You Will Get Googled… Are You Afraid?

I like to tell my clients they will be Googled just as surely as it will rain in Portland tonight. Do you know what they will see when they find you?

Online reputation management is a critical piece of your job search. There is just no getting around it, no matter what field you are in.

Quick story: When I Googled my name a year ago, I was a convicted felon and a prolific New York gynecologist, either simultaneously or separately. I was sure I didn’t want to be associated with those jobs, so I embarked on a campaign to bring the real “me” to Google’s first page.

The good news is now my LinkedIn profile comes up on Google’s first page. What a huge relief! I was worried what kind of appointments people were scheduling with me. The bad news is this happened only after many months of putting myself out there. Results didn’t happen overnight.

But there is a method and science to getting your name ranked on Google’s first page. Follow these easy steps to finally take back control of your internet reputation:

Assess The Current State Of Your Online Reputation

In order to know how much effort to put in your re-branding efforts, you’ll need to assess how bad it is.

1. Google your name and notice how many times the real you comes up on the first page, and also on the first three pages. Remember to use your first and last name as well as your first name, middle initial and last name combinations.

(If you have a common name, always use your middle initial when publishing anything online and on your social media profiles.)

2. Use Pipl.com to search for your name. Does the real you come up? Pipl.com is the most comprehensive people search I’ve found online. It will reveal any criminal records, past address, and other skeletons. Recruiters use this all the time. So should you.

3. Depending on these results, you may have a lot of work ahead of you to begin to rebuild your name. Use this data to figure out how much time you need to spend on this project.

Bury The Dead, Plant A Tree

Ranking on Google is just a matter of building a web of “you.” The more links, sites, or pages with your name Google indexes, the better. It’s a matter of burying the old results but making new results rank higher. Here are some basic principles:

• Traditional search-engine optimization (SEO) suggests the more times your name shows up on highly reputable websites, the higher it will rank on the results page.
• So in order to knock down the stuff you don’t want, you have to build the stuff you do want.
• Collect a list of professional portfolio items you can share, and post them on the appropriate sites. For example, if you have developed PowerPoint presentations, load them onto SlideShare.net with your name all over it. If you wrote articles, then publish them on EzineArticles.com. If there are videos of you, put them on YouTube.
• Now, link as many of these shared portfolio items together as possible. Link your Slideshare to your LinkedIn, link your YouTube video to your Slideshare, and so on. Link your eZine article to your LinkedIn profile. Create a web of links tying together all the places where you are putting yourself out there.
• Establish as many online portfolios as you can. In addition to LinkedIn, and VisualCV.com, you can set up Xing.com, a Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, Plaxo, Biznik.com, and hundreds more. Google indexes all of these.
• Don’t make a blitz run at this. Consistency over time wins with SEO. I suggest doing one of these activities per week over the next several months or even making this an ongoing part of your Career Management Plan.

If you have a unique situation you’d like to share or have any more tips to add to this, please send me your comments.

How To Ease The Tension In The Recruitment Process

If you’ve monitored the social network over the past nine months, you may have noticed a litany of complaints from both candidates and recruiters about the challenges of therecruitment process in today’s job market.

Recruiters complain that a single advertised opening is attracting hundreds of candidates, many of whom are unsuitable for the role. Job seekers, on the other hand, describe the experience of applying to advertised openings as “tossing my resume into a big, black hole,” and complain about never hearing back from employers.

Having reviewed the most common complaints from both sides of the hiring table, I can offer the following suggestions to reduce the tension and disconnect in the recruitment process.

Tips For Hiring Managers

Create job descriptions that clearly spell out your expectations. Too many job ads have vague descriptions or lack keywords that can help a candidate assess whether they fit the bill. This encourages “spray and hope” job searches from applicants who are ready to apply for anything and everything.

