Amplify Your Personal Brand with Technology (Without Losing the Human Touch)

Embrace the Power of Technology

In today’s digital age, leveraging technology is no longer optional; it’s essential. From social media platforms to AI-powered tools, the right tech can amplify your personal brand and make your message resonate with a broader audience. Tools like scheduling apps, analytics dashboards, and even content generators can simplify your workflow, allowing you to focus on delivering value. The key lies in using these tools strategically, not letting them overshadow your authentic voice. Remember, technology is here to support you, not replace you.

Build a Strategy That Reflects You

A personal brand isn’t just what you post online—it’s the story you tell consistently. Technology can help craft and deliver that story, but only if it aligns with your goals. Start by choosing tools that fit your needs. Need better engagement? Focus on analytics. Struggling with consistency? Try scheduling tools. When you understand your priorities, technology becomes a tool for alignment, not a crutch for shortcuts. Use it to reveal your strengths, not mask your identity.

Beware of Over-reliance

While technology offers incredible benefits, it’s easy to fall into the trap of automation. Over-relying on tools can dilute the personal touch that makes your brand relatable. No matter how advanced AI becomes, it can’t replicate the nuances of human connection. Regularly engage with your audience in real-time. Answer questions, share insights, and show genuine interest. It’s in these interactions where trust is built and authenticity shines. Balance is the secret to keeping your brand both scalable and personal.

Stay Flexible and Human

Your personal brand should evolve with your goals, audience, and environment. Technology can adapt with you, but your adaptability as a person matters more. Stay open to learning new tools, but don’t forget the basics: clear communication, a genuine voice, and consistent action. The human touch will always set you apart. Let your personality lead, and use technology as your amplifier, not your replacement. You’re more than the tools you use—you’re the reason people trust the message.

ImageCodr is an awesome way to link to Creative Commons Flickr images

by treehouse1977

When writing a post without a specific screenshot, a blogger (such as myself) needs to come up with an appropriate image. That image must be licensed for use -- you can't just take any old image.

What I usually do is go to Flickr and search for Creative Commons licensed images, with a "commercial okay" provision. I then upload the image and tag it manually, because you still have to provide proper attribution and link up to the creator's page.

That's why I was so happy to find ImageCodr. This tool basically takes all the hassle out of this process and provides a solution that is just about perfect.

I used ImageCodr to link the image at the top of this post. If you examine it in some detail, you'll see all of the small details were taken care of. There's a clear CC logo (with the exact licensing terms for this specific image) and the name of the photographer with a link to their Flickr page. The image itself is linked to the image page, and correct alt text is used (which you can see if you hover over the image). Also, the CC logo links to the CreativeCommons.org website and the license explanation page. This is definitely more information than I could have packed into the image, and it took me exactly one click to get it done.

ImageCodr provides a quick Flickr search for CC-licensed images (which you can also do on Flickr itself and by using a Saved Search in Firefox), but it also provides a nice little bookmarklet that you can drag onto your browser toolbar. You just click it when you see an image that you want to use.

If only they fixed the code so that it middle-aligns properly, this could be a service that I would use on a regular basis. Still, it's a very handy tool.

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Using A Macbook From An iPad With iTeleport

Since I saw the first real photos of the iPad and its gorgeous screen, I wondered how many developers would start developing VNC clients for it. I mean, back then it was pretty clear that the iPad’s screen was perfect to access your computer remotely, and it’s more than clear now that we’ve tested a bunch of applications to do so.

I’ve downloaded and tested many VNC clients for the iPhone and the iPad, and I think that many of them show good ideas and possibilities, but most of them fail in the most important aspect: providing a stress free and easy way to just show your computer’s screen on a mobile device, and interact with it. They overwhelm the user with tons of useless features but, fortunately, iTeleport is nothing like that.

iTeleport is now available as a universal app, so if you buy the iPhone app you’ll be able to install it as a native app on the iPad as well. I was a previous customer of the iPhone version, and I got the iPad update for free. Also, let me say this straight up: it’s not the cheapest app ever. It comes at $24.99 in the App Store, so think about it very well before clicking the buy button.

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5 Ways to Optimize Your Resume For Database Search | EmploymentDigest.net

1.) The first thing you should not overlook when submitting your resume is to include a keyword summary. This lets you add keywords that may be used by the searcher even if those same words are not found specifically in your resume. Be sure to separate each keyword with a comma.

2.) Just providing a keyword summary is not enough. Having a keyword loaded “Qualification Summary” at the beginning of your resume creates a visually stunning document in addition to making your resume database search friendly.

3.) Use your industry’s most preferable search terms. Get keyword hints from the job itself. You will find that each employer may use certain keywords to explain the position that they are hiring for in the job description. Use those words to your advantage when compiling keywords for your resume.

4.) Fill your resume with top keyword titles. These titles should also expose valuable keywords to search engines.

5.) Lastly, spell out exactly what you are looking for from your future employer. If you plan on working in Colorado, type the entire word: Colorado. Don’t use abbreviations in your resume.

If you aren’t getting a call to interview with a recruiter or hiring manager, use these basic tips to optimize your resume for database searches.

By  Cass Fisher. Remember to specifically gear your resume towards the features of your next position.

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Seth's Blog: "Powerpoint makes us stupid"--these bullets can kill

The US Army reports that misuse of Powerpoint (in other words, using Powerpoint the way most people use it, the way it was designed to be used) is a huge issue.

I first wrote a popular short free ebook about this seven years ago and the problem hasn't gone away. So much for the power of the idea.

Here's the problem:

• Bullets appear to be precise
• • They define the scope of the issue, even if they are wrong
  • They are definitive, even if they aren't
• Bullets that are read from the screen go in one ear and out the other
• Bullets are used as a defensive measure
• • see, I told you this in the meeting on 12.3.08
• Bullets are unemotional and sterile
• The lizard brain causes us to make presentations that are too long so that nothing in particular gets commented on or remembered or criticized
• It is harder to interrupt and have a conversation with someone who has a clicker

See what I mean?

