Archive for the ‘Job Search’ Category

According to Marshall– May 2012 Edition

Welcome to the May issue of According to Marshall…

This months issue is in tribute to my dad, who passed away last week at the age of 97. He was a simple man who was blessed with 3 loving kids–my 2 sisters and me, 6 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren.

At his celebration of life, we talked about his love for family and friends, his appreciation for every new day and his great sense of humor. So in memory and honor of my dad, we’ve injected a bit of humor! With love to you, dad, from Marshall.

In this edition you’re getting a funny video that contains a bit of humor (in honor of my dad) tossed in with some job hunting tips, strategies for nurturing relationships at work, and networking tips.

If you’re a new subscriber I’d like to welcome you to my monthly email update. The purpose of this message is to share just a quick summary of some of the topics that I think are relevant to your personal and professional success.

If there are particular subjects that you would like to receive more information on from me, reach out and let me know. I also welcome any relevant information that you have produced or found that I can share with my readers.

Funny Job Hunting Tips

This amusing video has some real career search ideas with a few laughs along the way.

Want a promotion? Make friends at work.

“If you’re not reaching out to make and nurture friendships at work, you’re probably hurting your career.

By Katherine Reynolds Lewis

FORTUNE – Are you too busy to stop by your colleague’s office to chat or go to lunch? Or are you someone who keeps work relationships strictly business? Be warned: If you’re not reaching out to make and nurture friendships at work, you’re probably hurting your career.

Recent research finds that people who initiate office friendships, pick up slack for their co-workers, and organize workplace social activities are 40% more likely to get a promotion in the subsequent two years. “How much you give at work directly affects how much you get at work,” says Shawn Achor, author of, The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work.”

Click here to read the full story. . .

Why You Don’t Need Charisma to Have Presence

By Kristi Hedges

“Whether you call it leadership presence or executive presence, it’s a term that’s being discussed widely at companies. One recruiting professional I know said presence is the second-most-sought-after characteristic on his evaluation scorecard for candidates. It’s a business “it” factor, equally powerful whether you’re a CEO, a company employee or a small-business owner. In fact, companies are routinely hiring experts to cultivate presence in their executives, wrote Joann Lublin of The Wall Street Journal.

But what exactly is it? And how on earth does one get it?”

Click here to read the full story. . .

8 Handy Sites for Finding Networking Events

By Ritika Trikha

“When career experts talk about job searching, the term “networking” is guaranteed to make an appearance in the conversation. Experts love to drill this into your head: The more you put yourself out there, the better chance you’ll have of connecting with the right person who can help advance your career.

Meeting new professionals gives you the chance to talk about where you’ve been and where you want to go in your career, plus it affords you the chance to learn about. . .”

Click here to read the full story. . .

Tips from Guy Kawasaki for using Google+ to share your passions

By Jesse Stanchak

“Google+ is often misunderstood, Guy Kawasaki said during a recent webinar with SmartBrief. People sign up for it and expect it to be like Facebook, full of friends and family. And when it turns out that Google+ isn’t full of people they already know, they get discouraged and wander off. But the very thing that turns some people off of Google+ is what makes it so worthwhile for people who know how to use it correctly.

Facebook is like a very big party, where you know everyone already. But Google+ is a smaller, more intimate party filled with people you don’t know yet — but who have interesting things to say on a variety of topics. If Facebook is for friends and family, Twitter is for sharing thoughts and opinions and LinkedIn is for self-promotion — then Google+ is for. . .”

Click here to read the full story. . .

Clear Expectations

By Marshall Brown

Ask the Coach

“Q: I have recently been promoted and will be managing a staff. I would like to develop some clear expectations for them. Any tips would be appreciated.”

A: Too often, managers seem to lead through mental telepathy. Rather than set and communicate clear expectations—the milestones against which we test our progress—they assume their employees know what to do and how to do it. What results is hesitation, indecision and uncertainty. Healthy teamwork, initiative and productivity go out the window.

Properly setting expectations for employees or team members is a critical dimension in quality workplaces, according to a study of managers undertaken in the 1990s by The Gallup Organization. Below are some tips on setting clear expectations that will set standards for excellence and results.

1. Start with a vision of what you want the end result to look like. Not just what you want done, but the results you want to achieve when the project is completed.

