Career Hub

Virtual Networking: Does It Live Up to the Hype?

Unless you’ve been on a remote tropical island or in a coma the past several years, you have heard that the emergence of the Web as a place for social and professional networking is well underway. It seems like a long time ago when the Internet was perceived by and large as a place where people researched information, played games, or made purchases in a very solitary fashion.

In an ExecuNet newsletter article this week, Robyn Greenspan observes, “Fast-forward and the pendulum has not only swung in the other direction, it has spun off its hinge.” Today there is a tremendous amount of interactivity via blogging, user groups (such as Yahoo groups), and forums on specialty and professional websites, while the use of networking sites such as LinkedIn, Ryze, and others is literally exploding. In a recent study, LinkedIn was shown to be one of the fastest-growing Web 2.0 sites, reporting more than 12 million members. (“Web 2.0” refers to a new breed of interactive websites that allow users to create their own content.) Ryze, a business networking site, boasts more than 500,000 members in more than 200 countries.

The question Mr. Greenspan poses is whether these “virtual” relationships have sustainability. Experts’ opinions seems to be mixed, with only 39% in a 2004 Pew Internet and American Life Project survey concurring that use of the Internet will expand people’s networks substantially wider than has been the case historically, and that these networks will have a trust-enhancing effect on society and equip people with broader access to resources for job search and other uses. Many seem to feel that while we may gain a large number of casual acquaintances, we will not form deep attachments with most of them.

Certainly this jibes with what happens in more traditional social and professional network building. While most of us have a substantial number of acquaintances through work, church, and professional and social activities, generally we have only a handful of really close friends. Although we do not develop close relationships with all of our acquaintances, certainly we do enjoy benefits from those relationships in the form of pleasant social interactions, introductions to new people, etc.

Perhaps the importance of the online network building phenomenon is a bit overblown, but by the same token, finding and building long-lasting, productive, and reciprocal relationships with a limited circle of contacts that you would likely never have met through traditional avenues seems to be worth the relatively minimal effort required. Since by far most positions filled result from networking or referral—particularly for senior executives, there would appear to be no downside to expanding your network in cyberspace. As Mr. Greenspan put it: “While some may dispute the value of social networks, one thing is clear: Senior-level executives continually agree that networking most often leads to career opportunities for them, and search firms and corporate recruiters are finding the majority of their candidates through their connections.”

So while you continue to cultivate and grow your “traditional” network, I recommend that you sit down at your keyboard and dive in to the new world of online networking.

Posted by Laurie Smith

Hiring Lessons

It's always a pleasure to hear from clients who have landed! In conversation today with a client who has changed his job-seeker hat for a hiring-executive hat, some interesting things came up:

• Behavior-based interviewing is the best way to really learn what a candidate has done. I taught this method to my client as part of his interview training, and now he says, "If they don't come up with Situation-Action-Result stories within 15 minutes of an interview, they're toast."

• Fit is crucial! This same client now uses Caliper testing for ALL employees at his new company, when he saw how effectively it matched his style with the organization and the team.

• It's best to be forthright with recruiters. Rather than trying to dance around the subject, when he received a competing offer he shared it with the recruiter who was trying to place him. The recruiter had to admit that the second offer was much better! And there were no hard feelings - the relationship remains intact.

• The first few weeks are crucial. "You've got to get out there - get your resume done, hone your messages, make connections, contact recruiters," says my client, now the CEO of a multi-division manufacturing company. His search took about six months in all, three months from first contact to start date.

I like to think that hiring is getting better, one executive at a time, as job seekers apply their personal transition lessons at their new companies.

Posted by Louise Kursmark

Be Yourself!

I've been reading a lot lately about various interview methods - and in my prior life as an HR executive, I tried many of them. All are designed to try and find out the "truth" about a candidate. The company doesn't want to make a mismatch, so they employ group interviews, behavioral interviews, personality assessments,situational interviews, leadership tests ... countless different ways to try and find out if you can do the job and fit into the culture.

