Sunday, March 31, 2013

How to make a personal networking card



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How to make a personal networking card (idea gleaned from Beltway Job Search Partners) 
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Using a business card wizard from Word or another software program, 

On the front of the card:
  • Start out with your LinkedIn headliner
  • Add pertinent contact information (including email and LinkedIn addresses and personal website if you have one that is applicable to the opportunity being sought)
  • If applicable, insert some "branding" logos that people can visually identify with as to who you have worked for and or with.
  • Insert your 5 "key words" traits...what characterizes you in a nutshell...at the bottom to finish off the front of the card.  
On the back of the card
  • Select your 5 top FAV (Facts, Accomplishments and Value) traits to summarize in 1 or 2 lines for each the 5 top transferable skills and value you can IMMEDIATELY bring to a company.   
Get the cards printed professionally or if you have a quality printer (ideally color) go a business supply store and get perforated stock business cards to make your own cards.  I went to Sam's club and purchased for $36 a business card packet that makes 1000 cards.  The link is: 
....and I was up and running in about 2 hours.  Very handy to leave with folks.  

The key in today's tight job market is network, network, network...because people hire people... and if your first impression with others is "you"...not solely a written resume or job application...maybe only initially seen by a compute doing a "key word" search... your opportunity of finding a job in the hidden job market is increased exponentially. 




How To Find 6-Figure Jobs In The Hidden Job Market


Excellent post found at:
http://www.careerealism.com/hidden-job-market-find-jobs/
So, how can you tap into this ‘hidden job market‘ anyway? Here’s some insight:

The Hidden Job Market Defined

So ,what exactly is the hidden job market? This refers to positions that are filled without ever being advertised. Since this represents the majority of positions, it makes sense for job seekers to learn how to reverse engineer a job search and take proactive control.
Job seekers should focus efforts toward identifying those companies that match their target and then reach out to introduce themselves. There is an art to this, but with a little effort job seekers can tap into a huge pool of jobs with less completion and often more salary negotiation room – because once jobs make it to a job board, the process (salary/job description/requirements) becomes more solidified.

The Hidden Job Market And Networking

Many job seekers are led to believe the hidden job market is a code word for networking. Actually, pure networking can add months to a job search, if that is the only method used – turning that word so many career pros tout into another frustrating and expensive alternative to job boards.
To compound this, many job seekers believe networking means asking everyone they know if they are aware of any companies that are hiring and handing their resume out.  You will notice this method, too, is very passive and puts someone else in control of the job search process.
Again, tapping into the pool of hidden jobs means taking more leadership than usual, and that is achieved by initiating a self-directed approach.
Networking is important to master because it is a part of many job search strategies, but it is backed up by recognizing shared goals and asking for informational interviews – not open positions. This way, if there are open positions, the lines of communication are open – plus, you will open the door to connect with professionals who can help in other ways.

Strategies For Tapping Into The Hidden Job Market

Now we know the hidden job market is not code for “do more networking.”
The question is – how does one find and capitalize on unadvertised jobs?
The short answer: Find companies within a particular industry and contact the key decision maker directly.
Before a job seeker does this, he or she must have a focus in order to craft a value proposition. Your value proposition is essentially, “the promise of an experience that a potential employer is going to have by hiring you” and this is supported by quantifiable achievements. Many job seekers find it difficult to quantify their accomplishments – often referencing the task oriented nature of the position they hold. However, I have found that struggles to quantify achievements is as easy as shifting ones focus from “what you do” to “what happens when you do it”. Most all employed professionals make or save their employers money – even if they don’t think of themselves that way.
Value propositions in the form of letters or resumes that show results are REALLY interesting to key decision makers (meaning – executives high up enough that they are primarily focused on strategies for revenue generation, cost savings and growth).
With social media and “free” tools like Google, It is extremely fast and easy to find companies and key contact names in most every industry and geographic location. Job seekers can also use associations and online trade journals to develop their list of companies to reach out to.
Job seekers can “track” growth in various industries using Google News Alerts. Contacting companies for a reason such as winning an award, being acquired or going through a merger, releasing a product, strong growth or profit reports or a corporate move or expansion are all exceptional reasons to explain why one is reaching out,  and shows the job seeker as a professional with tremendous initiative.
No matter what is happening in the economy, one thing is true: Companies will ALWAYS be interested in hiring professionals who can demonstrate they can help make or save money. That is why the hidden job market offers abundant opportunities to maximize leverage and minimize “liabilities” and competition. Perhaps the best thing about unadvertised positions is that no matter if you are looking for a new grad job, if you are a mid-level manager or a senior executive – the hidden job market is THE place to fully leverage your career opportunities

