The CareerZine

Back to the Future: 2010

“It’s time to define a new era. Our faith has been shaken. We’ve lost confidence in our leaders and in our institutions. Our beliefs have been tested. We’ve discredited the notion that the Internet would change everything (and the stock market would buy us an exit strategy from the grind.) Our expectations have been dashed. We’ve abandoned the idea that work should be a 24-hour-a-day rush and that career should be a wild adventure. Yet we are still holding on.”

FastCompany, January 2003

If I hadn’t added the date to the above FastCompany quote you might have assumed that it was current. I had that reaction when I found it in my files last month. I wondered then if we were still defining a new era. Certainly our shaken faith and lost confidence hasn’t recovered nor has our lost IPO/stock option exit strategy. Work is still 24/7 for those that have it while many occupy their time in a 24/7 job search.  

Recently, careers viewed as wild adventures such as real estate and Wall Street have paled in retrospect.
However, the Internet and the digital age have changed a lot of everything. The Huffington Post listed the 12 things that became obsolete that included telephone calls, classified ads, CDs, landline phones, encyclopedias, hand-written letters, phone calls, yellow pages and address books, wires, dial-up, film cameras and film, catalogs, and fax machines.  I would add that road maps, checkbooks, print books and broadcast television are soon to follow.

What is this new era? Though some may take issue, I would define it by loss of things once considered givens (stable employment and financial security), diminished expectations for the realization of career goals (declining job openings and the commoditization of us all), and a wrenching acceleration of economic, demographic and technological change.

So how exactly do we hold on?  Here are my suggestions:

Being Different
Apple’s corporate slogan a few years ago was “think different.” All bright, ambitious professionals I know in Silicon Valley have that one down cold as a survival skill. The challenge now is to “be different.”  Geoffrey Moore, author of Dealing with Darwin, commented that we are all commodities now and we need to differientiate to stand out and compete.

More professionals are chasing fewer business opportunities and job openings than there are offered and open. Personal branding is not just putting a cool marketing spin on your Linkedin profile and in your resume.

The core of differentiating oneself is to know and articulate our uniqueness. What is it that makes you different, special, and completely unique regardless of your position, level or expertise? We all have our own style and approach and way of being.  Further, matching up your uniqueness to the specific company where you would be the perfect fit is a far more effective effort than tossing resumes at job postings along with the multitude of others doing the same.

You really have no choice but to better market, brand and differentiate yourself in this marketplace.

Speaking Universally
Being able to effectively communicate across borders, cultures and generations is a career advantage, not just a lip-service acknowledgement to your high school French teacher or a helpful travel tool.  Making the effort to understand and be understood requires only an willingness and intention to melt barriers to connection and conversation. If we live in a social networking world then being able to speak to the heart and mind of the listener online and off is requisite. I can’t speak Sanskrit, but I do say “Namaste” and I understand the meaning.

The under age 30 generational cohort, Gen X, has entered the workforce. There are now 4 generations in the workplace: Boomers, Gen Y, Gen X and a few Silent Generation cohort members nearing retirement. Being able to understand the mindset and communicate across multiple generations is a core requirement to manage teams and groups for business success.  Adding in distributed and off-shore teams to this mix builds an obvious case for developing a fluency in speaking universally.

Coming up to speed with cultures and generations is ideally though hands on experience, but a good book to read is the seminal work by Strauss and Howe called, “Generations”.
 
Living Easily
Living easily not about work-life balance (good luck with that one), living simply, going green or scaling back financially. We have all worked too hard to want to scale back our lifestyles though many who have been downsized face that prospect. Ironically, we buy $5 magazines that guide us on simple living, or how replace decent vinyl flooring to go green with bamboo. Living easily is not what we do, though it may result in different actions and life choices, but, rather, how we approach our work and careers.

Living easily is about letting go of the tightly held reins of our lives, chilling our more and cutting some slack for ourselves and others.  It seems normal that we invest a lot of mental, emotional and psychic energy into our work and work relationships. Over time that builds a low level tension in us that is ultimately draining and exhausting. Externally, we are encouraged and rewarded to be invested in outcomes, bottom-lines, and deadlines but we don’t have own them internally.

