Before you connect to others, you must first set up a profile page on Linkedin. While your page will detail your work history, don’t assume you can copy and paste your resume and be done with it… although that IS a good place to START, assuring that you are in sync with your resume.

Your profile page should reflect your professional interests, passions, and ambitions at this point in your career.  It becomes the core of this high tech, written collateral.

This week’s session: Your LinkedIn PRIMER… a look at three key TASKS involving your use of social media!

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? (PULL Marketing)  -OR-

·         Do you want that terrific, user-friendly home page and profile that is easy for a reader to navigate? (PUSH Marketing)  -OR-

·         Do you want your profile and homepage to be appealing to both? (<== MY preference)

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 of four or five words. More than anything else in your profile, these words are how people find and define you.

Are you seeking to connect mainly with others in your field and industry? Then a simple, title-oriented headline like “Senior Product Development Director at The XYX Corporation” is best. Are you seeking to branch out into other areas? “Leader of High-Performing Engineering Projects” alerts others quickly to the value you would bring to an organization. Regardless of how you phrase your headline, make sure to use keywords that will help others find you.

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

Whether you are an active job seeker, or simply using LinkedIn to extend the reach of your personal marketing plan, POSITIONING yourself clearly is the epicenter of efficient networking… just as if you were beginning to launch an active JOB search to implement your Personal Marketing Plan!

When listing your past job experiences, use verbs as much as possible. Show what you’re passionate about, and what you’ve learned from each job. Consider listing “non-jobs” you’ve done, like chairing a conference or leading a panel.

Last week we got into conducting your job search efficiently and productively… next week, we’ll give IT a boost with a little help from our digital friends…

Thursday, November 12th... LinkedIn PRIMER, your three basic tasks.

Some encouraging words from a “landed” friend of ours…

<< I wanted to update you on my career transition. Four months ago I joined a privately held company, Restaurant Technologies Inc as an Account Manager. After 30 years working for The Coca-Cola Company, I have enjoyed the change. My months were filled with “getting back inside kitchens”, working with chefs at many of the metroplex’s casual dining, quick serve and hospitality venues. 

Last Friday I was promoted to a a Regional Sales Manager position. I am excited to utilize my skills I have gained to lead the southwest account managers during our company’s growth.

I remember my 18 months of unemployment being challenging. Your smile, encouragement, and wisdom helped me get up every day and try again. I am grateful to God that He has used this experience for me to learn to trust Him for my daily provision. I am thankful how He orchestrated our meeting each other, because nothing is a coincidence

Thank you again for being there for me. Let me know how you are doing and if there is anyway I can help you.

With a grateful heart,

Janine (French) >>

In the OTHER Job Market, buyers and sellers hold equal responsibility for the recruitment process.

When employers have a need for someone to fulfill a specific role, often the most desired candidates are employed individuals with the credentials they seek.  Thus the employer must sell their Company to potential employees in the marketplace in order to attract the best of the lot.  Once identified, they simply select their choice and buy their services. 

On the other hand, if an individual is under-employed, seeking a change, or actually unemployed, they must be visible to potential employers who are seeking their services.  Creating this visibility is strategic, personal market planning and execution—in can be marketability without rejection!  Personal Marketing is a contact sport.

Basic philosophy…

USE technology like a friendly tool…NOT as a replacement for face2face networking

In the OTHER Job Market, buyers and sellers hold equal responsibility for the recruitment process.

When employers have a need for someone to fulfill a specific role, often the most desired candidates are employed individuals with the credentials they seek.  Thus the employer must sell their Company to potential employees in the marketplace in order to attract the best of the lot.  Once identified, they simply select their choice and buy their services. 

On the other hand, if an individual is under-employed, seeking a change, or actually unemployed, they must be visible to potential employers who are seeking their services.  Creating this visibility is strategic, personal market planning and execution—in can be marketability without rejection!  Personal Marketing is a contact sport.

DFWCareerpilot will simply push its scheduled events back a week.  Sooooooooooo, Stay Warm… BE SAFE… enjoy a comfortable morning, then…

GET BACK TO EXECUTING YOUR PERSONAL MARKETING PLAN.

REMEMBER: Job Search is a CONTACT Sport!

When…… Thursday, January 15th

                        Where? Visiting the Southlake Focus Group where Bob is presenting Embracing The OTHER Job                                                             Market – basic philosophy and introduction of 12 step process.

Click HERE for more info

                        WHAT ?   Meet us there at 8 AM…or…

 CARPOOL with Brian by meeting first at The Egg and I at 7 AM

Remember, this is a TWO-Fer… following the Southlake Meeting, Bob will also be presenting at the HEALTHCARE Networking Group that meets at Stacey’s Furniture on Main Street in Grapevine.

Sooooooooooooo, how do you stay productive within your job search? Don’t get left out in the cold…

1. Reconnect with friends and colleagues… SEASONS GREETINGS and update them on your progress…
2. Network with employed people: Get in the habit of this vital activity.  Chapter meetings of your Professional Groups, trade shows. office parties, etc… networking is a contact sport!
3. TAKE TIME to practice your verbal collaterals…
4. MAKE TIME to learn new skills and productive activity: MSWord ‘Quick Parts,’ LinkedIn functionalities, etc
5. Go shopping and spend time with family and friends…
6. DE-STRESS regularly:  EXERCISE!  Walk your dog a mile a day, whether you have a dog or not!
7. Dust off that bike you haven’t ridden in years, lubricate the gears… and take a ride!
8. Write a white paper or two!  Participate in LinkedIn Discussion Groups…
9. Get into the habit of reaching out to second level contacts in LinkedIn and converting them to your FIRST Line.
10. Host a coffee hour or HAPPY HOUR with neighbors… Enjoy this festive, GIVING time of the year!

