The Executive Update

Ask the Coach: Where are the Holes in Your Job Search Template?

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 Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers based in New York City.

Do you have a job search template?

This is a very common question that was raised again this week. You are entering the marketing phase of your job search. What is the schedule you should follow now?

There are templates or procedures that can help you on the way; that can assist you in staying “on top” of things. However, there is no “one-size-fits-all” template. There are basics that everyone needs to follow, but depending on your executive level, how long it has been since you last looked for a job, and how strong your professional network is, your needs will vary. If you have been maintaining your professional network and maintaining your personal brand, then your list will be shorter.

Networking is your most important step. Barbara could not emphasize this enough. Every one you have worked with, worked for, or who has worked for you is potentially a valuable contact. You could get assistance from an old schoolmate, parents from your kid’s soccer team, your mailman – you never know what might lead to your next job. Take five minutes each day to connect with someone from your past. Never ask for a job, but ask how they are doing and make the connection personal. Start a dialogue.

Prepare your marketing documents. Before others can understand your value, you must understand it yourself and be able to articulate it. What is it that you do better than anyone else? That is the essence of your personal brand, and it should be the cohesive glue that holds together all your marketing materials. Step one is to identify the components that make up your personal brand.

Your marketing documents include a resume and cover letter, but you also need an executive bio. Create an online profile that summarizes your value for use on online networking organization such as NETSHARE, LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, Facebook, Google+, Plaxo, Ziggs, Spoke, and Naymz. If you have a common name, such as Barbara, you can use Vizibility.com to fine-tune search results that lead to you. But whatever you do, make sure your brand is consistent throughout.

Promote your personal brand online by writing articles, commenting on industry forums and blogs, and if you have the inclination, start your own blog. Remember that companies want to find you, so leave an online trail for them to follow back to your posted branding materials, like your LinkedIn profile.

And you should have replying to job listings posted in targeted web sites as part of your job search strategy, but only devote about 5 percent of your time. You will get more results from proactive outreach rather than competing with everyone else for jobs posted on the web.

Where you need to focus your energy depends on your situation, but the basic elements are the same for everyone.

If you want more insight into how to take charge of your job search, join our Experts Connection teleseminar next week with Randy Block on how to handle face-to-face interviews. As Randy notes, most jobs don’t go to the most qualified, but they do go to those who interview the best.

From Blog to Job: Demonstrate Your Domain Expertise

Jason Alba, author of “You’re On LinkedIn, Now What?,” is a frequent contributor to our Experts Connection series. He recently wrote a blog about Blogging in a Job Search, which prompted me to think about different ways that NETSHARE candidates can differentiate their personal brand by demonstrating domain expertise.

Blogging about your area of expertise is one method, but as Jason notes when he recommends blogging, “When I speak, it’s one of the tactics I always talk about, but I don’t spend much time on it. It’s scary for a lot of people.” However, blogging is a great way to show your stuff in a manner that is easy to leverage for your job search. Think about how blogging works in a practical way:

Step one: Identify a topic that you are passionate about and that you can sustain as an ongoing blog. If your expertise is selling, then blog about sales strategies. Of if your specialty is logistics, set up a blog about procurement strategies. Whatever the topic, make sure you have enough content to add to the blog on a regular basis.

Step two: Surf the web for ideas. Most blogs aren’t based on original ideas but are spawned by other blogs (just as this blog post was inspired by Jason’s blog). Find other sites that inspire your thinking. Comment on those sites and adapt the discussion to demonstrate your own domain expertise.

Step three: Blog it. Write about what you are thinking and about your reactions to what you read on the Web. Be sure to attribute your sources, both because it is the right thing to do but also to build crosslink traffic.

Step four: Promote your blog. Once you have the source material posted on your own blog site, peddle it. Go to LinkedIn and other sources and offer your insights as expert commentary. For example, you can ask questions on LinkedIn groups and offer your blog posts as conversation starters. Or you can comment on other blogs adding, “This is what I think,” with a link back to your blog.

Step five: Include your blog in your marketing materials. Just as your resume and your executive bio are part of your job searching arsenal, so is your blog. As you identify contacts you want to network with, use your blog to start a conversation rather than sending a resume. It’s less threatening and doesn’t say “I am looking for a job.”