Striving to reach goals is a process that can be invigorating, but being attached and deeply invested in the outcome is life-killing.  Serial entrepreneurs are frequent models of living easily as they love more the challenge of striving rather than the outcome. It is a programmed belief system to believe we can’t allow ourselves to live more easily.

Regardless of the expectations of others, we do not internally have to be at the affect of those expectations. 

Need-driven Journey
The founder and owner of the outdoor clothing retailer, Patagonia, said that the real question to ask now is not “what do I want?” but rather “what do I need?” This is not an argument for living simply or green, but, rather, to ask what is it that you truly need in your life? If the answer is what you have right now, well then, that’s wonderful. But if you would look and see a need, even the demand, from within you for some other direction than the path you are on now, then consider taking it.

In a consumption-driven society, we are programmed to believe that our wants somehow have preference in terms of desirability to needs. We tend to equate needs to basic on a physical level such as food, rest, shelter and most of us have that one down. On another level, a psychological level, needs or drivers are far more complex. Our needs are our deepest passions and emotional drivers. They are the stuff that all the marketing folks tap into to make us think that we want things. But those things we want never satiate our internal needs. Continually wanting, we have mostly tuned out our needs.

It is no wonder that best sellers over the decades have always been books on how to follow our passion, realize our bliss, and fulfill our dreams. These books touch our deepest core needs to be who we are and express that in the world like no Super Bowl commercial can.

As our careers mature, we lose touch with that core knowledge. We become stale, burnt out, or driven by only our wants. There is nothing like a huge recession to bring us up short, stop us in our collective tracks, and bring us back to revisit once again our core drivers, passions and needs.

Perhaps then our choice would be to take the road we need, not want, this time.

These are a few thoughts on how to make it through the next decade. But who knows? We can plan, strategize and make good resolutions only to have history descend on us all. Perhaps keeping a clear focus on what we most value and being as true and authentic to ourselves and others as we possibly can is good enough to hold on….and enjoy the ride.

 

In This Issue Article:
What Makes for a Good Referral?
Tech Tip: Managing Your In-box

What Makes for a Good Referral?
How to Handle Bad Ones. How to Make Good Ones!

How many times have you had someone referred to you by a colleague, business acquaintance or friend for no perceivable reason?  Eventually you both agreed it was a nice chat and you should stay in touch.  Sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t.

Have you ever found yourself in a discussion of the referrer’s motivations with a person referred? Of course it is always good to have one more networking connection and one more resource. You never know, right?  But isn’t your time valuable enough to expect any referral to be worthwhile somehow?

This is what Reid Hoffman, founder of Linkedin.com, says on his Linkedin profile about how he wants referrals:

“Unfortunately, I'm extremely busy, so articulate (as they apply):
(1) why this request will improve the world in some way (as I have a strong interest in these projects)
(2) why my expertise is particularly needed for this (not just that I happen to be around),
(3) what my interest might be in the particular project
(4) what makes this connection useful or important to you”

 

After years of watching my clients muddle around making and giving referrals to no one’s benefit, I realized that making good referrals is one huge hairball within the networking process that gets regularly dropped with a thud.

Why do smart, well-educated, professionals make incredibly bad referrals to each other? Here are  three of the most common situations:

They Don’t Connect the Dots

Attribute this to being over-busy, ADD, or information overload, they know what you do but don’t understand how you make a living. For example, if you are an expert in Search Engine Optimization, they will refer you to someone else who is as well.  Well, maybe you can find a common ground with your competition and that’s all well and good. But wouldn’t you rather meet a prospective customer?

I have gotten introductions and referrals to other career coaches by people that I perceived to be consummate networkers. How I have handled it is to actually ask them to critique my elevator pitch, my business data sheet or the about page of my website and give me feedback. I ask if I have made my value proposition clear enough and based on that what kinds of referrals could I expect people to give me going forward. When they do transgress again with referral, I simple resend the data sheet and remind them that it serves my business better to get x kind of referrals.