If there was any other tool as widely misused in your organization, you'd ban it. The cost is enormous in lost opportunity and lost time. Guns don't kill people, bullets do.

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Do I Need a Personal Website?

“The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need. My name in print. That really makes somebody. Things are going to start happening to me now!”

Steve Martin, as “Navin R. Johnson” in The Jerk (1979)

This is extremely apropos as we think about an individual’s online identity management in 2010.

Job Seekers, recruiters, human resource professionals and even venture capitalists, continually ask me about the value of a personal website in 2010. Folks have trouble grasping the value of a centralized platform that they control.  Perhaps this is understandable, given the market reach of LinkedIn, Google Profiles, Facebook and a cadre of other social media.  Folks simply cannot accept that a personal website is still of extremely high value.

I ask…Do you think if you are a graphic artist or marketing professional that having a personalized web address to showcase your work has value?

…Is there value to password protecting work samples, white papers etc…?

…Why limit yourself to a template and compete with all the other folks with the exact same name?

… Where do companies spend the most money and time highlighting their service and value proposition on the Web? Why is personal marketing different?

…. Is there a competitive advantage for jobseekers to fully express themselves with graphics, color, navigation and depth?

My weekend case study:

I am active on the web.

• I have a Google profile.
• I have a Zoom Info profile that I manage.
• I have a robust LinkedIn profile.
• I have a Twitter account.
• I have plenty of personal content on the web, including this blog.

This weekend I decided to “search me” using Bing (Microsoft). I did this because I am a Google junkie and never tried searching myself with Bing. It is also important to note that Bing now has 12% of the search market and is the fastest growing of the major search engines.

When I searched myself on Bing, nothing appears on page one for me accept one entry, my personal website.

Not my Blog, not my LinkedIn account, not my businesses.  Just the personal website I built using Site in 60.

I now have another reason to tell all the folks asking me, why individuals in career transition should have a personal website.  Bing me.

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Movin' On Up: What Do Your Social Media Sites Reveal About You?

Did you know that 53% of all hiring managers use social networks to perform background checks on employees? So, if you interviewed for a job and end up being one of the top candidates, some employer may search your online references, such as Facebook and LinkedIn to learn more about you. If they looked at your Facebook profile, what would your pictures tell a potential employer about you? 

An estimated 80% of employers want employees and job candidates to know how to use social networking tools.

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6 Ways To Reduce Irrelevant Results On Google Search

The internet is not your library and if you thought a ton of books was an overwhelming amount of information, think again.

The internet doesn’t contain just a few dozen or hundred relevant sources, no, it contains millions or billions or even more. To make things worse, there is no friendly and intelligent librarian to help you sort through all this information. It’s only you and a stupid search engine. You better act smart.

The challenge when searching online is to find only relevant information or – in other words – avoid irrelevant results on Google search. In this article I will show you 6 ways to reduce these false hits, so that you get better overall search results.

Surprisingly, the most effective way to reduce irrelevant results on Google search, may be not to use Google’s search engine in the first place. Read on to understand why.

1. Use Multiple Keywords

Use multiple keywords to receive more specific results on your first search engine results page (SERP).

2. Use Google Suggest

When you enter the first letters of a keyword into the search bar, Google will suggest popular keywords other people have used in their searches. Follow these suggestions and see whether they can help you gain better results.

3. Use Operators to Properly Connect Keywords

This is a whole article of its own and fortunately it has already been written. Please have a look at my article on Google Operators for an overview. You can use each of these “commands” to improve your search results. Here I will mention only the three most helpful ones.

• Use Negative Keywords

If you’re seeing irrelevant results, identify a keyword that has nothing to do with what you’re looking for and make it your “negative keyword”. Simply add it to your search query with a minus symbol in front of it, for example if you were looking for the band Gossip, you would search for [gossip -celebrity] (without the brackets).

• Use Quotes

This is most commonly used to find an exact match. Since Google already uses the AND operator to connect single keywords per default, you won’t need quotes to find exact matches in most cases.

However, if you find that Google returns results with highlighted keywords that are spelled completely different from what you entered, try to put these single words into quotes and try again. This will prevent Google from “finding” more popular keywords that are only vaguely similar to your search term.

• Search Within a Specific Website

If you don’t want to search the entire internet, but instead a specific URL, this operator is of great help. Type [site:URL "your search query"], for example [site:http://wikipedia.org "brandenburg gate"].

This MakeUseOf Poll compiled by Aibek features some more Best Google Search Tips & Operators.

4. Use Advanced Search

If you can’t be bothered with manually typing operators, you can use Google’s Advanced Search. It allows you to exclude words, search for results in a specific language or specific files, and search within a site or domain. As you enter the details, the search query is automatically composed for you.

5. Use Google Chrome With Quick Scroll

One of the most annoying parts of following a search result is finding the relevant part within the page that opens. The Google Chrome extension Quick Scroll helps you tackle this issue as it provides a quick way to scroll to the parts in that website that are relevant to your query.

We have profiled Quick Scroll in the MakeUseOf Directory.

In Firefox you could simply use Quick Find, i.e. “find in text as you type” to quickly find the keywords again. However, if you’re into Google Chrome, you should check out these 8 Cool Google Chrome Extensions for Google Services, an article written by Tim earlier this month.

6. Ditch Google

Google is the most popular search engine and as such it has a lot of power. Google naturally has full control over its search algorithm. This in turn has a great impact on what results you will see, i.e. those you actually want to see or those that Google wants you to see.

There are two major variables that determine which results are recognized as relevant for your search: Link Authority (a.k.a. PageRank) and Keyword Relevance. Keyword relevance is straight forward. How well do the keywords you entered match the result, how often do they appear throughout the website, are they included in links pointing to that site, etc? Actually, this is all that you’re looking for when using a search engine.

