Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach
Today is Job Action Day 2011. It’s the fourth year of this annual event sponsored by Quintessential Careers, a website with many, wonderful resources for job seekers. I’m delighted to be participating for the fourth time. [Read more…] about Job Action Day 2011 — How to confidently drive your career bus where you want to go
Today, Penelope Trunk blogged about the value and importance of the visual. She explains in her post, Next phase of your career: Design,”This means that you will be more valuable and more relevant if you can think in terms of visuals.”
This topic has been on my mind for the past several days, especially, as I have been reviewing Visualize.me, the same infographic tool Penelope highlights in her post. What I’ve been grappling with is the disconnect between what is “cool” and “new” — even cutting edge — and what is actually useful for job seekers.
Remember VisualCV? (Maybe not?) It was an early tool to help job seekers demonstrate their skills and experience online. It was useful for job seekers to be able to pretty easily have online versions of their resumes. However, it turns out VisualCV wasn’t as useful as everyone thought, as it was not helpful for being found online; it was more a mechanism for sharing an online link with people who’d be impressed you had a photo and resume they could see by clicking through. (Update: they are actually closing up shop and won’t exist after December, 2011.)
Today, it’s not very hard to put up information online. There are lots of services making it really easy. Just a few (from my book, Social Networking for Career Success):
http://www.weebly.com/features.html
http://www.wix.com/
http://www.doyoubuzz.com/us/
http://www.zooloo.com/
http://brand-yourself.com/
http://www.webs.com/
http://carbonmade.com/
http://chi.mp/
http://flavors.me/
I believe job seekers should have a social resume — an online place to showcase and highlight their skills, but it’s not always the best idea to jump on the easiest or least expensive service to do it. For one thing, you never know when ads may show up alongside your personal information, or if a service will go under and leave you in the lurch. It’s not always totally intuitive what to include and how to showcase the best you have to offer online — it’s not always a case of “more is better.”
The same goes for infographics, which is why I’ve been reserving judgement and not writing about them. If you’re a graphic artist and create your OWN infographic resume, highlighting and showcasing not only your resume, but the visual skills you will use on the job, there’s no question in my mind a very customized resume along the lines of what Visualize.Me provides is a value add to your job hunt. It’s important to keep an eye on hiring managers in your field and what they need and want, though. It’s possible (likely) their systems still require the more traditional text resume, which you should always have handy. No doubt, there’s a disconnect between what we can create and what hiring managers and systems can use. When even a PDF may not be a good choice, think twice when you apply with a totally visual document.
Knowing how to tell your story — and how to tell it well — is not going out of style, even as the places and ways we showcase what we offer do change. As Penelope reminded us in her post,
“Short is good, and concise is fun, and in a world where we have too many facts, we appreciate a quick picture that synthesizes facts into something meaningful rather than a summary of disjointed facts.”
However, I don’t know that a literal picture is always the best answer to the question of how to demonstrate our value. A story — using words, and a hook to compel the reader to want to know more — can be equally appealing, interesting and attractive.
Infographics are sexy now. A chart is novel, a flow of your work life, especially if it is actually interesting and makes a case to hire you, is a potential positive. However, as with anything job search related, the most important thing to do is consider your target audience and their needs. Unless your chart will be unique and special and appeal to them, I’d think twice before assuming your “outside of the box” approach (and how unique is it really once all of the career bloggers are blogging about it?) is going to be the thing that lands you a job.
I’ve been personally thinking about this as it relates to my website. I’m planning a bit of an overhaul in an effort to bring my site in line with my business objectives. However, I’m still convinced it’s the content on the site and information people find that drives them (you!) here. Hopefully, the visual experience right now is pleasant, but I’m guessing I could have the most beautiful, cutting-edge visual site, but if I couldn’t support it with content, I’d have a lot less visitors.
Focus on being able to tell your story – IN WORDS – in a way that is as appealing and attractive as a pretty chart, and I’m betting you will be far ahead of the crowd.
photo by roger4336
There’s something ironic about the fact that, whenever I am working on a book, I have trouble thinking of ideas of things to write about on my blog! You’d think, when I am focused on writing so much, it would be obvious what to write on the blog, but it’s the opposite for me. I’m so conscious about NOT sharing exactly the same stuff as I am writing. (Who’d want to buy something if they can get it for free?) Yet, my mind is all wrapped up in the book, and inspiration for the blog wanes. (Stay tuned for more about the book and a request for your input later this week.)
