Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Personal Branding Magazine

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Dan Schawbel is one of the authorities on the topic of personal branding, particularly for the Millennial generation. I am happy to serve as a co-editor of Personal Branding Magazine, along with Jessica Lewis. The new, free sample issue is available. This is how Dan describes it:

Enjoy nine articles in the free sample issue, which can be found on PersonalBrandingSample.com. You’ll read partial interviews from Kathy Ireland, Vanna White and others. You’ll also see two articles on how to be socially responsible, authentic and build a remarkable brand.

Full issue available May 1st (paid subscribers only)

The full issue will be out on May 1st, including complete interviews with major business celebrities and a combined 28 articles for your viewing pleasure. Be sure to subscribe before May 1st in order to receive this issue.

More information can be found at PersonalBrandingMag.com.

Features

Exclusive interviews with:

  • Kathy Ireland is an American former-model, actress, entrepreneur, CEO and designer of her eponymous brand product marketing company, Kathy Ireland Worldwide. Her company’s  products are sold at over 50,000 locations in 15 countries, generating an estimated $1.4 billion in retail sales. Ireland’s annual take is thought to be around $10 million, which has prompted Forbes to name her the “prototype for model-turned-mogul.
  • Vanna White is an American television personality, best known as puzzle-board presenter and co-host on the long-running game show Wheel of Fortune. White also has made cameo appearances on television shows such as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, 227 and Full House; and in movies such as Naked Gun 33â…“: The Final Insult. She guest-starred on Married…With Children, in a gender-bending spoof of the movie Indecent Proposal.
  • Jalen Rose is a retired professional basketball player. In college, he was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines’ “Fab Five” (along with Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson) that reached the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship games as both Freshmen and Sophomores.
  • Daymond John is a fashion designer, author, and businessman from New York. He is best known for being the founder and CEO of the fashion company FUBU. John is a ‘Shark’ on the new ABC television show Shark Tank. His latest book is called The Brand Within.
  • Leslie Scott is the creator of Jenga, the second-best selling game in the world, and the co-founder of Oxford games. One of the world’s few professional game designers, Scott spends her time in the Oxford countryside and the African plains with her two children and her husband.
  • Dan Heath is co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.  It was also a BusinessWeek bestseller for two years.  Dan and his brother, Chip, published their second book, Switch, in February 2010, which is a #1 New York Times bestseller.
  • Harvey Mackay is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including Swim With the Sharks (Without Being Eaten Alive), Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt and his latest book Use Your Head To Get Your Foot In The Door. He is a nationally syndicated columnist, and one of America’s most popular business speakers. His books have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 35 languages and distributed in 80 countries.

Contributors

Experts, authors, and bloggers such as:

One way to empower yourself as a job seeker

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Under the “you never know what will inspire you to blog” category, I was listening to a local radio show last week – The Bert Show in Atlanta. They were interviewing Chilli (Rozonda Thomas) from TLC – @officialchilli on Twitter. You’re waiting for the career connection?

Chilli shared that she has a “list” when it comes to looking for Mr. Right. She explained that she has two categories – needs and wants. (Disclosure – I am paraphrasing here, as I was in the car listening and the audio isn’t posted online as of this writing!)

Needs according to Chilli include things that are “must haves.” Chilli’s needs for a life partner included “family man and Christian,” among others. Wants? “A six-pack” (she’s willing to date someone who has a 4-pack!) and a man who doesn’t eat pork (she can compromise), among a few other desires. Everyone on the show seemed to think it was great to have a list; they commented that it was empowering to know what you are looking for and to be able to quantify it clearly. It obviously helps Chilli to zone in on how to spend her time and energy when it comes to dating.

Job seekers – think about your needs and wants. Since this isn’t a relationship advice blog, let’s take this concept to your job hunt. Do you have a list? What are YOUR needs/must-havea? A certain salary? Flexibility? Type of organization? What about your “wants?” Close to home? Ability to telecommute?

