Everything You Know About a Job Search is Wrong...

...specifically, what you learned in college.  And if you've been in the workforce for a while, it's not what it was 5-10 years ago.  As I've mentioned in my post last week, everything I learned about writing my resume was necessary but not actually useful when it came to the job hunt.  

Andrew Kung, a recent college grad and a LinkedIn employee, created a fantastic SlideShare presentation on how he chose between two candidates who looked similar on paper.

The two main takeaways?  Be proactive and create an online presence.  It's not easy or instant but yields much better results.

Not a college student?  This still applies to you if you're on the hunt for a new job.

Don't waste your time submitting your job application into the black hole, stand out!

Everything I Knew about the College Job Hunt Was WRONG - And Here's How You Can Succeed from LinkedIn Higher Education

Levo @ UNCC, Part 2: It's More Than Just Your Resume

For better or worse, the advice given to the students by the panelists at the Levo event are no different from what I was told when I graduated from UNCC in 2007.  The resume is still an integral part of looking for employment, however, there's so much more to finding a job than passing out your resume.

I would know.  Last year was a year of transformation and looking for the next step that would propel my career and allow me to do what I love.  It was a time when I discovered Levo League, ate up the advice dished out by Liz Ryan and J.T. O'Donnell, and read Lean In. I also had to swallow the bitter truth pill, on more than one occasion. What I was taught not long ago no longer applied to today's job market.

Here's what I learned and hope it helps you too:

• Your personal brand is important. Figure out what you want to do when you "grow up." Focus on that. It's okay if it changes. 
• Clean up your social profiles. Start by Googling yourself. There are several tools that can help you clean up your online presence.  
• Define your value. Sure, you have a degree, but what are you going to do for the employer that brings value to the business.  
• Get connected. Network. Break out of your current social circles. Your next job will more than likely come from your networking efforts.  If you're an introvert, the internet is your friend. However, nothing beats one on one in person meetings. Your goal should be 50 coffee meetings. 
• Sell yourself. Love it or hate it, you're in sales. Embrace it.
• Read. A lot. Doesn't have to be books. Industry blogs, rags, etc. It's your responsibility to learn about the industry that you want to enter.
• Hand write thank you notes. They go a long way, few people do it, and it will make you stand out from the crowd.  
• Volunteer. One of my favorite professor, Dr. Sunil Erevelles, told us a story of a young woman who was unemployed. Her dream company was not hiring so she volunteered and worked there for free. She provided so much value for the company that they created a position for her and found money in their tight budget to pay her a competitive rate. Have a bare resume?  Volunteer! Non-profit, for profit, it doesn't matter.
• Avoid the black hole. Did you find an opportunity on a job board and spend 30 minutes filling out a form, copying and pasting your resume into neat fields, and pressed send to never hear anything about your "application?" Your resume went into a black hole and will never be heard from or seen again. HR managers have more on their plates than they can handle so it's no doubt that they have embraced software that "reads" resumes and only spits out ones that matched a certain number of key words.  
• Break the rules. Did you encounter a black hole and and the website explicitly states not to contact anyone?  Do it anyways but don't waste that person's time. Be focused, be direct, be clear about the value that you bring and the problems that you will solve. Find a person in common (and with their permission) name drop. My friend Brandy is a pro at this. If they don't hire you based on the fact that you "broke the rules" then you don't want to work for that company anyways.

Nobody said that it was easy.

This is the short of the long of it.  I can expand and talk about each point for hours on end.  What can I say, I love helping people.

Cheers!

Levo @ UNCC, Part 1: What NOT to Tweet

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending a Local Levo event at UNC Charlotte.  It was a resume and a career building workshop geared towards the college age crowd.

The Local Levo ladies asked that I help out with live tweeting (my forte!) and I was happy to help.  And then, to my horror, I saw these tweets:

It hurt my eyes.

Granted, I grew up in the world of AOL Instant Messenger where my away messages were only seen by a select few.  I knew that my future employers would never see them.  And besides, screen names were barely ever our real names.  We had a sense of security knowing we still had our privacy and that we can keep our anonymity. 

That is no longer the case. However, the good news is that we have control over what we put out there. 

