I Use LinkedIn But Dont Preach To Me

I Use LinkedIn … But Dont Preach To Me Last week I linked to Thom Singers brilliant post about LinkedIn, and got almost as many comments in that one post as hes had in his entire blog history (commenters on his or others posts include Carol Deckert, Scott Ingram, Jonathon Morgan, Aruni Gunasegaram, Josh Greene, Liz Handlin, Darlene McDaniel, James Seay, Mark Herpel)) He hit a real sore spot, and was dead-on. Go read his post: LinkedIn Rant And A Challenge To Bloggers. There are two responses that Im reading, one is Yes Thom, you are so right! and the other is Thom, you are using LinkedIn wrong! Thoms post quickly explains his personal connection policy on LinkedIn (which is pretty much what LinkedIn suggests, and Scott Allen endorses). But thats not the point of Thoms post, as far as I read. His point is that the guy who invited him, and got declined, tried to school him, telling him HOW Thom should use LinkedIn. And this is what one of my beefs is. I have been involved in LinkedIn and various e-mail lists centered on LinkedIn for over a year, and it still amazes me how people are preaching how you need to use LinkedIn. Why do I say preach? Because the tone that I read in these e-mails or posts is authoritive. and there is so much passion about a certain position that people seem to be defending a religion! Heres a short position on where I stand on two preach-worthy topics: Quality vs. Quantity: this is the undying debate about which is better, a huge network with thousands of first degree connections (quantity), or a small network only made up of people that I know and trust (quality). Well folks, different people need different things! But dont tell me where I should stand on this spectrum! You have your own policy, and let it go at that! I find that recruiters, business development professionals, small business owners and the like are more inclined to have a more open policy on connecting with people that they just met, as opposed to people that they know and trust. Wrong or right? I think it depends, and Im not going to tell you where you should fall. Please dont tell me. LinkedIn vs. Facebook (and the others): Which is better, which is worse? Which is going to be around, and which is going to be outdated next week? Come on folks, are you serious? First, how important is this debate? You can take all of 60 minutes to flesh out your LinkedIn profile and then really never go back, and still possibly get value out of it. Every week take a few minutes and accept some invitations. Its not like were talking about investing 20 hours a week here. Should you get on Facebook? Why not? Probably 85% of my Facebook network is made up of business professionals, and the students that are connected to me are very business or career oriented. Do either suck my time? NO. Am I there, in the right spot, at the right time? Could be. If Im not there I might miss out and all it took was about 60 minutes to set up a decent profile. Dont get social-network-religous on me and preach to me about which is the true social network, and Ill go to hell if I am on the ot her one (okay, it hasnt been that strong, but it sure feels like it sometimes!). This preaching is tiring and boring. Seriously give it a rest. Thom got preached to and he read right through it Im glad he put up that post, and I know hes not alone in his frustration. If you are an evangelist for one or the other, or one method or another, slow down and consider what message people are really hearing from you. And if you get preached to, I suggest you just ignore it. Debating or discussing really isnt worth the time it takes. (of course, if you are a blogger, blog on it it makes blog reading more fun :)) I Use LinkedIn … But Dont Preach To Me Last week I linked to Thom Singers brilliant post about LinkedIn, and got almost as many comments in that one post as hes had in his entire blog history (commenters on his or others posts include Carol Deckert, Scott Ingram, Jonathon Morgan, Aruni Gunasegaram, Josh Greene, Liz Handlin, Darlene McDaniel, James Seay, Mark Herpel)) He hit a real sore spot, and was dead-on. Go read his post: LinkedIn Rant And A Challenge To Bloggers. There are two responses that Im reading, one is Yes Thom, you are so right! and the other is Thom, you are using LinkedIn wrong! Thoms post quickly explains his personal connection policy on LinkedIn (which is pretty much what LinkedIn suggests, and Scott Allen endorses). But thats not the point of Thoms post, as far as I read. His point is that the guy who invited him, and got declined, tried to school him, telling him HOW Thom should use LinkedIn. And this is what one of my beefs is. I have been involved in LinkedIn and various e-mail lists centered on LinkedIn for over a year, and it still amazes me how people are preaching how you need to use LinkedIn. Why do I say preach? Because the tone that I read in these e-mails or posts is authoritive. and there is so much passion about a certain position that people seem to be defending a religion! Heres a short position on where I stand on two preach-worthy topics: Quality vs. Quantity: this is the undying debate about which is better, a huge network with thousands of first degree connections (quantity), or a small network only made up of people that I know and trust (quality). Well folks, different people need different things! But dont tell me where I should stand on this spectrum! You have your own policy, and let it go at that! I find that recruiters, business development professionals, small