Be realistic about the necessary qualifications to do the job. The opposite of the “too vague” job description is the one that could be simplified to “Wanted – Superhero.” Rather than narrowing down the candidate pool, a lengthy list of over-the-top expectations can actually dilute the pool, as candidates say, “Nobody can meet all these expectations, I may as well toss my hat in the ring and see what happens.”

Provide the name & title of a contact person. Nobody wants to write a “dear sir” or a “to whom it may concern” cover letter.

Get over the “passive candidate” versus “active candidate” mind-think. The talent pool of active job seekers has never been as rich as it is today, and there are many highly qualified, experienced and motivated candidates who have the flexibility and willingness to start immediately.

Don’t make the recruitment process “a big black hole.”Let candidates know you’ve received their application and are seriously considering their candidacy. Special note to users of talent management software: A “form rejection” e-mail less than 10 minutes after the resume has been submitted is still “big black hole” behavior, it just has the finality of a thud as the candidate hits bottom.

Tips For Job Seekers

Read the job description. Too many applicants ignore the job description and focus instead on the Job Title. Titles can mean different things in different companies. “Operations Manager” can mean plant management in one company, sales management in another, logistics management in a third, and administrative oversight in a fourth. Use the description to figure out whether this is really a job you are interested in.

Be realistic about your qualifications. Just because you think you can do it, does not give you the right to claim it as one of your core skills. Being part of a project team does not necessarily make you a Project Manager, for example.

Don’t apply for jobs for which you are clearly unsuitable. It was this strategy that led to the wide spread adoption of impersonal software to screen hundreds of resumes in order to find those few candidates who actually matched the search criteria.

Customize the resume to the specific job. Don’t apply for a Bookkeeper job with a resume that says your career target is marketing.

Don’t submit “Resume.doc.” Make the hiring manager’s job easier by distinguishing your resume from the 100+ other applications he receives each day. At a minimum, use your name (JohnDoe.doc). Even better, use your name and the target title John_Doe_Operations_Manager.doc).

8 Steps To Make The Most Of LinkedIn Skills

Employers and recruiters on LinkedIn seek out their prospective candidates in a number of ways, perhaps most straight-on by searching for specific work-related skills. For this reason, the LinkedIn Skills function is now an essential section for today’s job seeker. This is an area of your profile you can’t afford to neglect. This is where you get specific about what you offer. This is also where your colleagues will attract attention to your profile by endorsing you. It’s a very powerful tool.

Use Skills to send a strong SEO message to your contacts who want to endorse you — and the people who might be searching for you. Since you can only choose 50 skills to put on your profile, how do you know which to pick? Follow these steps for the best results:

1. While logged in to LinkedIn, go tohttp://www.linkedin.com/skills.
2. Enter a skill you possess into the search box, beginning a wide, encompassing and fairly generic word for what you do. (I put in “Resume Writing.”)
3. LinkedIn will take you to a page that defines your skill. (It’s a good idea to read that definition and make sure it’s an accurate description of what you do.)
4. Below the definition, you’ll see a list of other professionals with the skill. By clicking on their profiles, you can get more ideas for other skills you might include. You can also get inspiration for filling out your profile — just be careful not to plagiarize others’ content! Not only is that seen by employers as unethical, you can get in trouble by LinkedIn for that.
5. Once you’ve reviewed the definition and checked out your competition, return to the skills page for your initial search results. In a column on the left, there will be a list of a number of more specific skills. Make a note of which ones apply best to you.
6. On the right, you’ll see a graph that will show you statistics for your search.
   • You will see a Relative Growth graph, which will show you whether a particular skill is currently in growth mode, or retrenching, compared to similar skills. Your choice here is easy; choose the skills that are going up. Avoid the skills that are going down.
   • Click on “Size” and the bar chart will show you how many others on LinkedIn list this skill. This will help you gauge how much competition you have for this skill.
   • You can even break the information down by “Age,” to analyze the size of the age groups that list that skill.
7. At the bottom of your skills description box, you can see whether or not you’ve included this skill in your profile.
   • If you have, you’ll see a check with “Listed on Your Profile.”
   • If not, you’ll see a clickable button to “Add Skill.”
   • Based on the research from the graphs on the right, you can decide whether it’s a good one to include.
8. Repeat this search for the more specific skills you noted in Step 3 to get additional ideas of skills you want to include on your profile.

