Anyone who thinks they should wait and see how things progress will be left behind in the dust of societal, economic, cultural, and political change. The job you will have tomorrow may be in an industry that is just being born today. The products, markets and companies of next month and next year may not have existed 6 years ago. Facebook opened its site to the general public just six years ago.

This article is a great testimonial to the power of change driven by technology. Now in YouTube stars are born, serious money is made, and the global economy feels more and more like a neighborhood.

A decade ago the record industry’s gears clicked along more or less as they always had: Labels signed up promising acts discovered by A&R scouts, paid those acts advances against future music sales, and hawked that music through a sprawling network of radio programmers and retailers. Today, with album sales continuing to plummet—in 2004, 666.7 million albums were sold; by 2012 that number was down more than 50 percent, to 316 million—labels and artists depend more than ever on touring and merchandise for revenue. Songs are ads meant to help sell tickets and T-shirts, and YouTube is beginning to rival radio when it comes to breaking those tracks. Recognizing this, the trade magazine Billboardrecently overhauled its formula for determining the most popular music in the country, giving YouTube plays more weight. The following week, Harlem Shake topped the Hot 100 chart—the first instrumental track to do so since Jan Hammer’s Miami Vice theme in 1984. Five weeks later, it was still there.

Read more at Bloomberg BusinessWeek

This is probably the most useful networking tool Linkedin has launched since Groups. I always thought Answers, and Polls were for people who needed more to do, but Linkedin Alumni has some merit. I can look at my school and see where people work who graduated from there. The catch is I see 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree connections but nobody out of my network. Given I have 7000+ linkedin connections the reach this tool has can be very helpful. However, those with less than 500 connections will find themselves at a disadvantage. That will be hard on new grads and current students. Time will tell to see who uses it.
 
Start Mapping Your Career With LinkedIn Alumni
Christina Allen, January 30, 2013

Whether you’re a current college student, a prospective student, or a recent graduate, you know that your educational choices – where you go to school and what you study – have a big impact on your future career. Gathered from the profiles of more than 200 million members, LinkedIn’s Alumni tool helps you explore alumni career paths from more than 22,000 colleges and universities worldwide – and build relationships that can help you along the way

Check out www.linkedin.com/alumni. Explore your own school or any other (using the “change schools” button) to see where graduates live, the organizations they work for, andthe types of jobs they pursue. You can also change the dates to track careers of specific graduating classes.

And we just added some new features: You can now explore alumni careers based on what they studied, their top skills, and how you are connected on LinkedIn. All the graphs are interactive, just click on the bars to drill down to the specific careers most interesting to you.
Read more

Top 10 Tech-Influenced Hiring Trends for 2013
How Today’s Tech Trends Translate to Talent

By Kathryn Ullrich

1. Renewed Focus on Innovation
Now more than ever, rapid advancements in digital interconnectedness, big data and other technologies mean that tech companies need executives who can innovate and envision the next generation of users and devices. We’re seeing this even from leading tech industry clients who are already innovators but realize that innovation requires constant attention and reinvention. Execs who can see beyond today to visioning the future are in high demand.
 
2. Strategic Nimbleness Rules
Working in Silicon Valley for early stage companies requires what I call "strategic nimbleness" – the ability to take a business model and adapt it to what the market is saying now. I’ve handled some VP Sales and General Manager searches recently where the company believes it understands the sales model and why customers are buying. But the company may need to strategically pivot a product and/or sales message based on the latest marketplace learnings. Entrepreneurial companies need executives who can strategically pinpoint new opportunities and then execute for results.
 
3. Emphasis on Selling Services
I’ve long specialized in finding executives who can sell services for consulting company clients who place a premium on strong skills in this area. Most tech salespeople are experienced at selling products or software applications. But as more tech firms start offering high-margin information-based services, companies are seeking sales execs who know how to sell them. It's a different animal requiring hybrid skills of a consultant who has installed services and who can communicate their value to customers. Today’s most in-demand sales execs know how to sell both products and intangibles.
 
4. Analytics Acumen a Must
Companies now have huge amounts of customer data available to help boost targeting and efficiency. That puts a premium on execs who truly understand analytics, and – more importantly – know how to use data-based findings to improve performance. Whether the field is general management, marketing or engineering, executives who learn how to harness data analytics will have a bigger role going forward. In my view, marketing – typically a non-tech function in the past – will become an increasingly technical role based on an explosion of marketing analytics.
 
