within a few days, Marathe got a call from a company, National Instruments, to come for an interview. “Soon, I had two offer letters in my hand,” recalls Marathe, now working as a sales executive with the Star group.

Social media and career networking portals have become imperative for first-time jobseekers. Whether it’s through blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, people are seeking potential employers through alternative online sources. Take, for example, professionals like Nikhita Arora, who works with Madison Media. She bagged her existing job via LinkedIn. “I maintained my profile on career networking sites like ApnaCircle and LinkedIn. During college, we were repeatedly told how recruiters use social media to hire freshers,” she says. Arora, who had moved to New Delhi for another job, was interviewed by her existing company CEO after he reviewed her LinkedIn profile; he offered a new job in Mumbai within 24 hours of talking to her. Now, she uses her LinkedIn profile to initiate business meetings with contacts she has made online.

The reason why India’s 80-million internet base is turning to social networks to find employment is in numbers. Sites like Facebook have a little over 15 million members from India and LinkedIn claims to have more than nine million professionals from India networking on its site. Twitter has 145 million registered users globally. It is only natural for prospective employers and recruiting agencies to scan these sites to gather detailed profiles while hiring college graduates. For the employees, web 2.0 tools like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the newest way to extend the social circle and tap into jobs that aren’t usually advertised.

More Advice and Complete Business Standard Article

The Charlie Sheen Guide to Winning! at Online Marketing

2011-03-21T05:37:00.000-07:00

by Sean Platt and David Wright

Unless you’ve been living without electricity for the last few weeks, you’ve no doubt witnessed what might be the biggest celebrity meltdown in the history of … EVER.
Charlie Sheen has skated along a downward spiral, going from the highest paid actor in television to an unemployed “winner,” ranting about conspiracies, tiger blood and Adonis DNA to anyone who will lend him an ear or microphone.
Though we don’t know how this epic tale of the Malibu Messiah will eventually end, and it’s difficult to discuss without delicate considerations for drug abuse and Sheen’s questionable mental state, believe it or not there are a few things we can learn from Sheen. Here are a few valuable branding lessons from this fiasco.
Before we get started, we’re not suggesting you start taking buckets of drugs, kicking it with porn stars, or neglecting your young children. (In fact, please don’t do any of these things.)
But there’s no denying some of Sheen’s antics can work wonders in the attention-seeking world of marketing — as long as you find the balance at the lip of Crazy Canyon without throwing yourself over the edge.

Be yourself

Charlie Sheen lives without apology, embracing his vices, making love to his weaknesses, and getting high on a drug called “Charlie Sheen”:

It’s not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.

This has tremendous appeal. Sheen attracts people who dig his free spirit, along with those folks who love to watch the crazy train as it threatens to derail.
Fine-tune your public persona. Amplify certain angles, exaggerate others, and create the YOU that’s most appealing for your market.
Never be a phony, but think of all the larger-than-life people you know — and how they present a side of themselves that’s fit for public consumption.
And if you happen to have Adonis DNA, by all means, don’t keep it to yourself.

Embrace the catchphrase

Sheen turned his “Duh, winning” into a marketable catchphrase, already being screened and inked on a line of tee-shirts. And you can almost smell the popcorn of the upcoming movie screening.
Sheen took a phrase which was being used to mock him for his crazy rants and twisted it to his advantage, as though it was just another “torpedo of truth.”
Develop a catchphrase for your brand. Be clever. If your brand is tarnished, you might even find a way to inject humor into a catchphrase and hone it to your benefit.
Use your catchphrase in copy, video, and wherever else seems like a good fit.
One word of warning — it takes a special sort of personality to use a catchphrase without coming off like a phony.

Build your tribe

Sure, Two and a Half Men wasn’t fine art, but it was a damned funny show. It was almost tailor made to Sheen’s public image, while glossing over it with a fine coating of lovable rapscallion, to make both the show, and its star, likable.
And while not everyone cares for that type of show or humor, you can’t be all things to all people.
Concentrate on what you do well, build your tribe around it, and make no apologies to those who “don’t get it.”