business owners and the like are more inclined to have a more open policy on connecting with people that they just met, as opposed to people that they know and trust. Wrong or right? I think it depends, and Im not going to tell you where you should fall. Please dont tell me. LinkedIn vs. Facebook (and the others): Which is better, which is worse? Which is going to be around, and which is going to be outdated next week? Come on folks, are you serious? First, how important is this debate? You can take all of 60 minutes to flesh out your LinkedIn profile and then really never go back, and still possibly get value out of it. Every week take a few minutes and accept some invitations. Its not like were talking about investing 20 hours a week here. Should you get on Facebook? Why not? Probably 85% of my Facebook network is made up of business professionals, and the students that are connected to me are very business or career oriented. Do either suck my time? NO. Am I there, in the right spot, at the right time? Could be. If Im not there I might miss out and all it took was about 60 minutes to set up a decent profile. Dont get social-network-religous on me and preach to me about which is the true social network, and Ill go to hell if I am on the ot her one (okay, it hasnt been that strong, but it sure feels like it sometimes!). This preaching is tiring and boring. Seriously give it a rest. Thom got preached to and he read right through it Im glad he put up that post, and I know hes not alone in his frustration. If you are an evangelist for one or the other, or one method or another, slow down and consider what message people are really hearing from you. And if you get preached to, I suggest you just ignore it. Debating or discussing really isnt worth the time it takes. (of course, if you are a blogger, blog on it it makes blog reading more fun :)) I Use LinkedIn … But Dont Preach To Me Last week I linked to Thom Singers brilliant post about LinkedIn, and got almost as many comments in that one post as hes had in his entire blog history (commenters on his or others posts include Carol Deckert, Scott Ingram, Jonathon Morgan, Aruni Gunasegaram, Josh Greene, Liz Handlin, Darlene McDaniel, James Seay, Mark Herpel)) He hit a real sore spot, and was dead-on. Go read his post: LinkedIn Rant And A Challenge To Bloggers. There are two responses that Im reading, one is Yes Thom, you are so right! and the other is Thom, you are using LinkedIn wrong! Thoms post quickly explains his personal connection policy on LinkedIn (which is pretty much what LinkedIn suggests, and Scott Allen endorses). But thats not the point of Thoms post, as far as I read. His point is that the guy who invited him, and got declined, tried to school him, telling him HOW Thom should use LinkedIn. And this is what one of my beefs is. I have been involved in LinkedIn and various e-mail lists centered on LinkedIn for over a year, and it still amazes me how people are preaching how you need to use LinkedIn. Why do I say preach? Because the tone that I read in these e-mails or posts is authoritive. and there is so much passion about a certain position that people seem to be defending a religion! Heres a short position on where I stand on two preach-worthy topics: Quality vs. Quantity: this is the undying debate about which is better, a huge network with thousands of first degree connections (quantity), or a small network only made up of people that I know and trust (quality). Well folks, different people need different things! But dont tell me where I should stand on this spectrum! You have your own policy, and let it go at that! I find that recruiters, business development professionals, small business owners and the like are more inclined to have a more open policy on connecting with people that they just met, as opposed to people that they know and trust. Wrong or right? I think it depends, and Im not going to tell you where you should fall. Please dont tell me. LinkedIn vs. Facebook (and the others): Which is better, which is worse? Which is going to be around, and which is going to be outdated next week? Come on folks, are you serious? First, how important is this debate? You can take all of 60 minutes to flesh out your LinkedIn profile and then really never go back, and still possibly get value out of it. Every week take a few minutes and accept some invitations. Its not like were talking about investing 20 hours a week here. Should you get on Facebook? Why not? Probably 85% of my Facebook network is made up of business professionals, and the students that are connected to me are very business or career oriented. Do either suck my time? NO. Am I there, in the right spot, at the right time? Could be. If Im not there I might miss out and all it took was about 60 minutes to set up a decent profile. Dont get social-network-religous on me and preach to me about which is the true social network, and Ill go to hell if I am on the ot her one (okay, it hasnt been that strong, but it sure feels like it sometimes!). This preaching is tiring and boring. Seriously give it a rest. Thom got preached to and he read right through it Im glad he put up that post, and I know hes not alone in his frustration. If you are an evangelist for one or the other, or one method or another, slow down and consider what message people are really hearing from you. And if you get preached to, I suggest you just ignore it. Debating or discussing really isnt worth the time it takes. (of course, if you are a blogger, blog on it it makes blog reading more fun :))

