Career Hub

When the Going Gets Tough, Turn to Friends at Work

These days I'm searching for news and stories on the Web that inspire hope, optimism, or at the very least, healthy coping.

In tough times, many of us are tempted to withdraw, turn inward, and freeze. I have yet to meet a person who thinks this feels at all good.

The CareerDiva Eve Tahmincioglu has some sage advice on how to see our coworkers as allies in the war against job and economic uncertainty. First step: drop the paranoid view that in today's employment climate you can't afford to get close to coworkers.

The way to reduce your stress is to reach out and connect with people. Invite someone you'd like to get to know for coffee. Talk about what you're worried about and what you can do now to prepare for possible layoffs.

Camaraderie, a "spirit of friendly good-fellowship" according to my online dictionary, is needed in our workplaces now more than ever. What will you do to connect with the people you work with?

Posted by Heather Mundell

Does your boss listen to you?

 A question posted on the MarketingProfs.com forum that I regularly contribute to asked about what to do with what sounded like a narcisistic boss. Here were my thoughts;

Unfortunately situations like this are not as uncommon as you might think. Sounds like your supervisor is either inexperienced or has been trained in the old management model of control and fear.

Short of leaving to find a better situation and assuming you are not alone in being dealt with this way here are some thoughts:

- find someone with longer tenure who works or has worked in the past for this supervisor. Did they find similar things happening? How did they deal with it?

- what are your supervisors expectations? Do you know in detail what your key performance indicators (what you are going to be judged on) are?

- if she is prone to passing the buck, hate to say it but make sure you cover your butt just in case things get ugly. After she has outlined what needs to be done and you have agreed what she needs to do to help you do that confirm it in an email with dates for completion etc.

- if she is being insulting then you need to call her on it. Tell her that you do not feel that is necessary and you do not appreicate it.

- start networking internally to find another position working for a leader not an unconscious incompetent.

Do you have some other ideas? Let me know in the comments.

Or raise your Google ranking and at to your online personal brand by checking out the full thread of the discussion at MarketingProfs.com by clicking HERE and adding your own "toonies worth"

If You're SO Good, How Come Your Resume's SO Bad?

Earlier today, I received a phone message from a caller who offered this:

A recruiter just said these words to me: If you're so good, how come your resume is so bad? Apparently, the recruiter had gone on to say to the caller that he was having a hard time figuring out the candidate's resume story.

Is your resume working for you, or against you? Is your resume helping you generate interviews or is it hurting your chances of getting hooked up with a potential employer? Are you making it easy for someone to get you and your story, or are you making it hard for yourself to get noticed in a sea of talent?

Small things. Big things. Details. Things you don't even know that you're doing can get you ruled out and the bad news, sad news for you is this: you don't even know it! You don't even know that time and again your resume gets passed over by what you don't say, by what you don't include, by what you don't express. Therefore, it is no surprise that you can't and won't get noticed by virtue of what you are and aren't doing. Here's a quick exercise you can do as a self-check of your resume:

Take a look at your existing resume document, then ask yourself these five simple questions in a matter of five seconds - GO!

1. Will the reader know within one second my name and how to get in touch with me?

2. Will the reader know within one second my target goal?

3. Will the reader know within one second why I can do the job I say I am interested in doing?

4. Will the reader know within one second where I'm currently working (or most recently worked) and my bottom-line contributions and career successes?

5. Will the reader know within one second the nature and extent of my education?

Stop! Time's up -- your five seconds are over. Did you pass go? Are you in or out, from the reader's perspective? Even if you allot five seconds per question, the point is, your resume reader doesn't have a lot of time to devote to figuring you out. Maybe they're overwhelmed with other resumes, e-mails, information, text, paperwork, documentation, meetings, and who knows what else. What can you do to make the reader's life less complicated, not more complicated as it pertains to you and your resume story?

posted by: billiesucher

The X Factor: How To Avoid Losing Your Job

I’m not a huge fan of reality television or talent shows in general, but for some reason, I do enjoy Simon Cowell’s The X Factor TV show - the UK equivalent of American Idol.

It’s the usual talent show format - members of the general public audition, get selected to perform in front of a live TV audience and one by one, the public vote and eliminate one person each week until there’s a winner who receives fame and a multi-million pound recording contract.