They Over-Network

With every contact met, they are driven to help provide resources, connections and information. I call it the do-gooder syndrome. Somehow they got it wired into them that a good networker is one who keeps on giving. Since, they always try to refer everyone they meet to someone who could possibly help, all their other networking contacts can soon be worn thin by over exposure. Often the referred resource cannot be of any value to that contact but the over-networker gets the gold star for trying (see previous category).

This approach works with a well-established, very broad, deep, and substantial network to refer to without overloading it.  Many MBA alumni on school networking lists get overexposed for this very reason. The numbers are often way too sparse in popular sectors such as consulting, venture capital and private equity so all those alumni end up overworked as networking resources and reluctant to proceed. 

How do you avoid becoming the short-order cook in an over-networker’s referral restaurant? 

You can privately request your over-networker to curb their enthusiasm, but you will be typically disregarded as they will not to be able to help themselves. The easiest way to abate the situation is to issue a polite refusal copying your over-networking referrer to any requests you receive through them. Saying no enough times encourages them to seek a yes elsewhere.

They Prevaricate to Avoid Direct Communications

This is certainly the most egregious type of networking referral as it is so disingenuous. However, I am often surprised at the silver lining for the two people connected can result regardless of the original referrer’s less well intend motivations.

A prevaricating networker may be able to help the person seeking help to them but for whatever reason they don’t want to or are not willing to help. To avoid directly saying no, they get rid of the request by referring them on to you instead.  Don’t mix them up with the do-gooder who is well-intended or a dots connector who is clueless, as this person is acting entirely out their own perverse self-interest.

What do you do with a prevaricating networker who uses you in their networking recycling program? It does no good to approach them with the intention of having them own up to their own agenda. You can make clear the kinds of referrals the fit your business needs and ability to help. You make continue to be disregarded, so the best course is steer clear of them. Make sure you are end up on good terms with whomever they have referred to so not to be lumped in a negative perception as the prevaricating networker.

Improving Your Referral Skills

How do you improve your quality and level of referrals to others? Start with knowing your immediate network. You may have a database of over 1000 contacts and are directly familiar with 25%. Ask the 25% how you can help if the opportunity ever arises.  Never assume you know, as that what can trip you up. Find out the kind of referrals they want and don’t want for their business and how they are willing to help others.

In the case of the other 75% of your contact database that you do not know as well, ask them for permission  privately before you cast a contact like bread upon the water in their direction. Find out if this referral is reasonable for them to entertain as a favor to you or a value proposition to them.

Why is this important? Because you have no idea as a consultant, a big business developer for your business, or a job seeker how much making bad referrals can trash your word of mouth reputation.  In fact it can make you the laughing stock of multiple networking circles and I have seen it happen.

This is also a two-edged sword because it is incumbent upon you as referral receiver to clearly spell out what kinds of referrals you are willing to take and what kinds your really want from your network. They don’t get to guess or make you into their referral dump.

If you do it right, you will have made a contribution to referee and the recipient of the referral.  It builds what has been called a “gratitude account’ with the all parties involved for your later use for more referrals or your own business and career.  In this economy, you never know when you will need to call in your chits for help and having made good referrals in their direction ensures them to be there for you.

Tech Tip: Managing Your Inbox with ClearContext

This Outook plugin enable you to take control of your inbox. ClearContext is a great tool for the overloaded Outlook inbox.  ClearContext keeps your messages organized by automatically suggesting the right folders to instantly file messages and entire conversations with a single click.Automatically turn email into tasks and appointments with a single click.  Delegate email to others for completion and track their progress.  Defer emails to remove them from your inbox - they will reappear at a later date when you're ready to deal with them.Alerts notify you of unread messages from important senders or conversations.  Automatically be reminded if you don't receive a timely response to email you send.

