I Do Not Use Correct Punctuation. So What? | Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

I have had a couple of conversations over the past week pertaining to my use of correct (or lack of) punctuation in my blog posts. There are many that have lectured me over the correct use of punctuation and grammar when writing my blog… (there it goes) simply because of my so-called lack of professionalism.

To that I say… (there it is again) So what?

There is a method to my madness and I have felt the sudden urge to try and explain myself to the masses that may not appreciate my writing technique. Because there is a personal branding technique built into this entire discussion. I would like to call this technique: the pause affect.  Notice… look closely… I used the word affect instead of effect. There is reasoning behind the use of the word that we will discuss later.

I write as though I am speaking to a group or an individual. I tend to use three periods to show a pause in my mode of speaking or an influx of emotion pertaining to a specific topic or thought. The three periods exemplify the art of a pause when speaking… because it shows a pause in a person’s thought process.

There are many that would say that the use of correct punctuation has a positive influence on your personal brand. I would say that is absolutely correct. I may not use correct punctuation but isn’t the value in the overall content provided? Did the post or article help you in your quest to alleviate a certain pain in your business? We try not to judge a book by the cover and the same concept applies to blog writing. Is the content valuable?

I use the pause affect to show emotion in my posts. If you were to talk to me on the street… I pretty much speak the same way as I write.

Remember…

Content is king and if the point is being portrayed with pause and affect… isn’t there still substance?

What do you think?

Author:

Kyle writes a regular blog at KyleLacy.com and is founder and CEO of Brandswag, a social media strategy and training company. His blog has been featured on Wall Street Journal’s website and Read Write Web’s daily blog journal. Recently, Kyle was voted as one of the top 150 social media blogs in the world (on two websites), and produces regular keynote speeches across the Midwest. He also just finished writing Twitter Marketing for Dummies by Wiley Publishing.

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Beyond the Resume: Part 2 | Career Rocketeer - Career Search and Personal Branding Blog

Using a Personal Profile to Connect With A Prospective Employer

In today’s challenging job market, job seekers have to make every effort to go above and beyond what is normally expected, to differentiate themselves in the eyes of the hiring manager. No matter how hard you try, attempting to differentiate yourself solely through your resume is extremely difficult.

Consider creating a “Credentials Package” for your prospective employer to consider, which can include other components in addition to your resume. One additional component is the Personal Profile. The Personal Profile outlines in a single page, for you initially—and ultimately for your prospective employer—all of your unique personal qualities, including your passions, hobbies and special interests, personal development activities, family, and other unique or interesting qualities about yourself.

To highlight the 5 reasons why the Personal Profile is important:

1. You are more than your “work.”
   You are so much more than what could possibly show up on a résumé. If others prefer to be considered, judged, and selected based solely on their work experience, let them. You want to make it personal.
   
2. It’s all about relationships, and it’s always personal.
   If you want that new career opportunity, you have to convince your prospective employer that you bring positive personal qualities to the work and team environment.
   
3. It’s all about differentiation.
   A hiring manager may have difficulty choosing between two candidates with similar work experiences, but the personal information you provide will always be unique and different.
   
4. Let them know now who you are.
   You want your prospective employer to know exactly what—and who—they are getting. Even if you have the opportunity to meet with your prospective employer, you usually don’t get into this topic during an interview. Why should they wait until six months after you’re hired to find out what a great and interesting person you are? Let them know now.
   
5. Your personal qualities are as important as your work experience.
   Your unique personal qualities determine how you will approach a given job, how you will interact with others to meet objectives, and ultimately how successful you will be.

In addition to aiding the employer in understanding who you are—before the interview even begins, the Personal Profile is also extremely important in helping you determine if a given opportunity is right for you. By identifying and understanding all of your personal qualities, it will help you evaluate and select career opportunities best suited for you, and will help you to answer that typical and often challenging “Tell me about yourself” question you often hear during the interview process.

