Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Use an email address you "own" when you sign up for LinkedIn

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LinkedInpic_logo_119x32A friend recently contacted me to ask for  help for one of his clients. His dilemma? The client had created a LinkedIn profile, but he didn’t remember the password AND he had used a work email address only to set up the profile. Unfortunately, he was no longer at the job and did not have access to the email account that LinkedIn would use to send him a reset password!

While LinkedIn customer service might be able to help, it is a good reminder to everyone – DON’T use an email address that you won’t always have access to when you sign up for social networks. Instead, set up a Gmail or other “take with you” account as the primary address and add your current work mails as additionals. That way, you’ll never be locked out of your OWN profile!

Need more advice to help you move your job search forward? I can help!

Career blog carnival takes another spin

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carnival7.249527255_e787962e23_mThis week’s blog carnival is hosted by Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, owner of Career Trend. The carnival is Ben Eubanks’ (@beneubanks) brainchild, and it seems to continue to grow in scope and unique and informative contributions!

Be sure to click through to read all the terrific contributions by “a diverse mix of career folks: resume writers, career strategists, career coaches and recruiters.”

(CLICK HERE for the CARNIVAL POST)

Contributors included (with their Twitter user names):

Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter (@ValueIntoWords) and Rob Poindexter

GL Hoffman (@glhoffman)

Heather Huhman (@heatherhuhman)

Harry Urschel (@eExecutive)

Julie Ann Erickson (juliaerickson)

Walter Akana (@WalterAkana)

Denise Felder (@DeniseMpl)

Rosalind Joffe (@WorkWithIllness)

Jeff Lipschultz (jlipschultz)

Dawn Bugni (@DawnBugni)

April Dowling (@adowling)

Cris Janzen (@crisjobcoach)

Abby Kohut (@Absolutely_Abby)

Mary Wilson (@LearnSolMary)

Phyllis Mufson (@PhyllisMufson)

Meghan Biro (@meghanmbiro)

Erin Kennedy’s (@ErinKennedyCPRW)

And, of course, I contributed as well – (@keppie_careers)