Career Insurance

In this issue:
Article: Career Insurance
Tech Tip: Msgtag.com

Career Insurance: Tips to Stay Alive on the Job

The current unemployment rate nationally is not going down, while the length of the average job search is stretching into six months for professionals.  Obviously it is better to keep the current situation you have rather than be looking for a new position while unemployed.  So how do you do that?  Gag me with a spoon if I read one more article telling me to work hard and do a great job.  If you haven’t been doing that ongoing, you are already on the layoff list. Your reputation always precedes you.

Given you have done well and worked hard, what strategies can you employ to shelter in place and do you want to? If you are an executive or manager, looking to extend your network and visibility outside the company would be a good idea so long as it reflects back well on your company. Seeking panel and speaking engagements to present on your expertise and your organization’s products would benefit you both.  Becoming involved in a trade association or professional group would be of value as well. At your level, you can make an impression that is noticeable.

Within your company, look for offshore, ex-pat assignments preferable short-term as a way to advance and stay off the layoff lists. This is a good time to get international experience under your belt.  In management circles, this has always been a rite of passage.  Any international trips and projects would enhance your internal status. Just don’t be gone too long as internal reorganizations have a way of by-passing even the best of us.

I heard the other day, someone say that it is too late to start writing a blog after you are laid off. I would add it is also late to build out your network, on-line profiles, and anything else that establishes your visibility and expands your connections both on-line and offline. Start now blogging informally for your company, and yourself a la Robert Scoble did for Microsoft. This works at any level.

Education is not a bad idea to help you become a rising star as a young professional. An MBA never goes out of style. Just don’t expect it to magically open doors for you after you get it. Remember you are buying a long-term network so pick the school and program with that in mind. The MBA degree is like getting an E ticket for a great ride at Disneyland. You get entree into a broader, higher level and quality of opportunities but you still have to wait in line to take for your turn.

If your relationship with your boss isn’t as emotionally intelligent as it could be, it is time to raise your EQ. This may be the easiest one to do.  Make the time to ask how he or she is doing then listen. Don’t try to fix or problem solve, just listen. Don’t dismiss or try to make light of problems, just listen.  Work hard to become a “trusted adviser” by just listening. And after listening, ask how you can help. Do willingly whatever is requested.  You manager needs someone to talk and to rely on. You want to become that person for your manager.

Finally, keep in touch with the informal internal network, better known as the grapevine, within your company. You don’t need any surprises so get in on the gossip, the undercurrent, and water cooler talk and keep abreast of what’s going on. Take defensive action in advance and always have a plan B.

Tech Tip:

MessageTag (http://www.msgtag.com )is a great little software applet that attaches to your outgoing email by way of a footer at the bottom of each email. What it tells you are when someone has opened the email you sent.

It tells from when the person opened your email, how long it took for them to get back to you. 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 happen to scroll down to the bottom of the email they would see the one line ad from the company. If you buy the Plus version you can personalize or hide their ad in the email footer. 

I see the application as a perfect job search accessory or great for sales and business development. No more wondering and guessing if they got your resume, the data sheet, or proposal you sent. You will know.

And, no, I am not in their affiliate program but I am a happy user spreading the word.
 

 

Mark Twain to Find the Best Job Fit

To mark twain is to measure the depth of the river bottom. It is an old term used by riverboat pilots and a nom de plume taken by the author Samuel Clemens. What does this have to do with a job search? 
Well, I always start with a career values assessment though I don’t tell prospective clients as they all tend to be gung ho on getting their career branding and online networking going. 

But identifying your top ten career values is the “mark twain” that guides you down the job search river. You test the depths,  so to speak, to see how any company, sector or field you are considering measures up to your top ten values. Starting from the boat launch of with where you are now you can use your current position as an initial depth finder.

More often I find clients who are torn between what they think are polar opposite wants and needs for example:  an exciting, interesting, fun, high paying job versus family and financial security. Sadly many professionals think they face an either or proposition and that they can’t have some of both or even all of both.