This function is awesome not only because it allows you to choose the skills you currently possess that are most in demand, but also because it can provide an impetus for future developments you might want to strive for in your career. It gives you an idea of where you might want to grow.

Now, you can build your entire library of up to 50 skills, focusing on a variety – those unique to you, those more common but less in demand, and so on. Now, your next step will be to get lots of endorsements.

Your Career: Still Not Sure What To Be When You ‘Grow Up’?

Do you have so many different interests and passions that the concept of settling into one career always felt awful to you?

If so, do you recognize yourself in these descriptions?

You are…

• Afraid you’ll either have to settle into a career and stick with it for life (boring!). Or, pursue your many, unrelated passions that will leave you penniless and unable to support your family.
• Well beyond your college years but still clueless about what you want to be when you grow up. You feel like something is wrong with you.
• Often described as a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. You are quickly excited about many, completely unrelated topics, but you may lose interest just as quickly.
• Someone with a zest for life and a love of new experiences and learning for the sake of learning.
• Very successful in your field, but bored to death and looking to change directions – again. To the horror and disbelief of those around you.

If this sounds like you, chances are, you are frustrated. Or worse, you are desperate because you can’t seem to “get it together.” It’s even possible that, in your attempt to keep your options open in order to satisfy all your different interests, you make no choices at all. You know you have all this potential but lots of it is going unused.

If you’ve ever felt as if something was wrong with you for your inability to stick with a passion, a hobby, an interest, or job, or even a career, take heart. You are completely normal! So, what’s going on?

Genetically Wired To Pursue Many Unrelated Interests

You’re part of a group of people genetically wired to be interested in – and pursue – many completely unrelated topics. Barbara Sher calls us “scanners” in her book,Refuse to Choose and Margaret Lobenstine wroteRenaissance Souls about us. Whatever the name, we are multi-talented people trying to fit a million passions into one lifetime.

If you recognize yourself in this personality type and this is the first time you hear about this concept, I’m sure you’ve got all sorts of thoughts and feelings running through you right now.

It’s not uncommon for someone with this trait to go through life unaware of it, feeling misplaced in society and trying hard to fit in.

The good news is it IS possible to live a life that integrates all of your passions – whether it pertains to careers or hobbies, or both.

And it’s definitely a wonderful trait! It makes you a very versatile, flexible, and interesting person.

The Multi-Talented Personality’s Place In Society

Even though our culture hasn’t heralded these “renaissance personalities” during the past six decades or so, there are many famous people throughout history who were.

Probably the best-known example is Ben Franklin. If you’re not familiar with his multi-faceted life, just look him up online and you’ll be astounded. And no one in his time would have the audacity to call him a jack-of-all-trades, master of none!

But times are changing again, and I believe we’re entering an era where this personality type is highly valuable. Think globalization and the need for workers to function across disciplines and cultures. Especially in downtimes when resources are scarcer.

3 Main Characteristics Of The Multi-Talented

Adapted from Margaret Lobenstine’s The Renaissance Soul, these are the three main characteristics of this multi-talented personality type:

1. A preference for variety over a single-minded focus. This has nothing to do with the ability or inability to focus on what you’re doing at that moment. As you’ll see later on, it’s not ADHD in disguise. Variety comes in many forms: Some people may pursue many interests simultaneously, others on a rotating basis, or they do it one at a time, then move on.
2. The multi-talented enjoy a work style that doesn’t follow a linear, predictable process. Their emphasis is on growth and evolution instead of rigid adherence to a plan. This is also why the traditional time management systems typically don’t work for them. What they need is flexible plans. With emphasis on flexible!
3. A sense of success defined by challenges mastered instead of how far up the ladder they’ve climbed. Multi-talented people love the steep learning curve a new challenge or skill presents. Once they’ve mastered this or solved a problem, they’re done. This is why their definition of success and completion is very different from other people.

