Archive for category For Job Seekers
Market yourself…
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers, Miscellaneous on May 26, 2009
Everyone is the CEO of … themselves. Regardless of whether you have a job, are looking for a job or manage your own company, you are always in charge of yourself. Therefore, as the head of your own marketing, you should manage a marketing campaign to the masses on bringing them your key product: YOU.One great example is Kenrick Chatman. He is currently looking for a position in strategic consulting and his web site is at www.kenrickchatman.com. The focus is on sales strategy. He identified the one key thing every company needs in these troubled times, more sales, and he is delivering that advice. If you want execution, then you need to hire Kenrick. Kenrick is also doing a blog which you can follow on his site.
I like his site because it is professional and provides information for a variety of business types. He can use this as a way of marketing himself to a variety of people without constantly saying: I am looking for a job; but implying that he is a person that gets results. He found an area that interests him and as he continues to update the site and do research it can provide a source of constant training.
Salary requirements
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers on May 6, 2009
The hardest part of any employee negotiation seems to be the salary. John Lucht in his book, Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1 Million+: Your Insider’s Lifetime Guide to Executive Job-Changing and Faster Career Progress in the 21st Century. (ISBN is 978-0942785302 and it retails for $19.77 on Amazon after discounts.) writes that the best way is to estimate your total compensation equated in dollars. For example, if you made $160,000 a year in cash, $30,000 in bonus, and another $35,000 in benefits, then you would say, “Last year my total compensation was $225,000. I expect a total compensation package to be about $225,000 to $275,000.” The idea is to let the discussion be about how the package is made.
I used this right away to success. When they said, “oh, the pay is much less than that.” I pointed out that I was including benefits and bonus. The recruiter then said, “oh, so, are you are open if it’s a combination of those three?” I agreed, and they passed my name on to the hiring manager. I got the job.
The same thing goes when offering or advertising a job. Discuss the total compensation plan stressing your flexibility. Ask up front about it, so that you can weed out those that really would not stay for the job (they could get something better and probably will). When the person uses the above technique (or even if they do not) stress how the package is composed and how they will benefit.
Finally, regardless of how you bundle it, do the research and find out what the going rate is for a person in that industry. Calculate the total package price and then compare it to your needs/wants. If there is a disconnect then figure out how to change that from your end. Do you need to offer more in value from yourself? Do you need to realize that you had a good situation and now you should settle for less versus not having a job at all? As an employer do you need to rethink the job, or ask for a larger budget?
Rite Site
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers on May 5, 2009
This one is for job seekers…
Never ever pay a fee for someone to help you find a job…except when that fee gives you tangible access to something of value.
I read a book by John Lucht, called Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1 Million+: Your Insider’s Lifetime Guide to Executive Job-Changing and Faster Career Progress in the 21st Century. ISBN is 978-0942785302 and it retails for $19.77 on Amazon after discounts.
The book offers invaluable advice to the job seeker. Here are the reasons to get it based on what I think are some of the toughest obstacles facing a job seeker:
- Explains how to work with recruiters, the differences between contingency and paid, and when to turn down a recruiters offer to help you.
- Shows why you need to not listen to the 2-page only resume people and do what you think is right. I still have a 2 pager and even a 1 pager but that is because I can focus my resume on one thing.
- Explains that you need a text resume as well as a Word doc resume and why! My text only resume is amazing.
- Explains how to differentiate yourself from the other job seekers from the introduction to the interview discussion to the follow up. Includes what type of stationary to get.
- Explains how to mention your salary requirements and not to be afraid of it.
- Explains how you work with recruiters once you get that job and how to maintain your credibility and contact.
There are many other points in his book, and I found it invaluable for these and two other reasons.
Additionally, he has a web site and two mailing lists. One list was for the book and ideas on a job search. The other list is called Insights, which discusses ways to move ahead in your career (there is a book on that too).
John’s web site, RiteSite.com, allows you to communicate with other job seekers, search classifieds for jobs, and read the latest information at his University for finding the right job. What makes his site unique is two things. First, he has two groups of people that he allows on there. The first are paid only recruiters, which his company screens to insure that they are not contingency. When you read his book, you will understand why, but safely say that it is not worth it to have a contingency recruiter blast your resume.