Last weekend saw the surprise elimination of 21 year old Laura White – a talented singer tipped as one of the favourites to win the overall competition. It was quite a shock. Such a shock that it was even discussed in the UK Houses of Parliament by the Culture Secretary earlier this week! And in fact, Daniel Evans who was by far the weakest singer left in the competition, amazingly survived. Based on singing ability, even a partially deaf person would realise that Daniel, should have been exited from the show.

But this is the X Factor. Members of the public vote to keep you in, not based on who is the best singer, but on who they feel most connected to. Laura was voted off, not because of a poor singing performance, but because of poor marketing and poor branding.

The same point applies to keeping your job during the current spate of restructuring and redundancies. It’s not just talent and ability that will keep you in your job - you also need to be able to market yourself to your internal audience.

I’m no expert on the music industry, but with my career management hat on, I can speculate as to why Laura was voted off and how the same points relate to you and your career during the current downsizing activity:

1. No clear personal brand

Simon Cowell told Laura a couple of weeks ago that she had something missing - that she needed to work on her image. He was right. But it wasn’t just about how she looked - her overall personal brand was not distinct, not clear and so, despite her amazing singing ability, she did not have wide appeal.

This same point applies to you. It’s not enough to be talented in your job. Your personal brand - the way you are viewed by senior leaders, internal and external clients will be a key factor. And it’s not simply about what you wear. It’s the unique value you bring to your employers in terms of your personality, your values and your personal style combined with the results you deliver.

What are you doing to manage your own personal brand to ensure you stand out and protect your job?

2. No story or emotional connection

Based on talent and ability, Daniel (the weaker singer) should have been voted out weeks ago. But he has stayed because he has a personal story that connects with large sections of the target audience. In his first appearance on the show he told how the death of his wife had encouraged him to pursue his dream of singing. Every time he sings, he is singing for her. He’s willingness to share his story helped the audience connect with him at a personal level – and so a large proportion of the public continue to vote for him – even though he is not the best singer.

Other singers in the competition also have personal stories which the audience connect with. Laura didn’t have a story - and so not enough members of the public empathised and connected with her at a personal level to vote in the numbers required to keep in her in.

In the information-overloaded, time-poor world we live in, stories are what a target audience connects with: authentic stories that resonate with people at an emotional level.

The same applies in your work place. Senior leaders and decision-makers may know what you do - but do they know who you are? Do they know your story? Are they emotionally connected to you enough to be able to fight your corner when it comes to redundancy decisions?

3. No Tribe

Seth Godin, the marketing author and speaker, talks about the critical importance of telling stories in order to build a following or “tribe.” Barack Obama developed a tribe that connected with him and his story. They spread he’s story like a virus which made the tribe bigger and bigger. He’s tribe voted him into the White House.  Daniel on the X Factor had a tribe who connected with him and his story. In fact, in recent weeks he developed an even bigger tribe courtesy of a campaign by the BBC radio DJ Chris Moyles to keep the underdog in the contest.

So the tribe voted for Daniel and kept him in. Laura had great talent, but didn’t have a tribe and went out.

What about you - have you got a tribe? Have you got a bunch of people in key roles in your firm who will back you and fight your corner, even when you’re not around? People that will vote to ensure you keep your job?

The Best Products, Best Singers and Best Employee Don’t Always Win

As Seth says, success in business is NOT about the best product. The best products do not win - it’s the best marketed and branded products that win. It was a real shame that someone as talented and humble as Laura went out so early in a competition she was earmarked to win. It’s a shame when really talented, hard working people get laid off whilst less talented individuals remain employed.

But one thing Laura will have learned is that in today’s world, whether it’s in the pop industry or any other competetive industry - ability and hard work are not enough. To survive in your job in the current market, you need a distinctive personal brand, a compelling story and a tribe. You need the X Factor.

By Sital Ruparelia, Cross Posted on the 6 Figure Career Management Blog

A Tale of Two Seasons

This post is for our readers currently in college…

Fall generally finds me in the thick of two different seasons: the on-campus recruiting season for full-time jobs and the “apple season” (my cousins have an orchard where they grow and sell over 85 different kinds of apples). In many ways, the seasons are similar: both generally run from late August to early November, with a peak in mid-September to October. By November, the apples are generally off the trees and offers are “on the table” as many companies complete the majority of their entry-level hiring decisions for the year.