5. Social Media Marketing Goes Next-Gen
Marketing executives must keep pace with the changing digital landscape of web advertising, social media, SEO/SEM, and myriad of new owned, earned and paid marketing channels and techniques. One VP Marketing tells me she reserves budget specifically for advances she doesn’t yet know about. Companies are well beyond simply trying out Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms. Now it's about turning engagement into sales. The only sure thing is that social will keep evolving.
 
6. Enabling Technologies Hold Sway
During the California gold rush, the suppliers – or enablers – made the most money. In similar fashion, various tools and technologies that support and amplify the Internet and social media will be the "pick axes" of our connected world. Executives understanding and producing these enabling technologies will continue to derive value rather than competing for the next generation of users.
 
7. Execs Embrace Gamification
A half dozen years ago, one CMO candidate distinguished himself by finding innovative ways to market through cleverly imbedded games and product placements deep within targeted search results. Now we even see companies such as Salesforce adding gamification in the form of badges for increasing sales. With millions of casual gamers and a growing percentage of those paying for games, executives who understand gamification can find ways to increase revenue through this mechanism. Who knew countless hours of game-playing could pay off?
 
8. More Asia/America Leadership Connections
With China’s explosive growth and Silicon Valley's already strong manufacturing relationships with Asia, I’m seeing a lot more inter-region hiring activity. Several multi-billion dollar Asian companies have engaged our firm to start or enhance Silicon Valley offices. And we’ve been hired to find Asian Americans to fill critical leadership roles in Asia for US-based firms that want US-style leadership skills infused into an Asian office. I’m already brushing up on my college Mandarin!
 
9. Resume Keywords Get Real
Companies look for talent by searching for resume keywords such as cloud, SaaS, Big Data, mobile applications, etc. But some candidates go overboard with job titles saying, for example, "VP Sales Cloud Computing" in 2000 –  long before the term cloud computing was ever used. I find it’s better when executives list the predecessor technology they worked on. My advice is to use “software defined” language such as client server, thin client, hosted software or others. It shows me – the recruiter – that you understand the underlying business models.
 
10. "Value-Based" Interviewing Takes Hold
Interviewing can be subject to trends and has, itself, moved beyond behavioral and case interviewing. The trend now is toward probing the specific value a prospective candidate can bring to the company. What would the candidate do today? At the executive level, candidates should have a well-defined point of view on what skills and experiences they bring that can make a difference. Companies are asking candidates to present a 90-day business plan for the job. Candidates may weary of providing "free consulting" but that’s the new price of admission.
 
 
Current Searches
 
Kathryn Ullrich Associates' recent search work has included a VP Sales for a hosted software company, VP Sales Cloud Computing for a $35 billion technology company, Regional Sales Director Asia Pacific for an electronics distributor, and VP HR for an ecommerce company.
 
We are currently working on the following searches:

• CEO for an innovative technology company
• VP Sales and Marketing for software platform corporate spin-off
• Sales Manager for a communication services provider with Asian headquarters
• Sales Manager for a company targeting the legal market
• Laboratory Manager for an analytical lab

For more information, visit www.ullrichassociates.com. Kathryn Ullrich Associates, Inc. focuses on C-level, VP and Director hires across the functions of Sales, Marketing, Product Management and Consulting for technology and services companies.
 
 
News
 
Kathryn Ullrich and Getting to the Top have been quoted extensively in the news this past year!  Read details at http://www.gettingtothetop.com/MediaKit.aspx
 
 
Follow us…
Twitter at http://twitter.com/GettingtotheTop
LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/ullrich, and
Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/gettingtothetop.
 
 
More Information
 
For more information on Kathryn Ullrich Associates, Inc. and our executive recruiting services, please call 650-458-8775, email kathrynu@ullrichassociates.com or visit
www.ullrichassociates.com.
 

Yes Linkedin has a new layout and we all still look the same, but prettier. However, since recruiters are paying $8000 USD annually to find us, let's do what we can to help them. In fact let's make it easy on them.

Here are 5 simple and quick things to implement that will put you in a recruiter's headlights. It will wildly improve your visibility to recruiters on Linkedin. But before you go crazy, on Linkedin go up under your name and click on Settings in the drop down menu to close down all you visibility. You really do not want Linkedin to announce to the whole world every time you join a group or add a contact. Yes, you have to set your privacy as the default is total public nakedness on Linkedin...not good.

1. Join 50 groups and, if you can find them, 50 subgroups and follow 50 companies that you would like to work for. This will get your profile out there more. Recruiters do key word searches in the search box on group member pages.
   