The second reason is that each of these paid recruiters have set up a method to receive your resume from his site. You enter the resume in two ways: Word doc, and text. You also include a cover letter. When you press send, your resume goes to these 1000+ companies. These companies signed up and went through the screening process in order to get these resumes. Every three months you can resend your resume to these recruiters for their files. Furthermore, his book and site explains how you approach this (and why) after you accept a new job offer.
When I did it, a few years ago, I got replies back within a week; and got a few interviews out of it.
There is a cost to the web site: $95/year, but I notice that he often gives a free renewal. He also provides a reward for each paid referral (which I have received). So, for $95, I was able to contact over a thousand recruiters who did not blast my resume to every company. Considering the time and cost of running that with my printer and postage $920+, I think it was a bargain.
The site is also useful for hiring managers as you can search resumes, post jobs, and look for high value people. You will still have to pay a fee, but then it’s a bargain compared to doing it other ways.
Using Social sites to generate awareness for your company
Posted by Steve in Customers, For Job Seekers, Plan on April 30, 2009
More people are finding the numerous social networks online a valuable tool in generating awareness. They are very low cost and can have a high impact…if they get the following they want.
MySpace was one of the first social networks to hit it HUGE. Started a few years ago, it stays small until over a period of three months it explodes in users. Finally, the owners sell to NewsCorp for a lot of money and enjoy their windfall. MySpace remains one of the most popular social networks. Its primary demographic is the teenager, and person involved with/interested in entertainment.
Facebook is rapidly becoming more popular in the mainstream. Instead of just teenagers, the mainstream adult population is embracing it. Why? It looks more “average” so appeals to the average person.
Twitter just recently exploded with users. Instead of having a space, it provides a real-time channel directly between people. Limited to 140 characters you have to be concise. The problem with this, is that any busy entrepreneur, investor, (or anyone else for that matter) really does not have time to engage in a Twitter. Makes me wonder what all that wasted time could be turned to… but I digress.
How can you take advantage of social sites? When looking at how you use a social network, consider the stakeholders: the company (and the entrepreneurs), customers, stockholders, investors, and people affected by the customer’s use of the products/services. We should also include the potentials of each of those categories and those the “affected” people are usually the customers of the customers. Remember, why does a company buy your stuff? The answer is to make more money selling their stuff to someone (maybe you!).
Who is your primary audience, and what would they like to see, do, or say? Answer this question, and you will figure out how to use it. One technique to use is Voice of Customer, VOC. More on that in a later post.
I found a link to an article written Nov 27, 2006 by Eileen Cruz Coleman on techsoup.
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/archives/page9173.cfm
The article talks about how certain non-profits take advantage of MySpace. To summarize:
- Raise awareness about their cause, product, or service.
- Keep people informed on the current status of their company or activities.
- Engage an audience and create a two-way dialogue with their stakeholders.
- Offer tools that enable a stakeholder to participate online and offline.
- Direct people to their own website and to take action, becoming “customers”, “users” and overall lending more credibility to the company’s program.
The two biggest concerns were time (resources) and monitoring content to keep it on message. They welcome dissent and discussion of differences of opinions, but have to be watchful to stop flamers (people that start arguments for no purpose other than to gain attention) and inappropriate material (not just off-topic but truly inappropriate for that audience).
Their recommendations center around marketing your site, making regular updates and involving the audience:
- Ask people to take action by subscribing, creating links, etc.
- After writing entries, invite people to comment. Market your site via word of mouth and other media. Write articles, give lectures/presentations, and get people to go to your site.
- Add other media like images and video to make the space more interesting.
- Keep it current.
- Match the look and feel to that of your brand.
- Reach out to other companies and people. Make alliances to spread your word.
- Add your URL to all your collateral (web sites, business cards, email signature, etc.)
Bottom line, it is a product you are creating around yourself or your company. Choose a social site that fits your target, your brand, and that you can make a commitment. Then market it. If you are a job seeker, do the same thing. Treat yourself like a product and market it.
