One of my practices for effective networking: Keep your back away from the wall.
Why? It’s one of the best methods to minimize your distractions.
There are two reasons why I’m writing on a topic that most people would think is pretty obvious: minimize distractions. The first reason is important. The second reason is just killer.
FIRST: Because distractions can repeatedly sneak up on you during a meeting, it’s not always obvious for the candidate.
Most of us out networking spend a fair amount of time in coffee shops. It’s a natural part of the experience to take in your surroundings, watch interesting people, etc.
It happens almost every time I meet a fellow candidate, they don’t even realize their gaze has wandered. I’m talking about total professionals with impeccable resumes, references, etc. – yet several times during our meeting their gaze is elsewhere.
SECOND: When speaking, the candidate’s eyes are fixed on me, because they are focused on their pitch. Their gaze wanders when I’m speaking. Ouch.
After awhile, it becomes difficult to tell if I’m a total bore or are they oblivious to their level of distraction. I have to admit I’m relieved to hear the candidate mention what they are looking at so intently. At least it makes me feel less of a bore.
In my view, each meeting represents your one and only chance to make a sale. Don’t let some odd looking fellow get the way.
The ability to make the sale is most often judged by your ability to show that the meeting is truly a ‘networking’ meeting. If can achieve that, it sets you apart from the other people who have networked with the same contact.
You just cannot get there if you are not focused on the person – especially when they are sharing their insights with you.
Face the wall. Take notes. Keep eye contact at all times (though don’t make it a staring contest). Do whatever it takes to keep your focus.
Next time you go to coffee with a friend, face the wall. See how much more you focus on them and count how often they look elsewhere and when.
This is a lesson from the networking trail, where the obvious is not always so.
Good luck today.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools, Seminars and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
Keeping Your Back Away from the Wall
Saturday, 21 August 2010"What do you plan to do with your philosophy degree – become a professional philosopher?" by Heather Haggis
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
When stating you have a Philosophy degree you can be greeted with a look of bewilderment from your family, friends and now recently for me, recruiters. From personal experience I believe the question they would rather ask (if they weren’t so polite) would be: “what can you do with a Philosophy degree?” You can do a lot and very little, so it would be acceptable to ask what the point is behind spending £9K to study it. Majority of the time it isn’t to become a professional philosopher.
Philosophy has had good press and bad press in the past and while it is classed as an arts degree, there seems to be a lack of knowledge on what Philosophy students actually study. We all have a good understanding of English and History subjects, but Philosophy seems a grey area where recruiters from my experience don’t seem to be sure of the skills of a Philosophy student. Regardless of the degree, I am sure that graduates have had to explain their reasons for the course, but I believe that those skills haven’t been doubted the ways I think mine have.
Our skills can include:
· Analytical, problem solving, research, independent thought
· Debating, communication (oral and written), organisation,
· Team work, working on initiative, attention to detail,
· Dealing with some of the most complex and daring thoughts in history
I think the last is crucial and completely missed when discussing Philosophy student’s skills. Our degree is one of the few disciplines that allow its students to handle some of the most controversial essays in history. Many of these papers have influenced and directed governments, religious belief, ethics and medicine. Philosophers were once greatly respected leaders and the Philosopher Plato stated that the state (country) should be ruled by Philosophers, as they are the most educated and knowledgeable (The Republic).
While an interesting and thought provoking idea, I don’t regard Philosophy as a more respectable subject, my only qualms being that the attitude towards modern Philosophy students can be misguided. From friends and people I have come across who have shown a curiosity in my studies, the attitude seems far from the ideas above of a Philosophy graduate. Instead the typical idea seems to be of drinking in pubs discussing conceptual ideas and generally just being very boring. I found some interesting articles in the University of Leeds Careers Centre on the general idea of Philosophy students by employers as being lazy about work because they think logic, time travel, anti-realism is interesting and normal work isn’t. Furthermore, if anyone has come in contact with a Philosophy student or graduate, they will know the degree involves very few contact hours. So from the outside perspective it looks as though our degree is easy. One of my Business friends came back from her day at University to proclaim she had a look in one of the Philosophy tutorial rooms to find us “just sitting around chatting”. She was mortified because she had never seen something look so easy and informal.
However I beg to differ as would many Philosophy graduates. We may have less than ten hours of contact a week yet we are still given a forty hour workload, therefore we are expected to organise our own time and develop our own learning techniques. The advantage over a science or mathematical based degree is that we aren’t given the information; we have to find it ourselves which gives Philosophy students a sense of independent learning and maturity.
