The Executive Update

Time to Embrace Your Portable Career

I feel as though I have been vindicated by Time Magazine. For a long time I have been talking about the Portable Career – the Paladin model of employment where you are always a consultant for hire. The latest issue of Time seems to agree with me. As stated in this week’s Time cover story, “The Future of Work”:

Though unemployment is at a 25‑year high, work will eventually return. But it won't look the same. No one is going to pay you just to show up. We will see a more flexible, more freelance, more collaborative and far less secure work world. It will be run by a generation with new values — and women will increasingly be at the controls.

It’s a brave new world of work being powered by new technology and new service-driven industries. According to Time, there is growing demand for skilled workers in retail, health care, education, and computer technology, but the opportunities are not your old-fashioned 9 to 5 jobs. The older perks, such as traditional pension plans, are disappearing in favor of other benefits, like flex time. And boomers are discovering that they will have to keep working because pensions are in jeopardy and because those 401Ks are now 101Ks. There are some fascinating insights and trends in Time’s coverage and I urge all or you to read it to get a better understanding of the future of work.

So what this means is, to compete, you have to be more flexible. We have been talking to a lot of career coaches and job seekers lately who have been obsessing about the “C” word – consulting. These days, freelance is not just another word for nothing left to lose. It’s the part of the new Paladin employment model and more experienced executives are abandoning traditional job search in favor of consulting as the next step along their own career path.

According to a recent survey by Mark Hovind at Job Bait, consulting is on the rise. In fact, Mark’s survey shows that consulting has been outpacing job growth across the board since 1990. The one area where consulting is not faring well this year is, not surprisingly, human resources. Here are the highlights from Mark’s latest Job Bait poll, but visit JobBait.com to get the full report:

Industry						Average Annual Growth Rate since 1990			Current Annual Growth Rate as of March 09
Management consulting						6.3%			2.0%
	•		Administrative management consulting			6.8%			1.4%
	•		Human resource consulting			2.7%			-0.1%
	•		Marketing consulting			8.1%			4.1%
	•		Process and logistics consulting*			6.9%			3.3%
	•		Other management consulting			6.0%			1.4%
Environmental consulting*						7.0%			0.5%
Other technical consulting*						12.3%			7.8%
Workforce growth rate						1.2%			1.1%

 

It’s time to re-think traditional employment and embrace your inner consultant. Use your network to find out how your peers are re-inventing themselves as consultants and entrepreneurs. Use outlets like LinkedIn and our NETSHARE forums to talk to other professionals about how they are redefining work. By pooling our knowledge and experience, we can all become success stories in the brave new workplace.

Ask the Coach: Twitter Gaining Ground in Job Search

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with career transition coach and consultant Randy Block.

Twitter continues to come up as a topic of conversation among job seekers, including in this week’s Ask the Coach call. How to use Twitter effectively as part of a career strategy seems to be a confusing issue. Many see Twitter as a great tool while others see it as a waste of time.

One caller said she has been using Twitter frequently and fruitfully to build her brand. She uses it in many ways, including talking about her business (with a real uptick in viral buzz thanks to viral promotion). She finds it an easy way to stay connected with her network.

Randy noted that he has heard reports that many people use the service for three months or so and then quit because they don’t understand it. There are many who see Twitter as generating too much “noise” to be useful. Most people are able to effectively network with about 150 people, so having thousands of followers is perceived to be just noise.

The challenge is to understand how to use Twitter for job search. Many recruiters use Twitter as an efficient means to stay connected to candidates. Recruiters always read their Twitter messages, and many announce when they have landed a new search: "Hey, just landed a great CMO Search in Chicago. DM (direct message) me with your Resume.” They know that they are being followed by candidates.

NETSHARE will be sending a representative to the upcoming Twitter Conference, 140, to be held in Mountain View, California, May 26 and 27. If you are interested in learning more about how to harness Twitter for career management, drop an e-mail to Sabrina@netshare.com.  NETSHARE also will be sponsoring an Experts Connection session on Twitter in July - visit the web site for more details (www.experts-connection.com).

How One Recruiter Has Mastered Twitter

I recently blogged about Twitter being a great big social networking Ponzi scheme, but is the HR community getting value out of Twitter? I recently ran across an interesting blog interview on Radiant Veracity with Lindsay Olson, a recruiter with Paradigm Staffing and active Twitter user.

Lindsay is a self-professed geek and has been using Twitter for two years to build her own brand. As she states in the interview:

I share information about our searches, but my goal is to use it for more than just posting information about my company and searches. I post relevant industry links and information about the industry as well as career advice from my blogs and blogs of others that I think my audience may find insightful. By sharing useful information and engaging with my followers daily, I’ve built relationships it would have taken years to build, if ever, any other way.