How to Measure Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How to Measure Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today I was going to write a post about different ways to measure your personal brand. Then I realized, there is only one way that we all measure our own personal brands: through how we stack up to competitors. Dont believe me? See for yourself. How do you measure your personal brand on twitter? Through comparing the number of retweets you have to others? Through how many followers you have compared to others? How do you measure your personal brand through your blog? Through engagement, in the form of number of comments, compared to others? Through how many links you receive compared to others? Through traffic compared to others? All forms of measurement come back to numbers, and all numbers only have value when compared to competitors numbers. So my question is: is it okay that we measure our own personal brands by what we do â€" in comparison to other people trying to achieve similar accomplishments? Share your opinion in the comments section below. Author: Monica O’Brien writes career advice for young professionals at her blog, Twenty Set. You can also follow her on Twitter (@monicaobrien).

Grab and Grow - A Plan for Career Success - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Grab and Grow - A Plan for Career Success - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Grab and Grow! I have a client who just started a new business analyst position for a Fortune 500 company. I am using the system defined in the book The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter to assist him in getting up to speed. He was explaining some of the challenges he was having, and one was about the lack of prioritization of projects. He is working with two other newly hired business analysts, and I suggested they create a prioritization system for projects. If something needs to be done, then just go do it. Grab and Grow! I have always believed that if something needed to get done, and I liked the opportunity to get it done, then I just did it. The rare occasions when I got my hand slapped, I begged for forgiveness and learned from the experience. If I kept my schedule full with things I liked to do, then when items came up that I did not like to do, they would often be assigned to someone else. I have called this the Grab and Grow model to career success. Timing Is Important Often when you spot something that is not being done, you can just start doing it. When it involves a lot of people or a micro-managing boss, you have to pick your spots to grab and grow. Years ago, I had a micro-managing boss. He did not delegate anywhere near enough of the high level decision making to his team. This team was very senior with years of experience. We could not figure out how to get him to let go. One night I was home working on getting reimbursed for medical expenses. I soon realized I needed a medical insurance form that I did not have. This was the 1990s, and everything was still submitted on paper through the mail. Our offices were only a ten minute drive from my house. At 8 PM, I drove to the office. When I walked to the cabinet to get the form, I walked by my bosses office. He was slouched in his chair and was obviously exhausted. The time was right to grab and grow. I asked him what was wrong. He respond with a litany of items he was working on. I reminded him that Ed could handle item #1, Evelyn could handle item #2, Tom could handle Item #3  obviously picking the items I wanted for me. He listened! It was only in his exhausted state would he have listened. From that day onward, he started delegating. Planting Seeds Sometimes, you need to plant seeds of ideas. This can be done by asking open ended questions about the problems that you see and want to solve. You should be prepared to discuss you solution when the timing is right. It is all about awareness. If you can make everyone aware of the problem by asking questions, when the timing is right you can present your solution OR you may just want to solve the problem anyway. It is almost always better to fix a problem and then ask for permission later! Give it a try and grab and grow! Marc Miller â€" Career Pivot Check out my book Repurpose Your Career â€" A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers Do not forget to follow me on Twitter or FaceBook

