Posts Tagged ‘job search strategy’

How to get find, and get found

This hope for the holidays series continues with a few tech tools that will give you insight into your digital footprint, and the digital footprint of those you want to meet, a tool that will turn your LinkedIn profile into an infographic, and a search tool that will help you find the email addresses, and contact information for just about anyone you want to meet.

1. Peek You http://peekyou.com Find them now. If someone’s online, has a username, twitter account, facebook page, or any social network affiliation, Peek You will find it.  Everyone should put their own name into the search window just to see everything Peek You will find about you. The flip side is you can search for anyone you are trying to find, and if they have a digital footprint, Peek you will help you track it down. PeakYou is useful when you are doing company research, and you want to prepare for an interview with a recruiter, a hiring manager, someone in HR, or even a colleague, or competitor.  PeekYou shows you more information than you can imagine.  Recruiters and candidate sourcers are using this tool.  I think you should too.
2. Vizualize.me is still in beta, but it is well worth investigating. It will take your current LinkedIn Profile, and turn it into an infographic.  Here’s mine for example  http://vizualize.me/hrmargo You can alter the background, color, and format, and even type of infographic you’d like to use.  What I love most about this is you don’t have to be a techie to use it.  All you have to do is give permission to vizualize.me to access your LinkedIn profile, and it does the rest.
3. Zabasearch  http://zabasearch.com Will help you find phone numbers and email addresses of contacts you are trying to find (for free).   You’d be amazed what you can find before you have to pay. Use this when you are having a hard time finding an email address of a LinkedIn contact when it’s not listed, or for when you need quick contact information for someone you are trying to reach during your job search. This is another favorite that many recruiters use.

I’ve only started experimenting with Vizualize.me this past week.   I learned about vizualize.me from Peter Clayton’s interview with John Sumser on Peter’s podcast, Total Picture Radio.   John’s point is that job seekers want to be seen, and found.  Recruiters just want to find candidates as quickly as possible.  He questioned how much good it will do a job seeker.   I’d argue that anything that you can do to make yourself stand out from the crowd is useful, so long as you are using it properly, and provided you are using social networks to leverage your ‘employee brand.’  You are the product. This tool packages your background, and makes it visually appealing. But you have to promote that you have it, and put it out there where people can see it.

It’s a creative, colorful tool that will help you stand out from the crowd.    If you do opt to use this tool, I recommend the following:

• Use the infographic on the timeline of your Facebook page.  Turn your Facebook page into a graphical representation of your professional background, it will help your friends make appropriate referrals to you based on how you represent your occupation, industry, and how you articulate your skills, knowledge, and abilities.
• Promote yourself: use the infographic as a part of your “Hire Me” campaign.  If you have a blog, post it there, and make it a part of your mast head, or put it under a tab.
• Put a link to the infograhic on all your social networks so every time someone sees your profile, they can click a link that will take them to the graphical representation of your professional background.
• Print it out and take it to networking meetings.  Put it in your professional portfolio.

Having a vizualize.me infographic is only as good as you deploy it…if you are going to get it, choose the best template that suits you professionally, and then use all your distribution channels to get it out there on your social networks.  Will a recruiter and a hiring manager want to see your traditional chronological resume, yes.  But, when you are one of 100 resumes on a recruiters desk, you have to find new and different ways to stand out in a crowd.  Leveraging new media tools on non-traditional networks might make the difference between you getting found, interviewed, and hired.

I sincerely hope you found these tools helpful.  Please comment below, and let me know what you think.

Your Job Search Pal,

HRMargo

Bookmark It

Change your viewpoint. It will change your day.

Hope for the holidays. Today’s ounce of hope is wrapped in a present in the form of a strategy.  Here’s three simple tips to get the most out of your holiday parties this week:

1. Change your viewpoint, it will change your self-image, your attitude, and the way you present yourself.
2. Help people to help you: That’s right people want to help you, but you have to show them how.  Keep a list of target companies you want to get into in your back pocket.  As you are casually discussing careers with party goers, and they indicate that in fact they would like to help you, be prepared to tell them the top 3 to 5 companies you’d like to get into, and ask them if they know someone there.  Don’t whip out your list, but have it there to jog your memory.
3. Send a follow-up email to the people who were genuinely interested in you, let them know how much you appreciated meeting them, and then jog their memory by mentioning your target companies, and the people they mentioned they might know.  Attach your resume (only if they indicated they did want to help you) but remember, most people really do.

The bottom line is this, as the saying says above:  We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.  Take a look at yourself.  Remind yourself of how terrific you are.  Take a deep breath, and take stock of the positive attributes you bring to the table, and rest assured that as you articulate your strengths to others, they will take notice.  It’s not what we say, it’s how we say it, and presentation is everything.  It will have an impact on other people’s perception of you.  It all begins with you.  Practice your 30 second elevator pitch with a friend or family member before you attend that holiday party this week.  Remember, you are a star.  Believe in yourself, and others will believe in you.

Your job search pal,

HRMargo

Margo Rose

connect with me on LinkedIn http://linkedin.com/in/margorose

(picture compliments of one of my Facebook friends)

Bookmark It

Uh oh, Is This How I look To An Employer? Be Authentic, Just Don't Be Authentically Foolish!