You also can use your blog to talk about target companies and their strategies. If you write about a company you are targeting for a job, that company is likely to pick up your comments and they might start tracking you. Or your comments might come up in a Web search once you get your foot in the door.

A blogging strategy is not that difficult to implement, although it does demand some time and some thought. You want to make sure you think through your blog strategy, and execute it well. However, a solid blog can help build your online presence and crystallize your personal brand; at the same time it gives you a new tool to start a conversation.

Ask the Coach: Be the Hunted, Not the Hunter

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 career management consultant Randy Block.

This week’s call with career coach Randy Block was a lively one. The discussion began with a discussion of social networking and how to use it effectively as part of your job search.

Randy opened the call with a story about a group of hunters who were very excited about the opening of moose season. They packed up and heading toward their cabin the woods to get to bed early to bag their first moose of the season early the next day. Imagine their disappointment when they awoke to find a dead moose on their doorstep. The point, of course, is that you want to be hunted rather than being the hunter.

The first caller talked about his LinkedIn strategy. He has a profile on LinkedIn but was only using it to network with contacts and he kept a lot of the information private; accessible by invitation only. Randy notes that that is a mistake. LinkedIn sells sophisticated SEO software to clients to help them find candidates on LinkedIn using sophisticated search criteria. In order to be found, you need to put your best foot forward in a searchable profile. Highlight your best achievements and make sure you are discoverable using keywords and other means.

Randy also emphasized the need to be perceived as a subject expert. Participate in the forums and offer expert opinions on various topics related to your personal brand. You become known by the groups where you are active and how you rank as an expert, so participation is important.

Another caller asked about the new social network Google+ and how important that is to job search. As Randy noted, some folks like to start with a Google search, and if you are active in Google it increases your rankings. Google+ is another tool that you can add to your job search arsenal to supplement your hunt-ability. The more Google tools you use, the higher your rankings.

Start by doing a vanity search and uncovering what you can on your name and your personal brand. Then you can help shape your brand with a Google profile and using Google+ to build your network. As Randy noted, relevancy is the key to job search today. To be found and considered, you need to be perceived as relevant, so you need to plant your brand footprint in as many searchable locations as possible.

Ask the Coach: Don’t Get Caught Up In the Web

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from our most recent session with Christine Dennison, The Job Search Coach.

The Internet is a wondrous thing. With the birth of the World Wide Web we now can access information and resources that were previously unheard of. In the early days, the Internet was a great tool for job seekers because it was clean and efficient. But then the Web became popular and prolific. Now we have bots and filters and spam and an incredible amount of online noise because everyone has figured out how easy it is to hit the “send” button to submit a resume. That means that yours is just another voice in the crowd, and it will be impossible to make your expertise stand out unless you understand how to properly use the Web as a resource.

This week, job search coach Christine Dennison shared some tips about how to think about and use the Web as part of your job search. She noted that as the din of the Web increased, hiring companies had to implement software filters to handle the data traffic from job applicants. Now all the big firms are using software to pick their job candidates, and this is where the entire online search process has gone hopelessly haywire.

There are a growing number of career information providers and opportunists trying to make money from job seekers. If you are posting to random job locations then you become a commodity, which means you won’t stand out. Your first step needs to be to control the noise. Align yourself with a reputable career service such as LinkedIn or NETSHARE to get the online traffic under control. And use the Web to conduct your own research. It’s a great tool to help you determine where the market opportunities lie, which companies are on the move, and where to apply your efforts both online and offline.

Should you apply to online job postings? Sure, but only dedicate 5 to 10 percent of your time to online postings. Remember that resumes are usually sorted by software and many are never actually seen by a human being. Even if you cram in all the keywords, chances are it will never surface. You can throw your resume in the mix, but it’s always better to network your way in using a resource such as LinkedIn.

Should you post your resume to job boards? You can “hang” your resume on online bulletin boards, but be discriminating so you can control access. Use services like NETSHARE where you know your information is protected. Otherwise you are just opening yourself up to spam and scam artists.

