If you can demonstrate that you have the skills to solve their problems, you will position yourself to be competitive to land a new opportunity.

The post Best steps to find a job in the new year appeared first on Keppie Careers.

You left on bad terms.

How you approach this opportunity depends on how, and when, you left your last organization. If it was in a ball of fire, burning bridges along the way and publicly cursing the name of the people on your team, don’t hold your breath regarding another chance at the organization; it will be awkward, at best, applying to return. Timing could play a role, too. If you left many years ago, even if many of the key players are no longer working there, often, there will be someone with institutional memory who will make a return engagement difficult. Or, you may get lucky and find no one remembers your departure.

If you’re still set on a second chance, you’ll want to take special care to ensure you make it clear that you are exceptionally well qualified. In fact, you may need to be so qualified that they cannot imagine anyone else competing for the job. This requires you to know a lot about the specific problems the organization is facing and what the person in the role of interest to you will be required to do.

Use your sleuthing skills to assess how you can make a direct connection between what they need and what you offer. Tap into any friends or contacts you may have left at the organization, and don’t forget to find others who may have left after you departed who may be able to give you insight into what the company needs now. Make a solid case for why you’re the best person for the job and be prepared to answer for your past behavior. If you really want this job, a negative separation history will be an obstacle, but depending on the situation, it may not be impossible.

Avoid Job Seeker Mistakes: Download My Free White Paper

Your departure was amiable.

On the other hand, if you departed on a positive note, and you were considered an essential employee, you could very well be in luck. Instead of explaining away your past with the organization, you can highlight how much you accomplished and enhance those qualifications with what you have done since leaving.

Keep these tips in mind whenever considering returning to a company you left:

Don’t assume anything. Even if it hasn’t been that long since you left, it’s possible many things have changed in the interim. Rely on new data and insights, not on how things were when you last worked at the organization. Recognize that you’ll need to reintroduce yourself and, in some case, re-prove your value and worth to some decision makers. Be prepare to make a case for your candidacy, just as you would if you were applying to a new organization.

Have a good story. Even if a lot of people who like you are on the hiring committee, don’t take anything for granted. Be prepared to sell yourself and convince them you are best for the job. Explain why the role interests you and be able to describe how committed you are to seeing the company through to its next success. No one expects you to promise to work there forever, but, especially if your tenure in the past was short-lived, be ready to make a verbal commitment to the organization.

Don’t get cocky. Even if you are ideal for the job, keep in mind: when you return to a past organization, personalities can help and hurt you. Just as there are people who likely still miss you, it is just as likely that those who didn’t care for you are still influential. Ask the right questions and make a case for why you are the best candidate that will overcome those objections.

Make sure you aren’t making a mistake. Remember why you left in the first place. Are you sure you want to go back? Write up a list of pros and cons and recognize that returning is likely to be as challenging as taking a new job elsewhere. Make sure you go in with a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish and why.

This originally appeared on AOLJobs.com

The post How to get a job at a company you left appeared first on Keppie Careers.

This month, the Career Collective (a community I co-coordinate with my colleague Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter) addresses the question of how to use social media in a job search. (Please click through to the links I’ll add soon at the bottom of this post to the other responses to this question.)

There are so many great ways to use social media in your search, most of which I address in my book, Social Networking for Career Success.

There’s no doubt social media tools offer an underutilized opportunity to:

• Help you connect with new people and keep track of contacts.
• Easily learn new things.
• Share your expertise and expand your brand.

LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all provide easy-to-use, free tools to get-in-touch (and keep-in-touch) with people who may be interested in learning more about you and what you have to offer. However, I think the best, and most important tool the majority of job seekers do not have is a personal website, or social resume.

Why have your own website?