 

Folks, this is how social media REALLY works. It’s about sharing insight and information that is useful, and engaging with others by providing data they can use. And Lindsay says she also finds candidates through Twitter, including referrals from fellow Twitterers who reference their friends and associates who may not be Twitter users. She even has organized “tweet-ups” to meet Twitter followers face to face when traveling. And, in true social media fashion, she leverages here use of Twitter across other social media platforms, using links to Facebook. That way she can use Twitter to update her Facebook status to cover a broader territory.

Lindsay is clearly an early adopter and has found an approach to really take advantage of social media technology. I will share her advice for social media success:

·         Help others before you ask for help in return.

·         For job seekers, set up RSS feeds using keywords for the type of job you are looking for. Recruiters and hiring companies often post information to their Twitter networks, and it’s a good way to get an advance on open positions, before they hit the job boards.

·         Be sure to complete your profile so you can be found. Recruiters and hiring managers often search through Twitter bios looking for qualified candidates.

·         Tweet wisely. Remember that everything you have ever posted on Twitter is there forever, so be judicious. You never know who is reading your feed, or what they might think about you based on your last few tweets.

·         Use Twitter to connect, but strengthen your relationships offline. There is nothing like face-to-face contact, or even phone contact, to create real world relationships.

A Reference Reality Check

I recently saw a query on one of my LinkedIn groups that created a lot of discussion. The question posed was, “Does anyone still check references?” Apparently, the person posting the question had offered references following a job interview, but the hiring manager never actually contacted them.

This was clearly is a hot button for the HR community with more than 50 professionals responding. The comments that followed were diverse, but with a common thread – Yes, solid references are a critical part of any interview process. However, there were some nuances from the discussion thread worth sharing:

• A number of recruiters say they check references before referring a candidate to a hiring company, to get a better perspective of the candidate.
• A number of recruiters pointed to how infrequently hiring managers do check references, despite their best advice. One noted, “I can link almost every bad hire back to missing the red flags that were available,” including lack of a reference check. The best advice is to implement a protocol for screening candidates, including how to read resumes, an interview protocol, and thoroughly check references.
• A number even commented on how often people give bogus references (but if you never check them, you’ll never know they are bogus). Another common problem is when candidates get lazy and don’t ask permission of their references in advance. Those are the references that will say, “He asked me to do what?” and that will make or break a candidate
• There are ways candidates trip themselves up with reference checks, such as when dates or figures don’t match (such as sales performance numbers or salary). If you have a solid protocol for checking references, including asking the hard questions, it alleviates a lot of problems. A number of commenters also said to extend the protocol to include checking Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other online resources looking for anomalies. For example, if the candidate is on Twitter or posting to Facebook during working hours?

Ask the Coach: New Rules for the New Economy

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from a recent session with career coach Don Orlando.

Don recently returned from the 9th annual Career Management Alliance conference where he learned a lot about the latest hiring trends. One statistic he shared with the Ask the Coach callers dramatized how much longer it takes now to find a job. Before the recession, the average executive search lasted 26.4 weeks. Now the same search can take 10 months.

What has changed is that employers in all areas are less sure of themselves. They are unsure of the economy and the future, and therefore less willing to invest in new team members. That’s why they are taking so much longer to make a decision. As a job seeker, it’s even more important now that you remain more active. Don’t pin your hopes on a single opportunity but work as many as you can.

In this new climate, your professional network is more important than ever. Don reminded everyone about the “folklore of networking” – the misconception that networking is a mutually mortifying experience where you approach someone you know, hat in hand, and ask for a job. Networking is an exchange of value – you offer something you have to offer in exchange for something valuable to the other party.

Networking is more than posting comments to social networking sites or updates on Twitter. True networking migrates connections from online conversations to face-to-face interaction. That’s why NETSHARE started sponsoring Area Meetings for executives. To help professionals build their networks in a meaningful way. Don points out that contacts with referrals are 54 times more likely to get hired.

Twitter is another phenomenon that was discussed at length at the Career Management Alliance event. Twitter is proving a valuable resource to keep pace with what people are saying about your target companies. It’s also a great place to make new connections, and to demonstrate your subject matter expertise. NETSHARE will be sponsoring an Experts Connection teleseminar on how to use Twitter for job search in June so check back to learn more, or contact Sabrina at NETSHARE (Sabrina@netshare.com) to learn more.

Invest Wisely in Social Networking

Effectively navigating social networking is becoming an increasing challenge. Where do you focus your energies? LinkedIn? Facebook? Twitter? Professional boards? Is blogging the new resume? What’s the best way to get the word out about your personal brand?

I recently ran across an interesting blog that describes Twitter as a social media Ponzi scheme. Basically, the argument is that Twitterers are creating a closed conversation loop, re-investing social capital by tweeting at one another but not gaining any real networking traction. The “follow me” numbers are meaningless, in that they have no real social networking value. It’s an argument I have heard from other executives and newbies to social networking who are struggling with strategies to promote themselves online. For many, Twitter seems to be a real time-waster, and trying to promote your brand across in 140 characters at a time seems really restrictive.

