Tuesday, March 30, 2010

“Online networking is critical to job search (Orange County Register)” plus 2 more

“Online networking is critical to job search (Orange County Register)” plus 2 more

Online networking is critical to job search (Orange County Register)

Posted: 30 Mar 2010 08:54 AM PDT

When Darlene McMillan lands a job interview, the first thing the Aliso Viejo grandmother does is fire up her computer.

"I do my normal search on the Web by going to the company's website and viewing the movers and shakers of the company and getting some background on them, along with the board of directors.

REINVENT MEETING

What: Reinvent Yourself — Workplace Solutions for Women 45-plus

Who: Kendall Carre and the how-tos of social networking

When: April 6, 6 p.m.

Where: Newport-Mesa Assistance League, 2220 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa

Reservations: $5 for WomanSage members and $25 for visitors. Refreshments served. Registration required at womansage.org.

"I can find out a lot of information about them because there is usually a portfolio," she says.

"Once I have done my homework by looking up news events, awards, etc., I go to LinkedIn to see who I may know at the company through my 1, 2 or 3 connections.

"This information is invaluable because it may lead to a referral, which is even better as that is how most people find their jobs."

McMillan touts the LinkedIn connections she has been able to make.

But the former office manager, looking for a position as an executive assistant, says she's only started scraping away at the benefits of social networking.

"Facebook is social," she says about online connections, "but there are a lot of people who tweet on Twitter."

McMillan, 57, says she knows her age is a problem in her job search.

"I used to fire people and recruit people. I know what prejudices are out there in a company. They say they don't have any but they do."

LinkedIn has helped her job search, she says, by connecting her with others who are employees, or previous employees, of the company she is about to interview with.

"I know I'm only going to make about a third to a half of what I used to make. I'm realistic about this job search," she says.

"I never went to college and now I'm running into that hurdle. But I am taking computer classes to update my skills. I'm currently learning Office 2007."

Learning all avenues of social media is her next challenge.

"Fear prevents us from moving forward and in today's market, you can't let fear hold you back," McMillan says.

LEARNING SOCIAL MEDIA

"A lot of people don't know enough about social media and how to benefit from it," agrees Kendall Carre of Kendall Creative (kendallcreative.com), a South County marketing and communications firm.

She breaks the social media network down this way:

•LinkedIn: Important for anyone who wants or needs a job.

•Facebook: Find out more about an individual on a personal level. Lets you see them in a different light. Especially valuable if you are starting your own business because it lets you create a fan page.

•Twitter: I pretty much steered clear of this for a while, to be honest. But now I really enjoy following people and learning things I never knew.

The biggest challenge with social media is that it takes so much care and feeding, Carre acknowledges.

"You need to put it into your daily schedule," she says. "Check your e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. There are ways to get information to all of them at the same time."

She will describe the different social media sites and explain ways to use each for maximum personal benefit at the April 6 meeting of "Reinvent Yourself — Workplace Solutions for Women 45-Plus." The group is sponsored by the non-profit, WomanSage, womansage.org.

LinkedIn is the critical connection, she thinks.

"Keeping up with people you used to work with, clients you had before, is critical. You never know who may be a connection," Carre says.

"People who know what's going on in a company may do a recommendation for you."

You may be surprised at how one of your friends is connected, she says.

"There may be a separation of two to three people — like friends of friends of friends — but a personal recommendation means so much today. You almost have to know someone to get in the door because there are so many people looking for work."

How many "friends" can anyone have on a social network site?

At more than 100 it is difficult to manage the group, Carre says. She advises reaching different people on different sites — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.

"You may have lots of friends on Twitter but only about 20 to 25 are doing a lot of tweeting," she says. "And what you write, by the way, can't always be a commercial for you and your company. Share positive and good information."

Carre says most of the people on these websites fall between the ages of 35 and 55. MySpace attracts a younger crowd, she says.

"You will find more business people on Twitter, and about 80 percent of those looking for work are on LinkedIn."

Some people have different Facebook accounts, she says, carefully sharing different information on each.

"I have embraced one reason I think people should get online. It's free," Carre says. "Although they are talking about charging for it in the future. If they ask me to pay for Facebook, I probably won't. But LinkedIn is for my work."

Carre has been associated with the homebuilding industry as a marketing and communications expert since 1989. She was laid off in December.