Google, however, is biased towards link authority. The number of links pointing to a certain page determines its “authority” or PageRank. The more, the better. Unfortunately, this means that keywords only remotely related to a high PageRank site may cause this site to appear on your SERP, no matter how relevant it really is. The advantage is that you’ll see a lot of results from reputable high impact pages like Wikipedia or MakeUseOf. On the other hand you may miss out on many more relevant results from smaller pages. That’s not necessarily what you want.

So what can you do? You cannot change Google’s algorithm. However, if you keep seeing irrelevant search results, no matter how well you tune your search, there is one more thing you can do to get better results: don’t use Google’s search engine in the first place.

Yahoo’s search engine, for example, is less biased towards link authority and will thus provide you with much better search results. For a detailed analysis and examples, please see Troy Philis’ article on More Irrelevant Google Search Results.

What are your experiences with Google search and what has helped you to get the most relevant results?

Image credits: garytamin, bizior

(By) Tina has been writing for MakeUseOf since late 2007.

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How Today’s Job Searchers Are Supplementing Their Résumés

Throughout most of our lives, the résumé has been a fairly standard document. Job seekers prepare prospective employers a few sheets of paper summarizing their work goals, qualifications for the job in question, previous employers and perhaps a few positive references. Home computers becoming the norm did little to change the basic format and structure of most résumés, although programs like Microsoft Word provided ready-made templates to spruce up same old résumé. However, many of today’s résumés are of an entirely new breed. Web 2.0 has driven a sea of change in the way résumés are thought about, created and viewed by employers. Today, we’ll explore several ways in which today’s job searchers are supplementing their traditional résumés.

LinkedIn

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Prior to the mid-late 2000’s, the résumé was thought of and treated as a static document. They were created once and then left alone until they were needed again in the future. This is captured in the well-worn phrase “getting your résumé in order” – usually expressed when someone is about to leave their current job. LinkedIn.com has done more than perhaps any other service to change this. By joining LinkedIn, users can create “living résumés” that get updated on a regular basis and are viewable simultaneously to every prospective employer who also belongs to the service. While the look and feel of a LinkedIn résumé is not dramatically different than what you would expect, the true difference is the social aspect. Partners, colleagues and previous employers can attach references to your online résumé directly through LinkedIn. In many cases, your references will themselves have LinkedIn profiles which enables employers to get a better sense of their credibility too. More broadly, LinkedIn makes public your entire circle of contacts, connections and colleagues to any LinkedIn member that wishes to see it. This allows any interested professionals to get a quick read on the types of people with whom you associate. It also adds credibility to the claims made in your résumé. Someone claiming to have graduated summa cum laude from Yale, for instance, likely has friends and colleagues from that university, which LinkedIn will make obvious to anyone who cares to check.

Another key contribution LinkedIn and similar services have made to résumés is convenience. Previously, it was necessary to print out or e-mail copies of your résumé individually to each prospective employer to evaluate. Ambitious job searchers, during these times, frequently found themselves running off dozens of copies of the exact same résumé, which was an extremely time-consuming affair. Today, however, online résumés like those found on LinkedIn are completely portable. All any employer needs to do is join the service (though they likely already belong) and search for you by name. And should any aspect of your work history change, there is no need to manually update everyone who has your résumé. Updating it once ensures that anyone looking at it thereafter will see the latest and freshest copy.

Video Résumés

An even more radical way that new job searchers are supplementing traditional résumés is by using video. In a 2007 article, Time Magazine explained that video résumés were no longer mere comical fodder for Hollywood, but were in fact being used successfully by job searchers of “The YouTube Generation.” While various dedicated video resume sharing services exist, the bulk of job seekers opted to simply record and post videos for free on websites like YouTube and Vimeo. In February of 2007, Time reported that there were “already 1,590 entries listed under résumé.” By now, in April 2010, that number has skyrocketed to over 14,000 on YouTube alone. Because video allows a job searcher to be far more personally expressive than a piece of paper (or even LinkedIn), video resumes are as varied as they are popular. Some use their video resume to affect a professional and serious demeanor in hopes of convincing employers that they are worth hiring. Others use the opportunity to inject wit or humor into their resumes, perhaps to show employers their human side. And some video resumes are nothing short of asinine, as ResumeBear.com reveals in its 2009 article 10 of the Worst Video Resumes & What Makes Them Ineffective. One featured example includes a man who “divulges unnecessary facts about himself, such as his enjoyment of candlelit dinners and kung fu.” Another job seeker opted “to sing her resume to the viewer as a spoof of a Miley Cyrus song”, while still another admits “he got fired from his last job for tax evasion” while also sharing with employers “that he was really popular in college and got laid a lot.”

Such ridiculous examples notwithstanding, video résumés have made a dramatic difference in the job interview and hiring process. For all the benefits of regular paper résumés, their rigid standardization paints all job seekers with a broad brush. Those who found it difficult to distinguish themselves using the “same old résumés” as the rest of the herd have been given new life by video résumés in which they can truly express their unique workplace strengths.

Personal Website Résumés

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Some of today’s job searchers opt to maintain a dynamically updated résumé on their personal website. Rather than joining a service like LinkedIn, web-inclined job seekers can simply create a public résumé on their own website, which is then distributed to employers during the job interview process. Today’s HR departments routinely get résumés in the form of web links to an applicant’s own website and it is not at all inappropriate to maintain a résumé in this manner. Truly creative job seekers often find ways to combine a video résumé with supporting text on their websites. For instance, a brief video might appear at the top of one’s résumé page to offer a personal introduction. Another approach is to post a lengthier video résumé in which the applicant refers viewers to text on the same page for further clarification (such as when discussing references or past projects at work in the video.)

