Coaching

More Best Practices Online for Job Seekers

| wgvegaswoody

Welcome to the second of my two-part series of commentaries and tips on using the Internet to get a new job.

Seeing & Being Seen

One absolutely essential factor in whether or not you use the Internet successfully to get a new job is seeing others online who are seeking new jobs and being seen online by those who are hiring people for new jobs. This may seem obvious, but it is possible to fall into the trap of thinking that all one needs to do is post a resume somewhere online and the hiring managers will beat a path to your door. If you are someone who believes that you’re all set with your online search for a new job because you posted your resume online, you are kidding yourself. This I promise you.

Networking

Not so long ago, it was possible to get a new job by searching through print newspapers in the classified ads section. In the past we didn’t have to specify print newspapers because those were the only kind.

I got a new job in Arizona 20 years ago by searching through the print version of the Arizona Republic in their classified ads section. Twenty years ago things were very different from today when it came to finding a new job. What worked then likely won’t work now.

Here’s what my experience was two decades ago: I saw a job posting for a job in Arizona that was posted by an Arizona cable television company in that famous Phoenix newspaper. I sent in a hard-copy cover letter and resume through the US Postal Service. I received a phone call from the hiring manager. I was interviewed. Then, I was offered the job.

Whether any of us workers who are over the age of 40 today want to believe it or not, that particular process of using a print newspaper and sending a cover letter/resume through snail mail (a.k.a. the US Postal Service) is outmoded in 2012. Don’t use this method if you want to succeed in getting a new job today.

What has replaced that outmoded method is networking–both in person and in the virtual realm online. Keep in mind that networking today means having meaningful interaction with other human beings. Networking is a two-way street that involves ongoing contact with other people.

Best Practice for Online Networking

I previously mentioned LinkedIn as one essential online venue where all serious job seekers today need to be. The powerful “secret” about LinkedIn that I will share with you is this: On LinkedIn you can sign up for groups that match your professional interests and your career goals. By looking at the job postings within these LinkedIn groups, you can make a highly pinpointed search for a new job.

I have one specific recommendation for all who are age 40 and over who are seeking a new job: Join the Work Reimagined group on LinkedIn and become a regular participant. Why? This particular LinkedIn group is operated by AARP, which is one strong player in advocating for the advancement of older workers.

I want to let you know that AARP was a former employer of mine up through 2006. I receive no financial or other consideration from AARP for mentioning them or their Work Reimagined efforts.

The justification for you to get involved in this (or any other LinkedIn) group is for you to have a highly credible place to have meaningful interaction with others who, like you, are seeking a new job. By participating in LinkedIn groups, you will increase your exposure to hiring managers who use LinkedIn to identify candidates to fill openings for new employees. If you are not already on LinkedIn, you need to sign up today.

In my next blog post, I will cover what it is that you can do for others in your career that makes you unique compared to every other person. I will show you how to put this specific awareness to work so you can create or fix your personal brand for optimum results.

  #1: personal brand first how to
  #2: personal brand verbal communication
  #3: writing well personal brand
  #4: character and personal brand
  #5: personal brand uniqueness
  #6: job seekers best practices online
  #7: more best practices online job seekers
  #8: personal brand your unique outcomes
  #9: personal brand the journey
#10: should I stay or should I go?
#11: networking in Las Vegas
#12: surviving a career transition
#13: scoffing dinosaur
#14: managing your online reputation
#15: choosing who you are
#16: so you think you can retire
#17: your own place in the future

Job Seekers Best Practices Online

| wgvegaswoody

Knowledge is the first thing that will separate you from all other job seekers who are using the Internet. Knowledge will help you stand out from the crowd. When it comes to genuine and true awareness of how to use the Internet for job searching, there is 100% validity in the old adage, knowledge is power. Let me share this power with you to help you create or fix your personal brand while seeking new employment.

Where to Start Online

The essential first stop online for all job seekers with professional experience should be LinkedIn. There you need to fill out an online profile and showcase your uniqueness. There you spell out clearly and succinctly what you do professionally.

Registration online at LinkedIn takes only a couple of minutes.

LinkedIn

You can choose the free version. But, I recommend that you upgrade to the premium job seeker version because doing so will help you stand out from the crowd on LinkedIn. You get what you pay for. Free is fine. Just don’t expect the best possible experience on LinkedIn if you opt for the free version.

