Month: February 2012

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THIS WEEK’s Event: Thursday, March 1st @ 9AM at The Egg and I Restaurant (NW Quadrant of Arapaho and Montfort) in Addison

This week Thursday, March 1st,  let’s repeat last week’s session with its focus on using LinkedIn in order to develop your network, covering the material from “LinkedIn Task 2- Developing Your Network.”

Map to The Egg and I

Our Location

Come prepared to work on YOUR LinkedIn account–bring your laptop… 1) what does your digital fingerprint look like and… 2) Does it work for you in developing your network?

I want to ‘make up’ for the technical difficulties we experienced last week (we’ll us OUR projector this time!)Let’s explore some of the useful functionality built into LinkedIn: Groups, Box.net, Slideshare, and more.

Who should attend?

  1. Those who might ask… HOW do I get more benefit from LinkedIn?
  2. Those seeking a systematic, focused, more predictable way to conduct an active job search;
  3. “Regulars” who need a ‘booster shot.’… and bring a guest;
  4. New Comers and tire kickers… this is a great session with which to supplement your job search effectiveness!

…and don’t forget the following weel’s sequence of a Wednesday webinar followed by a Thursday morning actual PRACTICE SESSION…

      Schedule of future webinars

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THIS WEEK’s Event: Thursday, February 23rd @ 9AM at The Egg and I Restaurant (NW Quadrant of Arapaho and Montfort) in Addison

This week Thursday, February 23rd,  we will focus on using LinkedIn in order to develop your network, covering the material from “LinkedIn Task 2- Developing Your Network.”

Map to The Egg and I

Our Location

Come prepared to work on YOUR LinkedIn account–bring your laptop… 1) what does your digital fingerprint look like and… 2) Does it work for you in developing your network?

Let’s explore some of the useful functionality built into LinkedIn: Groups, Box.net, Slideshare, and more.

Who should attend?

  1. Those who might ask… HOW do I get more benefit from LinkedIn?
  2. Those seeking a systematic, focused, more predictable way to conduct an active job search;
  3. “Regulars” who need a ‘booster shot.’… and bring a guest;
  4. New Comers and tire kickers… this is a great session to supplement your job search effectiveness with!

      Schedule of future webinars

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Cold Calling effectiveness CAN BE improved…

In a recent LinkedIn ANSWER, I posted…

“Cold calling” is, no doubt, the least popular, but most effective job search TACTIC for most job seekers, including sales oriented folks…

The challenge for the job seeker is to wrap the appropriate STRATEGIES around their cold-calling efforts.  Sure, you’ll have an expedient job search if you ‘show up on the doorstep’ of an organization that needs your skill sets and likes you… but that’s needle-in-a-haystack odds!

Improve your odds by making networking a CAREER strategy instead of a job search drudgery.  All by itself, this would accelerate your next job search by taking the randomness out of your ‘next steps.’  Use a coordinated, systematic approach to any career transition…

Have you fully embraced the OTHER job market?  Not the one that the Department of Labor measures, but the one where the hiring authorities are seeking the most talented individuals… and are you PREPARED to address it? 

Have you analyzed your skill sets and experience and determined clear objectives?  Have you developed collateral materials that reflect CLEAR positioning of your talent, and do you let them evolve through practice (constant) and marketplace feedback? 

Are your references in synch with your message? 

As a job seeker, have you researched the market to determine appropriate target organizations… the ones that actually use your talents?  Can you identify trends that are attractive to you, uniquely YOU?

Most importantly, have you assembled your whole personal CONTACT LIST, leaving no stones unturned… and organized your priorities in networking to A) Folks you already know, but need to reconnect with… B) Folks that can bridge you to actual opportunity leads and, specifically, hiring authorities… C) Folks that can directly impact your hire, the actual hiring authorities. 

LinkedIn can provide you with a digital roadmap to your networking efforts… devote regular time to your LinkedIn network.

Reserve most of your cold calling strategy to the tactics of target organization networking around those organizations that are attractive to you and that need your talent.

Your most important job search strategy, and the skill most job seekers need to constantly develop, is that of converting leads into interviews!  Effective tactics, here, include constantly working on your telephone skills… effectively researching your targeted industry and companies (Googled your interviewer lately?)… practicing your verbal collateral to the point of making them spontaneous and conversational…

ALLof which can improve a job seeker’s odds when employing cold-calling tactics, taking advantage of that huge percentage of actual placements that were initiated by a cold call!