The bottom line is, don’t let the Web dominate your job search. Spend no more than an hour or two online each day. The Web is a great research tool and can help you find the right connections, but you need to make time for face-to-face activities. The Web is no substitute for personal contact, especially if you are looking for a new career opportunity.

Ask the Coach: “Be Yourself, Everyone Else Is Taken”

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 career management consultant Randy Block.

One of the persistent problems in job search is prevarication. Applicants may not actually lie on their marketing documents or in an interview, but they are certainly capable of exaggeration. Of course, the problem with manufacturing credentials or overstating your qualifications is that it takes a lot of work to keep up the pretense. Usually one lie leads to another, and another, and you may be called upon to prove false claims. It becomes exhausting to keep up, trying to remember what you told each party in the hiring process. Of course, candidates do land positions for which they are not qualified, but when that happens, everyone loses.

This week, career coach Randy Block reminded those who attended the call of the words of Oscar Wilde, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”

Don’t try to change your qualifications or adjust your personal brand to fit every job application or job posting. Don’t try to second-guess what others think or what you believe they want to hear about your qualifications.

If you aren’t real, or authentic in your pitch, everyone will come to see that in time, and that could negatively affect your future. You are the only one who knows what you enjoy doing and what you are truly good at. Randy said he works with executives to help them uncover their brand and capture it in a few short sentences that make them unique and relevant to the right company. Your personal brand helps attract the right companies and promotes symbiosis, while repelling those hiring companies that aren’t a good fit.

If you can be true to your strengths then you can find work that challenges you, drives you, and engages you. Aligning your brand with the right company means the company finds the right executive to solve their problem. In exchange, they get a happy, engaged employee willing to make a real contribution to the company. It’s a win-win situation.

Your best strategy is to be true to yourself and then disseminate a consistent brand message across all your marketing documents and social media profiles. Make sure company recruiters can find you on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, Klout, Google Profiles and Google Plus. A good place to start is the executive bio. Randy advises all of his clients to use an executive bio rather than a resume to make introductions. The bio says “let’s talk” rather than “I need a job” and tends to be a good conversation starter.

Don't limit yourself. Make sure your tool kit has all the right tools in it, including a dynamite executive bio. If you need help NETSHARE can recommend excellent, dependable professionals who can assist you with your marketing documents.

Ask The Coach: The Resume is Misunderstood

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 .

This week’s career coach is veteran Don Orlando, who reminded callers that the resume can be a powerful tool when it is used properly.

As Don noted, the resume is one of the most misunderstood documents used in job search. It’s important for job seekers to understand its role and how it’s used by hiring managers and recruiters.

The Folklore of the Resume:

• It is arcane and has ever-changing rules as to what it looks like, the appropriate length, and what to include.
• It is used to Sell YOU! Which seems demeaning since you are not a bar or soap or bag of dog food.
• It is not something used to try to “game” the APS (applicant tracking system) used by companies and recruiters.
• It is not something that is full of traits, generalities, etc, that don’t differentiate you. These terms show mediocrity, e.g.: Works well in teams, Good team leader, conscientious, diligent, etc. (These can describe many people, including those who are flipping burgers and selling fries.)

The Resume Reality:

· Your resume explains who and what you are. It is the document that best describes who and what you are and clearly shows decision-makers where your value lies compared to their needs.

• It showcases your brand, vividly. Your resume should contain your pledge of value in the top-most section. This is how you intend to make your prospective employer money (or save them money)! You support this brand promise with stories and examples of your successes.
• Your resume demonstrates what problems you solve. Be sure that you dig deep to distinguish the symptoms from the real problems. And explain how you solved them.
• What were the results? Quantify your successes whenever you can. Use comparisons and show context.
• Are those successes transferrable? Be sure to show your successes in context.

You want to make the story told in your resume your story, not the company’s story. Use it to market your potential, not to serve as a history of your past accomplishments.

When done right, your resume can serve as a template for an outstanding interview. It will entice the interviewer to ask the right questions; those questions where you have prepared answers that show you can shine. The resume can be leveraged to not only get you the job, but also the pay you deserve.