The P.E.P. Talk

This article is part of our P.E.P. Talk Series. Over the next month, some of the brightest and best authors, business professionals, and coaches are coming together to share their valuable advice for breaking free of “The Golden Handcuff Effect” so you can take full ownership of your careers and experience Professional Emancipation.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

10 Tips For People Who Hate Networking

Excellent post found at:

http://www.careerealism.com/hate-networking-tips/

Networking for People Who Hate Networking (Berrett-Koehler 2010), which is translated into 11 languages, offers a completely new – and infinitely more effective take – on networking. Networking isn’t about working a room or telling everyone how fabulous you are. Real networking is building meaningful, lasting, mutually beneficial connections one person at a time.
This new and improved definition of networking means being true to you; capitalizing on your strengths, and tossing aside ‘rules’ that don’t match your temperament. The book’s self-assessment identifies your networking style. However, here are a few tidbits designed especially for you:

1. Be True To You

You are better qualified to be you than anyone else. Stamp out networking advice that demands you behave in ways that drain you. Harness natural abilities as networking strengths rather than liabilities. Like to listen, not talk? Do it. Energize alone? Go for it. Prefer one-on-one conversation? Arrange it.

2. Realize Less Is More

Be selective. Go to fewer events and be more focused when attending – rather than dragging your weary self to every business opportunity and showing up like a networking prisoner.

3. Plan Your First Impression

Cognitive scientists say it can take up to 200 times the amount of information to undo a first impression as it takes to make one. Who has that kind of spare time? Not you! Show up with the best version of you, every time. You never know who you are meeting.

4. Volunteer

Many of us dislike networking events because we don’t know what to say to a group of strangers. Free floating through a room is a fast track to free-floating anxiety. What to do? Simple. Volunteer to help out. Voila! You have a purpose and something to talk about. Even better, you position yourself as someone helpful – proving how indispensable you are rather than telling everyone about it.

5. Get In Line

This strategy is brilliant. You walk into a networking event with nowhere to go and no one to glom onto. What’s a desperate networker to do? Get in a queue. Any queue. The longer the better!
Why? A queue gives you a place to put your body and a temporary purpose in the world. There are only two people to talk with – the person in front and person behind you. There is a reward – whatever is given out at the front of the queue. And a natural ending – the front of the queue. Nice meeting you!  Ta-ta!

6. Set Challenging Yet Achievable Networking Goals

Well-formed goals vary by personality. At a networking event, task yourself with meeting one or two people, not a dozen. And follow up (see #10!).

7. Show Don’t Tell

Rather than boring others with a canned advert of how marvelous you are, demonstrate live-time your fabulous self. Be useful and gracious. Greet others with a warm smile and leap at every chance to be helpful.

8. Research

Rather than wandering cavernous expo halls at industry events, do your pre-work. Learn in advance what organizations are of particular interest. Spend more time with fewer people. Impress key targets with your knowledge of who they are and why you are a perfect match.

9. Listen

Ever sense your remarks just shoot off a cliff and crash to the ground? Who needs that kind of pressure? Instead focus on those around you, asking thoughtful questions. Network via a sincere interest in others rather than promoting your fine self.