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THIS WEEK’s Event: Thursday, February 16th @ 9AM at The Egg and I Restaurant (NW Quadrant of Arapaho and Montfort) in Addison

Thursday morning’s workshop will focus on the elements of and implementation of YOUR Personal Marketing Plan.   A well thought out PMP will assist you in ‘getting the word out’ effectively and productively and communicating yourself effectively… it is one of our Core Topics:

“Creating and Implementing YOUR PMP” 

Map to The Egg and I

Our Location

  Come prepared to work on YOUR Personal Marketing Plan.   We will cover preparing for collateral development, developing your PMP, and implementing it to score high quality interviews.

YOUR Personal Marketing Plan, and consistent attention to it, is the driving force of a successful work search.  This is a good session for job seekers who feel they have not performed well in their search efforts… or those involved in lengthy searches where they have received inadequate offers.  Bring a guest!

 Who should attend this week?

  1. Those who are just starting or re-energizing their active job search;
  2. Those seeking a systematic, focused, more predictable way to conduct an effective job search effort;
  3. “Regulars” who need a ‘booster shot.’… and bring a guest;
  4. New Comers and tire kickers… this is a great session with which to supplement your job search effectiveness!

      Schedule of future webinars

 

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Note to self: Social Media Here To Stay… LinkedIn Task 1, Developing Your Profile!

This week’s Thursday morning session will focus on developing a well-thought out, and effectively ‘branded’ LinkedIn profile.  If you are planning to attend, consider this post your homework assignment.

Your Careerpilot’s high TECH-HIGH TOUCH philosophy comes into play with the explosive growth of business professionals using social networks to build relationships, meet new contacts, and market themselves.  While the Internet provides many choices, diving into the virtual meet-and-greet can represent a real challenge.  Which one is worthy of your start-up investment: learning curve time and actual ROI of your efforts…  Where to begin? The Careerpilot encourages a choice that reasonably assures one’s confidentiality, has a multitude of useful applications, and can serve as your focal point of networking decisions. 

That choice is to create your own personal LinkedIn account.  Before you can begin this digital networking adventure, you must develop your personal profile.  While your page will detail your work history and other facts about you, don’t assume that you can simply cut and paste your resume content and be done with it.  Unlike your resume, your LinkedIn profile page should reflect all your professional interests, passions, and ambitions at this stage of your career.  It becomes the core of your digitalm written collateral

As you proceed, keep your goal in mind…

  • Do you want to have that fully optimized, SEO-centric magnet that attracts interested parties TO you?  -OR- 
  • Do you want that terrific, user-friendly home page and profile that is easy for a reader to navigate?  -OR- 
  • Do you want your profile and homepage to be appealing to both?

A checklist of things to include:

1. A picture. It’s been said that, “People do business with people.”

2. A specific and high impact “headline” with keywords relevant to your industry… your headline follows you around through several of the interactive applications.

3. Preferred contact method and data… At the bottom of your profile, you can let people know how you want to be contacted — through LinkedIn, by e-mail, or over the phone.

4. Desired information, networking “targets…  What you want to be contacted about… At the bottom of your profile, you can select interests like reference requests, consulting offers, or career opportunities.  Be sure to update your profile to stay in synch with your career.

…and don’t overlook the “power” of recommendations… start thinking of who you might want to encourage to endorse you and your services.  Job seekers: your references are a great start!

The LinkedIn site will walk you through filling in the blanks, but you’ll want to think ahead about two areas:

Positioning Yourself

Just like on a GREAT RESUME, directly underneath your name will be a short headline area. More than anything else in your profile, these words are how people find and define you.

Be Clear on What You’ve Done, and What You Want to Do…

>> For more info see the full article in the RESOURCES Page!

Your homework assignment?  Bring your profile up to 100% complete before Thursday morning’s workshop.

 

 

 

 

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THIS WEEK’s Event: Thursday, February 9th @ 9AM at The Egg and I Restaurant (NW Quadrant of Arapaho and Montfort) in Addison

Thursday morning’s workshop will focus on the evolution of your LinkedIn profile as the cornerstone of your digital footprint… the social media extention of collateral development.   A well thought out Profile will assist you in ‘getting the word out’ and communicating yourself effectively… it is one of our Core Topics:

“Your LinkedIn Profile: Task ONE” 

Map to The Egg and I

Our Location

  Come prepared to work on your LinkedIn Profile.  Bring your laptops!  We will cover preparing for collateral development, developing your branded message in all your collateral–the core of your Personal Marketing Plan, and actual editing of your LinkedIn Profiles.

This is a good session for job seekers who feel they have not performed well in their search efforts… or those involved in lengthy searches where they have received inadequate offers. 

 Who should attend this week?

  1. Those who are just starting or re-energizing their active job search;
  2. Those seeking a systematic, focused, more predictable way to conduct an effective job search effort;
  3. “Regulars” who need a ‘booster shot.’… and bring a guest;
  4. New Comers and tire kickers… this is a great session with which to supplement your job search effectiveness!

      Schedule of future webinars