Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Stop and think: what's your 3%?

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stop294078052_79bf02307a_mWhen work is challenging and meaningful, it is one place where people are happiest! At least, that is what Peter Weddle of Weddles said in his talk at the Career Management Alliance seminar. (Be sure to read yesterday’s post – It’s not a come as you are job market.) He asserted that “if you have courage, you can break out of the box you create for yourself” and take charge of your own career.

I liked this advice, as it echoes what I always tell my clients – “You drive your own career bus.” YOU are in charge of what direction you go, and you have choices about where to go next.

Weddle explained that the genome project taught us that humans are 97% similar! So, he suggested that we each offer 3% that is special and unique. Have you thought about that 3%? You need to focus and purposefully identify what you have to offer that makes you stand out from everyone else. It’s not enough to assume that it’s obvious or that everyone will recognize your talents. Stop, outline what you have to offer and focus on your goals. Then, move forward with intent.

Have you ever gone for a drive, but didn’t plan exactly where you wanted to end up? If you were lucky, you ended up at a great place for dinner or a nice spot to enjoy a water view. Other times, you just sort of drove and drove, but never really got anywhere? Sound familiar? You don’t want to take that chance with your career.

Weddle points out that the global markets are unforgiving. Stay tuned for more from Peter’s talk about what employers are seeking.

Need help to market your best skills? Peter says that EVERYONE can be an A-player. I can show you how! Contact me for help with your search.

photo by adobemac

This is not a "come as you are" job market

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junglegym693887927_c5059fe2a6_mHave you heard? Peter Weddle, CEO of Weddles, commented at last week’s Career Management Alliance that this is not a “come as you are job market.” He explained:

  • There are four job seekers for every job.
  • Companies are experiencing a reduction in structure.
  • Less jobs will be recovered…Weddle is expecting a profound change in the market going forward, with a much leaner and meaner job market.

So, what does this mean for you? Is it time to pack it all in and give it up?

No, of course not! I believe that everyone has the choice regarding how to navigate his or her own career or job search. If you drive your own career bus, you can excel, even in a tough market. However, you can’t just “come as you are,” as Weddle noted. In the “old days,” all anyone needed to do to find a job is make a few calls or apply for enough jobs. With competition fierce and opportunities scarce, you need to do more.

You need to work on your career every day! Weddle described the “career jungle gym” that is replacing the old career ladder. He says that career advancement isn’t always about following the rungs of a ladder in one direction; it can mean moving sideways – as long as you keep your eye on your goal!

Stay tuned for more thoughts from Peter Weddle’s presentation and suggestions to help you improve your “career fitness.” Please share your thoughts in the comments section!

Are you “coming as you are” to your job hunt? Don’t make a mistake that will cost your time, money and sanity. I can help – contact me to discuss how!

photo by mcmorr

Highlights for job seekers from Career Management Alliance

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This has been a slow week for blogging for me because I’m in San Antonio at the Career Management Alliance conference. It’s great connecting with Twitter friends and other contacts in person and learning a lot that I’m looking forward to sharing here on my blog!

Highlights?

Peter Weddle, CEO of WEDDLE’S says this isn’t a “come as you are job market” and suggests that you must work on your career every day!

Kathryn Troutman, Federal Job Expert and head of The Resume Place, reminds us that there are 350,000 Federal jobs, and you need to know how to apply for them to win a chance!

Lauryn Franzoni and Robyn Greenspan from Execunet say that the top fields for growth in 2009 are:

  • Healthcare
  • Pharma/Med/Biotech
  • Energy
  • Business Services

We also heard from a futurist (!) and a screenwriter who helps train people to succeed in interviews! Stay tuned for more details. I need to get ready for breakfast!

Personal Branding Magazine – help lift up others to encourage personal success

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sampleissue6Your “personal brand” is what makes you special and unique – it is what you are known for in your circles (and beyond). It is amazing how a well-constructed online strategy can form a successful personal brand.

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.

This issue is dedicated to female brands and their impact on business and our culture. In this issue, we’ve interviewed some of the brightest and most talented female brands, including Sarah Austin, Laura Ries and Natalie Gulbis, to explore what these women are doing to make this world a better place. There are many tips and strategies for women who want to control their careers and command their futures, as well as for men who are looking to learn from these talented women.

This is an exerpt of my introduction to the magazine:

This issue of Personal Branding Magazine, “Female Power Brands” puts the spotlight on women who have made significant contributions in personal branding. By designating a special issue to highlight these women, I hope we don’t run the risk of marginalizing female contributions to the movement. Rather, it is a great opportunity to showcase some women whose work and insights are unique and significant.

Contributor Pamela Slim shares this quote that I believe helps set the tone for the issue:

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it.” — Maya Angelou

I hope our readers come away with the sense that one way to like yourself, what you do and how you do it is to focus on how you and your personal brand can benefit others. This is a theme that pervades this issue. Laura Ries points out that, “Using skills such as communication, compassion and candor allows women (and men) to be known as effective leaders and team players echos this sentiment. She asks, “How does one make sure to give meaning? Mostly by listening and learning, often by staying with it to help others. It’s that love thing. It has incredible power, when given freely.”

