Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Holidays are great for job seekers – a free eBook to get you started

By

Are you on your way to a Memorial 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. (You must subscribe via the email link to get the eBook, although RSS is an option as well.)

It’s free! Click here to subscribe and receive a free ebook.

Learn how I can help you navigate your job hunt.

photo by avixyz

What color is brand YOU?

By

Thanks to Kristen Jacoway (@KristenJacoway) for sharing the link that led me to this video from Reach Personal Branding. It’s upbeat and thought provoking, especially as I am in the process of visually re-branding Keppie Careers! I am glad to see that I made the right color choices (with the help of a skilled professional).

So, have you thought about what color is brand YOU?


photo by bernatcg

Twitter chats – a great way to expand your network

By

If you have not been using Twitter to expand your networking community and broaden your network – why not?

Even if you did not already know that the word  “Twitter” is the fastest growing term to appear in job postings appearing in job boards (per Indeed.com), you should still be using Twitter because it is an amazing place to connect and learn and to grow the number of people who *know* you and are able and willing to help you (with your job hunt or your workout routine).

Thanks to Christina Brown, I recently learned about a resource I had not used before – the Twitter Chat Schedule.  Another resource to find chats is Tweetreports.

A Twitter chat is a time when people who have similar interests hop on Twitter and tweet using a hashtag (a hashtag is a # along with a word or acronym) that helps everyone interested get in on the conversation. I have participated in #JobHuntChat (Monday nights at 10-11 pm eastern), which is a great opportunity to network and learn from career coaches, hiring managers, recruiters and other job seekers. Clearly, I follow the job searching community on Twitter pretty closely, which is how I knew about this chat.

However, I would never have imagined that there was a chat about strength training (#sbgym) or pharmaceutical marketing and social media (#socpharm), a chat for foodies (#SOSfood) and one to discuss fashion and style (#styletalk). The list goes on and on. Of course, there are a lot of chats having to do with social media, and there are several other career oriented chats – #internchat, for example…

The great thing about joining chats and communities pertaining to your hobbies and interests is that it gives you an opportunity to connect with other people about things that have nothing to do with jobs. Just as it is a good idea for job seekers to join a biking club if they enjoy biking, or an art class if artistically talented, Twitter provides an unprecedented way to reach out to new people and to extend your “loose” network – people you would otherwise never meet.

Don’t be shy – take a look at the schedule and find a fun chat…You will be surprised at how generous people are once you exchange a few tweets. The next-door neighbor of the person who may need to hire you may be on Twitter chatting right now!

Haven’t gotten started on Twitter? Read this post that I wrote to encourage job seekers to dive into this amazing network.

photo by joelaz