Accelerate Your Search™ Now

Do you have a target job or employer?  Are you wondering how to find or increase the number of your personal referrals?

The secret is right under your nose — engage your personal advocates.

Your personal advocates are those people who know, like and trust you.  They want the best for you, but you need to keep them in loop if they are to refer you.

Life is busy.  If you do not share what you are up to your advocates may not know.  Help them understand:

• your goals
• your target companies
• the type of position(s) you desire
• why you are a good fit for both your target companies and the position(s) you seek

How do you do this?  One easy tool is an Update Letter.

As you launch your search or prepare for promotion, share what you have been up to, what you are looking forward to doing, your one paragraph resume, and, as appropriate, a personal update in your Update Letter.

Create an initial list of possible advocates by reviewing your contacts, colleagues and co-workers.  Create your plan to engage your advocates by writing and sending your Update Letter and following up.

Accelerate your search — and your success — today!

Do you have tips that have helped you engage your advocates?  Feel free to share them here.

During a recent workshop an attendee stood up and stated that if employers want a specific and up-to-date resume they should, “just get over it.”  Why?  She argued no one has time to be specific or keep things current these days.

Are there situations where your resume does not need to be current and specific?  Sure.  There are times when your skills are in high demand or your work is very well known and your resume is just a formality.

However, the bottom line in all communication is you need to address the wants/desires/needs of your audience.  If your communication tool [a résumé is a communication tool] falls short of connecting with your audience it is ineffective.

Maybe the better question is does your résumé effectively open a door and/or a conversation with someone you want or need to talk with?

If your résumé is working for you – then don’t worry about it. On the other hand if your résumé is not achieving the results you want, take a look at it with a critical eye.

Review your résumé.  If you are not sure it is doing the job you want it to do have someone else review it and offer feedback.

Do you have questions or concerns about your résumé?  Then feel free to contact me.

Summer is here.  In fact almost two-thirds of the “100 days of Summer” are behind us.  Are you hot and thirsty?

Harvey Mackay says, “Dig your well before you’re thirsty” and in West Texas we say, “Take your shade with you.”  Shade and water can help you ward off or solve many of the problems that arise due to the summer heat.

Here are a few quick and simple ways to ensure the summer heat does not beat or blister your career.  No matter your industry, career expertise or area of interest, think of these actions as “water and shade” to help you handle any career problems or opportunities that crop up.

Seek out face-to-face connections.  Find professional, industry, and social groups/associations in your geographic area.  For example, the local CPA association, the software developer or WordPress Meetup Group, Rotary Club or the community garden group.  These groups are think tanks, user groups and natural places to make face-to-face connections.  They provide opportunities to build visibility and credibility.  Face-to-face interactions are far more powerful than relationships exclusively based online.  A Google search will help you find the groups in your area.  You can also ask your current network what groups they recommend.

Look for online groups to join and get involved.  LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook all have millions of groups.  There’s one for most anything that comes to mind.  Make a short list of your interests, then search for a group.  You can comment, post a question or add your expertise/technical knowledge to help others solve a problem.  Recommendation: before posting a question, search existing discussions to see if your question has been asked and answered.  If so, comment that you found the information/group helpful.

Connect with people that solve the problems you need solved.  Everyone has problems.  Everyone solves problems.  We need other people and naturally feel a stronger connection to people who like the same things we like and enjoy.  Gardeners help other gardeners with any problem they have, not just things to do with growing a garden.  The same holds true for teachers, Apple junkies, golfers, etc.  Add a keyword to your online profiles to help search features link you with other like-minded people.  In some ways this is better than “carrying shade with you” because it helps shade show up just when you need it from those with whom you share common interests.

Say “Yes” to friends and invitations.  It is sad to me when I hear, “I only connect with people I know well.”  Why?  Knowing someone well takes time, interaction, and effort, saying “yes” can be that first step toward getting to know someone well.  Those you connect with today may be those you know well tomorrow.  They also know people you don’t who may be able to help you achieve your goals.

Connecting with people may be all you need to find water, shade and the solution to keeping the heat from blistering your career.  Enjoy who you connect with during the final “100 days of summer.”  Have fun and add prosperity and satisfaction to your summer, your career and your life.

Have an amazing week!

