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The Power of Passivity: Seek Not and Ye Shall Find

Wednesday, November 15th, 2017

Employers are frequently found to prefer passive job seekers over active ones, so how can you use this knowledge to improve your career prospects?

While you may think that being proactive gives you an edge in your job hunt, research has shown that many employers favor job seekers who are playing it cool. Passive job seekers are those that are open to a new position, although not actively searching or applying for vacancies. Instead of spending hours sifting through job boards and contacting companies, your best bet for progressing your career could be to “play hard to get” and entice recruiters to come to you.

Passive job seekers have the advantage

A recent study revealed that 80% of HR professionals feel passive job seekers are the best source of quality employees. However, the survey also found that only 47% of job seekers are aware of this fact, showing that employers and candidates have very different understandings of what works in the recruitment world.

When asked what makes passive candidates more attractive than active ones, 42% of respondents said these individuals take their careers more seriously, 44% felt that they had the most experience, and an additional 44% said they had the best skill sets.

Even if you’re unemployed, you can turn into a passive job seeker right now by freelancing, becoming an entrepreneur, volunteering, or blogging. By engaging in these activities while you search for a job, you won’t have gaps on your resume, you’ll be practicing new skills, and you’ll potentially be earning side income so you will be less desperate for a job, which makes you more attractive as a candidate (and gives you leverage).

Tips for becoming a passive job seeker

Now that you’ve recognized the “power of passivity” in attaining long-term job search success, try using the following strategies to your advantage:

1. Keep your resume up-to-date – If a recruiter ever contacts you about a position, you want to be ready to show them what you can do immediately.

2. Stay involved online – While you may not be engaging in an active job search, maintaining an online presence means staying in the forefront of your professional contacts’ minds. This includes building a robust LinkedIn profile, joining relevant LinkedIn Groups, and tapping into social networking (Facebook, Google+, and Twitter, for example) to strengthen your social presence.

3. Develop a solid pool of referrals – Professional connections are the biggest assets of a passive job seeker, as their recommendations will do the legwork for you. Stay connected with your network via social media and offer help in return, rather than just building your network and only reaching out when you’re looking for a job. If you’re interested and engaged, your contacts will be more likely to give you help if and when you need it.

4. Write Recommendations – Giving to get works every time. Write LinkedIn recommendations for some of your connections. In return, you’ll get a recommendation back from at least some of the people you provide a reference for. Those recommendations show on your Profile and they are a reference in advance to a potential employer.

5. Be Interview Ready – Don’t use up all your accrued vacation or personal leave time unless you have to. Keep some in reserve, so you have time to interview if an opportunity that’s too good to pass up comes along.

Good luck!

The power of passivity: How not looking could get you the job | via Talent International.

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Crafting a “Tailored” Resume

Thursday, September 15th, 2016

Since the advent of modern computers, the job application process has certainly become more complicated than it once was. These days, instead of a typed letter of intent sent along with your resume via snail mail, to be screened by an HR clerk perhaps on the other end, you now have Application Tracking Software, massive job board application systems, and “shot-in-the-dark” emailing to hiring managers, all of which has made your job search a hundred times easier and a million times harder than it ever was before.

Imagine the postage and time necessary for each application in the past… now, it’s just a few button pushes and your resume is carried along automatically to the hiring company… to be trapped in an email spam folder, or discarded by an ATS robot for something as simple as using “online content” instead of “digital content”.

You’re also certain of getting into a much bigger pile of applications than ever before, as the ease of applying means dozens, if not hundreds, of totally unqualified people send along their resume as if it’s nothing, for just the merest possibility of an interview, or out of shear desperation, making it easier and easier for your resume to get lost in the shuffle of human and robot eyes.

So, it’s now become common to hear the advice “tailor your resume” to get around these obstacles. If you tailor your resume to a particular company and role, the choir says, it will have a much better chance of sneaking through the filtering of robots and a greater likelihood of being noticed by tired HR clerks, which in turn increases its chance of eventually being seen by hiring managers and the real decision makers.

The instructions are clear: no more stock and bog-standard resumes. Now, you’re making the suit fit the wearer. Certainly a lot more work than before.

encrypted_resume

But a major question remains: how do you craft a tailored resume?

Here are a few quick expert tips to get you started:

Actually Read and Try to Understand the Job You’re Applying For

First things first: Sit down with a highlighter and really read the job description. Go through and highlight the points that seem important (think the ones that are mentioned repeatedly or anything that’s slightly out of the ordinary) and the points that you could speak to with your particular experience and skills.

