My friend Melissa gave birth to a baby girl last week. During her pregnancy she developed gestational diabetes. To control her blood sugar she started taking lengthy walks, which I sometimes joined along. The time spent walking gave us a chance to deepen our friendship. Being we lived a five minute drive from each other I volunteered to care for her other children when the time came. I confess my motives were somewhat selfish as she and her husband had three of the most adorable children I know.
Shortly after she gave birth I learned the baby’s middle name was the same as my first name. Given I am not a parent I was flabbergasted. When we got a chance to discuss the baby’s name I learned her husband’s late sister and I shared the same name. However, given my involvement they had decided when the time came they would also tell her how I cared for her brother and sisters while she was being born.
There are valuable lessons to be learned about networking from this blessed, memorable event. If you are currently or have been in a job search, you likely have been told that networking is the best way to get hired. Approximately 80% of all people are hired due to a personal recommendation. Despite the high success rate networking can be frustrating, frightening and confusing.
Much like effective networkers, Melissa and I share a personal connection. This connection is what makes us willing to help one another. A week before she gave birth she made time to help me set up a budget to accommodate my new life as a single woman. Your professional network can help you achieve your goals when you treat your contacts like valued friends. To build and grow your network, select and for the next 90 days, implement three tips from the list that follows:
- Determine what traits, values, and interests you share with people in your network. It’s best when these are both personal and professional. Music, sports, philanthropy are great denominators.
- Have heroes, role models, mentors – these are people who are where you want to be. Let them know how they have inspired you when you ask for advice and guidance.
- As simple as it may sound, let people like you. People like to do business or help those they like. Smile, tell a joke or funny story, and make good eye contact.
- Develop a genuine interest in other people’s lives. Listen for and seize opportunities to help other’s achieve their goals
- Stay on the radar screen, both socialmedia and technology offer various ways to keep your name popping up. If someone doesn’t reply to your email or text try contacting them using Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
- Ask your contacts the best way and times to contact them. Some will prefer email, while others will prefer LinkedIn.
- Keep it friendly, keep it social, but keep it professional. If you haven’t spoken in awhile, schedule a lunch meeting or phone call to catch up with each other. This will go further then sending an email about their company’s need for a Senior Vice President.
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- Tags: brand, career, career change, career coach, career coaching, career goals, career paths, career transition, goals, job, job market, job search, professional brand, unique value proposition
LinkedIn, the premier social networking site announced it would unveil a universal resume apply button today. This is good news for anyone in a job search. However it increases the demand to stand out and validates the importance of a powerfully written, well-branded LinkedIn profile.
To stand out, your LI profile should:
- immediately engage your reader
- be conversational
- distinguish you from everyone else in your target network
- contain a personal story or testimonial
- be 250 words or less
- promote your unique value proposition – UVP
- be unified with your resume, cover letter, and other career communications
- be written using key words and phrases
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- Tags: brand, career communications, CareerComm, cover letter, job search, linkedin, network, profile, resume, unique value proposition, UVP
You have a great resume, know and can speak about your professional brand, network regularly…but nothing’s happening. Could your smile – or lack of – be getting in the way?
During my former career as an account executive I realized people needed to like me before they could sign an agreement with me. So I made a conscious decision to let them know me. I took the time to ask about their business, what was happening with their family, and how their weekend was. In turn they asked about my life. Several clients became lifelong friends.
The lesson I learned is people like to do business with or help people who they feel a connection. In addition to your business card and resume be sure to bring your smile and curiosity to your next networking meeting.
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There’s a new breed of Career Coach and Professional Resume Writer helping job seekers navigate the toughest and most confusing job market in decades. For job seekers, the stakes have never been higher, and the job search landscape has never been more volatile as Google, social media, employers, and recruiters drive the switch to “Social Search.” These are 2011′s job search realities:
- Employers are abandoning costly and ineffective job board giants and databases. Traditional job search is dying. It won’t be revived; nor will job seekers clinging to traditional resumes.
- Google is career GPS. Google results are replacing the resume as a screening device.
- Hiring managers are sourcing candidates via cost- and quality-effective “social solutions” including Google, LinkedIn profiles, social media venues, video presentations, and more.
- Social job search requires more than a resume. Candidates need a multi-channel online presence within a branded, value-infused career communications (CareerComm) network.
- “Bottom-line-it-for-me!” managers and recruiters increasingly prefer bold, brief, brand- and value-rich career documents—as easily readable on a smart phone as on a computer.
