Posts Tagged ‘career development’

HireFriday: One Tribe-One Community Supporting & Helping One Another

That’s right, Monday, August 30th marks the first ever HireFriday show on Compassionate HR (my blogtalkradio show.) It brings me great pride to bring you the HireFriday Community members that make our space such a special place to be. In addition, The HireFriday All-Stars Show brings its with the best career development professionals in the business. People like Chandlee Bryan, author of The Twitter Job Search Guide will be one of our all-star panelists. I am hoping to convince Julie Walraven, Karen Siwak, Janice Worthington and other great resume writers to appear. Shally from Arbita will make an appearance. He’s the God Father of Candidate Sourcing. He is pointed to as the man who made internet research for candidate sourcing a valid, and respectable career.

I’ve invited the entire job search community to participate in tomorrow’s show. It will be fun to see who shows up. One never knows what will happen on blogtalkradio, and that’s part of the excitement. I’ve invited the best and brightest career coaches to call in our show. It will be a HireFriday job search free for all. We will stray from the Compassionate HR interview format in order to accommodate as many callers who want to speak

All the phone lines will be open, so anyone wants to call in to make a job search comment, ask a question about how to cope with unemployment, deal with limited resources, you are all welcome to pipe in–this show will provide useful ideas and tools for the taking. You will get so much free advice you’ll want to down load the episode free on I-Tunes so that you may listen to it again, and again. My hope is people will have a safe place to ask questions and discuss the ups and downs of the job search process. Unemployment is hard. HireFriday can help.

I kid around about being a fierce candidate advocate, and opened up the twitter profile for my alter-ego “GangstaHR.” She’s a kick-ass, take no prisoners, boots on the ground problem solver and candidate advocates. She vigorously debates people who pick on job seekers, and sometimes offends. Like me, my other persona has a heart of gold. GangstaHR gives me a chance to freely express my first amendment rights as an opinionated big-mouth who is fearless when it comes to defending job seekers, and their rights.

HRMargo, however is far more interested in providing useful information, job search strategy, and boot camp workshops to teach unemployed people how to find work using online resources. HireFriday and Compassionate HR are not just careers of mine, they are a way of life, and my way of serving my community. It’s my passion to be a candidate advocate. I care deeply about the plight of unemployed people. I will one day start a not for profit organization to serve guide women coming out of battered Women’s Shelters how to re-enter the workforce. I will serve disadvantaged populations, and teach them job readiness skills so that they too can re-join the workforce. While this is in the future, this is my ultimate vision.

In the meantime, I will offer job search strategy coaching, workshops, e-books, and useful tools to accelerate your re-mployment. Please tune in Monday evening. I secured a toll free number for job seekers 877-230-4601. Our listener call in line is 347-426-3215. You may also listen to the HireFriday All Stars show by pointing your browser to http://blogtalkradio.com/comphr. Thank you friends.

Your theme song today is by the Black Eyed Peas: One Tribe because The HireFriday Community I started back in February is truly one tribe y’all.

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Margo Rose Crazy Controversy Sells

Every now and then I wonder why shocktalkradio, shocking blogposts, and controversy sells. I spend hours researching and writing about my guests for my benign blogtalkradio show, Compassionate HR. those blog posts are rarely retweeted. As soon as I write a shock talk post, everyone retweets, and links back to it. Strange. My google analytics spike when I write something slightly mean spirited, and controversial. It’s ironic because I am the Compassionate HR blogtalkradio Host. I am a servant, steward leader. I spend 99% of my time helping others grow, and get HiredFriday.

Yet, my kick-butt posts are read furiously. Why? Is it because people don’t expect it? I really don’t know, but I find it frustrating because I spend no time researching controversial posts. I spend hours researching the meaty posts chocked full of tools and tips you can use.

I grow weary of this sad fact. Particularly when I hear those crazy posts are texted, emailed, and passed on like hot cakes on a yum-yum griddle. People love racy stories. It’s why shocking stories, and bad news is reported voraciously on network news. One day, I hope to present my findings about HireFriday, and Compassionate HR. Let me track back to the denotative definition of the word, Compassion. It means acknowledging suffering, and having a desire to express empathy, and a quest to alleviate suffering. It also expresses the power of equanimity.

