LinkedIn and the Permanent Campaign

As I like to say, being visible is critical; they can't hire you if they don't know you exist!  And they're not going to care about you if they don't know how you can help them!

Here's Lisa CHAU, in her June 11, 2012 article in www.usnews.com:

In a rather extreme example, Dorie Clark warns in It's Not a Job Search, It's a Permanent Campaign, published by Harvard Business Review:

"If you're invisible, you're probably a fraud. Resumes and even clever cover letters will become increasingly meaningless when employers are looking not for words, but for demonstrated knowledge and results. If you've got a strong online personal brand, you're in. And if you don't? One firm I consulted for almost didn't hire a qualified senior executive because—lacking almost any online presence—they strongly suspected he had fabricated his background. He hadn't, but the elaborate process of verifying his story nearly cost him the job."

 In Forbes, Josh Bersin reports in LinkedIn's Growth Continues: Fueling the Corporate Talent Machine that LinkedIn's "hiring solutions" business accounts for $102.6 million or 54 percent of company revenue, which were up 101 percent this quarter. In the corporate recruiting market, LinkedIn's revenues overshadow those of its rivals: SuccessFactors, which SAP just acquired for $3.4 billion; Taleo, which Oracle just acquired for $1.9 Billion; and Kenexa.

LinkedIn has become the new standard in corporate recruiting, and in this economy it's a buyer's market. Social media usage will continue to integrate itself into personal and professional lives. Rather than avoid it, we must adapt to it.  (My emphasis.)

Who you are professionally, what you've done, how you've contributed to the success of current and past employers and clients, all make you compellingly attractive to potential employers and clients.  You need to be visible, to be seen and heard, and then set yourself apart from your competition to let your specific world know what you can do for them!

What do your customers, clients and/or employers value most about your skills, talents and services?  Those whom you've assisted professionally can become your marketers, your references, your fan club, when you post their evaluations of your work on LinkedIn.  

Is your knowledge of your field, industry or profession up-to-the-minute?  Demonstrate just how sharp you are by posting updates on your home page, joining in professional discussions in your groups, and answering questions related to your industry.

Become a known quantity, a "thought leader," a pundit, a specialist, an expert, an authority.  And be visible, so that customers, clients and employers can beat a path to your door!

WHY IS COMMON SENSE SO UNCOMMON?  THE JOB SEARCH IS SALES!!!

I mean, it's downright rare.  Is it that people are too self-absorbed to realize what works, and what doesn't, and why?  I'm referring here specifically to the idea that the entire job search, from the very beginning until you plant your fanny in the chair at your new job, is SALES.  Just SALES.  Nothing but SALES.

Think about it.  When you're looking for a job, you're hoping that someone is going to give you money.  For what?  For doing something...for them.  Would you give money to someone -- I'm not talking about charities, now -- and expect nothing in return?  I sincerely doubt it.  You'd expect something for your money.  Why, then, do so many people just entering the job market simply assume that the job search is all about the them, job seeker?  It's most definitely NOT.  It's about the potential employer, the ones who are paying the salary...it's about THEM and THEIR NEEDS, not you or your needs.

They're the ones with the money.  They're the ones who, if you're offered and accept the position, will be paid by them.  For what?  For doing what they hired you to do.  What could be simpler?  Yet time after time, I speak to intelligent and articulate people who think that all they need to do to get a job is respond to a posting, send in a (frequently poorly-written) resume, and assume that the recruiter will be rushing to call them in for an interview.

Let's talk about SALES.  Really excellent salespeople know their products and services cold.  There isn't a question that they can't field.  There's a real art to sales, and it consists, if you're the salesperson, of 1) you understanding what the buyer wants/needs; 2) knowing what you have that satisfies the buyer's wants/needs; and 3) being able to illustrate how you have provided previous buyers with those same solutions to their wants/needs, so that you can prove to the current buyer can see how you can help him...because if you've done it successfully before, you can do it just as successfully (if not more successfully) again.

Simple, yes?   Then why do so many people not realize what the relationship is between job seeker and company, employee and employer? As the saying goes, this is not rocket science!!

