Accelerate Your Search™ Now

You are building your brand.  You are leveraging your strengths, gifts, and talents.  Your brand does help you stand out in a crowded market place.  Hiring managers remember you, then pick up the phone and call you – do you want this to continue?  If so, you will definitely want to read “7 Personal Branding Trends for Job Search in 2012”.

The personal branding trends to watch list is published annually by William Arruda.  Arruda is a personal branding guru, an author, and speaker.  He is credited with turning the concept of personal branding into a global industry and the founder of Reach Personal Branding (disclosure: Reach Personal Branding is a partner of my company).  His annual trends list is a quick snapshot of what’s evolving in personal branding.

Managing your brand is an ongoing project, not a once in a while task.  Keeping up with the trends, that help you communicate who you are and what you do, is critical to your career and you job search.

Just as you must hone your skills, stay in touch with what’s new and the ever changing world of  your industry and profession, you must understand the current trends in personal marketing and personal branding.  If you don’t market yourself, you will fall behind those do market themselves.  When you know the trends, you choose what is best for you and your target audience. 

Not all trends will interest you or work for you, yet you won’t ignore them.  Take a look. Then decide how to leverage the 2012 trends into a carefully crafted marketing plan.  Knowing where you are today, having a plan you can execute ensures you continue to communicate your personal brand to accelerate your search and success.  Here are William Arruda’s 2012 personal branding trends to watch list:

 1. Headshots Everywhere

2. Crowdsourcing for Professionals

3. Personal QR Codes

4. Job Postings R.I.P.

5. Professional, DIY Video

6. Permanent Unemployment

7. Personal Qwikis

Assess the trends.  Decide your course of action, stay relevant and gain the favorable attention of your key contacts, centers of influence, recruiters, and hiring managers.  That action will help you accelerate your search and land the job you want. 

If you need help implementing or incorporating one or all of these trends into your job search contact me.  Do you have a question about your job search or leveraging your personal brand?  Call or look to the right and sign up for next Q & A session, join the session and ask your question.

Last week I spoke at two unique events about how to leverage your personal brand, your online presence and online networking.  From the questions during both Q & A sessions it was very clear most people have only touched the surface of standing out in a crowd.  Most don’t know the quick and easy ways to stand out.   Some people shared nothing, yet many shared they don’t leverage their LinkedIn profile, résumé and business card.  Some were surprized at how little things make a BIG difference. 

So when I read, the post “Presidents’ Day 2012: Who is the most underrated president?” by Jon DeNunzio and the comments on the nominees (you can find on Twitter using the hashtag #underratedpresident or below the post) I thought, WOW – we have 44 people who have served as a U.S. President and the conversation is on the MOST underrated in 75 words or less.  Interesting!

Can you state why you are underrated in less than 75 words?  

Do you have 75 words or less that help you STAND OUT if you are on a list of 44 people?  

Do you know how others view and rate your work over a four or eight year span of time?   

Many seeking a new job are underrated, and sadly they underrate themselves.  The impact of that is a lower value in the market place and not being noticed.

Are you lowering your value in the market place with your current LinkedIn profile, résumé and business card?  Most professionals even if, on the most-praised list of others don’t leverage that praise or marketing power.  Many people don’t know how to uncover what others think of them or the value information can provide. 

Which list are you on “underrated” or “much-praised” or not on the list for the job past or present?   Have you reviewed your brand, LinkedIn profile, résumé or business card?

Who will win the underrated vote and be the subject of the Tuesday guest post on The Fix for Tuesday?

What would happen if you changed your personal marketing? 

Could feedback from you network help bring you some clarity around your personal brand and accelerate your search?

Would a few key words or phrases help you to leverage your brand and your value to make a hiring managers list?

Need help with your personal brand contact me. 

Need LinkedIn Profile or tips to enhance your current profile?                                        

Check back next week for LinkedIn tips.

The data shows wages are trending up.  Bridget Quigg shares details in her post “Wages Trend Up to Finish 2011 Ahead”.  Read it and assess the data for yourself. 

The national and state data for unemployment in many areas is also positive.  Yet if you are looking for a job this may or may not be important. Also it may or may not be good news or bad news.

To improve your situation and your results, being focused on you may be more helpful than being focused on trends, data, comments, news, etc.   Are you focused on you and your results?  Are you ready to accelerate your results?

I hope so.  That is what you can most impact. 

Just a month ago, I was celebrating a client’s new job.  When we talked the other day, he shared how he is enjoying the new job, the work, the people then he paused and asked me “Why didn’t I take action and get focused sooner?”

