Dress to get the job!

Original Post Here [TheWiseJobSearch]

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From time to time I get asked about what’s appropriate to wear to a job interview, networking meeting, or other event. The answer varies based on the circumstances and type of position.
The key to keep in mind at any time, however, is that first impressions do matter and dressing appropriately and professionally is a prime component of that first impression.
The way you dress can tell someone a lot about you:

• Do you pay attention to detail
• Do you think this meeting is important
• Do you care about the impression you make
• Do you care about being current
• …and other characteristics as well

So… what is appropriate dress for your meeting or event?

Negotiate Your Way to Getting Paid What You're Worth

Original Post Here

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One of the trickiest parts of landing a new job is making sure you get paid what you're worth. Negotiating your salary is part art, and part science, but there's one rule that never changes: be nice.
Photo by Orin Zebest.
Wired's How-To Wiki has a great collection of tips on figuring out what a job ought to pay and how much you can expect to earn based on your level of experience and education. Once you've got a ballpark estimate, you'll need to get your prospective employer on board, and that's where good negotiation tactics come in handy.
We've mentioned ways to hone your negotiating skills before, but one tip in particular is important to remember. It pays—literally—to be nice when you're trying to find a middle ground between what you want to earn and what the company is willing to pay.

Salary negotiation may make you feel as ruthless as Gordon Gekko, but the basic rules of human decency still apply. After all, you will have to work with these people. Don't hold out for the maximum offer. Don't hint that you need the dough to pay off your gambling debts or your mother's life-saving operation. Don't complain that your best friend from high school is making twice as much... in an entirely different field. And don't — we repeat, DON'T — bring the subject up in an interview. Wait until the interviewer brings it up, even if that means waiting for a second interview — which is what you were going to do in the first place, remember?

Hit up the post for more tips on getting paid what you're worth. Did you negotiate your salary before you took your current job? How'd it work out for you? If you've got tips to share, we'd love to hear about them in the comments.

Get Paid What You're Worth [Wired How-To Wiki]

Six Ways to Maximize LinkedIn When Job Hunting | NewmanPR

Original Post Here

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Uploaded on January 16, 2010
by nanpalmero
1) Make sure that your page is up to date — I realize that LinkedIn is not much fun and that you’d rather be on Facebook, but it is important to have your information fresh and current.
2) Make sure that your page and your resume jibe — If your employment history doesn’t match up between your resume and your LinkedIn page, that could be an indication that you’re hiding something or, possibly worse, you’re just sloppy.
3) Proofread, proofread, proofread — enough said.
4) Use a professional, and recent, photograph of decent quality — it’s like wearing business attire to an interview, duh! And nobody wants to see your picture from the kegger at the beach last weekend.
5)LinkedIn doesn’t provide much real estate in which to work your writing mojo, but in those places where you can be descriptive, be creative and show a little style.
6) Join appropriate groups and join their conversations — It is, after all, social media. Be judicious in the groups you choose to join. It’s best to select groups related to your desired career, which should, besides giving you an opportunity to learn about the business, enable you to network with people who might be looking for a sharp, savvy candidate.

Rocket Surgery Made Easy - Joel on Software

Original Post: Here

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Rocket Surgery Made Easy
Recommended by Joel Spolsky Monday, January 25, 2010

  

Steve Krug has written a follow up to his usability classic Don’t Make Me Think. The sequel, Rocket Surgery Made Easy, is a terrific, short, concise, fun guide to running simple “hallway” usability tests to improve the usability of your software and websites. Highly recommended.

Big 3 Recruiting Mistakes – Continued - RecruitingBlogs.com

Big 3 Recruiting Mistakes – Continued

• Posted by Corey Harlock on January 21, 2010 at 1:08pm
• 
  

Reputation is HUGE, especially now with social networking and immediate feedback. People talk, especially when they feel like they have been treated unfairly.

Your reputation is a consideration at every level of your business. Here are some areas you may not have thought of:

How you advertise your positions. Are you targeting the right people or using the “dirty bomb” method? Post it everywhere and hope the right person sees it. I can not stress the importance of posting the right job in the right place. Too many advertisements can = desperate.

Your selection process. Do you take the time to send a “thanks, but no thanks” letter? Here is what I know – over 70% of applicants in our industry receive a response to their online application 60% of the time or LESS. Too busy to respond? You should make time because 36% of those people you didn’t respond to WON’T re-apply! Talk about shrinking your candidate pool. You think finding good people is hard now – keep finding reasons not to respond to their application and you will find it very hard!

Your hiring process. Don’t make the candidates wait. In today’s world of instant feedback and information, making candidates wait for interviews and feedback can kill your reputation too. Here are some more scary stats and remember these are Execs & Mgrs. 42% of candidates think the interview process should be a maximum of 5 business days. Another 41% think the max should be 10 business days. Yep, take longer than 5 days and you have not met the expectations of 42% of your applicants – that’s 2 in 5. That number jumps to 4 in 5 if you go past 10 business days. Here is the worst news, take to long and 70% of these people will never re-apply again! No “thanks, but no thanks” and you lose 36% of your candidate pool. Then take to long to interview the people you actually liked and lose another 70% of your candidate pool. Ouch!

Your retention policy. Do you know what really keeps your managers working for you? Do you want to know? Here it is – 62% want the training, coaching and mentoring they need to get promoted to the next level of their career. The 2nd most important reason an employee stays with you is… input and collaboration which came in at a whopping 16%. To put this in perspective salary and bonus came in at 3.6% and 3.1% respectively.