If you're starting out in your career, be certain to:

• Know what your strengths are.  These are the benefits that you are "selling" to potential employers.
• Learn what your strengths are by examining your past accomplishments.  Whether they're school-related, internship-related, job-related, or having to do with some personal situation in your past that you were able to work out successfully, what you're proudest of having achieved contains clear examples of your strengths.   Did you teach yourself to ride a bike when you were 10, to avoid the ridicule of having to ride around on a bike with training wheels?  What did you do?  How did you teach yourself?  How long did it take?  These things demonstrate your problem solving skills, your creativity, your strategic abilities, your perseverance, your determination.  Your STRENGTHS.
• Identify at least 4 school, internship or work-related accomplishments, each of which should clearly illustrate a different strength.  Readers and listeners don't remember unadorned statements; they DO remember STORIES, which is what your accomplishments are.  These will appear on your resume, and you will be speaking about them on your interviews.  KNOW THEM COLD...when, where, why, how, how much, who and what were involved and, most importantly, WHAT WAS THE RESULT?

In the job search, you're the salesperson who's selling YOU.  Get ready now for the future search...because it's not a question of whether you'll someday be in the job search...it's a matter of how SOON it will be!!

Paula Cohen, Career Charisma

careercharisma@gmail.com

Shangri-La in Brooklyn

I'm reading a lot, these last couple of days, about employee happiness and fulfillment, and how so many companies miss the boat when it comes to engaging their best and brightest people. And as someone who's been in the corporate world for a few decades now, I can wholeheartedly vouch for the truth of that.

I also spend a good deal of time, nowadays, explaining that people should 1) determine what it is that they love to do so much that they'd do it for nothing, and 2) find out what they do so well that employers will pay them well to do it...and then go out and get a job that provides both...because if you're being paid to do what you love so much that you'd do it for nothing, you're not "going to work" each day, you're "going to play!"

Does that make a difference? The single best company I ever worked for, in terms of how they treated their staff, and the loyalty and enthusiasm that the staff gave back, was a very small -- perhaps 500 employees? -- savings bank in Brooklyn, NY. Being in Human Resources back then, I would conduct the orientation sessions for new employees each Monday. And the first thing I would do would be to congratulate the staffers on having joined the bank...because "we're a special place. We only hire the best. And if you're here today, it's because we recognized that you are special, and we're very pleased that you're here with us today!"

This, by the way, was no lie. I had been told the same thing when I was hired, and it had been proven to me every day that I worked there, so that it was easy for me to be utterly truthful, and tell newly hired staff what I had experienced myself. Quality performance was recognized and rewarded. Good ideas were encouraged, implemented and rewarded. Staff members felt valued and energized. The result? Loyalty, enthusiasm, drive, integrity and a vast amount of superlative work...and a great deal of enjoyment, at the same time

My own supervisor said it best. "You can work hard, or you can work hard and have fun," he said. "I'd rather work hard and have fun!" And we did both.

One of the most memorable things was the fairness with which employees were treated. There were no arbitrary -- read willfully stupid -- decisions made by senior management, and the culture was one of respect: respect between employees, between employees and management, and between employees, management and customers. Why? Call it enlightened self-interest. It was in our interest to ensure that the bank was well run, and that customers were treated with unfailing courtesy and patience...because the customers could take their money anywhere, and what made them keep it with us, and keep us successful, was the outstanding treatment they received.

In short, I "went to play" every day. I wish I could say the same for even some of the other companies I've worked for over the years. In most, however, staff were treated like mushrooms...kept in the dark and buried in s**t, as the saying goes. That one, lone little bank was the only organization I ever worked for that functioned in this caring, enlightened way. Why? I don't know, other than to observe that there are a great many incredibly stupid people out there, and lots of them even run huge, multinational companies.

But if companies want to be successful, and function smoothly and well, and particularly if they're management consulting firms that are supposed to teach other companies how to treat their employees, they just might want to consider treating their own employees as true human resources...isn't that what employees are supposed to be? Why else was the term invented?

The most common mistake that job seekers make during the holidays...

...is not doing their job seeking during the holidays!  As every career management professional -- career consultant, career counselor, career coach -- will tell you, the two best times of the year to conduct your job search are during the summer, and during the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's season.


