How to Align Your Business Cards with Your Brand | Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

Business cards may seem extremely outdated in today’s technology-driven world. However, they are actually an important part of your brand. Think of business cards as a portable version of you and your brand – one that you hand out to other people to remember you by.

Design matters

An eye-catching design can say a lot about you and your brand. Check out these before and after designs. So, take the design process seriously, and just like every other part of your brand, think about what you want the design to say about you. Do you want to be sleek and successful? Dark and mysterious?

Size matters

A lot of people are into the small business cards these days. To me, they are quite annoying and easy to lose. After all, you want me (I assume) to be able to contact you at a later point. Sure, they’re cute, but these days, you have a lot of information to fit in an already small space. There’s no need to make your business cards smaller.

Content matters

Make it easy for your contacts to connect with you. Becoming completely elusive after meeting someone does not look good for your brand. If you’re always on Skype, include your Skype username. If you frequent Twitter, include your Twitter handle. Same goes for all the other social networks and possible means to contact you.

Oh yeah, and you probably want to include three to five words about your brand somewhere on your cards. For example: “Gen Y author, columnist & mentor.” Use your cards not only to provide contact information, but also to make a statement about your brand.

Digital matters

Let’s say someone lost your business card (small or otherwise). If you don’t have an online portfolio, you should at least have a digital business card. There are many options out there, and more seem to pop up every day. Make sure your digital design and content are consistent with your print business cards.

What other elements of a business card are important to your brand?

Author:

Heather R. Huhman is a career expert and founder & president of Come Recommended, an exclusive online community connecting the best internship and entry-level job candidates with the best employers. She is also the author of #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), national entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com and blogs about career advice at HeatherHuhman.com.

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Posted via email from AndyWergedal

Steve Pavlina’s 5-Point Guide to Achieving Your Personal Branding Goals | Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

This week we’ll work on more effectively achieving your goals as you build your personal brand. Helping us today is personal development guru (and a top personal role model) Steve Pavlina, who is widely recognized as one of the most successful personal development bloggers on the web, attracting over two million monthly readers to his blog.

With a full-time job and outside hobbies, it can be difficult to regularly make time to build your brand. Use the tactics below to break through the clutter and achieve your goals.

1. Super Slow. Commit yourself to working on a particularly hideous project for just one session a week, 15-30 minutes total.  Purge 10 tagged Facebook photos that don’t back up your brand.  Write a few paragraphs of your first eBook.  Call a colleague to get feedback on how they perceive your brand (so you can improve it). Then stop. This is particularly effective for painful tasks that you’ve been avoiding. It’s easier to plow through them if you know you’ll only spend a small amount of time.

2. Dailies. Schedule a specific time each day for working on a particular task or habit.  One hour a day blogging or tweeting could leave you with a flourishing blog or a powerful and engaged Twitter network. Make it a regular part of your routine so that your dailies become second nature.

3. Add-ons. Tack a task you want to habitualize onto one of your existing habits.  Answer a question on LinkedIn related to your expertise after you eat lunch.  Send a written thank-you note or a let’s-catch-up note to someone in your network every time you cash your paycheck. These are fun to creatively tie to other events and are doubly satisfying when completed.

4. Mastermind. Run your problem past someone else, preferably a group of people.  Invite all the advice, feedback, and constructive criticism you can handle. What would your closest friends and mentors do? Integrate their feedback and see if it works for you.

5. Armageddon. Use overwhelming force to totally dominate your problem: as Steve says, “use a bazooka to kill a cockroach.”  Block out a two-day camping trip and bring nothing but a notebook and a full list of your accomplishments. Don’t pack up your tent until you’ve crafted the perfect three-sentence bio for yourself. With this approach, I find it helpful to focus on one problem and not give up until it is solved.

Bonus: Know when your work is “good enough.”

Before putting more effort into any task, ask yourself: Will anyone but me appreciate my efforts? Can I significantly improve this if I keep working? Does the possible gain in quality outweigh the lost time? If you’ve answered “no” to these questions, wrap it up and move on. If you’ve answered “yes,” map out what still needs to be done and do it – but nothing more. Perfectionism can slow you down just as much as procrastination.

What tactics do you use to make sure you get everything done related to your personal brand? Is it a daily or weekly routine, or just whenever you remember? Is it part of your corporate policy? I’d love to hear your personal stories and strategies you use to get things done for your brand.