Click to hear the full story. . .

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. See you in June.

I also invite you to forward this to a friend.


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© Copyright – Marshall Brown & Associates 2012 – all rights reserved

LinkedIn Job Search Tips to Kick-Start Your Job Search Results

I really can’t over-emphasize the importance of leveraging LinkedIn for your job search. On the off chance that you’re not familiar with this networking gold mine, here’s a description of LinkedIn:

“LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 120 million members and growing rapidly. LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.”

In this age of social media, LinkedIn is a tremendous resource to help you connect with the right people and land your dream job. In this post I’m going to share a round-up of tips and strategies for using LinkedIn to your best advantage and start seeing some results from your job search.

Before you delve into these tips I’m about to share, take a minute and make sure that your profile is accurate, complete and up-to-date. Make sure that your resume is also updated and posted to your profile. Request recommendations from people you know and respect so that you’ll have a few current recommendations on your profile for when prospective employers start looking at it.

The LinkedIn blog has a post by Alison Doyle, “Ten Tips to Enhance Your Job Search on LinkedIn.” If all you do is take the time to follow each of these ten tips you boost your chances of getting noticed on this powerful networking platform.

Source:  blog.linkedin.com/2009/04/02/ten-tips-to-enhance-your-job-search-on-linkedin/

This article by Neal Schaffer, “10 Tips for Integrating Social Media and LinkedIn in to Your Job Search in 2011,” contains tips and advice for using LinkedIn and other social media sites in your job search. He really shares some marketing strategies that you can employ that will help put you out in front within your network. He shares the importance of joining LinkedIn groups, and he includes suggestions for the kinds of groups you should look for.

Source:  windmillnetworking.com/2011/02/25/tips-integrating-social-media-linkedin-job-search-2011/

If you’re in need of a fresh resume that will produce results for you, visit http://bit.ly/mT3HNt, where you’ll find a thorough selection of resume packages. If you’ve already got a resume, we also offer a resume evaluation and critique service where we can work with you to develop a winning job search strategy. Contact me today for a consultation which will allow you to find out for yourself if career coaching is right for you.

Marshall Brown, a certified career and executive coach, entrepreneur coach and personal brand strategist, has always had a passion for helping people find ways to live more fulfilling lives. As a coach, Marshall helps individuals to find their passions and encourages them to move ahead in reaching their goals. For more information, contact marshall@ mbrownassociates.com, 202-518-5811 or visit www.mbrownassociates.com.

Guest Post: How to Curate Your Own Personal Job Feed

By Lindsey Pollak

Remember the days when looking for a new job involved the Sunday newspaper classified section and a black magic marker? Thanks to technology, looking for a job today seems to require an advanced degree in data analysis. There are millions of positions posted online across an ever-changing landscape of job boards, company websites, social networks, apps, and more.

What’s a job seeker to do? You have to become a curator of your own personal job feed, narrowing down all of the various websites and listings to a truly personalized stream of opportunities. The best way to do this is to set up a select group of bookmarked websites and email alerts that you view every day. Here’s how:

1. Get specific. If you were searching for a pair of shoes online, it wouldn’t be a very good strategy to go to Google or another search engine and type in “shoes.” You’d more likely visit the website of a retailer that caters to your specific style and budget, then search for the type of shoes you want — the style, the price range and perhaps the color or heel height. The same goes for job hunting. A common mistake among job seekers using the biggest job boards — such as CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, Indeed.com, and SimplyHired.com — is to search too broadly.

Your first step in cultivating a personal job feed is to get clear on the exact terms that best match the jobs you want. If you cast too wide a net, such as searching on “marketing” or “Atlanta” or “writing skills,” you’ll receive too many results that waste your time and energy.

Always use the Advanced Search page for any job board you visit, which allows you to enter multiple search criteria (such as marketing jobs in Atlanta that require excellent writing skills), and be as specific as possible in terms of industry, location, experience level and other factors (such as specifying “online marketing” or “copywriting skills.” Yes, you may occasionally miss out on a listing here or there, but you’ll make up for it in the time saved culling through hundreds of postings that don’t fit your needs.

2. Increase your niche know-how. The term “hyper-local” doesn’t just apply to news; it also applies to jobs. Many employers want to weed out unqualified candidates, so they only post jobs on dedicated job boards for their industries. One of your tasks as a job seeker is to find the niche job boards for your field.