2. Fill in all the basic profile blanks: Summary, experience, schooling, interests, awards, contact information and personal, languages. Leave no category not filled in with some kind of information about you.
   
3. Add the Projects section and use accomplishments from your resume work experience as projects. This will increase a recruiter's key word search potential on your strengths. Don't write all those bullets in the Experience section, rather break them out and elaborate on them as Projects. That way you can make dated experience look fresh and put a more detailed description on your accomplishments without endless bullets.
   
4. Add the Skill section and list LOTS of skills: functional skills, technical skills, languages, methodologies, tools, people skills, data skills. List everything that would be of value in your next position and next employer. The Skill section is setup to provide key word searches forrecruiters. You see 88% of the people on Linkedin are really terrible at filing in and writing a compelling, complete profile on Linkedin. Even if the  recruiters wanted to hire them they can't be found because of lack of key words, or even any words sometimes. Linkedin nudges every one into creating skill lists a.k.a key words by urging everybody to endorse everybody else. Endorsing people's skills is officially now the next cool thing to do on Linkedin and it is easier that getting recommendations written.
   
5. Connect to all the recruiters you come across...100's of them if you can pull that off. Find them in those 50 groups you joined. Use the search term "recruitment" on the group's member page. Just go down the list and invite them to connect. They will NEVER turn you down. I had a client go from 50 connections to over the magic 500 in one month. He instantly looked well-networked. Since nobody saw his connections, they didn't know it was 500+ recruiter connections. 
   

These 5 tasks will not take long and the rewards you will reap will be astonishing. Linkedin is really a numbers game to be seen and found. My client who connected to over 500 recruiters on 3 continents in less than a month ended up with 2 interviews. He is at the top executive level so those searches are not plentiful. He got a good return on his investment. Further, every time he posts a blog that highlights his expertise, it goes to his Linkedin updates. His LInkedin updates remind all his recruiter-connections continually of his talents and availability. This is a virtuous circle of creating a reputation and having it be seen on

If you want help in building out the content to make your Linkedin Profile really shine, contact me at patti@careercompany.com

They have been doing the same ridiculous surveys for year and the results never change. Neither does the corporate response  to the answers. Employees want to be better paid. It is no secret that the American worker's standard of living and income has continually lost ground over the past 30+ years. The workloads increases while the wealth has not trickled down and it is unlikely to do so as globalism continues to level the employment playing field. Only the very few types of skilled professionals will be sought after and well compensated.
On the other hand, the continuous request for flexibility has shown some improvement over the years as global, distributed teams have increased the necessity to work remotely and at staggered times across borders, as has the increased cost of energy. It seems that having employees work from home saves on energy costs at work.
People have wanted the same things since serfdom ended: to be recognized for work done not micromanaged for time put in, to be rewarded fairly, and to trusted and treated as thoughtful, contributing adults not mindless drones.  

CareerBuilder Survey Reveals Most Wanted Office Perks and What Motivates Workers to Stay With Companies
CHICAGO, January 24, 2013 – .....A new CareerBuilder survey explores which job factors are most important to today’s workers. More than 3,900 full-time workers nationwide participated in the survey conducted online by Harris Interactive© from November 1 to November 30, 2012.
Nearly one-third of employers (32 percent) reported that top performers left their organizations in 2012 and 39 percent are concerned that they’ll lose top talent in 2013. While most workers (66 percent) stated that they are generally satisfied with their jobs, one in four (25 percent) said they will change jobs in 2013 or 2014.

How important is title?
While upward mobility is a key factor in job satisfaction and employee retention, having a certain title isn’t important to more than half of workers (55 percent). The vast majority (88 percent) reported that salary matters more. Other factors that outrank job title in what is most important to workers are:



· Flexible schedule – 59 percent
· Being able to make a difference – 48 percent
· Challenging work – 35 percent
· Ability to work from home – 33 percent
· Academic reimbursement – 18 percent
· Having an office – 17 percent
· Company car – 14 percent
Read more

All resumes are digital, but people still don't seem to get that.  I don't care if you are CEO or a Barrista at Starbucks. Nobody will see your resume on a piece of paper unless : A. you carry it into them, or B. you walk in for an interview. Your resume gets passed around from computer, to tablet, to cloud database. If you are going to be networked, connected, and screened for jobs online then why not think out of the box and emulate the best at the same time?