Linked-In is the best for your professional image
Posted by Steve in Execution, For Job Seekers, Pitch on April 29, 2009
Determining where to start marketing online can be difficult. There are so many options now it can be mind-boggling. The approach is not to shotgun (unless you have a huge budget and time, which none of us really have). Instead, first identify your goal and the desired budget. Within those two parameters then consider the softer parameters of skill set, time capacity and deadline. Finally, weigh the pros and cons of being a participant on someone else’s site, being a contributor with your own presence on a community site, or authoring your own site.
Considering that I need to pick something that fits entrepreneurs, investors, and job seekers, does not require a big investment of time and money, and requires little talent, I have my short list of the following: LinkedIn and Plaxo. I do not include Facebook today, but that may change tomorrow.
My favorite is Linked-In at www.linkedin.com
The site is for professionals communicating to other professionals. You enter your professional history (essentially a resume) and then connect to others. You can endorse other people and use it to ask questions to get expert help.
The only way to have a conversation with someone is one of three ways: introduced by a mutual acquaintance (best), introduced by the computer, or to select them as a “friend” and hope they do not ignore you when they realize you are a stranger. The idea of being introduced by someone you both know is the same approach to getting the investor’s or the hiring manager’s attention. Since it matches what you are trying to achieve in the real world, I believe it is one of the best sites to have a presence.
There are different levels of membership from free to $200/month. Personal memberships are free but do not allow for introductions or membership in their OpenLink network (the ability to send messages to others). For that you have to buy a monthly membership that starts at 19.95/month…or do you? There is a “hidden” level of membership that is called a Personal Plus, and allows for a limited number of introductions and for you to be a member of the OpenLink network where you can receive messages and where you can search for other members. It is only $60 per year (or $5/month).
Why Linked-In and not some of the others? The brand is about professionals meeting other professionals to make professional connections. It is almost unique in that you cannot really talk about your hobbies, put up pictures of your pets, or make “shout-outs”. Other sites mix professional with personal so much that it seems to dilute everything to the personal slant. It is hard to take someone serious when they have the pictures of them getting drunk at a party or they show pictures of their friends getting drunk at a party.
You can also market yourself on Linked-In by answering the questions people pose (or look for people by posing questions). With it being a structured presentation of your professional self, you can use it as your personal site.
Of all the networking sites, for these reasons, Linked-In is the only site I recommend today for entrepreneurs, investors and job seekers.
The other sites really depend on what you are trying to do and your end game. Some are great for marketing in the entertainment space, or making personal connections. Others are excellent for searching for a job or leaders for your company. More on that tomorrow…
Three types of web activities
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers, Plan on April 28, 2009
Yesterday, I wrote about three main considerations for marketing online: skillset, time capacity, and deadline. Today, I want to categorize three types of web activities for marketing yourself or your company online. As you examine the three considerations, look to see how these three types of activities may fit into your plan. I am doing this to break down the complexities of web marketing into the framework of the considerations.
Ultimately, you have to look at your goals and the resources you can put into place to meet those goals.
Participant – this is on most sites on the web that are owned and maintained by other groups: you contribute content but have no single point of reference that can be accessed easily (a landing page). There are no formal web pages that represent the person or company, but there are many entries scattered throughout the system. This is categorized by the lack of a single web page representing the user. This is being phased out towards a hybrid between contributor and participant. Examples include Ask an Expert on Yahoo, and putting a resume on Monster.
Contributor – primarily on social sites, this consists of creating a profile and other elements that describe yourself or your business. A web page or group of web pages acts as landing pages and the user provides (and builds) content on those pages. Others may act as participants on those pages, but typically they too have to contribute a landing page in order to participate. Examples include Linked In, Facebook, and MySpace.
Author – this covers both dedicated blogs (like this one) and web sites. The web site serves the purpose of promoting you and your business. By far this is the most prevalent form of sites on the web but I would imagine the most popular is participants.
It may seem that the level of involvement dictates whether you just participate or contribute. For instance, you can be either on sites like Facebook providing minimal information on landing spaces. However, this may be a detriment because it shows minimal interest, and even lack of creativity. As with having your own web site, a poor showing will hurt you. If you cannot do a good job in your own eyes, then consider not doing anything.
However, whether you are an entrepreneur, investor, or job seeker (or a combination) there are strongly recommended among the three applications. There are also the strongly NOT recommended.