The easiest way to do this is to perform a Google search on the name of your industry and the word “jobs.” Examples of niche industry job boards include Mediabistro.com, Insurancejobs.com, HRJobs.com, and Idealist.org (for nonprofit positions).

Industry jobs can also be found on the websites of the professional or trade associations that serve that field. For instance, the Society for Human Resource Management has a job board, as does the American Marketing Association. If you’re not sure of the association(s) that serve your industry, check out the American Society of Association Executives’ Gateway to Associations Directory, then visit the websites of the associations to see if they offer job postings.

Industry is not the only niche, of course. If you want to work at a company specifically seeking diverse job candidates, a Google search on “diversity jobs” yields sites such as DiversityJobs.com. If telecommuting or having a flexible schedule is of utmost importance, a Google search on the term “flexibility jobs” delivers FlexJobs.com. Typing in the phrase “executive jobs” results in sites such as 6figurejobs.com and TheLadders.com.

Once you find the job boards in your desired niches, bookmark those sites for easy daily reference and, when available, also sign up for daily email alerts that you will receive when new jobs are posted that fit your search criteria.

3. Take social media seriously. Contrary to popular opinion, social media is not all about viral videos, Lady Gaga, and cats. Many top companies take social media very seriously as a recruiting tool. You have to do the same, specifically when it comes to Twitter and LinkedIn.

The most effective way to use Twitter for your job search is to keep your job search-related activity separate from your other Twitter activity, such as following the tweets of your friends or breaking news tweets.

First, create a list called “Jobs” on your Twitter.com profile page (you can opt for your list to be private so only you can access it) or by using a third party application such as Tweetdeck.com or Hootsuite.com. Once you’ve set this up, go to Twitter’s Advanced Search to find the kinds of job postings you’re looking for based on keywords, location, and other factors. Doing a sample search on “online marketing jobs Atlanta,” for instance, I came across over twenty positions tweeted out in the past week. Each tweet includes a link to find the full job listing on a website, which is another good way to discover niche sites in your industry.

Next, scan down the list of tweets that show up in your results and “follow” the Twitter feeds that provide the best job postings. In the above example, I found LinkedIn Jobs, Atlanta Jobs, and MBA Highway, among others, so if I were looking for an online marketing job in Atlanta I would start following those Twitter feeds.

Bookmark your “Jobs” list on Twitter and the page of your Advanced Twitter Search. Visit both of these bookmarks every day and continue to click “follow” on the Twitter feeds that post the best jobs for you.

LinkedIn, unlike Twitter, is entirely focused on professional networking so there is no need to separate your job hunting activity. Your starting point for finding listings on LinkedIn is under the “Jobs” tab in the top navigation. At first glance, LinkedIn’s Jobs feature appears similar to other job boards in your ability to search by various criteria, but it offers another important element: the ability to search jobs based on how connected you are to the employer. After filling out your criteria on LinkedIn’s Advanced Search page, you’ll receive a list of results along with, on the left side of your screen, a list of ways to refine your search. When you refine by “relationship,” you can see job postings based on whether you have first, second, or third degree LinkedIn connections into that organization. This is crucial information for determining whether you might be able to ask someone in your network to personally introduce you to the hiring manager or recruiter at that organization.

In addition to searching LinkedIn’s job listings, check out LinkedIn Groups, which also feature job posting areas. Go to LinkedIn’s Group Directory and seek out groups for your industry or other niches. Then, for each group you join, click on the “Jobs” tab within that group. If the group is private, these postings won’t appear in a general Google search, so you may find opportunities that aren’t posted elsewhere.

To add these LinkedIn opportunities to your daily “rounds,” opt in to receive daily job alerts (available from LinkedIn’s main Jobs page) and to receive daily group digest emails from each group to which you belong.

Once you have all of the above alerts and bookmarks set up (a process that could take an hour or two), I recommend scheduling a specific time in your calendar every day to check your websites and email alerts all at once. If you’re not finding the opportunities you want, go back and tweak your keywords or search criteria until you feel you are receiving a truly personalized feed of opportunities.

Good luck!

