From the Roots of Our Beginning Blogs
The blog postings below were from a previous blog. Hopefully, I saved only the most useful and relevant information from 2003 forward as much of it was dated news or obsolete advice.
A great many transformations have occurred in the tools and techniques for how we find new opportunities, advance our careers and promote ourselves successfully in a global, networked market for talent. However, the foundation is timeless. It has never changed that we must be able to articulate our abilities, define our passions, and find our right path to become our dreams and reach our destiny . |
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The Job From Hell and How to Avoid It
Your resources and information have been invaluable over the years. I just visited your website and noticed the following comment:
"Have you ever wondered why the great position from the outside turns into the position-from-hell once you accept the offer? Most folks just don't do an effective job of asking the right questions before accepting the offer." Do you have a link or article that describes the "right" questions or process to go about understanding the position during the interview process?
Thanks!
Mark
I wish it were that simple, Mark, just an article and you got it. Determining the questions to ask is a subjective process based on your personal career criteria, work style, and goals. Like beauty, the position-from-hell is in the eye of the beholder. Which makes the evaluation and analysis of corporate culture an endlessly fascinating discussion.
You or I may not thrive in a Cypress Semiconductor, take no prisoners aggressive culture while others may happily call it nirvana. How well your personality fits into or matches the management and organizational style and your career criteria are satisfied by the company determines the degree of job satisfaction or hell you perceive.
People leaving a bad situation that they were newly hired into have told me time and again that they could have seen the situation going into the job had they asked more, better, enough, or different questions. Those questions are really unique to each individual and are based on their values, needs and wants. In other words, you have to figure out who you are and what you want first and then develop questions that will clarify how you match up to the company.
Come up with a list of your top values. Let's say for fun, that fun is your number one career value. Well a good question to pose to all the interviewers might be, how do you have fun and celebrate around here? If the response doesn't match up to your preferences, its likely that in that one aspect the company may not be a good fit.
I could go on with this but you get the idea. There are just no silver bullets or shortcuts to managing your career. And screw ups can be costly in terms of time and career derailment.
"Have you ever wondered why the great position from the outside turns into the position-from-hell once you accept the offer? Most folks just don't do an effective job of asking the right questions before accepting the offer." Do you have a link or article that describes the "right" questions or process to go about understanding the position during the interview process?
Thanks!
Mark
I wish it were that simple, Mark, just an article and you got it. Determining the questions to ask is a subjective process based on your personal career criteria, work style, and goals. Like beauty, the position-from-hell is in the eye of the beholder. Which makes the evaluation and analysis of corporate culture an endlessly fascinating discussion.
You or I may not thrive in a Cypress Semiconductor, take no prisoners aggressive culture while others may happily call it nirvana. How well your personality fits into or matches the management and organizational style and your career criteria are satisfied by the company determines the degree of job satisfaction or hell you perceive.
People leaving a bad situation that they were newly hired into have told me time and again that they could have seen the situation going into the job had they asked more, better, enough, or different questions. Those questions are really unique to each individual and are based on their values, needs and wants. In other words, you have to figure out who you are and what you want first and then develop questions that will clarify how you match up to the company.
Come up with a list of your top values. Let's say for fun, that fun is your number one career value. Well a good question to pose to all the interviewers might be, how do you have fun and celebrate around here? If the response doesn't match up to your preferences, its likely that in that one aspect the company may not be a good fit.
I could go on with this but you get the idea. There are just no silver bullets or shortcuts to managing your career. And screw ups can be costly in terms of time and career derailment.
Job Hopping, Age Discrimination and Other Search Tribulations
I was developing a branded linkedin profile for an executive client and once again came up against the issue of having to insert dates for every job. While my client's experience back in the 1970's and early 1980's was highly relevant, I didn't particularly feel like emphasizing how dated the work was. I have run into the same problem with someone who has held multiple short term jobs on a professional level. This most often has happened working for start ups that go under, or in rapidly contracting sector rife with mergers and acquisitions.
Given I can't get Linkedin to loosen up on their natural inclination to put structure and rules around everything on their site, I just work around them.
I suggest to my clients to not give each job a separate entry on Linkedin or any other social site, but rather clump titles and jobs together under one date range. Maybe your last two position, including your current one, would be listed out separately. The advantage is nobody knows how long you worked at any one position and you can decide on the earliest date you want to show.
Another tack is to not fill in work experience at all but focus on the summary section instead, using it to elaborate on your work history in way that brands and markets you. Then use the specialties section to add lots and lots of keywords.
Remember, Linkedin or any other social site is not your resume, so don't be duped into filling it out as if it was. Beware of Zoominfo's list of your employment history. You can modify your profile on that site and should. Many search firms use it exclusively. Find work-arounds to their structures to suit yourself. Use all social sites as marketing and branding tools not obituaries.
You will be better off doing a website-blog as a professional profile on line that you can control and guide the delivery of image and content. The cost has dropped to make it totally affordable. The ease of update with a dashboard instead of html code makes it feasible for anyone to own one and update it. If you want information or examples on how to do this, just shoot me an email: [email protected]
Given I can't get Linkedin to loosen up on their natural inclination to put structure and rules around everything on their site, I just work around them.
I suggest to my clients to not give each job a separate entry on Linkedin or any other social site, but rather clump titles and jobs together under one date range. Maybe your last two position, including your current one, would be listed out separately. The advantage is nobody knows how long you worked at any one position and you can decide on the earliest date you want to show.
Another tack is to not fill in work experience at all but focus on the summary section instead, using it to elaborate on your work history in way that brands and markets you. Then use the specialties section to add lots and lots of keywords.
Remember, Linkedin or any other social site is not your resume, so don't be duped into filling it out as if it was. Beware of Zoominfo's list of your employment history. You can modify your profile on that site and should. Many search firms use it exclusively. Find work-arounds to their structures to suit yourself. Use all social sites as marketing and branding tools not obituaries.