This is always step one—after all, you can’t tailor your resume for a position if you don’t really know what the gig entails.

Make Your First Point Immediately Relevant

Next, with your newfound knowledge of what the hiring manager is looking for, take your resume, find the experience that would make him or her most excited about your application, and rework the document so that’s what’s at the top. Maybe it’s your current position, or maybe it’s some specialized certifications or the freelance work you do on the side. Whatever it is, make it the first section of your resume.

And yes, even if it’s not the most recent. There’s no rule that says your first section must be “Work Experience.” Tailoring your resume means finding what is most relevant, creating a section for it, and filling it up with experience or qualifications that will catch a hiring manager’s eye. If that means nixing “Work Experience,” creating a “Marketing and Social Media Experience” section, then throwing everything else in an “Additional Experience” section, then so be it.

resume

Revamp Your Bullets Even for Less Relevant Experiences

Now that your relevant experiences are at the top of your resume, that doesn’t mean you should ignore everything else. Nope, it just means you need to pull out the relevant bits of those experiences in your bullets.

From the job description, you’ll likely find more than just the technical qualifications needed to complete the job. Strong communication skills, ability to work in a team, and other soft skills are probably listed as well. So, while your tutoring experience might not be directly related to the sales position you’re interested in, you can definitely still highlight some of the soft skills that both positions require.

Check to See if It’s Clear Why You Are Applying

Finally, your last quick assessment to make sure you’ve successfully tailored your resume is to see if someone else—like a friend or mentor—can explain why you’re interested in the position just based on reading your resume. If your friend can’t suss out why you’re applying or how you’re a good fit, then more tailoring is likely needed.

This largely used to be the role of the cover letter, and many companies and hiring managers still appreciate receiving these, but because of the shear number of applications they will likely be reading through, you can’t rely on them ever reading or even seeing it… so you’ll need to factor this into the resume itself as well.

Of course, sometimes there’s only so much you can do. If you’re making a big career change and you just don’t have the relevant experience, then no amount of tweaking bullets can spell that out. In this case — and only in this case, I might add — you may actually want to use an objective statement to properly explain your interest in the position.

Tailoring your resume, especially if you’re applying for a lot of positions, certainly isn’t the most exciting or enjoyable part of applying for a job, but it’s definitely one of the most important these days. After all, regardless of media reports to the contrary, the resume is not a “dead” document and is still essential… and it’s the document that decides what first impression you make. It might take a little extra work, but it’s worth it to be that much more memorable.

Good luck!

What it Really Means to “Tailor Your Resume” | Lily Zhang via The Muse

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5 Strategies for LinkedIn Job Searching

Wednesday, April 27th, 2016

LinkedIn has been called the Facebook for professionals… or MySpace (dated reference) with ties. From humble origins, it has grown to become the premier professional networking site, par excellence, throughout the internet, and despite the company’s various attempts to hide its more useful features, especially for job seekers and recruiters, behind pay walls and “premium accounts”, for the most part it is still free and open and certainly one of the best tools a passive or active job seeker has available.

However, as anyone who has been a member for any length of time (and received the countless spam messages from sales and marketing professionals in India) will know, LinkedIn can be used properly and then it can be abused and what goodwill you might have generated may be quickly squandered. Nothing like putting your foot in it when thousands of people are watching. And the more connections you have collected, the more opportunities there are for that grand faux pas that has sunk the career of more than one actor, politician, sports star, and internet thug on Twitter or Facebook.

So how then does one effectively use LinkedIn for a job search without abusing it and without falling into the trap of trying to do “too much”, to the ire of connections and staff admins alike? Here are a few basic tactics to employ that don’t require a premium account or paying for InMails:

Follow a company. You will get updates on who in your network moved where. While it’s interesting to see who the “New Hires” are, more important is where they came from, as these might point toward openings at their old company. Also note what their new positions are to get an idea of a possible career path. And, of course, a company’s “Recent Departures” list also lets you know of openings.

Mine new contacts for even newer ones. Every time someone connects to you, look through his or her list of contacts. View the profiles of those that intrigue you, and reach out to a few of them, citing things like common interests, schools attended, and shared company experience, or even just mention photos they’ve posted… LinkedIn allows people to put up so much content — slide shows, groups, awards, reading lists, articles, blogs, Twitter streams — it’s very easy to find a common reason to connect.