Ignore everyone who claims that LinkedIn is not necessary for a job seeker with professional experience. Those who dismiss or diminish LinkedIn are not to be taken seriously. This one online service is essential for any job seeker with professional experience.

Personalized Coaching and Training

If you would like personalized help in setting up your LinkedIn presence, please contact me.

I will help you with personalized assistance. I will share my experience and lessons learned using LinkedIn as a job seeker with professional experience with you in a one-to-one coaching relationship specifically to help you advance your job search.

This is a very low price that will give you great value: You will gain access to knowledge, and that knowledge will empower you in your job search. Plus, you won’t have to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars like I did to gain this knowledge.

You still will have to seek your own job, however. I do not provide that service because I believe there is no substitute for one finding their own job through their own efforts.

But, I am skilled at coaching and training professionals. I have many lessons learned that I bought and paid for our of my own pocket. I will share this with you in a personalized and targeted way at a very low one-time price.

Online Networking

I also recommend Ned’s Job of the Week as an online place to network with others. This is a free service. Connecting with others through Ned Lundquist’s website will put you into a valuable group of over 11,000 people!

What to Avoid Online

My experience has taught me to avoid the online job boards such as Monster that require you to pay a fee for access. There are so many job boards online today. Those that ask for you to pay for access are there to make money for the owners and not necessarily to help you find a job. Don’t spend your money on job boards.

Only pay for LinkedIn, which has all the published job listings that you will need.

I also recommend that if you are professional with years of experience you should not pay anyone to help you get a hired. Such services can cost you several thousand dollars and a percentage of your new salary. Unless there is an iron-clad guarantee that such a significant financial investment will be fully refunded to you if you do not actually land a job using this service, you should just avoid these services completely.

Preying Upon Your Emotions

If you are a professional and you are over the age of 30, a job search is an emotionally taxing experience. Let me be honest with you: Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid this reality of an emotionally taxing experience. Many who sell their services online will prey upon your emotions during this highly vulnerable time for you. I hope you can steer clear of anyone who preys upon your emotions online while you are seeking new employment. You will not feel better if you spend money with someone who is only out to make a buck and not necessarily to help you find a job. You will feel worse. I promise you that.

Facebook

If Facebook launches their own online service for job seekers, you should take a look at that. This is only rumored as of late July. But, do to the sheer number of Facebook users, I recommend that you at least take a look at any Facebook job seeker service if one is launched.

In my next blog post, I will cover part two of online job search best practices to help you create or fix the best possible personal brand for yourself.

  #1: personal brand first how to
  #2: personal brand verbal communication
  #3: writing well personal brand
  #4: character and personal brand
  #5: personal brand uniqueness
  #6: job seekers best practices online
  #7: more best practices online job seekers
  #8: personal brand your unique outcomes
  #9: personal brand the journey
#10: should I stay or should I go?
#11: networking in Las Vegas
#12: surviving a career transition
#13: scoffing dinosaur
#14: managing your online reputation
#15: choosing who you are
#16: so you think you can retire
#17: your own place in the future

Your Uniqueness and Your Personal Brand

| wgvegaswoody

In this blog post I help you identify and communicate your uniqueness as you create or fix the best possible personal brand for yourself.

Uniqueness Cannot be Faked

If you ask skilled and talented professional actors, they can assure you that uniqueness cannot be faked. You must be authentic. You must be genuine. Even though actors get paid for pretending to be someone else than who they really are, the most successful actors are those who have a uniqueness that is deep and true no matter what a script may create for them.

Your personal brand must be as deep and true even if you are not paid to portray other characters than your own. Your personal brand must grow from within you even if you buy new clothes for yourself and color your hair. If you are anything but authentic and genuine, you will fail in creating your personal brand.

Do not believe anyone who says to you that you are person not a brand. Of course you are a person. But, developing one’s own personal brand certainly does not prevent you from being a true person. For anyone to tell you that you are only a person and that you therefore cannot create or fix your personal brand is wrong.

Your personal brand that you create (or fix) can be a powerful tool in your personal and professional success. Those who tell you to “be yourself” and doing so will be enough are giving you terribly stupid and completely worthless advice. Run away from them as though they were zombies out to eat your flesh.