Add a Personal Profile to your credentials package today. Start to develop a personal relationship with your prospective employer, before the interview even begins.

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Guest Expert:

Over a 25-year period, Dan Burns has realized a successful career as a corporate manager, entrepreneur, educator, business owner, and now as a full-time writer.

Prior to writing, Dan served as owner and Executive Vice President of a national technical and management consulting company, providing consulting and employee placement services to Fortune 500 companies and helping people successfully obtain their next great career opportunity.

In May 2009, Dan published his first book, The First 60 Seconds: Win The Job Interview Before It Begins. Through his book and speaking engagements, Dan is helping thousands of people to be more successful in today’s challenging job marketplace.

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Your College Grad Kid Is Living At Home With You...Why? - Secrets of the Job Hunt Career Podcast

Posted by Hannah Morgan on June 3, 2010 at 5:55am

View Hannah Morgan's blog

Thousands of new graduates have been released into the world. What percentage of them have secured jobs? Figures as low as 25% (from Careerealism).

Sure the market is tough and there aren't a lot of jobs. But what exactly did they learn in college? Were they taught about what jobs to compete for? Were they taught how to network and develop relationships? Were they taught how to look for a job or better yet compete for jobs in this economy? Maybe, if they visited the campus career center (where is that anyway?).

Excuse my tone, but parents, you should be outraged. How much money did you just shell out to have your child receive an education? What good is that education if it doesn't translate into work? Isn't that why they went to college?

Of course, many students are pro-active and attended on campus interviews and began searching, but most probably did not. Partially due to denial. Partially due to fear.

The results...they are home with mom and dad, living in their old bedrooms. Where's the incentive to find a job?

My guess is, if you took a look at the resume and job search activities of your child, you would be disappointed in both. It really isn't their fault, they don't know how to do this. No one taught them and job search is not an innate skill.

Parents, if you haven't looked for a job yourself in the last nine months or so, don't even attempt to help your child. Your input is probably not as good as valid as it used to be, sorry.

Here are some resources that specifically address the issues of a new graduate looking for work in 2010. Share these with your family!

On Twitter, you can follow my list of New Grad Tweeters : @careersherpa/new-grad

This is a listing of some of the top bloggers for Gen Y/New Grads:

Lindsey Pollak

Gradspot

Heather Huhman

Brazen Careerist

Careerealism

Student Branding Blog

There are tons more, but this should get them started. You might also want to check in with the college career center now, visit a One-Stop for free job search help or hire a professional coach...

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Job Search - The Best Job Search Sites - Vol 1 - Secrets of the Job Hunt Career Podcast

Reposted from CareerAlley

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Like many of my posts, today's is about being the best. We've done "the best companies to work for" and numerous other "best" lists. As with most of these lists, much of being rated the best is subject to the person writing the list or the criteria used to "rank" the pool of participants. Likewise, much about being the best you can at any one thing is subject to opinion. What we can say about ourselves which can't be disputed is that we try the best we can, and that is the best we can do (no pun intended). So, as Ralph Waldo Emerson says, above -"Make the Best of Yourself".

With the year drawing to a close, I thought I would make my own "best" list. I did not use any specific criteria other than my own observations about those Job Search Sites which I feel add the most value for their "specialty". Since there are so many great sites out there, I will do this over several posts in the next few weeks. Again, no specific order to my list other than I think they add great value and will help you in your search, whatever that might be.

General Interest Job Advice - These sites offer a broad range of advice and have been my favorites for some time now.

• JobMob - The site's motto - "All together now" says it all. The site is about bringing together job seekers with those who have the jobs. The site is filled with tips, events, books, articles and more. To get a feel for what you will experience, take a look at the post "The Best of JobMob in 2009", which provides links to articles on a broad range of job resource topics (way too many to list here). There are a number of ways you can stay connected to JobMob (email, RSS, Twitter, etc.). There are 4 tabs at the top right hand side of the page - Home (main page), Archive, About and Best Of. This site is in my top 10 and it should be in yours as well.