Lindsey Pollak is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and internationally recognized expert on next generation career trends. She is a global spokesperson for LinkedIn and the author of Getting from College to Career: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World (HarperBusiness, 2012) Source: http://bit.ly/GGGXUT

Guest Post: Maximize Your Job Search Efforts

by Bill Barnett

Massive outreach to a strong professional network is the best way to find new job opportunities. It’s also a good way to test your personal strategy. You’ll talk with tens — maybe hundreds — of people.

It sounds easy. Once you have the contacts, one big blast should do the trick, right? No way. Unmanaged outreach is the path to missed opportunities. Using your professional network in a carefully planned and thoughtful way yields better results.

Take a strategic approach. Make different kinds of contacts when the time is right, in the right sequence. Don’t try to do everything at once. Don’t let everything just happen when it does. Here are five steps to make your outreach productive:

1. Get started. A mental block may keep you from writing an email or picking up the phone. You may be uncomfortable asking for help. Or you may wait for perfect preparation before meeting people. If that’s you, you may be surprised to find that a month’s gone by, and little’s happened.

Everything will take longer than you might first assume. Busy people will have to fit this into their schedules. You must follow through on the intention of contacting people, and the way to begin is to go ahead and contact the first one or two or three. Get started.

2. Start with people you know best. It’s natural to begin with close friends and colleagues. They’re the foundation of your professional network. They’re the easiest to meet. Talking to close acquaintances also makes sense from a learning perspective. At the outset, you’ll be testing your personal value proposition (PVP) — getting reactions to your target jobs, how well you fit, and perhaps what else to consider. You’ll need open, exploratory conversations with people who know something about you. They’ll have a basis for making suggestions, possibly ideas you hadn’t considered. They may suggest others to call.

3. Cast a wider net. As your plan develops, you’ll have more conviction about your direction. That’s when to see people you don’t know well and people you’re meeting for the first time. You’ll still hope to get reactions to your strategy, but you’ll mostly be asking about opportunities.

This is the time to consider social networking. As COO Frederick who was looking for a new job said, “I can post something on Facebook or LinkedIn and tell 300 people something has changed in my life. I was very careful about that. I wasn’t ready at first. I wanted to get my ducks in a row. I didn’t want 20 people calling and saying they have a great offer for me. I had to do this, this, and this first.”

Before he broadcast his new job search, he wanted to resolve any issues related to his leaving his employer, to think through his new plan, and to develop his new PVP. If he’d gone out too soon, he’d have used up these weaker contacts before he was ready to ask for the specific kind of help he wanted. He might not get their attention again.

4. Determine whether to begin with higher priority or lower priority employers. Because a job search is difficult, people sometimes hope to do as little as possible but still find the perfect new job. They begin with the possibilities they think they’d like most. That’s not always the right answer, and it’s certainly foolish to do that to avoid the need for a big job search.

There is an advantage to approaching your top priorities first: You’ll have more time for possibilities to develop at those institutions. But if you plan early meetings with lower priority employers — those that might not be on your ideal job list — those meetings can help you hone your PVP and interviewing skills. As a result, you may do better in the interviews at the higher priorities. And you may be surprised if some lower priorities look appealing.

5. Sequence follow-up meetings. Ideally, you’ll have two or more job opportunities to consider. You’ll be able to compare them and determine which one is best. You won’t have to decide whether to say “yes” to an acceptable bird in the hand when a bird in the bush looks more attractive. As Frederick said, “It’s very hard if you have an offer. Are you going to give up an offer with X dollars in hope another one shows up in January? The offer I got the first week of October retracts on November 1.”

You may have no choice, but you’d like to avoid this dilemma. Truly massive outreach helps by giving you the best chance to surface multiple possibilities. In some recruiting situations, you may be able to influence timing. Some employers are so busy that they may not notice if you’re slowing things down (for example, suggesting a follow-up meeting two weeks away). Or you might try to speed up another situation or at least learn where they are. Rank the possibilities that emerge and, if you can, try to time them so that you don’t have to make a decision before you’re ready.

Sequencing and timing matters in reaching out to your network and as you follow up on concrete possibilities. Are there other actions you’ve taken to manage timing in your job search?

Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/maximize_your_job_search_efforts.html

5 Ways to Break the Ice at Networking Events

Guest Blog Post By, Don Goodman

Networking is not about how many resumes or business cards you hand out, but how you establish rapport and build a relationship that can lead to opportunities.