Boy, that is a powerful question and one that I can’t answer.  So a turned the question back to him.  His answer was the he was sad about losing his job, the news, and everyone around him was telling him things were bad. He shared he was unsure what to do.  The day after we talked about what to do, he had 2 simple action steps and my I challenge to him to take action. 

He took the action. Now he is working!  I just offered the two specific action steps.  Two simple steps changed his entire search and resulted in the job he landed.   Look accelerating your search does not have to be slow, lonely or hard, but it can if you want it to be.

If you lack focus or are focused on less productive things. Stop worrying about the unemployment numbers or the wage trends.  Focus on the things you can impact. Here are action steps you can take today.

Action Steps:

 1. Look at your network, your contacts and your current leads.  Group them into three categories:  Ideal, Referral, Influencers

 2. Create an action plan; include who you will contact and when you will connect.

 3. Make the connection. 

The client above, made the call.  That is how he landed the job. My challenge to him was simple “make the call” and he did.   What action will you take today? 

Have a success story to share?  Post it below.

Do you have a question about your search?  Look to the right and sign up for next Q & A session, join the session and ask your question.

Are you asking yourself ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’ or ‘What do I want to do next?’ or ‘What do I want to be or do when I retire?’   If you are in a job search the odds are that you are asking these or similar questions.   All are great questions.

Recently, a former client contacted me to say “I plan to retire in the next 3 years, and I am as stuck as to how to make the shift as I was several years ago with my job search, will you help?”  My reply after understanding where he was stuck was yes. 

Why,  he was stuck with what managing his retirement career, not all the other retirement stuff like 401 Ks, health insurance, etc., those things are not my forte.  

If you are searching and asking these questions, here is a quick tip to help you accelerate your search.  Write the question at the top of a blank page of paper, then over several days set aside 10 minutes to brainstorm all the possible ideas you have and write them down, add pages if you need to.  Don’t evaluate the ideas, just jot them down.  At the end of the week review all the ideas.   Move the top 3 to 5 ideas to blank pages and continue to explore your ideas.    

Ask yourself these questions for starters:

   What would it take to do this?

   What would be the impact of this?

   Why do I want to do this?

When you are ready to seriously explore your ideas discuss them with someone you trust.  Then formulate a plan, and take action to create the transition or transformation you want.

Have a comment or thought?  Post it below.

Do you have a question about your search?  Sign up for next Q & A call to the right, join the session and ask your question.

Who decides if you are overqualifed and why?  The employer does.  That’s who. 

Why is there so much focus on overqualifed?  I don’t know.  I, of course, do have an opinion on the matter, but I doubt that will help you accelerate your search.  However, maybe I can help you by looking at the issue a bit differently.

Have you ever said to a door to door salesperson, “Not today, thank you” or the Boy Scout “No thank you, I bought caramel corn from another scout before you” or “we don’t eat caramel popcorn, thank you for stopping by”?   In many cases the dreaded statement “You are overqualified for this position” is just simply a no thank you.

Yes, I know the dreaded statement stings.  It does not feel like ‘no thank you’ or does it?

What happens if you reframe “You are overqualified” to “No, thank you”?

My bet is you think the later stings less, but does it really?  Think about it.  It is still rejection.  Rejection is, in my view the underlying issue with most of the conversations around the issue and statement “You are overqualified”. 

No one (at least no one I know) likes to be rejected.  And almost no one I know likes to reject others.

Especially, if you are in business and interviewing someone or talking to someone with good skills, and loads of experience.  Most people don’t like to be mean or reject another person, even when they don’t personally connect.  Sure there are some that do, you know them, and I do too.

What would happen if you heard “No, thank you” in lieu of “You are overqualified for this position”?  Think about  it!

I once knew a hiring manager who, said “thank you” and allowed someone else to say “No, thank you”.  Here is how he did it – during the each interview he was very good at finding something good about all the candidates he rejected.  He picked out something good about the candidate and made a mental note.  At the end of the interview, he confirmed the candidate’s home phone number, and he called each one after an interview.  Usually he placed the call before the person arrived home and left a message, he would share the one good point he noted and thank them for interviewing.  He would end the message with ‘good luck, your <whatever the good point was> will be of value to your next boss.   I learned that good quality he shared with the candidate was always a quality he appreciated, but he did not value at that point in the role that he was attempting to fill.  

Why, did he do this?  Well, I never ask him, yet here is why I think he did it.

