TIP #1 – DEFINE WHAT YOU WANT SO THAT YOU CAN HELP OTHERS HELP YOU

It may seem counterintuitive, but the best way to find a job is be able to tell people exactly what kind of job you want when networking. Sometimes people think it is best to keep all options open for any type of job that may come along. But with that strategy there is a higher likelihood that they will not like the position they accept and will be looking for a job again real soon because they quit or got fired. A person who handles the job search that way risks quickly becoming a job hopper. And guess what, it all started because they didn’t define what they were looking for in the first place.

The process does not have to be difficult or long and drawn out. It can be quite enriching if a person takes the time, but it can be done quickly with a few educated guesses when food just needs to get to the table too.

Minimally, you need to know:

• What kind of work fits your lifestyle right now such as part time, full time or contract?

• What industry are you interested in?

• What are example job titles?

• What skills you have to offer and what kind of problems you can solve with those skills?

With this kind of information in mind you can start the job search by asking people you know and people you meet a very powerful question, “Who do you know in the retail clothing industry that may be looking for part-time employees?” As simple as that you can begin accessing the hidden job market and the power of networking. Moral of the story: knowing what you want sure helps other people help you.

TIP #2 – FIND A MENTOR

First, outline or journal what your career will look like when you arrive at the “next level.” What will you be doing in your work? What experience & education will you have achieved? How are you impacting your industry? Continue to make better distinctions about yourself and where you want to go then follow your nose to the virtual and real world gathering places for people whose interests match yours. Look for them in writing and speaking that is going on in your industry and in professional associations associated with your industry, or attend a conference or training, and search for them on LinkedIn. Locate and engage the experts in those places. Share your enthusiasm and demonstrate that you are there to learn and that you are very interested in contributing to the conversation. Ask the question, “what advice do you have for someone who is interested in doing what you are doing?” Ask also how they stay up-to-date in the field. Be sure to thank them for their time by writing them a thank you note or email or a quick follow up phone call or message later. Consider them a part of your professional network and send info their way when you see or hear about something they might like to know. If you notice a potential mentor but suspect they are too busy to be a mentor? Or maybe you just don’t know how to break the ice with them. Try informational interviewing. Its not just for students or those choosing a career for the first time! Informational interviewing can help you transition to a new career field, further your network, or find a mentor.

TIP #3 – ACCOMPLISHMENTS NOT GOALS

Spend more time tracking and talking about your accomplishments rather than your goals. Think about it: accomplishments are actions you have already taken, goals are actions you intend to take…which is more powerful? Begin by making it a habit to log your accomplishments weekly while they are fresh in your mind. Collect them and turn them into bullet points for your resumes and power stories for your networking and interviews.

TIP #4 – START A BLOG

Career blogging is a networking and electronic portfolio all in one! Your blog can be an outstanding networking tool. This is just the kind of thing the blogosphere was meant for…sharing information, having a discussion, building relationships. Plus, a blog can become a showcase for your unique personality, knowledge, and skills. With small regular posts you can quickly build an impressive portfolio demonstrating more about your personality and quality of work while building your reputation at the same time.

1. Ego Surfing – Search for your name to see what information comes up.

• www.Pipl.com
• www.google.com
• Meta‐search engine (i.e., www.dogpile.com; www.Mamma.com; www.Metasearch.com)

2. Social Networking – Begin building online profiles using some of the following sites.

• www.Twitter.com
• www.LinkedIn.com
• www.Plaxo.com
• www.Facebook.com

3. Blogging – Consider starting a blog about your industry and how you participate in an innovative way.

• www.Blogger.com
• www.WordPress.com
• www.TypePad.com

4. Automated Research – Set your searches up to be delivered to your email inbox or set up an RSS reader for sites you frequently visit.

• Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts)
• RSS Feed Aggregators (www.google.com/reader, www.bloglines.com, www.FeedReader.com)

• Much like regular portfolios for career development but these portfolios are websites used for storing proof of your accomplishments. Once your electronic portfolio is published on the internet, you can send an email with the link to invite others to view it. You may also choose to make it available for anyone to find it using search engines.

• There are many ways to build them as evidenced by Dr. Helen Barrett’s research site on electronic portfolios.

• Potential tools to choose from for posting a portfolio online are blogging software (like TypePad, Blogger, or WordPress); and Google Documents.

How long would it take you to gather up all the information you need to fill out a complete professional history for a job or school application? Would you be able to get your hands on all the data you’d need? Despite the best of intentions and filing efforts, most people struggle to pull together their career and educational histories.

If you’ve ever scrambled to find papers and wracked your brain to piece together dates you’ve held jobs or received educational certifications, then you know what a headache it is to have disorganized professional records.

If you’ve ever agonized over writing a resume because you can’t remember what you accomplished in past positions, then you know the feeling of missing – or almost missing – a deadline to apply for a position.

Or, if you’ve ever not gotten the raise or promotion you were hoping for because you didn’t have your thoughts put together well enough to build your case, then you know firsthand that disorganization can lead to missed opportunities.

Weekly career tracking is important for several reasons.

