Posted: 14 Mar 2010 05:22 AM PDT

Sandra Lamb of Sandra Lamb Consulting Inc., in Denver points out that interviews hone your ability to think on your feet, to answer unexpected questions . . . a valuable workplace skill that (enables you to) think creatively, brainstorm effectively, self-edit, summarize effectively and act decisively. This is why arranging and participating in exploratory interviews can be an extremely valuable learning experience.

Youre also likely to develop or improve interpersonal skills. Alan De Back, author of Get Hired in a Tough Market (McGraw-Hill, $16.95), maintains that the interpersonal strategies and rapport-building used in searching for a job are also critical to moving ahead in the workplace. Even if you have the best technical skills in the world, you may be passed over for a promotion or other internal opportunity if youre viewed as abrasive or difficult to work with.

One of these skills -- being pleasant -- might appear to waste time when youre focused on interviewing and getting an offer. In fact, a pleasant manner takes you far in a workplace when many people are feeling overextended. You become good company in the office or on a team, and it takes little effort.

Long-term investment

Another highly important skill you can take into the workplace is documentation, particularly in networking, Sarikas points out. The method she advocates is simple but requires diligence, just like any other marketing campaign. To keep it as simple as possible, she advises you to:

• set a number of informational interviews each week, new referrals, new LinkedIn connections and people you touch base with among new and existing contacts.

• avoid wasting time and creating unnecessary frustration by centralizing your information on one computer, flash drive or planner book.

• develop a spreadsheet on computer or paper with columns identifying the person, the company, referral sources, date and content of the conversation, date and method by which you followed up and when youre to re-contact the person.

• consider using contact management software, which will remind you automatically when to re-establish contact.

• analyze your contact times and failed times to determine exactly when to call people. You get to know the people who sit at their desk and eat lunch, Sarikas comments.

Will this detailed project produce? She cites students who obtained plums by connecting with people, learning that there was an opening and re-connecting. Of course, the method also works for the hidden job market, where you speak with an employer who told you when to recontact him and learn that a need has arisen, even before a job is listed.

Sarikas tells people to ask the hiring manager what success looks like and document it once on the job. That record will provide meat for your next performance review. The same documentation skills transfer easily if youre in sales or customer relations/support. People who manage projects or cross-functional teams can track whos committed to what by when, Sarikas adds.

When you do land your job, look back on what you learned. Rather than closing the door on your search, build continuity with the skills you enhanced and take them to the job.

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

Job hunting? Clean up your Web world Tacoma Library at ... - Tacoma News Tribune

Posted: 14 Mar 2010 12:11 AM PST

If you want a job, take down the Facebook photo of you sucking a joint on your birthday and delete that blog post about how you'd like to torch the house of your boss.

Social media sites can help or hinder a job search, says career training coach Paul Anderson. Hunters in today's tough job market need to know the difference.

Anderson will share his tips on how job seekers can use social media to their advantage in one of a series of employment workshops at the Tacoma Public Library. He'll present "Job Seeker 2.0: Building Strategic Relationships Through Social Media" at the library's main branch in downtown Tacoma on March 27.

Anderson, a career coach for seven years, founded his Redmond-based, ProLango Consulting Inc. in 2008 after earlier working as a manager at Expedia and Microsoft.

Job hunters can land a job without social media, Anderson said, but correct use of the sites enhances their professional image. If a potential employer scours the web for an applicant and turns up nothing, it can reduce trust in the candidate.

"With today's economy, it has become almost impossible to not have a social media and personal branding presence," Anderson said. "Candidates need to manage their own image and their careers. The social media sites allow one to do this."

Hiring managers are overwhelmed sorting through hundreds of resumes for a single opening. That makes it all the more crucial for applicants to stand out.

"A lot of job seekers are using approaches that might have worked two years ago," Anderson said. They're applying online for advertised jobs on Monster.com, careerbuilder.com, and individual company Web sites. Yet, national estimates are that only 15 percent of positions are filled by online applicants, while the remainder are hired through word of mouth, networking, and relationships.

Far too many applicants inadvertently send themselves to the cyberspace trash can.

Anderson routinely talks with recruiters and hiring managers who eliminate candidates after checking their personal Web sites as part of the screening process.