You can get away with a lot –- if you deliver

Network execs and viewers overlooked Sheen’s partying and domestic violence allegations for years. Why?
Because he delivered.
He showed up to work and did an impressive job on Two and a Half Men, delivering laughs and ratings to the Tiffany network.
Do something well enough and people will let you get away with a lot.
Be a rock star. Put yourself out there.
Say things that flip the status quo and shake every leaf from its tree. Wear glittery pants, if you want. Just make sure you’re damned good at what you do, and deliver on time.

Don’t trash the people you work for

This might prove to be the real reason Sheen got canned from Two and a Half Men.
Sheen went after show-runner Chuck Lorre with teeth bared and racist overtones; his vitriol spewing out and spilling over to other network execs.
People appreciate when you slaughter a few sacred cows. And you can always gather a heap of street cred saying the things others are afraid to say. But there’s an uncrossable line you must consider.
Level personal attacks, particularly against the people who can help you, and you can’t be surprised when they come back and bite you hard.

Be unpredictable

When CBS ceased production of Two and a Half Men, Sheen could have (and probably should have) quietly retreated to rehab, or laid low, and let things pass over.
But Sheen, being the firebomb thrower he is, went on the offense, lashing out at his bosses, and taking his particular brand of dementia to the airwaves and Internet, blistering critics with sound bites of awkward brilliance.
While this tactic got him fired, it also gave him a metric ton of buzz, and several rumored offers.

Tips 7 - 10 and Complete copyblogger Article

About the Authors: Sean Platt and David Wright help good writers make a great living. Get their free report, The 9 Mistakes Most Writers Make That Are Keeping Them Poor.

8 Tips for Returning to Work Stress-Free

2011-03-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

The numbers are crawling. They are crawling slowly. Nonetheless, unemployment numbers are moving in the desired direction: down! My personal experience illustrates this, as I see clients and friends going back to work after being engaged in a job search for months -- even years. Recently, a concern that I have been hearing a lot, as a result, is how to successfully transition back into a full-time, structured work schedule after not having one for so long
.
Below, I've outlined some tips here on how to make this transition a graceful one:

Go To Bed
I've noticed people frequently develop erratic sleeping patterns when structure and schedule are fluid and flexible. If you're moving into a position that is going to require you being at an office at an early morning hour, I strongly urge you to start shifting your sleep pattern. More than likely you will want to start getting to bed earlier and setting an alarm for an early hour. Some tips to do this include preparing for sleep time an hour prior to getting into bed. This includes turning off your computer, dimming lights, engaging in your bedtime rituals (this can be as simple as setting the alarm on your coffee pot and flossing).

Get Your Clothes Ready
If your formal, work shirts have been rolled up in a laundry bag since your last day on your last job, it is time to grab the bag and drop it off at the dry cleaner. Also, do yourself the favor of pulling your clothes out the night before, when you go to bed.

Take Care Of Yourself
Make sure you eat healthy, drink enough water, take necessary breaks and keep exercising. It may be very easy to get swept into the whirlwind of a hectic work environment when you go back to work. You may even think this is the way to impress your boss and new colleagues. However, if you're not taking care of yourself, and end up calling out sick sooner than desired or are unable to function optimally, then who, may I ask, does that impress? (See my article: "6 Tips to Recharge at the Office.")

Leave Work At Work
Before leaving the office for the day, make a list of the things that you think might plague your mind when you go home or move on to the next day or evening's event. Then tear it up! After tearing up the list, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and say to yourself, "Breathe in love, breathe out peace." After a few of these breaths, envision leaving all of your work concerns and stress behind, as you walk through your office door and turn to lock it.

Read The Rest Of The Huffington Post Article

Jason Mannino is an Executive Talent Acquisition Consultant and Coach. For inquiries, e-mail info@jmannino.com.

Follow Jason Mannino on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jasonmannino

Are Recruiters To Blame For The Job Market Blues?