1. Investing the time to do it now and as you go along will save you time in the long run.
2. Details are much easier to record while fresh in your mind rather than having to hunt for them later.
3. Knowing the specifics and being able to speak confidently about them will help your confidence and credibility when applying, networking, and interviewing.
4. If you ever get stuck in a career rut where you don’t know what to do next, you can get ideas by easily taking an inventory of what you have done previously.
5. Someday you might need a school or college transcript to apply for a job or educational opportunity, and now you will have the details of how to do it at your fingertips.
6. Tracking attendance to conferences and membership in professional associations will ensure you get the most benefit for your time and money spent.

If you haven’t kept up with these details so far, then you’ll have a good bit of extra work to get started, but once you’ve established a baseline record, keeping it up to date will be a piece of cake.

When you take ownership of your career materials and records, you take ownership of your career direction. Career tracking is meant to help you secure the most satisfying, rewarding, and—if you desire—money-making opportunities at any moment in time.

I’m surprised how much forethought blogging actually takes. You have to decide a topic and a voice, which platform to use, what design and plugins to use, whether to have comments or not, and how often to post, to name a few. Plus there is a big learning curve to face. Then you have to find a balance between creating posts and checking stats and such…all potentially very time consuming (and addictive).

Blogging is certainly not for everyone. It is getting pretty popular though. Truthfully, I’m not sure if I am glad to be doing it yet or not. I’m sticking with it because I think it will pay off soon as I get faster at developing content and better at juggling it with my other projects. For me, the only downside has been the time commitment and the pressure to post. I’m not going too crazy about deadlines but I am striving to be consistent. The pluses for me have been that I enjoy learning about the technology and I now have a relevant reason to get my thoughts and ideas down on paper on a regular basis which really helps with my infopreneurial endeavors.

Yesterday, I saw a very good article about the benefits of building a content focused website rather than blogging. It was very convincing. From an infopreneurial standpoint it definitely makes more sense to think in terms of a content driven site rather than a blog mainly due to potentially improved page ranking to more easily connect to the intended target audience. Another reason is the higher level of control the infopreneur can have over their writing/production schedule with a content driven website. The big downside the infopreneurial blogger has to overcome is that the relationship building aspect of blogging is quite strained right from the start when you are so obviously trying to sell something. I mean it has to be done carefully because how many people would subscribe to a constant commercial? Here are a couple of infopreneurial website examples for you. The first is a content driven site, Love-of-Roses.com. This site is less than a year old from what I understand and has an awesome traffic ranking already. Next, here is one in the form of a blog, Seth Godin’s Blog. Seth has figured out the fine line that an infopreneurial blogger must manage to build traffic and sell his products and expertise.

Now, career blogging is a whole different story. I believe it to be a cutting edge career advancement technique. Your blog can become a showcase for your unique knowledge and skills. With small regular posts you can quickly build an impressive portfolio demonstrating more about your personality and quality of work while building your reputation at the same time. Plus, a blog can be an outstanding networking tool. This is just the kind of thing the blogosphere was meant for…sharing information, having a discussion, building relationships. Here is a fine example of a career blog to check out if you like the idea of blogging to advance your career – Publishing Careers by Lori Cates Hand. I love the way she has built the blog around the central theme of an informational interview for those interested in the industry. This instantly sets her up as an expert. It also leads to numerous ideas for topics to write about as she discusses her own career journey and daily activities. She also interviews others in the industry which greatly furthers her professional networking activities and exposure. Brilliant!

As soon as I read this post by Seth Godin, I thought about Norm Peterson’s line (title of post above) from the old TV show, Cheers…with just a slight adjustment, of course. Seems a lot of folks are feeling the same way about resumes. It really does stink to get a pile of resumes in that do nothing but list job responsibilities, and I know that usually people hate writing them as much as others hate to read the average resume. Seth has a good point though because extraordinary people are moving more towards a portfolio rather than just a resume. Yes it is true, they very well might have a blog, an electronic or hard copy portfolio, an outstanding reputation, or a network of people that propels them forward…or all the above.

I personally love to see people get a job without a resume because that means they are using job hunt and career management strategies that have a higher chance of success rather than just sending a blind resume to some giant job board somewhere. It is much more likely that the offer they get is for a wonderful job that they will be well suited for too.

Even so resumes are still relevant and usually necessary even if only asked to submit one “for the file” after being hired. And, frankly, writing a resume right can be an excellent exercise in formulating the marketing message for your personal brand.

Here are a few “beyond the basics” guidelines to make your resume writing exercise more fruitful from a personal marketing message development standpoint and to help you end up with a resume that stands above the crowd.

1. Customize a resume for each position you apply for after learning what you can about the company and position. The best way to manage this is to create a master resume file. Include in it every bullet point you develop and don’t worry about the length of the document. When you need to customize a new resume, open your master resume file and do a “save as” to rename the file appropriate to who the new resume is for or what the position title is (i.e. 2008-02-06 Acme Sales Rep). Then update the objective and delete bullets points that are not relevant to the position being sure to save the new file as you go tweaking along.
2. When writing bullet points, don’t tell me what you did on the job; instead tell me how you made things better while you were there. What where you especially known for? How did you help save the company time or money? How did you help the company make money? How did you increase client satisfaction or help to find new clients? How did you contribute to tracking the details or insuring follow through of processes?
3. Always write in terms of results on a resume. Give me the bullet point listing your accomplished results then be prepared to give me the full power story once you have intrigued me into inviting you to an interview.