Trapped in Transition: Don’t Derail Your Next Interview

We all know that career transitions are difficult. You go into an interview assuming that there will be skepticism, and that the hiring manager or recruiter is looking for reasons to exclude you from the mix of candidates because you aren’t working or you are trying to enter a new field and your credentials aren’t an exact fit. This is where transition candidates lose the opportunity; when they approach a job opportunity from a point of weakness, inwardly saying to themselves, “I am not worthy.”

Candidates in transition often are their own worst enemy largely because they ARE in transition. They lack their usual self-assurance and assume an air or quiet desperation that sabotages the interview. Last week I read a blog entry profiling this phenomenon from the Candidate’s Chair. Blogger Mark Richards describes some insights he gathered from Marcia Ballinger of Keystone Search about the difference between candidates with jobs and those in transition.

According to Ballinger, there are some distinct behavioral differences that candidates in transition display during a job interview. Like it or not, these unconscious clues usually lead to the candidates’ downfall:

1. The candidate talks more than listens. They are usually nervous and on the defensive.
2. They don’t wait for the speaker to finish before answering a question.
3. They quickly assume that the position is exactly what they want, without hearing more. They are desperate for a job so they aren’t worried about pounding a round peg into a square hole.
4. Their responses are usually less consider and glib, lacking any depth of thought.
5. They talk faster, as though trying to squeeze in more information to close a sale.
6. They lean forward taking a more aggressive posture.
7. They are seeking to persuade the interviewer, not understand their needs.

As Richards points out, when you are competing for an opening, you don’t have to be perfect but you do have to be better than the next guy:

“Much like that old joke about when you and buddy are being chased by a bear, you don’t have to run faster than the bear, just your buddy. When it comes to hiring, the candidate selected is not the best at everything, they are simply better than the other candidates.”

To be perceived as better than the other candidates, you need to control your anxiety and project your competence with confidence. Here’s the behavior to adopt for a successful job interview:

1. Be selective. Candidates who aren’t in transition are choosey; they can afford to be.
2. Wait to be convinced, instead of trying to convince them. Assume you are right for the role.
3. You should be genuinely interested in learning more about the job to determine if it is a good fit; don’t assume it’s a fit.
4. When you are employed, an interview is usually perceived as a business meeting of peers. Approach the situation as though you are talking to an equal, because you are. Don’t assume that because you are in transition you are at a disadvantage. Rather, stand on your expertise.
5. Try to put the hiring manager at ease as though they were talking to a staff member, not a salesman or an outsider.

Projecting the image that you don’t need the job and you can walk away gives you an advantage in an interview setting. It puts the interviewer on the defensive to convince you to consider the job. Take control of the interview by adopting a positive attitude, “I can take it or leave it,” and you will improve your chances. Better to approach from a position of strength and find the right position than going through the interview process again a year from now.

Ask the Coach: Tap Your Career DNA To Make a Transition

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 Nicola James, Managing Partner of Thomas Brooke International.

When it comes time to change careers, you have to think about making the transition as if you are going to clone yourself for a new role. You want to catalog all of your great traits and what makes you the perfect candidate, then clone those traits in such a way that the “new you” will fit the mold of a new career.

In the current market climate, many executives are looking for a change, either because their industry is disappearing, or because they need a new opportunity. Often this means going back to the roots of your career. No matter what your reason for making a career change, you need to come up with a very compelling argument as to why a company should take a chance in hiring you. Especially when there are so many qualified candidates out there looking. This is where you can use your DNA to help with your career transition.

Changing careers can be especially challenging. The first rule you must remember is that you can't take rejection personally!!!!!

Next, remember that some companies will not look at those candidates who do not have a straight line progression in their specific industry - period, exclamation point. Don't waste your time pursuing those opportunities, or beat yourself up over not being able to be considered. It’s the hiring company’s loss.

This is where the DNA part comes in. Nicola suggests that you first take a very serious look at exactly what you have done, which is the DNA of how you work, and what you have accomplished. You can then use this information to make a powerful and compelling business case as to why you have what it takes to work in the new industry.

To help identify your transferrable DNA, look at industries adjacent to the one you are currently working in. Alternately, look at those industries that have the same clients as the company or industry you have been with. This makes your career experience much more understandable and relevant.