2011-03-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by Adrienne Graham

As A recruiter, I sit on both sides of this issue and I’m bound to make a few people mad. But so what, the truth hurts because, well, it’s the truth. Recruiters aren’t to blame, but they sure don’t help!
Now, before all of you recruiting professionals go grabbing the pitch forks and torches, I’m not throwing my recruiters under the bus. And I’m not blaming all recruiters because we don’t make the hiring decisions.

But I can’t help but notice that recruiters aren’t exactly trying to ease the market woes either. If you read any of the articles that talk about job search, job market, unemployment, etc., you’ll see various comments (ranging from disillusioned to angry) about how a person’s experience is going with their job search.

There’s an air of frustration, and rightfully so. Recruiters aren’t getting back to candidates to close the loop. Applicants are submitting resumes into the black hole we call an applicant tracking system. Companies spend thousands of dollars to make their websites look pretty and reach out (and I use that term loosely) to candidates via social media to say “Hey, come work for us.”

You’re giving candidates mixed messages! The bottom line is whether or not they even get a phone call, people rarely hear back from recruiters after that initial contact (unless they are lucky enough to get called in for an interview with the hiring manager) and that’s a problem.

How many of you feel that it’s getting increasingly pointless to apply for jobs any more? I’ll venture a guess and say a great deal of you feel that way.

It’s understandable. The gloom and doom jobs and unemployment reports are enough to discourage even the biggest optimist. But when companies ARE hiring and you still hear nothing, it can be frustrating.
The biggest complaint I hear is that people aren’t getting feedback. And if they are, it’s the generic, canned “thanks but no thanks” email. How impersonal!

In this economy,the least companies can do is make people feel human. People are shocked when I call them to tell them they won’t be moving forward in the process. One woman told me that she wasn’t expecting to hear anything because “that’s just the way things are today.” It saddened and frustrated me…and I’m a recruiter!

I’m not perfect, and it often takes me a while to get back to people. But I do try. I don’t always 100% deliver but I do try. I’m woman enough to admit that publicly. It doesn’t matter if an applicant is applying for a janitor or VP position, they deserve the courtesy of a follow up.

And, no, a canned email is not enough. People want to feel acknowledged, human. It’s hard enough for someone who has been out of work for an extended amount of time to go through the humiliation of deafening silence, especially when they know they’re a fit. And even if they aren’t, don’t you owe it to them to let them know they’re not and why? I think so.

Now don’t think I’m letting you job seekers off the hook that easily. You take some of the blame here too. I understand the market is tough. But apply for jobs that fit your skills or that you have a chance at getting.

Be upfront in your cover letters (yes, people still do write those) if you’re looking to make a career change. If you’re a Wal-Mart pharmacist and you send a resume for a HP project manager position, of course you’ll end up in the reject pile. But if you send a cover letter stating your intent to change careers, perhaps that will open the door at least to a conversation. Then it’s on you to close the deal.
Also, ask about the etiquette of follow up. calling and emailing a recruiter five times a day is excessive and annoying. You want to stay in touch but with respect. Don’t make a recruiter avoid you. So do your part too! It’s a two way street.

Read The Rest Of The Forbes Article

Personal branding gives workers an edge on keeping job

2011-03-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Written by NATHAN PHELPS

GREEN BAY — In a bumpy economy, holding on to your job has become a more artful task.

One of the keys is standing out, said Barbara Jordan, owner of AdvantEdge Success Coaching here.

"Toot your own horn," she said. "Don't wait for your leadership to notice what you have done or how much you are accomplishing. They may never notice unless you bring it to their attention."

Jordan has seen an increase in business in recent years as people look to increase their visibility — both those who are employed and the unemployed who are re-evaluating their career goals and aspirations.

"I present it as an opportunity to hone their skills and polish who, and what, they are and what they represent," she said. "Some people can see it as 'This is another thing I have to do. I'm spread thin already, ... ' but this is a preventative measure and is also an esteem-building exercise because you are evaluating what your strengths are."