• Hiring managers will Google you. What will she find?
• A personal site is a way to control how your name appears online.
• Statistics show your online presence matters, and that employers are looking for personal and professional data about you.
• NOT putting up your own site only gives people an incentive to look deeper in the web for information about you. Take a look at these sites to learn what the “deep web” knows about you: pipl.com, Polymeta.com.
• Managing a site is important for career insurance and professional development. Showcasing your expertise online (even if it is in a new field) helps demonstrate what you have to offer, even when you aren’t looking for a job. An online presence can grow and change along with your career and help attract people to learn more about you. This could result in opportunities to speak at conferences or events, or even invitations to apply for jobs down the road.
• Having a website suggests you have some technical savvy and understand how to use online tools to communicate. That, in and of itself, is an important skill many employers value. It’s known as “social proof.” You may say you know about technology on your resume, but actually using it to showcase your own information goes a long way to prove you have what employers want.

Especially if you are transitioning to a new job or an experienced job seeker who needs to overcome age discrimination, having an up-to-date online presence and maybe even a viable blog helps show prospective employers you’re willing to learn and are perfectly capable of keeping up with technology.

In my book, I suggest starting out using WordPress.com to try out an online presence. It’s a great resource, and it’s free. However, there are limitations to free tools — not the least of which is you don’t really “own” that online real estate. With some know-how, or an investment in someone who does know how, you can have your own site. If you’re lucky, you can even have “YourName.com,” which will help you rank high for your name in search and help direct people to find the information you want them to find about you.

I hope you’ll visit my site, GetASocialResume.com, to learn more about what you’ll want to include in your social resume. If you don’t want to figure out how to do this yourself, I can help. With a relatively small investment, I can offer you an online presence you’ll be proud to use as a hub for your social media activity, and help you create a site to tell a compelling story describing your background and experiences.

The following are posts from other Career Collective members answering this question

Make Your Career More Social: Show Up and Engage, @WalterAkana

You 2.0: The Brave New World of Social Media and Online Job Searches, @dawnrasmussen

How to Get a New Job Using Social Media, @DebraWheatman

Social Media: Choosing, Using, and Confusing, @ErinKennedyCPRW

How to Use Social Media in Your Job Search, @heatherhuhman

Updating: A Social Media Strategy For Job Search, @TimsStrategy

Your Career Needs Social Media – Get Started, @EliteResumes @MartinBuckland

We Get By With a Little Recs from Our Friends, @chandlee

Expat Careers & Social Media: Social Media is Potentially 6 Times more Influential than a CV or Resume, @expatcoachmegan

Social-Media Tools and Resources to Maximize Your Personalized Job Search, @KatCareerGal

Job Search and Social Media: A Collective Approach, @careersherpa

Social Media: So what’s the point?, @DawnBugni

Tools that change your world, @WorkWithIllness

HOW TO: Meet People IRL via LinkedIn, @AvidCareerist

Effective Web 2.0 Job Search: Top 5 Secrets, @resumeservice

Jumping Into the Social Media Sea @ValueIntoWords

Sink or Swim in Social Media, @KCCareerCoach

Social Media Primer for Job Seekers, @LaurieBerenson

The post How having your own website helps you appeared first on Keppie Careers.

He explains his job search focus is on “working with a purpose throughout the process…there’s little room for impulse decision-making. It is about efficiency and structure.” A bonus? His background is in consumer marketing (22 years). In case you didn’t already know — finding a job is all about marketing, branding and communicating, so Tim’s experience is invaluable.

30 Ideas offers both practical advice and important reminders.

For example, we know it’s difficult to maintain a positive mindset while job hunting. We also know how invaluable it can be to face the challenge with an optimistic attitude. Tim empathetically provides numerous suggestions to help job seekers keep an upbeat focus, including:

• ideas to create an actionable strategy
• reminders to embrace some of your “free” time to recharge your batteries
• specifics to consider, even on the worst days
• tips to overcome irrational fears
• how to avoid the “out of work” stigma

In addition to these important reminders, Tim takes his readers through practical job search networking steps, offering advice about:

• how to tell your network what you want
• whom to target for networking
• how to handle networking events
• when to readjust your “pitch” — and how
• what NOT to do when you network (which could be as important as what TO do)

Tim’s book is a great resource for job seekers who need a boost and some real-life, honest-to-goodness advice to remind them they can make a difference in their job hunts. Be sure to also visit Tim’s website/blog, where he offers frequent insights for job seekers — extending the advice in the book and interacting with his readers. You may also be interested in Tim’s LinkedIn group, Tim’s Strategy – Ideas For Job Search, Career And Life, where a community of job seekers and advisors share ideas and suggestions.

