The Executive Update

Pay It Forward Video Resume Service – Film It Now and Pay Later

 

I had an interesting conversation with Dan Powers this week. Dan is the co-founder of a new video resume service in Silicon Valley, SanJoseStock.com. With partner Kymberli Brady, who lost her marketing job last September, Dan is producing two-minute video resumes for clients. And here’s the hook – if their unemployed clients can’t pay the $100 fee, they can pay later.I love this kind of “pay-it-forward” business model, especially in this economic climate. As Brady said in her KGO interview (posted here), “I can’t find a job, so I have to make one.” And she has support from the Silicon Valley business community as well, as demonstrated by the fact that the San Jose Executive Center donated space for them to film their video resumes for three days.

It’s not only altruistic, but I am sure it is a smart business move. It’s demonstrated that video resumes help you stand out from the crowd. For the KGO-YV news story, they interviewed Jim Vandergrift, creative director for Design Reactor in Campbell, California, a local design firm that receives hundreds of resumes from applicants looking for work. He said he had never seen a video resume before, and it made the applicant really stand out.

As Brady says, deferring payment for those in need is a means of paying a spiritual and emotional mortgage. And it might promise future gigs from those grateful folks who are newly employed.

Ask the Coach: Mastering the Personal Brand

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.

Randy Block was this week’s career coach, and he shared his innovative and effective strategy for developing your own personal brand. One caller was struggling with feeling “stuck,” and Randy’s recommendation was to get out there and start networking, but before you can do that, you need to determine what makes you stand out from the crowd. That’s why you need to create your personal brand.

Your personal brand is not your last job title but what makes you unique in your field. It characterizes what you do, and what others believe about you. To identify your personal brand, ask yourself what you are good at? What do you truly love doing, and what you do very, very well? How do you contribute to a company? Just as Starbucks has a product that makes you think “coffee,” and Coca-Cola has a product that makes you think “soda,” you need to create a personal brand that would make someone want to buy the product that is you!

To identify your personal brand, look back on your achievements from the last 10 years, including group achievements where you played a significant role. This does not mean listing your duties and responsibilities – everyone with the same job will share those and they don’t differentiate you. Be specific about your achievements and include metrics; measurable results. People can relate to metrics.

Randy has defined two steps for finding your persona brand?

1.  Make a list of your achievements since you obtained your degree and group them in three categories: a) You loved this work; b) You did the work and it was okay; and c) You did the work, accomplished something, and never want to do it again.
2. Now take the achievements in category A and look for a common thread. What verbs come to mind over and over again? Focus on what you accomplished, not how you did it. And “metricize” your achievements – talk about profits, growth, lowered costs, positive changes.

 Now write a three-to-four sentence outline of what you uncovered and share it with six of your closest friends; people who will be honest and say what they think. Let them know you are working on your personal brand and want their input. Ask them, “When my name comes up, what comes to mind – both personally and professionally?” Then wait for the response without prompting. (Note that if they can’t provide an example, that’s not a good sign.) Then take their answers and compare them to your four-sentence outline. Refine the results into a two-sentence description and share it with your six friends to see if you are on the mark. Make sure your value statement highlights your unique qualities.

Now you can take that value statement and have it printed on a business card beneath your name, and you now have a mini resume that you can use anywhere.

Remember that the impact of a good personal brand is that it makes you memorable. Five years ago at a networking event, Randy met an attendee and when he asked her what she did she replied, “I help the world stay in focus.” She was an optometrist, but Randy still remembers the value statement.

Armed for the Interview – The Three “Must Haves”

Career coaches can be very helpful in guiding you through your strengths and weaknesses, and preparing you to make a good impression in your next interview. In recent Ask the Coach calls, we have had a number of callers who say they are getting the interviews, but not the offers. Maybe it’s time to look past your credentials and brush up on your interview skills. I recently spotted a blog post by Brad Remillard of Impact Hiring Solutions, where he profiles the three things you must have for a successful interview.