• Spin Strategy - Another top 10 blog site for me, the articles are simply amazing. Left hand side of the page tells you what it's all about. There is a free E-Book ("30 Ideas. The Ideas of Successful Job Search."), numerous ways to follow, a link to the website (you must visit this) and a list of recent posts. Right hand side has the top 10 posts, categories and more. Okay, now to the website - Spinstrategy.com - Tools, downloads and a link back to the blog. What more can I say, visit the site.

Job Search Resources - These sites are jam packed with topic specific resources that will help you jump start your search.

• The Riley Guide - "Providing free career and employment information since February 1994." is the tag line for this site. Seeing is believing, and you really must visit this site. The left hand side of the page has everything you need to get to the part of the site that best serves your needs. "Navigating the Guide" provides a list of the major sections of the guide. The middle of the site has links to what's new, as well as the links that are on the left hand side of the page. This is then followed by a few comments on the site by career experts. This site contains an amazing number of resources.

• QuintCareers.com - "Your Job Search Starts Here" is the tag line for this site. Tons of resources, with the main page jam packed with an amazing amount of information. At the top of the page are links that will guide you to where you need to go (Student, Job Seeker, Career Changer and more). Left side of the page is filled with a long list of links to resources (career toolkit, samples, resumes and so much more). Center page starts with a search bar for job search followed by tools. Right hand side of the page Hot Resources, Free Books and more. You can spend days here getting all of the information you need for your job search.

Lists of Job Search Resources - These sites provide lists of other job search sites and are a great resource for building your list of where to look next.

• Employmentwebsites.org - "The Sources of Success" (can't get away from these tag lines!). A list that must be a mile long, you can browse alphabetically or by Industry/Area. There are job sites, search sites, company sites and more. If you search by Industry/Area, the list on the left hand side has the industries (as well as functional job categories) while the right hand side has the area (country, state, etc.). But that is not all, the top of the page has additional links for research, Tips and more.

• General Job Listing Sites - This list is provided by job-hunt.org and is another list that will help you make your list. Center page starts the list, which is diverse and not as long as the list mentioned above. However, there is quite a bit on this page as well, with the left hand side of the page listing a very long list of resources (like Getting Started, Career Resources and more).

Good luck in your search.

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Re-building My Personal Network After Resetting It to Zero | Brand-Yourself.com Blog

Four weeks ago I wrote about resetting my online personal network back to zero.  I received some interesting, but supportive responses.

To recap what took place, by the numbers:

• LinkedIn – removed 401 connections
• Facebook – removed 306 friends
• Twitter – unfollowed 486

Where I am at now, four weeks later, by the numbers:

• LinkedIn – 120 connections
• Facebook – 180 friends
• Twitter – following 482

Is it a numbers game?

First off, a bit of a disclaimer for clarification: I do not in any way equate the number of your online followers or connections to a guaranteed breadth and depth of reach, however, for the purpose of this post had to focus on the numbers to show the change.

One of the first things I learned is the time value of a personal online network. It has taken me four weeks to build up nearly to have where I was, number wise, on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What truly matters in building an online personal network?

Your online personal network is worth more than gold.  It takes time to make good quality connections with those that can add value to your network.  I used to laugh at the term “build your tribe,” however, now know the value first hand.  To quote Seth Godin on the topic:

It starts with permission, the understanding that the real asset most organizations can build isn’t an amorphous brand but is in fact the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them.

It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about

Where I am headed, and where you should be headed too

From now on I make a pledge to fully value my online personal network, and to protect it fiercely.  Reconnecting with those whom I had to hand pick out of thousands of contacts took time, but is well worth it. I will continue building back up, and connecting with and meeting new individuals and companies.

Starting from zero refreshed my perspective on what it truly means to build a strong personal brand and an associated network, online and off as well.

Question: What do you value about your personal network?