Connect with highly visible people. Search on terms like “speaker,” “author,” “writer,” “coach,” “trainer” “evangelist,” “sales,” “keynote,” “award-winning,” or “expert.” These people are often uber-connectors with thousands of connections. When you find one in your field (or a related one), search for him or her on the Web to find something he or she has written, and send a thoughtful comment or compliment. Make sure it’s sincere. If you get a good response, follow up with an invitation to connect, but don’t pester the person if he or she ignores you. These well-connected types are very busy people. A visit to the person’s Website might reveal an upcoming speaking engagement in your area. Whatever you do, respect an uber-connector’s time. Recruiters are in their own category; they often have connections in the thousands and knowledge of job openings, but they are also overwhelmed. If you contact them, make sure you give them a good reason to link and try to be memorable.

Connect to “interesting” people. Search on an unusual interest of yours to see who else has it. You might get ideas about career direction, or a contact might be able to give you a job lead. Imagine you’re a medical assistant who likes dancing. A search on “flamenco dancer” brought up this title for one person: “Medical Doctor, Wellness Expert, International Speaker, Life Coach, Author & Flamenco Dancer.” You could reach out to say, “Wow, another person in health care who loves flamenco!” It’s a long shot, but life is made up of such coincidences.

Leverage even weak links. I once got an interview by sending a message through LinkedIn to one of my contacts, with whom, truthfully, I was only loosely connected. Not only was she someone I’d never met in real life, but I’d turned her down for an interview! (I got a job offer elsewhere.) A year after our initial connection, I was job searching again, and I noticed she was connected to someone I was targeting. It was gutsy of me to do, but I felt I had nothing to lose, so I contacted her. She forwarded my resume, and I got the interview.

Some people are keen to update their profiles to “Job Seeker” or put something rather desperate sounding in their current title or job description (like “Looking for the Next Great Opportunity!” or “THE Candidate You’ve Been Looking for!”). Always seems a little desperate and likely to attract the wrong sort of attention from recruiters and hiring managers. While it’s always good to be honest about your current job status, no need to wave around being unemployed like dirty underwear.

Get started on LinkedIn BEFORE you are out of work, so you have the resources in place beforehand and it doesn’t look like you’ve joined or become suddenly active only because you’re looking for a job. Then you’re free to use LinkedIn like your online resume for both passive and active opportunities that come up.

Good luck!

5 Tips for Using LinkedIn During Your Job Search | Maureen Nelson via Quint Careers

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Preparing Your Facebook For Your Job Search

Wednesday, March 30th, 2016

If you’re looking for a job and you haven’t taken a careful look at what’s public on your Facebook profile, you’re doing yourself a tremendous disservice. How you present yourself on Facebook can (and will) determine your chances of being hired.

Consider these numbers:

  • 91% of hiring agents use social networks to screen prospective employees
  • 76% of these agents (69% overall) check Facebook as part of their search
  • 42.8% of employees will check your Facebook after reviewing an application
  • 69% of HR officers have rejected job applications based on social media reviews
  • 68% have hired a candidate based on their social media presence

So what are these recruiters seeing? Log into Facebook and take a look at what they can see. Chances are there’s a few things there that are best left unseen. Which begs the argument:

Why Not Hide My Profile Entirely?

For one, recruiters expect you to have Facebook, and if they can’t find it, you may look suspicious to them.

Above that, what you have here is an opportunity to present yourself positively to your employers. Rather than locking down your profile (or deleting it), why not run a little maintenance? This is your chance to proactively impress your employer with your savvy, charismatic, and career-driven online persona. It’s a simple law of business — turn every weakness into a strength.

Takeaway: Instead of locking down your Facebook, set it up to look awesome when a hiring manager checks it out.

You should be able to whip that profile into shape in four simple steps:

Step 1: Gain Control Of Your Existing Posts

If you’ve been updating your Facebook profile daily since 2004, there’s simply too much to sort through. Instead, you can choose to automatically limit your old posts on Facebook (and by “old”, they seem to mean anything before this year). This leaves you with some recent activity to share, while saving you many hours/days in the archives. You can still go back and set individual posts back to public if you want.

Next, lock down your friends list. You have almost no control over their pages, and it’s safest to keep them away from prying eyes. Additionally, Facebook rolled out a feature called “Graph Search” that allows your friends and relatives to appear in searches associated with you. Locking down your friends list won’t protect you from those searches entirely, but it will help.

As a final precaution, you may want to turn off search engine indexing to your Facebook profile. Many search engines cache your posts, which can make them stay visible in search for several months after you’ve removed them from the actual page.