10. Follow-Up Or Forget About It

If you’re not following up, you’re not networking! We forget half of what we hear within 48 hours. Write personalized follow-up within two days or risk having your brilliant remarks erased permanently from the minds of those you wowed. If you’re not following up, you’re not networking.
Good luck out there! See you at a networking event. I’ll be standing alone by the buffet. Come say hi!

The P.E.P. Talk

This article is part of our P.E.P. Talk Series. Over the next month, some of the brightest and best authors, business professionals, and coaches are coming together to share their valuable advice for breaking free of “The Golden Handcuff Effect” so you can take full ownership of your careers and experience Professional Emancipation.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Top 10 Career Tips for Young Professionals

excellent post found at:

http://careerhorizons.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/top-10-career-tips-for-young-professionals/

Posted: 12 Mar 2013 04:27 PM PDT
Tell you what, I’ll meet you halfway on this.  Having recently been asked by a local non-profit to prepare a presentation on the “Top 10 Tips for Young Professionals” to be delivered in April, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on the best advice I could give to aspiring professionals who are just starting out in the working world.  Given the I routinely work with people who are older and more established in their careers, it’s an intriguing challenge to tease out the advice that might be most appropriate to this particular age group.
Up to this point, I’ve come up with five pieces of advice I feel pretty comfortable with — and passionate about sharing — and I have a number of ideas I’m milling around in my head to see if I think they’d resonate with the type of audience in question.  But if any of you have worked closely with people in this demographic, or can catapult yourself back to the early days of your own career and envision things you’d wish YOU’D known when you were just starting out, I’d certainly love to hear your comments/ideas!
Here are some thoughts I’ve cobbed together thus far:
1)  Drop the entitlement attitude and be willing to pay your dues.  In my experience, and that of many hiring managers I’ve chatted with, twentysomethings can frequently come across as having unrealistic unexpectations about their marketability, titles, and earning potential when just starting out.  In fact, I’ve met a number of new graduates who seem to expect to slide right into the corner office, their very first year on the job, versus fetching coffee or doing whatever needs to be done to get ahead in the organization.  Until Gen Y rules the world, however, this attitude is going to continue to be the bane of many early-career professionals.  While a certain amount of confidence is admirable, most younger candidates will get farther, faster if they drop the attitude and show a willingness to bust their butt for their next potential employer. Language like “I’m willing to pay my dues” or ” I just need a chance to prove myself” tends to strike a major happy chord with many managers over the age of 40.  After all, most of us bet on ourselves in this fashion, back in the day — and this sweat equity ended up paying off with opportunities to quickly advance!
2)  Milk your education for all it’s worth.  If you went to college, you (or your parents) likely spent a LOT of money on your education these past few years.  Make sure you maximize this investment during the course of your job search.  Don’t short-change yourself by simply listing your degree in one-line fashion.  Deck your education section out fully and mention any honors, activities, special projects, or specific courses/classwork you completed that might be relevant to your future target field.  What’s more, go the extra mile by engaging in a concentrated course of self-study related to the jobs you’re trying to get — listing some of the books, blogs, professional associations, and other learning sources you’re consulting regularly to “get smart” on your desired occupation in a hurry.  Oh yeah.  And the career center and/or alumni office of your alma mater?  Leverage the heck out of it to build some bridges into the working world.  Such resources seem to be chronically underutilized.
3)  Skew your efforts toward organizations that hire young professionals.   Simple data mining makes it easy to find companies that routinely hire younger candidates with little or no experience.  Search LinkedIn for people with the title “campus recruiter” in their profile.  Keep your eyes peeled for organizations that host campus job fairs or sponsor promotional events aimed at student populations.  Pay attention (duh) to the places where lots of your classmates get hired.  And scan job sites like SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com for relevant keyword/phrases: e.g. new graduates, entry-level, no experience, willing to train, management training program, and any other terms that might signal an organization willing to hire somebody without a ton of hands-on experience.
4)  Ditch Facebook; learn LinkedIn.  Okay, sure, Facebook can definitely play a role in effective networking and many companies are starting to use the site more in more in a professional capacity.  But at the end of the day, LinkedIn is still light-years ahead in terms of being a viable job-finding resource.  So if you (or your college-age child) still hasn’t learned the difference between these two social media sites, and isn’t leveraging LinkedIn to engender referrals to the right kinds of people around town, this could be a huge area for improvement.  No matter what field a young professional might be seeking to enter, you’ll find thousands of relevant recruiters, executives, and hiring managers on LinkedIn who might be a mere one or two “warm” relationships away — and ripe for referral possibilities.
5)  Do lots of informational interviewing; just don’t call it that!  Others may disagree with me on this one, but after seeing decade after decade of new graduates go through the motions of asking for “informational interviews” with companies — without really following through or having a clear agenda — I think the phrase itself has lost its luster.  Not to mention the fact that the term was invented well before we had the ability to jump on a company’s website and absorb as much “information” as we could ever possibly want about an organization, their products, and how they do business.  So while doing serious career research is still an important part of success for the ambitious new graduate, and a way to acquire invaluable advice from people already established in a given field, don’t go about it lightly.  Do your homework first, formulate some intelligent questions, and then (and only then) approach some appropriate industry veterans to ask for “career advice” and help validating some “career research” you’ve conducted.  Show a little spunk, conduct the meeting successfully, and who knows?  That positive impression might get you on the short list for a potential new role or lead to the perfect job referral!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Inspiring story of gifted son and dedicated dad