You will be better off doing a website-blog as a professional profile on line that you can control and guide the delivery of image and content. The cost has dropped to make it totally affordable. The ease of update with a dashboard instead of html code makes it feasible for anyone to own one and update it. If you want information or examples on how to do this, just shoot me an email: [email protected]
Pay Cuts Turn Ugly
Companies have moved beyond reductions in force to reductions in pay and not just at the top. This can range from an across the board 5% salary cut to more interesting and perverse variations on the theme.
The last scenario I heard yesterday was from someone working at a privately held company on the East Coast struggling to survive that cut back everyone to a 30 hour work week. Of course they are expected to produce the same results. In addition they were being paid every two weeks but that has been extended to three weeks but with only two weeks pay.
In effect, this adds up to a 50% pay cut. These people would have been better off laid off so they could collect unemployment insurance and have the time to look for a new job.
Are there any protections against this egregious behavior? In some cases if you have an employment contract, and in some states, there is legal redress. And if any wages are withheld for work already done then you have a legal claim.
We life in tough times right now but this too shall pass. When the good times come again, then those companies who acted unfairly and unwisely in their treatment of their employees will rue the day that they did.
The best way for employers to mitigate problems is to proactively engage their employees in dialog about the needed reductions and to try to find common ground that everyone can live with. This then engenders buy-in and support resulting in a less demoralized, more productive and engaged workforce.
The last scenario I heard yesterday was from someone working at a privately held company on the East Coast struggling to survive that cut back everyone to a 30 hour work week. Of course they are expected to produce the same results. In addition they were being paid every two weeks but that has been extended to three weeks but with only two weeks pay.
In effect, this adds up to a 50% pay cut. These people would have been better off laid off so they could collect unemployment insurance and have the time to look for a new job.
Are there any protections against this egregious behavior? In some cases if you have an employment contract, and in some states, there is legal redress. And if any wages are withheld for work already done then you have a legal claim.
We life in tough times right now but this too shall pass. When the good times come again, then those companies who acted unfairly and unwisely in their treatment of their employees will rue the day that they did.
The best way for employers to mitigate problems is to proactively engage their employees in dialog about the needed reductions and to try to find common ground that everyone can live with. This then engenders buy-in and support resulting in a less demoralized, more productive and engaged workforce.
Twitter is Not About You in a Job Search
was reading the top posts for the week on Web Worker Daily and came across one on How To Monitor Online Conversations . The gist of the post was how to track online mentions about your company, business, profession, and yourself. It suggested using a dashboard, filter feeds, and the right Twitter clients. As good as the post was, the comments sections were even better, packed full of links to more tools to find, filter, sort, cull and monitor online conversation. It is obvious that this is on the mind of enough SW programmers that a small market is in the making.
That's when the light blub went on for me about how I was using Twitter. I had bought into the notion that bigger is better with Twitter. I thought that the more people following me and that I followed the better regardless if they had something to offer or not. In some situations, that premise may work but when using Twitter for a job search as it misses the whole point.
Yes, it can be a delightful ego builder to have people follow you, @ respond and RT your posts. But unless you already have a superbly branded and well established reputation in your field that is extended visibly online, well being noticed on Twitter can be fleeting and ephemeral not to mention irrelevant for a job search.
If everybody already knows you and your reputation precedes you then you don't need Twitter to find a job. Anyways, let's face it, none of us are Guy Kawasaki who can well afford to have paid staff find pithy things to link to that get volumes of RTs by the Twittermondi. It is not worth having the Joneses for this. By the time you hit the big time with your Tweets the recession will be over, unless Twitter gets a wild hair to feature you.
Better that you uncover search specific data, dig out opportunity focused leads and other stuff that will advance your search. That is done, not by grasping for followers to hang on your every Tweet but by selective, well-orchestrated following by you of the right people and companies. Enough with random follows of incessant blah blahs who tweet about various and sundry inanities that have nothing to do with your goals and objectives. You can't build enough Tweetdeck columns to accommodate the noise.
Stay focused, follow only those people whose position, industry connections and knowledge as reflected in their posts, and job titles, can do your search some good. This is not even about meeting them but about learning their thought leadership, opinions and wisdom. If you want to break into a field or sector this is crucial and will do you more good than other forms of online intelligence gathering as it it what the right people are saying right now.
The bonus is that you just might be able to strike up a conversation, build a relationship or two and get to know these folks. But you sure aren't going to accomplish that when you are focused on you own Tweets. Who cares how Joe Cool you come off using all the latest # jive? Who cares how much you too RT Guy or Scoble or God? It is not about you, it is about them. And from them, how well do you capture what you need to help your job search progress?
That's when the light blub went on for me about how I was using Twitter. I had bought into the notion that bigger is better with Twitter. I thought that the more people following me and that I followed the better regardless if they had something to offer or not. In some situations, that premise may work but when using Twitter for a job search as it misses the whole point.
Yes, it can be a delightful ego builder to have people follow you, @ respond and RT your posts. But unless you already have a superbly branded and well established reputation in your field that is extended visibly online, well being noticed on Twitter can be fleeting and ephemeral not to mention irrelevant for a job search.
If everybody already knows you and your reputation precedes you then you don't need Twitter to find a job. Anyways, let's face it, none of us are Guy Kawasaki who can well afford to have paid staff find pithy things to link to that get volumes of RTs by the Twittermondi. It is not worth having the Joneses for this. By the time you hit the big time with your Tweets the recession will be over, unless Twitter gets a wild hair to feature you.
Better that you uncover search specific data, dig out opportunity focused leads and other stuff that will advance your search. That is done, not by grasping for followers to hang on your every Tweet but by selective, well-orchestrated following by you of the right people and companies. Enough with random follows of incessant blah blahs who tweet about various and sundry inanities that have nothing to do with your goals and objectives. You can't build enough Tweetdeck columns to accommodate the noise.