To the three students that posted the above tweets, and to the rest of you who think that it's okay to be an idiot on social media, here's my advice:

1. Delete all foolishness from your account.
2. If you're going to continue posting foolishness, make your account private and remove your real name from the account profile.
3. Do it TODAY!

Employers DO look at a candidates' social profiles and they're a lot easier to find than you think.

Keep it clean, keep it professional, keep it real.

P.S. Levo League posted great advice on how to use Twitter professionally. 

Read part 2 of the Levo @ UNCC event here.

Chase Your Dreams

The past three months have been a whirl wind.  Nobody tells you that leaving a company after six years is exhausting and drains you in more ways than one.  This explains why my friends recommended that I take a week off to relax before transitioning into a new job.  Should have listened to them.

The first two months of my new job have been fantastic.  Following my passion has been the most exhilarating thing I’ve done.  I recommend doing the same.  It’s scary, at times uncomfortable, to think about and take the steps to making a drastic change.  Don’t let fear stop you.  Don’t let it slow you down.  Chase your dreams! 

I finally get to experience the popular saying, “if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life.”

I love what I do.  Everyday.

This month is stuffed to the gills with an event every single night, lunch dates, and a speaking gig on a social media panel.  When you open yourself up to the world, the world opens up to you.

I’m lucky to be surrounded by so many passionate and talented people every single day.  

P.S. Thanks for this inspiring tweet, Jim!  

Social Selling & Your Personal Brand: Cleaning up Social Profiles

Social selling and personal branding go hand-in-hand so the first step in social selling is to develop a credible personal brand.  

But what does it entail?

It entails cleaning up your social networks by removing unfavorable content of yourself and replacing it with favorable content.  You are your own brand and need to treat your image as such. 

Google Yourself

Do a web and an image search.  Include geo tags in your search if you have a common name (i.e. John Smith Charlotte, NC). 

Check out my post on why you should Google yourself for more information on what to do.

Facebook

Oh, Facebook.  You either love it or hate it and even if you hate it you probably have an account.

The first thing to tackle is your privacy settings and simultaneously create friend lists.  Make sure that the information that needs to be private is private and your settings allow you to approve content when your friends tag you prior to it showing up on your profile.  You can read more about Facebook privacy settings here.

Personally, my Facebook is account is well… personal.  I am currently in the process of building my Facebook Page where I can share public updates that anyone can follow, allowing me full control over my personal brand on Facebook.  I recommend the same for those with rich Facebook profiles (i.e. so much content that it will take forever to clean up). 

Twitter

I signed up for Twitter in 2008 when most people didn’t know what it was and what it was for.  I thought it was just another place to post status updates in 140 characters or less.  My postings were uncensored and are nothing that I would want anyone to see today.  Today, my first account is private and I do not post to it anymore.  I also keep my personal and professional accounts separate allowing me to keep my postings directed at the right audiences.  My daily use of Twitter has changed dramatically in five years and has been a powerful networking tool.  

Other social networks

Whether it’s MySpace, Instagram, Google+, a blog or whatever else that may have unfavorable content… clean it up!  When in doubt, delete.

Tools

If you have a large foot print online or the thought of going through all your profiles seems daunting, don’t fret.  There are dozens of tools that can help you with the task but my two favorites are SimpleWash and Social Safe.

SimpleWash – allows you to search for specific words that you would like to remove from your profile.  Links directly to each post making it easy to manage.  Works with Facebook and Twitter. [Free]

Social Safe – the service is not free but allows you to download and see all of your posts across all social networks in chronological order. [Free 60 day trial]

Just because you’ve clean up your profile does not mean you can’t be yourself.  Just keep in mind that there are some things that you should not post.  For a list of things to keep to yourself, check out Jeff Bullas’ list of 30 things you should not share on social networks. 

Your customers are everywhere, make sure all your profiles are clean, complete, and professional.  Be credible.  People buy from people they like, know, and trust. 

Further reading:

It’s time to dust the cobwebs and drunk college pics off your social media profiles
4 Tips for Cleaning Up Your Social Media Profile
Clean Up Your Facebook Profile
Facebook: Defriending on the Rise