mikelally.net » networking

Getting a Job in 2011

mikelally — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:48:11 +0000

I know a couple of people that are re-entering the job market after years of not working or only working part-time. I thought I would share some thoughts and words of encouragement.

First. You need some kind of marketing vehicle. Traditionally, this is called a resume. Right now, I have three documents. I have your traditional resume – HOWEVER, it is a way cool resume updated for the 21st century. I have a Marketing Plan – which between you and me, I should update. I have something called a “pre-resume” which is something I recently read about and thought I would give it a try. It is a one-page combo of a resume (with limited info) and the meaty part of your marketing plan. If you need help with any of these things, you need to throw a little bit of money at Hannah. She will tighten you up.

Second. You need to get yourself on Linkedin. And you need to get yourself a complete profile. And you need a picture. Linkedin is a part of your marketing toolkit. But – more important – Linkedin is a giant relational database. It is not Facebook. You cannot play Farmville on it. But, if you work it, and use it to your advantage, it will help you find people inside of companies where you would like to go work. It is a tool to aid you in your most important job searching task…

NETWORKING.

Third. I don’t have a college degree. Yes – I went to college. I started as a Political Science major, got dis-illusioned in a hurry, switched to English Lit because it was fun and easy to read books and argue with people (two of my favorite things to do ). But ultimately got bored because I was working full time and going to school full time and making money and LEARNING a load of stuff that I still practice TODAY…20 (shut up) ish years later.

Not having a degree hasn’t hurt me. Yes, there have been a couple of companies that wouldn’t even look at me. Too rigid for me anyway. They did me a favor. It hasn’t hurt for two reasons. One – I hustle. I work hard. I achieve results. I win. Two – I focus on BUILDING and MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS. Some of you know this as “networking”. Every job I have had since I started delivering newspapers – with the exception of a very few of them – came from relationships and recommendations. In fact, the crappiest jobs, were jobs where I went in cold.

Starting in 2007/2008 when the world went ape-shit, HR departments decided they could add even LESS value by REQUIRING a degree from everyone. In fairness, they did this because there were just an overwhelming number of candidates for every gig. There are stats. You can look them up.

None of this matters to you though. You don’t answer ads on Monster or (sweet baby Jesus!) ads in a newspaper. No – you are new school. You build relationships and market yourself. While all the sheep are pounding on the front door, you have a close personal relationship walking you and your kick-ass marketing document (resume) to the hiring manager and and she tells that manager what a total rock star you are and how sick it would be to have you on the team.

Talk to Hannah. Or come with me on the 19th to her career club in Canandaigua.

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5 Simple Career Management Lessons

mikelally — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:29:41 +0000

The Keys To Unlocking Your Most Successful Career by Joann S. Lublin from the July 6, 2010 WSJ online is possibly the best article I have read all year about managing your career. Great, great stuff.

Five simple lessons.

1. Network effectively. I already love Lublin. You’ve seen me rant about this before. She recommends “strategic relationships” and I am completely on board. She quotes a career coach, Paul Anderson, who says “relationships can’t be built in 60 seconds.” Amen, brother. This is the problem I have with “networking”. I am focusing on networking SMARTER. Quality versus quantity.

2. Sweat the small stuff. Details matter, people! This is another recurring theme from your old pal Mike. She reminds us to not have sweaty palms when you shake hands. Check the tags on handshakes over on the right —-> it has been a recurring theme for me.

3. Get your marketing materials in order. OK…I paraphrased my new favorite Lublin. She talks about creating something called a “pre-resume” which Career Sherpa will tell you is her Marketing Plan. It works. Do it.

4. Pay it forward. Help others.

5. Know thyself and be ready for re-invention. Seriously…I may have to stalk my new bff Joann Lublin. Know you goals. Know your core values. Know your TRANSFERRABLE skills. You can re-invent. Mrs. Mike Lally, after YEARS of worrying and ASSUMING that she would have to “start at the bottom” if she changed jobs – just got a PROMOTION at a NEW firm which takes her into a COMPLETELY NEW role.