He cared about people and the feelings of people. He saw value and appreciated what each person offered.  He appreciated the time the person set aside to interview.  He did not like rejection, and he might want to hire the person for another position some day.  He was building a team and running a business.  The call was “rejection protection” – so that in the future if he had a role for the person, the person would recalled him in a positive light in lieu of the hiring manager who had once rejected them.  It helped him build relationships and create goodwill.

The end result – still the rejection, but the rejection did not address a lack.  It appeared to sting less.

In my view it can be hard to build talented teams when you focus on lack.  Yet most hiring systems and hiring situations will reject several people.  The process in most organizations is look at many, interview some, hire one.

The truth is you were not selected and someone else was for whatever the reason.  That feeling is rejection.

Yet if you reframe your feelings, and focus on your value and not  the ‘over’ or ‘under’ or what you lack, you may be surprised at what you attract.  Why continue to focus on the lack? 

My suggestion – understand you will be rejected from time to time, learn to cope with it.  You don’t need to like it, crave it, nor attract rejection with continued focus, thought and conversation. 

I would also suggest you not dwell on the rejection, or try hard to figure out why you were rejected, nor rail against the company, your experience or your age.  The rejection may be a blessing you can not yet count.  Reframe it as “No thank you”.   

One day on the radio I heard, rejection in dating referred to as protection from a bad situation.  What a point of view!

What would happen in your job search is you reframed the rejection or the statement “You are overqualified” as “No, thank you - I value you as a person and want to protect you from this situation”?

Just a different point of view on “You are overqualified”.

Feel free to share your comments below.

What does your career pattern look like?  How does it compare to your peers?  

What does it say about you, about what you believe and where you are going?  What does it say about career planning and living in general?

The article in Fast Company, “The Four-Year Career” by Anya Kamenetz discusses a pattern the article states is increasingly defining the careers of US workers. Read it and share your view.

The article shares some recent statistics – “the median number of years a US worker has been in his or her current job is just 4.4, down sharply since the 1970s.”  As well as a close look at the careers of three people, two females, ages 36, and 61, and one male, age 28. Additionally, it shares more interesting statistics, insights and lessons.

The world of work is new and different than many of us were taught as young children, or at least different than how I was taught.  My view of what I was taught at an early age shifted in the 1980s.  Do you still believe what you learned as a young child?  Has your view shifted?  If not, what would happen if your view did make a shift?

I hope you enjoy the article.  I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts on Anya Kamenetz’s article.  Post them below or drop me an email. 

May I leave you with a few questions to ponder…

What do you believe in, why do you want to do the work you are pursuing?

What job or jobs (for others) could you create if you move or drive toward new goals, objectives and your beliefs?

What is next for you?   Do you have a four year plan?  If no, what do you want a plan?

What will you do different in 2012?

If you have been job searching for a several months or more the question – “What will you do different in 2012?”  As well as the answer is critical to your job search and your career success.  If your results are not where you want them to be, ask yourself “What will I do different in 2012?” 

If your job search results are – interviews and no offers, coming in second time and time again, or no interviews, or no conversations with potential employers and this continues – where will you be at the end of 2012.  Well the odds are the same place you are today!

If you continue to do the same things the odds are great that you will get the same results, and be in the same place at the end of 2012 as you were at the end of 2011.  Also believe it or not, or like it or not, the longer you are not working – yes, unemployed – the higher the odds are you will impact your long term earnings potential.  Let’s face it; the odds are also higher that you are building some habits that may impact your performance for years to come. 

Over the years, I have worked with and learned from many talented coaches, mentors, bosses and colleagues.  I am not 100% sure Doug Brown was the first to ask me a couple of powerful  questions that made a huge difference in my habits, my life, my business, and my career, but I believe it was Doug – Thanks Doug!  

Here are the powerful questions:

What is important to you?

What is REALLY important to you?

If < fill in the blank with what is REALLY important to you > is that important to you, what are you willing to different today to have it or achieve it?

I hope the questions and your answers help your search and your life as much as they have helped me.  Here’s to your very successful 2012!

If you want to share what you are doing different, please do so below.  I’d love to hear about your success.  If I can help you do something different in 2012, contact me.

It is the time of year for resolutions. What are yours? 

If you have followed me, you know I speak about controlling what you can control in your job search.  As you set your resolutions don’t forget to focus on the results YOU want.

Here is a Henry Blodget’s post Mark Cuban: There’s Only One Thing in Life You Can Control Your Own Effort from Business Insider with links to excerpts from Mark Cuban’s new book.  Excerpts are interesting and I will let you know what I think of the book once I read it.