Stay focused, follow only those people whose position, industry connections and knowledge as reflected in their posts, and job titles, can do your search some good. This is not even about meeting them but about learning their thought leadership, opinions and wisdom. If you want to break into a field or sector this is crucial and will do you more good than other forms of online intelligence gathering as it it what the right people are saying right now.
The bonus is that you just might be able to strike up a conversation, build a relationship or two and get to know these folks. But you sure aren't going to accomplish that when you are focused on you own Tweets. Who cares how Joe Cool you come off using all the latest # jive? Who cares how much you too RT Guy or Scoble or God? It is not about you, it is about them. And from them, how well do you capture what you need to help your job search progress?
Did They Get My Resume? Did They Read My E-Mail?
We send an email with our resume, proposal, or business collateral and wait to hear back. We wait for a day or two, a week or two debating to followup or not. Are they just not that into you or did your message get lost in cyber transit?
Anyone looking for a job or doing business development knows the old refrain, "They just aren't getting back to me!" or "I haven't heard from them". We can worry ourselves to death, wait too long and lose out, or follow-up too quickly and look over-anxious and too hungry.
Maybe you have resorted to the built-in feature Microsoft provides that pops up a pop-up box on the email reader's screen asking if they want to send back a confirmation that to you that they have read your email. I always click no just because I think that box is intrusive and a bother that I have to click shut so I extrapolate that into assuming your are anal retentive, obsessive-compulsive as well.
I have found a handy little widget that attaches to all my out-going emails and let's me know when the person has opened the email at the other end without asking them or getting their permission to let me know. Ha!
When I first installed MsgTag I decided to only use it on selected emails and turn it off most of the time. Then I forgot and left it on and realized how much I had this little voice in the back of my head who was doing auto check-ins on sent emails and fretting about hearing back.
Not only that but I got unanticipated benefit from this widget because it told me how long from when the person opened my email, it took for them to get back to me. Believe it or not in some situations that can be a helpful gage of the affect you had on them through your email.
Do they know they are being email stalked? Well yes, and no. If you use the free version of Msgtag and they happened to scroll down to the bottom of the email they would see the one line ad from the company. If buy the Plus version you can personalize or hide their ad in the email footer. The MsgTag Status version provides a dashboard to track all your email messages which is perfect for inside sales, business development , customer support or lead generation.
I see the application as a perfect job search accessory. No more wondering and guessing if they got your resume email. You will know. And, no, I am not in their affiliate program but I am a happy user spreading the word.
Try it, it's free, you'll like it.
Anyone looking for a job or doing business development knows the old refrain, "They just aren't getting back to me!" or "I haven't heard from them". We can worry ourselves to death, wait too long and lose out, or follow-up too quickly and look over-anxious and too hungry.
Maybe you have resorted to the built-in feature Microsoft provides that pops up a pop-up box on the email reader's screen asking if they want to send back a confirmation that to you that they have read your email. I always click no just because I think that box is intrusive and a bother that I have to click shut so I extrapolate that into assuming your are anal retentive, obsessive-compulsive as well.
I have found a handy little widget that attaches to all my out-going emails and let's me know when the person has opened the email at the other end without asking them or getting their permission to let me know. Ha!
When I first installed MsgTag I decided to only use it on selected emails and turn it off most of the time. Then I forgot and left it on and realized how much I had this little voice in the back of my head who was doing auto check-ins on sent emails and fretting about hearing back.
Not only that but I got unanticipated benefit from this widget because it told me how long from when the person opened my email, it took for them to get back to me. Believe it or not in some situations that can be a helpful gage of the affect you had on them through your email.
Do they know they are being email stalked? Well yes, and no. If you use the free version of Msgtag and they happened to scroll down to the bottom of the email they would see the one line ad from the company. If buy the Plus version you can personalize or hide their ad in the email footer. The MsgTag Status version provides a dashboard to track all your email messages which is perfect for inside sales, business development , customer support or lead generation.
I see the application as a perfect job search accessory. No more wondering and guessing if they got your resume email. You will know. And, no, I am not in their affiliate program but I am a happy user spreading the word.
Try it, it's free, you'll like it.
Beyond E-Mail
I am working with a group of fellow investors. We are from all over the United States. Dealing with lawyers, property managers and asset managers requires copious emails and document sharing among some very smart, successful and technically clueless folks.
I started a Yahoo group and sent out 45+ invitations to the group. Seventeen signed up. I am aghast that we are doomed to lost threads of emails, documents buried in individual hard drives and somebody eventually forgetting to hit "reply to all".
Which got me to thinking about what it means to be technically disenfranchised. In the 1990's unless you lived in New York, Silicon Valley, or at a university, you just didn't do email. AOL was a small novelity in numbers compared to the 100's of millions of denizens that now populate Facebook, MySpace, etc. Now everybody does email pretty much like a phone call.
There seems to be a threshold of technology competencies based on generational cohort. Those denizens of social networks are by and large Gen X and Gen Y. They also Tweet on Twitter, and IM all their friends and colleagues. Email is the choice of the boomer set while grandma is still mastering her Jitterbug cellphone.
Keeping current can mean the difference between being hired or not for a job. I wonder how we can train that into generations as part of job search tools and techniques. Change is hard.
I started a Yahoo group and sent out 45+ invitations to the group. Seventeen signed up. I am aghast that we are doomed to lost threads of emails, documents buried in individual hard drives and somebody eventually forgetting to hit "reply to all".
Which got me to thinking about what it means to be technically disenfranchised. In the 1990's unless you lived in New York, Silicon Valley, or at a university, you just didn't do email. AOL was a small novelity in numbers compared to the 100's of millions of denizens that now populate Facebook, MySpace, etc. Now everybody does email pretty much like a phone call.
There seems to be a threshold of technology competencies based on generational cohort. Those denizens of social networks are by and large Gen X and Gen Y. They also Tweet on Twitter, and IM all their friends and colleagues. Email is the choice of the boomer set while grandma is still mastering her Jitterbug cellphone.
Keeping current can mean the difference between being hired or not for a job. I wonder how we can train that into generations as part of job search tools and techniques. Change is hard.