The first thing is confidence. Even at the executive level, many or even most job candidates lack confidence, and that shows in an interview. And that lack of confidence becomes more self-evident the longer you are in the job market. It comes across in body language, how you sit in the chair, eye contact (or lack of it), and tone of voice. If you lack confidence you tend to give generic answers or won’t voice an opinion for fear of being too specific and knocking yourself out of the running. No one wants to hire a wimp. So how do you exude confidence? One way is to adopt the mindset that you already have a great career and you don’t need the job you are interviewing for. Pretend you are already on the job. That will give you a chance to reveal the real you in action.

Second, prepare your questions. If you don’t have any questions, then you haven’t done your homework. It shows a lack of understanding, or worse, a lack of interest. Asking probing questions is your chance to really show your stuff. Be ready to probe, get clarification, and get more information. Brad sees two things that stop candidates from asking questions: 1) fear of confrontation and 2) lack of preparation.

Third is preparation. If you have read this blog regularly, you know we are advocates of preparation. Brad spells out some specific steps to help you prepare that are very useful, including:

-   Write out the basic questions you know will be asked and have answers prepared.

-   Conduct mock interviews.

-   Prepare your own set of questions to ask during the interview.

-   Identify weaknesses in your interview style and know where to compensate.

-   Prepare to have details to explain bullet points in your resume.

-   Think about body language and its impact on the interview.

There are other pointers as well. You might also consider joining us on our next Experts Connection teleseminar, “Cultivating Executive Presence to Get Your Next Job,” scheduled for February 24. During this session, Dr. Dean Herman will share his insights into how to overcome the inner roadblocks to job search and bring more confidence and success to interviews and other personal interactions.

Ask the Coach: Rethinking the Resume

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 Nicola James, Managing Partner of Thomas Brooke International.

Much of this weeks’ coaching call revolved around marketing documents, specifically formulating your resume. One caller asked about resume writing and keyword placement. Should you write your resume to be scannable? How important are keywords?

Nicola notes that keywords matter but they need to be relevant and not random. You can’t guarantee scanning success. Every manager and every company uses different search criteria, and you can’t guess or choose every possible keyword for a specific position. You need to be a natural match, and you can’t achieve authenticity by throwing a series of keywords into your resume.

When we write about ourselves we often overlook things. That’s why it’s important to get someone knowledgeable to review your resume. The right feedback can help you pinpoint where you may have missed critical information. Of course, they must know the target audience; Nicola sees great resumes that neglect to mention the industry or the product line.

Another caller noted that some resume writers are pushing the problem/solution resume style rather than the narrative style. Is this an acceptable trend? Nicola likes the problem/solution style resume when it fits in the commonly acceptable resume format. She wants to see the complete chronological history of a candidate, where they come from, and what their career track looks like, including the company and its size. The resume should be no more than two pages.

Nicola added that she prefers adding a third section: Problem/Action/Result. She wants to see how you did what you did. That’s what sets the great candidates apart from the good candidates. Nicola likes to look at what you did and compare it to what the client needs; is it a good match and does it fit their culture. Present an appropriate example for each position held.

One caller noted that, with 30 years experience, it’s difficult to fit everything into two pages. Nicola advises not to go into extreme detail with every job. Companies are really only interested in the last 10 years of work history. Before that, they want to see a career progression without gaps.  Where the company is no longer in business, just tell the truth. Provide dates of employment and explain there was an acquisition or whatever is appropriate. If you need to provide more details, you can always create additional documents or addenda.

If you are interested in learning more about honing your strategies for your marketing documents, join Experts Connection on April 28 for a teleseminar on “Top 5 Critical Marketing Tools for Executives.”

Using Video To Promote Your Personal Brand

We talk a lot about the value of online networking and building your brand presence using outlets like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. These are great online branding tools that can help you promote yourself and your unique value proposition, but they also are getting to be crowded outlets. You need to get your name and brand out there online, but everyone is using the same outlets so how do you differentiate yourself?

Consider video. I recently received an interesting e-mail directing me to a blog post by personal brandmeister Paul Copcutt of Square Peg on how to use video to promote your personal brand. What he has to say makes a lot of sense:

“One of the concerns about personal branding, especially if someone has built a significant online presence is that how much of it is controlled or even manufactured? People are starting to ask - who can we trust or believe?

