Contacting them is another matter. They use their cell phones as their primary business phones, have not bothered to put an appropriate message on it, and often do not return calls (or emails) – even after multiple messages. I tolerate this because they are, in fact, making a critical contribution to my business that I don’t think I could get elsewhere. However, I believe their businesses are limited in generating revenue and surely not the successes that they could be. And, it’s frustrating for me to be their customer.

Similarly, I do business with some other people who traditionally have not taken credit cards. I pay them significant amounts of money on a regular basis, and I want to pay it by credit card. I have now convinced both of them to set up PayPal accounts. It is simple to do, and it is inexpensive – certainly easier, safer, and more convenient than most other options for the people they do business with.

I have also coached colleagues who left Corporate America thinking they would go into business for themselves. Many are clueless as to how to set up even the most rudimentary infrastructure for a market presence, client management, technology, accounting, and communication – and have done little to figure it out.

The common denominator here is the question of whether they really want to be “in business”. When pressed, some of them are “in hobby” and others are “in denial” – in either case, not fully motivated to put in the time or effort to really be successful. Their hearts just aren’t in it.

So, if this resonates with you, consider if you really want to be in business.

If you do want to be in business, you might consider creating a foundation for the business – at least the basics. Here’s a short 10-point checklist:

1. Company name: Choose it with your email and website domain in mind.
2. Domain: Once you have your name, lock in your domain.
3. Email: In the beginning, you can start with your company name at Yahoo or Gmail – eventually you will want use your company domain and host your account.
4. Website: Create a simple one using one of the many templates available. You only need a few basic pages – Home, Your Bio, Your Services, and Contact Information – to start. This website is informational – so you can send people there. Getting someone to find it on a search is much more complicated and expensive and comes later.
5. Communication: Cell phones are fine. Treat your cell phone as an “office” phone with an appropriate message – and be sure to check it often and respond professionally. Same goes for email.
6. Company Structure: Sole proprietorship, LLC or Incorporated/Sub-Chapter S – your choice here will determine what else you need to do.
7. Company Bank Account – and possibly Credit Card:
8. Accounting System: You need to invoice, record payments made by clients, make payments for purchases, and track expenses. This can be done “manually” (e.g. using MS Word and Excel) or you can use a small business accounting system like QuickBooks.
9. Technology: What do you need and will you help in supporting it? How long can you be without your computer or other technology and still serve your customers? What can be done with mobile devices and what requires something on your desktop?
10. Cost: Do you have the resources for a basic business set up?

And, of course, you will need to address your products/services, your target customers and how to sell to them, and your financial objectives and resources.

The point is that if you want people to find you, you have to show up in the places where they are looking and make it easy for them to connect with you. Whether it is promoting your business or finding a job or being on an industry’s radar screen, it is worthwhile to do some strategic thinking and take some targeted actions. This is not just being on Face Book or Twitter or LinkedIn – or having a website or writing a book. It is understanding what resources are out there, how to use them best for your purposes, and INVESTING your time and money selectively and wisely. Then, when opportunity is ready to knock, it can find your door.

Just in case you missed it, here they are:

• Creative
• Effective
• Organizational
• Extensive Experience
• Track Record
• Motivated
• Innovative
• Problem Solving
• Communication Skills
• Dynamic

This is the greatest “much ado about nothing” of the year. Described as “overused”, my clients immediately assumed that they shouldn’t use them. In fact, these words don’t matter at all. No one searches LinkedIn profiles for personal characteristics, e.g. “energetic”. They search for key functional skills, job titles, companies where employed, and credentials – which are what should be paid attention to in developing LinkedIn profiles!

These words have their place, since you are trying to build “pictures” for the reader of who you are. It should come as no surprise that the most used words will reflect the perceived employment culture of 2011. It is better, if you can, to find a more specific word that describes the characteristic or provide additional information that helps the reader understand what, for example, “creative” means in the context of your personality or skills, possibly with an adjective or descriptor. Nonetheless, there is nothing wrong with using these words.

Furthermore, these words will show up in LinkedIn recommendations. That’s fine. You want recommendations to “come from the heart”. Whatever the person writes is just fine. Many people read recommendations for trends – if all your recommendations say you are “creative”, you probably are, however the reader chooses to interpret it. If the recommendation is too boring, just hide it.

So, there is no need to lose any sleep over this list. Instead, keep your eye on the ball of what really matters.

I usually then follow up with, “What kind of job are you looking for?” And the answer that often follows is either “I’m willing to do anything” or a little more proactively “There are lots of things that I could do”.

It is true that companies are looking for people who are flexible and willing to do what the company needs. However, companies hire people to perform certain functions and need to be convinced of a prospective employee’s value added contribution in meeting those specific responsibilities. For a moment, put yourself in the hiring company’s shoes. What would be your response when a candidate says, “I can do lots of things. What job do you have for me?”

More specifically, in the case of “Utility Player”, that is not a job title. It doesn’t appear on anyone’s organization chart – with the possible exception of specially created jobs for existing employees to fill a specific need – and they still don’t call it “Utility Player”. “Utility Player” is a CHARACTERISTIC, not a job!

So, if you have fallen into this trap yourself or because others have extolled the virtues of your diverse skill set, I invite you to reconsider. What is the JOB that you can credibly convince a hiring manager that you can do and bring value to the company? You will then need to frame your personal presentation and resume to prove it.