Signs You Probably Don’t Fit This Personality Type

Do you truly fit this personality type? Let’s double check. If you fit the following criteria, the answer is probably “no:”

You have ADHD or you suffer from depression.

Both conditions mimic certain traits of a multi-talented person, but aren’t really. Of course, both those conditions and being multi-talented are not mutually exclusive. However, having ADHD or being depressed can easily make you believe you fit the multi-talented personality type. This is because depression creates a fragmented consciousness.

You are very happy to be absorbed in one career or field.

In other words: you’re a specialist. Professions that typically lend themselves to this category are musicians, doctors, scientists, athletes, financiers, and mathematicians. Sure, you relax with a hobby, but you’re not really passionate about anything but your own field.

You’re not choosing a direction because you are afraid to be mediocre or even fail when you commit to something.

But deep down you know what you want to do.

You like to job hop because you keep finding better offers.

However, you’re staying in the same field. Therefore, you do not qualify as a multi-talented personality.

It’s important to have clarity about this so you can either get to the root of what’s bothering or driving you.

For the truly multi-talented personality: Know that not only society is changing, but that you can make changes in your life as well.

How To Create An Online Profile That Wows

How you appear on the Internet is a huge part of yourpersonal brand. Sure, there are some things you don’t have control over. But much of your online brand relies on you creating an accurate representation of yourself on social networking sites.

The most important piece of signing up for a social networking site is completing your profile—which many people neglect to do.

Here are a few ways to ensure your online profile will receive a second glance:

Add As Much Detail As Possible

Fill in your experience, employers, volunteer work, and skills. Include any keywords that are relevant to your field or industry. When recruiters or hiring managers are searching for potential candidates, they will be searching for specific position-related keywords—the only way you’ll be found is if those are included in your profile.

It’s okay to list these somewhere near the bottom of your profile (on LinkedIn, take advantage of the “interests” section or place several keywords in your title or summary). Also, utilize applications to share other professional information, such as portfolio pieces, presentations, photos, or books you’ve read.

Ask For Recommendations And Reference Letters

Throughout your career, ask your supervisors and colleagues to write recommendations about your work. On LinkedIn, request recommendations for the various positions you’ve held. Ask them to be specific about what you accomplished at the organization and why someone should hire you in the future.

Maintain Consistency Across Multiple Networking Sites

If you maintain several online profiles, they all need to be consistent. That’s not to say they have to be the exactly the same. Each site will be slightly different in layout and emphasis. However, your dates of employment, job titles, and accomplishments should match up.

Include Links To Relevant Websites And Resources

If you have a resume on your online profile, make sure to include links to each organization’s website. If you’ve been published online, include those links to showcase your writing skills. Do you have favorite blogs or news sites that you follow? List those to show your interest in and dedication to your industry.

Show You’re A Real Rerson

Include a recent picture on your online profile. Interact with others on the platform by commenting on what they share, congratulating them on new ventures, and building relationships. Show you have a personality, interests, and a life outside of work.

What do you include in your online profile to impress potential employers?

5 Reasons Every Job Seeker Should Blog

That’s right, I just used “blog” as a verb, like “google” or “text.” It’s been long enough now that blogging has become an acceptable part of our online experiences. We read blogs, learn something from them, and leave comments almost every day.

But there are still so many mistakes people make when they attempt it, if they attempt it. Inconsistent frequency of posts, using inside jokes only a few people understand, and failing to break up the post into smaller manageable chunks are just a few mistakes.