Author:

Pete Kistler is a leading Online Reputation Management expert for Generation Y, a top 5 finalist for Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2009, one of the Top 30 Definitive Personal Branding Experts on Twitter, a widely read career development blogger, and a Judge for the 2009 Personal Brand Awards. Pete manages strategic vision for Brand‐Yourself.com.

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Posted via email from AndyWergedal

Show Them, You Are Worth It – Job Hunting | EmploymentDigest.net

Every job interview is different and should be approached with the attitude of I am going to show them I am worth it. In essence, we have to become salesmen and women, showing the prospective employer how good we are and what we can do for them.

Stop wasting your time reading novels on “How to get your dream job“. If it was as easy as they say, then why does not everyone have their dream job? We all have qualifications for jobs that are out there and available right now. Why not look at what your good at and start from there.

The first impression you make is the most important one. With that being said, take a look at your resume’. An unwritten rule is to keep it simple without leaving out important details. Keep it to one page and always include a cover letter. You may want to do a couple different styles of resume’. If you do this, though, make sure you have the same information on both. By doing this you can decide which to send out for different position.

Do not be afraid to pat yourself on the back. Your prospective employer has never met you and knows nothing about you, other than what is on a piece of paper in front of them. Let them know what you are good at and compliments or awards you have received for your work. Being confident is different than being arrogant, so be careful not to over do it.

During an interview you will have the ability to further explain you qualities that would be a great asset for this company. Keep in mind; you do not need to tell them everything you have done that, in your mind, is great. You do not want to come across as arrogant. Before the interview, pick out a few different things that you are good at and highlight those as key factors. Be professional without sounding too uptight. If this does not come naturally, practice it.

When preparing for an interview, it never hurts to have examples of your work handy. You may not need them, but take them, just in case the interviewer asks to see some examples of your work.

One aspect in a person every employer looks for is a good work ethic. Be prepared to look them in the eye and tell them about yours. This shows the employer that you are confident in your work, mean what you say and that you are worth it!

Looking for work is usually an overwhelming task. With all the competition quantity generally must be coupled with value to reach a goal. Take a look at Lowes Jobs for valuable ideas. Getting reliable direction saves your time searching for what can work in having to look at what doesn’t. By receiving solid help probably will enhance your chances in separating yourself from the opposition.

By Timothy Mason: The employment marketplace is forever shifting and the individuals who are able to change the fastest often will be the ones that have the primary choice in the best opportunities. Through the accessibility of information and the upgrades in computer, looking for employment is not what it used to be. The game has changed in a big way and currently people must not only be able to deliver a total package of capabilities and understanding for the profession but have got to also master extra expertise to even get an meeting for the profession you want.

via employmentdigest.net

Posted via email from AndyWergedal

Top 5 This Week | Brand-Yourself.com Blog

Here are the Top 5 This Week – @andywergedal

Technology has changed the face of the job search forever. It is not enough to have good grades and graduate from a good school. Today, you need to know about email, social networking and personal branding. Check out these articles for some inspiration on how to get the edge over your competition and land the job you want.

The Top 5 This Week

1. Is Your Morning Routine Hurting Your Career? –
[Moving On Up]

All the free salary surveys and other salary information you’ll need in 2010.

2. Facebook: The Untapped Job Board –
[Great Resumes Fast]

Most of what you hear about facebook while looking for a job involves keeping your information as private as possible from potential employers. While this is good advice, Facebook can also be a valuable tool in your job search, as many smaller companies post their job ads on their Facebook pages.

3. Don’t Send A Thank You Note After the Interview – Send an E-mail –
[Great Resumes Fast]

The era of the thank you note after a job interview is over. Well, not the actual “thank you,” just the delivery system. It’s critically important that you thank the interviewer for the opportunity, but it’s also critically important that you get it to him within 24 hours. And a handwritten, snail-mailed note just won’t do that. Send an email.

4. 7 Ways to Start Building Your Personal Brand for Free –
[Personal Branding Blog]

The Internet offers you numerous free ways to demonstrate your subject area expertise, set yourself apart from your competition, and build your online visibility. There are several ways you can take small steps today that represents investments you can build on later, developing a major competitive advantage relative over your peers.

5. 3 Ways to Ease Writers Block When Completing Federal Applications –
[Career Realism]

If you are applying for similar types of positions, which you should be doing, here are some tips to make it easier for you to ease your writers block and answer the questions with impact and relevance.

Photo Credit

I’ve been branded a professional encourager and a diplomatic pessimist. (I’m not sure how those work together). Check out my editorial posting on 40×50.com and on twitter @andywergedal… I have a passion for helping people find jobs.