Contributor Judy Martin quotes Barbara Litrell, former publisher of Working Mother Magazine, as saying, “Women have been running businesses in great numbers since the 1970’s, but they are branding themselves more confidently now, as they support one another in partnerships, thus enhancing their own brands.”

So, brand yourself thoughtfully, but don’t forget how important it is for others to sense your kindness and generosity of spirit. One lesson to learn from this issue is that being a team player, giving of yourself and connecting with others because you genuinely care will help lift YOU to higher career heights.

FREE sample available today (HERE).

To subscribe to the magazine please follow THIS LINK.

Have no idea how to “brand” yourself? You aren’t comfortable self-promoting? I can help! From writing a great resume to showing you how to move your career forward – Keppie Careers is here for you.

What Twitter applications should you use for your job hunt?

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Regular readers will know that I am a huge fan of Twitter for the job hunt. (Click HERE to learn tips to get started on Twitter and why it is useful.)

Since I wrote that post, there have been so many new Twitter applications that can be useful for job seekers. It’s hard to keep up with all of them! Luckily, Tawny Labrum of AskBinc just posted a comprehensive compilation of 15 great Twitter applications and invited me to share it with my readers!

ConnectTweet – See what is going on inside the doors of a potential company, through the Tweets of their employees.  ConnectTweet allows individuals at the front lines of the company to add a #tag to their company relevant tweets, those tagged tweets are then filtered and posted to the companies @org’s Twitter account, allowing the company’s followers to clearly see the human voices on the inside.

TwitterJobCast– A local job search that allows you to see who is hiring on Twitter by browsing for jobs by city, state or zip code. It works by making requests to the Twitter API. Additionally, the Yahoo! Maps API is used to translate locations into geocodes for use with the Twitter API.

TweetJobSearch – An open source search engine for jobs posted on Twitter, TwitterJobSearch has posted 44,165 new jobs in the last 7 days.  Many of the jobs listed are tech related jobs, but through their search you can look for the position you want in the city you want.

Twellow – Also know as the Yellow Pages for Twitter it allows you to cut through the clutter Twitter sometimes creates.  It enables you to find real people who really matter.  The Twellow service grabs publically available messages from Twitter, analyzes and then categorizes the tweets into categories.  By using this service you can narrow your searching to specific niches and find who you are looking for, that way you can follow specific Tweeters and network your heart away.

TweetBeep – “TweetBeep is like Google Alerts for Twitter” TweetBeep is very simple, you signup for an account, confirm your email and set up alerts to be delivered to your email.  Want to know whenever someone posts a job for a Java Dev?  Set up and alert for that and you will be notified through email on a daily or hourly basis.

HashDictionary– #Hashtags are a way on Twitter to group certain conversations about a particular subject.  If you want your Tweet to be included in a special grouping put the group’s #hashtag somewhere in your Tweet and it will be grouped with other updates using the same hashtag.  HashDictionary.com is a community based dictionary for hashtags on Twitter. Hash tags have been described as collective digital bookmarks and are widely used throughout Twitter. If you want to you can also search the most popular hashtags at #hashtags.org or Tagal.

JobMotel– Allows you to search web developer jobs listed on Twitter.  From what I can tell JobMotel mines Twitter for web dev related jobs and rss feeds them onto their site.

TweetDeck – One of the more popular Twitter 3rd party application, Tweetdeck is a desktop application that acts as your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening by connecting you with your contacts on Twitter.  With TweetDeck you are able to create groups from Twitter users and have all those tweets filtered into one screen.  It also lets you do a search for a specific topic and get a live feed every time someone Tweets about that topic.  It helps out with your job search because you can create a filter for the companies you are interested in, see what the Twitterverse is saying about them and be aware when they post open jobs.

TweetMyJobs – TweetMyJobs is a service that brings recruiters, hiring managers and job seekers together on Twitter.  They create Twitter Channels for major cities and job types, and an easy-to-use interface to subscribe to those channels. You will get instant notification of any new jobs as a text message on your cell phone. In your job search all you have to do it create an account on Twitter and TweetMyJobs, subscribe to the desired Job Channels, and have any new openings automatically sent to your cell phone as a text message via Twitter. You can also access job openings on the web at TweetMyJOBS or Twitter.

VisualCV – Not quite a Twitter Application, but you can create your online resume on VisualCV and include a link to your resume in your Twitter Bio.

TwitterSearch – You can find job information on Twitter Search.  Type in the keywords that are important to you it will display results with all tweets that have those keywords, you can either view all the tweets and follow the users or create a RSS feed to read the results later.  Other Twitter Search applications are Just Tweet It and TwitterTroll .

NearByTweets – Search Twitter by Keyword and Location – find out if there are any jobs available in your area or the area you want to work.

Twollo – Twollo allows you to automatically follow users that have similar interests as you.  You tell the application what you like or what you are interested in and the program will generate tweeters for you to follow that have similar interests as you.

Twitscoop – Find out what is being talked about on Twitter right now.  You can search by keyword, allowing you to see realtime info on jobs and networking events.

As an industry expert, often called upon by major media outlets to serve as a source regarding using Twitter as a job hunting tool, I am well situated to coach you! Contact me to discuss how I can help get your search moving!