This could and maybe should look desirable to an employer, but in researching what recruiters want at entry level for graduates they could possibly be excused for thinking Philosophy graduates would think they are above work. During my research for this piece I came across an interesting article called Advice for Philosophy Graduates[i] by Rob Farrow. What he drew on were the factors which would cause stress to a Philosophy graduate looking and entering the workplace. The section I found most interesting was he understood that at entry level a graduate isn’t expected to reason, question and discuss the mechanics of their new surroundings. Instead you are given your policies and procedures and that you are expected to follow.
“…[Philosophy graduates] often move from an environment which prizes critical and original thinking, ethical integrity and rationality to environments in which these are often considered problems. The culture of compliance that is so prevalent in the modern workplace can be a shock to the philosophy graduate who has been developing their independent thought.”
Nevertheless, I know that this problem of graduates feeling restless and unchallenged occurs right across the spectrum of degree disciplines. I recognise of course there may be other degree disciplines who receive prejudice when applying for jobs by recruiters, but I have specifically chosen Philosophy because this is my chosen subject and I know from experience that there seems to be a lack of understanding of what it involves. The point I am trying to make is whether recruiters do enough homework on their applicants as we do when we apply. Graduates put a lot of trust in the recruiters to make the right decision in whether to accept their application and I would imagine most graduates would expect the recruiter to have some understanding of their discipline. I believe a good number of graduates would believe they should not have their degrees discriminated against if the discipline has a bad or unusual reputation. Philosophy seems to be one of those subjects where the air hasn’t been completely cleared and I fear recruiters might not look deep enough to see what valuable employees we could be.
[i] http://philosophycompass.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/advice-for-philosophy-graduates/
In response to: How to Beat Stress if you’re a Philosophy Graduate http://philosophycompass.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/how-to-beat-stress-if-you%E2%80%99re-a-philosophy-graduate/
7 Lessons To Better Networking With Social Media
1. Find a Person’s Preferred Communication Channel
If you want to contact someone you have never communicated with before, do some research. Find the person’s preferred communication channel. If they have a website, check out their contact page and see if they encourage people to contact them in a particular way, and follow their suggestion.
2. Say Just Enough
3. Don’t Expect a Response
I often see e-mails with phrases like “Please respond,” or “please get back to me.” Unless it is an old friend or a colleague, if you are contacting someone new, you are not entitled to a response. If the person wants to get back to you, he or she will. It is much better to say “If this is not of interest, feel no need to get back to me.”4. Clarify Early
5. What You Want is Not the Point
You may think that what you want is a phone call or lunch meeting to discuss your big idea. But communication is more than any one project or meeting. What you really want is an authentic connection.6. Be Open Without Needing
7. Give Space
The key questions people have when someone new reaches out to them, particularly those who are quite busy, are “Do I have time to bring this person into my network? How much time will they take?”Soren Gordhamer - Better Social Networking
http://TwitJobs.net The Job Community
Know Your Buyer
At a start-up firm all of the processes, formalities, etc. simply don’t exist yet, so your sole focus is on finding and convincing clients to pay you something (also, you need the money!).
To do this, you identify the clients’s need, what gets them to act and where to tell them. You also must understand how the same product can be used by different types of clients.
Take the mobile phone: Adults talk. Teens text. Listen to the ads sometime, same device, very different messages about what the mobile phone does for each group.
Take the CFO position: No two companies define the role exactly the same (different boards, CEO, philosophy, etc.). This is true for all positions: Same skill set, just applied differently for each company.
That said most of us miss the opportunity to differentiate ourselves because of the resume submitted.
I used the same resume for every role until I realized that someone else was translating how my accomplishments and experiences would fit their company needs. It just was not happening, so I needed to.
The best person does not always get the job. It’s the person who can best tell their story who gets the job. This is not a parlor trick, but comes from someone taking the time to review the company needs and matching up their experience. This enables them to write and talk in depth about both sides.
GOOD IDEA #1: Create different resumes for different roles.
IMPLEMENTATION ROADBLOCK FOR GOOD IDEA #1: Too many edits. A common risk of continuous rewrites is that new ideas get edited in after application. So your resume loses clarity.
SOLUTION FOR ROADBLOCK FOR GOOD IDEA #1: Write a resume for each role you seek. Start by writing down the company needs each role fulfills. Then write down the duties of the role. Lastly, write down what skills needed to perform those duties.