People talk, that’s a fact. And more importantly they talk more when they feel undervalued or disrespected. The ol’ “if you don’t like it, there’s the door” mentality doesn’t work anymore (I don’t know if it ever did). You need to recognize and meet the needs of your most important asset or an equal side of your triangle or the topic of your vision statement or whatever! The fact of the matter is – good people are hard to find. As the market recovers their stock will rise and finding good people will be challenging. Now is the time to address any concerns – fix your reputation and get ready for the future.

Follow These 3 Networking Tips

Original Post Here

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image by Joe Pemberton

“Networking for a job change or to get off unemployment is nearly essential, since people -- not computers -- hire other people,” says Matt Noah, CEO of Chanhassen, MN-based, NetSuds.com, a firm that helps professionals build and enhance their network of contacts.

Here are 3 ways you can network better and find your next job faster …

1) Attend Industry Events

No matter what you do, there’s probably a regular event of some kind where potential employers in your industry gather. Identify events or venues that will most likely help your job search, then go there!


“Typically, the more focused the event, the better,” says Noah. “If you are a plumber, don’t go to an electrician’s trade show, for example. And size matters -- events are popular and well-attended if they provide value to the people in attendance.”

So, attend well-focused, popular events. You can find them advertised in trade journals, the business section of the Sunday paper, or search for them online at www.google.com


2) Join a Job Club

These aren’t very high-tech or exciting. Just plain effective.

In a good job club, you’ll meet weekly or monthly with 10-30 other people to share leads, provide support and practice such skills as interviewing and negotiating for salary. Job clubs are usually free, so don’t fret about membership costs.

You’ll find job clubs all around you. Contact your local library, church, community groups and state employment agency for help in contacting one or more that suit your needs.

If your city publishes a free employment weekly newspaper, be sure to check the announcements section to find job clubs; you may also find them listed in your phone book.

3) Perfect Your Pitch

No matter how you network, you’ll eventually have to tell people what kind of job you’re after. So develop a 20-30-second “pitch,” describing who you are and what you do.


Focus on your unique combination of specific skills, knowledge and experience.

Example pitch: “I’m a tech support professional with five years of helpdesk experience. I’ve encountered and solved just about every problem imaginable. Before that, I completed officer’s training as an ROTC student while earning my MIS degree. This gives me a broader range of technical, leadership and problem-solving skills than most folks.”


According to marketing expert Larry Chase at www.larrychase.com, “I find people appreciate it when you can deliver your pitch in less time than they anticipated. It telegraphs that you are clearly focused and waste no time getting to the point.”

Action Step: People – not computers, Web site or fax machines -- ultimately hire people. You’ll have to work effectively with people AFTER you’re hired, so you might was well get skilled at meeting and networking with people BEFORE you’re hired.

Complimentsof David Perry and Kevin Donlin

Grab your Free Guerrilla Job Search Audio here.

Can You Be Personal and Professional in Social Media?

Original Post Here January 7th, 2010 (12:00pm) Dawn Foster

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There have been plenty of blog posts and discussions recently about how you need to be “personal” across the various social media web sites, even when communicating on behalf of your company or brand. Social media is about conversations, and people have conversations with other people, not faceless corporations. So you want to come across as a person talking with people, not at them, unlike the traditional one-way marketing broadcasts of yesteryear.

In this post, I am going to focus specifically on how to balance the personal with the professional, but you should also read Aliza’s post about revisiting her 10 golden rules of social media for more best practices.

You can actually be professional and personal at the same time in social media without too much effort. When we talk about “being personal” on social media web sites, I think that many people confuse “personal” with “private.” The reality is that you get to decide what to share and what not to share, so you can still keep most areas of your private life private. Think about this like the beginning of a conference call on Monday where you spend a few minutes talking about how you spent your weekend. You probably aren’t going to reveal anything private, inappropriate or unprofessional in a conference call with a client or coworkers, but sharing a little personal information does help you get to know each other on a level that is slightly deeper than just having strictly work conversations. This is exactly the type of personal information you can easily share on social media.

Value is an important consideration for both personal and professional social media posts. Before you post something, think about the value that you can offer along with the observation. For example, “making pizza for dinner” is going to be of little value and less interesting to people than if you get detailed about the type of pizza and include a link to the recipe. While you may be thinking it’s silly to post about food, the reality is that people really bond around food; they enjoy talking about it, and it’s way more neutral than politics or religion. In other words, it’s a relatively safe topic, but one that people are very passionate about. Now, you probably wouldn’t post something like this to a corporate account for your brand (unless you are Tony Hsieh from Zappos), but you can talk about your products in a personal way by adding a note about your experience with the product as the author of the post. Maybe you helped with the design or product definition, and you can mention your personal contribution to the product.

Variety can also play a big role in how well you balance the personal and professional. You should strive for an appropriate balance based on your situation with a nice variety in your posts. For example, if you use Facebook mostly for personal reasons, and you start posting almost exclusively professional updates, your personal friends will probably be irritated. Likewise, if you use Twitter mostly for work, and you start posting only personal updates, you’ll lose the people who are following you for your professional insights. The trick is to come up with a balance between the personal and professional that works well in your situation, without swinging too far into either direction. I make a point of looking at my Twitter stream every few days to make sure that I have an appropriate balance of personal and professional along with a few other things that I try to balance (informative vs. fun, self-promotion vs. promoting others, etc.)

Context is also important. Being personal is very important in some cases and less important in others, so you need to think about the context and what you are trying to accomplish as a brand, and make the right decisions for your company. The tricky part is that no one approach will work for everyone and no one piece of advice fits well in every situation. This means living within the norms of the various web sites or networks where you are participating, but coming up with an approach that makes sense for you and your company. No blogger, consultant or industry expert can make the decision about the right balance for you.

How do you balance personal with professional in social media?

Photo by Flickr user D. Sharon Pruitt used under Creative Commons.