Getting a New Job Demands Uniqueness

If you presently are seeking a new job, it is all the more vital that you understand and embrace the concept of developing your personal brand to show your uniqueness. The Great Recession has made if very difficult–particularly for workers over the age of 40–to land new jobs in what has become a highly competitive job search environment. Unless you can clearly identify your uniqueness and bring that uniqueness out in your personal brand, what reason is there for anyone to hire you?

I recently read a commentary that job seekers should wear bright colors, have their teeth whitened, and emphasize what are purely external factors. Do not pay attention to advice that you should emphasize external factors in yourself as you suffer through the painfully frustrating job search process. That will help you fail in your job search. Instead, you need to emphasize your uniqueness from within yourself regardless of your hair color, whether your wear white or blue, or any other superficial elements like those.

Finding Your Uniqueness

It might be a lonely process for you to find your uniqueness. But, finding your uniqueness is a must. I cannot advise anyone about specific factors to adopt. Each person must do an honest and genuine self-analysis of what elements of personal uniqueness he or she has. This can be daunting and scary. But, each person has the ability to identify his or her own uniqueness with careful and honest self-analysis. Believing that you have uniqueness is important. Just don’t fall into the trap of denying that you have something that makes you unique compared to everyone else. Believe first. Then, carefully define what it is that makes you unique compared to the job seeker who is competing with you for the job that you want and need.

Expressing Your Uniqueness

Identifying your own uniqueness is only part of this personal brand process. You will need to express your uniqueness so that you can compete with other job seekers effectively. My personal and professional experience has taught me something that I will share with you: Expressing your uniqueness does not mean you first should rewrite your resumé. Relying upon pages of paper for a hard-copy resumé that you bring with you to job interviews is to relying upon outmoded 20th century thinking. We are living in the second decade of the new century now, so it best to leave the old century in the past where it properly belongs. In my next blog post, I will explain how you can express your uniqueness in your job search beyond rewriting your paper resumé to help you create or fix the best possible personal brand for yourself.

  #1: personal brand first how to
  #2: personal brand verbal communication
  #3: writing well personal brand
  #4: character and personal brand
  #5: personal brand uniqueness
  #6: job seekers best practices online
  #7: more best practices online job seekers
  #8: personal brand your unique outcomes
  #9: personal brand the journey
#10: should I stay or should I go?
#11: networking in Las Vegas
#12: surviving a career transition
#13: scoffing dinosaur
#14: managing your online reputation
#15: choosing who you are
#16: so you think you can retire
#17: your own place in the future

Your Character and Your Personal Brand

| wgvegaswoody

The ancient Greeks were right. Since the time of Aristotle, the word ethos in their language equates to the contemporary English word character. Welcome to the fifth installment in my series of blog posts about creating or fixing your personal brand.

Since ancient times in Greece, person’s character was highly valued as one of the main ingredients in what today we call your personal brand.

It is without doubt a very long and winding road from the dominance of ancient Greece to the rise of the prominence of Lady Gaga. But, she knows what the Greeks of thousands of years ago knew. The perceptions about your character can determine your success or failure in life.

What others perceive of your most dominant character trait (e.g., friendly, grumpy, warm, cold, reclusive, trustworthy, etc.) matters significantly in whether your personal brand becomes an asset or a liability for you and also if your personal brand turns out to be a financial plus for a loss of wealth for you. It turns out that you should accept responsibility for how others perceive of your character traits–dominant or not–because ultimately you are only person who can change those perceptions.

You’re Not a Child

Unless you are still a high school student, you should have long ago stopped blaming others for how you are perceived in terms of your character traits. It’s easy to blame one’s parents. It’s easy to fault the person you married. None of those excuses are valid, however. All of us adults should attain an adult’s sensibility when it comes to accepting personal responsibility for how others perceive of us.

Beyond accepting that your character is your responsibility, there is more work for you to do. If you want to change how others perceive your character, you must choose to do so deliberately. Waiting for everyone else to change how they perceive of your character is the wrong choice to make under any circumstances.

Repairing Incorrect Perceptions

To fix your personal brand so that it serves you well, it may be necessary for you to repair what you see as “incorrect” perceptions of your character. Others see you as selfish, but you consider yourself to be just fine. That could be an indication that you are misperceiving your own traits.

It’s real easy to find examples in the real world: A convicted felon insists on his innocence. A liar and a thief in the world of partisan politics only sees the good in himself. A religious leader who falls into disgrace because of a sexual scandal maintains that he never did anything wrong.