Two nationally recognized authors, coaches, and innovators in branded career management—Deb Dib and Susan Whitcomb—created the G3 Coach Program (offered through theacademies.com) to train career professionals in the new techniques their job seeking clients need for success in an employment market driven by speed and social-media recruiting.
The pioneering Certified G3 Coach program (which stands for Get Clear, Get Found, Get Hired!), equips career coaches, job search strategists, resume writers, and personal branding strategists to help job seekers flourish in today’s Social Search employment market. Anne-Marie Ditta, a resident of Westchester County, graduated from the inaugural class, becoming one of the first in the world to earn the elite Certified G3 Coach designation.
Dib sums up the need for this training: “Today’s hiring managers are inundated multi-taskers with little time and patience. As a Certified G3 Coach, Ditta has the skills to help job seekers meet today’s employers’ mantra, ‘So what? Make me care! Do it fast!’”
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- Tags: 360 degree assessment, blog, brand, business analyst, career change, career coach, career coaching, career goals, career paths, career transition, certified professional resume writer, coach, goals, hr consultant, job search, resume, skills
About 4 years ago I developed a specialized resume format to use for networking purposes. The unique design enabled resumes to be quickly downloaded onto and easily read on smart phone screens. The product was so effective that clients received several interviews.
Fast forward to 2011 – LinkedIn remains the social network of choice for job search. Twitter and Facebook, the new kids on the block, have impacted job search strategy so much that traditional resumes and cover letters are consolidated into CareerComm.
CareerComm is the 21st Century version of the career portfolio. In addition to your resume, cover letter, and thank you letter, your CareerComm package must include:
- Branded Resume with High-Impact Pitch Profile: shorter, sweeter and demonstrates value from the first word on. Accomplishments are the size of a tweet (140 characters) and support high-impact power profiles. The reader can easily scan critical data.
- Cover Letter: enforces your brand and guides hiring managers, HR staff, and recruiters, etc. through the key points of your resume.
- Power Note(s): immediately grab the attention of hiring managers and are used when both sending your resume by email and with email follow-ups.
- Personal Marketing Brief: provides people in your network with the names of companies and people on your target list and talking points to get you in the door.
- Personally Dynamic Value Driven LinkedIn Bio: differentiates you from people inside and outside your network.
- Branded Bio Suite: puts the perfect document for every event at your fingertips. From articles and introductions to corporate announcements, these documents project your brand in as little as 25 words.
- Thank You Letter: impress hiring managers, recruiters, and HR specialists by sending them a powerful letter within hours of your interview.
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If you are considering making a career change you might be feeling overwhelmed or confused about where to start. Change can feel crazy making. A friend once told me “sometimes we let go one finger at a time” when I called her for advice about a situation that I was having difficulty walking away from.
Change is process. There is a beginning, middle, and an end. In the beginning you may be unclear about what your options are. You may wonder whether your experience is relevant. Or you may have concerns about things over which you have no control such as your age or race. This is just your Inner Gremlin or Fearful Voice talking. The fact you are reading this blog already tells me you ARE employable.
Once you make the decision to explore a career transition you might be tempted to jump in and reply to postings that you find interesting. Hold off, there are some steps you need to take before you can start looking at opportunities.
You might make an appointment with a career coach expecting him or her to tell you what you would be good at. A reputable career coach will NOT tell you that instead they will give you the tools and the feedback to reach an informed decision.
A satisfying transition starts with a thorough exploration of career history, interests, and values. Make a date with yourself to go to visit a place that is relaxing. Some of my favorite places include the beach, park, or down under the Brooklyn Bridge. Bring along a pen, notebook and print out of this posting. WARNING: you may find it difficult to answer these questions, so you bring along some Kleenex, too. While you might find it painful, answering the following the questions is the first step towards a better road.
- What is causing you to make a change? Has there been a significant change in your industry or the culture of your organization? Are you frequently passed over from promotions? Are you unable to find work in your field?
- How long have you been feeling this way or thinking about making a change? Days, weeks, months, years? How often do you think about making a change?
- How has this affected your life? Do you feel irrelavent? alone? Do you lose sleep? Have headaches? Frequent disagreements with friends and family?
- What will it cost you financially, emotionally, spiritually… if things remain the same?
- How do you envision your life will be different once you have completed your change?
In MyCareerCoach’s next blog post I will share more tips for making a rewarding career transition
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