AND NEXT YEAR? PLAN Ahead, mark your calendar:

Tuesday, January 6th… Bob is presenting at Dennis O’Hagen’s Group in Plano, St. Andrew’s Church

Thursday, January 8th… Closing The Deal II: Interview TACTICS, including POST-Offer negotiation

Thursday, January 15th… a TWO-FER: Let’s make this a FIELD TRIP… Bob is presenting first, at The Southlake Group… followed by the HEALTHCARE Networking Group in Grapevine.

Thursday, January 22nd… Embracing The OTHER Job Market: Overview of 12 Step Process and basic philosophies

Thursday, January 29th… Achieving CareerFIT: Assessment and building your communication strategy

The ONE thing everyone must do the moment they get fired or quit is…

…NOTHING.

Do I need to repeat that?  Put another way… For at least the first few weeks DO NOT be guilty of any of the following, reactive behaviors:

• Find any job you can get your hands on
• Start interviewing like crazy
• Take the first offer that comes to you
• Panic and run around in circles
• Tackle the “honey do” list around the house

Avoid the temptation. All this is going to do is fritter away early opportunities, ground your high expectations, and repeated bring you back to ‘ground zero.’ That is not what I call progress.

To be productive in career transition, there are several steps of preparation to accomplish before undertaking the journey called “JOB Search.” First off, deal with your emotions and any actual fear by realizing a couple things:

When you’ve stopped avoiding real life, realize that you have the rare opportunity to be unhurried and intentional about what you choose to do next.  You have a clear and open widow to actually understand what you’re here to do. To slow down, think, reflect and take stock of what you’ve learned and do something meaningful with it.

This opportunity is AWESOME… The problem is many that find themselves in career transition don’t see it in quite the same light… A pessimistic sailor complains of the changing winds…

 An optimistic one expects a change to more favorable conditions…

 The more practical ones simply adjust their sails!

-THE Careerpilot, navigating the challenging waters of career transition

Expect and respect changes in your career. Then do something with the opportunities presented. A professional individual can manage their own careers by always having awareness and vision of “next step.”  Here are a few ideas to help you ‘adjust YOUR sails…’

1. Dream. When was the last time you sat down and dreamed huge, without someone telling you were crazy? Go out in nature, maybe lie out on your back and stare at the clouds. Think of the craziest biggest (and smallest) dreams you’ve ever imagined. What did you use to imagine before the world told you it wasn’t possible? Go back to your days as a five-year-old if you must. Write everything down, recording your thoughts and the emotions you feel… OWN THEM, with no filtering.
2. Get inspired. Surround yourself with people you admire or go off all alone with your favorite music or motivating movies. Pick anything that’s been on your list or you know will get you inspired. Take note of where your mind takes you.
3. Travel. And do something different when you get there…or along the way. ‘Launch yourself’ and get as far out of town as possible. Without experiencing an entirely new way of doing things, you will surely still be avoiding your fears…taking the path of least resistance… listening to what everyone else thinks you should be doing about your job search ahead.
4. Write. Buy a journal or open up a blank doc on your computer and begin to write what comes to mind. Make it a daily routine. Better yet do it on your travel adventure. You’re welcome to use a blog or forum if you’re used to it… or make the choice to learn HOW TO do it. Start in the morning when your mind is clear and take notes throughout the day as things come to mind. Maybe you’ll come back to what you wrote. Maybe you won’t. What matters is that you start to reflect.

The key is to constantly get your ideas out of your head. Only then will you be able to make real sense of them.

5. Learn about yourself.All these steps are designed to help you better understand who you are – to help you find the things you may have never realized you were looking for. To understand your values, strengths, natural talents, passions and figuring out how you actually define success, something that most people never make the time to do. That’s not going to be you. Learn with no expectation and no agenda. Only under those conditions is where one’s purpose can emerge.

Note that by following the advice above, you will arrive at a much more efficient and productive FIRST STEP in effective job search and career transition: ASSESSMENT.

This week… Thursday, November 13th, we will build on last week’s “Achieving CareerFIT” and explore how to develop high impact and in-sync Personal Marketing materials, like a resume or LinkedIn Profile.

In our current condition and context of ‘the digital age,’ we must focus on KEYWORDS to be found in job search, identified as a Prime Vendor, located as an ‘old friend,’ or even called on as a Subject Matter Expert.  Stay with me now, I think a retired English teacher was bored…THIS IS GREAT!

Read all the way to the end…This took a lot of work to put together!
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong for me to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

*** This is exhausting ***

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France .. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’?

*** Pause for a breath ***

You true lovers of the English language might enjoy this.
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is ‘UP.’

It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?

Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to writeUP a report?

We call UP our friends.

And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.

People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UPexcuses.

To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UPis special.

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.

In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.

It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.

When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP,

for now my time is UP,

so…….it is time to shut UP!

Now it’s UP to you what you do with this grammatically correct trivia.