Your situation and your character may involve less dramatic elements. But, the process of repairing what you consider to be incorrect perceptions is the same for you as it is for the infamous and the notorious.

The simple rule of thumb is: Create and shape perceptions of your character by how you choose to behave. Find ways to demonstrate that you are genuinely a generous person even though others perceive you as selfish. Find ways to prove that you are honest and trustworthy by your behaviors that can mitigate negative perceptions about your sincerity or your honesty.

Celebrities have it easier than the rest of us. Celebrities have the money and the connections to enable travel to Africa or Haiti or anywhere else to volunteer their time (in front of cameras, of course) to advance a social cause that will put a positive spin on public perceptions about their character. Anyone is not a celebrity will have a more difficult time in redefining his or her character. But, there also is the benefit of not having paparazzi following you when you run errands to the dry cleaners.

The simple reality is that anyone can change how he or she is perceived. If this is what you intend to do, you must do so deliberately without regret and have specific strategies to guide your efforts.

Putting On The New You

One core strategy that you will need is accepting that you are putting on a new, improved version of your former self. You can think of this as being similar in many respects to choosing to put on different clothing that you have previously worn. This is not putting on in the sense of pretending or faking. Your new strategy must include your genuine belief in this new, improved version of you.

We can look to famous people for examples of how to morph into new, improved versions. Michael Vick and Martha Stewart are two such examples. Both people were convicted and served prison time, yet they both came back afterwards into the world with new, improved versions of themselves. If you want to succeed like these two people succeeded in putting on new versions of themselves, the point is that you need to desire to create your own new, improved version of yourself and then take the necessary follow-through steps to make it so.

Not a Linear Process

Developing a perceived character for yourself that is seen as an improvement from the way you were is not a strictly linear process. You should expect that your desired outcome of a perceived character seen as a newer and better you may sometimes require pain, suffering, and taking one step backwards for every one step forward. I believe that this is just part of real life. Nobody should expect happily-ever-after Hollywood endings.

You must make a deliberate choice, however. Remaking your perceived character can never happen by accident. The choice must be yours. Then, you must follow-through and accept that forward momentum will not be in a straight line where there is always only positive movement.

How to Choose

Knowing how to choose the way you want to be perceived as far as your character goes might just be the most vital ingredient for you. Every person’s choice may be different, but how one makes the choice remains constant.

I would urge you to write down (or type out) all the character traits that others perceive in you. Be brutally honest with yourself in committing these to paper and save what you write or type somewhere as one of the vital documents in your life.

Organize your perceived character traits into three categories–positive, neutral, and, negative. It is the neutral and negative traits that you want to focus upon.

Choosing a new you will be best if you choose character traits that align with the person that you already are. For instance, if your choice is to be known as someone who unselfishly helps people fight poverty in far off countries, yet never have traveled outside of the United States, you’d be starting off with a choice that is not in alignment with the real you.

I’m not suggesting that the key to success in fixing your personal brand is volunteerism. There’s an old saying: “Charity begins at home.” If you want to be known as unselfish and generous and helpful yet at home you are a grumpy, self-centered, antisocial person, you’re starting off in the wrong direction. In every situation, no matter what, a person must change inside first before he or she can put on a new, improved version for everyone outside of his or her own skin.

In my next blog post on this website, I will jump into identifying and communicating your uniqueness as you create or fix the best possible personal brand for yourself.

  #1: personal brand first how to
  #2: personal brand verbal communication
  #3: writing well personal brand
  #4: character and personal brand
  #5: personal brand uniqueness
  #6: job seekers best practices online
  #7: more best practices online job seekers
  #8: personal brand your unique outcomes
  #9: personal brand the journey
#10: should I stay or should I go?
#11: networking in Las Vegas
#12: surviving a career transition
#13: scoffing dinosaur
#14: managing your online reputation
#15: choosing who you are
#16: so you think you can retire
#17: your own place in the future

Writing Well for Your Personal Brand

| wgvegaswoody

The ability to write well is both a talent and a skill. I am convinced that creating or fixing your personal brand absolutely demands you need to demonstrate the skill of writing well (or else you will have to pay someone else to ghostwrite for you.)

Here’s a secret I will share with you:

  • You are born with talent.
  • You can learn skill.

Writing and Your Personal Brand

I have taught writing to adults at the university level in the highly competitive and demanding Washington, DC market. I admit this right up front so that you will know where I am coming from in my commentary about writing and your personal brand.