Mandy Nycz, associate director of St. Norbert College Career Services in De Pere, Wis., tells students they need to go above and beyond expectations in the workplace — especially in this economy.

"You can't do just your job description anymore. You have to give more at your job; that's something a lot of employers look for," she said.

Like Jordan, Nycz said it's important for employees to track their workplace successes.

"You should always maintain a record of accomplishments," she said. "Let's face it, companies are having to do more with less in the current economy, and your boss may not always have the time to recognize what you have been up to and what you've been accomplishing."

Those lists can be helpful when completing an annual review.

More Tips and Complete Northwestern Article

Breadwinners now begging for scraps: Men 55 and older face soaring unemployment

2011-03-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Graham Cawthon

KINGS MOUNTAIN — Allan Nichols describes himself as a well-read, self-motivated native Cheesehead. He has a law degree, spent time with a chamber of commerce, was a corporate lobbyist and spends his nights teaching himself astronomy.

But, since July 2006, that hasn’t been enough to get Nichols, 58, a job.

Older workers out of work

And he’s not alone. Nationwide unemployment in 2001 among people 55 and older seeking full-time work stood at 442,000. In 2009, that number quadrupled to 1,624,000. And it continues to rise, with 2010 at 1,816,000.

But the story within the story is who’s out of work. Year after year, roughly 50 percent of the annual average is attributed to the white male demographic.

Nichols refers to it as a ‘manpression,’ as older, white male, experienced middle management workers can’t find footing in today’s economy.

“We were the breadwinners,” he said. “Now, we're begging for scraps.”

1,200 job applications

Unemployment benefits “expired long ago” and Nichols, who isn’t married or having to support kids, said he’s not willing to turn to food stamps or the Department of Social Services for assistance. And so the self-described “aggressive saver” sells on eBay and works as a handyman to pay the bills.

“When you’re unemployed, finding a job has to be your job,” he said.

He estimates he put in 1,200 job applications in 2010. Of those, he said, he actually received rejections from 16 or 17. He says his education and professional experience have worked against him, with prospective employers classifying him as overqualified for the job.

“Do I lie on my resume and leave out law school and a college degree?” he asks. “Not lying is one of the earliest rules of Sunday school.”

And there’s no lying when it comes to his gray hair. Age too, he said, has worked against finding employment and has been an issue of discussion at job interviews.

“But that goes more to motivation,” he continued. “I don’t tweet, I don’t Facebook and I don’t play fantasy football on the boss’s time.”

‘It’s terrifying’

Nichols’ days begin early with several hours spent searching online and in the media for tips that may lead to employment, not only in the county but nationwide. He studies the front page of the newspaper, looking for familiar names of people who might know more about potential job growth.

There was once an opportunity to land a position with a small museum in his native Wisconsin. It would have meant $30,000 per year, no retirement and no health benefits. And, despite his efforts, that too fell through.

He looks for more museum positions, and even has his eye on potential opportunities with the Earl Scruggs Center, set for a 2012 opening. But, so far, nothing.

“It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to be optimistic,” he said. “It’s terrifying.”

He still owns a laptop and has a cable TV subscription, which he contends is about as luxurious as his expenses get. But even those may fall by the wayside as his job search continues.

‘I don’t know the solution’

Read The Rest Of "The Star" Article

Job recruiters shifting tactics to find ideal hires

2011-03-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

By Greta Guest

Experts say job growth is expected this year and recruiters may step up efforts to find the right candidates.

But the ways in which they'll find those workers won't necessarily be traditional.

Will Boland, chief administrative officer for Sageworks, a Raleigh, N.C.-based firm that analyzes industry financials, said some recruiters would post openings on sites such as CareerBuilder, Craigslist or LinkedIn, but not all of them. The biggest frustration in posting jobs this way is the sheer volume of responses.

More employers are using social media sites such as Facebook to find candidates, while others are hitting the streets in search of workers.