Recruiters have to work hard to identify the right candidates because so many job seekers go into interviews with one goal - to impress the interviewer. Because they view the interview as a test, they want to "pass." (Let's face it - no one wants to be rejected.)

But that's the wrong approach to interviewing - it's not a pass or fail test - it's an opportunity for you to determine whether this job and this company are a fit for you. Because, if the fit isn't right but you successfully "fake them out" and get the job, who wins?

The company loses because you're not what they're looking for and you lose for the same reason. You won't be happy there and you won't succeed unless you're able to keep pretending to be someone you're not. What a recipe for disaster!

So try this - go to your next interview ready to just be yourself. Of course, you need to be the cleaned-up, best-suit-and-tie version of yourself, but still yourself. Forget trying to pass a test, or giving the "right" answers. Just answer honestly and from your heart.

If they don't choose you, chances are it wasn't the right fit anyway.

Interviewing Resources Mother Lode

If your resume is working for you, you will land plenty of interviews. But then what?

1. Can you really handle any type of interview scenario from phone interview to dinner interview to group interview and more?

2. Do you know what a stress interview is and how to beat it, or what questions you should be posing to the interviewer?

3. Are you an engineer, manager, techie, nurse, teacher, or entry-level candidate and don't have a clue as to what questions you might be asked?

4. What about a behavior-based interview? Do you know what it is and what comprises a successful strategy for responding?

5. Have you ever faced a case interview and blown it? What could you have done instead?

6. Will your interview attire be appropriate for your industry and relay an impressive first impression?

7. How can you avoid the common make-or-break interview mistakes?

8. Have you sufficiently prepared in advance of your phone or face-to-face interview, or do you plan on "winging it"?

9. What about a thank-you letter afterwards - know what to say that could really sway the decision-makers?

10. Do you know the two most important post-interview activities?

If these questions have your head spinning, then you need to check out The Interviewing Cheat Sheet: 100 Resources for Interviewers and Candidates. The HRWorld Editors have produced a comprehensive guide with links to articles and other helpful interview tools. In fact, they include a section for employers on how to interview candidates. Wouldn't it be wise if you are a job seeker to read those articles as well?

Complement these resources with the CareerHub Insider's Guide to Interviewing and you will find yourself in a much better position to "win" the interview. After all, your job-search efforts all culminate in persuading the critical decision-makers that you are indeed the best hire. Why not find out what they are really looking for, prepare to your utmost, and then pull off a stunning win?

Cross-Posted at Career Goddess Blog

Are You A Tourist To Your Own Career?

Sometimes I get overcharged,
that's when you see sparks.
They ask me where the hell I'm going?
At a 1000 feet per second,

hey man, slow down, slow down,
idiot, slow down, slow down.

The Tourist - Radiohead

I fondly remember spending a college semester abroad in Oxford, England. It was a wonderful opportunity to surround myself in a different culture and experience the world from a different perspective. It was also a chance to visit all the places I had read about in books and seen on television. Along with my fiancée (now wife), we discovered ruined remains of long abandoned castles, quaint villages with thatch-covered homes, and charming roadside pubs.

We also made a point to visit London. London is a magnificent city with no lack for things to see and do. If visiting unprepared, it can be overwhelming. So being the kind of guy who wants to be prepared for anything, I made a very detailed schedule for our first visit. When I say ‘detailed’, I mean down to the minute. How else can you expect to see Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London, British Museum, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the National Gallery all in one day? That’s a lot to do and only a detailed plan can make sure it all happens.

The first thing you realize when trying to stick to a very full schedule is that other people may not want to cooperate. Sure, my fiancée was playing along, but the Londoners operating the Underground (their version of our subways), serving tea, and guiding the site tours just wouldn’t keep to my strategically created schedule. I even suspected my fiancée was an accomplice to their desire to subvert my plans. However, despite their best effort, they couldn’t break my resolve and by the end of the day we accomplished my mission of visiting each place on the list. We could leave the city saying that we had been to all the places you associate with London.

You may be thinking, “Sure, you accomplished your objective, but did you really enjoy the experience?” The answer would have to be ‘no.’ And worse, those around me didn’t enjoy it either. Sadly, I hardly remember any of those places on that trip. I was driven by the importance of being able to say I had visited those places.