The personal website résumé is ideal for job seekers who proactively seek out specific employers and approach them directly. A drawback of this approach, however, is that it may not be as easy for employers to find you as it would be on LinkedIn, where companies can search for various job attributes and automatically find workers who possess them. About the only way employers would find a personal website résumé would be if Google or Yahoo! displayed it as a search result for one of their queries, which is far from a sure thing. Nevertheless, thousands of today’s job seekers are using website résumés to great effect.

The Future

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The résumé has changed so much in the last 5-10 years that one can only wonder what they will look like in the future. Of course, no one can be certain exactly what résumés will look like in 10-20 years, but recent trends suggest some likely outcomes. For one thing, the standard paper résumé figures to become ever-increasingly obsolete. It also seems likely that mobile phones will play a larger role in job interviews and hiring. LinkedIn, for instance, already offers mobile versions of its service for the iPhone and other devices. Above all, one thing is clear: after decades of staying relatively the same, résumés are changing in a big way.

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How to Use Twitter Lists in the Job Search | Brand-Yourself.com Blog

What started out as the new shiny e-toy is slowly going the way of the quickly forgotten fad.  Twitter lists were and are an incredible tool and were hugely accepted when they were unveiled.  However, most people, after setting up a few lists, moved on to another shiny toy without giving it much thought. 

 

But Twitter lists are still an ideal way to better organize followers into people of interest, sports related, city related, geography related and even a category for your career search. 

A Personal Branding Note on Lists  

 Have you reviewed the lists you are on to see how you are categorized in others’ minds?  This is a very simple way to review your personal brand and, most importantly, how others perceive you.  A great tool to review your personal brand on Twitter lists is a site called MustExist and it is very simple to use.  All you do is enter your Twitter handle and it creates a cloud of tags showing how you are listed, a direct correlation to your personal brand.  This is a great way to maintain how you are currently viewed and, if you are unhappy with where you stand right now, continue to work on your personal brand to change how you are listed (remember, this is not going to happen overnight). 

There are a lot of ways to think about organizing a Twitter list for a career search.  Set up different lists for employees of companies you are interested in following, or maybe one master list of all the companies you are targeting. 

 Three Tips When Setting Up Lists 

1. Create a catchy list name: However you decide to organize these lists, really take time and think about what to name the list you create.  It may seem like such a simple task, but if you create a catchy list name it may make those you add to that list take a moment to be inspired by how you labeled them.  Consequently, they will (more times than not) want to view your profile which hopefully leads to a follow back. 

2. Manage how many people you add to a list: For the most impact, do not overload a list with people.  Sure, a large list might make sense if you are creating one for a city/college/geographical area, for a large group of professionals such as my HR/Recruiting/Social Media list, or maybe for a sports team with fans to talk with.  However, when creating a list for a career search you may consider limiting the size to somewhere between 40-60 people.  Smaller lists are easier to follow and you are able to really target selected people on a particular topic. 

3. Create multiple lists: If you are interested in multiple industries, keep them separate.  The more organized your list is, the more likely someone will latch onto it and also gain from your time, effort and knowledge.  Social networking is sharing and you should be happy when someone subscribes to your list.  ADDITIONAL NOTE: if someone puts you on a list that represents you, send them a thank-you tweet for including you and following you.  After all, positive interaction will spread. 

Do you have any additional suggestions or uses for lists?  Share what you have learned or your best practices with us. 

Photo Credit: Hammock, Inc. 

Keith McIlvaine manages the recruiting social media strategy for a Fortune 500 company and is an avid networker.  He is a social media advisor, coach, speaker, blogger and an all around fanatic.  Connect with Keith on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.     (The statements posted on this site are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer

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Review of DoYouBuzz.com for Online Resumes

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The Glass Hammer: Don’t Get Dooced! Staying Employable Online

By Elizabeth Harrin (London)

Heard the one about the girl sacked via Facebook? Or the woman fired for blogging about her sex life? The internet is a dangerous place. “While fewer than 2% of employers have terminated employees for violations committed on business or personal blogs, that number is certain to grow as workplace blogging becomes more prevalent,” says Nancy Flynn, in her book The e-Policy Handbook. There are millions of blogs online, and if you write one you could be at risk of being marched out of your office with your stuff in a cardboard box. There’s even a word for it: dooced.

In 2002, Heather Armstrong, a web designer from Los Angeles, lost her job after her employers decided they didn’t appreciate what she had written on her website, Dooce. And a new word passed into the lexicon. Armstrong now makes a living from blogging and her website supports her family. However, she’s pragmatic about how she ended up writing as a career. “In February 2001, I launched dooce.com as a place to write about pop culture, music, and my life as a single woman,” she writes on her blog. “I never expected more than a couple of dozen people to read it. A year later I was fired from my job for this website because I had written stories that included people in my workplace. My advice to you is BE YE NOT SO STUPID.”

Here are our six tips to keep yourself employable online, and avoid the stupid stuff.

1. Read your company’s social media policy

   Trawl through the intranet and find that social media policy. If it says you must tell your manager that you blog, tell her. In fact, do whatever it says. Breaching the policy will certainly be a contributing factor if your blogging antics ever become public knowledge, and ignorance of the policy is not likely to be a good enough excuse. No policy? Talk to your manager about what you are doing online, the topics you blog about and so on, and agree some ground rules – see below. And get your internal communications team to write a policy for everyone’s benefit.

2. Follow the code of ethics

   Forrester analyst Charlene Li has come up with a blogger code of ethics, which is worth a look at if you need some guidance on what is suitable for the public domain and what should be kept offline.

   As a rule of thumb, think before you post! What are the risks – to you and the company – of you saying what you’re about to say? Don’t blog about share prices, sensitive information, security processes and so on. And it should go without saying that you should never comment on your colleagues. If in doubt, don’t. Even if your current employer doesn’t mind (or doesn’t notice) you don’t want to be labeled the employee who gave away company secrets when you’re looking for your next job.

