Job Hunting: Get A Leg Up on Your Fellow Class of 2012 Graduates |  |
| Job Hunting: Get A Leg Up on Your Fellow Class of 2012 Graduates Posted: 27 May 2012 11:00 AM PDT The college Class of 2012 is still basking in the post-graduation euphoria! Congratulations on everything you've achieved, experienced and learned over the past four years.
Now wipe that smile off your face and get a job! Seriously… there's no time to waste! If you ever saw the movie "The Graduate," Dustin Hoffman returns home following graduation and spends several weeks scuba diving in the family pool and getting to know his neighbors a bit better. Of course, Dustin Hoffman would be at a disadvantage against today's college graduates. He didn't have a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, YouTube channel or even a blog. Using those tools intelligently and effectively can go a long way to landing a desirable position, earning some money and getting out of your parents' house. Employers, especially if you are applying for jobs that require creativity, writing, marketing or communications, are going to be checking out your social media presence. We've all heard the stories of job applicants who lost out because employers found damning photographs or videos of the candidate drunk, stoned or worse. There are other stories of candidates who have lost out because of racist, sexist, homophobic or extreme political views. Rather than talk about how you can screw up your job search with social media, I'd much rather discuss how you can enhance your chances of getting a job through the effective use of social media. If you are a healthy, normal recent college graduate, then your Facebook page will have enough incriminating photographs, videos and other questionable content to raise a series of red flags with most any employer (unless you're looking for a job at Rolling Stone). So what do you do? You have several options here. The safest thing is to clean up you page. But who really wants to do that? The next best thing is to manage your privacy settings to make sure that the only people who can see the damaging content on your page are the people you want to see that content. Another option is to use a pseudonym on their Facebook page to keep them out of the prying eyes of employers (and relatives). If you use your real name, then use your Facebook page to demonstrate your creativity, show a sense of humor (careful with this one) and to otherwise present yourself as someone who would be a welcome new member of the type of company you're looking to hire you. Think of the psychographics of the employers you'd like to work for. You can demonstrate your interests, talents and passions through your favorite books, movies, and the Facebook pages you follow ("likes"). LinkedIn is quickly becoming the most valuable social media tool for people looking to get hired. Employers are searching all of the time on LinkedIn, so make sure you are found. Make sure your profile is complete, honest and grammatical. As you build your resume on LinkedIn remember a few key things:
Employers (like other human beings) are drawn to people who are social, influential, interesting and helpful. Use your Twitter account to show employers that you have built a social network, that you are creative and that you are passionate about things that would be of interest to an employer. Don't use your Tweets to discuss breakfast, digestive issues or people who piss you off. Use your Tweets to show off your intellect, your wit, your charm. Provide links to articles, videos and other items that demonstrate your interests. YouTube This is a grossly underutilized and extremely effective use of social media in getting hired. Make a video or videos that show you in your best possible light. Think of it as an audition tape and the cast you are hoping to join is your potential employer's. Much more than a resume, a video can give a potential employer a clear picture of what it would be like to have you as an employee. Are you confident? Charismatic? Eloquent? Personable? All of these can come to light in a video! Once you've produced the video, and you're happy with it, by all means attach it to any job application. Go For It! Your generation grew up with social media. You've used it to make friends, seek relationships, and to share the good times. Now that you've graduated, it's time to put your social media skills to work for you. As a graduation present to yourself, use social media to land a job!
From Small Business Trends |
| Sleeping With Your Smartphone Makes Productivity and Life Balance Possible Posted: 27 May 2012 06:00 AM PDT
But as ‘bring your own device’ has spread and more professionals are looking to accomplish tasks while on the go, the methods organizations have learned to manage an always-on work environment, if not society, have been called into question. Rieva Lesonsky's post on flextime is an example of how valuable work-life balance research has grown. Extending the charge for new life balance is the new book Sleeping With Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change The Way You Work by Leslie A. Perlow. When I read my publisher copy, I could not help but realize how essential we need a rethink in professional availability. This brief book speaks to large business, but also works for small business networks that are emulating big business processes more by the day. Break the Cycle of Responsiveness Sleeping With The Smartphone opens with its first chapters examining Perlow's experiment with Boston Consulting Group, a high demand advisory firm that serves global firms. The experiment was to have a few teams try Predictable Time Off (PTO), a specific schedule away from the regular team tasks. PTO "won't solve all your problems." Instead it "unlocks a more persuasive opening about work related and work life issues." That openness, according to Perlow, can lead to better planning and discussions because issues surface that would otherwise be ignored. PTO at first glance may not sound like breakthrough thinking. But the fact of the matter is that we can be so focused on managing "always on" devices and processes that basic "what-are-we-doing" conversations are overlooked. Perlow calls this focus "the cycle of responsiveness" – altering one's time to meet the increased demand on their time. And I can say I am seeing this as much of a challenge for small business as it can be for the consulting profession Perlow examines. As the first half of the book covers the experience Boston Consulting Group, you will get to draw some of yourself from the experience. So what were the results of the experiment? Perlow noted a comparison of teams, ones that embraced PTO and others that ignored it. In that comparison, several notable differences in attitude towards work and working together resulted – attitudes which, in real-life, would lead to teams better suited to address problems and solve them:
The results also imply a thought shift – teams felt more confident to take more beneficial risks. Thus, people are better able to consider more strategic ways that ultimately influenced how a business is run:
Workaholics or Successaholics? That the question the second half makes a team answer, through its explanation and how-to implementation. For fostering communication, I felt the steps Perlow offers are as valuable for small business teams as well as corporate teams. Again there is no earth-shattering new concept – how to manage a team's time – but the book provides a good arrangement of "what to do" in your team or organization. The takeaways and implementation steps are useful:
All these chapters are linked with the author's emphasis on a slow process in infusion, requiring champions to develop the right level of expectations for improving productivity. It reflects a wisdom of building trust which technological usage can make us forget easily. Sleeping With Your Smartphone may not solve every challenge you face, but it will enlighten any team trying to sync among themselves while questioning the worthwhile of on-demand accessibility. To note Perlow’s coined successaholic question – Is on-demend accessibility really worthwhile or just a badge of honor? It's up to you to decide. And you may still be one of "those" people – if so, welcome to the club, brother! But after reading this you'll be more aware of your teammates conferenced on the smartphone who feel they can deliver your deliverable and still have a life. From Small Business Trends |
I'll admit I've been one of those people. You know, the ones who are a bit disoriented when they are away from the cellphone. You have to give me a break. Analytics requires internet access, so I have heard, and a multi-feature smartphone with hotspot capability has become the "Ernie" to my Macbook Pro’s "Bert."| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business News, Tips, Advice - Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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