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Posted via email from AndyWergedal

10 ways to get out of meetings - Career blog - Position Ignition - taking you to the next step in your career

We all know how dull and boring some work meetings can be. The managers inevitably sit there droning on about targets, whilst everyone else doodles on their notepads and tries to pretend they aren’t eating all the biscuits. If you’ve got a dreaded meeting coming up and you just can’t face it, here are some ‘fun’ ways to get out of it. We say ‘fun’ because we don’t actually want you to take this seriously as career advice, especially not #2 and #6!

1. School emergency-Get a friend to call you just before the meeting and pretend that it’s your son’s school asking you to come and collect him because he’s taken ill. When your boss points out you don’t have any children, just mention something about only finding your long lost, school age son last week and then rush out the door before your boss can reply.

2. I feel faint-Here’s how to pull a sickie that everyone will believe. Don’t eat for a few days before the meeting. By the day of the meeting, you’ll literally be ready to faint. When you do faint, make sure it’s right in front of your boss so he’ll understand how ‘ill’ you are and send you home straight away.

3. Where are the chairs?-Before the meeting starts, slip into the meeting room, take all the chairs out and hide them. When everyone comes in for the meeting, there’ll be nowhere to sit! Oh well, better cancel the meeting…

4. Oooh, me back-When lifting a ‘heavy’ box, scream out in pain and drop the box. When everyone comes running, make sure you’re writhing around the floor in ‘agony’ screaming ‘my back!’, ‘my back!’ With a ‘back injury’ that bad, there’s no way you can sit through the meeting now.

5. I thought it was in the pub-Instead of going to the meeting, go to the pub instead. Don’t come back to work until you’re sure the meeting will be finished. When everyone asks you why you weren’t at the meeting, say that you thought it was in the pub and waited ages for everyone to turn up.

6. Jump out the window-Sometimes the best escape route is the most direct. Though perhaps only try this one if the office is on the ground floor. You wouldn’t want to breach any Health & Safety rules now, would you?

7. Eh, what?-Just before the meeting, when someone starts talking to you, pretend you can’t hear a word they’re saying. Uh oh, it seems like you’ve gone temporarily deaf and there’ll be no point you sitting in on the meeting. Of course, you’ll miraculously ‘regain’ your hearing as soon as everyone else comes out of the meeting.

8. Store cupboard-here’s an easy one: simply hide in the store cupboard for the whole of the meeting.

9. Raise the alarm-If you’re feeling generous and want to help the whole team skip the meeting, break the fire alarm glass. By the time everyone’s filed out for the roll call and the fire brigade have turned up to check everything out, it’ll be too late to start the meeting.

10. Get married-What better excuse for missing a meeting than your own wedding? Arrange to get married at the same time as your meeting and your boss won’t dare ask you to miss your own wedding. What if you don’t have anyone to get married to? Find a work colleague who wants to miss the meeting as much as you do and get married to one another!

Ok, some of these are a little drastic, so if you’re seriously considering any of them, you must really hate meetings! If you hate them that much, it’s an issue you need to address. Ask yourself what it is about them you don’t like. If you find it challenging to contribute anything to them, to make presentations or to take meeting minutes, there a number of ways to resolve this. We can help you with building career skills such as communication skills and giving presentations. You could ask your boss to send you on one of the minute taking courses available, or to help you with skills training in general. However, if you hate your job as a whole, and not just the meetings, consider making different types of changes to your role. You may even come to the conclusion that a career change s right for you. Whatever the reason for your aversion to meetings, it’s time to face up to it and work out a solution, unless you want to be jumping out of windows for the rest of your career!

via positionignition.com

Posted via email from AndyWergedal

It’s Quality, Not Just Quantity That Gets You Hired | CareerAlley

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” – Mark Twain

Author Byline: Jessica Holbrook Hernandez is an expert resume writer, career and personal branding strategist, author, and presenter.
Author Website: http://www.greatresumesfast.com

Over the last few years, I’ve heard a lot of very intelligent job seekers casually remark that they had sent out hundreds of resumes while looking for a job. These people firmly believed that job searching was entirely a numbers game, so the more resumes they sent out, the more likely they were to be hired.

