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

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.
 

This is a new twist. I have been saying for several years now that recruiters and hiring managers are looking in Linkedin first for potential hires and then Google searches. They bypass resume searches out of their own website databases in favor of prowling through online profiles. 

Now some HR experts, notably the esteemed Dr. John Sullivan,  have realized to require an employee to submit someone's resume to make an employee referral is a really dumb idea. And he tells you in this article all the good reasons why. 

Time to just burn that resume and build a professional website instead? I think so.

Why “Name-only” Employee Referrals Produce Dramatic Results
by Dr. John Sullivan Oct 29, 2012, 5:42 am ET

Employee referrals provide the highest quality and the highest volume of hires, but you won’t receive as high a level of results if you don’t minimize roadblocks to referrals. Requiring a current resume for employee referrals is a major “under-the-radar” detriment to reaching the goal of having referrals exceed 50% of all hires.

 Requiring a resume to start a referral process might not seem like a big deal (because the resume is “the currency” of recruiting) but it can be. Although “active candidates” all have current resumes, employed people who are not actively looking (some people call thempassives) don’t have an updated resume available and they may have little interest in creating one.

Requiring an updated resume in order to move forward slows down and occasionally stops employee referral efforts. Consider an alternative approach, which is offering an option to employees, so that all they must submit is a prospect’s name and contact information in order to begin the referral process. This approach is known as a “name-only” referral.
read more

You do the math: 150 thought leaders is far less than 1% of its 175 million members. 

LinkedIn Rolls Out Redesigned Profiles, 'Thought Leader' Feature
By Damon Poeter
October 16, 2012 
PCMagazine 
LinkedIn also introduced a new feature for users with the redesign--the ability to follow 150 of "the world's most respected thought leaders" (pictured above). The company called the addition of a "follow" mechanism, which allows users to keep up with this select group of individuals, "a natural extension" of existing tools for following companies and news feeds, but said it had no current plans to monetize the new feature.
Read more

Linkedin has decided for us who these people are. They will be expanding the list and add people who are experts in their field. You can apply at http://partner.linkedin.com/influencer/

Linkedin is doing a one-off from the Google+ style of posts where we can freely put anybody in our circles and follow them and comment on their posts. Linkedin has artificially set-up 150 follows with the same intention. But, how can millions of us get any kind of visibility with a Thought Leader to have a conversation?

There has always been a huge culture difference between Linkedin and Google+. Linkedin is very template-driven, structured and rule bound while Google offers the, "I'm feeling lucky" feature for  search. Google Circles and Follows have grown organically from the bottom up while Linkedin Thought Leader Follows are obviously trickling down.

What do you think of the Linkedin Thought Leader Follows? Do you have a problem with being provided a highly controlled and limited list of chosen elites?

Follow me on Google+ 

It is interesting to note that drops in the equity markets and general economic crashes have generally occurred in the Fall. Even though the US economy has done a yeoman's job of pulling itself back from the abyss, it doesn't mean we won't be dragged over the cliff by the rest of the world. 

This certainly makes the tech sector the brightest star in the night heavens compared to other employment sectors.  Consumer electronics is a cheap thrill compared to buying a new car. And tech devices and Cloud computing are productivity tools that impact the bottom line when growing revenues doesn't. 

We aren't out of this mess yet.

BRIAN MILNER
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Oct. 09 2012, 7:48 PM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, Oct. 10 2012, 6:34 AM EDT

The rest of the world is ratcheting up already intense pressure on Washington and Brussels to head off another global economic crisis, as the outlook grows ever dimmer.
The gravest threats to the increasingly fragile recovery lie in a divided United States and a wounded euro zone, according to the growing chorus of voices that are urging governments to act quickly and decisively to deal with crippling debt and fiscal problems.

ResumUp is a new tool that is a graphically social based view of your experience and talents. Whew, graphically-social based, now that's a mouth full. But how do you describe the new image driven content style of cloud apps coming up online now?

It is an interesting concept and of course it remains to be seen how they will monetize this but I like the look. Hint, sign up using your Linkedin profile not Facebook as it populates the data fields from the site you choose. I am not sure I would want a future employer to take a look at my credentials presented in this fashion. However, the resume is a dying breed we need to stay ahead of the curve and manipulate these tools to our advantage. 

If you want to sign-up for the free best click here.

Business Insider has 23 examples of cool resumes using Instagram, the image-based website that Facebook just bought for $1 billion. They said in their intro:

It seems like a boring black and white resume won't get you very far anymore. Inspired by 7 cool resumes we found on Pinterest, we scoured Instagram for some more. Here are the most creative resumes we found. View all 23 here


Some of the examples are stunning, others quirky, and all are young...very young. This really can work for you if you are under 30 and fighting for visibility in this very tough job market for early professionals. Certainly it can give anyone in the creative arts, digital media, and technology an extra edge and opportunity to showcase their talents.

But will Instagram and Pinterest work for mid-career experienced professionals and senior executives? A qualified yes.

It depends on the sector, the role and position level. In heavy equipment manufacturing at the C-level it would not be advisable. At least not this year.  But in consumer packaged goods, fast moving consumer goods, hospitality, sports, recreation, entertainment, consumer electronics, fashion, advertizing, and technology sectors,  those sites could well be a differentiating addition to your online branding.  