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Six Year Anniversary

mikelally — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:59:22 +0000

I started writing “a” blog on this day in 2004. I cannot believe it has been six years. I’ve been through a lot in that time. I was running a telemarketing operation at the time. Then I had back surgery. I tried to launch an outsourcing business with some partners. That failed. I went to a major telecom provider where I spent a year commuting to Florida helping to launch a 500 seat call center. I went to a learning solutions company to become a product manager. I got laid off after one year. I spent a year out of work. My daughter spent 15 days in the hospital with what we now know was H1N1. Now I am doing account management/project management for a software company.

Whew.

In ’04 I started it all off by referencing Tom Peter’s Brand You Survival Kit from FC. ALL of what TP says in this article is still relevant. Lots of us STILL aren’t hearing it. To re-cap:

Turn every project into something the recruiter or person doing the hiring is going to get excited about.
You must market yourself. Accomplishments on a resume are NOT ENOUGH.
Don’t settle for being a jack of all trades. Master something. But be able to adapt at a breakneck pace.
Loyalty to the “company” is dead. Loyalty to your peers is crucial. Build your contacts.
New technology is useless for the first five years. But you need to know its out there and be ready to use it when it becomes useful.
Constantly re-invent yourself.

The funny thing is that in my original post I said that you should build your contacts in your Palm Pilot. I also said “rolodex” but I think in 2010 I have a better shot at people snickering at the dinosaur that is Palm Pilot versus the Rolodex (the modern day equivalent of writing on stone tablets.)

But DAMN, Tom is right. Was right. WILL CONTINUE TO BE RIGHT.

You have to be marketing/re-inventing. You have to be a hammer as Harry Joiner says. Loyalty to your peers IS critical. Your network is your future.

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3 Ideas

mikelally — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:39:05 +0000

I have been chewing on a few ideas for awhile now. Earlier this week I attended a Meetup for readers of Seth Godin’s “Linchpin”. The event helped me solidify some ideas.

I liked the event. There were less than 20 people there. There was opportunities for “networking”. Welcome networking. Not 100 people in a room all looking for a job. That has gotten frustrating. Even when I was the one looking for a job. The event needed a better plan. Which is what has gotten me thinking…

Idea 1: Mastermind/Greenlight Group.
Keith Ferazzi updated the Mastermind group concpet in “Who’s Got Your Back”. Mastermind is like a personal Board of Directors. You assemble a small group and hold each other accountable across your personal key performance indicators. I continue to try to put a group like this together. Harder than it would seem.

Idea 2: UN-Networking Event.
I want to put 20 people in a room and see what happens. After attending the Linchpin Meetup, it became clear that I need a better plan. An agenda. A GOAL. I think this even would be supported by a website. My plan right now is:
a) pick 20 people
b) have them name a movie/book/fictional character they think represents them well. That name becomes their name tag.
c) the goal of the evening is to meet 5 people. You would be “attracted” by the movie character.
d) Meet the person. Figure out who they are, what they do, what they are working on, what they need help with.
e) ensure that EVERYONE gets met with.
f) compile results on the website and see if we can find some synergies.

Actually, I just formulated that plan as I typed. But I think it may actually work. I want to do it in the coffee shop of the building I work in. I think they would stay open after hours.

Idea3: Open Source TEC
I used to belong to an organization called TEC (now Vistage). I LOVED my time with the group. TEC took small company CEOs and business owners, got them together once a month for a full day. 6 times a year they had a speaker for half the day. They would also go around the room and put forth business issues/problems they were working on. Then the group would work the problems together.

I want to do something similar. But not have to pay $1000+ a month for it.

Take the Mastermind concept a step further. 6-12 high performers. Holding each other accountable. I do think there needs to be a facilitator. But they get expensive. As do speakers. I don’t know. I open to ideas.

I am open to your thoughts on ALL of the above.

Share in the comments.

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Things I Learned During My Year Long Unemployment

mikelally — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:29:57 +0000

I just signed an offer letter for a small company looking to do big things here in Rochester. (In fact it is about 3 minutes from my house! Bye Bye Jefferson Road!) I had been out of work for a little over one year. That is a long time.