When done right, your blog may be the difference between you and another job candidate. I have seen this over and over again in my practice. And despite the evidence, very few job seekers take advantage of this affordable way of making a splash. Are you going to separate yourself from the competition and start a blog?

Here are five reasons blogging is going to help you find a job:

1. You Show You Are Intelligent

Even if you have a killer resume, hiring managers still doubt you, as they should. More than 20 percent of resumes contain flat-out lies. So, you might look smart on paper… but a blog is going to demonstrate you really ARE smart. This reduces perceived risk and makes it easier for hiring managers to respect you.

2. You Show That You Know How To Write

When I graduated from Brown University in 2000, our keynote speaker told all of us, despite the open curriculum, we are expected to know how to do just two things when we leave school: To think and to write. I can’t name a job that doesn’t require writing skills, whether internally or externally. You will write e-mails, memos, presentations, or sales copy. A blog will show your new company that you are up to the task.

3. You Demonstrate You Are Motivated

Everyone goes into a job interview promising high performance and passion. But when that flame burns out after three months on the job, that new hire becomes a liability — a very costly hiring mistake. Alleviate your hiring manager’s anxiety by showing you are who you say you are — you care about this work enough to research and write about it at least twice a week.

4. You Have Something To Say

Very few hiring managers want to hire “yes” men. They are looking for co-pilots, for creative tension, for dynamics in the office. Even if a hiring manager doesn’t agree with your opinion, at least you had one and had the courage to voice it. Not only does this demonstrate self-confidence, you also differentiate yourself from other candidates in a non-competitive way.

5. You Are A Leader In A Community

When you blog consistently, obtain some Google page rank and spark discussions in your comments, you begin to look like an expert. In marketing, there is no force more powerful than social proof. Comments on your blog make you look like that charismatic kid in high school who always had people buzzing around him. Invariably, the thought will cross the hiring manager’s mind, “Well, if other people listen to this guy, then he must be legit.”

Is Your Accent Hurting Your Professional Credibility?

Is your accent hurting your professional credibility? I was talking to a fellow career journalist recently and the subject turned to accents. We were contemplating whether or not certain accents (i.e. Boston, Deep South) can hurt a person in a phone interview. After some reflection on our own experiences, we both agreed, yes, an accent can misrepresent you, and possibly even hurt your chances of getting hired.

Ironically, I used to work with someone who has a strong Boston accent. He was a recent college grad and is an exceptional worker. I don’t hear his accent any more, but I do recall the first time I heard his voicemail and thought,“Hmm. It’s clear he’s from Beantown.” So, I asked him if his accent had ever caused him challenges. To my surprise, he said, “Yes.”

It turns out, on a recent trip to California to visit a childhood friend, he spent a week hanging out with her friends and was told repeatedly, “WOW! Your accent is sooooo strong.” He said, by the end of the week, he was so sick of their comments and teasing (i.e. asking him to say certain words and then busting out laughing); he couldn’t wait to get back home.

So, I asked him, “Have you considered changing it?” He said no, he didn’t really see why someone should change the way they speak. I pointed out actors go to speech classes all the time to learn different accents for roles. Then, I outlined how not considering it could impact his future…

Since I grew up in New England, I am familiar with the Boston accent, so it doesn’t affect my perception of him as a worker. However, the fact remains: If he wants to get a job outside of this area, or even if he wants to work with people from outside this area, there’s a chance he’d bediscriminated against, even though he’s “wicked smaht.”

Is it fair? Nope. Is it reality? Yes. Here’s why…

TV and film create stereotypes via the characters they produce. Those characters’ accents create perceptions. Sad but true, certain American accents further the stereotype of being “uneducated.” (And yet, we all remember the incredible scene from Good Will Hunting.)

However, when it comes to hiring, I doubt highly every manager sits back and says, “Well, the accent is bad, but maybe he’ll turn out to be like Will.” More likely, they are thinking, “Yikes. That accent is strong. Did he go to college? Could I listen to it every day?”