Dear Job seekers, be authentic.  Just don’t be authentically foolish.  My last post, I suggested that you begin each post with the heading: Dear Potential Employer.  Having attended The New Media Cincy event: Naked On The Web, I am convinced that now, more than ever, it is important to manage your image, and your digital footprint.  I love spouting off, and editorializing about that which I am passionate about in the human resources, recruitment, and career development industry.

With that said, if I were looking actively for a job, I would clean up my image significantly.  That includes cleaning up the good, old facebook page. Adjust your privacy settings so that no one sees pictures that people tag in but you.  That means changing your privacy settings on facebook, and customize them so that there are only certain people that are allowed to see your photos, videos and your status updates.  I’ve adjusted my settings so that only I can see public photos, and videos I’m tagged in online.  That means not allowing anyone to take compromising pictures, or videos of you compromising situations, or places that could damage your professional reputation.

I’m going to say this again-be yourself, just don’t be stupid.  As a candidate advocate, I beat this drum, and beat it loudly.  Why can I say this?  Because, I have learned this lesson the hard way.  I’ve said things here, I’ve later regretted.  The problem when is when it comes to managing your digital footprint, your job search brand is this-people are watching you all the time.  Whether you want to believe this or not, people are making judgements, and opinions about you.  They are making decisions about how you portray yourself in public.

Therefore, as your career development buddy, I am telling you this…If you don’t want it out there, don’t put it out there.  If on the other hand, you need to process something deeply personal, do it with your therapist, or your best friends.  Say it on the phone, or face to face.  Don’t do it on facebook, twitter, or linkedin, or myspace, or any online venue.

It is far too easy for your words, or even your photos (or even emails) to be taken out of context.  The meaning of the words, or the photos can be, and often are misconstrued.

Are you aware, that when you “like” someone’s page on facebook, that your likeness ‘might’ show up on their website?  I’ve seen this happen many times.  If you are a private person, chances are you won’t let this happen anyway.  I’m not talking to you.  This message is for the extroverts among us who love to be the center of attention, and be the life of the party.  So, ask yourself this: are you sure you want to be the center of attention in any given situation?  What will that do for your brand?  Are you certain you want to be the life of the party?  Just be sure you’re not drunk, and disorderly.

I’m giving advice here.  This advice is based on the observations I’ve made since I’ve been online (1994.)

That’s my job search tip of the day.  It may not be what you wanted to hear.  I say this in love, because #HireFriday, you are my community, and my friends.

Bookmark It

I met @RockTheHunt on Twitter.  She impressed me right away as someone who has a great message.

The brand of YOU

The job goes to the best qualified applicant, right? Well, not quite. When it comes to filling vacancies the job most often goes to the person who markets themselves effectively for that specific position.

In this economy it’s an employer’s market and they have more than enough qualified candidates. It’s gone beyond qualifications into corporate culture, personality, potential of long-term loyalty, and other subjective factors that can’t be accurately and objectively assessed. The only way to get an employer’s attention in this market is to move beyond the mindset of qualifications.

1. Talk to the robot

There’s this nice software that scans resumes for keywords, analyzes them for years of experience, and pulls out hard qualifications. Optimizing your resume for those databases is key to getting your foot in the door. “Robots” don’t like charts or columns. They don’t like text. Your name and contact info has to be at the top, and the resume needs to be in reverse chronological format.

1. Answer the Question “Why you?”

Use your cover letter to illustrate what sets you apart from the other hundreds of applicants. Address the concerns someone might have when they look at your resume – are you overqualified? Back from a career sabbatical? Switching industries? Or are you targeting a specific company because you’re passionate about what they do? Resist the urge to send a one-size-fits-all cover letter.

1. Avoid multiple personalities

Your cover letter should ‘match’ your resume. And that should match your thank you letter, your list of references, your portfolio. Wording, syntax, style. Your entire packet should present like a well planned sales presentation. Don’t forget to print business cards with your contact info, industry/title, blog or website address, LinkedIn address, Twitter handle, and anything else appropriate to your personal brand. Plan your job-search brand and personality as analytically as you would plan a product launch. Your strategy speaks volumes.

1. Use appropriate etiquette

Whether you’re contacting people on Twitter, LinkedIn, the phone, email, or in your resume and cover letter, remember to use appropriate language. Mind your please and thank you’s, avoid slang, and by all means avoid profanity like the plague. Show professionalism through the way you communicate and relate to other people. Let your personality shine through, but remember that manners go a long way.

1. Get offline

In today’s digital market it’s tempting to spend hours on job search sites, LinkedIn, blogs, and Twitter and forget that there’s a great big world out there with people to look in the eye and shake hands with. Go to industry events, career networking events. Volunteer. Give back. Be three-dimesional. And everywhere you go hand out your business cards and use a 15-second pitch to tell people what you’re looking for.

Do you have a brand? If not, it’s time to create one. Analyze the vacancies in your field to identify what employers are looking for. Highlight the ways your resume fills those needs, and begin creating your brand at that intersect.

Katie Germain is a Senior Resume Writer with Rock the Hunt. After an enjoyable tenure in corporate marketing, she’s turned her wiles to the more rewarding field of helping jobseekers escalate their careers.  You can find her on Twitter @RockTheHunt or email her directly at Katie (at) Rock the Hunt (dot) com.

Bookmark It