Career Infographic Whats Your Next Job

Career Infographic Whats Your Next Job If you’ve spent any time trying to figure out the color of your parachute, you know how frustrating it is to not know what career path you “should” be on. Whether you’re an entry-level worker trying pay off your college loan, a middle manager looking for change, or a top-level executive ready to dominate another field, deciding which fork in the road to take can overwhelming. A good starting point is figuring out what you like to do, what you’re good at, and what you can do for a minimum of eight hours a day, five days a week that won’t drive you completely insane. Research into different jobs and fields can help clarify the right path for you. Luckily, someone else has already done some of the legwork for you. Before you embark on your career path, take a quick look at this infographic by  Cedar Education Lending. If you’re still in school, or are considering pursing additional education to help you switch fields, the infographic points out which fields have the highest levels of unemployment, and the highest and lowest ranking careers based on factors including income and job stress.

Engaging The Risk When Hiring Freelancers Abroad - CareerMetis.com

Engaging The Risk When Hiring Freelancers Abroad The great thing about business in today’s era is that anyone anywhere can be contacted about anything in mere minutes. Hence why small businesses especially don’t mind crossing oceans and mountains if it means they can find the right people.Even large corporations want a piece of this action and would do anything they can to snap up young fresh talent no matter where they were from. Yet nothing can actually mitigate the fact that you’re here and they’re there. There are to be a strong amount of trust and above all else good safety steps that are put in place. You need to know that you’re talking to the person they say they are.There’s no way to actually physically be in their presence, and usually, you’re relying on verbal communication. You don’t want to be cheated or conned when giving out work or payments to people that you cannot materialize in front of you.Engaging the riskevalIf not for verbal communication and actually looking at the candidate who is abroad, th en you must have other security checks in place. Rather than turn your back on potentially great hiring, engage with the risk. You should use an ID verification servicethat will scan documents and identify their validity.The technology will look through the document picking up pieces of vital information and then extract a wide range of information from Latin-based characters regardless of the format.With the ability to check their bank statements you can make up your mind whether they are who they say they are. You then also have the ability to phone various numbers and or email different institutions to see if you get matches of such data and information.Source : Maxpixel.comGive them tasksOkay so you’re really impressed with a candidate, and you want to hire them as quickly as you can. Don’t let the threat of other businesses snapping them up phase you. After all, you aren’t able to bring them into the office and get them to prove their abilities. However what you can do is to give them tests.You should make up a task that mimics what their real rolewill entail and give them a set amount of time to finish it. Together with your recruitment and managers, devise a test that will see if the potential employee really does have the skills they say they do.Make sure you have the key questions and problems in the task so that a wide array of their skills and knowledge will be made to jump through hoops.Source : Pixabay.comIndustry questionsMany businesses now are making their own exams for their top talent. So if you’re thinking about hiring a freelancer that will do important jobs, it’s wise to make your own questionnaire. Make some specific questions up that pertain to strict knowledge of the industryyou work in.evalThe advancement and procedures that you expect experts in your field to know should be known by freelancers who want certain important roles. You’ll weed out the real from the fake with this kind of practice.Never overlook the talent that a freelancer living abroad might bring to your business. However, after the initial stages of wooing you, they must confirm they are who they say are.This is crucial to make sure you’re not hiring someone who is incompetent and using the physical distance between you to hide their lack of ability.