photo by elston


Welcome to the Career Blog Carnival! Career Trend (Twitter handle @ValueIntoWords; aka, Jac Poindexter aka Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter) proudly hosts this recurring event originated by Ben Eubanks (@beneubanks).  With a strong response by a diverse mix of career folks: resume writers, career strategists, career coaches and recruiters, we’ll get started!
Our first post-er is world-renowned careers blogger GL Hoffman (@glhoffman) who just today announced his Gruzzles roll-out in FastCompany.com (wow!). His ever-popular What Would Dad Say blog is the fuel for today’s Carnival post.  Entitled, Al Schweitzer Quote this article discusses the significance in each of our lives in having someone special who will rekindle our inner spirit when we need it most. This “bursting into flame by an encounter with another human being” struck a huge chord with me! I have several in my life who provided such inner-fire rekindling (on my mom, Ann Barrett’s, 70th birthday today, I want to provide a special ’shout out’ to her for her consistent mantra of supportive words, particularly during my times of great darkness).  As GL articulates, “we all need unconditional support, love, encouragement … and someone to set ever-increasing expectations.”  READ this article for inspiration, hope and for reminding yourself of the great people who have sparked your flame when you needed it most.
Next, read words of wisdom from Heather Huhman (@heatherhuhman) a mentor to individuals seeking entry-level positions, particularly in public relations. She’s ‘been there, done that’ when it comes to young careers.  In today’s featured article, Heather fleshes out seven key opportunities for interns to maximize opportunities to move From Intern to Full-Time Employee.
Preparing job seekers for a new job search is the topic of @eExecutive’s article, Are You Ready? Providing 13 tools and tips for job seekers to consider whether just starting or in the midst of their job search process, Harry Urschel lends his 20+ years’ experience helping people into new jobs and careers, seeing the job search process from both sides of the table to offer what works now … and what doesn’t.
Julie Ann Erickson is a writer and on-line career transformation coach who provides tools and guidance to help people identify what they want to do and then do it! Her article, Research to Make Your Resume Document provides a three-pronged approach to ensuring the resume you’ve written is YOU, that it serves as a meaningful marketing document and that it communicates what you intended.
For consistently positive messages of hope and optimism, mixed with a blend of pragmatism and ‘real’ opinions, Life Strategist @WalterAkana provides the inspiring article, “You: Rock Star” for this week’s Carnival.  No matter your career field of endeavor, you can attain the clarity that will make YOU a rock star! Thanks, Walter Akana, for your words gems that inspire!
Job Search Is Like Dating is @DeniseMpl’s analogy. Connecting the dots between the two relationship-focused activities, Denise Felder, a career adviser and freelance writer who wants to help people make positive choices that impact their lives and society, shows how things like first impressions, follow-up and displays of genuine interest MATTER in both job search and dating.
For anyone working with chronic illness, working for someone with chronic illness, employing someone with chronic illness, whose family or friend works with chronic illness (you get the drift), Rosalind Joffe at @WorkWithIllness is your lady. Her post: Can You Job Hunt, Live With Illness and Stay Motivated? explores looking for a job in a depressed economy AND living with a chronic illness that impacts your employment history (ouch!).  Helping job seekers ‘break the overwhelm’ via a project management approach, this article provides tactical daily movements to garner positivity during a job search with chronic illness.
Jeff Lipschultz’s popularity on Twitter, I assume, is his clarity and consistency in his brand — my take, he’s positive, proactive, determined, foward-focused, ‘real’ and supportive of others. A founding partner of A-List Solutions recruiting firm, Jeff blogs about the challenges of finding the best jobs as candidates and finding the best employees as companies, among other employment, technology and societal topics. His post, Ten Reasons to Take Up Biking During Job Search taps into one of his personal passions. By moving through job search with physical and intellectual momentum, Jeff demonstrates the multiplicity of positive effects of exercise  (biking, in particular) in job search.
The ever-delightful, humorous and career savvy @DawnBugni never fails to satisfy in her regularly posted career tweets and blogs.  Her ’storied’ article, Work Like You’re Working for Yourself … Well, Because You Are talks about Dawn’s favorite topics: a positive attitude, good customer service, social media and old friends, linking them into job search and career advice. Inspired – that’s the word I (and others who commented on her blog) would use to sum up feelings after soaking up Dawn Bugni’s inviting article of best practices in life, careers and customer service.
April Dowling (aka @adowling) is certified as a professional in human resources and currently works as an HR Generalist with a focus on recruiting and employee relations. Her post: Between Interview and Offer: Now What? articulates action steps job seekers should take once an interview occurs, including: Keep Interviewing!  All job seekers should read this HR expert’s tips to ensure they are up to speed on what to do when in the midst of an interview process.
Cris Janzen (@crisjobcoach) really does love her job! Why? Because she gets to help other people do the same, and she blogs about her passion: helping people find, create and keep work that plays to their strengths and feeds their soul and pocketbook. Her article: How a Job Search Is Like Painting a Room identifies 12 parallels between the two activities.  For example, “It always takes longer than you estimate — and hope.” And, “Preparation is 80% of the job. The 20% of ‘execution’ is a breeze if you have done your preparation in a quality way.” How true!
Increasing Your Shares during job search is Abby Kohut’s (@Absolutely_Abby) post. Wow! A great reminder to all of us the value of ’sharing’ your job leads with others. This pay-it-forward attitude is essential to effective networking (and something we learned early on as a child when sharing toys, ice cream, etc.). Read this post if you want positive reinforcement regarding our interconnectedness with others and how it dramatically impacts job search (and life) success.
Mary Wilson, career coach, owns a consulting practice focused on enhancing relationships in the workplace that provides training, consulting and mediation services. Asking Are You in the Right Career?, @LearnSolMary’s article eloquently advises people beginning their career journey or contemplating a change. In particular, I loved the lines: “Don’t let fear of the unknown or what others will think stop you before you even get started” and “Never let others disabuse you of your gifts and your purpose for being on earth.” This is a must read!
Phyllis Mufson (@PhyllisMufson) is a career coach, small business consultant and certified life coach who helps people who don’t know what’s next. According to Phyllis, people usually don’t know the options available to them often because of their embedded fear. Moving them into a sense of adventure, helping people tap into their intuition, passion and potentiality, Phyllis shares her value proposition in this unique Carnival post — a video interview with @BillVick, entitled, Phyllis Mufson – Career Coach.
Miriam Salpeter advises job-hunting clients, teaching them how to take advantage of traditional and social networking strategies and writing targeted resumes that get results. Her article, Job Search Planning — Steps, Tips and Tricks is replete with valuable action steps job seekers can start today to gain immediate traction. As a starting point, be introspective and take time to outline your unique value offerings — identify your 3% that is unique and special. Pinpoint and research companies and then begin networking (via LinkedIn, etc.) with employees within those organizations. Another great article @Keppie_Careers!
Meghan Biro (@meghanmbiro) quickly became a true Twitter pal as we swapped synergistic exchanges that fueled an offline relationship.  An accomplished executive recruiter and career coach, Meghan’s fundamental belief in the importance of corporate culture and candidate personality fueled today’s article: Hiring for Personality and Culture Fit. Just listen to the article lead-in to get a feel for Meghan’s own high-energy and tuned in personality: “In my practice with career seekers, evaluation of a resume and coaching are table stakes. I prefer to focus on understanding a candidate’s personality (as well as resume and overall skill set) … key to whether a person will fit with my recruiting clients’ corporate culture …” The reading only gets better. Advise all perusers take a moment and sink their teeth into this meaty article.
With a repository of career blog posts that would fill a small library, I’m in awe of Erin Kennedy’s (@ErinKennedyCPRW) ability to quickly germinate and introduce her thoughts on resume and cover letter writing, job search and a multitude of career strategy topics. In her recent article on cover letters, Erin energizes her readers suggesting that cover letter writing is both fun and creative.  Read her nuggets of gold in the Cover Letter Tips article.
Finally, my own article, the very popular Steel Your Career links the process of smelting to career management and likens our careers to a strong piece of steel. Co-written by my ghost-writer husband,  Rob Poindexter, whose vocabulary sucked me into its vortex during our early courtship,  (will be introducing him in future blog posts), this story shows how like our own career paths steel is, as we mine our raw ore first from schools and institutes and then begin purifying  this treasure when it sees the light of day … and much more. A popular post that drove my blog visit numbers to record heights, this intriguing story is worth the read (in my not so objective opinion! 🙂
As our Career Blog Carnival winds down for today, I encourage you to share this link with friends and colleagues who may find value from the consortium of careers capital hereto. As for me, the take-aways run deep and broad as this experience further connected me with industry leaders and further educated me with meaty careers articles. Stay tuned for the next Career Blog Carnival – I’m sure Ben Eubanks (@beneubanks) has a stellar line-up over the coming weeks and months.