Compassion doesn’t sell on my blog. Should I re-think my methodology? I am in the process of developing my new HireFriday website. It promises to be chock full of treats, and tools, and career related gems you can use. It will not be the least bit controversial. Albeit, my job search methodology is a bit unconventional, it is powerful. I have learned so much about career development through my Master’s Degree training, my experience as an outplacement facilitator with an international outplacement firm, and through my own painful career transition back into human resources after my 4 year stint in the Pet Industry.

Pain is a powerful motivator. Pain has been my greatest teacher. Compassion, and empathy are my teachers too. I am a spiritual woman. While my behavior falls short of my goal sometimes, I realize that like my Mother, my personality is an acquired taste. It’s not for everyone. My quirky personality is the result, in part, to the fact that I am in the midst of menopause. My hormones rage at times. I get hot flashes, and post shocking posts reflect that fact. I refuse to take estrogen, because I don’t want to suffer health related risks. My physician suggests that estrogen replacement should be a resort.

So, I will continue to be moody, and get angry and just plain stupid stuff that I never bother me when I am serene. As I grow, learn, and strive to become the woman I want to be, it is my hope to first do no harm. When I do so, I must make restitution immediately.

I now leave you with today’s theme song. It is one of my favorite songs by Aretha Franklin. R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

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Unemployment is hard. HireFriday can help. That is my message, and a reminder to job seekers that they are not alone. Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the fact that there are jobs available, even in when unemployment rates are high, and the mainstream media reports bad news.

Jobs are available. In fact most of the people in my recruitment network are looking for you job seekers. That is why it is crucial for you to put on your game face, and get ready to rumble before Friday. Here are some things you should consider:

1. Re-think your picture. Ok, I know no one likes to be told their picture is all wrong, but yours might be.  To be sure that it isn’t, check it out with a colleague,  or someone you trust.  There’s nothing more frustrating for me to see on HireFriday, than a bad picture of a potentially great candidate.  If your picture is a graphical image.  Change it.  People follow faces, and might mistake your image as spam.  In addition, recruiters and hiring managers want to see your professional image.  So, don’t shoot yourself in the foot before you get out of the gate.
2. Ask yourself, is my tweet “twitter friendly?” You’ve got 140ch to get your message out there.  Don’t clutter your tweet with extraneous information.  Research the key words in your industry.  Embed them into your tweet.
3. Join our HireFriday group on linkedin.  Our team of volunteer leaders will help you.  They will critique your potential tweet privately, and make sure it is HireFriday ready.
4. Don’t forget the world is watching. That’s right, HireFriday is not active not just in the United States, but we are in Europe as well.  Be positive, promote yourself in the best way possible.  Look at the way thought leaders in your industry present themselves.   Do you have similar experience?  Is it appropriate for you to use the terminology they use in your twitter bio?  Be honest, don’t lie.  But, if some of the key words apply to something you do, or have done, by all means use them.
5. Don’t hash tag people to death. Use hashtags sparingly, instead use them wisely.  First, research which hashtags in your industry get the most buzz, and attention.  There’s no use throwing a useless hashtag into the mix. If you want traction, spend your time following the hashtag twitter streams, and only using the ones that will get you in front of the hiring managers, and recruiters you want to see.
6. Pre-schedule your tweets.  Try cotweet.com, and schedule a good tweet once an hour.  Edit each tweet so you don’t look like a spam bot, and change it up a little.  Experiment and see which of your HireFriday tweets gets the most replies, and retweets.  I will retweet just about everyone in the stream, because I believe in community stewardship, but I’m not the one that’s going to hire you.  Tailor your tweets so that the people who can and will hire you see, and reply to your tweets.  Tweet more frequently only during peak hours.
7. Remember the multiplier factor: each person that retweets your HireFriday tweet exposes you to a new, and potentially powerful network.  Never underestimate the power of growing your network.  Pay it forward, retweet someone else’s HireFriday tweet.  Not only will they be grateful, you might just make a friend who can help you get hired.  We all know different people.  Case in point, my network of more than 4,100 contacts on twitter spans the HR, Recruiting industry, and the business community.  I also have a lot of great friends in my network, many of which have become closer as a direct result of using twitter.  My point here is this, you never know where your next job lead will come from, so grow your network.  Follow everyone in the HireFriday stream, most people you follow will follow you back.  If you nurture those relationships, they will retweet you and turn you on to their contact network.  It’s the power of numbers, and the law of attraction.
8. Don’t be a jerk.  That’s right, I said it.  Be nice, don’t be mean. Make sure your twitter personality is pleasant Monday through Thursday, not just on HireFriday.  Give more than you receive.  Tweet meaningful articles, and news your followers can use.  If you are a rocket scientist, tweet about the latest trends in your industry.  If you are a carpenter, tweet about the best demonstrated practices in the construction industry.  My point here is be relevant, be helpful, and move your image forward.
9. When I recommend a recruiter during HireFriday in the twitter stream, tweet them, introduce yourself, and find out if they know of jobs in your industry.  The fact of the matter is the HR and Recuitment Community is smaller than you think.  No, we don’t all know each other, but most of us make it a point of it to do so.  Most recruiters are basically good folks like you and me.  If they don’t know of a position for which you are suited, many of them can suggest a recruiter who focuses on your industry.  Tweet the HR professionals in my twitter network.  Tell them I sent you.  It’s been 7 months since I invented the HireFriday movement.  By now, all of them know about it.  Most of them really support HireFriday, and care about seeing people like you succeed.
10. Be omnipresent. Join our facebook fan page, participate in our linkedin group.  In addition, participate in twitter chats.  Every Friday from Noon-1 eastern time, and 9-10 a.m. Pacific,  we have a vibrant, helpful, and interesting twitter chat.  Use the hashtag #HFChat.  What’s cool about the HireFriday chat is that we have moderators who represent every generation.  @JPedde represents the Gen Y,  @JLetourneau represents Gen X and I represent Baby Boomers.