New "applicant tracking systems" automatically search the Web and spit out social media pages, news articles, photos and whatever else lies on a candidate's Internet trail. Sometimes the revelations include pages the user intended to be private.

"They find candidates all the time bad-mouthing their employers on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace," he said. "They'll post inappropriate photos – maybe they got drunk with friends for fun. The employer says, 'Do I really want that person working for me?' "

Even seemingly innocent information can raise a red flag.

Some employers use the real estate site Zillow.com to weed out candidates living too far away. Or, if the company plans to relocate a candidate in the future, they can guess which applicants are likely to move based on how long they've owned their home, Anderson said.

But the Web also can be a job hunter's friend, revealing openings that aren't yet widely advertised, or that may never be.

Instead of paying to advertise through an online employment site, many firms now announce jobs on Twitter, and direct applicants to their company site, Anderson said. A prospective graphic designer, for instance, could search Twitter for "Seattle" and "graphic designer" and see jobs pop up.

Smart job seekers turn to the Internet to develop their personal "brand," the professional identity they want the world to see.

Using a business networking site, such as Linkedin.com, to list favorite books, successful projects and endorsements from colleagues may impress prospective employers.

And that leads to the most critical factor in landing the perfect job: building relationships.

Anderson recommends job seekers narrow their search to specific companies they want to work for. Next, find ways to meet a company employee who will put in a good word for them or alert them to job postings.

To do that, he suggests:

• Drawing upon neighbors and friends. Ask a neighbor whose cousin works at your dream workplace to introduce the two of you.

• Using a professional or social media site to search for acquaintances who are friends or associates of employees at the desired company.

• Set up an informational interview with an employee at the company to learn about their job or some aspect of the business.

• Call to see if your resume made it to the company. The call sometimes leads to an interview set up by a manager who might otherwise have overlooked the application.

Looking for the next job can even begin if you have a job.

"Right now, you have the advantage of being employed; you're not the desperate job seeker," Anderson said. "A layoff could be two years from now."

Debby Abe: 253-597-8694

debby.abe@thenewstribune.com

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

Jim Annis: Today's market demands creativity in career ... - Reno Gazette

Posted: 14 Mar 2010 12:33 AM PST

In the first article of this series, we encouraged everyone to read "Do What You Are" by Paul Tiegger. The new rules of the job search require a creative approach. Simply picking up the phone to make a few calls doesn't work anymore. You must position yourself to lengths we have not seen in our lifetime.

The landscape is different. Gone are the days where employees could demand "sign-on" bonuses to change jobs. Some 60,000 people are unemployed in Northern Nevada, with only 3,000 positions posted.

Perspective is everything. The makeup of the unemployed largely is construction, real estate, mortgages and anything related.

There is a percentage satisfied with collecting unemployment and the remainder is a small number of people fighting for jobs.

But, there are opportunities. Companies are hiring and promoting. People are transferring. There are people being fired.

It's all a matter of timing. The right position will present itself tomorrow or six months from now. As the old adage says, "luck is when preparation meets opportunity."

So how do you prepare? Here are three tips for successfully positioning:

Know what is important for resume writing. Companies use applicant tracking mechanisms with keyword/phrase filtering software.

The employer uploads your résumé compared to a job description's key words and phrases.

If there is not a high percentage of "match" (average 75 percent) then your résumé goes to the "B pile." So make sure you are an "A" player by either (1) creating a job description-oriented résumé (i.e., my responsibility was to grow the business) or (2) if you are an executive/professional create a success-oriented résumé (about what you accomplished not what you did).

Establish your marketability. Take your last three positions (or your last 10 years of experience) and write all the things for which you were responsible for and accomplished. Highlight the areas where there are parallels. This becomes a transferable skills inventory that you can take into the next job or career, and use to craft a cover letter when entering a new industry.

Define position, career, company, and salary expectations. Bring a laser focus to the job search. The new rules prohibit a shotgun approach. Define the industry or industries and target specific employers. This also conserves resources, so you don't have to expend energy following up with 500 companies.

Plant the seeds now and be patient during the germination for an ultimate bountiful harvest.

In our next article, we will provide more advice on creating résumés.

Jim Annis is president/CEO of Reno-base The Applied Companies, which provide HR solutions for today's workplace, staffing and recruiting. Jesse Gregory is Applied Recruiting Solution's division manager.

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