Amazing story of gifted son and committed Dad,,,who works the graveyard shift at UPS to serve his son.




Monday, March 11, 2013

6 Eye-Tracking Secrets That Will Get Resumes Read

Helpful post on resumes tips found at:

http://www.careerealism.com/resumes-eye-tracking-secrets/

This article is part of an exclusive month-long program on CAREEREALISM to help readers break free of The Golden Handcuff Effect. Click HERE to learn more about the Professional Emancipation Project, a.k.a. The P.E.P. Talk.
Technology is giving us clues into how people read online resumes—how their eyes travel over the page, where they pause, what they move to next. Dr. Jakob Nielsen, a pioneer in the field of usability, conducted an eye-tracking study on the reading habits of web users. The research study displayed that participants exhibited an F-shaped pattern when scanning web content.
Resumes Eye-Tracking Secrets
With this “F factor” in mind, when you are composing your resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letters, or other career-comm documents, think about how you can position key information and impressive accomplishments in these areas. Doing so will increase the likelihood of readability and comprehension for recruiters and hiring managers.
Here are six secrets to leverage the “F factor” in resumes:

1. Use Keyword In Headings And Subheadings

Choose keywords for headings and subheadings when possible. For example, instead of “Professional Experience” as a category heading on your resume, consider “Sales Management Experience” or “Customer Service Experience” or other appropriate title. As recruiters scan the resume headings, they’ll get an extra dose of the keywords they’re looking for.

2. Position Impact Statements Near The Company Name

Since readers look for company names and dates as part of their first impression, consider adding a key impact statement or accomplishment between the company name (on left side of resume) and the date (on right side of resume), as this example with yellow highlighting shows:
Resumes Eye-Tracking Secrets

3. Lead With Info-Carrying Information

Front-load paragraphs and bullet points with info-carrying words, accomplishments, and/or numbers. For example, instead of saying “Developed strategy to boost untapped VA contract from $250K to $2.5M”, lead with “10-fold increase: Built VA contract from $250K to $2.5M.”

4. Use Graphics To Convey Key Information

Consider adding a graph or chart to convey important information. A picture IS worth a thousand words!

5. Keep Key Info Above The Fold

Keep the meatiest information up high on the page. Even though many resumes are read on a computer screen, the information near the first third to half of the page is still the most important real estate on the page/screen.

6. Center Important Points Near “F” Bars

Consider centering key information in a text-box, as the example below shows.
Resumes Eye-Tracking Secrets
Review your resume today and consider potential tweaks to increase its readability. Getting the “F Factor” into your resume may earn you an “A” in your job search!