In addition,  participate in other employment related twitter chats.  It’s one more way for you to be found on twitter.  Twitter works for job search, if you work it.  On August 30th, I’m hosting a HireFriday All-Stars Show on Compassionate HR.  We are going to discuss HireFriday success stories, and new and innovative ways people in our HireFriday community are using twitter to find, and land jobs.

I hope you’ll join us.   Now for my theme song of the day “Dynamite.” I selected this song because it’s upbeat, and everybody needs a song of celebration of life song. Here it is:

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Collaborative communities that work together, move mountains

Lend a hand. Encourage a heart, and watch the world around you change.   Each of you is a  transformational force of nature.  Each of you, regardless of your age, color, religion, race, sexual preference, or political leanings,  has a dynamic, unique organizational perspective that no one else can bring to the workplace.  Why?  Because, there’s only one you.   Years ago, William Bridges wrote a career development book entitled “You & Company.”   His message was crisp, and perspecatious.   In essence, he expressed that each of us has a brand, and a special gift.  Now the term product banding is in vogue.  In the past few years, we’ve seen people alluded to as “employee brands.”  Yes, as a job seeker, you are the brand.  It’s brand you.  No, you’re not necessarily a product, but if you brand your image, your unique selling points you can create a neat,  and slick package.

As a perspective employee, you can create such an attractive presentation, you will present yourself to recruiters, and hiring managers with aplomb.  As brand YOU, you can tease out all the skills, knowledge, and abilities you bring to a company.  Think about it. You can do something that no one else can do as well as you.  Ok, HRMargo, you might say, “I’m just a…or…”Yes but…”  Stop.  Stop it right now.    Just for today, I want you to eliminate the qualifying statements: yes but, and I’m just a…and I want you to park them in the closet.  Do it.  For the rest of the day, every time your mind says, I can’t…or yes but I can’t because…or…I’m just a fill in the blank…catch yourself mid sentence.   Replace those thoughts with, ” I can and I may need to do x-y-z, to get there.”

Unemployment is Hard, and I am CONVINCED HireFriday can help.  I am so convinced that I am dedicating the rest of my life to this endeavor.  I am a baby boomer.  I wear that title like a badge of honor because with my age comes experience, wisdom, and compassion.  With my maturity comes perspective, empowerment, and an ability to engage and reach across to other generations fearlessly.  With my age comes a certain grace and generosity.  And, finally with my age comes a quest for generativity.   I can never completely give back all that has been given to me over the past 50 years of my life.  What I can do is give in kind each day of my life to different people who cross my path.

Regardless of who you are, where you came from, what obstacles you may face...YOU can fill these shoes

Today, I joined the JobHuntChat group on linkedin.  I wrote an introductory post.  My message was clear.  It was simply this: as communities, let’s work collaboratively together to change the world for the better.  Each community has its place.  Each community cluster has its gift, and communities that succeed don’t compete, they work together.  It’s not HireFriday, or JobHuntChat.  It’s HireFriday, and JobHuntChat, and JobAngels.  We all work together.  This will stimulate the economy.  This will revolutionize the lives of others, and the way we do business.   Our respective, and individual communities will each do something unique, and will help people, and organizations in a way no other organization can.