Step 2: Prune Your Profile

A Facebook profile provides more recorded information about an individual — including where you’ve been, what you’ve eaten, who your friends are, etc — than any source in history. When sifting through that information, at least 12% of employers are going to specifically look for reasons NOT to hire you. Make sure your profile doesn’t have that reason.

Eliminate These Red Flags:

Takeaway: 12% of employers check your Facebook profile specifically to find reasons NOT to hire you.

It’s also a good idea to consider who, specifically, you’re applying to when cleaning out your profile. For example, if you’ve got your fingers crossed for that job at Apple, it probably wouldn’t hurt to unfan “Droid” for the time being. When clearing out your Facebook, be sure to delete the stories (as opposed to hiding them), as they will otherwise still be searchable through Graph Search.

Step 3: Clean Up Your Image(s)

When it comes to a job search, Facebook images are asking for trouble. Everyone’s seen your old photos already: this is a great time to get rid of those old beach photos from college, toss up a professional-looking profile and cover photo, and make most of your albums private. This is also a good time to check out your tagged photos and unlink yourself to those fabulously embarrassing photos your friends have so generously posted and tagged you in. Facebook’s privacy features make this easy to do — you can select multiple photos for untagging all at once.

It’s also worth being prepared for the next batch of draconian privacy changes that Facebook will unleash without notifying you (think: The Great Betrayal, where private photos suddenly went public). If you have anything on there that would be REALLY embarrassing/scandalous if it went public, just get rid of it.

Step 4: Be Mindful With Your Future Content

Using Facebook’s graph search feature to find people who live near you, whether friends of yours or not.The golden rule here is: “Think before you share.” I would take it one step farther: “Think before your friends share.” There’s nothing worse than having to explain your friend’s “Hey, were you able to get the day off for your interview tomorrow?” post to your boss. I suggest you turn off tag suggest for photos, restrict who posts on your timeline, and keep your e-mail notifications on.

One last thing: take the time to research what your Facebook apps are posting on your wall, and be careful with comments you’ve posted under your name in articles and news stories through your Facebook account. These apps and media outlets want to be found, and they will post publicly on your wall if you let them.

Once you’ve cleaned up your Facebook, it’s time to be a little proactive about what the hiring managers will be seeing.

Do This With Your Public Facebook Page:

  • Reflect a positive, charismatic, well-rounded personality
  • Demonstrate solid grammar and communication skills
  • Reflect your passion for your profession
  • Show off your professional accomplishments and awards

If your hiring agent checks your Facebook before calling you for an interview, this is your first chance to show your face and make a good impression. A little effort in cleaning up your image online can (and does) make all the difference between losing the opportunity and getting your foot in the door.

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What To Do If Your Network Isn’t Helping You Get A Job

Thursday, March 12th, 2015

When you’re an active job seeker, well-wishing people will be ever so quick to tell you, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Or, “It all boils down to networking.”

And they’re right. It’s so critical to leverage your professional network when looking for a new position. But what do you do if you’re finding your current network marginally helpful at best?

Surely, you could consider branching out to new people (and you should always—throughout your entire career—look for ways to continue building strong ties with people who may be influential to your professional life), but what about now? What can you do now—with your existing network—if you feel like you’re getting nowhere fast?

Here are four quick ideas that may help you better leverage the people you already know:

1. Send Out a Networking Letter

It’s astounding to me how many people just assume that their people understand with any clarity what it is they do, and how (specifically) they may be able to help out. When you call or email your contacts and ask them to “keep an ear out” for opportunities, they may be more than willing to do just that—but confused about what, exactly, you do for a living.

A networking letter is a simple note that you send to your closest people, outlining that you’re actively searching and sharing what specific types of roles would be great for you and what skills you’d like to put to use. If you paint a picture of the company or job at which you’d be the best fit, your people will have a much easier time considering how they might be of specific assistance.

2. Have Your People Introduce You to Their People

If you zip on over to LinkedIn and see that you don’t have a single first-degree connection at a company of interest, don’t fret. You may well have a second-degree connection. How do you use this to your advantage? Here’s how: Take a look at the person with whom you share the connection. Do you know that person pretty well? If so, get ahold of her and say, “Hey, Sarah. I noticed that you’re connected to Jerry Johnson at XYZ Company. How well do you know him, and would you be willing to introduce me?”