• No reply
• Rejection
• Nagging from your family
• Talking about yourself
• Networking
• Worrying about what people think
• Worrying about never finding another job

These are among the most common replies I hear when I ask the question above.  What is your answer?   I do hope you will post it below.

Different people “hate” different things.  For example, if you are someone who hates talking about yourself, personal branding may feel like trying to sink a hole-in-one during every round of golf.

Branding is about communicating points of difference and what makes a product or service unique.  It is about creating a connection that helps the target audience feel an emotional or analytical response instantly.

Would you love to connect with future employers and other professionals instantly?

Would you enjoy having recruiters, hiring managers and others call you directly?

If you don’t like to chase down leads and would rather have recruiters call you -or- you are not clear on how to grab the attention of hiring managers, then embarking on the work required to unlock and leverage your personal brand may be for you.

Let me offer you fair warning — personal branding is not a quick fix.  It is not one-and-done.  It is not a cute logo, a new catchy tagline or a few quick updates to your resume.

Personal branding is also not for those who don’t want to do some work.  Real work.

Unlocking your personal brand allows you to create an amazing and sustainable career.  You have a brand, everyone does.  Putting it to work for you can change your life and your earnings potential.

Leveraging your personal brand is about awareness.  It is about understanding the value you offer.  It is also a discovery process that takes time to sort out exactly what to share (about your values, skills and experience) and how to best communicate those attributes.

Does your brand elicit cold and prickly or warm and fuzzy feelings?  Does your brand clearly demonstrate stability, professionalism and success?

When done right, personal branding opens doors and creates connections.  Leveraging your personal brand is not a fad, it is a professional competency.  As a leader ready for your next move, personal branding can be the key to accelerating your success and achieving your goals.

Do you have a question about personal branding?  Post it below or contact me.

Do the following statements sound all too familiar?

“All the jobs go to internal candidates.”

“You must know someone inside or have a inside contact.”

“If you have experience and a track record, you are out of luck, good companies don’t hire experience.”

If so, here is some information to ponder:

According to data published [01/2014] by Great Place to Work Institute (compiler of the annual list of Best Companies):

• The average number of positions filled internally, for those organizations on the Best Companies list, was 30% — meaning that 70% of the positions went to people new to the organization!
• Additionally, 28% of new hires were referred by current employees.  This supports that having an inside contact can help.
• Of the 100 Best Companies appearing on the list, 24 plan to fill 1,000 or more positions this year and only 9.9% of those positions will go to new college grads.  To me, that says experience matters 90% of the time!

Be careful who you listen to and how you interpret the data.  Good employers are always looking for talented professionals.  Landing your next promotion takes work, preparation and a well executed plan.

While flying by the seat of your pants can work, preparation and a plan usually generates faster, more effective results.

If you hate job searching and want to land your next position faster and with less stress, request my 162 ways to Accelerate Your Search by clicking here.  And, don’t forget to implement the strategies!

Have an amazing week!

Here are six tips that ease stress, magnify minor acts and help you sustain your career year after year.  Success and unending happiness are not far from your reach.

1.  Harness the unique power of good habits.  Be a slave to habits grounded in the principles important to you.  You will quickly tap into amazing opportunities, success and wealth beyond your current imagination.

2.  Act every day with intention.  Do the work you need to do.  Focus on the blind spots that hold you back.  Discard the notion that the acts of preparation, reflection and work on yourself is busy work.  Those who decide only to do surface personal work for fear of what they will uncover stall career growth and progress, holding desired success inches out of reach. Overwhelm and doubt always knock at the door of minimal action.

3.  Believe in yourself.  Believe in your strengths, your gifts and your skills.  Believe in all that you are.  The unique journey before you is leading you to success.  Belief in yourself is not optional, it is required.  Believe NOW!

4.  Initiate, practice and repeat.  Your simple commitment to repeating productive practices push failure out of sight.  Repetition soon creates habits which will subdue activities that previously lead you astray.

5.  Today, not tomorrow, is the day to begin.  Why waste another beautiful and amazing day you can never recapture?

6.  Success awaits you.  It is yours, uniquely given.  Be ready, able and willing to embrace those daily actions that many already call habits.

Habits create processes and ease stress.  Habits will magnify strengths and sustain your career success and unending happiness.

What powerful habit energizes you?  Post your habit and how it boosts your career below.