I had/have some immediate thoughts on what I/my family did to survive this past year. Yes…survive. I am deliberately using that word.

Get your finances under control. In a hurry. We went to Defcon 1 on day 2 of my unemployment. What does D1 look like? It looks like cutting all non-essential spending. Satellite bill cut down dramatically. (Come on…you need SOME tv.) Meal planning started. No dinners out. This let us keep Family Friday Pizza Night.
Don’t let it affect your kids. Our goal was to not disrupt our daughter’s life. We had to cut violin lessons. (I think she was happy about this actually). But I went the extra mile in ensuring she was living a balanced life.
Exercise. Every day. We joined the local YMCA and practically LIVED there. This was $90 a month WELL spent. Especially in the summer. We ROCKED that place. And continue to do so. We extracted more ROI out of that $90 than anyone.
Work your network. I say this with the assumption that you already have a network built. If you didn’t have a network in place – an ACTIVE network by the end of 2008 – you are beyond screwed. I was volunteering at a place in the Summer. It didn’t work out. I got a new job earlier this week. BOTH came through my EXISTING network. I battle with the networking gurus all the time on constantly expanding your network. I like to grow organically and farm, farm, farm my relationships.
Have an internet presence. This helps with number 4 but it also helps you CLOSE the deal. I could SEE the hits on my Linkedin page. I could see the traffic on this site jump after I talked to people. I can’t tell you the number of times people have referenced my site, my linkedin, or my twitter (which I don’t use all that much) during conversations. It works.
Volunteer – work with kids. It will humble you. I worked a lot with my daughter’s second grade class. I worked with a non-profit that worked with kids teaching them entrepreneurial skills. I coached a group of 8 and 9 year olds in a flag football league. It gives you perspective. It will keep your head on straight.
Open yourself up. Possibly the hardest part. Under stress, I tend to hunker down and get inside myself. Fight that urge. Let people love you. Let people help you. And most importantly ASK for their help. So easy yet near impossible. Trust me. I know.
Learn. Every day. I had a teacher in highschool. Freshman year. All boys school. Priest. Taught Latin. (Now you have some insight about me. Only man I have ever really feared. But he said something profound. He told us to make sure we read something every day. Even if it is the comics. When you read – you learn. I made sure I was using my gray matter. I took on projects that FORCED me to learn.
Stay positive. As the great prophet Bob Marley used to say – “Everythings gonna be all right.” You have to keep a positive mental attitude. Even when you are bruised and battered. You HAVE to get up. You have to put your helmet on. And you have to go attack that rock and keep pushing it up the hill. Because ONE DAY it will not roll back down on top of you.

I hope this helps someone. If you are in this place – talk to me. I get it. I can help. Give me some love on this post – add your own tips – crab at me about how wrong I am.

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Using Social Media to Manage Your Career

mikelally — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:14:57 +0000

Last night I gave an updated version of my “Managing Your Online Identity: Using Social Media in Your Job Search” presentation to Hannah Morgan’s Career Club in Canandaigua, NY. It is really aimed at anyone who needs to manage their career not just job seekers.

Using Social Media In Your Job Search V3.0 Dec 2009

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Give me some love if you found this interesting or yell at me if you think I missed the mark.

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Deeply Alarming News from Wharton

mikelally — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:45:49 +0000

Just read a July 8th article from Knowledge@Wharton: Caught in the Middle: Rising Unemployment Takes Its Toll on Older Managers that will cause you to lose some sleep. Especially if you are believing the hype that “it is getting better out there.”

It isn’t.

And it won’t.

The opening paragraph sets the pace:

U.S. recessions since the oil crisis in the early 1970s each had their own special causes and victims, but they also had something in common: They were over relatively quickly. The current downturn, however, is deeper and already longer than any since World War II. This spells trouble for one especially vulnerable group — managers in their 40s and early 50s. They tend to be more expensive than their younger counterparts; they may lack some of the high-tech savvy needed to succeed in a more efficient workplace; and they face a downsized job market that will stay that way much longer than usual.

Peter Capelli, HR Guru, continues the bleak picture for older, middle managers. In the past, there was always something happening to offset and absorb these people. The last time around, there were a zillion startups. This time – not so much.