Job Search Rejection
As we roll into a broader down turn. I have noticed a familiar behavior rearing it’s dysfunctional head. Avoidance behavior in the face of having to do a job search. But it is cureable and it’s not contagious.
Looking for new work tends to be more dreaded and avoided than visiting the dentist because it inevitably means a certain amount of rejection, and disappointment. Many professionals take the easiest most passive route and post their resumes online because being ignored is somewhat less an affront then outright rejection.
The newest type of job search rejection is now due to social networking. It happens when you make a request in Linkedin.com using a string of so-called "trusted" connections and you hear nothing back. Nada, zilch. Just like sending in a resume to a cool job you think you are perfect for and you hear nothing back but worse. Because it’s totally personal in social networking. It’s not some nameless recruiter you don’t hear back from. Ouch!
Not to belabor the point but typically we try to avoid pain and seek out pleasure or least we seek a lessor amount of pain. This is why people stay in crummy jobs long after they stopped doing them any good because doing a never-ending job search filled with rejections would be far worse. How do you avoid the discomfort of disappointment in a job search? Well, you don’t but you can mitigate it….a lot.
I have seen professionals form Success Teams where they meet weekly to offer feedback, support and comfort while looking for a new position. The beauty of the group process is there is always at least one person who is up rather than down to help bouy your spirits.
Other people can give you perspective that you don’t have being too close to the situation. And there’s always the old adage that misery loves company. At least there are other people that understand what you are going through because they are in it too.
Another option is a simple self-talk system that reinforces a positive outlook regardless of negative input from the world. Write out a list of your top career strengths, best business accomplishments, and most superlative attributes in the workplace.
Post your list to the bathroom mirror and refrigerator, two places we always know to look, and so will read them frequently during the day. This personal moral support system helps lessen the sting of rejection. The bonus is that you are committing to memory valuable self-branding sound bites that will come in handy to use when you do get that interview.
Finally there is the most challenging, difficult but most successful solution: find companies that want to hire you and only apply to them. Think about it. Ultimately this is exactly what happens, so why not expedite the process and only seek them out?
Somebody famous said something to the effect that nobody can make you feel bad about yourself unless you agree to it. Rejection works that way. Just because an employer choose on another candidate and not you is not a personal rejection unless you take it as such.
Looking for new work tends to be more dreaded and avoided than visiting the dentist because it inevitably means a certain amount of rejection, and disappointment. Many professionals take the easiest most passive route and post their resumes online because being ignored is somewhat less an affront then outright rejection.
The newest type of job search rejection is now due to social networking. It happens when you make a request in Linkedin.com using a string of so-called "trusted" connections and you hear nothing back. Nada, zilch. Just like sending in a resume to a cool job you think you are perfect for and you hear nothing back but worse. Because it’s totally personal in social networking. It’s not some nameless recruiter you don’t hear back from. Ouch!
Not to belabor the point but typically we try to avoid pain and seek out pleasure or least we seek a lessor amount of pain. This is why people stay in crummy jobs long after they stopped doing them any good because doing a never-ending job search filled with rejections would be far worse. How do you avoid the discomfort of disappointment in a job search? Well, you don’t but you can mitigate it….a lot.
I have seen professionals form Success Teams where they meet weekly to offer feedback, support and comfort while looking for a new position. The beauty of the group process is there is always at least one person who is up rather than down to help bouy your spirits.
Other people can give you perspective that you don’t have being too close to the situation. And there’s always the old adage that misery loves company. At least there are other people that understand what you are going through because they are in it too.
Another option is a simple self-talk system that reinforces a positive outlook regardless of negative input from the world. Write out a list of your top career strengths, best business accomplishments, and most superlative attributes in the workplace.
Post your list to the bathroom mirror and refrigerator, two places we always know to look, and so will read them frequently during the day. This personal moral support system helps lessen the sting of rejection. The bonus is that you are committing to memory valuable self-branding sound bites that will come in handy to use when you do get that interview.
Finally there is the most challenging, difficult but most successful solution: find companies that want to hire you and only apply to them. Think about it. Ultimately this is exactly what happens, so why not expedite the process and only seek them out?
Somebody famous said something to the effect that nobody can make you feel bad about yourself unless you agree to it. Rejection works that way. Just because an employer choose on another candidate and not you is not a personal rejection unless you take it as such.
Things to Do With Linkedin
This is how I and others I have talked to use Linkedin.com
1. Write a great profile, not the resume part below but the summary above...make it a great branding piece because people read the summary and the endorsements.
2. Get lots of endorsements (recommendations) from all your former colleagues current colleagues, etc. It’s like instant references in advance of quitting the job
3. Look up former employees of small companies and see how many people have bailed out in the past year, not a good sign
4. Contact former employees of companies you are interested in for information and leads into the company.
5. Find long lost friends, clients, colleagues, etc.
6. Ask questions that highlight your expertise in the Answers section
7. Brand every email you send with your linkedin address as you have just attached your resume...what’s your boss going to say? He/she is probably on linkedin too.
8. Make sure your linkedin address like mine (linkedin.com/in/pattiwilson) is your name and not some random assigned number.
9. Unless you are not into open networking make all the contacts you can through joining the following Yahoo groups: [email protected], [email protected]
What doesn’t work well with Linkedin:
1. Don’t send a request asking anyone for a job, or a referral to a job in their company. It just won’t happen...or rarely happens.
2. If you don’t make a compelling request that let’s someone know what’s in it for them to bother responding to you, they won’t.
3. Don’t complain to your direct contacts because your request through them hasn’t been answered ..it’s not their problem
4. Use other social sites as well: Doostang, Viadeo, Ecademy, NIng, Konnect, Orkut, Xing, Facebook, Zoominfo, Mazur to expand your visibility online…Linkedin isn’t the end all be all.