My mad tourist dash seems silly, yet how many times have we done the same thing in our careers. So many of us race from task to task, project to project, and job to job. Perhaps we do this so we can check them off our strategically created career plans. Or maybe we become seduced by the thought that the next thing ahead is better than what we have right now. Ultimately, we find ourselves trapped by the notion that the destination becomes far more important than the journey itself and we lose ourselves in the process.

So, what can we do?

First and foremost, let’s slow down.
It’s hard to notice things when we’re running forward at 200 mph. At those high speeds, the scenery just blurs together and we miss potentially life-altering opportunities and experiences. We’re not aware of those moments of serendipity when we discover something new by accident that can add meaning and purpose to our work.

However, slowing down can be difficult and scary. When we’re not confronted with the relentless pace of a fast-lane life, we have more time to reflect on our current career path and daydream about other possibilities. We might find that a change in direction means redefining our notions of success or reconsidering our identity. We might find, as Stephen Covey illustrates, that the ladder of success we’ve dutifully climbed is leaning against the wrong wall. It takes courage and humility to begin the descent and find the wall that is personally significant for us.

Focus on experiences over objectives.
Objectives are rigid, punishing structures that emphasize one place in time and reward only a few outcomes. They beckon to us that our actions are merely a means to an end. If we do not achieve our objective, then we have failed. On the other hand, if we focus on experiences, we open ourselves to wider possibilities. We might find that by heading down an intriguing alleyway toward the British Museum, we discover a unique pub populated with locals who engage us in the kinds of discussions that change our thinking.

I’m not suggesting that we completely abandon our objectives; these are the places we want to go. Just remember that objectives are one point in the journey. There is a lot of space in-between to have career altering experiences if we choose to notice them. Just see where it goes and allow yourself to enjoy the ride.

Consider Intentional Wandering.
After reflecting on the first trip to London, I understood racing from point to point was actually quite pointless. How did I enrich my London experience, and ultimately my life, by adhering to rigid objectives? What moments of serendipity did I miss along the way? My fiancée and I did return to London after that initial trip. However, during this trip, we made time between museums, theatres, and tea at Harrods to curiously explore the alleyways, small shops, and gregarious pubs of the city. We chose not to be tourists madly racing to get from one site to the next, but instead, chose to be intentional wanderers seeking the thrill that unexpected surprises have to offer.

I’ll end with a question: What would happen if we allowed unexpected surprises to occur in our careers and work? Take some time today to slow down and think about it.

Posted by: Chris Bailey

Negotiating Compensation Options Other Than Base Salary

According to a recent survey of 1,000 organizations (conducted by Mercer HR Consulting), the average merit increase for 2008 will only be about 3.8%. As a result, companies are constantly looking for creative ways to attract talent and engage employees without making large adjustments to the employee's base salary and compromising the integrity of the company's merit increase program. This can be achieved by offering short-term incentives and special recognitions that are not tied to the company's base pay. Job seekers can more effectively negotiate their total compensation package by knowing what special incentives the employer offers. Two incentives that are becoming more common are sign on bonuses and project milestone awards.

Sign on bonuses
Employers are trending towards offering more sign on bonuses to candidates in lieu of a higher base salary. Sign on bonuses represent a one-time payment to the new employee and the money is not folded into the base salary, so the sign on bonus doesn't impact the new employee's positioning in the salary range. It is reasonable to request a sign on bonus that is approximately 10% of the starting salary.

Project Milestone Awards
More employers are offering incentives to employees for successfully completing projects within a designated time frame and budget. By negotiating project milestone awards before you accept a position, you can improve your overall compensation package while leaving the harder to negotiate base salary intact.

If you can't negotiate the base salary due to the company's strict guidelines for salary ranges and merit increases, consider negotiating one of these incentives to improve your employment package.

Posted by Barbara Safani

I Don't Know What I Want To Do

We have all been there, I know I was with the school career counsellor - so we all took a test and over 50% of the class were told to get in to forestry!