Cuban’s questions are solid.  The questions noted could help you too.  The best point is that for Cuban it “would have been easy to judge effort by how many hours …”, now dead on.  Too many engaged in a job search confuse effort with hours, time spent and not results.  Be careful that you don’t spent time without a focus on results, or pat yourself on the back at the end of a long day when you just put in time without forward movement toward your desered results.  The results you may well achieve from just putting in time may well be an extended job search!

What are the results you want?  What are the goals you have set to get the results you want?

My wish for you in 2012 is solid results in all you do.   Happy New Year!

If you are not turned in and aware of  SOPA maybe it is time to learn about it …

It can impact you, small companies, large companies, it might impact what you pay for any service or product you access online and it might well impact your job search.

Learn more:

http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2011/12/21/confused-by-the-stop-online-piracy-act-heres-sopa-for-dummies/

I hope you will learn, be informed, and share your views whatever they my be with those in Congress.  Congress will decide on this matter.

My view is mine alone, I don’t think SOPA will stop piracy.   I do think it will increase costs for small business and non-profits, slow job grow in those areas, limit some options and have a huge impact on the structure of the internet which currently allows the free exchange of information.  Including access to key people and hiring managers. 

If you enjoy and use the internet to exchange and share information today with a minimul cost, like your connection and access tools, get informed.  Share your view with Congress.

You have heard it and you know your reputation counts in your job search.  It is a given that employers will check your references.  Employers and recruiters will ask you and others about your experience, how you work, the quality of work you deliver, and many other questions to help them determine if you are the right person for the current opening in the organization. 

Do you know what others say about you when asked?  Do you know how others view you? 

Your reputation – who you are and what makes you tick all help you communicate your value to an employer.  What others share about you is critical.  Do you understand how others view you?

When you have a keen understanding of yourself and how you are communicating who you are, how you work, play and do all things it is much easier to communicate your value in a way that paints a clear picture for others.  When you also have an understanding of how others view and value you, you are better able to market and leverage your brand.

After all your reputation (your personal brand) is about what others think of you, not only what you think.  Do know what others value about your knowledge, your experience, your skills, your style, your value in the workplace, your vision and your values?

What would happen if you did?

All of these items are elements of your personal brand and who you will be as an employee.  These elements make up ‘fit’.  “Fit” for the job is one of the critical factors in hiring a new employee.  Employers want not only the skills need to do the job they also want employees who “fit” on the team and within the organization.  Don’t you want “fit” too?

One of the best indicators of future performance is past performance, and most if not all hiring managers know this.  Therefore, as employers seek employees for new or open positions they not only identify the skills and experience needed for the job, employers seek to discover how you have performed in the past and they seek information from others to learn about your possible ‘fit’.

When you began your job search you probably updated your résumé, your LinkedIn profile, contacted a few key people in your network, maybe asked for a reference or two, posted your résumé online, and set up a few online search agents to send to you emails of job openings in your field.  Then you may have made a few calls to see who might be hiring, and began to look at the job openings online.  You submitted a few applications or emailed out your résumé and now you are waiting to the phone to ring or the emails asking you to set up an interview.  Does that sound like your marketing efforts and your search plan so far?

If so maybe it is time to leverage your reputation and actively market yourself.  Here are the steps to leverage your reputation (your personal brand) and actively market yourself and have a better understanding of your personal reputation and how to market and communicate your ‘fit’ to employers who will value you.

1. Get feedback on your reputation.  Learn about what others think of you and how they communicate your strengths.  Assessments, interviews and conversations will help gather feedback.
2. Review the feedback.  After you selected those to provide feedback and gathered enough data, you will want to review the data.  This type of feedback will often provide valuable data to help you create a very on target message to share your value.
3. Review the feedback with a trusted advisor or coach.   To look at your reputation and grow and leverage your personal brand you will need help.  Companies hire teams of experts, don’t short change yourself by lacking the benefits and insights of having a trusted advisor or coach help you review the data you have gathered.
4. Establish your brand aspirations.  Your reputation evolves.  This occurs with or without your intention.  How can your reputation and your strengths help you achieve your goals?  How will you communicate these as you continue to grow and evolve?  Strong personal brands grow and evolve and your personal brand is a tool to help you market yourself and to achieve your goals.  What is your desire for your brand?  How would you like to communicate your desire?
5. Plan and execute.  Ideas, Thoughts, Aspirations are great, however without planning and action nothing happens.  Develop your plan to leverage your reputation, make a commitment to yourself to take action, now execute and market yourself communicate your value and use your reputation and what others say about you to demonstrate your “fit” for the job you want.