5. Put the same profile you use on Linkedin on all sites otherwise you will confuse people
6. Linkedin is not going to get you a job but it will help
7. There is no substitute for meeting someone in real time by phone or in person to really build a relationship, but there are levels of relationships and connections.
8. I like being able to call on thousands for help in different e-groups, social networks, and virtual communities. I believe and have faith in people’s willingness to help strangers that they have a modicum of connection to and commonality with.
1. Write a great profile, not the resume part below but the summary above...make it a great branding piece because people read the summary and the endorsements.
2. Get lots of endorsements (recommendations) from all your former colleagues current colleagues, etc. It’s like instant references in advance of quitting the job
3. Look up former employees of small companies and see how many people have bailed out in the past year, not a good sign
4. Contact former employees of companies you are interested in for information and leads into the company.
5. Find long lost friends, clients, colleagues, etc.
6. Ask questions that highlight your expertise in the Answers section
7. Brand every email you send with your linkedin address as you have just attached your resume...what’s your boss going to say? He/she is probably on linkedin too.
8. Make sure your linkedin address like mine (linkedin.com/in/pattiwilson) is your name and not some random assigned number.
9. Unless you are not into open networking make all the contacts you can through joining the following Yahoo groups: [email protected], [email protected]
What doesn’t work well with Linkedin:
1. Don’t send a request asking anyone for a job, or a referral to a job in their company. It just won’t happen...or rarely happens.
2. If you don’t make a compelling request that let’s someone know what’s in it for them to bother responding to you, they won’t.
3. Don’t complain to your direct contacts because your request through them hasn’t been answered ..it’s not their problem
4. Use other social sites as well: Doostang, Viadeo, Ecademy, NIng, Konnect, Orkut, Xing, Facebook, Zoominfo, Mazur to expand your visibility online…Linkedin isn’t the end all be all.
5. Put the same profile you use on Linkedin on all sites otherwise you will confuse people
6. Linkedin is not going to get you a job but it will help
7. There is no substitute for meeting someone in real time by phone or in person to really build a relationship, but there are levels of relationships and connections.
8. I like being able to call on thousands for help in different e-groups, social networks, and virtual communities. I believe and have faith in people’s willingness to help strangers that they have a modicum of connection to and commonality with.
The New Corporate Executive
According to Warren Bennis and a host of other management experts a new type of corporate leader is emerging today. The New York Times article, with the tagline "Has the time come for C.E.O. Version 3.0?". According to the article, the corporate world now wants leaders with people skills:
“Now, management experts and longtime watchers of corporate America say the current environment demands, and is attracting, yet another kind of chief executive: the team builder. It’s someone who can assemble a team that functions as smoothly as a jazz sextet, said Warren Bennis. They’ve got to have not just the cognitive ability to run a major firm, …. but the ability to make people feel like they’re working together,”
Some of the key attributes of these leaders includes initiating change and not being hated for it, learning to listen to the culture if hired new from the outside, and stimulating internal growth through motivating people, and sparking creativity and innovation.
“Now, management experts and longtime watchers of corporate America say the current environment demands, and is attracting, yet another kind of chief executive: the team builder. It’s someone who can assemble a team that functions as smoothly as a jazz sextet, said Warren Bennis. They’ve got to have not just the cognitive ability to run a major firm, …. but the ability to make people feel like they’re working together,”
Some of the key attributes of these leaders includes initiating change and not being hated for it, learning to listen to the culture if hired new from the outside, and stimulating internal growth through motivating people, and sparking creativity and innovation.
Strong Headwinds? The Strongest Brand Prevails!
I subscribe to Commercial Property News, "the Business of Real Estate" to stay up to date on economic trends from that vantage point. The current issue interviews Aik Hong Tan, president of Richfield Hospitality Inc. who currently manages 29 hotels.
He commented about what lenders wanted to see when providing financing for a hotel deal, “They are definitely looking at the brand of the hotel, and they want to see a top brand. When you start moving into a headwind, the stronger brands will prevail.”
Certainly, we can consider this as a universal statement of the times to apply to multiple business issues such as the attracting and recruiting talent of or our own personal branding.
All other things being equal, the stronger company brand or personal brand will have the competitive advantage in a commoditized world. Since brand is a matter of perception, managing bad on line visibility, accentuating the good on line visibility on line serves to build a positive brand experience and reputation.
Companies, struggling to recruit great talent, especially in small to mid-sized range, give little or no attention to the attractiveness and promotion of their cultural brand which aside from the product serves to attract the right talent to them. This starts with an inviting jobs and careers web page with clear, engaging information about who they are and what they have to offer prospective employees.
Of course, the recruitment branding experience extends to employee referral programs, new hire orientations, employee blogs, job ads and promotions.They all have to be developed and managed to ensure a positive, strong and visible brand.
In some cases, a well-done recruitment brand can enable the David, small company, to slay the Goliath, bigger company, who is less well branded.
He commented about what lenders wanted to see when providing financing for a hotel deal, “They are definitely looking at the brand of the hotel, and they want to see a top brand. When you start moving into a headwind, the stronger brands will prevail.”
Certainly, we can consider this as a universal statement of the times to apply to multiple business issues such as the attracting and recruiting talent of or our own personal branding.
All other things being equal, the stronger company brand or personal brand will have the competitive advantage in a commoditized world. Since brand is a matter of perception, managing bad on line visibility, accentuating the good on line visibility on line serves to build a positive brand experience and reputation.
Companies, struggling to recruit great talent, especially in small to mid-sized range, give little or no attention to the attractiveness and promotion of their cultural brand which aside from the product serves to attract the right talent to them. This starts with an inviting jobs and careers web page with clear, engaging information about who they are and what they have to offer prospective employees.
Of course, the recruitment branding experience extends to employee referral programs, new hire orientations, employee blogs, job ads and promotions.They all have to be developed and managed to ensure a positive, strong and visible brand.
In some cases, a well-done recruitment brand can enable the David, small company, to slay the Goliath, bigger company, who is less well branded.
