Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Holidays are great for networking.

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bbq138519714_b63415aa6e_mAre you on your way to a Labor Day bar-b-que? Have you considered that it is a great opportunity to network if you are looking for a job?

Many new job seekers or people who haven’t looked for a job in a long time may not know about the “hidden job market.”  Sounds sinister, but all it really means is that most (70 – 80% or more!) of jobs aren’t actually filled with people applying to a job posting or announcement; they are filled via personal connections.

You can see why it’s a good idea to get on this networking bandwagon!  Networking is a huge topic, and I have tons to say on the subject, but since we are in the midst of another holiday, let’s leave it at this:

If you’re going to a picnic or party, you will probably have an opportunity to meet some new people.

How can you introduce yourself with an eye toward seeing if there is a potential career link with your new acquaintance?  Ask someone if they did anything fun over the summer…Strike up some conversations that have NOTHING to do with your job search.

You never know where you’ll meet the professional connection that will link you to a new opportunity.

If you’d like a copy of my ebook about how to optimize your networking for holidays (or anytime, really), subscribe to receive my blog via email. It’s free! Click here to subscribe and receive a free ebook.

Learn how I can help you navigate your job hunt.

photo by andreassolberg

Spell your name wrong in LinkedIn?

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LinkedInpic_logo_119x32Today, my colleague Dan Schawbel tweeted a link to an article by Scott Kirsner with information about LinkedIn that makes some interesting new suggestions and tips for LinkedIn users. I’ve been writing about LinkedIn for some time, but found a few great tips from Kirsner’s sources, Lee Hower (part of the founding team of LinkedIn, reporting to the chief executive) and David Gowel (called a “Jedi knight of LinkedIn.”)

Whether or not you use these tips, be sure that you optimize your profile to include all of your previous jobs and keywords that will help people find you!

Some points they suggest in the piece that I have not written about (points theirs; commentary in my words):

Spell your name wrong.
How many people are searching for you, but spelling your name wrong? O’Mally suggests including typical misspellings of your name in the “Summary” section. My suggestion – if you have changed your name after marriage or have a nic name many people know (or used to know) you as, include those as well.

Take advantage of the toolbars.
While I don’t think that job seekers should spend an excessive amount of time searching for jobs on job boards, I thought this was a great reminder from the article:

Add the free LinkedIn Browser Toolbar (available at the bottom of any LinkedIn page, to the right of the “Tools’’ heading). “If you go to job-hunting sites like Craigslist, CareerBuilder, or Monster and you’re looking at a job at a specific company, the toolbar tells you the number of people in your network who work at that company,’’ O’Malley says. “You can also see lists of those people’’ who might be willing to help call attention to your resume once you’ve sent it in.

I love this idea! It’s the perfect combination of networking and job board searching! Although, I like to advise clients to research and identify organizations rather than specific jobs, this is an enhancing option for job board fans.

LinkedIn can replace business cards.
There’s a tiny link called “View/Edit contact info” that is in the right column of the screen for people who are connected to you. Did you know that you can actually save information about your contacts and use LinkedIn as a rolodex of sorts?

Automated searches.
Did you know that you can track people being hired or leaving a company? (Stealthy!) Gowel says, “After you’ve done a search (regular or advanced), just click the link that says “Save this search.’’ LinkedIn will email you information weekly or monthly!

Stealthy vs. public prowling.
You may or may not realize that LinkedIn tracks who views your profile. Well – there is a way for you to avoid being tracked. The post notes, “Click “Account and Settings’’ in the upper right corner of most pages, then under “Privacy Settings’’ choose “Profile Views.’’ You can select:

This can be useful if you are stalking profiles, but think carefully about this option…There may be reasons that it would actually HELP you if someone knows you have reviewed their profile. For example, if you are going to be interviewed and you review the profile of your interviewer. I think it is a good thing for that person to know you are doing your homework!

There are other tips, but these were a few that I haven’t shared in the past! Read the entire post HERE.

Need an optimized LinkedIn profile? Some tips to get your search moving forward? Learn how I can help with your job hunt.



Conscious awareness and your job hunt

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cookies3544731083_141829b5ee_mIf you are looking for a job, do you feel stuck and like you don’t know what to do next? You are not alone, as most job seekers I know don’t intend to become professional job hunters and don’t feel confident that they can move from step to step, knowing exactly what they are doing.

Last month, I attended a workshop with Havi Brooks. She specializes in what she calls “Destuckification: working through the stucknesses that get in the way of doing your thing.” Havi teaches about how to get unstuck via a mind-body/yoga practice called Shiva Nata. She calls it “brain training that looks like martial arts and acts like drugs-that-make-you-smart-and-hot.”

Even Havi calls is “wacky,” and it is nothing if not a bit unconventional – teaching your brain to act differently by focusing on patterns, deconstructing them and building new ones!  (I’m no expert on the subject, having just starting studying it, but I think that gets at the basics for our purposes! Read Havi’s blog and explore her site for more details.)

So, what does this all have to do with you – the job seeker who is stuck and can’t figure out the next step? One of the big things we discussed at the workshop was how important it is to bring “conscious awareness” to patterns in order to challenge and change them. Really, that’s just a fancy way of saying that you need to notice what’s happening and point it out to yourself to impact a change.