Why?  During the summer people are naturally more mellow.  They're just back from vacation, and reminiscing about the wonderful time they had; they're getting ready to go on vacation, and are already mentally kicking back; the days are long and warm, perfect for meeting after work (or for breakfast) and talking things over.  


During the holidays people are...naturally more mellow!  This is the time of year when people begin to think of others, and the emphasis is on kindness, happiness and hope for the future.  People are more willing to stop and chat, during the work day, often take somewhat extended lunch hours to do their Christmas/Chanukah shopping, and find that the pressures of work are less onerous (UNLESS they're working in the Accounting Department and preparing to close the books at year end, or UNLESS they're in retail...in either of which cases you probably won't see them until after January).


Well, the holidays are here, now!  NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK!  Send your contacts Thanksgiving cards (avoid the Christmas rush!), and remind them how grateful you are for their friendship, their experience and wise advice, and the fact that they're simply there for you.  Who are you more thankful for, in fact, than those who extended themselves on your behalf?  Let them know...and while you're at it you'll be keeping yourself on their radar, and reminding them that they may not have heard from you for a while.  Ask to get together for an eggnog, or a cup of coffee, or a drink, to celebrate the season, and discuss your and their plans for the year ahead.


Nobody wants to be seen or thought of as the Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge during the holidays season.  Most people are feeling like kids again, or like the lights on their trees...happy and involved in family, friends, and good-deed doing.  How about movies like "It's a Wonderful Life", "A Christmas Carol", and "Miracle on 34th Street"?  It's good deeds that count during the holidays.


Now's your chance to allow people to be friendly and helpful...and all because of you!  And don't think they won't take you up on it, either.

It's been entirely too long...

...since I last posted anything on my blog.  Seven months, in fact, or thereabouts.  For someone who prides herself on staying on the radar of professionals interested in what's going on in the world of job search and career resilience, that's pretty damned unconscionable!  So I hereby vow to post a new blog entry every week...as a way of sharing insights, news and information with readers, and as a way of disciplining myself.  Let this be the first week of the rest of my blog life!

I'm very proud to say that I began a new chapter of my professional life this week: on Tuesday, 11/8, I began a part-time position at the Magner Center for Career Development and Internships, which is Brooklyn College's truly excellent Career Center, a position slated to last through February of 2012.  BC is my alma mater, and I graduated from there in -- well, let's just say that I graduated from there long enough ago so that the current students could be my grandkids.  And that's no exaggeration.

In many ways it's very much the same -- the main campus is still as beautiful as it was the first time I saw it, when I was about 5 or 6, and looked in through the main gate at Bedford Avenue.  I was so struck by its loveliness that I told my mother, there and then, that this was the college I wanted to attend, and I've always been grateful for the excellent education I got there, and proud of being a graduate.  I've also been doing volunteer work for the Magner Center for the past 2 or 3 years...but this opportunity to be a real part of the school again is very exciting for me, as a way of giving back what I was given.

In many ways, however, it's very different.  One way is the truly amazing ethnic and cultural diversity of the student population.  Another way -- and not, unfortunately, a good way -- is the incredible difficulty that so many students are having finding jobs after graduation.  In this, the situation couldn't be more diametrically different from what it was when I graduated.  Back then a degree in anything -- Basket Weaving, Folk Dance or Phys. Ed. -- could get you a job in the most prestigious of companies.  Just so long as you had a degree.  Any degree.

Now?  Now it seems that companies are willing to hold out for astonishing lengths of time in order to find the absolutely exact individual with the absolutely specific knowledge and experience they're looking for, making "the perfect the enemy of the good," as the saying goes.  How sad, and what a waste of talent among talented, educated, eager and perfectly acceptable candidates who simply need a little -- and often a very little -- time and training to become stars for the company intelligent enough to hire them.

Somewhere along the line, potential employers decided that training was a dirty word.  I don't know why, when we've got so many people hungering for work.  I only know that it's a sin and a crime, and that anyone who's got influence with senior management or boards of trustees of companies of any size should start trying to change hearts and minds.  If we're going to stay the vibrant, successful "land of opportunity" that's set the model for what a nation could achieve, we've got to start putting our people -- young and not so young -- back to work.  Waiting for the "perfect" person isn't the way to do that.