Job Search - There must be an app for that part 3

Job Search - There must be an app for that part 3 We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great, make you feel that you too, can become great. Mark Twain A friend of mine has been out of work for several months due to his company declaring bankruptcy. Although hes been diligently looking for work, hes not had much luck. His background is fairly diverse, so there are a number of different functional roles he could fill. One of his problems is that his resume is not particularly focused on any one job type and he has decided he must have several resumes (each of which will focus on a particular field). This is a fairly big task, further compounded by spur of the moment calls from recruiters, looking for a resume which is targeted to a specific role. So how does one tweak a resume while on the run? There are some apps out there (see below) to (somewhat) help. This article will cover 5 job search Resume/Cover letter and help apps. Pocket Resume The app is available for the iPhone/iPad, Blackberry and Android for $2.99 (price at the time this article was written). Allows resume creation (leveraging LinkedIn profile), export to pdf/RTF, emailing your resume from your smartphone and uploading to Dropbox. Giga-CV This app appears to be only available on the iPhone/iPad and is also priced at $2.99. The app has similar sections (personal details, positions, objectives, education, work experience, skills, etc.) as Pocket Resume for creating a resume. There is a tab where you can review, email, print or trash your resume. You can also create and email cover letters along with your resume. I did not see an import function or external storage (like DropBox). Career Igniter Resume Builder Career Igniter Resume Builder is an Android app that allows you to create a professional resume on your smartphone (not sure if they have an iOS version) or on their site. You can create your resume Microsoft Word format, leveraging a resume template. Other options include the ability to email the resume to yourself or a potential employer as well as update your resume at a later date. Available for the Android. My Jobs Pro: Job Search Organizer This smartphone job search organizer for the iPhone/iPad. There is also a web version (you need to register for the web version). This app allows you to search for jobs via Indeed.com, data sync, details of job search (jobs, employers, recruitment agencies, etc.) and more. Resume App Im sure youve guessed that this app is $2.99 for the iPhone/iPad version. Enter your personal and job specific info (does not look like there is an import function), view or email in pdf, create a generic cover letter. Seems fairly basic, with more functionality promised in future versions. We are always eager to hear from our readers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding CareerAlley content. We are always eager to hear from our readers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding CareerAlley content. Good luck in your search,Joey Google+ what where job title, keywords or company city, state or zip jobs by

A Quick Guide To Writing A Cover Letter

A Quick Guide To Writing A Cover LetterWhen hiring a new employee, you should consider the format of your resume cover letter. Although employers don't take resumes as seriously as they should, they do require them. If your cover letter is ill-formatted it will just fall by the wayside and employers will begin to lose interest.Resume covers are used to catch the eye of the reader or hiring manager, and it starts with what is written on the letter. A well-written cover letter is most important to the success of the resume. Here are some tips that can help you create the perfect letter.Make sure your letter is very direct. Don't be vague about the job you are applying for. Your letter should give the hiring manager everything they need to know about you. It is important that you let the hiring manager know what is in it for them. You should be able to tell the hiring manager how this position can help their company and what it can do for you.Writing a cover letter requires a lot of per sonalization. The letter needs to speak from the heart and be something that you would personally use if needed. It needs to be something that makes you stand out from the rest of the crowd.Don't be afraid to get creative. Although resume covers are generally bland, you can easily find ways to create a unique one that catches the eye of the reader. Some ideas that you could include in your cover letter include creating a cool business card. A business card is a great way to get in touch with potential clients that you might not be able to get on the phone with otherwise.Always make sure that you think about the position you are applying for before you write your resume cover letter. This will help you narrow down your letter to the specific details of the position that you want. You want to make sure that you understand the information about the position and what it is like working for the company.If you are going to take the time to write a cover letter, make sure you sit down with a pencil and paper and try to write out what you want to say. When you are writing your letter you want to make sure that you are able to capture the attention of the hiring manager or employee. The only way you are going to get the attention of someone is if you come across as interesting people are usually the ones that get hired over the less interesting people.There are several things to keep in mind when writing a resume cover letter. The first tip for you to remember is to always make sure you have a good idea of what is in the position you are applying for. When you get started, you can also see if there is something else you can do to make it stand out.