Assuming Sarah knows Jerry pretty well, you could be chatting with someone on the inside of a company of interest within less than a day. Not bad for someone who thought you had no “in,” right?

3. Offer to Help Them

Something that bugs people about networking is that it feels very ambush-y. “Give me this!” “Help me with that!” “Could you walk my resume over to your manager, stat?!” If this is how you’re going about networking, it’s no wonder that your people aren’t being helpful.

Consider instead a strategy that asks your contact for something small (say, “May I ask you two quick questions about your experience at XYZ Company?”) before you ask for a larger favor. Build rapport. Be genuine and interested. And most definitely, when you say thank you, ask if there is anything that you may do to help that person out. Reciprocity is a magnificent thing. Look into it.

4. Consider Facebook

We’ve all pretty much bum-rushed LinkedIn for career networking, and that’s not at all a bad thing. LinkedIn is, far and away, our best online resource for job search and professional networking. However, Facebook can also be supremely helpful to your cause. Think about it: Your Facebook network probably consists of your closest friends. In theory, these are the people most likely to “have your back” when you need something, like a new job. But if you never alert them that you’re looking, how can they possibly be of service? They cannot be.

Use your Facebook status update—selectively—to alert your people of what you’re doing and what you need. On your way to an interview? Let ’em know. Looking for a contact at a company of interest? Ask. You definitely want to avoid being a big, giant downer (“Stilllll no job, people”), but using Facebook strategically for networking can be a very good thing.

Certainly, if your network isn’t being particularly helpful, you may want to also think about ways to expand your professional connections, stat. But more often than not, there are so many ways you can better utilize your existing people. Try these first.

Original from the Daily Muse

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What You Should Be Doing on LinkedIn Every Month, Week, and Day

Thursday, October 2nd, 2014

Following up on our last article regarding profile pictures, this time around we’re discussing how to best utilize LinkedIn, not only for your next job, but also for your career in general:

You’ve heard it hundreds of times before (and probably will hundreds of times again): You need to be on LinkedIn.

But once you’ve created your profile, what’s next? If you’re not actively job searching, it can be easy to throw your information up there and leave it alone until you need to reach out to someone or browse open positions.

Well, that would be a big mistake. You’ll be missing out on an opportunity to stay current in your field, interact with and grow your network, and even establish yourself as a thought leader.

The good news? It doesn’t have to take a lot of effort. To keep things simple, here’s your plan for how to make the most of LinkedIn, broken down into easy, manageable chunks.

Daily

Interact With Your Homepage Feed

LinkedIn is a great way to keep up to date on industry news and see what your contacts have been up to—both great things regardless of whether you’re job searching. If you check your homepage feed regularly, this will likely be the first place you’ll see viewpoints on news in your field or a contact’s new promotion posted.

Interacting with your feed really only takes a couple minutes—just click over, scroll on down, and write a quick “congratulations” for new positions or promotions or click “like” on interesting new or articles others have posted. You’re done!

Weekly

Post Something

Aside from using LinkedIn to keep up with your network, try using it to update others on your professional achievements and interests. Target posting an update once a week: If you recently attended a conference or professional development seminar, write a quick update on what you enjoyed about it. Or, if you read something relevant to your industry, post it to the homepage feed to see what others think.

If you want to do something a bit more in depth, LinkedIn now offers a platform for you to write and post your own articles. Much like your very own professional blog, it’s a great way to get your thoughts out there and your work seen.

Add New Contacts

In case you haven’t noticed, LinkedIn is a great way to keep track of your contacts—but that only works if you’re consistently adding them as you meet them. So, set aside time once a week to send out invites (personalized, of course!) to connect on LinkedIn for the new people you meet in your day-to-day work—think vendors, people you’ve met at conferences, new co-workers or clients. Once you’ve connected, LinkedIn makes it easy to interact with your contacts’ updates as well as send personal messages when you want to reach out directly.

Monthly

Update Your Profile

While this isn’t something you have to do daily or weekly, it’s a good idea for you to keep track of any new job responsibilities or professional accomplishments and update your LinkedIn profile accordingly. Making a point to do this at least one a month ensures you’ll have an easy time updating your resume when the time comes and has the added benefit of allowing others to see your most up-to-date qualifications. Recruiters and hiring managers often scroll through LinkedIn looking for candidates, so even if you’re not actively job searching, having an impressive profile will mean that opportunities will still come your way.