I posit that if you can envision it, you will achieve it. Trite as that slogan seems, it is true. The clearer you are on your top values and core criteria that have to be satisfied in your next job, the easier it is to determine the extent any job and company would fit you. Even if you had to take a job in this economy that wasn't optimum, you would know the trade-offs and the downsides. There would be no unfulfilled expectations.

As you paddle on in your search,  using your top values as a benchmarking tool will enable your to measure the trade offs of value satisfaction with any opportunity.  It enables you to choose the optimum best fit at any given time.

By the way,  being torn between wanting what seem like conflicting values is often the source of job search procrastination. There is a remedy. If you start looking you have to face what appears to be a conflict so taking the plunge is a release.   Get out and test the job search waters, marking twain, is the answer.

Here is a short list of career values. Find your top ten and see if your current position measures up.

Have fun!

ADVANCEMENT/ PROMOTION.
ADVENTURE/TRAVEL
AFFILIATION/ BELONGING
AUTHENTICITY/ACCEPTANCE
BALANCE
BENEFITS & PERKS
CHALLENGING PROBLEMS TO SOLVE
CHANGE & VARIETY
COMMUNITY
COMPETITION
COMFORTABLE INCOME
CONTRIBUTION
CREATIVITY
DIVERSITY/MULTICULTURAL
EGALITARIAN
ENTREPRENEURIAL
ENVIRONMENT/SURROUNDINGS
ETHICS/INTEGRITY
EXCITEMENT
EXPERTISE/INTELLECTUAL HORSEPOWER
FAMILY FRIENDLY       
FAST PACE/ HIGH ENERGY
FLEXIBILTY
FUN/PLAYFUL
FREE OF POLITICS
FRIENDS/ NETWORK/SUPPORT SYSTEM
FINANCIAL SECURITY
GLOBAL/INTERNATIONAL SCOPE & REACH
INDEPENDENCE/AUTONOMY
INFLUENCE/MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN
HELPING OTHERS DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY
HIGH INTERPERSONAL/PUBLIC CONTACT
LEARNING/KNOWLEDGE
LOCATION OR COMMUTE
LOW KEY/LOW PRESSURE
LEADERSHIP/DECISION-MAKING
MANAGEMENT/SUPERVISION
MEANING & FULFILLMENT
MENTOR
PERSONAL SAFETY
PHYSICAL /OUTDOOR WORK
PRECISION AND DETAIL
PREDICTABILITY
PERSONAL OR PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
PROFICIENCY
PROFIT/WEALTH ACCUMULATION
PROFESSIONAL STATUS
ORGANIZATION/STRUCTURE
RECOGNITION/ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
REGIONAL SCOPE & REACH
RELAXED/CASUAL
RESPECT
RISK TAKING
SECURITY / TENURE
SELF-EXPRESSION
SPIRITUALITY/UNIVERSAL IDEALS
STABILITY
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
TEAM WORK
TIME FREEDOM
PRESSURE/DEADLINE DRIVEN WORK
WORK ALONE
WORK ON CUTTING EDGE IDEAS/.PRODUCTS
WORK TO CHANGE OR BETTER THE WORLD
 

Hope you are enjoying your summer and are taking the time to stop paddling and just drift, even for just a little while.

Best

Patti

Mid Year Review

Last year ended with the worse credit/liquidity crisis and stock market crash since the Great Depression.   The grim reality of our economy’s dire straits set in when the bubble burst and economy began to deleverage and unravel.  We learned new terms and revisited old ones: collateralized debt obligations, credit default Swaps, tranches, foreclosure, unemployment. The winds of change were blowing since late 2007 but they turned into a fire storm by the end the end of 2008.

How many years we will be feeling the effects of the consumer bubble bursting nobody is sure, but it isn’t going to be over by the end of this year.  Some are predicting inflation to follow while others say that if the stimulus package re-inflates the economy, it is expected to flatten out again for an extended period of time with low GDP growth.

It is hard to know with certainty who to believe any more but more importantly it is even more difficult to plan and prepare for contingencies and do adequate career management. My approach is to hope for the best but prepare for the absolute worse. Be ready to hang on as if you had to tough it out for 5+ years while you look for your dream job. 