This year, I feel that I am reaching the end of not just a season, but perhaps an era: Wall Street banks will never be quite the same post-reorganization and my cousins have decided that it is time—after almost 70 years—to sell the farm. I’m reminded of a piece Barbara Ehrenreich wrote back in 1985 entitled “How You Can Save Wall Street”:

A free-enterprise economy depends only on markets, and according to the most advanced mathematical macroeconomic theory, markets depend only on moods: specifically, the mood of the men in the pinstripes, also known as the Boys on the Street. When the Boys are in a good mood, the market thrives; when they get scared or sullen, it is time for each one of us to look into the retail apple business.

I am not an economist, and I won’t prognosticate about what this particular season means for the “pinstripe set,” but here are a few observations on the similarities between recruiting and the retail apple business:

Crop condition, valuation, and supply are dependent on climate, market demand, and assessed value—as well as the ability to make projections. Purchasers of large numbers of apples and companies who make a significant number of hires do so in good faith that supplies (or services) that are purchased will be needed later on—and will keep in the interim provided that proper storage conditions are provided. (Like apples, job offers received for on-campus interviews frequently have an expiration date.)

Demand is dependent on the ability to make projections; when there’s less perceived need—there are fewer opportunities to be picked. As can be expected, the number of overall recruiting opportunities is down slightly this year. The National Association of Colleges and Employers recently reported that many employers have scaled back on hiring expectations:

The decreased expectation for college hiring that occurred between August and October was broadly felt across industries. Only government as a sector saw a significant increase in hiring expectations, while manufacturing and professional services remain essentially flat. All other industry categories decreased their hiring expectations for the Class of 2009.

Regardless of what's available, the conditions have to be right for the picking: apple picking and on-campus recruiting are both processes of mutual selection. Just as the over-aggressive job seeker turns off an otherwise willing employer; twisting an apple stem will result in a selection of an under-ripened piece of fruit. The proper technique to pick an apple is to cup your hand beneath the fruit, roll it up gently towards the sky and see if it lands in your hand. If it’s ready, it will come. The same holds true for full-time positions—your chances of a fit increase when you and your prospective employer are both fully prepared to consider working together. If a company can’t hire you now, don’t give up: they may be able to make it happen later on.

This year, expect harvest times to be staggered—hiring will take place on more of an as-needed basis than a calendar-based one, and competition for the prime fruit will be fierce. If you’ve been passed over, assess your skills, enhance your strengths and polish your resume and online presence so that you can be picked when an opportunity becomes available. Once it does, choose what is offered to you carefully: take the time to make sure that the position you are selected to fill meets your needs—and that you can continue to grow with it. (There’s no need to look into the retail apple business just yet, though I do know of an opportunity…)

If there are any lessons to be learned this fall, it is that timing is sometimes beyond our control. If you are in the market for a new position, the best way to get started is to keep growing and to prepare for opportunity when it does come. How will you get ready?

Cross-posted at the Emerging Professional.

What Are You Thankful For?

Last week, I was having coffee with a close friend. I met her several years ago when I was a speaker for a local group. She had called the very next day to say that she'd love to get together for coffee if I'd have time. Probably six or seven years have passed since then and together, we have enjoyed countless coffees, luncheons, laughs and tough talks.

At our coffee and chat the other day, I said "Jane", I need to tell you something. She looked at me quizzically and said "What?"  I went on to say "I just needed you to know how much your friendship means to me -- so thanks for being such a great friend and know that I don't take you for granted." She beamed and said "and you're my titan."

I've thought a lot about that conversation. Maybe it's because I'm a counselor and much of what I hear, at least initially, is what clients don't have, or what they've lost, or what is not going right, or how bad this or that is. As this Thanksgiving season approaches, why not take a moment to pause and reflect upon the things you have to be thankful for and grateful for? Listed below are six professional career-related things that I am thankful for:

* That I have such great clients -- nearly each and every client I have worked with, and for, through the years, has taught me something and has brought much joy to the relationship.

* That I get to play a small part in the life of an individual's continued career success.

* That I get to do a job that I love so very much, day in, day out.

* That I am in an industry comprised of such talented career leaders, coaches, writers, and colleagues who uphold the highest professional standards in delivering services to others.

* That I was invited many months ago by Louise Fletcher to write for Career Hub.