Learn more about 30 Ideas on Tim’s site and order it HERE via AMAZON or HERE for Kindle.

Tim generously offered to send a copy of his book to one of my readers! Comment below with a tip for job seekers based on your experience or a question!

The post 30 Ideas – The Ideas of Successful Job Search appeared first on Keppie Careers.

• I’m going to get a job because my professor recommends me to a colleague; it doesn’t have anything to do with having a website.
• I’m not comfortable having information about me online that just anyone can find.

I tried my go-to reasons to explain why her own site was a good idea:

• Even if your professor recommends you for the job, it’s likely the hiring manager will also Google you. What will she find?
• A personal site is a way to control how your name appears online.
• Statistics show your online presence matters, and that employers are looking for personal and professional data about you.
• In fact, while you may think you have “privacy” online, NOT putting up your own site only gives people an incentive to look deeper in the web for information about you. Take a look at these sites to learn what the “deep web” knows about you: pipl.com, Polymeta.com.
• Managing a site is important for career insurance and professional development. Showcasing your expertise online (even if it is in a new field) helps demonstrate what you have to offer, even when you aren’t looking for a job. An online presence can grow and change along with your career and help attract people to learn more about you. This could result in opportunities to speak at conferences or events, or even invitations to apply for jobs down the road.

None of this persuaded her. Finally, I came up with one last point…Something I’ve written about, but hadn’t thought to bring up during our conversation:

• Having a website suggests you have some technical savvy and understand how to use online tools to communicate. That, in and of itself, is an important skill many employers value. It’s known as “social proof.” You may say you know about technology on your resume, but actually using it to showcase your own information goes a long way to prove you have what employers want.

Finally! She replied…”I can see how that would be important.” Noting technology in the classroom is key, and knowing how to use it could be useful, she acknowledged the “social proof” argument was more persuasive than anything else I said.

Especially if you are transitioning to a new job or an experienced job seeker who needs to overcome age discrimination, having an up-to-date online presence and maybe even a viable blog helps show prospective employers you’re willing to learn and are perfectly capable of keeping up with technology.

Maybe you, like my friend, are skeptical. You can’t envision how and why having an online presence will help you get a job, manage your career or become known as an expert in your field. Since I spend so much of my time keeping up with job search strategies and researching tools job seekers and careerists need to use, it’s so clear to me that having YourName.com is crucial to your professional identity and to managing your career.

That’s why I created a product/service to help people (even the skeptical ones) secure and manage their own websites. I’m giving it away for a steal (a colleague told me I should be charging $1000+). Think about how your investment can help you move in the right direction for your career and visit my new site to learn how to get a social resume: http://www.getasocialresume.com/.

photo by nyuudo

The post Why you need your own website – and how to get one! appeared first on Keppie Careers.

You’re a job seeker or a small business owner. You know you need an optimized online presence, but it’s too important to go it alone. Today, I am launching a new product – a social resume or “YourName.com.”

When we are finished, you will have a website with a custom URL and an online “home” to let employers or customers know what you offer. Having a website helps you control what Google knows about you.

Microsoft found, “79 percent of United States hiring managers and job recruiters surveyed reviewed online information about job applicants. Additionally, 70 percent of United States hiring managers in the study said they have rejected candidates based on what they found.” When you have your own site, you seize some control over what people find when they google your name.

Let me help put YOU in the driver’s seat to steer your reputation from a position of strength!

YOUR SITE WILL:

• Link you to a community of colleagues, experts and potential mentors.
• Provide opportunities to expand your network, instigate two-way communication and meet new people from around the world.
• Help you further define your message and potentially become known as a subject matter expert.
• Serve as a 3-D portfolio of your work.
• Influence how Google and other search engines index your name, and therefore what people find when they search for you.