"And so I have reinvented myself. I'm a good example of the ways to use social media because I use it myself," she says.

Contact the writer: jghaas@cox.net


Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Job search tips offered March 30 in Bernards Township (The Bernardsville News)

Posted: 30 Mar 2010 10:16 AM PDT

Ruth Lufkin, supervising reference librarian, will feature creative ways to find opportunities through mining the library's resources.  She will demonstrate online tools that allow discovery of useful magazine, journal and newspaper information on specific companies, key personnel and particular industries.

 Resources that are available remotely to every library cardholder in New Jersey will be highlighted, as well as those specifically available at Bernards Township Library. 

The meeting will be held in the Program Room located on the lower level.  All are welcome at this free program. 

Pre-registration is suggested but not required; those who register in advance using the Program Calendar at www.BernardsLibrary.org will receive an email reminder before the program.

 For more information call the Library at (908) 204-3031, ext. 4, or email rlufkin@bernards.org.

Members of the Career Forum and Career Networking Group are especially invited to attend these meetings.  Both of these local support groups offer programs of interest to those looking for work or contemplating transition and opportunities to network with other members of the group. 

The Career Forum meets at the Somerset Hills YMCA from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday evenings.

The Career Networking Group meets on the first and third Thursday evenings of each month at the Bernards Township Library. 

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

How To Craft A Job Search Elevator Pitch (Forbes)

Posted: 30 Mar 2010 11:32 AM PDT


When Anita Attridge worked in human resources at Merck and Xerox, she frequently kicked off job interviews with a standard request: Tell me about yourself. A striking number of applicants couldn't answer her coherently. "You'd get everything from, 'Where do you want me to start?' to their whole life story," she says. She's now a coach with The Five O'Clock Club, a career counseling firm.

"People screw it up all the time," agrees Connie Thanasoulis, a career services consultant at the job search Web site Vault.com. "They think they should walk you through their entire résumé." Instead, Thanasoulis, Attridge and other career and communications pros agree, job seekers should be prepared with a 15- to 30-second "elevator pitch," so-called because it should be so vivid and concise it could be delivered in the space of an elevator ride.

In Pictures: Craft A Job Search Elevator Pitch

How do you sum up your life's experience and job ambitions in 30 seconds or less? First of all, think about the benefit you can confer on the employer, advises Jane Praeger, a media coach who heads Ovid Inc., in New York City. "People are too apt to go in with a laundry list of skills--I can do this, I can do that," she says. "Instead, say, for example, 'I can make sure your employees are well supervised and motivated.'" Praeger's own elevator pitch? "I help people figure out what to say and how to say it, to get the results they want."

Thanasoulis' strategy: Start by filling a whole page with what you would want to say to a hiring manager. Cut that down to half a page. Keep cutting until you get to a quarter page. Then pull out three bullet points that give a snapshot of your career. Thanasoulis's pitch: "I spent 25 years on Wall Street heading up a staffing organization for Fortune 500 companies. Now I take those insider secrets and teach people how to run an efficient, effective job search."

Thanasoulis, Praeger and Attridge agree that practice is essential. "Practice until it's as easy as saying your name," says Attridge. Always rehearse out loud, in front of a mirror, or to a friend or into a tape or video recorder. Force yourself to sound enthusiastic. Too often job candidates recite their pitches in a monotone or rush through them without passion. "Often the content is very good, but the delivery is so bad you don't hear it," Attridge notes.

Career coaches suggest preparing more than one pitch, for different audiences. Win Sheffield recommends tailoring a specific one for each interview. "Develop your pitch with a specific person in mind," he says, and make sure it includes where you've been, where you are and where you're going.

It's helpful to have a pitch designed to work in a social setting that doubles as a networking opportunity, such as a college reunion. In that kind of situation, Thanasoulis advises, mix in personal details along with the professional ones. For her that would mean something like, "I worked in corporate America for 25 years. I created my own business, and I absolutely love it. My husband and I built a home on Staten Island, and we just adopted a 180-pound mastiff." Then see what your conversational partner picks up on.

As much when you're selling yourself as at any other time, it's important to pay attention to your audience. "The pitch is no substitute for developing a relationship with a person," Sheffield notes.

In Pictures: Craft A Job Search Elevator Pitch

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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