I don't know exactly when this came to seem like a good idea, or why; but these things don't happen without the consent of the folks at the top.  To translate phrase I heard many years ago, when working for a non-U.S. bank, "the fish stinks from the head"...meaning that decisions are made from the top down, even the bad ones.  We need to let corporate decision-makers know that they need to start changing their employment practices, start hiring, and stop burning out their current employees... those who are doing the work of 2, 3 or 4 other people while management waits for the "perfect" individual to come along.

Join me, if you can, in trying to make a difference for your friends, your family, your neighbors -- and maybe even yourselves!

"Boomer" technology...one day at a time

I'm continually astonished at how many people still haven't gotten over the fear of using new "stuff" on their computers...until I realize that I'm no different from those "many people."


For instance, I just installed the Google Chrome browser on my computer, and now I'm playing with it, and learning how to use it, and what it can do.  It's not something that I'm entirely comfortable with, this idea of installing something new and teaching myself.  Mostly I find it fun, but I still -- and probably always will -- get a little gut-clench, until I've really gotten the hang of it.  I kinda have to force myself to click that next key, and see what will happen, but it's almost like watching a suspense movie: mentally I'm really watching the screen between my fingers, if you know what I mean.


Mind you, I know -- I mean, I really know -- that I can't launch a flight of cruise missiles over Washington D.C., or blow up my computer, or black out the entire Northeast power grid by hitting the wrong button.  But I wasn't born with computers and all the bells and whistles that go with them, and I won't ever be as comfortable with them as anyone born after 1985 just naturally is.  After all, I didn't emerge from the womb texting... 


So I can understand how so many others -- Baby Boomers like me -- also find the experience somewhat less than comfortable.  But we've got to keep on installing, and learning, and teaching ourselves, because it's crucial not to succumb to the urge to settle into quiet obsolescence.  Technology is moving so fast, and it's not ever going to stand still, much less go backwards to the good old days of rotary phones, electric typewriters and TVs sans remotes...and no computers.  If we don't want to become utterly irrelevant, and increasingly helpless, we've got to keep moving forward.


Besides, learning all this new and fascinating technology has got to be good for the brain...all those new synapses firing, or whatever goes on in there.  So I tell myself that I'll avoid Alzheimers, and simultaneously avoid looking like a great, honking dork, by learning all this phenomenal new stuff.


So for all you Boomers who might read this, please join me in the second decade of the 21st Century, and start embracing this magic.  Explore, make mistakes, delete, try again, go back and explore some more.  Boomers of the world, unite!  You have nothing to lose but your dorkdom!!

Entrepreneurs (current or wanna-be), take note!

Anyone in the NYC area knows that finding work space -- particularly for a single practitioner, and particularly in Manhattan -- is nothing short of horrendous.  For a start-up business, it can be prohibitively expensive, meaning that many entrepreneurs are reduced to working out of Starbucks or the many public atrium spaces that dot Manhattan.  Privacy, however, which is usually a necessity when doing one-on-one consulting, is impossible in those locations.  Also, for many potential clients, the idea of a consultant or business without an office or established address might be a turn-off.

Which is why In Good Company was created by two phenomenal women entrepreneurs, who themselves were finding it difficult to find space.  IGC provides work space for other women entrepreneurs: desk space, small meeting rooms and a large conference room, plus individual, rentable offices.  Home to a great variety of businesses, it's the place where I see my clients and will be holding future workshops.

Just as important, however, is the fact that In Good Company not only provides workspace, it provides a community for the entrepreneurs who use the space.  Workshops, discussion groups, training sessions and more are available to members.  To get a sense of the combined wisdom, industry knowledge and expertise of the IGC members, you just need to look at IGC's blog, the link to which I've provided below.  I've also provided the link to their website, so that you can see photos of the work spaces.

Entrepreneurs, this may be the catalyst you need to get you started on your dreams!

http://ingoodcompany.com/blog/

http://ingoodcompany.com/