Learn more about how to get your social resume.

steering wheel photo by NateBW

The post You need a social resume. Get one here! appeared first on Keppie Careers.

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:

• Shama Kabani, author of The Zen of Social Media Marketing
• Jamie Riddell, writer and startup mentor
• Lon S. Safko, author of The Social Media Bible
• Matt Cheuvront, blogger, Life Without Pants
• Tac Anderson, blogger at New Comm Biz
• Michael Brito, vice president at Edelman Digital
• Kristin Marshall, editor of social media for The Next Web
• Monica Hamburg, social media speaker and writer
• Paul Chaney, author of The Digital Handshake

The post Personal Branding Magazine appeared first on Keppie Careers.

Body language may be more important than you think in a job hunt.

Kate Lorenz wrote about the topic for CareerBuilder.com. She said:

Research has shown that the first impression you make on an interviewer really sticks. In one study, untrained subjects were shown 20- to 32-second videotaped segments of job applicants greeting their interviewers. When the subjects rated the applicants on attributes like self-assurance and likeability, their assessments were very similar to the interviewers’ — who had spent more than 20 minutes with each applicant.

Seems like focusing on your body language – and first impressions – matters – a lot!

I once wrote a term paper about the importance of body language. The quote I remember from it,

“Don’t underestimate the power of body language,”

from The Little Mermaid, is no less true today!

(Yes, I really quoted a Disney movie in my paper. It worked.)

Did you know that people who are positive and confident outperform their peers in their job searches? Research shows that persistence and a postive attitude pay off in the job hunt. You can always pick out a pessimist by his or her body language – slumped shoulders, eyes down, expressionless (or frowning). No one wants to hire someone who seems sad or pessimistic. Straighten up, smile and make eye contact. Your body language speaks louder than your words.

In fact, research also shows that body language makes up more than half of how our communication is perceived. That means that you may be describing your greatest business accomplishment, but if your posture isn’t good and you don’t make effective eye contact, you might as well tell the interviewer about the time you lost your portfolio on the way to a presentation.

Another telling body language tool is the handshake.

How many times do we have to tell you – strong and firm gets the job done! BusinessWeek wrote about several different types of handshakes to use and some to avoid. Eye contact along with a firm handshake can make a world of difference to how you are being perceived.

Remember – the little things matter.

In fact, the “little things” may actually be the BIG things! Focus on every aspect of your presentation to ensure that you put your best foot forward with your job search.

photo by Gerwin Filius

The post Body language matters in your job hunt appeared first on Keppie Careers.

However, I was interested to learn that Team USA defeated the Canadians in their showdown earlier today. This is how Yahoo! reported it:

“The Americans didn’t believe in miracles. They just believed.

And they pulled off the biggest Olympic hockey upset since the Miracle on Ice, stunning Canada 5-3 on Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals of an already mixed-up tournament.

Brian Rafalski scored two goals, Ryan Miller held off a flurry of shots and the Americans quieted a raucous, pro-Canada crowd that came to cheer its dream team, only to see it upstaged by a bunch of unproven kids.

One day short of the 30th anniversary of the country’s greatest hockey victory—the unfathomable win over the Soviet Union in Lake Placid—these underrated Americans were faster, more disciplined and more determined than Canada’s collection of all-stars.”

With a historical (30-year old!) “Dream Team” on their minds, an exceptionally young team, wearing uniforms almost identical to that storied, gold-medal winning team, beat the Canadian gold-medal favorites.

How did that happen?

Yahoo! reports:

“U.S. team officials ringed the team’s dressing room with motivational messages, like “Be Brilliant in the Basics” as a reminder that Olympic games are won with team play, good goaltending and attention to detail, not necessarily by the team with the biggest names. They got all the above.”

See your career message? “Be brilliant in the basics.” How great is that? You don’t need to be the one with the biggest reputation, or have the most experience to land the job. You need to pay attention to the details, to work hard, and to go for your dream in a way that only someone who tastes the victory can do.