When and How to Work with a Recruiter
This was a question posted to a list I am on and my response is below.
"I need to get in front of recruiters and companies. I am thinking that
direct marketing combined with the face to face meetings I am having
might be a good idea. I see two options. Buy expensive lists and send
out myself or use someone like resumeviper. Do you guys have any input
on this? I could use some input on experiences from a variety of
folks. Maybe there are market differences as well. "
Though you don’t give the details, but it appears that you are looking for a job?
Getting a recruiter’s attention, and you finding a job are two different things. Have you considered that a mass mailings to recruiters is probably the most inefficient, and inaccurate job search technique you could use? Would you try to get a date that way?
Nor do you say which industry or does "market differences" imply that? Unlike many job seekers, recruiters don’t look everywhere to fill job openings for obvious reasons. They realize (unless they are desperate during a recession) that it’s far more productive with a much higher likelihood of making money, if specialized by horizontal and vertical search areas. They look for talent in a specific horizontal function like sales ,finance, marketing AND they look for talent by vertical sector like health care, consumer products, energy, AND they look for talent by level as in executive, manager, lead, supervisor, individual contributor.
This is some of what I know about recruiters:
* Recruiters are working for companies, not you, so they don’t like being found they like finding you. It’s their job.
* Recruiters have a limited number of similar positions to fill and usually in a specific sector.
* Recruiters are working for a very few companies as they are expected to source talent from the competition
* Companies want candidates that are an exact, on-the-money, verbatim match to the job description so guess what recruiters look for?
* Even if you talked to every recruiter on Linkedin, for instance, they may not have the best position that fits you and will make you happy
* Mass mailings are unsolicited spam, do you read spam regardless of email, fax or print?
* Typically there is a less than 5% response rate for direct mail so why not just buy adwords instead and only pay for the click-through?
This is what I suggest:
Dig the well before you are thirsty, as it doesn’t work well to try to do a fast, mass job search. Have your contacts, referrals, recruiters, and search tools in place and on low-key, activation-ready status to fire up when you need to find a new GIG (how to do that is the topic of a whole other email or blogpost).
Do a job search using a number of techniques, methods and tools (recruiters being only one) that includes but is not limited to:
* Posting your resume on social networking sites, general job sites and on the function/sector-specific job sites that fit the job and industry you want
* Being introduced/referred to recruiters who specialize in those same areas
* Learn how to really network, make connections and build ongoing relationships in your functional area and field as linkedin’s 3 degrees of separation literally and figuratively goes only so far
* Join or network at professional organizations that match your desired job function e.g.:the Product Management Association
* Attend and network at conferences and trade shows in the sector space where you are looking
* Put your resume/cv, work examples, endorsements, etc up on a website or blogsite or both and link to the social networking sites to achieve a higher page ranking for your name and your skills as recruiters search using keywords on the search engines
* Make a hit list of 30 companies in your desired sector or industry and actively pursue introductions to people working there.
* Package, position and brand yourself so that you sound lucid, articulate and cogent when someone asks "what are you looking for? what do you do? how can I help you? "
* Have a 5 and 10 year plan as to where your career and you are going, how you plan on getting there, and results you want to show for it when you do. Start your job search from that blueprint.
And here are tried and true resources:
"What Color is Your Parachute?" by Richard Bolles ( I have been a listed resource in Dick’s best seller since 1988)
"Zen and the Art of Making a Living" Lawrence Bolt
"Dig the Well Before You are Thirsty" Harvey Mackay
"Ask the Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job" Nick Corcodilos
"Knock ‘m Dead" Martin Yate
Any of the networking how-to books by Susan RoAne
Any of the books on goal setting/decision making for careers by Barbara Sher
Then setup an advisory board for yourself, as it’s too hard to do a search alone. Consider your search much like a new product launch and marketing campaign. Use knowledgeable colleagues/friends to advise you on your business solution, feature set, product enhancements, marketing collateral’s, etc, etc.
Conservatively, give yourself 6 months to do this and land successfully, meaning the sector, position type that you initially targeted. If you need a job now, then look at contracting and consulting instead of mass mailings to recruiters. Bottom-line, recruiters are only one piece of an increasingly more complex equation to find your
"I need to get in front of recruiters and companies. I am thinking that
direct marketing combined with the face to face meetings I am having
might be a good idea. I see two options. Buy expensive lists and send
out myself or use someone like resumeviper. Do you guys have any input
on this? I could use some input on experiences from a variety of
folks. Maybe there are market differences as well. "
Though you don’t give the details, but it appears that you are looking for a job?
Getting a recruiter’s attention, and you finding a job are two different things. Have you considered that a mass mailings to recruiters is probably the most inefficient, and inaccurate job search technique you could use? Would you try to get a date that way?
Nor do you say which industry or does "market differences" imply that? Unlike many job seekers, recruiters don’t look everywhere to fill job openings for obvious reasons. They realize (unless they are desperate during a recession) that it’s far more productive with a much higher likelihood of making money, if specialized by horizontal and vertical search areas. They look for talent in a specific horizontal function like sales ,finance, marketing AND they look for talent by vertical sector like health care, consumer products, energy, AND they look for talent by level as in executive, manager, lead, supervisor, individual contributor.
This is some of what I know about recruiters:
* Recruiters are working for companies, not you, so they don’t like being found they like finding you. It’s their job.
* Recruiters have a limited number of similar positions to fill and usually in a specific sector.
* Recruiters are working for a very few companies as they are expected to source talent from the competition
* Companies want candidates that are an exact, on-the-money, verbatim match to the job description so guess what recruiters look for?
* Even if you talked to every recruiter on Linkedin, for instance, they may not have the best position that fits you and will make you happy
* Mass mailings are unsolicited spam, do you read spam regardless of email, fax or print?
* Typically there is a less than 5% response rate for direct mail so why not just buy adwords instead and only pay for the click-through?