I have four resumes: Mid-size private (CFO), Family-owned (CFO), Large public firm (Divisional VP) and start-up firm (CFO).
The benefit of having the four versions is that I’ve identified the majority of what’s important to each company. It is much easier to create a version that matches what the company is seeking.
You will get in a situation where you don’t know what the company is seeking, so pick the version you feel best matches.
Good luck this week.
Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.
http://TwitJobs.net The Career Community
10 Tips For Getting A Job In Social Media
Monday, 2 August 2010
With Forrester’s 5-year forecast predicting that B2B interactive marketing budgets are expected to reach nearly US$5B in 2014, that suggests a near-500% increase in social media spending. While that only amounts to a bit under $55M — which seems a bit small if you’re considering a career in SMM — there are other areas in Internet marketing that will enjoy increased spending. This includes the Mobile, Email, Display, SEO, and Paid Search niches. If you’re interested in a career in Social Media Marketing — aka SMM — here are some tips that might help you.- Take your network pick. Choose which social networks to use. You do not have to use every single social network. Pick a few that are suited to your objectives. For example, I focus on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, though I used to have small but thriving networks in the social sharing (voting/ bookmarking) space (e.g., Sphinn, Digg, Stumbleupon, Propeller, Mixx, etc.). Social networks and social sharing have two different purposes, of course. I don’t use my MySpace account, but that may or may not change. For some of my new objectives, I’ll be expanding my LinkedIn and Facebook networks — though my Twitter network grows the fastest.
- Keep networking. Constantly network, online and offline, to build your online social networks. While just having a big following on, say, Twitter, isn’t necessarily proof of expertise. But it might be, if you can leverage it as necessary for your work.
- Build your expertise. It may not bring you overnight success, but New Media School, has a social media marketing program that might help you on your way to becoming an expert.
- Keep up. To continue being an expert, you have to stay on top of the industry – probably not just for SMM but for Internet Marketing in general. There are many dozens of great blogs to read and important conferences to attend. It gets increasingly hard to read all the posts, and expensive to attend the conferences, but you have to do what you can. For reading websites and blogs, some people prefer tools such as RSS feed readers, though I prefer AllTop and YourVersion. (Disclosure: I’m an unpaid tech evangelist for YourVersion.) If you’re self-employed, you can write off some or all of the costs. If you’re a salaried employee, make a case for why your employer should send you. What’s their bottom line?
- Share for free. Share your knowledge on your own website/ blog. Publish regular articles, give away ebooks, and encourage others to republish on their sites (your link & copyright will be present). What does this do? If what you offer is valuable content to enough people, you might get asked to share your knowledge for pay.
- Share for pay. Share your knowledge and get paid for it, in the form of articles, blog posts, ebooks, whitepapers, reports. The latter three can be particularly lucrative, if you have a head for research and skills for presentation. Do workshops or conferences. If you establish your name as an “expert” in SMM, then it’s easier to pay for all those conferences by giving talks. You might receive comp tickets, get your expenses paid for, and possibly a speaking fee.
- Don’t focus on just SMM consulting. There numerous areas in Internet Marketing, as mentioned above, that you can be involed in to supplement your career. Just don’t pick too many niches and be mediocre in all of them.
- Go wider. Consider tangential careers, such as in Social Science combined with media. A family friend of mine — a professor at UCLA – studies and talks about the intersection of ethnography and technology. This allows him to get grants and travel to many exotic destinations, talk to tribes people and holy men who carry cellphones, and more.
- Eat your own social media dog food. You’re not just going to tell everyone else how to use social media, you’re going to have to use it too.
- Use LinkedIn to make connections and expand your potential client/ employer base. Get recommended for a job by someone who knows someone who knows …
- Follow people on Twitter who are in the SMM space, and Internet Marketing in general. Build your connections there. You never when you’ll get business leads — or a spark of inspiration — from someone’s tweet. Get people to follow you back by retweeting them and responding sincerely to their words.
- Facebook doesn’t have to be just for personal friends. I use it for professional connections whom I’ve sustained some sort of online or offline relationship with, beyond a single email or encounter. Use the “Friend list” feature to partition your connections into logical groups so that you can easily control who sees what of your Wall, photos, etc.
- Promote yourself. Have a social resume and publish it on your website, whether as media-rich web pages or a downloadable PDF document. Every time you do something significant in your career, update your social resume.
http://TwitJobs.net