* That I get to read thoughtful comments from you, the readers, both here and in private messages to me, about my blog posts.

To all of you, thank you! For these things, and so many more, I am thankful and grateful. As you plan your upcoming Thanksgiving activities and adventures, how about expressing your thanks and letting someone know that they are your titan?

posted by: billiesucher

Does Your Personal Brand Matter?

An interesting post at The Buzz Bin touched on some issues I've been thinking about for a while. In "I Don't Care About Your Personal Brand,' Geoff Livingston outlines why he opposes the idea of developing a personal brand. His post is aimed at people working in the online space, but his points apply to anyone. You should read the whole thing, but this is the part that caught my eye:

3) While personal brands are concerned with themselves, the market is also concerned about itself.

4) The market doesn’t care about the persona, only what value the persona contributes to the larger community.

This gets to the core of why I have never jumped on the personal branding bandwagon, despite having flirted with the idea for a while. In the end, I'm much less interested in having my clients focus on their 'brand' than on the value they can add to potential employers. Value-added is simple, direct and focused on the employer. Personal branding is something broader (to be sure value-added is a part of it, but not the only part) and seems to me much more focused on the individual.

In order to pinpoint a client's value proposition - exactly how he or she will help the company succeed - I  use many of the same approaches as a personal branding consultant, but the focus is different - not the self-indulgence of me (the candidate) but the outward focus of they (the employer).

For a long time, I attributed my reluctance to jump on the personal branding train as something related to my background. As a Brit, I'm always a little uncomfortable with anything that smacks of taking oneself too seriously. But after reading Geoff's post, I see that it's not just that.

It's this:

24) A personality oriented brand does not necessarily equate to successful results.

It's the fact that results (and actions) matter. Results and actions tell me what you will do for me. Results and actions tell me whether or not you will add value to my organization. Results and actions show me who you are much more effectively than any carefully crafted public image.

I know that many of my colleagues disagree (and many of the Career Hub bloggers will definitely disagree!) but for me, a focus on results will always be more effective than a focus on brand. After all, all products and services have brands, but how many of them deliver what they promise?

My personal favorite is my bank Chase, who tell me that 'the right relationship is everything' and then constantly leave me on hold for hours while they try to figure out why my online banking has gone awry one more time, leaving me yelling "THIS ISN'T THE RIGHT RELATIONSHIP!!!" as my blood pressure soars once again.  But they do send me the occasional Starbucks gift certificate, with a very nice message about how much they value my custom, so I guess that's supposed to make it all OK ;-)

I can't help wondering how much better they would be if they stopped spending money on branding experts and fancy loyalty programs and instead invested that money in actually adding value to my life.

And in the end, that's my point. Instead of worrying about personal brands, I think people need to think about results and value-added. I expect many of my colleagues will point out that these are not mutually exclusive ideas and I agree - but that would be to miss the point. I know that in some cases, with the right candidate and the right personal branding coach, a person's 'personal brand' will be built around the results they have achieved, but I think the idea of 'personal branding' leads to the same problems with people as it does with businesses - a focus more on the message (the right relationship is everything) than on actually getting stuff done.

Let's face it, if you can show that you have delivered great results and made a big impact on prior employers, you really don't need to worry about packaging it in a pithy branding message. It will be obvious to everyone.

And if, like Chase, you haven't ... well a nice brand message might open some doors for you, but eventually people will figure out that there's nothing there.

Cross-posted at Blue Sky Resumes Blog

Play the Kevin Bacon Game to Land the Job You Want

I was listening to jobradio.fm the other day and heard some great practical tips on leveraging your network to land your next job.

As you may know, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon was a trendy game in the last decade in which the players tried to connect any film actor in history to Kevin Bacon as quickly as possible and in as few links as possible. The Bacon number of an actor or actress is the number of degrees of separation he or she has from Bacon, as defined by the game.

All the rage on college campuses in the early 1990s, this trivia game is a variation on the famed "Six Degrees of Separation" concept widely popularized through exposure in the play by John Guare and adapted for the big screen in 1993 (featuring a stellar cast including Stockard Channing, Will Smith, and Donald Sutherland). According to this concept, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth.

The idea actually has some pretty solid support and research behind it, such as an ABC Primetime investigation that verified it is a small world after all and a study by Microsoft researchers that examined records of 30 billion e-mails among 180 million people in various countries and found that any two strangers are, on average, distanced by precisely 6.6 degrees of separation.