You don’t need to be the biggest to be the best. You need to work the hardest. That means preparing – doing research, creating amazing materials (resume, letter, online profiles, etc.), interviewing with heart and passion AND being prepared to explain how and why you are the only one who can solve the organization’s problems.

If you have been looking for a job for an extended time, you may be getting discouraged. Don’t let it happen to you. You can only imagine the downward spiral a negative attitude will have on your job search. Think like a winner. BELIEVE that you CAN do it, but also know that you need to MAKE IT HAPPEN. Just as the underrated Team USA was  “faster, more disciplined and more determined” than their opponents, as a job seeker, what can you do to get the advantage you need?

“The Americans didn’t believe in miracles. They just believed.”

What do you believe?

photo by crackerbunny

The post "Be brilliant in the basics" and other career advice from the Olympics appeared first on Keppie Careers.

There is a church down the road from my house with a marquee. It says, “Don’t count the new year. Make the new year count!” That message really rings true for me. So, how to make the most of the new year? Count on yourself!

Stop trying to follow everyone’s rules. Think bigger – what have you NOT been doing that you can engage in during the weeks and months ahead?

It would be a stretch for me to say there are no rules for job seekers. There are some: have error-free materials, targeted to your employer of interest. Know what it is you have to offer (your pitch). Follow up (always). Have plans and execute them. Stay organized. I’d be willing to say that these are “rules” of job search. Follow them.

Think about it – when is the last time you tried something new? Extended your comfort zone when it came to job seeking? For me, the obvious go-to “extensions” are social media avenues. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. There are people who will suggest “rules” to use these tools. For example, they will try to detail how many tweets you should send daily on Twitter, how much time to spend there and dictate how many of those tweets should be personal or professional. The problem with these “rules” is an underlying truth (maybe this is actually a firm rule I believe is true): THERE IS NO ONE RIGHT WAY for all job seekers!

You are unique and different from every other person. Taking advice for the masses is not likely to help you very much.

The media enjoys sharing stories of job seekers who engage in creative tactics. A sandwich board wearing job seeker. Someone who hands out resumes at the grocery store. Job seekers who advertise on Facebook. Or Jamie Varon, whose campaign to get a job with Twitter garnered tons of attention, a lunch meeting with Twitter execs and a job somewhere else. (Jamie now reportedly lives in Italy and is working for herself.) While I am not a big fan of measures that make job seekers appear desperate (a la the sandwich board), that does not mean that it is impossible to be successful with unusual tactics.

When is the last time you brainstormed atypical job search methods? For that matter, have you taken advantage of methods I’ve  shared in previous posts? Use LinkedIn to your advantage. Generate a professional Twitter profile. Engage in creative uses for Facebook. Activate your in-person network. Before you go off the deep end (again, a la sandwich board), make sure you are covering your bases.

I wish I could tell you just what to do en masse. However, that would be contradictory to the main message here. YOU need to take the wheel. YOU are responsible for figuring out what you are missing. Can I help you, one-on-one? Of course! Thousands at one time? With guidelines and suggestions, yes. With detailed advice specific to you? Probably not.

Think: Whom have you NOT met in person that you might LOVE to meet? When’s the last time you spoke to someone you did NOT think could help you? (You may be surprised.) How can you make it happen? (You CAN make it happen – just use some creative thinking and engage with the tools at your disposal.) Get out of your rut by doing something new. Make a plan. Make it happen. You can do it!

Donâ€t forget that clear, concise, optimized job search materials AND a strong, well executed plan are key for job search success! I can help with every part of your job hunt! Need a great resume? Tips to use social networking? Interview coaching? If you need help mobilizing your networks and your job search plans, learn more about how I can help you! While youâ€re at it, donâ€t forget those social networks! Be sure to become a fan of Keppie Careers on Facebook…Iâ€d be thrilled to have you as part of the community! Since weâ€re on the subject of doing something new…Are you on Twitter? Jump on and touch base with me @keppie_careers.

photo by Montu

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