Have you narrowed down what you are looking for? If not, it’s a lot harder to find it!

Take some time today to make your list if you have not already clarified this for yourself. I’ve talked about searching for a company instead of a job, but it’s tough to choose a company before you really narrow down what YOU want. Empower yourself with a list. You deserve it!

photo by tinybanquet

Are you fooling yourself? Bored at work? Is it your own fault?

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In honor of April Fool’s day, members of the Career Collective community I co-coordinate with my colleague Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter are tackling a few important and timely questions! Today’s post is one of many responses to the question, “How are you fooling yourself about your career or job search? What can you do about it?”

I encourage you to visit other members’ responses, which are linked at the end of my post! Please follow our hashtag on Twitter: #careercollective.

Are you “bored” at work? Maybe it is time to look in the mirror! Susan Cramm,  the founder and president of Valuedance and a former CFO and CIO, asks this question in a post I have been meaning to share. She suggests, “Maybe You’re the Reason Your Job Is Boring” for the Harvard Business Review. (Thanks to @J2BMarketing for tweeting about this post!)

Susan suggests you ask yourself these questions (points 1-3 are Susan’s, commentary is my own):

  1. Are you on autopilot?

    2. How often are you driving somewhere new, but you accidentally turn the wrong way because you usually go the same old places? It’s tough to break out of routines that are monotonous. Think about how you can make a change. Otherwise, you are always going to wind up in the same place, and you will have no one else to blame!

  2. Your energy level is less than impressive.

    3. This is familiar to most people. We are tired, busy, overworked, have too much on our minds. It would be surprising if our energy levels were not much lower than necessary for active, productive work. What can you do about it? Break your routine. Get more sleep, exercise. Read a good book. Make time for yourself so you have more energy to give at work.

  3. You’ve become a conformist.

    4. Susan says, “It’s not unusual for leaders to start sleeping on the job once they hit year three or four. At this point, they have molded the organization in their own image. They know their people, processes, and technology aren’t perfect, but have adjusted to their imperfections and lose sight of the opportunities for improvement.”

    Are you sleeping on the job? Have you given up on making changes that you might have pushed for early in your tenure? Can you take one problem and think about how you may push for a solution? Is there ONE thing that really excites and interests you at work that you can take upon yourself to champion? What issue can you try to solve? Is there a strategy you can pursue that will engage and interest you?

    4. I would add – you are complacent.

    I have a friend who was thinking of looking for a new job, but realized how much work she would have to do to achieve the level of trust and flexibility that she maintained at her current (boring) job. Once we start to become accustomed to the way things are, it is difficult to take action that would challenge us and keep things interesting at work.

    So – the question remains: Are you fooling yourself? What actions are you willing to take to grab the wheel and drive your own career bus? Is it time for a change? Maybe the change should involve a job search, but maybe it means re-engaging and re-connecting with your current job. It’s up to you, but nothing happens until you take the wheel!

    Read what my #CareerCollective colleagues have to say on the topic:

    10 Ways to Tell if Your Job Search is a Joke, @careerealism

    April Fool’s Day – Who’s Fooling Who?, @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes

    If It’s Not You and It’s Not True, You’re Fooling Yourself, @GayleHoward

    Don’t Kid Yourself! (The Person You See in the Mirror is a Good Hire), @chandlee

    Avoiding the Most Common Blunder, @jobhuntorg

    Are you fooling yourself? Bored at work? Is it your own fault?, @keppie_careers

    Hey, Job Seeker — Don’t Be a Fool!, @resumeservice

    Job Search Is No Joking Matter,  @careersherpa

    Is Your #Career in Recovery or Retreat? (All Joking Aside), @KCCareerCoach

    9 Ways You Might Be Fooling Yourself About Your Job Search, @heatherhuhman

    Don’t get tricked by these 3 job search blunders, @LaurieBerenson

    Trying to hard to be nobody’s fool?,  @WorkWithIllness

    It’s not all about you, @DawnBugni

    Mirror ‘their’ needs, not ‘your’ wants in #jobsearch, @ValueIntoWords

    Stop Fooling Yourself about your Job Hunt: Things you may be doing to sabotage yourself – @erinkennedycprw