Contribute to a Couple of Groups

Groups on LinkedIn are a great way to interact with professionals with similar interests or backgrounds—but they’re really only as good as you make them. Contributing to larger, better-known groups could even help you establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. Of course, that takes times, so at the very least try to catch up on what relevant groups in your field are up to at least once a month. This will help you stay current, and if you make the effort to comment or contribute to existing discussions, you may even make some new connections.

Reach Out to Old Contacts

Few things feel as sleazy as reaching out to someone only after you realize you need them for one reason or another. To avoid setting yourself up for this uncomfortable situation, regularly reach out to a handful of contacts (switch up the contacts every month) to check in with them and see how they’re doing. Offer some updates of your own, and simply make it a point to catch up. The good news is, LinkedIn makes it easy—just shoot people a quick note, and it should pop right into the email they have linked to their account. No need to worry about up-to-date contact information! Make a habit of this, and you won’t have to feel awkward about reaching out to your contacts when you do need some help.

LinkedIn is an incredibly handy tool for keeping track of contacts, what everyone has been up to, and the latest in industry news. And that’s all in addition to being a platform for you to promote your skills and expertise. So, don’t let your profile sit stagnant—make the most of it by actually using its features beyond the profile.

Original from The Daily Muse

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How Your Profile Picture is Sabotaging Your Job Search

Thursday, September 18th, 2014

Something a bit on the odd side this time around, as we investigate some fine-tuning you might need for your online profile (LinkedIn or otherwise) to enhance your passive job search:

Your head shot should add value to your profile. Fix these common mistakes to get it on the right track.

In today’s marketplace, it’s not enough to have a well-written resume and a list of great referrals; it’s essential for every job seeker to develop and actively monitor their online professional brand.

While a photo on your resume is still considered taboo, recruiters have come to expect a picture to accompany your online professional profiles. In fact, your LinkedIn profile is 40 percent more likely to get clicked on if it contains an image.

However, not just any image will do. Choose your picture strategically so that it enhances, rather than damages, your professional brand.

Below are nine profile picture pitfalls to avoid:

1. Blurry or Too Small

Ideally your photo should be 200 x 200 pixels or larger. Anything smaller and you’re guaranteed to end up with a fuzzy or teeny tiny image that just screams unprofessional. I recommend choosing a square head shot, as it’s sure to work with all your professional social media accounts.

2. Too Close or Too Far Away

Stick with a standard head shot for your profile pic. Prospective employers and those in your professional network have no desire to examine your dental work, and a shot from far away won’t help them identify you at an event or interview.

3. The Group Shot

Remember, this picture is supposed to represent your professional brand – no one else’s. Don’t make recruiters guess which person you are in the photo. Use an image that shows you and only you.

4. The Crop

Cropping yourself out of the group shot doesn’t work either. While it may be your favorite picture, no one wants to see half of your loved one’s face or your best friend’s hair on your shoulder. Stick to a solo shot that doesn’t require Photoshop.

5. Bad Lighting

Not only do these pictures look creepy, but they are certainly not providing employers with a positive, professional first impression.

6. Too Serious

Opt for photos where you’re looking at the camera and smiling. You don’t necessarily need a cheesy grin on your face, but you want to appear friendly and approachable. The “glamor shots” aren’t doing you any favors.

7. Goofy Expressions

Remember, this image is supposed to represent your professional brand. When you look at your profile photo, does it send the same message as your resume?

8. Pet or Baby Pic

Yes, your puppy is adorable and your family is beautiful. However, that’s not what your professional network or a prospective employer needs to know about you. Save these cute pics for your personal social-media channels such as Facebook or Instagram. Stick to a photo of yourself for your professional profiles.

9. No Photo

As mentioned earlier, recruiters today expect to find a head shot with your professional profile. The first thing recruiters and hiring managers notice is your photo… or lack of one. If you have no photo, their initial thought might be, “What is this person trying to hide?”

If you’re concerned that including your photo could cause people to discriminate against you, I urge you to carefully weigh the benefits and drawbacks of the profile photo before making a final decision. The right image can reinforce your brand and help viewers connect more easily with your profile.

Overall Best Practices

Use a recent head shot that meets the file type and size and pixel size recommended by each site. Consider your outfit, the background of the shot, and the lighting to ensure it reflects your current professional brand and career goals.

Having no photo is better than uploading one that doesn’t project the right image, so put some thought into the picture you choose to represent your professional brand.

Original from the Ladders.