More bad news:

A survey in June by Watson Wyatt Worldwide reports that 52% of companies will employ fewer people than they did before the recession began. One third of the 179 U.S.-based companies polled indicated they still anticipate further layoffs…

And here is the killing blow and the stat that should make EVERYONE sit up and take notice according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics:

14.7 million people were unemployed (9.5%) as of June 2009 compared 8.7 million (5.6%) one year ago.

The number of long-term unemployed — people without work for 27 weeks or more — increased from 1,621,000 in June 2008 to 4,381,000 in June 2009.

Meanwhile, approximately 6.5 million jobs have been lost since the recession started 19 months ago.

And the “underemployment” rate — which includes those too discouraged to look for work as well as those working part-time because they can’t find a fulltime job — increased to a staggering 16.5% in June compared to 10.1% a year earlier.

I think we all need to pause and digest these numbers. Especially the long term unemployed number and the length of this DEPRESSION. (There, I said it.) Unemployment Insurance is paying through 12 months (correct me if I am wrong). If the recession is 19 months old, there are a WHOLE BUNCH of people not showing up in these numbers.

Millions.

Older people, myself included, you’re old and your skills are out-dated. Someone younger, LESS EXPENSIVE, and with better, more current skills is going to get the job you want.

The article talks about people that have been out of work more than 9 months that are just now finding work. The article cautions that you should expect a 15% – 30% salary cut. And that 60% of the jobs will NOT be posted anywhere. You MUST NETWORK!

Be prepared for a total shift in how you view “work”.

Stewart Friedman, a Wharton management professor, “sees project-based employment as part of a larger structural change in the way people look for, and find, work. ‘It’s about switching from an organization-based economy to a network-based one,’ which he describes as ‘the movement to employment that can be done on a contract basis where you are part of a labor pool that is organized, not by firm, but by networks.’

Network, network, network. Get in the game.

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Using Social Media in Your Job Search

mikelally — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:49:54 +0000

Using Social Media in Your Job Search

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Seth: Build Relationships!

mikelally — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:50:36 +0000

Seth has a great take on making the ask.

He’s right. So go read it.

…invest some time and earn the right to ask. Do your homework. Build connections. Make a reasonable request, something easy and mutually beneficial. Yes leads to yes which just maybe leads to the engagement you were actually seeking.

It is ALL about building relationships people. Had an interesting twist on this. Had a friend as me for a favor on BEHALF of someone else that I did not know. Which worked. Because I know I can trust the person asking. There is a RELATIONSHIP there.

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Gen X Loves Social Networking

mikelally — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:02:05 +0000

Just read the latest from Penelope Trunk.

Do you know who is using social media? Gen X. The average Twitter user is in their 30s. The median age of LinkedIn is 40. The majority of people who are joining Facebook right now are over 35. This is because Gen X wants to meet new people online and reconnect with all the friends they lost along the way. Gen X is using social media to network.

I have embraced all of the above. I was a semi-early adopter of linkedin. Facebook has turned out to be fun. And today, ironically, I discovered a few things about Twitter that I am LOVING!

I figured out how to add a TON of followers. So what you say. Well…I am driving a ton of traffic to this blog. I am fine tuning as I go. Targeting and attracting people that will like what I am doing here.

All for free. All from the internets.

I agree with Penelope. I am trying to reconnect with all the people I lost along the way. Some of them should stay lost. As I should probably stay lost from THEM. I use all three tools differently. I try to use all of them to drive a little bit of traffic to this blog.

I use Linkedin to manage my professional network. It works.

I use twitter solely as a marketing tool. I only use it to “tweet” back and forth with 3 people. I use it to drive traffic. I want to see how many followers I can add. Then I want to see how many people I can get to the site. Then I want to see how many come back and/or subscribe.

Math and science people. Math and science.

I use Facebook to reconnect to old friends. I LOVE this about fb. It lets me get in my way back machine and re-connect with people I LOVED at some prior point in time. I’ve moved around a lot. I’ve lost people. FB ties me back in….sometimes only on the peripheral. But it is better than not at all.