3. Use photos with care

   No one can see your Facebook profile, what with all the security settings you’ve set, right? Unfortunately, nothing on the internet is truly private, so be careful about what information you post, even if you think only your friends can see it. That means no suspect photos: being seen in a wet T-shirt contest or partaking in dubious substances is only going to harm your credibility in the workplace, and is the sort of information potential employers might stumble upon when they are filtering information on job candidates.

4. Keep work separate

   Social media tools give us the ability to friend, follow and link all our colleagues on multiple sites. You might have your friends and family connected through the same network as the people in your office. However good you are at keeping your work and personal lives separate online, the easiest and safest way is to use separate networks for different groups. LinkedIn is a popular tool for business people – choose that or something similar for work. Use Facebook for friends and family. Don’t let anyone slip past this net.

5. Understand that it’s more than a water cooler conversation

   You’re not saying anything online that you wouldn’t say down the pub, or at the water cooler, so what’s the difference? There’s a huge difference. The audience is much larger, and things can and do get picked up and spread around by other people. Many corporations, including Wal-Mart, have been caught out by what’s been written about them online, and you really don’t want to be the centre of a big PR scandal.

6. Google yourself

   You need to write online with tact to keep yourself in your employer’s good books, but that will only help you stay on top of what you are saying. To find out what other people are saying about you (or your company), set up a Google Alert to inform you when something about you turns up online. It’s not vanity, it’s a useful way of monitoring the online space and following what other bloggers are saying about you and the topics you discuss. This way you can head off anything that could be potentially career damaging, or at least warn your employer that something’s coming.

It should be easy to stay employable online. The mantra ‘don’t be stupid’ is a good one to follow. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to type and click ‘Submit’ when you’re tired, or not thinking straight, or furious with someone at work. The internet has a very long memory – it’s not like sending an email to just one person and then having to grovel an apology in the morning. However, follow a few sensible ground rules and you’ll avoid many of the pitfalls of having a presence online, and maintain your credibility and employability.

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Green Business Jobs: Top 10 Job Search Resources

“Green jobs” is the hot topic of the day, and now more than ever, companies are embracing the sentiment, if not the practice, of sustainability. But, when it comes to career options, green business can mean many different things—sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), cleantech, socially responsible investing, green building, carbon markets and finance, renewable energy industry jobs, green marketing, or corporate-NGO partnership engagements, to name a few.

Are there really any jobs out there? Absolutely. But the catch is: these openings can be hard to find. Few job search boards aggregate socially and environmentally responsible business jobs in all of these different areas of sustainability, and often sustainability is not easily searchable in a job’s title or descriptive keywords.

Here are my ten favorite green business job search resources:

1. Net Impact (www.netimpact.org). Any professional interested in sustainable business should join the global Net Impact organization as a full member. Members have access to a job board focused exclusively on social and environmental impact careers, as well as access to the global member directory (great for networking), the “Issues in Depth” educational series, and regular career newsletters. If your city has a local professional chapter of Net Impact, join that, too.

2. Sustainability Recruiting Blog (www.sustainabilityrecruiting.com/blog/). Recruiter Ellen Weinreb sifts through many different sources for the best new CSR and sustainable business job openings, and posts one to her blog each day.

3. GreenBiz (www.greenbiz.com). GreenBiz is the preeminent source of green business news and commentary, along with its affiliated sites ClimateBiz.com, GreenerBuildings.com, GreenerComputing.com and GreenerDesign.com. GreenBiz’s annual “State of Green Business Report” is an excellent resource, as is its job board.

4. Green Dream Jobs (www.greendreamjobs.com). This job board is easy to search by skill level (eg, “Senior Level”) or by keyword (eg, “MBA”).

5. Justmeans (www.justmeans.com) . This social networking site includes an active job board for social impact job openings, many with environmental and cleantech organizations.

6. Green Drinks (www.greendrinks.org). Many cities have regular happy hours events called “Green Drinks”—a great way to network with environmentally-oriented professionals in your area.

7. LinkedIn Groups. The “Green Jobs & Career Network Group,” “Acre Sustainability Recruitment Network,” “Sustainability Career Group,” and “Renewables Job Market” groups on LinkedIn are just a few of the groups posting green business job openings, and anyone can join for free.

8. BSR’s CSR Jobs Board (www.bsr.org/resources/jobs/). BSR (Business for Social Responsibility) posts mid- and senior-level CSR and sustainability positions on its site.

9. CSR Chicks (groups.yahoo.com/group/csr-chicks/) and CSR Jobs (groups.yahoo.com/group/csr-jobs/). These two Yahoo! groups are good sources for CSR jobs in the UK and other parts of Europe (despite the name, men and women alike are invited to join).

10. Simply Hired Job Search Agent (www.simplyhired.com). Simply Hired is a meta-search engine which will crawl other job boards and send you daily email summaries with any matches. A carefully crafted search agent (ie, “sustainability and MBA” or “renewable energy California”) can yield great results from places you might not otherwise look.

Guest Expert:

Katie Kross is the author of the book, Profession and Purpose: A Resource Guide for MBA Careers in Sustainability (Greenleaf Publishing, 2009), available at Amazon.com and BetterWorldBooks.com.

via careerrocketeer.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Don’t Be A Stealth Job Hunter!!!

Are you trying to find a new job without letting anyone know you’re unemployed? Many people try, very few succeed. Especially in today’s job market, it is extremely difficult to get a new position without extensive networking!

That word seems to scare many people. In their minds it conjures up images of glad-handing Multi-Level-Marketing salespeople who wants to show their “plan” with the “perfect” opportunity for you without knowing anything about you. Or it draws memories of the brother in-law who became a life insurance agent and has been haranguing every distant family member for months to buy a new policy from him.