That’s why I’m fearless, and passionate, and persistent in this quest.  Just like you as an individual, our community can do a job no one else can do the way we can do it, because no one else is us.

There’s only one Margo Rose, M.Ed., HRD.  There’s only one YOU.  There’s only one HireFriday 2.0.  We are a boot camp community.  We are a boots on the ground approach to finding  jobs online.  Don’t ever think I can’t.  If you think you can’t, you’re right.  Today, I’m going to give you a challenge.  Remove the word can’t out of your vocabulary when it comes to expressing your skills and abilities.  Your skills and abilities can.  You can.  If you don’t have the education, or experience, get it.

Let HireFriday support you.  We are here to lend a hand, and encourage a heart.  When the world says no, we say yes.  When doors slam in your face, we apply healing salve to your wounds, and provide caring attention to your pain.  When you feel rejected, we offer acceptance, encouragement and compassion.   When I say I will believe in you until you believe in yourself, I mean it from the bottom of my heart, in every fiber of my being.

Love yourself.  Believe in yourself.  Be good to yourself.

I leave you with a theme song to brighten your day. I give you Queen, the rock and roll group from MY generation. I grew up liking Queen, particularly in high school. Remember we are the champions of the world. I’d like to thank Youtube, and the rock and roll band for reminding us of this important fact. Champion your job search.

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Margo Rose's HireFriday 2.0: A Boots On The Ground Approach To Your Online Job Search (Service Mark, Copy Right 2010)

Since I wrote the first Guidelines For HireFriday in May of this year, our community has grown exponentially.  As an omnipresent social media community, or more accurately, cluster of online communities; we have learned new lessons about how to grow, and incorporate best practices that will benefit: the job seeker, the recruiting community, the job board community, the executive coaching community, the resume writer community, the human resources community, and the business community at large.   HireFriday is going viral, and as we grow, we want to maintain the interactive, interpersonal communication that makes it one of the most unique new media communities in the digital space. I make it a point to interact with every single person in our community. It is the 1:1 that makes this so rewarding for me.

Social Media doesn’t describe what HireFriday is, or what it has become.  We are a social media community, we also have a cluster of new media communities popping up on blogs around the world.  HireFriday launched in France last Friday.  Each Country that replicates our model is adding its own international twist.  We have a facebook page, and a new facebook group which I am limiting in size in order to provide one to one attention with each of its participants.  My professional goal for HireFriday is NOT to grow large, but to grow smart, slow, and steady. Because this is my passionate quest, I do not want to lose the personal touch I give each person in our community.

In order to avoid brand confusion, and chaos I have chosen keep the spot light where it belongs: on the job hunter, the job search evangelist, the unemployed person, the passive candidate who wants to go public, but not quite ready.  Bottom line, what makes HireFriday important is its focus solely on the job seeker.  Unemployment is hard.  HireFriday can help.  What we as a community do is lend a hand, and encourage a heart. Lou Bonica put it well when he said, “HireFriday reminds the job seeker that they are not alone, or forgotten.”

Twitter does not need another job board which is why, for the time being, we will not adopt HireFridayJobs, as suggested on a blogtalkradio show I appeared on this week.  That would adversely affect my business model, and my business partners who make their living as twitter job search engines.  Monster.com was the first adopter of HireFriday.  TweetMyJOBS also incorporates @tweetmyresumes is a dynamic, and high quality resource. I formed a strategic partnership with Gary Zukowski. Gary is the heart and soul of the twitter job space. I met Gary at the ERE Conference in March. I had him on my show, and was favorably impressed. He reached out to me, and offered incredible ideas, and advice. We hit it off, the rest is history. Please follow @tweetmyresume. Recently, I connected with @Workway. I suggest you follow them, and follow their leader @WhatsWithDiane. They reached out to me, and I’m excited they wrote such a nice blogpost about HireFriday.

As you know, jobseekers can create a Public Profile on TweetMyJOBS.com, and there’s a button they can click to tweet their resume.  As I consider the gigantic job boards, and the small Mom & Pop job boards, I realized in short order, I don’t want to compete or play in that space because I am a CANDIDATE ADVOCATE. HireFriday is growing in leaps and bounds. It needs a full-time community manager, and I have promoted myself into the job.