I have seen how difficult it is to teach someone how to write well who somehow was born without the necessary talent for the task.

I also have seen people grow and become better writers because they deliberately chose to apply themselves in a learning situation.

And, one more admission: I have been pleasantly surprised to discover adults with an ability to write well in the English language even though they were born into some other language.

So, after many years of professional experience as a writer and also because I am one who teaches others how to write well, this is what I believe: Success in writing well in the English language starts with a person’s ability to use his or her own mind well.

I further believe that a person must attain the skill to use their mind to do two related tasks: (1) to consider symbolic meaning, and, (2) to express meaning to others symbolically.

Attaining success at each of those two tasks can yours if you start by deliberately applying yourself in a learning situation. Such a learning situation can be in a classroom or through online learning.

Discover Great Writers

Another equally valid learning situation is this: Read a book or two written by a person who is known for succeeding at the two tasks (thinking about symbolic meaning, and, expressing oneself symbolically in text form).

In my humble opinion, everyone should be able to name at least one book and one writer of the book that has made a strong impression on their adult mind. The ability to know and respect a masterful writer is essential to improving one’s own writing.

And, the book and the writer do not need to have some lofty significance intellectually. When I was very young, for instance, I was quite impressed the very first time I read the children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by Lyman Frank Baum (1856 – 1919).

As I grew older and matured emotionally, I never forgot how strongly positive I felt about that famous fantasy story. But, I became more impressed the works of with another American writer, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 – 1910).

What writing is impressive to you will be as individual as you are. What impresses you before you reach the age of 13 will be far different from what impresses you after you reach the age of 31.

What’s important is to explore writers and their works while deliberately applying yourself in a learning situation. Yes, you should read for enjoyment. But, enjoyment need not be separated from learning.

I also believe you should broaden your horizons by reading writers whose works are in the nonfiction category. The enjoyment of a nonfiction writer’s works can match or exceed that of enjoying fiction writers’ works.

Sometimes, you will get very lucky and find one writer who succeeds well at both fiction and nonfiction. American Norman Mailer (1923 – 2007) is one such writer. Gore Vidal (born 1925) is one of the greatest living American writers who mastered both genres.

Online Writing Challenges

In today’s world there are so many opportunities for you to write using online channels. This is both a blessing and a curse.

If you use Twitter, for example, you are limited by their format to using only 140 characters for whatever you intend to write. Sometimes, less is more. Using Twitter to communicate in text form will focus your writing skills so that you learn to express yourself within the restrictions of only 140 characters.

Other online channels such as Facebook or Google+ are far less restrictive in terms of the available space in which you can write in text form. This does not necessarily mean that using Facebook or Google+ will be better for reaching and convincing your target audience, however.

Having your own blog (like the one you are reading now) on your own website affords the greatest luxury in online writing: You can have unlimited space within which you may write whatever you wish. However, I have read many blog posts that contain a lot of words, yet somehow convey very little substance or impact.

I invite you to read my comments about why you need to have your own website if you really want to be successful with your own personal brand. I want you to know that there are dangers involved in doing your own website.

Five Dimensions of Effective Writing

Let me close this commentary by providing what I consider to be the five essential dimensions of effective writing. You can use these to generate important questions that you need to ask yourself before you start writing:

1–Situation

I want to reach the reader why…
I am writing this because…

2–Audience

I am writing this for whom…
I want the reader to do what…
I expect the reader will already know…
I want the reader to respond how…
I expect the reader actually will respond how…
I want the reader to use this for what…

3–Message

I want the reader to remember this one thing…
I want to have this specific outcome…

4–Method

I want to reach the reader how and where…
I want this to go out where and when…

5–Evaluation

I intend to measure the impact by…

Summary

To summarize, let me repeat that you can succeed in creating or fixing your personal brand if you can demonstrate skill at writing well. This is true whether you are writing for print or online.

  #1: personal brand first how to
  #2: personal brand verbal communication
  #3: writing well personal brand
  #4: character and personal brand
  #5: personal brand uniqueness
  #6: job seekers best practices online
  #7: more best practices online job seekers
  #8: personal brand your unique outcomes
  #9: personal brand the journey
#10: should I stay or should I go?
#11: networking in Las Vegas
#12: surviving a career transition
#13: scoffing dinosaur
#14: managing your online reputation
#15: choosing who you are
#16: so you think you can retire
#17: your own place in the future