Once you have determined the adjacent industry and companies that you feel you can help most with a career change, do your homework. You also can use your network to make internal connections to the company. Become known by asking questions about processes or products. Determine what employees understand the company culture and see if you really fit! Do your homework so you come across as being up to the challenge.

You also can find ways to make it easy to see the correlations. Consider talking to some of the company’s customers to better understand their working relationship; how things work. You can then go armed with insights into their customers and come forward with ideas as to how you can improve the relationship and business. That will overcome any objections of lack of industry-specific experience.

Ask the Coach: When Everything is Hurting, Offer Targeted Pain Relief

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 career management consultant Randy Block.

This week, career coach Randy Block observed that in hard times, gift stores tend to do well, where in good times high-end stores do well. When things are going well, we tend to go to great lengths to impress others through our shopping habits, spending money at the high-end stores that have a lot of offer. However, when times are hard, we tend to gravitate to the gift stores and target our shopping to meet a specific, immediate need.

The same is true in recruiting. Companies can’t afford to shop for high-end talent that offers multiple skills. They are not looking for a jack-of-all-trades. They need a skilled expert who can stop their pain in one specific area. If you muddy the waters, and your value proposition, by bundling your specific value with other traits, it will be lost. You need to be able to address their specific point of pain without making them wade through excess information.

Be sure to present all the pertinent information right up front! Make it easy to find and easier to understand. There can be no question about the value you bring and that it’s aligned with what the target company needs now!

If you are worried about your age getting in the way, turn it to your advantage. Offer to use your expertise and wisdom to help solve their problem through a specific assignment. Contract work is less “age sensitive” and can lead to full time positions.

The Art of the Blog Comment and Building Your Digital Footprint

We spend a lot of editorial space in this blog talking about promoting your personal brand by building your digital footprint. The more breadcrumbs you can scatter across the web that point back to your personal branding documents – your blog, LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, online CV, or whatever you are using to promote your brand – the more likely you will be found. One of the best strategies is commenting on blogs about topics related to your expertise. If you can add to the conversation by commenting, you increase your digital footprint.

Of course, blog commenting can be time consuming. As you are surfing the web you could run across a blog entry on any topic that is interesting, insightful, and already well-commented. What can you add to the conversation? You can add your two cents, or you can spread the word. When you lack inspiration, here are some ideas as to how to contribute to the comment conversation without overtaxing yourself (with thanks to Keisha Easley who posted the original article on Social Media Today):

1. Make a note and come back later. If you have nothing to say in the moment, bookmark the blog site and think about it so you can come back later. When inspiration strikes, you can come back and post your insights.
2. When in doubt, tweet it (or Facebook it, or post it to LinkedIn). One of the great things about using social media sites is they thrive on the exchange of ideas, even when those ideas aren’t your own. You can use interesting blog entries to post to your Twitter stream, Facebook page, or to your LinkedIn contacts and groups. If the content is related to your personal brand it has potential value to your followers.
3. Comment on the comments. Blogs are part of the larger online conversation, and comments feed the conversation, so commenting on the commentary just adds more insight. Read what others have to say and feel free to expound or disagree. However, repeating what someone else says in different words doesn’t add much to the conversation. It’s better to provide a contrary or expert viewpoint to demonstrate your own expertise.
4. Poke around the blog. If you run across an interesting entry but have nothing to say, chances are there are similar blog posts at the same location that might inspire something. Explore a little and see if you find another blog post that promotes a reaction.
5. Been there, done that. Providing personal experience or an anecdote is a good way to add to the conversation and promote your brand. It helps if you have some spicy details or something unusual to share to make it memorable.
6. Try humor. One way to be memorable is to be funny. It’s okay to make a fool out of yourself if you have something clever to add. Just don’t force it and don’t be off-color or offensive.
7. Great post! Okay, you can say that but it won’t add to the conversation and you may be perceived as a spammer. Better to demonstrate that you were paying attention and add to the conversation – “I really liked what you had to say about…”

So step up and offer an opinion. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain when it comes to building your digital footprint.