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Top 10 Personal Branding Blunders To Avoid

Thursday, July 10th, 2014

The world of personal branding has certainly changed over the past decade or so, especially with the impact of social media. It’s no longer enough to make an impression in person or on the phone; now you have to be sure your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and numerous other online presences are all coordinated and professional, to avoid presenting the wrong image to potential employers and clients who might be snooping around.

In this somewhat more complicated branding landscape, there are countless possible brand blunders one can make that detract from brand value rather than building it. Below are ten of the most egregious errors so you can steer clear of them, keeping the brand called you on a smooth path to success.

1. Be fake. Effective personal branding is based in authenticity. You need to be yourself – your best self. You’ll be found out if you try to fool people by imitating something you’re not or lying to your target audience. Just think about Milli Vanilli, Rosie Ruiz, and Lance Armstrong. Faking it is also a waste of energy. Anne Morrow Lindbergh once said, “The most exhausting thing you can be is inauthentic.”

2. Be wishy-washy. Strong brands express an opinion and take a stand. If you are trying to please all the people, you usually please none. Want to inspire people and connect with them on a deep level? Get clear about your point of view and make it public. Be willing to repel some people – all strong brands do. Know your message and be willing to stick your neck out and express yourself.

3. Act first. Think later. When it comes to personal branding, I see people building Blogs, using social media, and joining associations without any strategic plan for how it will help them build their brand and achieve their goals. Successful branding requires having a plan. Don’t act until you think – and make your decisions based on your brand strategy. Start by identifying your goals. Then get to know yourself, understand your differentiation, and discern what makes you compelling. You have to establish your brand promise before you can start to build the brand itself with your target audience.

4. Shoot for quantity. It’s not about the quantity of random LinkedIn connections or the number of articles you write or the number of tweets you post. Don’t seek quantity at the expense of quality. Quality is what will make your communications stand out and attract those whom you need to influence. Quality will get you noticed and help you build the right following. There’s tremendous pressure to be constantly visible in lots of social media, so our instinct is to just post, post, post without regard to the message we are sending or the suitability of our audience. Avoid this trap by focusing on quality.

5. Seek fame and glory. Branding is not about you, it’s about serving others. Fame is difficult to achieve, and if you make it your goal, you’ll focus too much on the attention you crave instead of focusing on the value you can deliver. You only need to be known to the people who are making decisions about you and those who influence them. I call it selective fame. Work to be known by decision-makers and influencers who will help you reach your goals.

6. Be binary. Branding requires a steady and steadfast approach. Being binary means that you divide your attention and run a two-track career, perhaps even thinking of branding as an activity that is separate from your career. Personal branding is not something you do occasionally with bursts of activity – like at the beginning of the year when you begin to work on your resolutions. Have a single, focused plan and act on it daily. Don’t let yourself run out of steam; slow, consistent actions will sustain you for the long haul.

7. Be exclusively virtual. Personal branding actually went mainstream when social media came onto the scene. This left many people thinking that personal branding is an online activity. It’s not – at least not exclusively. Sure, having a digital strategy for your brand is critical, but your actions every day and the things you can do in the real world matter. Shaking hands and scheduling face time (and I’m not talking about an online video meeting) bring your brand to life. You must put your personal stamp on everything you do. Think of your brand holistically, and you’re on your way to achieving your goals.

8. Go solo. Personal branding sounds like it should be an individual activity, and it is “personal,” but it’s not solo. The Lone Ranger syndrome will work against you. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. Much of the personal branding process has to do with being part of a community and contributing to that community. This is the key to building your personal brand network. Have a mentor, hire a coach, and reach out to colleagues and friends for their opinions. Don’t go it alone.

9. Be selfish. Personal branding is not about you. It’s about what you’re able to give to others. Generosity is one of the best strategies for personal branding. When you give to your network, you remind them you are there through actions that also demonstrate how grateful you are for your success. When you give to your team, you show them you care. When you give away your services, you let people discover firsthand what you’re great at.

10. Forget to measure. You could be spinning your wheels, but you won’t know unless you measure. That means setting up-front goals for your personal branding activities. Your goals might be the number of thought-leaders in your area of expertise who know you, or the influence you create internally, or being recognized by a relevant professional association. Whatever your goals, document them. Focus on them. And measure your momentum as you strive towards them. Regularly – say quarterly or monthly – evaluate your progress against your goals – and refine your strategy accordingly.

If you avoid these personal branding don’ts, you can make a name for yourself that fuels your success for years to come.