I also sometimes feel like I’ve written everything there is to say about job search in the almost four (!) years I’ve been blogging. Add guest posts and other things I write for various outlets, and I think it wouldn’t be too surprising to know I’m at a loss for ideas. In fact, my colleague @WalterAkana recently tweeted:
It’s really striking that we get pretty much the same five tips, offered in countless posts, on how to stand out on LinkedIn! #justsayin
I don’t want to be passing around the “same old” ideas…
That’s where you come in! I have found, with a little inspiration, I am easily motivated to write and respond to inquiries. Even when I thought there was NOTHING ELSE to say about social media for job hunting, a colleague would prompt me with a few questions and I’d be motivated to share ideas I had not already written and written and written about already.
Can you help? Send me (either via the comments or use my contact form) your questions relating to job hunting, social media — anything in those niches you’d like to know about. I will blog the answers to your questions, or at the very least provide some suggested resources to help you.
Thanks! I look forward to your responses!
Photo by b4b2
No detail is too small when you’re in the midst of a job hunt. You don’t want to wait until the last minute to decide what you’d wear to an interview, or what you’ll say when they ask, “Why should we hire you?â€
By the same token, you want to bring your “A game†to every conversation. Knowing what to eat to encourage peak performance may be as important before an important meeting as it is when planning to run a marathon. Athletes know how to load up on all the right foods and how to hydrate on a regular basis, in addition to right before a big race or game. Think of your job hunt from a total body perspective.
Have you thought about the fact that there are foods to help you:
Consider the following suggestions to help improve performance in these key areas:
Web MD suggests anti-oxidant-rich blueberries, omega-3 essential fatty acids such as salmon, and foods high in vitamin E, such as nuts and seeds such as “walnuts, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, filberts, almonds, cashews, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and unhydrogenated nut butters such as peanut butter, almond butter, and tahini†may help improve brain functions. The article also suggests eating avocado to contribute to healthy blood flow and brain health. (Although, you may want to eat avocado in moderation, as Web MD notes they are high in calories.) Other good “brain foods†recommended in the article include: whole grains (oatmeal, breads, and brown rice), wheat germ, pomegranate juice, freshly brewed tea, and dark chocolate.
Health Ambition suggests walnuts (to increase oxygen to your brain), strawberries (for mental awareness), dark chocolate (for anti-oxidants) and drinking water (for better memory) to help improve your brain function.
Read the rest on my post at U.S. News & World Report.
photo by gezellig-girl.com
Last month, while walking in the magnificent Central Park in New York City, I saw a man taking a picture. As you can see in the photo I took of the man (to your right), it wasn’t that he was taking a picture that was striking, but HOW he was taking it — on his back, on the ground, pointing the lens up at the trees. His tripod (if that’s what you call it) covered his body like some sort of shield.
Clearly, there was something significant he wanted to capture. (It didn’t look particularly special to me — just leaves and the sun shining through.) Regardless, he was willing to go all out to accomplish his target photographs.
“Ah ha!” I thought. “THIS is a blog post.” Have you tried approaching your job search from a different angle? When is the last time you turned your focus a bit and thought about how you could do things differently?
Do you ever stop and think about the hiring manager’s point of view, for example? Do you ever read books or blogs written for recruiters or hiring managers? Do you know what they are thinking? What they say they like? Do you consider how your resume and other application materials may or may not appeal to them?
Maybe you’re too busy writing your resume all about you, when you really need to re-focus and write it focusing on the touch points making you qualified for the job? Are you looking backward (metaphorically) in your application materials, when it’s time to turn around and look to the future? Your resume needs to be about that future — it’s not a historical diatribe; it’s a marketing document. Focus it on your NEXT opportunity, even if it means you need to look in a different direction to do it.
Have you thought about applying for different types of jobs? Maybe “your job” doesn’t exist anymore; your field isn’t hiring. It may be time to look at your career from a different direction. Avoid being linear in your thinking; start exploring new opportunities and options. Maybe that includes working for yourself or branching out into a different field altogether. The first step is being willing to look at things from a new angle.
Are you letting people around you dictate your direction (where you’re looking)? This is often the case for young people, just starting out in their careers, but I think it is pretty common for more experienced workers, too. It’s too easy to hear the voices telling us to follow (or stay on) a certain path, when we may be happier looking elsewhere.
Are you looking at the writing on the wall, but ignoring it? Give yourself some credit. Stop and think about your plans, your goals. What are you doing to accomplish them? How can you turn your lens and re-focus your search to help you accomplish your goals?
(For more inspiration from NYC, you may enjoy “Are your perfectionist tendencies helping or hurting you?“)