Those bad memories are caricatures of networking or sales, and not the image you would create by effective networking for a new job.

Don’t hide from the people that can help you! Here are some thoughts and some practical help to do it right…

Especially now, there is no shame in losing your job! Often, I hear people say they don’t tell others they are looking for a job because they are embarrassed over being unemployed. Too often they blame themselves somehow when in fact market conditions can make anyone a casualty of a lay-off. When companies are forced to make drastic cuts in their expenses, they often have to cut broadly and deeply. Often they will cut a whole department, or a straight percentage from every department. The decisions of who stays and who goes are often made very arbitrarily with the bottom-line the primary concern. Survival of the company is more important than cutting carefully with a scalpel.

Over the past 2 years, virtually everyone recognizes that no one is immune. There is no stigma to a lay-off as there may have been years ago. There is no need for embarrassment, or shame. It is what it is and generally people don’t view your unemployment as a reflection on you, but rather a sign of the times. I was told of someone recently that didn’t tell his wife that he had been laid-off for 3 weeks. He rose, dressed and left for ‘work’ each morning just as he always had so his wife wouldn’t suspect, but spent his day at a coffee shop. Now that’s stealth, and not at all a good idea.

Who do you tell? Everyone! You never know where your best leads will come from, and usually they come from the most unlikely sources. Make a list of everyone you know. Studies show that most people, on average, know more than 350 people. Create lists in groups to help jog your memory. List ALL your family members, close and extended. List friends. List ALL your previous co-workers from everywhere you’ve worked. List service providers like your doctor, accountant, lawyer, real estate agent, dry cleaner, mail carrier, etc. List other parents on your kids’ sports teams. List other parents you know from your kids’ school. List people you know at church, temple, or mosque. List people you know from former vendors, customers, trade associations, user groups, or professional associations. List alumni from your schools. Hopefully, you get the idea… make lists of everyone you know! Then gather contact information… find where they work on LinkedIn, call the main number of the company and call them. Gather email addresses if you have them. Google their name to find something of theirs with contact information. Use resources like Jigsaw.com, ZoomInfo, or the phone book!

What do you say? That will vary with how you know them, how well you know them, and what position they hold. However, as a general rule, one thing you don’t want to say is: “Do you know of a job opening?” The vast majority of people you talk to will not know of something off-hand and then the conversation becomes awkward and cut short.

As a suggestion:

“I’m connecting with everyone I know in order to network effectively to find a new position. I realize you may not know of a specific open position in my field. However, I figure my job while I’m looking is to keep adding links to my chain of people, connecting one to another until I find the right opportunity.

I’m hoping you may be able to give me names of a couple of people that you know that would be worthwhile for me to talk to… either anyone else you know in my field, someone that you might reach out to if you were in my situation, someone that just seems to know a lot of people, or anyone you know at companies that seem to be doing well.

I’d be grateful for any specific job leads if you know of one, however, I’m really only hoping for the next couple of links in my chain.”

 

People can’t help you if they don’t know you are looking! Don’t keep your job hunt under wraps. Let everyone you know you are looking, touch base with them regularly (every 4 to 6 weeks), and keep adding to the links in your chain until you reach someone with the right opportunity for you!

via thewisejobsearch.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

reCareered: Question Of The Week - How should I let my network know that I'm looking for work?

This week, a reader asked if he should use a direct email campaign for his job search. While there are many career professionals who like this approach, I find it to be self defeating, risking more harm than good. Here's why.

On alternate Fridays, I'm posting a job search question from one of our readers. This was a question posted in response to my posting on Linkedin Answers “Candidates - What's your most difficult job search question?”

M.S. shared a question about his own job search, and asked:

"What approach I should use in the messages I send? Is it best to be direct or indirect in the messages I send to business owners or executives? For the direct approach, I could say that I would love to hear about positions they might have where I could put my e-marketing skills to work. At the worst I will just find that there isn’t much of a response."

My thoughts and experiences are going to be different than those of most career coaches, outplacement professionals, recruiters, college placement offices, and "rules of thumb". Most of these sources will advise candidates to take a direct approach. Typical advice would be to craft an email, stating that you are in an active search mode, possibly attaching your resume, and asking for help or referrals.

While those approaches worked 9 years ago, when email was still fairly new, it's less effective today - and can cause you to damage relationships unknowingly. I'll sum up the points below by asking in reply - Do you think that spamming your contacts is a good idea? Will it generate the response rate that you want? Will spamming your network help or hurt your relationships?

There are a number of differences between today's job search environment and that of 10 years ago that cause a direct approach to be ineffective:

• There are far more job seekers today: Not only are there more unemployed, but there are many passive job seekers also - as many as 60% of the workforce by some reports. Most of your competition spams their network - because "everyone" recommends it.
• Your network is already inundated by email: The people you are trying to reach get hundreds of emails per day. They can't possibly read all of them, and can only respond to a small percentage. The people you want to reach have jobs to do.
• Proliferation of spam: Spam today is more than just ads for Canadian pharmaceuticals, insurance, and penny stock tips. As our email boxes fill to overflowing, business professionals react more unfavorably to spam. resenting the time unsolicited emails take from their day.
• Backlash against spam: Over-messaged recipients can get upset due to unsolicited emails and messages. As our inboxes overflow, we've gotten used to being asked for permission to message first, and quickly grow impatient with emails that don't provide us value. Those are the emails that get deleted, or worse ... sent to spam or replied with "Please remove".
• iPod & Blackberry nation: As more professionals use smartphones as their primary email reader, especially for personal emails, attention span for non-urgent emails have shortened as our inboxes explode. If it's not valuable to us, we tend to delete first, ask questions later.
• Sending blast emails demonstrates What's In it For Me (WIFM): Most of your readers won't find value in what you want, or to quote M.S. "I would love to hear about positions they might have where I could put my e-marketing skills to work."
• "The Update email": This is the email we all get, often from people we barely know, or who are social network connections, that give us the whole history of their job search. Most recipients don't care. However, if you restructured the email to tell me about the problems you've been solving, how you are created value, or the value you are creating freelancing or at volunteer organizations - you have a much better chance of getting attention.