Silicon Valley vs. the US Economy

The difference between Silicon Valley and the rest of the US economy, aside from a state budget run amok, is that the tech bubble bursting and the massive blood-letting of companies and jobs between 2000-2003 seems to have mitigated the damage this time around. It simply is not as bad as other regions. Companies are hiring and laying off people. Green jobs are growing here as is bio-tech/bio-pharma. I have heard that the salaries of local MBA grads of our top schools are higher this year than last.  On the other hand, people are more precarious than during the tech bust as there is less to nothing to fall back on. Many have seen their 401k plans lose 40% or more in value and the home equity was already used up in refinancing to get through the last crash.

A Consultant and Consumer Recession

Since many of the largest Bay Area companies already consolidated and downsized and never ramped back up fully from the last recession but rather sent jobs off shore instead, the ranks of consultants have swelled in the past 8 years. Granted young and fresh on the scene companies such as Google hired like crazy for the past few years and the real estate, mortgage brokerages, title companies and banks had a heyday.  The likes of Chevron, Cost Plus, Hewlett Packard, the Gap, Intel, and Apple didn’t go on hiring binges. In fact, some continued to downsize. 

Many consultants have been hit hard with increased competition from the laid off joining their ranks and companies keeping projects in-house instead of outsourcing. Furthermore, retailers such as Mervyns, Circuit City and Linens & Things have crashed and burned removing many low level sales jobs. So it is the best of times and the worst of times. Facebook is hiring but not likely anyone from Mervyns.

What’s Next?

Now that’s the $64 question and if the dollar devalues, it will be the $100 question.  Advice I have been giving my clients is to be prepared to last it out for however long it takes. With increasing fierce competition (think about how many life and career coaches you know) on a global scale, you must commit your resolve and effort to “career differentiation”. Yes, I know that’s a mouthful, but personal branding is so overworked. And do you really know how to brand yourself? Or what you would look like if you were?

Being able to answer to “what makes you different?” is really how you can articulate your unique value proposition to the world.  And knowing what makes you different takes reflection, effort and the long view. You have to look forward down the road to see where you are headed because recognizing your distinct path in part makes you different. You have heard the hackneyed saying that we are all on different paths. Well it is true.

Social Media Save Us

It’s really too late for me. I have been completely enchanted with anything Social Media since Linkedin launched in 2003. I just hope Twitter et al figure out how to make money and be viable businesses while they change the world.  It makes me want to rewrite John Lennon’s song, “Imagine”.  Imagine immediately accessible knowledge about anyone; imagine no more resumes; imagine interviewing for a job in 140 characters or less; imagine a world so small that everyone is connected; just imagine then look because it is already here.

The tools are there: social sites, blogs, video, podcasts, and wikis.  To not understand them, and make the most of them is to your detriment as they give you the edge to show the world how, why and in what way you are different as visibly as possible. And that in itself can determine your success.
So, spruce up your Linkedin profile, get on Facebook, Twitter and then explore the more esoteric vertical social sites to find more ways to be connected and visible to everyone.

Career Security

Yes, career security does exist in these tough times. It is in the power of the collective and the collaborative. I am not referring to Socialism. It stands to reason that if consultants are competing for every project then they are better off collaborating on all projects. If we are all striving to be different then helping everyone be their personal best will only help you stand out too. If you can take the long view and look down the road, you can change the future.
 

Crowd Sourcing and Personal Branding

Crowd Sourcing  is the appropriation and using of other people’s information that is either freely given or available typically from the Internet or a public program.  The entity that uses the information makes money off doing so while the provider of the information doesn’t.   This has worked to the benefit of many when times were good and prosperous, but now that the economy is on a downward trajectory, it can be a negative. Crowd Sourcing in a recession can become a formidable competitive tool. 