Sometimes trying to decide what you want to do for a living is like trying to see the wood for the trees!

One enterprising young Canadian has taken a very different apporach than the career counsellor. Sean Aiken is working his way across Canada, one week at a time, doing a different job every week! He is up to week 27 and has done everything from bar person to dairy farmer and plans to spend 52 weeks trying to figure out what he wants to do.

What he has achieved already is a very decent Google score - over 17,000 pages and is building his personal brand with a very informative and interactive blog (internet TV show), One Week Job and has had plenty of media coverage etc - he is also donating all his earnings to charity (over $10,000 so far) and has gathered a few sponsors on the way.

I see a bright future for Sean, including the book, film, t-shirt etc

Just Another Day of Follow-Up

Today I was sitting in a doctor's office waiting for the person I accompanied to finish an appointment with a specialist. Patients were coming and going; pharmaceutical representatives were in, out, and on their way. In the midst of all the commotion, the phone kept ringing.

Even with a sliding-glass door to separate staff from waiting patients, you could still hear conversations among persons behind the glass. Most of the time, though, the glass door remained open -- privacy at its best! The phone rang, again, for the umpteenth time during my two-plus-hour wait. Finally, someone answered it.

Given that I had been working on a project while waiting, I was already equipped with paper and pen-in-hand. So, in no time using my trusty shorthand, I recorded the one-sided conversation as soon as I heard the word "resume."

Your resume? (My ears immediately switched on and my pen took off).

I don't know...haven't seen it. Hold on. "Patty" have you seen a resume from a "Jane Doe"? Nope quips Patty perched on her chair.

Yeah, me neither. Nobody moved one iota to check anything. Hello again. No, we don't have your resume here...sorry. Oh, you already faxed it twice? Hmm...let me check...hold on again. Patty, she says she already faxed it twice this week.

Well, I don't have time to look, fires Patty in a more intense tone this time. Can't you see I'm busy. (She was arranging the new funky pens the pharmaceutical reps just dropped off).

Hello again. Sorry 'bout that. No, we didn't get it. I just checked. Yeah, well, just fax it over again, OK? Here's the number...

Yup, thanks, bye now.

I am not sure what the moral of this story is, so I'll settle upon "follow-up is the name of the game." Follow-up, follow-up, and then follow-up some more when you submit your resume in consideration for a new opportunity.

posted by: billiesucher

What exactly is Personal Branding?

First I'd like to thank Louise for inviting me to participate in the Career Hub blog.  There are a lot of great minds who post in this portal and I'm happy to be a part of it.  My prime focus has been on Personal Branding, as the Gen-Y leader on the subject.

I think it's important to realize exactly what the definition of Personal Branding is before continuing to describe the various subjects around it.  One thing is certain: Personal Branding has a direct effect on the recruitment process and is a best practice in career development.

Today, I posted in my blog about a new wiki I created to get all the Personal Branding experts to collaborate on the actual definition of Personal Branding.  From my experience, I've noticed that this term has been mixed up with other concepts and is confused by the population.  The more that I preached my own definition, the more I realized that it didn't match up to some of the other ones I had read about.  To solve this "Personal Branding Problem," I decided to create a wiki so that others could collaborate and we could get a consolidated definition.  I think this is especially valuable to college students who are learning about this practice (in text books).  By having multiple definitions from various parties, the term has lost some meaning, so I think this is the right time to sort things out.

To me, Personal Branding is "an individual's total perceived value, relative to competitors, as viewed by their audience."  It has four main elements: competencies, personality, appearance, and differentiation.  I think it's about how you become noticed in a particular niche, by communicating your brand through a blog, website, or in person.

Please participate in the wiki, so that your voice can be heard!  Thank you.

Update Your Resume: 3 Simple Steps for Success

Whether you are happily cruising along in a job, facing a layoff, or unemployed and seeking employment, it it never too late to update your resume for better job and career opportunities. In fact, September is the 7th annual Update Your Resume Month as proclaimed by Career Directors International (CDI).