Fortunately. there are better alternatives. These can work as well for an accountant as a marketing person, from entry-level to executive. Use the power of social media in the way it was intended - to engage in discussions, rather than spam. Here's some ideas of how you can utilize your social network to engage in job search discussions:

1. Create a newsletter or blog: Use a newsletter or blog to provide value to your readers, give them ideas, demonstrate the value you can provide by describing past projects and the problems you solved - show them WIFT (What's In it For Them - see http://recareered.blogspot.com/2010/03/job-seekers-tell-your-readers-wift.html).

Use Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter Status: Use your social media status to start discussions of projects, rather than asking if your network knows who's hiring. Use your status as a megaphone to provide value, rather than spam.

Discuss on Industry sites and forums: If you are a marketing person, find the top marketing forums, sites, social networks, and blogs. Contribute value by starting discussions, engaging in discussions ... if you've picked the right forums you reach your hiring managers and show the type of value you provide to a group ... and could provide to their company (see http://recareered.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-use-social-branding.html).

Send emails with links to discussions, blog posts, web sites, etc that provide value: If you want to use Direct email, use it to provide value and WIFT, rather than ask about openings.

Create a website or online portfolio to show off your work: It's easy and inexpensive. There are a number of free alternatives, including Google Sites, Facebook, Blogger, Wordpress, and hundreds of inexpensive choices where you can easily post examples of your work, case studies, and the problems you've solved. Presenting your background in this way adds value to your network, because you're giving ideas while you promote your work (see http://recareered.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-online-portfolios-put-you-at-top-of.html).

Don't burn your network: Rely on your network for high return information, rather than just asking what's on their website's job tab. Your network has a higher value of inside information, than just randomly asking if a contact knows of any openings. Your network's highest value is in Guerrilla Job Search tactics, to give you the inside information that allows you to understand company problems, so you can present yourself as the solution (see http://recareered.blogspot.com/2009/11/guerrilla-job-search-tactics.html).

The beauty of this approach is that it can reach far more than just your network and by not directly asking for a job you provide value, encouraging more attention. This approach can be used to help change industries or job function, and can be used by active or passive job seekers (your employer won't have problems with your involvement in the industry - it makes your company look good as long as you don't give out company secrets).

The more you provide value, the less your messaging is viewed as spam, the fewer times the delete button is hit, and the more likely you'll be recruited as a great fit to fix problems just like the ones you described.

via recareered.blogspot.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Posterous Turns Email Lists Into Group Blogs

Email -> Posterous -> emails everyone on the list. The email becomes a post.

Awesome!

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

How to Turn Twitter Into a Dashboard-Style Web App

This is a screenshot of Twitter. No gimmicks, no PhotoShop. (Click to enlarge.)

I’ll show you a simple way to turn your experience on Twitter.com into one very similar to most Twitter web applications out there, such as Tweetdeck, Seesmic or Hootsuite.

Some may prefer this solution since you will have access to all of your Twitter data – your profile, your followers, your settings, your lists and searches – all in one place.

Firefox and Chrome users can turn the native Twitter website into a customizable Twitter web application that can do the following:

• Add list columns
• Add mentions column
• Collapse and expand number of columns with a single click
• Collapse right rail column
• Add search columns
• Share photos directly
• Shorten urls
• Save draft tweets to send later
• and much more…

There is only one requirement – you have to be using Firefox or Chrome. If you’re in one of those browsers, follow the following steps:

Firefox users:
1. Go to the add-on library and install monkeyfly.
2. Restart browser, go to Tools – Add-ons and enable monkeyfly if it’s not enabled already
3. Go to Twitter and use the plus sign to customize your page
or
4. Watch the 3 minute tutorial and then go to Twitter to customize your page

Chrome users:
1. Go to Google Chrome extensions and install monkeyfly
2. Go to Windows – Extensions and check that monkeyfly is enabled
3. Go to Twitter and use the plus sign to customize your page
or
4. Watch the 3 minute tutorial and then go to Twitter to customize your page

If you’re not using one of these browsers, give one a try so you can use monkeyfly.

Enjoy!

via feedproxy.google.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

The iPad Job Search

I will be one of the geeks on line at the Apple Store, picking up my pre-ordered iPad early Saturday morning.

Part of this is my Apple fanboy-ness and part of it is my desire to remain ahead of the curve.

A lot of job search has moved mobile. So many apps are now out there for mobile job search that it has become a major source of job search traffic and also a major tool in the modern job search.

I just perused the list of iPad launching apps and to the best of my knowledge, there are no job search apps on there yet. What I’d like to do is have us all keep our eyes out for when the first one launches.

Will it be Careerbuilder, an early and heavy user of the iPhone app ecosystem? Will someone make a mashup app for craigslist?

Or will it be more interesting?

Just as the mobile web has given us a new way to job search, will the iPad bring us something we can’t imagine yet? Will the iPad become something (more interestingly for me, certainly because I own a resume writing business) that is a presentation device? Will it be something we bring along to interviews and job fairs? Will the iPad become the modern brief case? Will this be the way we show off our resumes or portfolios?

I don’t know the answers yet, but I want to make sure we’re all there when we find out.

So, I’ll be getting my iPad on Saturday. And I’ll post some stuff here about it.

But help me out as well. If you see some job search oriented iPad apps pop up, please, let me know. If someone starts using the iPad for job search in new and interesting ways, please let me know.

I’ll share it here, and we can all dissect and evaluate it. Is it the future? We’ll decide together.