Attending a networking event is only the beginning of the networking process. Effective networking takes time and builds lasting relationships where both parties can help one another.

Many job seekers I often speak with are intimidated by networking events. It’s not that they do not want to network; it’s that they don’t know how to approach people they don’t know.

As much as we all want to know how others can help us, when networking, it’s not recommended for you to go straight into pitching. It’s a turnoff to many people, especially when you don’t know the person.

So, how does a job seeker tackle breaking the ice at networking events and approach people in a way that later affords relationships where they can help one another?

1. Change your mindset: Think of networking as a chance to get to know others and as a place where you can seek advice from someone who may come with a different point of view. As you show interest in others and ask for advice, the conversation will naturally redirect itself in a manner where others will be more willing to help you or connect you to people who can help.

2. Mind your appearance: Walk in to a networking event with the appropriate attitude. Appear approachable and be willing to approach others. The simplest things you can do is offer a smile to people you come in eye contact with and avoid poor body language such as crossing your arms or keeping your head down.

3. Ask a mutual acquaintance for help: Asking a mutual friend or acquaintance to help with an introduction is one of the easiest ways to help get a conversation started between two people who don’t know one another. After the introduction, it’s up to you to build rapport and find out possible commonalities that will help both of you establish a relationship.

4. Directly introduce yourself: If there is a contact you know something about, you may want to approach them directly with an introduction. Introduce yourself by full name and appropriately ask a question or make a comment. For example, the person may have just given a presentation, so you may ask a question or comment related to what was discussed. As the conversation between the two of you becomes more comfortable, steer the conversation toward a direction where you may ask for advice.

5. Ask a general question or provide comment: You are not the only one who may be feeling awkward at the networking event. If you see someone simply standing there or sitting at a table by themselves, be willing to approach them and simply ask a question or provide a comment they could relate to. It can be a simple statement such as, “Wow, this event has a big attendance turnout!” This opens the door for conversation. After two or three more questions or comments, you can go in and say, “By the way, my name is… what’s yours?” From there, your conversation can change focus where you learn more about the other individual and share information about yourself.

A key to breaking the ice during networking is to establish a relationship where the other individual grows to feel comfortable speaking with you. Keep all questions open-ended and leave comments that allow others to probe. A question or comment that leaves one to simply have room to say “yes” or “no” will not help build a conversation.

To succeed at networking events, leave people you meet with a good impression. You want people to feel your positive energy and to see you are willing to help others, as well as have a special area of expertise they will potentially want your advice and counsel on in the future. This will help ensure the relationship and conversation you have continues to grow after you leave the event.

Don Goodman, president of Resume Writing Service – About Jobs is a nationally recognized career expert.
Source: http://www.careerealism.com/tips-networking-events/

Job Seekers: Use Branch Out to Leverage the Power of Your Personal Relationships

The tagline of the largest career app on Facebook is, “Unleash the Power of Your Network.” With Branch Out you can leverage the power of your personal relationships to form professional connections. Branch Out is designed to reveal the connections that you have within your personal network of friend and family to the companies that you are interested in working with.

When you are looking through the over 3 million job listings on Branch Out you will see all of the connections that the people in your network have to the companies posting job opportunities.

If you are an active Facebook user you will want to go in and adjust your privacy settings to protect your personal information. Then you should make sure that your profile picture looks professional enough to display to prospective employers.

There is a series of ‘how-to’ videos on Branch Out that will walk you through creating a profile, finding jobs and growing your network. Go in and create your profile and start giving endorsements to your friends, who will more than likely return the favor. If you want an endorsement from someone, you might consider writing one up yourself and sending it to them and invite them to revise is as they see fit.

Recruiters who are searching for certain demographics utilize Branch Out, so making sure that your profile is complete and that you have a few key endorsements can make you more visible.

If you are in the midst of a job search and you are looking to make the most of all of your connections you should go ahead and set up your Branch Out profile. If you are spending time on Facebook you might as well make it count towards helping you to land a great job.

Want to make a Radical Career Change? Coaching can keep your career healthy, improve the quality of your life and make you more effective at work through a heightened sense of self-awareness and greater clarity about your purpose and goals. Contact me today for a complimentary consultation.