Here is a sampling of recruiting methods from several business sectors.

ACCOUNTING/FINANCE: Kevin Suksi, a recruiter for consulting and executive search firm Accretive Solutions in Troy, Mich., recently posted a job to his Facebook friends looking for a logistics manager for a consumer products company in metro Detroit. The candidate needed trade experience in China.

While Suksi typically focuses on accounting and finance jobs, he will turn to Facebook when trying to fill something unusual.

"You just never know who knows who," he said.

But for the bread-and-butter jobs such as chief financial officers or certified public accountants, he is more likely to use LinkedIn, the professional networking site.

"The group that we are targeting in metro Detroit is a pretty finite group, and we pretty much know who they are," he said. "I think that our core value to companies is that we are able to get to people who are passive, who they wouldn't get on their own."

MORTGAGE: For jobs that require strong customer service skills, there's nothing more effective than going out to find them at their current jobs, said Michelle Salvatore, director of recruiting for Detroit-based Quicken Loans.

"We're doing a more rogue-recruiting style where we will send the recruiters out on the streets," she said.
The company's recruiters, for instance, will approach people who work at stores.
She says that up to 20 per cent of hires are personally approached by her in-house recruiting team. Salvatore oversees 27 recruiters.

Her team also uses on-site job fairs and online job sites to find candidates, particularly for the mortgage banker position, which has the highest turnover of any job at the company. The company needs to hire 1,200 mortgage bankers a year to keep up with demand and turnover.

Quicken Loans is in a trial over a lawsuit from more than 300 people working as mortgage bankers in Michigan and Ohio who argue they should have received overtime pay from 2002 to 2006.

RETAIL: With 30 per cent turnover, Wal-Mart is recruiting pretty much nonstop. Baldomero Silva, division human resources senior director who oversees Ohio, Michigan and parts of Pennsylvania, said much of the hourly and management recruiting happens at the company's website, www.walmartstores.com/careers, and in-store kiosks.

For the three states, he's looking for more than 30,000 employees a year. The company also recruits at job fairs in communities, colleges and military locations. And starting in June, Silva will be looking for 300 employees for its new store in Southgate.

Complete Article and More Industry Segments: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/recruiters+shifting+tactics+find+ideal+hires/4403375/story.html#ixzz1GD2Yd7K4

How I’m #winning with @CharlieSheen

2011-03-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

From a social media perspective it has been interesting to watch the whole media swirl around Charlie Sheen. Once you get past the “waiting for the train wreck” portion of it and see that he set a record for getting to a million Twitter followers in the shortest time and a record number of intern applicants I’m hoping that there is something beyond the frantic ravings about #tigerblood...

Probably the thing that made me think that there might be something beyond craziness involved was his funny OR DIE #winning cooking sketch. It was actually funny. So I figure he either is a really good actor or that there is some thought process involved, either way it is a good sign.

This past week my blog included three articles that we about Charlie. They generated 300 visitors for the blog. That might not seem like a lot to most people but not too long ago 300 visitors would have been a good week for me. Will these 300 visits translate into anything for me? Probably not. I don’t have ads or anything else to monetize the blog.

So, how am I actually #winning with @charliesheen?

I got 300 extra visits to my blog.

I’m posting my first self generated content to my blog.

I’ve applied to be Charlie’s intern.

I actually did apply to be Charlie’s intern but since I am twice as old as I’m guessing the average applicant is I’m not too confident of making the first cut.

Why Charlie should pick me:

Experience - I actually have a real job and work experience with industry leading companies.

Social Media - I am the group owner and manager of LinkedIn groups with nearly 60,000 members.

Maturity - I’ve been around enough that if they are looking for someone with opinions and a long term perspective instead of star struck yes men I think I’d be a great addition to his team.

So there you go. That is how I am #winning with @charliesheen

I’ll have posted this right away Monday morning so that Charlie’s peeps will find it if they have some keyword searches set up and we’ll see if I make the first cut.

TimEsseBlog.com

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