This is what I suggest:
Dig the well before you are thirsty, as it doesn’t work well to try to do a fast, mass job search. Have your contacts, referrals, recruiters, and search tools in place and on low-key, activation-ready status to fire up when you need to find a new GIG (how to do that is the topic of a whole other email or blogpost).
Do a job search using a number of techniques, methods and tools (recruiters being only one) that includes but is not limited to:
* Posting your resume on social networking sites, general job sites and on the function/sector-specific job sites that fit the job and industry you want
* Being introduced/referred to recruiters who specialize in those same areas
* Learn how to really network, make connections and build ongoing relationships in your functional area and field as linkedin’s 3 degrees of separation literally and figuratively goes only so far
* Join or network at professional organizations that match your desired job function e.g.:the Product Management Association
* Attend and network at conferences and trade shows in the sector space where you are looking
* Put your resume/cv, work examples, endorsements, etc up on a website or blogsite or both and link to the social networking sites to achieve a higher page ranking for your name and your skills as recruiters search using keywords on the search engines
* Make a hit list of 30 companies in your desired sector or industry and actively pursue introductions to people working there.
* Package, position and brand yourself so that you sound lucid, articulate and cogent when someone asks "what are you looking for? what do you do? how can I help you? "
* Have a 5 and 10 year plan as to where your career and you are going, how you plan on getting there, and results you want to show for it when you do. Start your job search from that blueprint.
And here are tried and true resources:
"What Color is Your Parachute?" by Richard Bolles ( I have been a listed resource in Dick’s best seller since 1988)
"Zen and the Art of Making a Living" Lawrence Bolt
"Dig the Well Before You are Thirsty" Harvey Mackay
"Ask the Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job" Nick Corcodilos
"Knock ‘m Dead" Martin Yate
Any of the networking how-to books by Susan RoAne
Any of the books on goal setting/decision making for careers by Barbara Sher
Then setup an advisory board for yourself, as it’s too hard to do a search alone. Consider your search much like a new product launch and marketing campaign. Use knowledgeable colleagues/friends to advise you on your business solution, feature set, product enhancements, marketing collateral’s, etc, etc.
Conservatively, give yourself 6 months to do this and land successfully, meaning the sector, position type that you initially targeted. If you need a job now, then look at contracting and consulting instead of mass mailings to recruiters. Bottom-line, recruiters are only one piece of an increasingly more complex equation to find your
Working 2.0 Rules of the Road
Time
Now with geographically remote teams in multiple time zones, a prerequisite for many jobs is to be able to keep very flexible hours.
The over-riding challenge of Working 2.0 is the management of global talent that is role modeled from the top down.
Picture if you will, multiple cultures, a polyglot of languages, and a plethora of world views in a globally distributed workforce all sending each other email.
From start-ups to large corporations, companies are leveraging Web 2.0 technology to enable productivity through a distributed workforce. The Working 2.0 workforce is always on and always connected.
Because of Web 2.0 choices are now open as to where to live and how we work.
Organizations will move to embrace Working 2.0 and Web 2.0 together as a business necessity. How well they do it will go a long way to determine their business effectiveness as a whole. Together they impact the attraction and retention of key talent, the productivity of workgroups and ultimately the bottom line revenues of a company.
Now with geographically remote teams in multiple time zones, a prerequisite for many jobs is to be able to keep very flexible hours.
- Negotiate the flex hours up front when you are offered a position otherwise you may find yourself on the swing shift
- Be sensitive to colleagues talking to you when it’s 3 am their time. Though it may be a requirement of their position to keep those hours, it’s still 3am.
- Take advantage of the flexibility to make time for your personal life, don’t just add more hours to your day
The over-riding challenge of Working 2.0 is the management of global talent that is role modeled from the top down.
- Coach your management team in the leadership skills to motivate, mentor, and drive teams from afar.
- Ensure that new managers are trained to measure output not input from their direct reports.
- Develop reporting tools and processes that ensures fairness, recognition and support for distributed employees.
- Leverage the technologies that bring teams together live.
Picture if you will, multiple cultures, a polyglot of languages, and a plethora of world views in a globally distributed workforce all sending each other email.
- You say you don’t speak a second language? At least master the following: hello, good bye, thank you, and "I don’t speak _____ but I appreciate your speaking English".
- Become aware of the cultural rhythms and tempos of the people you are working with including national/religious holidays.
- Invest in accent reduction for your direct reports. The frustration of not being heard and understood and not hearing and understanding will grow on both sides.
- Basic cross cultural communications skills and tools for everybody will insure the slang in one language, dress code in one culture doesn’t become the public offense in another.
From start-ups to large corporations, companies are leveraging Web 2.0 technology to enable productivity through a distributed workforce. The Working 2.0 workforce is always on and always connected.
- Invest not just in the tools but the change management training to make the tools effective. Not everyone adopts easily to instant messaging for workplace communications for example.
- As technical professional, to not stay current with the latest new tech/Internet tools will eventually cripple your productivity, so get on board with SKYPE, VOIP, Blogs, Wikis, Bluetooth, GSP, etc.
- As in flex time, negotiate the time you commit hooked up to the mother ship. If anything plan vacations out of cell phone and cable range. Given cellular and cable coverage of the US and California, that shouldn’t be too hard to do.
Because of Web 2.0 choices are now open as to where to live and how we work.
- Looking to opt out of urban, densely populated areas? Think again. Yes, housing and living may be cheaper but will you miss the energy of the urban scene living in podunk? Are the schools and cultural activities of a decent quality?
- Returning back to hometowns with extended families can be an option, but be sure if your current distributed job goes away that the hometown has options for re-employment. What’s the fallback position for your career?
- Looking to return to your home country for entrepreneurial opportunities? Check your visa, citizenship and green card papers to ensure you can come back years down the road, so this isn’t a one way trip.
Organizations will move to embrace Working 2.0 and Web 2.0 together as a business necessity. How well they do it will go a long way to determine their business effectiveness as a whole. Together they impact the attraction and retention of key talent, the productivity of workgroups and ultimately the bottom line revenues of a company.
