12-point plan for job hunting

This is definitely one of the most complete processes that I have found so far to prepare yourself for job-hunting. I specially like the focus on your personal aspirations and the tricks given to identify them.

Full article by Liz Ryan at Forbes.

1. Decide what you want to do next, after you leave this job. You don’t have to look for a new job that’s just like the old one. You get to decide. Maybe it’s time for a big career shift!
2. Now, brand yourself for the job you want (not the job you’ve got)! Begin your branding exercise by writing about yourself (not for publication —  just for you). In your new job, what sort of work will you do? Write your bio as though you’re writing about yourself working at your new job, six months from now. You’ve already had experience in a lot of different subject matters, whether you’ve held the job title or not. Use the bio-creation exercise to reclaim those experiences and get them into your branding!
3. Will you update your LinkedIn profile? You’re in a stealth job search now, so you don’t want to raise alarms. You can set your Notifications to “off” so that your LinkedIn contacts don’t get notified about your profile updates, or you can live with the LinkedIn profile you’ve got throughout your job search.
4. Determine your salary requirement and your other requirements for your job search. Write about your ideal job. What is your target salary level, position title, daily commute, amount of travel per month, and so on? Write your expectations out on paper and talk about them with someone close to you. Determine your floor in each category. What is the lowest salary you would accept — and what would make that low salary worthwhile to you? Know what you want so the universe can bring it to you.
5. Write your Human-Voiced Resume to bring your new branding into clear focus for the benefit of hiring managers who don’t already know you. Remember — you don’t need permission to change careers. You need to give yourself permission!
6. Create a Target Employer List. You may already have target employers in mind, or you might decide to browse LinkedIn profiles to spot employers who are struggling with the very same kind of Business Pain you solve.
7. Learn about Pain Letters and then research and compose a Pain Letter to a particular hiring manager you’d like to start a conversation with.
8. Send your hard copy Pain Letter, attached with one staple in the upper left corner to your hard copy Human-Voiced Resume, directly to the first hiring manager on your Target Employer List, by post.
9. Activate your network. Check in with old friends and new acquaintances to begin expanding your sphere of influence.
10. Get some consulting business cards and begin passing them out to people you know (instead of the business cards your employer gave you).
11. If you are planning to use a Third Party Search channel in your job search (that is, to partner with one or more recruiters whose clients may be looking for someone like you), reach out to one or two trusted recruiters or friend-of-your-friend recruiters to talk through your resume with them. Your Human-Voiced Resume will probably not be your recruiter’s favorite, so you’ll need a traditional resume for recruiters as well as your Human-Voiced Resume to send to hiring managers directly.
12. Get a journal and begin writing in it every day or every other day. Write about your job search. Write about your ideas, dreams and feelings. You are growing new muscles. Hats off to you!

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Controlar tu reputación on-line

Interesante artículo sobre como maquillar acertadamente los contenidos que aparecen sobre ti en google (imagino que para cualquier otro buscador será similar). Lo que más me llama la atención es que, por primera vez desde que me topo con algo de este tema, hacen más incapié en publicar cosas con tu nombre verdadero y conectar redes sociales entre sí que en intentar utilizar pseudónimos o tratar de pasar desapercibido. Es como si diesen por hecho que hoy en día con un poco de pericia cualquiera medianamente ducho en el arte de recopilar información sobre personas en internet va a conseguirlo, así que mejor darle fácil acceso a lo que tú quieres que vean. Para casos extremos, hay varias páginas web que cobran ciertas cantidades por ocultar cierta información, bastante utilizadas entre famosos o gente de negocios que no puede permitirse una reputación online negativa.

1. Search yourself

Do a Google search for your name and also a search for your name in Google Images. Do set up a Google alert on your name to keep track of any new content. You can have notifications mailed to you once a day, so as not to overwhelm your inbox.

2. Buy your domain name.

This costs $12 a year to do on sites like GoDaddy. Opinions vary on how much effort, and money, you should put into this. Patrick Ambron, CEO and cofounder of BrandYourself, recommends snatching up lots of domain names—patrickambron.com, patrickambrononline.com, patrickambronblog.com. “The more you get, the better,” he says. Personally, I think this is excessive. Better to pick one domain name and put some effort into creating content that will live on the site. You can write a short bio of yourself, a story from your life, and include your CV. This is also a place to post interesting articles and your own commentary about them.

3. Put all your content in one place.

There are a number of sites that let you do this now, including Tumblr, WordPress and About.me. You can also “apply” your domain name to these sites, which means that anyone who goes to patrickambron.com will be routed to your Tumblr page or your WordPress page. That’s convenient because Tumblr and WordPress offer nicely designed templates where you can set up what looks like a professionally designed website without having to hire a designer.

4. Join social networks.

Even if you don’t feel like you have time to be active on these sites, do join them and take the time to fully fill out the profiles. As most of us know, the major sites are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+. Though you don’t hear a lot of people chattering about Google+ these days, author Stradtman predicts the site will gain in power over the coming years in part because it is a Google product so Google will favor content from there in searches. If you can make the time, also join Tumblr, Pinterest, YouTube and possibly others. You don’t have to be active but don’t be completely dormant either. Add new content at least once a month. That can be as simple as attaching an article and writing a short comment about why it interests you.

5. Optimize your presence on these sites.

Do fill these sites out as fully as you can, customizing the URL when you can and repeating your name where appropriate. For instance, on LinkedIn you can scroll down to where it says “public profile” on your profile page, and edit the URL. Instead of saying something likehttp://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=30269383&locale=en_US&trk=tyah, you can set the URL to readhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/susancadams. Also be sure to use your full name and not a nickname or slogan you think is catchy. Another important trick: Most websites give you the option of linking to other social media sites. Do this. It will make your online presence stronger.

6. Keep private things private, while assuming nothing is truly private.

Even my 16-year-old knows that it’s unwise to post pictures of himself chugging beer or dancing shirtless, but he also knows he can’t control the pictures other people post of him. You can, and should, put privacy setting on all content you want to share only with a select group of friends and family. However Facebook and other sites are constantly changing the rules about how much you can protect your content, and your friends can forward embarrassing pictures of you without your consent.

 

All the experts say you should never post any pictures of yourself that you don’t want the world to see. What about my friend who posts frequent Facebook shots and videos of her adorable one- and four-year-olds, sometimes naked and playing in the bathtub? Stradtman says this is a bad idea because those pictures stand a chance of popping up when the boys grow up. I find this difficult to believe, not to mention depressing. An alternative is to construct two Facebook profiles, one for outsiders that emphasizes your educational and professional accomplishments and another for your intimate circles, with the most private settings you can find.  I confess I would find it difficult to manage two Facebook accounts, though I see the wisdom behind the idea.

If someone else posts a picture of you on Facebook that you find embarrassing, remove the “tag” that identifies it as you. Also don’t hesitate to ask others to take down pictures of yourself that you think could compromise your reputation.

Ambron’s partner at BrandYourself, Pete Kistler, was motivated to start the company because he had a bad personal experience. When he was having trouble landing an internship, back in 2008, he discovered that a Google search on his name produced a Pete Kistler who was a convicted drug dealer. Unable to pay for a reputation management firm, he teamed up with Ambron and taught himself how to set up multiple websites and to create content that would drive the drug dealer Kistler down in the search results. That is the key to managing your reputation online: Create your own domain, establish a clear, fleshed-out presence on multiple social networking  sites, post to each of them at least once a month and keep monitoring the web for unflattering photos or mentions. If they come up, do your best to bury them with positive content.