I give you the madly gone viral "resume" for Philippe Dubost that is a direct send up of an Amazon product page. And, yes, it is being called a resume in an article by Will Oremus at Slate.com

I think Philippe is funny, brilliant, and creative. I'd buy him.
View Phil's resume here

TalentBin Takes On LinkedIn By Targeting Recruiters
By David Zax | January 14, 2013
.....That’s because TalentBin doesn’t compete with the services LinkedIn offers to the average user. Rather, TalentBin competes with the behind-the-scenes services LinkedIn offers a very specific, and lucrative, segment: recruiters.

You may not have known this, but LinkedIn makes the majority of its revenue by serving recruiters who want to scoop up talent for their companies. In the third quarter of 2012, fully 55% of the company’s revenue came from what LinkedIn calls “Talent Solutions.” (Premium subscriptions, by contrast, only make up 20% of revenue.) LinkedIn largely achieves this by digesting resumes into what Kazanjy calls “this master database that recruiters pay a pretty penny to essentially get God rights to.”

TalentBin digests data from ... many others. For hackers, it stalks sites like GitHub or StackOverflow; for designers, it scans the likes of Dribble and Behance. It even trolls the U.S. Patent Database, looking for inventive types. Most recently, says Kazanjy, the team “indexed the entirety of the PubMed Life Sciences Publication Directory,” some 20 million articles, to glean information about talented medical researchers and their interests. “It starts to show this approach doesn’t just work with software engineers,” he says. “It also works with physicians, researchers, biotech people, and so forth.” That project was just completed in December.

Gradually, TalentBin has built a “search engine for people,” as Kazanjy puts it, one which he charges $6,000 per year for the privilege of accessing (undercutting LinkedIn’s reported price tag, which can climb to $8,000).
Read more

While TalentBin may nibble at the edges of Linkedin to do specific, niche searches for gurus in the esoteric fields, Linkedin is a runaway train for talent search. The reason is that recruiters for less esoteric positions like the interactive search of Linkedin. They like being chased by candidates who may turn out to be a good fit for something. Recruiters like developing a "presence" online and a following. That makes future, non-esoteric, searches easier and quicker.

One of my executive clients literally went from 50 to 600 connections in less than a month by sending invites to recruiters in all of the 50 groups he had joined on Linkedin. Recruiters never turn down your offer to connect. We pushed him past the magic 500 number and made him look well-connected virtually overnight. Once he was over 500 then professionals he did not know more readily accepted his invitations to connect as they perceived him as a valuable networking contact.

People like communities, even recruiters, which explains why Linkedin groups, even with all their spam, are so popular. The only recruiting category killer lurking on the horizon is Facebook. And it's method for data capture has to be improved to give Linkedin a run for its money.

If you can’t get into a top-five MBA program, don’t even bother
By Jay Bhatti — January 15, 2013 Jay Bhatti is an investor and advisor to startups in New York City. Previously, he was the co-founder of the people search engine Spock.com. He also worked as a product manager for Microsoft. In 2002, he received his MBA from the Wharton School. Read more.

The extent of his understanding about MBA is  limited by his  elitist world view. His main complaints are:

• An MBA won't get you a job as easily as 30 years ago upon graduation. News flash! Nothing will do that, nothing.

• Nor does it help, he commented, with follow on jobs. That's a longstanding fact.  Career management 101 says that the farther back the experience the less relevant and pertinent it is to getting hired. Otherwise pre-school would count.

• It is too expensive now to be worth it and you aren't special anymore because so many schools offer them. It used to be that knowledge, titles, degrees and other good things in life were accessible only to the ruling, upper class (example George W. Bush got a Harvard MBA). The playing field is now leveled and much more competitive globally. An MBA from IIM, in India counts the same as Harvard now. And will someone please tell Jay that a Bachelor's degree will now put you in debt for life.

• His bottomline is that you can only justify the expense if you go only to the still special top five schools including his alma mater. Nah, that's desirable but optional and maybe not even necessary. Well, we are all commodities now, even the top five MBA schools. There is no more low hanging job fruit that some special degree get's you in and ensures your ongoing promotion, advancement, and opportunities.

So, why get an MBA? For the network. Yes, the network. Example, UCLA is not in Jay's top five but it has over 30,000 alumni out there to help you with  introductions, resources, access to opportunities, and career advice. That network doesn't become obsolete over time, better still, it keep on growing. You are buying a built in database of connections better than whatever Linkedin can do for you.  Your fellow alumni are all invested in your success as much as their own as you will reflect back well upon them and the alma mater.