“Enter - VIDEO - it's helping to level the playing field a little.”

Video can be a great branding tool to help you stand out from the crowd. Check out the video that Paul posted on his blog to see how he uses it to promote himself. And you can post the video in multiple locations, like Vimeo and YouTube, and then embed it in Facebook and other places to give you more visibility. It also gives you a chance to project your personality and connect in a more realistic way with others. Video also gives you an opportunity to differentiate your brand and communicate something about yourself with a more personal passion.

And just as there are online locations to post your portfolio, like VisualCV, there are online video production resources as well. Paul recommends videoBio, which can produce a professional video bio for you for $299. With a little skill you can do it yourself with a Flip camera or a video camera, but production quality matters so getting some professional assistance may not be a bad idea.

As with posting photos online, some are concerned about how videos might promote ageism and weed you out of the running from the start because people can actually see you. You can think of seeing your image online as a barrier to entry, but if you think about it another way, you can’t hide your age. Hiring managers will determine your age from your marketing documents or other means before they commit to an interview. If you harness social media and video, it demonstrates that you are savvier than the next candidate and it may give you an edge.

The real trick is what you do with your video calling card once you have produced it. You need to use it to create a trail of breadcrumbs that leads back to your primary online location, whether that’s your blog, your web site, or your LinkedIn profile. Video can be a great brand differentiator, but you have to use it with a plan in mind so you are strategically promoting your personal brand, not just throwing a video out on the web and hoping it gets seen.

Ask the Coach: Look for the In-House Recruiter

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 our newest career coach, Kristin Speer of Accelerated Search Consulting.

This week we welcomed a new career coach to the Ask the Coach call. Kristin Speer is the founder and CEO of Accelerated Search Consulting based in Silicon Valley, who brings 20 years of experience working with high-tech companies. Her special passion is working with people who have been out of the work force for a while.

Kris noted that she is starting to see things start to move, especially with technology start-ups. She recommends organizing your search into three parts:

1. Be found – Make sure your information is out there in the logical places
2. Respond – Keep your eyes open for appropriate openings and get to the right person when you see a position posted.
3. Go after what you want – Be proactive in identifying the companies in your area that you want to work for, and identify the right hiring authorities.

An emerging trend that Kris has identified is that large companies are using internal recruiters to do their executive search. Companies are looking to take advantage of the large-scale layoffs at recruiting firms, snatching up the talent for their own benefit. Of course, many times these internal recruiters aren’t as effective as a recruiting firm, but this trend means you need to find the Internal Talent Group.

 

As a job seeker, this means a shift in strategy. You need to make sure you are in the recruiting firms’ databases as well as their partners. Concentrate on the partners that are appropriate to you. Determine who primarily works with your expertise and reach out to them.

 

The best way to get the attentions of recruiters – both internal and external – is through LinkedIn. Make sure you have a solid profile that shows your value up front. Make it easy for the reader to connect the dots, matching what they need to what you have to offer. Use the right keywords, and if you are not sure what to put in your profile, try reverse engineering the search process. If you were hiring for the position you want, what would you expect to see? You might search through LinkedIn looking for similar positions and see how others write about themselves.

 

LinkedIn Groups can be extremely useful. Find groups that relate to your profession and monitor the jobs section and discussion sections. Join the conversation. Offer value by responding to questions. That way you will be seen as an expert and make yourself known, and remembered.

 

One caller asked Kris how, as a recruiter, she uses LinkedIn? She said she uses the Advanced Search section. Since most companies prefer to deal with local candidates, she first searches by zip code for the company’s location. Then she looks for titles – vice president, senior vice president, CEO, etc.  Then she narrows the search using keywords. She typically uses three or four filters per search to uncover the right candidates.

 

As a closing note, remember when sending your marketing documents to send .DOC Word format or .RTF files. Don’t send .docx format files since many companies have not upgraded to the latest version of Microsoft Office.