The other side of the hiring desk, pt. 7: How a recruiter uses LinkedIn

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desk7P10517300Today, another interview with my friend and colleague Stephanie A. Lloyd, a Talent Strategies Consultant and Owner of Calibre Search Group in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a National Careers + Workplace Columnist for Examiner.com and also blogs at Radiant Verocity. You can also follow Stephanie on Twitter.

How important is it to be on LinkedIn and can you tell us how a recruiter uses LinkedIn to source candidates?

If you’re not on LinkedIn, create a profile *now.* I suggest a robust profile – the more the better. Recruiters and hiring managers use LinkedIn all the time to find candidates, doing key word searches. Many times these are based on job responsibilities, so if you have your title but don’t fill in what you did in each job you may not show up in the results. For the most part I copied and pasted my resume in to my LinkedIn profile.

The next thing you should do is search and select several groups to join. These should relate to your job function and/or industry. Jobs can now be posted free in groups, and if you’re a member you’ll have access to the listings. Recruiters join industry groups in order to have access to members. Remember, your goal is to be found!

Finally, recruiters and hiring managers are looking to see how many recommendations you have, and how genuine they are. Carefully select several people you have worked for and with in the past, and ask them to write a recommendation for you. A word of caution – if your recommendations are all reciprocal that can be a red flag (“I’ll write one for you if you’ll write one for me.”) Instead, write several (genuine) recommendations for other people you’ve worked with in the past and pay it forward.

Do you need help with your search? Follow this link to learn how I can help propel your job hunt!

In Atlanta? GA is expecting 10.1% unemployment. Get ahead of the game so you will be prepared to search for your next opportunity with local job search interventions: http://youneedajob.org/

The other side of the hiring desk, pt 6: How to turn a recruiter into a fan!