HireFriday is growing, and I’m growing with it. It’s time to explore what the buddhists call “right livelihood.” It blends my vision for Compassionate HR with HireFriday Community Management. It’s time to monetize this venture in a way that maintains the ethics, integrity, dignity, and respect of each person in the stream. I want your input about how I can do this in a way that provides value to you.

In addition, I am a dot connector.  I connect the dots, make matches, and connections with people across, throughout and around networks.  For years I’ve been saying, ” you are either networking or not-working.”  In essence, we are all on different trajectories in our careers.  This further explains my intense passion for shining light on job seekers, and keeping the HireFriday stream on twitter exclusively for JOB SEEKERS, and UNEMPLOYED people.  Yes, I’m capitalizing those words, because I want to emphasize how profoundly important job seekers are to me, my heart, my mission and my vision for what HireFriday was intended to do from its inception.  

Guess what, I’m not selling out to outside interests.  I carefully pick and choose ethical, dignified, authentic, and respectful partners in the recruiting community.  The ethical, compassionate recruiters have profound reach and resonance, and can be uniquely helpful to our community. I want to make an honest living, and work only with people who are doing the same.

This week I announced a new partnership with Paul Paris (also known as @Paris22) he’s affectionately referred to as The Ex Recruiter.  I am encouraging my community to be as omnipresent as I am.  Participate in Paul’s Employment Cafe.  Participate in #WorkWednesday. Be present in #JobAngels. Watch the #Jobs & #Career Stream, and as I frequently say, “Job Seekers: Think Like A Recruiter.” Before I share too much, let me just say that some very exciting services are about to be offered with the two of us coming together. Now, what you’ve been waiting for my top 5 tips for getting the most out of HireFriday this week.

Here are my top 5 tips for getting the most out of this week’s HireFriday on Twitter:

1. Use your real name in your tweet. It will make it easier for recruiters, hiring managers, human resource directors to find you.  HireFriday is a brilliant inbound marketing experience. Use it, and make it work.
2. If you choose to tweet through tweetmyresumes, do you buzz, or another service, put your name first, followed by an industry recognized job title that will tickle the search engines, and candidate sourcers radar.  They are watching you. The world is watching this human community experience. This is your chance to shine.  Do the research.  Go to google and find out what those job titles actually are, how they are indexed, and how they are written in the applicant tracking systems.  Research the job boards.  What do they call your job title?  Is it what you think it is, or is it called something else? Is your job industry specific? Or do you care about which industry you are in now? Figure it out before Friday.  Do not think outside the box.  Rather, get inside it.  Squeeze in tight and niche yourself.   Even if you are a generalist, you best make sure you are stripping out key words so people will find you.
3. Location, location, location.  Is it important? If it is, say so, if it is not, say so-clearly, so that people can identify whether you are a realistic candidate for the position.
4. Industry: if you are a java developer (consider yourself the unicorn) everyone the world is looking for you.  I’m not entirely kidding.  If you are in Information Technology hash tag #IT #Java #C++.  If you are in #HR hashtag #HR #EmployeeRelations #Benefits #Compensation #SPHR #PHR #Training #LeadershipDevelopment #StrategicPlanning you get my drift.  If you are an #OrganizationDevelopment Specialist hash tag #OD #Organization #Assessments #Diagnostics #MBTI #DiSC #OrGCulture or whatever aspect of OD you excel.  In future workshops, I will teach you how to research and break down the components of your job so you can hash tag them appropriately.
5. Create a bit.ly link (or another link shortener if you wish) to your resume or linkedinprofile.  My personal preference is a link to the linkedin profile because it does two things. 1) It builds your network and your professional brand, and 2) if your linkedin profile is well written, it can be even better than your online resume for lots of reasons (I’ll discuss this in future posts).

The volunteer job seeker evangelists make HireFriday the special community it is. If I left out your name, please don’t be offended. Instead will you please leave a comment.

My faithful readers know how much I love a theme song. Today’s theme is hand picked for my job seeker community. I’ve Got A Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas. I’ve Got A Feeling That HireFriday is going to be a good day, HireFriday is going to be a good, good day, that today is going to good day. (My Personal Ring Tone 2009)

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