Where do you think the following fit in? (remember to ask, who is your audience)
- Myspace
- Monster
- Hotjobs
- CareerLadder
- RiteSite
- Building a web site
- Running a blog
We continue this topic tomorrow…
The starting point for actively marketing yourself online
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers, Plan, Strategy on April 27, 2009
Actively marketing yourself and your company is the best way to get noticed. The question is how? Before we even touch on how, you have to ask yourself a few questions:
What are you trying to achieve? Are you seeking a job, seeking to gain skills and contacts to garner a promotion, starting your company, doing consulting while you look for a job, or trying to find companies for investing?
- What are your skills? Can you write, answer questions, create web sites, program, create web art, create interactive media, or use search engines and social sites effectively? Can you do SEO?
- How much time do you have? Can you spend an hour a day, eight hours a day, or only a few hours a week? It is easy to take on a big task and then after a couple of weeks you lose time and interest.
- What is your deadline? Are you unemployed an need to be earning money quickly, or do you have time to work on it at as a supplement to your existing job?
Answer these four questions and then come up with a goal statement, a mission statement, and a set of priorities. This is the beginning of your online marketing plan.
As we discuss the different ways to do online marketing see which ones fit your plan parameters. Do only those that fit your goals and mission statement, and hit your priorities. The others can be used at a later time.
Dual vs. Duel Focus
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers, Miscellaneous on April 24, 2009
Did you notice the title of the last two posts was a pun? I used the homophone “duel” for “dual”. It was to summarize the point that saying you have more than one focus is more of a hindrance than a help. They can conflict with each other, as in a duel.
Whether you are managing a product line or your job search, you can extend your brand. It needs to be carefully thought out and managed to prevent conflicts (or duels).
It is very hard to do this on the web, because people can easily do a search for your name and find your dual (or dueling) images. The next few postings will be discussing marketing yourself (and your capabilities, as well as the firms) on the web.
Duel Focus for the Job Seeker
Posted by Steve in For Job Seekers on April 23, 2009
Yesterday, I talked extensively about the dual focus for the entrepreneur. The same thing applies to job seeker.
Like the entrepreneur, they need to watch their channel carefully. If you advertise yourself on the web (web site, Monster, or other career site), you really only have one brand to deal with: your name. You cannot defocus your brand by blasting with many different messages on a website.
For example, you can put multiple active resumes up on Monster, as long as they are related. If you are a marketing account manager with experience in both marketing and sales, then you could have one resume that talks focuses on a national account manager position and another than focuses on a marketing department manager position. If asked a question from a prospective employer, hopefully you have found out first what they are seeking, and then you can mold the answer saying for example, “Yes, I have experience as a marketing manager, but I also worked closely on national accounts and at times focused major projects selling into one account. At Company ABC, I was very successful managing the relationships with our national accounts, and I can do the same thing at your company.”
What does not work is if you are trying two or more very different jobs and advertising in the same place: a photographer and a cook. Very different skill sets, and different industries. Maybe you could find positions that would utilize both, food photography or advertising at a restaurant chain? The idea is still to find a focus and sell yourself along those lines.
You can still search in multiple arenas by carefully picking your channels and focusing that one aspect of yourself in that channel. On Monster, you advertise yourself as a photographer, and then apply to companies in advertising, photography, and print and web media needing a photographer.
On specialized sites, you can advertise yourself as the chef. Maybe there is a restaurant employee search firm that needs that kind of person?
The resume, though will be the challenge. Have multiple versions. For the targeted industry, the accomplishments can be very specific on the job skills. For the non-targeted industry, still have accomplishments but focus more on your ability to solve problems, hit the goals, and ultimately, grow the company. You can rebrand job titles. In the photographer/cook example, what if the person was a head cook in a restaurant (managed the kitchen) but is now looking for a photographer’s position since that is what they studied in school and kept it up, winning awards and developing their skills over time. Maybe instead of saying they were a head chef, they could say, “Kitchen Manager”, and write more about how they managed people, managed budgets, and helped the operation run smoothly.
A separate resume for chef jobs would focus more on the kitchen duties and could discuss specific successes that would be of interest to a restaurant owner.