To assist you in an endeavor that many consider daunting, here are 3 relatively simple steps:

1. Get rid of the old and irrelevant information.
2. Concisely and compellingly convey the new and relevant.
3. Proofread - and get others you trust to proofread for you as well.

If you apply these 3 steps to each section of your resume, you can "eat the elephant one bite at a time" and emerge with a transformed marketing document that will not only convince an employer you have value and are differentiated from your competition, but also market you as up-to-date in terms of technology and industry standards.

In order to perform steps 1 & 2, you need to determine your focus for this resume: what type of job and what level are you targeting? Generic resumes, listings of everything you have ever done that you keep adding onto year after year, just do not cut it anymore.

Are you looking for an Entry-level Customer Service Rep position or a Financial Information Systems Management position? Give the reader a focus in order to make sense of the content in the resume. The focus is the touchstone for what is relevant information (to include and emphasize), and what is irrelevant (to eliminate or downplay). The content of your resume is the proof that substantiates whether your focus is believable in the employer's eyes or not.

Once you have decided on the focus, you can then turn your attention to what layout is optimal to showcase your resume content. What structure - a reverse chronological layout, functional, or combination style - would more easily and convincingly convey your qualifications and points of differentiation? Remember, too, employers are more partial to reverse chronological and combination style resumes...functional resumes are less in favor.

Here are the 7 basic content areas of a resume:

1. Contact Information
2. Header / Summary
3. Education, Training and Certifications
4. Technology and Language Skills
5. Professional Experience
6. Professional Associations and Memberships
7. Leadership Involvement, Awards and Honors

What do you want to consider to get rid of the old and irrelevant, and emphasize the new and relevant? Here are a few examples using some of the above resume content areas:

1. Contact Information. Do not include your office phone number or 800 number; most employers will not take it kindly that you are using your employer's time to job search and they assume you will do the same with them. Whatever phone number(s) you list, home phone and/or cell phone, be sure the voicemail message is professional. Same goes for your email address - get rid of cutesy addresses or ones that contain your birthdate or year of graduation. If you are posting your resume online, you may want to consider eliminating your street address and phone numbers and only include your name and email address for privacy reasons and to help thwart identity theft.

2. Summary / Header. This introduction to the relevant content (proof) in your resume is critical; it may be the only section of your resume that gets read. Include your focus as the Header and then make your case in the summary for "Why should I hire you?". Go beyond just saying you have excellent communication skills; prove you have them by pointing out your added value, accomplishments, and cutting-edge qualifications, such as certifications, technology, and language skills. Include keywords and keyword phrases that pertain to your focus. Check out current job postings for your targeted job title and look for required and desired keywords, as well as for up-to-date qualifications now required by employers.

3. Professional Associations and Memberships. Omit professional and trade associations that you are no longer currently involved with or that are not relevant to your resume's focus. Be proactive about joining and participating in at least one professional association, preferably a large and well-known one that has state and/or regional chapter meetings you can attend. Again, choose an association in the industry and/or career field that is relevant to your focus for the resume. The contacts you make at the meetings will jumpstart your networking for job leads, and the association will likely also have a members-only job board with exclusive job postings and a resume database that employers and recruiters will peruse for candidates.

Finally, proofread your resume carefully and have others proofread it as well for grammar, spelling, and to see if it makes sense. It is amazing what you think is obvious will not be to others. Eight-four percent of executives polled by Office Team relayed that only one or two typos are enough to disqualify a candidate from consideration.

In the process of updating your resume you may find there are additional skills you need to acquire to be competitive in today's job market. For example, just because you obtained a Bachelor's Degree 20 years ago does not mean you are still viewed as a viable candidate. Certifications, coursework and professional development are considered proof of ongoing excellence in knowledge for any career field. Bottomline: employers do not hire old knowledge.

With the above 3 simple steps, you can accomplish updating your resume in an organized manner, one step at a time, by keeping an eye always on your focus. Why not consider updating your resume on a regular basis, more than just annually? That way you will be prepared for good opportunities as they emerge and be ready to act on them immediately (the good job openings rarely stick around for long).

Cross-posted at Career Goddess Blog