Is Twitter a social media Ponzi scheme? You’ll have to judge for yourself, but how you get value out of any social networking strategy is all a matter of how you invest. If you find the right venues to invest your time and effort, where like-minded professionals and recruiters will see you, and where you can cultivate your personal brand, then social networking will yield returns.

The beauty of the web is discussions are threaded, so one connection leads to another. Your challenge is to create a home base to anchor for your personal brand, and then leave a trail of bread crumbs through your social networking sites that leads home to brand central. Some professionals are using Facebook as a platform to promote themselves, others are using LinkedIn, and others are using resources like VisualCV. It’s all a matter of your career objectives and personal preference.

The folks at Alltop.com state that blogging is the new resume. A blog is a great way to build your personal brand and explore/explain your value proposition, one post at a time. (How long have you been following the evolution of the NETSHARE brand by reading this blog?) If you use a blog as the foundation for your personal brand, then you can use the other social networking avenues, like Twitter, to promote your brand. Tweeting about your blog posts is one way to break the cycle of the Twitter Ponzi scheme and drive traffic to check out your brand.

No matter how you approach social media, you need to join the conversation in a meaningful way to distinguish yourself, especially these days when everyone is competing for attention. As you start looking for your next career opportunity, that trail of bread crumbs you scattered throughout the Web will pay off as recruiters and hiring managers follow the thread back to your personal brand.

Ask the Coach: Sell Your Savvy, Or at the Very Least, Rent It!

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from the most recent session with Peter Engler, president of the Engler Career Group.

This week’s coach, Peter Engler, works with candidates of all ages, from students fresh out of college to seasoned executives with decades of experience. When you reach the stature of an executive – typically age 40 or older – you should look for work, not necessarily a job. Remember what your overriding value is and sell it for consulting work. Once you adopt this mindset, every interview is a business development meeting; a peer-to-peer discussion where you will be more comfortable and better able to sell you expertise.

So, a caller raised the logical question about job versus career. What’s the difference?

Peter expanded on this notion by explaining it’s about looking for work that you can get passionate about. Consider that after a certain age, you will most likely be interviewed by someone younger, who will be intimidated by your experience. This is going to make it harder to get hired, especially since most companies are looking for executive experts with a well-defined set of specific experience. It’s better to lead the discussion to the pain the company is feeling, and how you can address it. Stay focused, and discuss the problem in depth to determine if the company is a good fit. If you can, present your value proposition in a way that is non-threatening.

Using this approach, you can determine if there is a job for you or a potential consulting opportunity. It’s best to get to “No” as quickly as you can. This takes a lot of stress off the situation and helps you determine if there is a contract possibility, even if there isn’t a full-time job.

Another question was asked about compensation. In the current economic climate, the rules have changed. If you want to know more, be sure to sign up for this month’s Experts Connection teleseminar. Negotiating Executive Compensation: new Economy, New Rules,” with Nicola James. This will give you the tips you need to negotiate executive salary in the current climate. As Peter notes, the rules are different for every company but don’t devalue yourself. The value of your expertise should be high, and if you can’t sell it for the salary you want, consider renting it for a more lucrative consulting fee.

Use Recommendations to Refresh Your Brand

Now is the time to differentiate your personal brand so will stand out from the ever-increasing crowd of job seekers. One of the best ways you can do that is with recommendations. Yes, we are back to talking about networking, which is your best source for recommendations.

One of the things that I have discovered recently through our NETSHARE Regional Meetings is that executives tend to view recommendations and referrals, and networking in general, either as a transactional process or a relational process. If you think of networking as transactional, then every recommendation becomes a trade, a quid pro quo, which limits your overall networking potential and, I believe, brings the value of some of those recommendations into question. If you think of recommendations as relational, then you are required to establish a relationship with the other party prior to offering a recommendation. This means you have to put “skin in the game,” and get to know the other party before you can offer a recommendation, and vice versa. These kinds of recommendations are more reliable, since the prerequisite is an established relationship and some deeper knowledge of skills and capabilities.

LinkedIn is a good place to start refreshing your recommendations. All of our career coaches note that anything you accomplished before one or two years ago has no value in today’s job market, so you should seek out recommendations from recent colleagues, customers, and clients. Using LinkedIn, you can either make requests directly of your network contacts, or you can do what Jason Alba recommended in our most recent Experts Connection session, rely on your networking karma. Make recommendations for people you know and have worked with in your LinkedIn network and they will, most likely, reciprocate without prompting.

This is what I like to think of as the ecosystem of interdependence. If you help others, they will naturally want to help you in return. That’s why personal networking is so important. It’s one thing to gather LinkedIn recommendations, but it’s something else to get one of your associates to surrender a valued contact with a recommendation. Meet your contacts face to face whenever you can to establish the kind of rapport you need to get those valued referrals, with a recommendation. That’s why we created the NETSHARE Area Meetings, to give executives a monthly meeting place to get know one another, and to build value in those relationships.

If you haven’t been to an Area Meeting, now is the perfect time to start. The next monthly meetings start next week so be sure to check out a meeting in your area. It’s time to get connected!