    Same as it ever was – @walterakana

    Don’t be fooled. Avoid these – @kat_hansen

    Job Seekers: You Are Fooling Yourself If...@barbarasafani

    photo by and_there_I_was

Five networking fundamentals to land a job

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If I had a dollar for every job seeker who told me he or she was “networking ’til they were blue in the face,” but had made no progress in the job hunt, I could take a very nice vacation!

The fact is, many people think they are networking, but all they are doing is telling everyone they know that they are looking for a job. That is not networking. That is telling everyone you know that you are looking for a job. (Let’s ignore the questionable grammar there – you know what I mean.)

In fact, I volunteered recently at a non-profit job fair. I was waiting to have a word with the organizer, but one of the job seekers was speaking to her. He introduced himself and said, “I’d love to talk to someone in your organization about sales, as that is my specialty.” I watched the organizer…She looked like she wasn’t sure what to say or how to respond. The request was so broad and non-specific. I could hear her thinking, “What does he want from me?” (Or, at least that is what I imagine she was thinking!)

I know what I was thinking – “That is NOT a way to ask for a networking meeting or informational interview.”

In a conversation with a client recently, we discussed networking. He considers himself introverted and wonders if in-person networking is for him. My advice to introverted job seekers is the same as it is for my extroverted clients. To successfully network, you need to do five things:

  1. Research
  2. Ask questions
  3. Be interested in the replies
  4. Have a story
  5. Follow up

Stay tuned for more details and how to successfully leverage these steps for your networking enjoyment!

photo by Light Play

What you don't know about the job hunt will hurt you

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As you might imagine, I receive a lot of inquiries from blog readers about my services for job seekers. Sometimes, the communication between us reminds me of just how much help some job seekers need.

Recently, a very savvy, high-level professional with a stellar work history contacted me asking for help with her resume and with moving to a digital format. I replied, delighted to hear from someone who was asking me about a digital, or social, resume before I mentioned it first!

I explained that I am partnering now with an expert web developer to offer online resumes and described my services, which include a free coaching session “to discuss how to look for a job.”

The prospective client replied that she did not need to be told what to wear or how to interview, and assured me she was very capable, thank you very much. She also asked how much a social resume with fewer pages would cost, as she does not have enough to fill more than just an “about me” and resume page.

“Hmmm,” I thought, “This bright, talented and accomplished job seeker has no idea that there is so much she does NOT know about getting a job.” The fact that she thought my offer to help her learn “how to look for a job” would be about how to dress for an interview, yet she cannot envision what information she might use to fill her online profile seemed a bit ironic to me. However, how can you fault someone for not knowing what they need to know to succeed?

This was my reply:

Thanks for your note. I think that the key thing with a social resume is that you create the content to fill the tabs. Maybe it is links to the various news stories you generated, events you impacted, data or stories about previous companies (how they did while you were there), etc. The sky is really the limit – you have lots of room to share your “story,” and readers have the option to explore more or not! (Which is the major advantage of having a social resume that supplements the paper resume.)

I don’t usually focus on how to dress for an interview with my clients. Like you, they know about that, but are less well schooled on how to leverage social media. Why are you not on Twitter? It’s my absolute favorite social network for job seekers. Do you really optimize LinkedIn? There is a lot that most job seekers don’t have the time (or the inclination) to feel their way through. I spend all of my time in that “space,” so I can help you get where you need to go faster. Especially in your line of work, I would imagine the return would be significant.

So, when I offer a free coaching session to discuss how to find a job, I am not talking about “your father’s job search” – what to say in an interview, how to stand up straight – I am offering insight and ideas for job search that you probably have not considered.

Think about it – do YOU know what you DON’T know that may be preventing you from moving forward with your career plans?

photo by flowerbeauty