7 Tips for Using the Law of Attraction in Your Job Search

The loss of a job can trigger a cascade of all kinds of emotions, but if you learn to focus your energy and attention and use the law of attraction you can turn this temporary misfortune around into the opportunity to manifest your dream job.

The law of attraction states that like attracts like. We attract to ourselves energy, situations and circumstance that are consistent with the kind of energy, thoughts and actions that we have been focusing on. So, if you want to change what you see, you’ve got to change what you are thinking, feeling and focusing on. This is fairly elementary stuff. In this article we’re going to focus in on using the law of attraction to land your dream job. Follow these tips consistently and you will begin to see things shifting in your experience:

1. Focus on feeling good

Everything is energy, and we attract things to us at the level of vibration. When you feel good you are vibrating at a higher level, which will attract those favorable experiences into your experience. Don’t let the disappointment that often occurs when you are job hunting keep you down. Schedule in some fun activities and spend time with people who build you up.

2. Express gratitude for the good that is already in your life

Gratitude creates a space for even more good things to appear in your life. Express your gratitude for everything—even the things that come disguised as misfortune because it’s all good.

3. Describe your ideal job

Create a vision board that visually depicts your dream job. Write a detailed description about the kind of job that you want. Describe the kinds of people that you will be working with, the kind of environment, the nature of the work from the point of view of it being in your life already. Read this description or look at your vision board every day to inspire your job search.

4. Don’t stop believing

Believe in yourself. Believe in your talent, skills and experience. Do not focus on the apparently negative things going on around you such as a less-than-favorable economic climate. Believe that what you are seeking is also seeking you.

5. Don’t take rejection personally

When you get rejected, take it as a gift because that job was not meant for you. Express your gratitude for the learning opportunity and keep your focus on your goal of landing your dream job.

A bonus tip is to surround yourself with positive people. A job search is a potentially demoralizing experience, but if you have a group of positive people to encourage you, give you advice and support, then you can stay positive and continue your job search with the knowledge that the universe has only your best interests at heart. Consider working with a career coach to help you explore some options that you might not have considered.

Follow these tips, network with positive people and remain focused on your goal and you will attract your dream job to you.

If you’d like to explore how a career coach can help you in your job search, you are welcome to contact me and schedule an initial consultation.

According to Marshall–October Issue


Welcome to the October issue of According to Marshall…

The purpose of this message is to share just a quick summary of some of the topics that I think are relevant to your personal and professional success.

If there are particular subjects that you would like to receive more information on from me, reach out and let me know. I also welcome any relevant information that you have produced or found that I can share with my readers.

7 Tips From CEOs On How To Eat Uncertainty For Lunch

By Marc Figueroa, Vistage International

“Today’s business owners and CEOs are constantly being tested. Faced with volatile markets, shifting customer demands and economic uncertainty, the only thing most business leaders are certain of is that there’s more change ahead. So how do you continue driving your business forward? We asked seven members of Vistage International, a CEO peer group organization, for their insight on how to lead with confidence in times of uncertainty.”

Click here to read the full story

6 Personal Branding Mistakes That Can Threaten Your Job Search

By Meridith Levinson

“In 2009, personal branding became the buzzword of choice for job seekers and career coaches alike, and for good reason. When done right, personal branding—the act of identifying and communicating your unique value to people who can help advance your career—promised to be the job seeker’s silver bullet, his surefire way to stand out in a crowded job market.”

Click here to read the full story

Building Authentic Relationships in the Workplace

By Chrissy Scivicque

“Back when I worked in banking, as the Assistant Manager of a branch, I wore a mask. No, not literally, you silly goose. After all, banks and masks don’t go well together if you know what I mean…But I hid all the same.

I was hiding behind an image of who I thought I should be, who I thought others wanted me to be. I didn’t show the “real me” because I was scared.”

Read more at: Click here to read the full story

Top 5 Secrets to Make Your Web 2.0 Job Search More Effective

By Rosa Elizabeth Vargas

“Social networking sites have dramatically changed the job search “game.” LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and Online Career Sites can help you, from the comfort of your home, discover new opportunities and tap into the hidden job market.