More in a bit.

Original Post The iPad Job Search

13 Best Firefox Job Search Add-ons

Here are the job search add-ons that make Firefox the only browser for job seekers.

I’m not just saying that. Google Chrome only has a few extensions for searching job boards, while Internet Explorer has no specific job search add-ons at all.

How to use this guide

All the add-ons mentioned here can be found in the Best Job Search Add-ons collection I created on mozilla.org.

Search plugins

Search plugins add a specific search engine to your browser’s search box.

Indeed Job Search: search Indeed.com, one of the biggest job search engines in the USA.

Jobtweet.de – Twitter Job Search engine (English version): search Twitter for job openings from English-speaking countries. Other versions of this add-on search for jobs in Russian, French and German.

TwitterJobSearch: Search Twitter for job listings.

CharityJOB: search for fundraising jobs, charity jobs, and third sector jobs in the UK.

DoNanza Freelance Job Search: search the “world’s biggest search engine for online freelance jobs.”

oDesk Jobs: “from within your Firefox search bar, simply type a query and browse through matching oDesk assignments.” Another freelance job search add-on.

Curriculum for Professionals: “search directly from your browser the exact job post you are looking for.” (Brazil)

Jobexpress.pl : search job listings on this Polish job board. (Poland)

Zarplata.ru – instant search: search job offers from top Russian companies. (Russia)

Super add-on tip: use the terrific Add to Search Bar add-on so you can search any website directly from Firefox’s search box.

Toolbars

I try to avoid installing toolbars because they’re rarely worth the space they take up on your screen. Just remember you can hide each toolbar until you need it (right-click in the toolbar area, and then uncheck the name of the toolbar to hide).

Linkedin Companion for Firefox: Search for a job by seeing who in your network can connect you while browsing major online job sites. Most useful for the LinkedIn JobInsider sidebar panel that will show you contacts on LinkedIn from the company whose job listing you’re viewing.


Firefox Super Search – “over 160 of the best people search and web search engines in one handy add-on, including 67 searches that can be done right from the toolbar, without having to visit each site and retype the name or search term that you are searching.” Most useful for the built-in, US-based search engines and people searches, most of which I told you about in my 200+ Resources and Tips To Help Manage Your Reputation Online.

Other

JobSpeaker: helps you manage your job search by allowing you to save, rate and track jobs that interest you and also lets you forward or tweet jobs to your friends. A nice idea.

pBot, job applicant: “pBot was a project conceived out of frustration with the job application process; specifically the pseudoscientific ‘personality test’ that seems to tacked on the end of every application for even the lowest level jobs. Instead, pBot will fill out Unicru job application ‘personality tests’ for you.” More information at the add-on’s official site. I’m not recommending you use this tool, but it’s worth knowing that it’s out there.

If you liked this article, you’ll enjoy RSS: The Best Job Search Tool You’re Not Using Enough.
13 Best Firefox Job Search Add-ons [JobMob]

Top 3 Websites To Build A Free Resume Online

Original Post
When you’re looking for a job, you don’t have a lot of chances to catch the interest of a potential employer. After the cover letter, the curriculum vitae (CV) or resume is one of the first documents recruiters see. To keep them interested in you, this document should highlight your strengths, be easy to scan, yet look unique and interesting.
You may wonder what the difference is between a CV and a resume? The main difference is the length. A resume is a one or two page summary of your education, skills, and experiences. A CV covers more details and is primarily used when applying for jobs in academia, education, science, and research.

A great way to quickly compile a resume and not forget about any details are online tools. This article covers the top 3 websites to create a CV or build a free resume online.

1. CeeVee

Don’t be misled by the name. As I said, the main difference between a CV and a resume is the length. So simply limit yourself to the essential details and this CV builder will create a document that qualifies as a resume.
CeeVee essentially works like editing an online profile. You’re not guided through the process step-by-step, you can fill in the information in any order you please. To customize your document, you can add sections to your resume, remove existing sections, and add as many entries to each section as you like. You can also choose from three different themes, which will affect both the display on the website, as well as the output document.

The resulting CV or resume can be shared online, downloaded as a PDF, or you can print it.

2. Free Resume Creator

This tool isn’t as pretty as CeeVee, but definitely a more advanced way to build a free resume online. Another advantage is that you don’t have to sign up to use it.
You start by selecting your desired resume style. In the next steps you fill in your personal information, education, employment, and any additional information. Before completing the document, you can choose font styles and colors.

The document can be printed or downloaded as PDF, HTML, or plain text. If you would like to save the document online to come back and edit it later, you will have to sign up.
The PCman Website also provides online services to create a cover letter and reference page.

3. Advice Resources CV Builder

This CV or resume builder leaves you with two options. You can either view a list of templates and download any you like or take the step-by-step builder route. Neither requires you to sign up, but to save your CV online, you have to create an account. However, this can wait until you have seen the result.
Building your CV is done in 12 steps. The tool polls for your name, contact details, motivation, work experience, skills, education, additional qualifications, personal interests, referees, and finally your preferred layout. You can then download and check the result as a .rtf document and eventually go back and edit your CV.

As the screenshot above reveals, Advice Resources provide additional material to prepare yourself before building your CV. You can build your job seeking skills, your CV confidence, and your CV knowledge.
Before you send a resume to a potential employer, make sure the service you used to build your resume works as expected and your document is thoroughly formatted and does not contain spelling errors.
For more information regarding resumes, check out the following MakeUseOf articles:

• Build An Impressive Free Resume Online In 15 Minutes With JobSpice by Jessica.
• 3 Less-Known Free Online Resume Builders by Ann.
• Top 5 Free Resume Hosting Websites by Mahendra.

Also have a look at The Riley Guide’s material on Resumes & Cover Letters as well as For Dummies’ The Essentials of Preparing a Resume.
Good luck!
Image credits: sibaudio