Unfortunately, these job seekers were flawed in their thinking—and were generally not getting any hits from their resumes. While it’s true that you have to be actively applying for jobs in order to get one, it’s also true that sending a generalized resume out to dozens of openings for which you’re only peripherally qualified is a huge waste of time. Job searching is time consuming for everyone, and it can be especially challenging for those who are already working full-time. If you only have three hours per week that you can devote to job searches, chances are that you’ll fare better spending one hour each on three well-targeted applications rather than taking 15 minutes each to submit a dozen resumes.

Competition is stiff for every single job out there. Just last week I was talking to someone who had received 300 applications for an administrative position. Many of the applicants had graduate degrees but were unable to find work suitable to their advanced qualifications. Faced with that kind of odds, a general resume will almost always go directly into the discard pile. Your challenge as a job seeker is to produce a cover letter and resume that truly stand out to the hiring manager for each job you pursue. The simple truth is that doing this requires spending a significant amount of time on every application you submit.

One of the greatest advantages to hiring a professional resume writer is the amount of time it saves you in your job search. A skilled writer will spend some time learning about who you are as a person and a candidate. He will then create documents that require minimal changes each time you apply for a job. By hiring a professional, you’re better able to play the numbers game by submitting a greater number of high quality applications; as a result, you make the best use of your valuable time. It’s the quality of your job applications—not the quantity—that will ultimately get you hired.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Good luck in your search.

via careeralley.com

Posted via email from AndyWergedal

Degrees and Expectations | Career Rocketeer - Career Search and Personal Branding Blog

As recent college graduates hit the job market, and time goes by for some of them without any prospects, I often hear the expressions of “shock and awe” that they spent four or more years earning a degree and now they can’t seem to find a job! For many, they are surprised that they are not being considered for jobs when they thought that coveted sheepskin was the ticket to success and prosperity. What happened?

Certainly there are many varying opinions on this topic, however, as I observe the job market in today’s economy, as well as in boom times, the issue is often clear to me.

For some, it’s simply a function of the current economy. For some, it’s a matter of approaching their job search more diligently, professionally, and wisely. However, for others, it’s a matter of having spent their time and money on a degree that makes them virtually unmarketable!

As someone’s career progresses, the fact that they have a degree, any degree, often continues to be important to open doors to new opportunities. However, after a while, what discipline the degree was in becomes less and less relevant compared to the actual work experience obtained (with obvious exceptions in certain fields like medicine).

As a new grad, however, the job seekers’ major has everything to do with their likelihood of being considered for a job. Without a significant relevant work history, the degree is the only indicator of whether someone is qualified and prepared to do a specific job.

I often encounter young men or women who graduated with a degree in African Studies, Russian Literature, Political Science, or another academic endeavor that may have been of interest to them, however, generate little or no interest outside of academia. If they are interested in pursuing a career in academia, in government, or in politics there may be potential, yet few opportunities. However, very often graduates from those, or similar, majors are trying to pursue opportunities in business and are surprised when they are not gaining traction in their search.

I am a strong proponent of education. If someone chooses to gain an education in a subject that may not be marketable for the sake of that education in and of itself, or for their own enjoyment and betterment, I’m supportive of it if they are able to afford it without tax subsidies. If they are pursuing such a degree without the expectation of it qualifying them for a wide variety of careers, they are pursuing their degree with a realistic perspective.

Many students enter college with a clear goal of the type of career they would like to pursue and so pursue a relevant degree. Perhaps it’s in medicine, engineering, computer science, accounting, finance, marketing, teaching, or many others. In many cases, however, when students enter college, they have no idea what their goals or career interests are. So they pursue a degree program that may be of interest to them academically, however, without giving thought to what the resulting marketability of that degree may be.

When in doubt of the type of specific career one hopes to ultimately pursue, it is much more fruitful to pursue a degree that may be more applicable in the mainstream job market. Perhaps a degree in Business Administration, Math, or Communications. Each of those programs are more generalized, however, much more accepted as useful in a business environment.

Once someone has a few years of work experience in a particular field, the degree they once gained is less relevant. However, in order to get that first, or second job after graduation the specific major is critically important. With college costs continuing to rise so much faster than inflation, it does not seem wise to spend many tens of thousands of dollars or more on a piece of paper that may be of interest, however, cannot help you gain an income when you need one.

If you are making a post-secondary education decision, make sure your degree is capable of helping you achieve your expectations, or your expectations are appropriate for your degree!

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Author:

Harry Urschel has over 20 years experience as a technology recruiter in Minnesota. He currently operates as e-Executives, writes a blog for Job Seekers called The Wise Job Search, and can be found on Twitter as @eExecutives.

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Posted via email from AndyWergedal