In an information, Internet economy, we are competing with our ideas, concepts and creations.  What do you do when professionals in your field, Crowd Source your models, information and ideas to use and market to a shared customer base or to help themselves get a job in your field?  It is constantly done in the workplace among teams and colleagues.  How many times have co-workers taken credit for your ideas?   Has a colleague ever borrowed your materials and ideas to their own benefit?

We are all knowledge-based business professionals. That's what we sell to companies when we interview for a job or to our clients to get their business.  They hire you for the bright ideas, innovation, fresh approaches, in-depth experience, and actionable insights that you bring to the table.   Yes, it can be frustrating when others, chasing the same business, Crowd Source your content to gain a competitive advantage.

But, that’s the nature of the game today as our economy circles the drain. Everyone is looking for that edge, that competitive advantage, that unique value proposition or business solution. There is no point in railing against the gods as we are all commodities now even if we are expert commodities.  The only way to defend against being Crowd Sourced, mob raped, or singly screwed is to do as follows:

• Build your brand as fast and as broadly as you can using all the Social Networking and Social Media tools at your disposal: blog and podcast, tweet on Twitter, link on Linkedin, friend on Facebook,  YouTube yourself

• Keep evolving your brand to stay unique and differentiated as the job market changes and as customer business needs change, not to mention as your competitors catch up with you

• Decide on and become known for a specific niche, twist or style of a service delivered otherwise you will be lumped in with the herd and that herd is starting to look more and more unemployed which in itself is commoditizing feature.

If you execute well on all of the above, then others Crowd Sourcing from you are simply paying homage. May the best brand win!

Speaking of Expertise:
Since 2002 I have been immersed in Social Networking and Social Media.  In 2003, I  consulted to the CEO of Linkedin on how to make it a job seeker friendly tool.  I have expert level understanding about how to apply Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Media to job searching, career changing, and professional advancement inside and outside your company.  
 
What does that mean for you?
Well I can help you promote your talents, qualities and expertise using online branding and networking better than any other career coach around,  for now.

For a free consult email: admin@careercompany.com

The Top Job Search Panic Pitfalls

     Recessions and market crashes can play upon the nerves of any executive making decisions and actions in a panic mode.  Career management  becomes a route instead of an informed, well modulated, thorough and patient process that reaches the targeted goal.  
We can sabotage ourselves when seeking new employment without realizing it out of panic, fear and knee jerk reactions.

Here are some of the top panic, pitfalls to avoid: 

• To expedite our search, we pay several thousand dollars for a costly service that mass markets our resume or letter of credentials to tens of thousands of companies by mail and email yielding the same percentage of results as any direct marketing campaign while commoditizing your image.

• Mistakenly thinking that we have a better chance of being hired if a company doesn’t have to pay a search fee, we fail to develop valuable relationships with executive search consultants who often can provide key insights and perspective on the marketplace as well as an interview opportunity.

• Avoiding change, we update the same resume template that we have used for decades without regard to how bad it looks on-line or the dated image it projects.

• Concerned about omitting important career successes and achievements, we insist on including positions that go back 25 + years showing companies that no longer exist, obsolete products and technologies or we build an overdone list of key words and job functions at the top of our resume that leaves us truly undifferentiated.  

• At the first sign of a job search, we call up and burn through all our great contacts without a focused goal or we proceed to wear out our welcome with the best contacts by continually checking in with them to see if anything has come up.

• We do the minimum job on our linkedin profile and then we wonder why recruiters aren’t calling and nobody accepts our requests.

• Most of our time at networking events is spent at the buffet, the bar, finding a parking place or in a corner.

• We assiduously push our needs, wants, and desires onto any unsuspecting contact we meet without first building a viable  relationship with the person.

• Contact business cards become drawer lining as we forget to follow up with people we can’t remember meeting in the first place. 

Some lessons we learn the hard way, others can be simply checked off one at a time. Career coaching can steer you away from all of the above and towards ways to leverage your assets, talents and time to land the next great gig.

 Email us for a free career evaluation: admin@careercompany.com. Find out how we can help you avoid the list and move successfully to your next opportunity.

Regards,

Patti Wilson