The P.E.P. Talk

This article is part of our P.E.P. Talk Series. Over the next month, some of the brightest and best authors, business professionals, and coaches are coming together to share their valuable advice for breaking free of “The Golden Handcuff Effect” so you can take full ownership of your careers and experience Professional Emancipation.
P.E.P Talk
Careers author, speaker, and trainer, Susan Britton Whitcomb is a leading authority and media resource on career coach certification via www.TheAcademies.com.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock

About Contributing Writer

Our contributing writers are professionals whose content was viewed as valuable and entertaining by our editorial team and deemed worthy of sharing with our readers.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

5 Ways to Find Joy in a Job You Don't Love

Helpful truth if you find yourself in a job you don't love found at:

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2687328215255594243#editor/target=post;postID=5091696420356734527


JOSEPH RHEA|12:01 AM CT

Working a job you love is a wonderful thing. To be sure, all gardens this side of the Fall have thistles and weeds, but doing a job that fits you, that excites you, feels different. It fills you, gives you a sense you're doing what God meant you to do.

But what do you do when you get stuck in a job you don't love? When you're waiting for a better one to come along, feel called to stay in certain work, or aren't yet qualified for a job you think you might enjoy more? Is it possible to keep getting up day after day and actually have joy in your work?
Scripture promises that we can have joy through any work. Ecclesiastes 2:24 says work is a gift of God, and it is good to "find enjoyment in [it]"—the Hebrew literally reads, "make his soul see the good in [it]." Some jobs will make this joy easy for us; some won't. But God wills that we make our souls see the good in our work, whatever it may be. We may never become heel-clicking happy about our job, but it is possible for us to have robust joy in it.
Here are five ways to cultivate joy in less-than-ideal jobs:
1. Repent of "ideal jobolatry."
It's a gift to be doing work you truly love. But if we dream about our ideal job and start saying, "I will be truly happy when I'm doing ______," we elevate work to a functional savior and give it the place in our hearts reserved only for Christ. 
No job will make you happy in and of itself. Ecclesiastes, an ever-reliable bucket of ice water to the face, tells us, "What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. . . . This also is vanity" (2:22-3). Watch yourself for the beginnings of "ideal jobolatry" and turn from them, reminding yourself that joy depends entirely and only on Jesus Christ.
2. Fill yourself with Scripture and prayer daily.
Christians ought to be practicing these disciplines anyway, but believers in unpleasant work environments especially need this reminder. Every difficult environment is like a soul-desert—it dries us out, sapping life rather than giving it.
Jeremiah 17:5-8 tells us that the one who makes flesh his strength will have a soul like a parched shrub. By contrast, though she faces heat and drought, the one "whose trust is the Lord" plants her roots in a life-giving stream and does not wither. Psalm 1:1-3 uses a similar image specifically to describe our relationship to God's Wordfeasting on God's Word enables us to bear arid spiritual climates. Meditating on Scripture—not just reading it, but thoughtfully and prayerfully digesting it into our souls—provides us with soul-nutrition that can help us through tough job situations.
Praying throughout the day connects us to God. Think back over your morning meditations. Remind yourself of the gospel with simple prayers like "Abba, Father/I belong to Thee" and "Jesus, Son of David/Have mercy on me, a sinner."
3. Invest in the tasks and the relationships of your work.
It's easy to be tempted to slack in a job you don't enjoy. But we're actually commanded to "work heartily" in everything we do, "knowing that from the Lord [we] will receive the inheritance as [our] reward" (Col. 3:23-4). And when we take ownership of a job and strive to do our best in it, we come to enjoy it more. See God as your true boss. Remind yourself that he is the one from whom you hope to be rewarded.
Investing in your work community can also cultivate joy. If you work with Christians, these relationships may come easily. If you work with mainly nonbelievers, give thanks for this natural way to minister to neighbors outside the church. And look for ways to invest redemptively in your work relationships. I've worked in offices where most of the water-cooler conversation involved complaining or gossip. Resist the temptation to remain silent and disengage. Challenge yourself to find ways to introduce loving or pleasant conversations into your workplace.
4. Contemplate the goodness of your job.
It's easy to think of the unpleasant aspects of a job we already dislike. Dwelling on them reinforces our dislike. But most jobs somehow harmonize with God's redemptive work in creation.
Does your work bring order out of chaos? Then you're in effect gardening, in line with the command to fill and subdue the earth. Does your job involve correcting errors? Then you're establishing justice, which is part of God's character. Even if your work doesn't resonate with your sense of calling, look for a way in which it does something good and connect that to the goodness of God. 
5. Remind yourself that your identity is in Christ, not your job.
We tend to define ourselves by our work. "What do you do?" is one of the first five questions we ask people we meet, and it chafes us to say something like, "I park cars." We must not esteem ourselves (and others) highly or lowly depending on how we perceive our jobs (and theirs).
Paul wrote to the Philippians, "For [Jesus'] sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him" (3:8-9). If your job feels beneath you, remind yourself that you belong to God through the sacrificial death of Jesus alone. You have infinite value to God because of Jesus. Find yourself in Christ alone, and you will find joy in any job circumstance.
Joseph Rhea recently completed his Master of Divinity from Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. He and his wife, Allison, belong to Redeemer Community Church, and he is pursuing ministry work.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