Using Blogs to Move Your Career Forward
Earlier this year, the Boston Globe published an article on how a guy wrote a blog sounding like an expert and it helped get him a job. The article theme was picked up on by Scobelizer . He added that there was also a risk of information leakage inherent in blogging that could also jeopardize your career. Scobel referred to Mark Jen as a case in point who was fired from Google in 2005 for blogging about the company. Mark replied to Scobel’s post to the effect that he learned about being a "good fit" at a company and that he was happier at Plaxo.
A member of the Wednesdayjobgroup , an egroup I formed in 2001 to provide a venue to discuss jobs, careers and working for a living, that her posting to Craigslist selling a green couch ranked at the top of the page under a Google name search on her. Several companies, in doing a background check on her as a potential candidate for a job found the posting. It was embarrassing but could have been worse.
It comes down to your values and managing the expectations of others. Do you value being authentic with a consistent self-presentation across both your personal and professional lives? Then choose a workplace and company culture that fits who you are both privately and publicly.
Let them know appropriately up front about the proclivities in your personal life the may come home to roost in a way that would be unacceptable to the company. That way there are no surprises when the company’s HR department finds things published on your blog that are contrary to corporate policy or its unofficial rules of the road.
However, if you like to differentiate your personal from your professional life like I do. Then be careful of that profile you publish on MySpace or Match.com. Use Yahoo or Google or Hotmail email addresses to protect your identity when selling that old stereo on EBay, posting inflammatory rants to a listserv, or even posting your resume to job boards.
Managing the expectations of your employer to keep not your dream job but the perfect company for this stage in your career may mean being understanding and applying the difference between telling your unvarnished truth and being appropriately circumspect with your on line visibility.
A member of the Wednesdayjobgroup , an egroup I formed in 2001 to provide a venue to discuss jobs, careers and working for a living, that her posting to Craigslist selling a green couch ranked at the top of the page under a Google name search on her. Several companies, in doing a background check on her as a potential candidate for a job found the posting. It was embarrassing but could have been worse.
It comes down to your values and managing the expectations of others. Do you value being authentic with a consistent self-presentation across both your personal and professional lives? Then choose a workplace and company culture that fits who you are both privately and publicly.
Let them know appropriately up front about the proclivities in your personal life the may come home to roost in a way that would be unacceptable to the company. That way there are no surprises when the company’s HR department finds things published on your blog that are contrary to corporate policy or its unofficial rules of the road.
However, if you like to differentiate your personal from your professional life like I do. Then be careful of that profile you publish on MySpace or Match.com. Use Yahoo or Google or Hotmail email addresses to protect your identity when selling that old stereo on EBay, posting inflammatory rants to a listserv, or even posting your resume to job boards.
Managing the expectations of your employer to keep not your dream job but the perfect company for this stage in your career may mean being understanding and applying the difference between telling your unvarnished truth and being appropriately circumspect with your on line visibility.
Writing a Master Resume
The first step to writing or updating your resume is to create a Master Resume.
What’s that you say?
Your Master Resume is a comprehensive compilation of all your experience from your 1st college job forward including: education, awards, certificates, patents, publications, part-time and full-time jobs/internships/contracts, presentations, affiliations and volunteer participation.
This should be as detailed as possible and multiple pages long. Be sure and list the dates, titles, and locations, audiences of all courses, awards, presentations and publications. List the names of all the clients, customers, vendors, partners, affiliates and sponsors that you and your company worked with.
I know it may not seem possible that you might forget the details of your work down the road but it happens. I have had clients in their 30’s try to recall the customers they worked with 5 years prior exclaim in exasperation, “but, that’s so long ago!”
Keep the record of your career current, updating it annually after every performance evaluation. It’s also helpful to track and maintain a record of written kudos and compliments, recognitions and rewards from co-workers, colleagues, bosses, and teachers. Any time you receive a note, letter, email that indicates a job well done, a favor fulfilled, extra credit, recognition for going beyond the call, save it.
Such a collection of public recognition and acknowledgment will bring credibility and credence to your qualifications and accomplishments. Assiduously acquire endorsements (testimonials) to attach to your profile on social networking sites such as Linkedin.com. What others say about you is more memorable than what you say about yourself. You can use these endorsements in other venues as well.
All of this is grist for the mill. Someday you might find that you are digging through years of job changes and career moves for specific details that will create the written argrument for your next job. Drawing upon the wealth of data collected about yourself in a Master Resume can ensure the likelihood of a job offer.
What’s that you say?
Your Master Resume is a comprehensive compilation of all your experience from your 1st college job forward including: education, awards, certificates, patents, publications, part-time and full-time jobs/internships/contracts, presentations, affiliations and volunteer participation.
This should be as detailed as possible and multiple pages long. Be sure and list the dates, titles, and locations, audiences of all courses, awards, presentations and publications. List the names of all the clients, customers, vendors, partners, affiliates and sponsors that you and your company worked with.
I know it may not seem possible that you might forget the details of your work down the road but it happens. I have had clients in their 30’s try to recall the customers they worked with 5 years prior exclaim in exasperation, “but, that’s so long ago!”
Keep the record of your career current, updating it annually after every performance evaluation. It’s also helpful to track and maintain a record of written kudos and compliments, recognitions and rewards from co-workers, colleagues, bosses, and teachers. Any time you receive a note, letter, email that indicates a job well done, a favor fulfilled, extra credit, recognition for going beyond the call, save it.
Such a collection of public recognition and acknowledgment will bring credibility and credence to your qualifications and accomplishments. Assiduously acquire endorsements (testimonials) to attach to your profile on social networking sites such as Linkedin.com. What others say about you is more memorable than what you say about yourself. You can use these endorsements in other venues as well.
All of this is grist for the mill. Someday you might find that you are digging through years of job changes and career moves for specific details that will create the written argrument for your next job. Drawing upon the wealth of data collected about yourself in a Master Resume can ensure the likelihood of a job offer.