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Crafting Your Online Presence

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

The average person is spending more time on the internet than they ever before. Life revolves around social media accounts like Twitter, Naymz, Linkedin, and Facebook. In reality, having a profile on any of these social media sites is like virtually exposing yourself to the world and they can be just as important to your online image as your attire and manner are to your offline image. Therefore, you need to keep these accounts well-managed, updated at all times, and free from images or information that might put you in a bad light.

Social media is a great way to make initial contact with potential business associates and to effectively manage a much larger network than would be possible offline. It is also likely that, unbeknownst to you, your social media profiles are being checked by prospective and current employers, head hunters, and so forth. Thus, social media is a double-edged sword: it can work for your benefit but if not managed properly can lead to missed job opportunities or even termination.

The best way to work with social media is to ensure it works positively for you at all times. The following tips will help you receive the maximum benefit from your online presence and avoid negative results:

  1. Avoid uploading inappropriate photos. A holiday snapshot with your family is fine but one where you are improperly dressed or engaged in inappropriate activity (drinking, partying, etc.) might damage your professional image. With the internet, these sorts of things can potentially go viral in a hurry and you should never assume anything is private after you’ve posted it somewhere on the net.

  2. Be careful about giving your opinions and views on certain subjects in public places. You’ve probably seen a number of celebrities and public figures lately who have regretted posting something on Twitter that ended up costing them a great deal, even their jobs.

  3. If you maintain a personal blog, understand that it may be visited by anyone in the world (including your boss). It is best to keep the content unbiased and steer away from any racist, political, or religious issues or negative comments about the company you work for (or your boss, for that matter). You could also utilize your blog to discuss relevant industry topics and as a place to show off your technical knowledge.

A consistent online presence is important and even some modest efforts will help ensure that your online brand matches not only your offline image but also the professional persona you want to portray to the world. With recruiters and potential employers lurking about the web, it pays to be prudent and proactive.

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Job Search Tips from a Recruiter’s Perspective

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

Searching for a new job can be exciting or filled with anxiety, depending on when you enter the market. If you are exploring your options while you’re still employed, then the process might be enjoyable, as you look to map out your career from behind the safety of a monthly paycheck. But when you’re unemployed for whatever reason and need to find a job immediately to pay the rent, it can be a very trying time. No matter what the circumstances are, it can be helpful to turn for advice to the people who are basically always on a job search, if only for other people: recruiters. Here are a few valuable tips from the world of recruiting to help simplify your job search and increase your chances for success:

  • Job boards are not obsolete; they are just changing with the times. If they were dead, then no new jobs would be showing up on them each day (and hundreds, if not thousands, of them clearly are). These boards and their databases still serve as a central repository for job opportunities and a talent pool for potential hiring mangers. Do not avoid them; use them wisely.
  • Only apply for a job when your skills, background, and experience are a good fit. The Application Tracking Software (ATS) employed by most companies will filter out your resume immediately if it is not carefully worded and in line with the job description. Understanding how the various ATS applications work is an important part of the job search and realizing that you are not only dealing with human beings but also “robots” will help you to determine what roles to apply for and how to frame your resume for a particular role in order to pass through the automated filter into the hands of the decision makers.
  • Don’t just sit back idly and wait for a response after you’ve submitted your resume. Allow for some time to pass (at most a week) and then follow up with the recruiter or the company. Be polite but persistent until they inform you of a decision.
  • Most recruiters will not reply back to you with a negative response, only communicating if the response is positive. But to be sure, wait for a week and follow up via email or phone (as sometimes there are delays in the process on the client side). If the recruiter indicates the hiring manager is not interested in moving forward, but you still think you are a good fit, you may also apply online at the prospective employer’s web site (where available) or job board posting.
  • Most companies also invite referrals from existing employees. It is therefore very important to stay connected and network within the industry in order to be positioned for a referral should a new role open up.
  • You should not shy away from seeking referrals (many companies prefer to hire this way). A referral is a very potent tool and social media tools like LinkedIn and Facebook are a good way to stay connected, seek recommendations on your past work, and generate an online brand that will keep you at the forefront of your network’s collective mind for potential referrals. In other words, you want the people in your network to think of you first when a new role opens up so that they are ready to pass you along immediately.

In summary, applying through job boards, no matter what you may hear, is not useless. However, keep in mind that most recruiters do not rely solely on job boards to find candidates. They now look for talented passive candidates via other means, including LinkedIn and various other online and offline networking portals. So don’t just depend on the job board; move and mingle in the industry and sooner or later the right job will be yours!

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