It’s Better To Be Faithful Than Gifted

Excellent post from Mark Altrogge's site:

http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2013/03/its-better-to-be-faithful-than-gifted.html




The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Proverbs 13:4
We may “crave” to grow spiritually, but it won’t happen without diligent effort.  Of course we don’t work to earn our salvation or God’s approval or favor – that’s all of grace.  But we must be faithful to pursue God as well.  It is the diligent person – the one who keeps on plodding day after day, faithfully reading her Bible, praying, fellowshipping, listening to messages – who will have her soul richly supplied.
In the Parable of the talents the master expected his servants to be faithful with small amounts he gave each of them.  He said to each of the servants who had been diligent, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
There aren’t many superstars in the kingdom of God. Not many have super gifts. Most of us are just average.  Gifted in small ways. But if we are faithful to use the gifts we have and serve in whatever ways we can, God will increase us.
Even in the world diligence and faithfulness matter more than talent. Many of the most successful people have hundreds of failures in their fields.  But they keep trying and trying.
Here are a few quotes from The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE by Thomas J. Peters
(1) To succeed, you have to try more stuff than the other guy—fast. (2) If you try more stuff in a hurry, you’ll make lots of mistakes. (It’s an Iron Law of Nature.) (3) Hence, screwing up a lot is a very good sign of progress—perhaps the only sure sign. (4) If we aim to (more or less) maximize screw-ups, then we must do more than “tolerate” screw-ups. (5) We must “encourage” screw-ups. (6) We must cel-e-brate screw-ups!
As Les Wexner, founder of Limited Brands, once told me: “In fashion, your batting average is never anywhere near 1000. Your strikeouts will always, over time, surpass your hits—especially your home runs. So a buyer with no mistakes is taking no chances—the kiss of death in this business; and cause for a poor evaluation. The buyer who will hit home runs, like power hitters in baseball, will also have a bushel of swinging strikeouts. I will in fact reward those swinging strikeouts—as the price of the home runs that are required for our growth.”
“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” —Winston Churchill
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” —Michael Jordan
If diligence and faithfulness are so important in the world, then let us disciples of Jesus be diligent to pursue him, use our gifts, and serve others.
It is better to read your Bible 15 minutes a day than once a week for two hours. Small acts of faithfulness add up over time.  If you give $1 a day  to the poor, that’s $365 a year.  In 10 years almost $4000.  Most of us could not pray for two hours straight, but 15 minutes a day is almost 2 hours in a week.  Read one page a day of a spiritual book or a biography – 365 pages in a year.  That’s a pretty big book.  One short encouraging email a day would be…well, you get the idea.
What is one small thing you could begin to practice today?