About the Author: An avid relationship marketer, Mark Mathson works with businesses to create dazzling social marketing campaigns.  He enjoys conversing on Twitter and growing and adding value to his network on LinkedIn.

(Photo credit: Evgeniy Zotov

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3 Keys to Customizing Your Resume » Blog | Great Resumes Fast

In recent blogs, I’ve written a lot about the importance of investing time into every job application you submit, even if this means applying for fewer total jobs.  While it’s most efficient to get your resume fine-tuned to a point where it needs little modification for each new job application, you generally will need to make a few changes each time in order to customize your document.

UTILIZE PROPER LANGUAGE

The first rule of customization is to ensure that your resume contains the same language found in the job advertisement.  Many companies use junior human resources staff as the first reviewers for the resumes they receive.  Since HR staff typically know a lot about HR and less about the business of their company, they often look to match your resume with the keywords used in the job ad.  This is why it’s important to customize your resume for an untrained eye; generally, the first person (or software program) looking it over is not discerning enough to know what you mean unless you use the exact same language.

RESUME KEYWORD OPTIMIZATION

For a job seeker who is looking at several different industries, matching keywords can be the most time consuming part of the process.  For instance, someone with a background in nonprofit development may be looking at various nonprofit positions as well as opportunities in sales.  Although both jobs essentially involve bringing in money for the employer, the nonprofit industry talks about “fund-raising” while the sales industry talks about “market share”.  In order to save herself the hassle of changing the language of her resume every time she applies for a job, this job seeker would want to design both a standard nonprofit resume and a sales resume as the basic documents to work from for either type of job.

IMPORTANT DETAILS FIRST

Another way to customize your resume for a specific job opening is to construct the various sections of your resume in the same order as the items listed in the ad.  For instance, if an advertisement says, “Seeking licensed master’s level social worker for clinical supervisor”, then your resume should display your academic degrees and social work license near the top.  Employers generally use their ads to tell you what they’re looking for—so don’t make it hard for them to find it!

As you start or continue your job search process, keep a standard resume on hand for each industry in which you’re looking, and adjust the keywords and section order as needed.  Employers will appreciate it!

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The Alter Ego: Superman’s Personal Brand Lessons | Brand-Yourself.com Blog

The Israeli Army had a bit of a problem recently; they had to call off a raid because a soldier posted the time and location on Facebook.  While most people don’t typically have quite s

o much hanging in the balance from a Facebook post, they still do post a surprising amount of detail to the Internet without regard for who might read. And sometimes, it costs them jobs.

It’s no secret: Facebook is no longer merely a way to keep in touch with friends. These days, it can make or break your ability to get a job and keep it.  We’ve shown you how to make it work for you, but it begs the question: if Facebook, MySpace, and other social-networking sites are being molded into our professional image, where can we be ourselves on the internet?

Cue the title of this post. Superman knew that sometimes he had to be Superman, and sometimes he had to be Clark Kent, and that the two should never be intermingled.  He kept very strict controls on both parts of his life to keep them from mixing.  The military has a term for this: OPSEC.  Basically, it means keeping your mouth shut unless somebody is on a need-to-know basis.  Certainly, you would never post operation details on Facebook.

For your image and personal brand, you should take similar steps.  The Facebook page that pops up immediately when you search your name?  Treat that as public stomping ground.  However, you might consider creating yourself an alter ego: a profile not connected to your name, and targeted at a select group of trustworthy friends and family.  This is a fairly common practice with teachers who find that being “friends” with their students on social networking sites leads to trouble.  My brother-in-law, a teacher, doesn’t live in Uzbekistan and doesn’t work for ABC. But his Facebook profile indicates otherwise.

While this will grant you a certain amount of anonymity, you are still responsible for what you say and post, so exercise discretion.

There is, of course, another solution that I personally use to manage multiple identities: don’t post what you don’t want made public.  It’s just easier for me to share my less work-appropriate moments in person with friends or through private e-mail, though as Sarah Palin found out, e-mail isn’t always just for your eyes.

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