So, instead of wallowing in self-doubt and avoiding your job search like the plague, stop and think, “Hmmm…how am I feeling when I think of my job hunt?” Does it give you a stomach ache? Your head hurts? You panic? You know it’s important and urgent, but instead of working on it, you decide to take a bike ride instead? Or, eat a plate of cookies?

Every time you think of your job hunt and you go numb and panic, try to be aware of the pattern.

Look at  your intellectual response – I “should” do this now. I feel guilty if I don’t work on my search.
Examine the physical response – I can’t breathe. I get a pain in my neck. Stress creeps into my shoulders.
Focus on what you do – I clean the house instead. Or eat chocolate. Or watch TV.

Then, think about little steps you could do differently. If, when you think of sitting down to your search and start getting stressed, you took a moment to be really aware of all that is going into those feelings, you may have a much better chance of jumping over the hurdle and making a change – step-by-step. Maybe instead of cleaning the whole house, or eating the whole box of cookies, you decide that you’ll JUST clean one bathroom or eat two cookies and then do 30 minutes of job searching.

I’m no expert in teaching about conscious awareness, and I want to make it clear that is my interpretation of when of the things I learned from Havi, but I thought it was too important of a concept NOT to share the idea. Take some time to be aware of what is going on with you – you may be surprised by the results!

Would it help to have a coach on your side? Learn more about how I can help you overcome your “stuck” by teaching you what you need to know to propel your search forward!

photo by dyanna


Job seekers-what message are you sending?

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I was driving to the YOU NEED A JOB presentation I’m doing with Stephanie A. Lloyd, and I saw a man on the side of the road holding a very large sign. It read, “PUBLIC SALE.”

My first thought was, “Hmmm…wonder what that means.” Then, all I could think about was that it was so sad for this man to be out in the heat, holding up a sign that did not offer any clue whatsoever as to the nature of the sale or what was being sold. I don’t know many people who would pull off the road to investigate an ambiguous sale. What a waste of time and effort!

Since I look for job search lessons and inspiration in everything, it occurs to me that many job seekers are actually doing the equivalent of holding up a “PUBLIC SALE” sign.

Think about it – is your resume clearly targeted to appeal to the employers you want to address? Or, is your resume all about you, without a thought given to what will interest the employer? Are you using lingo and jargon that your targeted employer won’t understand? Including details that are irrelevant to the job of interest?

When you meet someone, can you clearly state what you have to offer and, if appropriate, what you want to do? Or, are you going around saying that you can “do anything” are “open to anything,” “flexible,” “can learn whatever it is.”

You get the point – if you are not specific and clear, you are the job seeking equivalent of the man holding up the “PUBLIC SALE” sign. You are wasting your time and unlikely to move forward with your search.

Take a good, long look at your materials. Think about what you say when you meet people. Spend some time evaluating what you are doing. Is it clear what you offer? If not, it’s time to make a change.

Need a great resume and a focused approach to your search? I can help! Learn more about what I offer to help you with your job search.

Review of The Twitter Book

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thetwitterbook4166iaPKDKL._SL500_AA240_You didn’t think you needed another social network to propel your job search? You’re on LinkedIn – isn’t that enough? If you are a regular reader, you know that I am a bit of a Twitter evangelist! I think that Twitter is a terrific resource for job seekers, entrepreneurs and all professionals for connecting and network expanding.

While I think of using Twitter as second nature, there are many “ins and outs,” and it really is not all that obvious to everyone. So, I was excited to receive The Twitter Book, by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein. As the authors note in Chapter 1, “Twitter lives a dual life. On one hand, it’s a simple service. Besides letting you share and read very short messages, it has few bells and whistles. On the other hand, it can be surprisingly hard to figure out. The screens aren’t particularly intuitive and the jargon and symbols are obscure.”

So, I read the book both as an expert user and as a coach looking for resources to help my clients become more frequent and successful Tweeps. I was not disappointed on either count!

For new users, the book offers a tutorial on how to get signed up and started and how to create a profile. I was surprised and delighted to find that Sarah and Tim actually quoted my Twitter profile as an example of a bio that tells a story (see page 23)!

The book covers all of the terminology that Twitter users need to know and provides pictures and examples throughout. Need to know how to find people? Done. How to tweeet from the road? Done. What’s a RT (retweet) and can you edit it if it is too long to send? (Yes, but consider using “via” if you change it substantially,” p. 115).

Power users – did YOU know that there is an opp called 140it that “uses common cutting conventions to whittle down” your posts if they are too long? (It doesn’t work for every post, but I had never heard about it, and I’ve been tweeting up a storm for a while now.)

Suffice to say that any detail you need to know is available in this handy, easy to use reference.

But, using Twitter successfully requires more than just a list of “how to,” practical concerns. There are many nuanced aspects, and Sarah and Tim don’t forget about them in this book. Included in the book: discussions about how many people to follow, how to have great conversations, how to @ reply so the user will know what you mean, how often to tweet and how to go beyond “what are you doing?” to be a contributing member of your Twitter community and more.

I’d recommend this book to anyone hesitant to try Twitter because it seems overwhelming and current “tweeps” who would like to pick up some tips from the pros. You can follow the authors at @timoreilly and @SarahM and you can follow the book’s hashtag (“demystified” on page 41) -  #twitterbook.

Need help getting started using Twitter for your job hunt? Your resume isn’t doing the job it needs to do? Click here for informtion about how I can help with your search.