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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Develop a genuine interest in other people’s lives. Listen for and seize opportunities to help other’s achieve their goals
5. 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.
6. Ask your contacts the best way and times to contact them. Some will prefer email, while others will prefer LinkedIn.
7. 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.

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 21^st 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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THE JOB CLUB:
TRANSCENDING FROM CRISIS TO OPPORTUNITY
Wednesdays: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
January 21, 28, Feb 4, 11, 25, March 4, 11, 18, 25,
April 1, 15 and 22, 2009
Wainwright House
260 Stuyvesant Avenue, Rye, NY 10580

In a safe and supportive environment, learn how to:
• Embrace change and use it to propel you forward
• Explore and identify career paths that best fit your strengths and interests
• Prevent your Inner Gremlin from standing between you and your goals
• Effectively build and mobilize your network, even if you are shy
• Address spoken and unspoken objections and work around challenges
• Define your Personal Brand for use in your resume, cover letter, online presence,
sound bites and messages that capture the interests of hiring managers and key contacts
• Conduct an effective job search using the Dispatch Method
• Transform interviews from interrogations into business meetings
• Identify and answer illegal interview questions while maintaining your cool
• Negotiate better salary and compensation packages

Pre-registration is required
http://www.wainwright.org/Program_DittaAnneMarie_series.htm
Phone registrations: 914-967-6080, Monday – Friday 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
At other times, please leave a message and a registrar will return your call and take your registration and credit card information.
12-week series
$540 for members \ / $600 for non-members

CWNY Job Club Party

Last Friday, I had a small holiday party for the women who attend the my job club at CWNY. I spent some time the day before the party exploring the different miracles associated with Christmas  Hannukah and Kwanzaa.

According to Wikipedia,  “miracle is a visible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker.” Some miracles associated with the holiday season include:

• Christmas celebrates the miracle of the birth of  Jesus to the virgin, Mary.

• Hanukkah commemorates the “miracle of the container of oil” which lasted eight nights instead of one night.

• The 7th principle of Kwanzaa is Imani (Faith) “To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.” Faith is a pre-cursor to a miracle.

• In the 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street, a little girl discovers dreams do come true, if you really believe, as Kris Kringle challenges the city’s holiday spirit in a high-profile trial.

Given the impact the Economic Crisis has had on the job market and  unemployment, you might find yourself wishing, hoping, or praying for a miracle.  Therefore, my gift to you this hoiday season is the following questions, which may or may not bring you closer to a miracle happening in your life:

• What does a miracle mean to you?
• What miracle(s) have happened in your life?
• What role did you play in attracting the miracle?
• What do you firmly believe?
• What role has your beliefs played in recognizing a miracle when it happens?
• What do you need to do to be the best employee / professional  / entrepreneur or independent contractor?
• What is one thing you can start doing now to become that person?
• How does the way you see yourself or would like to be seen differ from the way people see you?
• What do can you do to strengthen your professional / personal image?

Wishing you a miraculous holiday!

Anne-Marie, Chief Career Officer

Conventional wisdom amongst readers who responded is employment in the IT sector is anything but thriving. Overall readers agreed that the jobs posted online don’t present genuine opportunities. Additionally the impact of outsourcing and the hiring of those who have an H-1 visa was a frequent cause for concern.

In search of more accurate data, I spent the better part of the evening searching for data to support one position or the other. Nothing I found had contradicted recent reports of rising unemployment figures in the business and professional sectors. Let alone IT.

While you cannot control the job market, you can control how you manage your career. Below are 5 Tips To Survive a Tough Job Market:

1. Use social networking sites such as LinkedIn to grow your network and locate past employers, colleagues, classmates, vendors, etc.
2. Start your own blog to position yourself as a Subject Matter Expert
3. Arrange to have a 360 Degree Assessment conducted to find out what your team, staff, stakeholders and boss really think of you. Use the results to improve your performance.
4. Offer to mentor to someone who really needs your help.
5. Boost your Optimism Quotient by reading something inspirational or spending time with people whose attitude you admire.