How should you pick the MBA school? By the numbers. How many total graduates are there? How many in the geographical area of your preference. Example, most UCLA MBA alumni are in Southern California.  How many are in the field or industry of your preference? Some schools are known for finance and accounting vs marketing and management.

Do not pick an online school and degree as there is not enough connection and loyalty to the school to be good for networking.  Pick a big enough school so that you have ample selection. Example, my degree from JFK University in Career Development was so small and niched that I practically know everybody in the alumni pool. 

Is an MBA worth it? If you want a career in business, yes, as a bachelor's degree is now the equivalent of a high school diploma for entry into the world of work.
 

Who said you can never be too thin or too rich or have too many diamonds? The whole goal of personal branding is not to limit your exposure online but to expand and control it. Linkedin, other social networks, a personal website are not either or choices. This is not a zero sum game. 

Self-marketing online (and where else is it nowadays?) is best done by delivering your message using as many platforms, tools and devices as possible. This also includes a "Presume" on Sliderocket.com and a personal Prezi presentation too. Then link them altogether. 

How weird would it be if Coca Cola used only billboards for advertising and not TV, online and magazines? Same goes for us.

When someone puts your name in google search...not only Linkedin should come up but a whole plethora of branded links about you that you own and control: website, blogs, etc.

But, like everything else online, websites are now commodities and therefore cheap, if not free.  You can build your own with little talent for design and no money and still have a passable result. I will be better than Linkedin because it is uniquely you. A personal website enables us to truly express our uniqueness compared to template-driven social sites. They all have different purposes. Linkedin and other social sites are first and foremost  connectors rather than a branding instrument. 

There are several cloud services for websites where the building and hosting is free as well is the maintenance. Try www.weebly.com . I build all my client's sites there...since 2009 almost 80. My own business and personal websites and blogs are on Weebly: www.pattiwilson.com, www.pattiwilson.net, www.santacruzcalifornia.us, www.joyousdancer.com, 

I don't think it matters in a Google search which site is point as people (especially search consultants) are curious enough to look at everything. When I sign my name in an email, I list my title, company, Linkedin, SKYPE, website URLs, my phone number. People usually copy all of it for their Outlook files or whatever. 

The web is moving towards image driven content and curated content. How better to provide both images and curated content of ourselves than a website? Although I do have my business on Pinterest too.

in addition... 
www.about.me is an online business card that will link and point to all other sites online where your profile and dossier exists. If you can only put one link under your name in an email, then use that site. It is free. The only competitor that I know of to about.me is www.flavors.com . You can do both. About.me is one page and they will provide you will a print business card that matches your about.me profile too.

Send me an email if you want to see a rainforest research science project website that a 9 year old built by herself using Weebly or some of the sites I have done. Patti@pattiwilson.com

How long is long? Is the perception of length different in a print document vs an online page? What is the big deal about a one or two page resume when your Linkedin profile, if printed, can run upwards of five pages?

Why are you still worried about having a short, tight, brief, truncated, abbreviated resume to not tax the time and mental agility of a recruiter?

They, meaning search firms, contract recruiters, hiring managers and HR dedicate considerable time and energy to comb and cull through LInkedin profiles looking for the perfect candidate. In fact they pay $8000+ for a seat license to so do.

They read through the recommendations, the summary, each job description, skills lists, projects, honors/awards, interests, education, group membership, certifications, languages,  lists of connections, and, of course, the updates.

Why is there still such archaic rules around resumes? Resumes are held to different standards than an online social profile because the hiring powers, especially the search firms, still see a resume as a page or pages printed on paper.

They have this unique twist of mind that can rationalize the fact that a resume lives entirely a digital life except for a brief appearance on paper during the interview. They still see a resume's online state as temporary because they do print it out when they bring in a candidate. It is this historical, traditional, head-in-sand viewpoint.

It is pretty ridiculous to say a resume has to be short since people are being hired every day on the basis of their very long and detailed Linkedin profiles that are referred to and viewed on a tablet or laptop screen during the interview. Ironically, your resume is stored in the clouds or on a server database for further reference, key word searches, and archive records. Its life in print is very temporary indeed.

What do you do? Make your Linkedin profile as robust and informed as possible? Maybe with great care as it is very public given the networking nature of Linkedin. It matters that you fill out most categories fully and with captivating information. But, that information should be designed to elicit further contact with you, not as data to screen you out. 

The important idea to keep in mind is that both your resume and Linkedin profile exist for one purpose to attract positive attention that results in you being contacted for an opportunity that would be of interest to you. They both, to that end, should be as long as it takes.