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desk6P10580178You’re looking for a job and you’d like to impress the recruiter. In today’s interview, learn some tips directly from a recruiter’s perspective! It’s important to know what recruiters are thinking, what they do and what they do NOT do if you want to work with one successfully. So, here is another from my series of interviews with my friend and colleague Stephanie A. Lloyd, a Talent Strategies Consultant and Owner of Calibre Search Group in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a National Careers + Workplace Columnist for Examiner.com and also blogs at Radiant Veracity. You can also follow Stephanie on Twitter.

What should job seekers do to turn a recruiter into a fan?

Turning a recruiter in to a “fan” shouldn’t be all that difficult. I’m contacted every day by people who impress me.

Once you identify a recruiter you think is a good contact for you, I recommend a brief, courteous and professional phone call, email, LinkedIn message or “Tweet” if on Twitter, with a brief introduction, a bit about your background and a description of the opportunity you’re seeking.

I personally prefer a brief email with the candidate’s resume attached so that I can review it and determine whether I have anything for the candidate now or potentially down the road – and if not, I can refer him or her to another recruiter and/or other resources that might be of help.

What does not impress a recruiter? Do you have any “real life” memories of candidates who made you want to run the other direction?

Sadly…where to begin?!? This is precisely why I started @JobSnob on Twitter, which was inspired by a candidate that I recently phone interviewed. He yawned throughout the entire interview! That was obviously a non-starter.

Another candidate whom I implored to wear a suit to his interview with our client…did not. He called me ten minutes after the interview began and said it was over. Knowing that something must have gone wrong, my colleague and I spoke with the hiring manager who stated that he was incredibly annoyed and insulted that my candidate did not have the respect to wear a suit to interview with him. This not only reflected poorly on my candidate, but also on our firm! Because I clearly could not trust this candidate, I did not work with him again.

The worst situation I’ve encountered in my recruiting career to-date was with the very first candidate I placed. She interviewed well with me and the client, and they asked me to extend an offer to her. I called her with the offer and stated, “This offer is contingent on a background check. You know your background better than I do, and if you’d like to wait until the results come back before giving notice, that’s perfectly fine.” She said no; that she was so excited and was going to give notice right then. And she did.

She went to work for my client before the background check came back (this was their decision). After they’d spent a week training her, they received the results. It turns out she was a convicted felon: forgery and writing bad checks. And she was an Accounting Manager! When they went to talk to her about it – assuming it was a mistake and wanting to clear it up – she gathered her things and said she wasn’t planning to come back on Monday anyway. I did manage to save the account with my client and had to do a replacement search at no charge. Fortunately, I quickly found someone they liked even better and she worked out very well. However, I could have easily lost that client over that situation.

Moral of the story: please be up front with recruiters you work with! If you’re not, you may not only jeopardize your relationship with us, you risk our relationships with our clients, our reputation and ultimately our livelihood.

Do you need help with your search? Follow this link to learn how I can help propel your job hunt!

The other side of the hiring desk, pt 5: How often should job seekers follow up with recruiters?

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desk5P11457831aSo, you’ve read how NOT to follow up with a recruiter. But, what is the RIGHT amount of follow up? Here is another in my series of interviews conducted with my friend and colleague Stephanie A. Lloyd, a Talent Strategies Consultant and Owner of Calibre Search Group in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a National Careers + Workplace Columnist for Examiner.com and also blogs at Radiant Veracity. You can also follow Stephanie on Twitter.

How often should job seekers follow up with recruiters?

As far as how and how often to follow up…ask the recruiter you’re working with. I personally prefer a brief email once or twice a month. Remember, our job (and the way we get paid!) is to fill openings for our clients. If we have a job that you may be a fit for, we’ll be on the phone with you immediately!

During the interview process, how long it takes to get feedback or to move from one step to the next depends on the client and the situation. How urgent is the need? Who is an integral part of the process and is traveling/on vacation/otherwise unavailable? Unfortunately most interview processes do not move as quickly as anyone would like simply because there are so many people and variables involved.

There is no need to call your recruiter daily – when we have news, we’ll call you! There is nothing we want more than to fill a position. We do what we can to keep the interview process moving forward, and at the same time we must walk a fine line as we do not want to irritate our clients.

The candidates we enjoy working with the most understand and respect the process.

Do you need help with your search? Follow this link to learn how I can help propel your job hunt!

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