Why? Because networking, whether it is performed offline or online, is still the most effective way to find a job. However, building a brand, connecting with professionals in your field, and maintaining those relationships is not as easy as just setting up an account (don’t we wish!?). ”

Click here to read the full story

Top 10 Steps To Reclaim Your Life From Distraction

By Guy Kawasaki, Co-Founder, Alltop

“Peter Bregman is strategic advisor to CEOs and management teams and author of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done. According to Peter, people are interrupted, on average, four times an hour, and the more challenging the work, the less likely you are to go back to it after the interruption. In other words, we are most likely to leave our most important work unfinished.”

Click here to read the full story

SEO for Your Resume

By Mona Abdel-Halim

“With the advent of “intelligent” technology, technology that more and more mimics human behavior, a slew of new tools have emerged to help recruiters quickly identify candidates with relevant skills. The behavior such technologies emulate are the mental scoring and comparing of candidate applications, primarily resumes, that recruiters used to take days to sort through manually. Now, by simply inputting key phrases or an entire job description, recruiters can automatically generate reports of upwards of thousands of job seekers in rank order.”

Click here to read the full story

I also invite you to forward this to a friend.


Career and Executive Coaching: What is the Bottom-line ROI for You and Your Company?

Coaching as a profession has not been around that long, but in the short time of its formal existence it has had an undeniable impact both on business performance and the quality of individual people’s lives. But what kind of ROI can a person expect to achieve when they hire a career coach or an executive coach?

Because coaching is extremely personalized for each specific situation, in order to really measure ROI the coach and the client must take a look at the current state of affairs, establish a benchmark and then set specific goals that they would like to achieve. As the coach and the client work together towards achieving those goals the gains will be clearly measurable.

By taking advantage of the knowledge and expertise of a coach, the client gains several advantages that will save them time, help them to improve their career, give them guidance as they transition from one job or career to another, or even support them during a job search. Coaches help their clients improve their performance, which is a tangible result in exchange for the investment of buying access to their time and expertise.

The ROI for coaching has been studied extensively and studies have reported a return on investment of anywhere from 5 to 7 times the initial investment.

“The results tell us that corporations commonly identify their best and brightest and use coaching to turn them into more effective leaders. Coaches improve executive behaviors by pinpointing blind spots, altering management styles, and keeping careers on track.” Source: carolrossandassociates.com

Some of the benefits of coaching can include:

Individual benefits from career coaching

  • Set and achieve goals
  • Work through challenges more effectively
  • Increased confidence
  • Achieve better work/ life balance
  • Improved decision making skills

Organizational benefits from executive coaching

  • Increased productivity
  • Better conflict resolution
  • Higher employee morale
  • Formalized grooming of new leadership
  • Increased stakeholder loyalty

Coaching can help both individuals and companies stretch themselves and achieve much more than they ever thought possible. Having the guidance of an experienced coach can give you the confidence to attempt challenges that you might otherwise never take on. The return on investment when you hire a career coach to help you move to the next level, or when you hire an executive coach to help your company work through a challenging time can be both tangible in the measurable results you will achieve, but you will also gain many intangible results such as increased confidence and belief in your own ability.

If you are ready to consider working with a career or executive coach to help you overcome some of the challenges you are facing, contact me for an initial consultation to discuss how I can support you as you pursue your goals.

Ready to Learn How to Write a Resume that Gets Results in a Tough Economy?

If you have been searching for a job in the past few months, you know how challenging this job market is right now. You may be discovering that the job search strategies that you’ve found success with before are not working anymore. To help support you in your job search, I’m going to be hosting a free resume writing teleseminar to share some tips and strategies that you can use to help improve your results.

This 30 minute call is a preview of a full teleseminar will take place Wednesday, October 5th @ 8pm, which will include many special bonuses. When you join the free preview call you’ll get a discount code for the October 5th session while gaining powerful, FREE tips you can implement on your resume immediately.

During this free 30-minute preview call on September 14, 2011 at 8pm EST, I will be asking, Michelle Riklan, CPRW, CEIC, Resume Expert and Career Coach about some of the most impactful tips you need to know for success in landing your next job.

If you are looking to land a great job, be sure to register today for this free call where you can learn how to write a resume that gets results even in today’s challenging economy.

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The Career Column:
Advice from Professional Career Counselors

"Should I Stay Or Should I Go"

How to Get the Most Out of Your Job
During a Tough Economy.

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4- 60 minute MP3's filled with
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