What exactly does this mean for you? It means that you really can in all likelihood use networking to zero in on a valuable contact that will help you successfully conclude your job search, and you can probably do it in far fewer than 6 steps. After all, you are probably not trying to reach the Queen of England or the Pope--just someone who works in your field of interest or at a company where you would like to work.

So how does one play the Kevin Bacon Game to land a dream job? We all know by now that networking is one of the most effective ways (if not the most effective way) to search for employment. The Kevin Bacon strategy encourages us to think outside the box when considering who is in our network, to leverage that network to the utmost, and build on it.

Here are 3 key rules that will greatly expand your network horizons and help you to achieve success in your networking efforts:

>>> Look outside your normal network. Consider people such as your hairdresser, mechanic, doctor, manicurist, pharmacist, etc. who know a lot of people.

>>> E-mail everyone in your address book with specific information on the job you want. Ask each person to identify at least one person they know in your field of interest (or if possible who works at a company that interests you).

>>> Once you have made a new contact, never fail to ask "Who might you suggest I speak with next?"

You'll be surprised at how rapidly your network will expand, and amazed at the unlikely sources from which good job leads will flow.

Posted by: Laurie Smith

The Language of Career Management

If you are a job seeker, perhaps you're spending a lot of time, energy and money in equipping yourself with 21st-century leading-edge career management strategies and best practices. Do you ever feel overwhelmed in trying to learn all the stuff there is to know about the career business? Do you feel like you're trying to learn a whole new language and not much of it is making sense, yet?

Imagínese y soñe. Piense grande. Comience pequeño.

Considere las opciones. Descubra. No dé para arriba.

Sea persistente. Búsqueda. Hallazgo. Posibilidades y opciones.

Cualquier cosa es posible. Resultados asombrosos. Felicidad.

Gratitud. Sonrisa. Muestre el aprecio. Hoy. Mañana. Siempre.

Just like the text above, maybe you can read it and maybe you can't. Maybe it makes sense and maybe it doesn't. For some, learning career tips, tricks, and tactics is much like learning a whole new language. At first, maybe you can't figure anything out; it's all gobbledygook. But the more you learn and discover, the more things seem to fall into place. Piece by piece, word by word, bit by bit, sooner or later, the career puzzle begins to fit together and take shape. You figure out a word here, a line there, and voila, you begin to get it.

No matter how you say it, spin it, or speak it, there's no better time than now to learn the language of the career management business to help you move forward in this competitive, volatile, ever-changing 21st-century workplace. Buena suerte.

posted by: billiesucher

Choose Your Own Adventure

Interested in exploring new opportunities but feeling guilty due to employment declines from Wall Street to Main Street? Do you dare disturb the universe by imagining what could be—if only you knew what it was? Are you wondering if the sky is falling—and if your employment prospects are tumbling after?

Pull yourself out of a “Chicken Little” moment with Alexandra Levit’s book How Did You Score That Gig? This slim tome of wisdom provides you with a slick strategy to choose your own adventure—as well as practical advice from others who have done it before.

Don’t have time for reading an entire book? Take the quiz at the beginning of the book and you’ll land in one of seven personality categories: are you an adventurer, a creator, a data head, an entrepreneur, an investigator, a networker, or a nurturer?

Flip to the category that suits you best and read up on the positions that may align with your personality style; Ms. Levit presents 60 “hot jobs” determined by an online survey of 20’s and 30's somethings. From actor and fashion designer (“creator”) to art curator and criminologist (“investigator”), she profiles successful executives in each category, and presents career trajectories and tips for breaking into the field.

Restless or determining a non-fit? Move onto another section and explore the alternatives.

Whether you’re looking for a new opportunity and not sure what you’d like to do, or if you’ve identified where you want to go but don’t know how to get there—this is a great way to jump-start your search. Packed with resources, career tips and insider insights, it’s easy to use. (So simple, in fact, that I recommend this format to the folks over at the Department of Labor who produce the Occupational Outlook Handbook--they'd be well advised to take a lead from Ms. Leavit in the next biennial redesign.)

For more information, check out How Did You Score That Gig? and the author’s Water Cooler Wisdom blog.

By Chandlee Bryan, Cross Posted at the Emerging Professional.