Ultimately, the job seeker is responsible for marketing themselves properly in the right channel. The web presents a difficult problem because a personal website can help or hinder. It helps when there is a focus, and it hinders when there is not.
Re-read yesterdays article, “Duel Focus”. The rules for entrepreneurs advertising and talking to investors apply very well to the job seeker.
Can a Duel Focus work?
Posted by Steve in Customers, For Job Seekers, Pitch, Plan on April 22, 2009
What if you have two things you could do? You do not want to leave out one for fear of closing off that opportunity. The dilemma is very common for entrepreneurs: the company can do two things very well and it is struggling for cash flow. They are not established enough to have two brands, or well understood brand extensions.
First, let us examine the entrepreneur case and why this is important. As an investor, there are many questions that come up. First, are these products (and/or services) related? Second, does the entrepreneur truly need to spend the resources promoting both or are they better off picking one and spending double the resources on that one? Thirdly, are they mixing the message too much to the marketplace and thus confusing them? Fourth, is the entrepreneur just unwilling to focus on one thing?
All are valid questions, but as you can see, there could be a tendency for the investor to start thinking along the negative path. This puts doubt in their minds about the company and about the entrepreneur. This also troubles potential customers, because they are now taking a risk on a startup and want to know whether the company will deliver on-time, on budget, and with the expected quality and service. (Please note, I did not say best price, best quality, best service…that’s for a later article).
The suggestion is for the entrepreneur to ask themselves the same questions. If the answer comes up that these products (and services) are related then the question is how to pitch them?
This is nothing new, so we can look at the traditional marketing answer: Know your target audience, and pitch the appropriate message to the right channel! Pick the channels and understand how they work. Deliver the focused message on each product to that channel.
As an example, let us take a shoe company that has a patented shoe which provides the best support to active people. This company could make basketball shoes, running shoes, football shoes, soccer shoes, climbing shoes, and even men’s and women’s dress shoes. They have a factory and craftsmen that can make any type of shoe; and needing cash flow they instruct manufacturing and sales to sell to everyone. (Note: Everyone is our customer is for another article)
What if the company came out and said: “We make the best shoes, whether you it is a business dress shoe or a basketball shoe, then you need to come to us?” People would not believe it because there are already companies out there that specialize in one over the other and they do not mix up their brand.
One answer is for the company to break it up into channels. They pitch the sports shoes publically as an active shoe company: We make the best sports shoes because we understand the needs of the athlete! Advertisements during basketball games are for the basketball shoe. Advertisements during football games are for the football shoe. They could even make crossover advertisements that feature athletes from multiple sports with the common theme that they need these shoes to compete better in their sport.
For the dress shoes, they instead partner with another company that specializes in dress shoes. The sports company provides the technology to make the dress show more comfortable and fit better. They can even co-brand the shoe with their name; however, they let the dress shoe company lead off with their brand and their advertising. The sports shoe company hopes that their sports advertising creates enough of a brand impression that the dress show buyer wants that dress shoe. The dress shoe company hopes the same thing, obviously.
How do they pitch to investors? First, since they are going to promote themselves as a sports shoe company, they should pitch as a sports shoe company with a patented shoe. In the pitch, they describe how they will target the different sports channels and leverage their ability to make sports shoes to go after these channels. Also, in the pitch, when they come to product line extensions, then they can discuss their partnering opportunities, “Since we hold the patents on the technology, we will also be seeking out licensing arrangements with companies establish in other channels that do not compete with ours: dress shoe companies.” To the investor, that seems like a logical extension and comes off smart because the sports shoe company realizes their strengths and is selling that to the unrelated channel.
FYI, Nike is the sports shoe company. They sold the technology for Nike Air to Cole Haan (a dress shoe company). Cole Haan has a Nike Air line, which are essentially Cole Haan shoes with a Nike Air insole. It is sold under the Cole Haan name at Cole Haan stores. You cannot walk into a sports shoe store and find a Cole Haan dress shoe. The salesperson may know about it, but only bring it up if asked. They would direct you then to a Cole Haan store.
In conclusion, the entrepreneur needs to pick the focus of the company and market that in the primary channel. If there are multiple channels that are related, then they could still market their product. However, for truly unrelated channels, they need to very wary. One answer is to partner with another company, letting that company sell their product under the other brand name.