The position is important too. Traditional fields of finance, insurance, risk management, facilities management, for example, don't lend themselves, right now, to this kind of treatment. This kind of personal branding would not be expected nor accepted in more conservative sectors or professions.  

With all of the above caveats, in the parade, it is far better to ahead of the elephants and horses than behind. In 2003, when Linkedin launched nobody had ever heard of it let alone wanted to join and connect.  Back then it was easy to get thousands of connections (and I did) and now you have to buy them.

My advice is to register your name on Pinterest and Instagram to just hold a place for your profile. Eventually they will become acceptable social sites like linkedin is now and you then can leverage them for online branding.

See all my blogs and website on Pinterest boards . Instagram is next.

We all know by now about very successful launch of The Startup of You by  the founder of Linkedin. It has good tips and advice for the Social Generation's job search. 

But that's not my point here. I have been mulling the changes that 20 years can make in how we have careers, look for work and create our success.  

In 1990, Tom Peter's published in Fast Company, The Brand Called You.
During the past 20+ years, people, with the help of the Internet, have figured out and mastered how to brand, pitch, promote and market themselves to get or stay employed. 

Everybody is on Google+, Linkedin, Viadeo, Xing, and FB pages with profiles describing their accomplishments.  Many professionals (all my clients) are setting up professional websites, iPad profiles, and even Presumes. 

Yes, we have got the branding part down to the point that everyone is sick of hearing the word used. Unfortunately, being well branded, positioned and marketed isn't enough anymore.  The Startup of You addresses the really salient career challenges that the Social Generation faces today. 
How do you find a job and stay employed in a global marketplace for talent where there aren't enough jobs, the competition is fierce, and everybody is a brand?

Well the message is threefold:

1. Jack and Jill be nimble and quick to respond to market demands just like a start-up because plan A may not work, nor the rest of the alphabet. See my blog on Alice and the Red Queen.
   
2. Know where best to insert yourself into the marketplace while being true to what you want and who you are. And that's a tough one to figure out sometimes without the help of someone like me.
3. But the main take-away is something that the Social Generation really gets: your job prospects are only as good as your network. As I say, and many laugh, "the person who dies with the biggest network, wins."
   

Some reading this may say that this is all old news that is just repackaged. I don't think so. What is interesting to note is the shift in emphasis over 20 years from the sole individual with a brand to a person as part of a collective network.  

As we all live digital lives, building a the global village around us to support our career survival has become a most efficacious route.

In an interesting addendum to the article below, I was speaking with a long-time client last night who told me that all the job postings up in Silicon Valley are not as accurate as one might think in the economic boomlet going on here. 

Apparently more hires are being done by headhunters outside the company and internal hires inside. The postings are window dressing to satisfy government requirements and to distract competitors. I can't tell you companies names but he got it verified by insiders at former places where he has worked. I double checked and agree.

Why is all the internal hiring happening? Well it's faster, cheaper and, at least in Silicon Valley, the person has been "test driven".  Typically anywhere from 20to 60% new hires are contractors. When an regular hire opening comes up, then the company sources internally from its contractor and consultant pool.  That's my best guess on this. The other part of using headhunters for outside, well they control the deal flow so a fire hose of applicants isn't engulfing HR. With so much good talent out there looking, they can cherry pick top candidates with much less hassle than the company's staff can.

Here is an excerpt from Peter Capelli's article. He is using his gut, anecdotal, hunching as well!


HR leaders tend to try to push back against the fetish in their corporations to hire from outside instead of promoting from within. A new study offers some evidence to bolster their case. 

By Peter Cappelli

My editors always say give away the story early on, so the answer is, "no." But it requires a little more background to make the story interesting.

Probably the most important development in corporate life over the last generation or so has been the decline of lifetime careers and the rise of outside hiring. The situation in many businesses now is that, when there is a vacancy, they automatically think about filling vacancies by looking outside. Internal promotions are something of a rarity.

I don't have any hard evidence for this, but my sense from anecdotes is that the outside hiring trend has been driven by CEOs and other top executives who (a) if they were hired from the outside think that is the way to go for other roles as well or (b) seem to have a "grass is greener" view of external candidates, especially those who come from an admired employer. 
read more here

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It is so addictive when surfing around the Internet to identify and click on interesting bits of information, articles, news stories with the little Pinterest Pin It button and post an image and link to one of my Pinterest boards.

Pinterest is a visually, discriminating version of Delicious.com, and Stumbleupon. I pick out a relevant image on the article's page, tag it and attach a brief comment/opinion of my own. I use the image to attract your attention to the information and the article.

I know that's not exactly what Pinterest intended but it works. Most people put up a collage of clothes, artwork, jewelry, photos, fashion, food, travel, movies and music images. You know, lifestyle.

Just look at the Pinterest category list. There is no category for business, the economy, globalization, philosophy, history, politics, careers and jobs, or any of my board titles. Pinterest has self-created its own limitations because it focuses on the image as an end unto itself rather than the means, conduit and connection to an even greater end... the source of the image and attached link.

I connected my Facebook profile to Pinterest so that all my pins post to FB. I have had, in just two days, several people comment and repin a number of pins. Now that is cool because nobody comments on my blog posts, except for the occasional spamer.

Check out my Pinterest boards on Career Tools, Global Economy, Working Wisdom and Culture.
You may get addicted too!