Apparently one of his other colleagues, that I had also known in a prior life, voted for him and chose to provide him some feedback on his photo, which he then shared with me. Here it is:

I WAS GLAD TO VOTE FOR YOU. HOWEVER I AM SURE YOU LOST LOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OF VOTES BECAUSE OF THE PICTURE. YOU LOOK DRUNK, NEANDERTHAL, JAWED & ADDLE BRAINED. THE SHIRT MIGHT OF PASSED IF YOU HAD LOOKED INTELLIGENT & WITH IT. JUST ON VACATION, BUT, THE PIC WAS A BAD CHOICE SINCE YOU ARE UP AGAINST GUYS WITH PHDs.

While the comments may be a little over the edge in their directness, the underlying point is worthy of consideration. People do make a lot of decisions based on how you look – and if you don’t match up with what they think and/or react to, sometimes it creates “noise” in the communication channel.

As a career coach who advises lots of people for are looking for advancement in their careers on the kind of photograph they need, I usually err on the side of conservatively professional – e.g. this is your professional face to the world and often a person’s first impression of you, for example, if they look you up on LinkedIn.  For most men, that means a nice suit and tie, no facial hair and a plain background for the headshot – you know, “corporate” – or at least a business casual look that is appropriate for their profession. On the other hand, if you are so well known and respected that you can get away with a casual, gee I had a great vacation photo, more power to you.

• Corporate Athlete, who helps companies cross the finish line
• Renaissance Woman, who serves IT and [the company] across various disciplines, working with many different people and problems to solve

By the way, the Flying Ace brand mentioned in the last post was further brought to life with an icon for the brand – the Snoopy persona in which he imagined himself to be a World War I flying ace battling his arch rival the Red Baron. If you haven’t looked at it recently, you can check out the most familiar image on Wikipedia on the sidebar at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoopy.

If you have a brand complete with language or images to complete the metaphor, I’d be delighted if you would share it.

In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create in image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. A brand, on the other hand, is the identity of a specific product, service or business as reflected in a name, sign, symbol, color combination or slogan. A legally protected band name is called a trademark. (These definitions are adapted from Wikipedia.)

The most effective brands for the small group of executives that truly have one usually reflect a complete metaphor. For example, the brand “Corporate Chiropractor” might be completed with the phrase “helping align a corporation from top to bottom”. The brand “Flying Ace in the World of IT Leadership” might continue on with discussion about “navigation” or “piloting innovation to benefit the bottom line.”

Positioning, on the other hand, is extremely useful for describing the alignment of an executive’s talents with the needs of the organization and highlighting the value of the executive’s contribution. That is, after all, how the match will be made.

It’s true. The “30 second elevator pitch” is no longer sophisticated enough for most professionals and executives. So, what is a more effective approach to these short but critical introductions? How can you “take it to the next level”? I recommend using a “situational introduction” determined by who you are talking to, what message(s) you want to deliver to that person, and how much time you have.

The “30 second elevator pitch” is still the foundation of this approach.  However, rather than viewing an introduction as something to be memorized or read from a teleprompter, consider the information about you as a “basket” or “database” of material from which to create and deliver a targeted introduction. Once you have created it thoughtfully and it has become an integral part of how you think and communicate about yourself, it is easy to “reach in” and get what you need for a particular situation.

For example, if you are at a professional luncheon meeting, you may get only 4-6 words and 5 seconds.  At a networking gathering, you may get 15 -20 seconds.  At an interview, you may get a lot longer – but not necessarily.  And there is a different perspective and agenda for each person you talk with – for each of you. For some conversations, you may want to focus on your professional identity and competencies, for some on your areas of deep expertise, and for others on the unique capabilities and characteristics that set you apart from your peers – or some combination.  You will need to choose every time.

This approach provides you with not only a better introduction but also the freedom to relax and let the conversation flow appropriately.  You know the material, so you can focus on the other person and matching your message to your audience and the goal of the communication.

If there is anything that makes job searchers crazy, it is all the advice they get. Everyone is an expert when it comes to resumes. Every recruiter, hiring manager, career consultant, teacher, author, and your older brother all believe they have the one magic formula! So here is the third of the Misconceptions About Resumes. No matter what anyone tells you, they have not been handed the “truth”. There is no magic formula – but common sense helps.

Common sense tells us that no matter what you believe or anyone else tells you about resume writing, the person who has the job is always right. You want the job, not to win a contest about the correct way to write a resume. So, if a recruiter or hiring manager wants a one page resume, write a one page resume.

It is also common sense that your resume is a living document. A well-written resume will remain sound for the length of most job searches but is essential that it be adapted for specific jobs, for changes in the market, and for things that you learn as you apply for jobs and interview. The most important place on the resume to make these adjustments is at the top part of page 1. As noted in the posting on the first misconception, the top of page 1 is where the reader is going to look first. With a properly designed positioning at the top of the resume, a few well thought out changes can virtually re-invent you. By creating a new framework for the reader to interpret the resume’s detail, you can shift dramatically how you are viewed and considered.

As far as the resume itself, here are a few guidelines:

1. Use an easily readable point size.

2. Make your name big enough to be picked out of a stack of papers.

3. Leave at least 1 inch margins all the way around.

4. Include your name and page number – contact information optional – on any pages after page 1. If your name is not on the 2^nd or subsequent pages and printed pages get separated, for example, at the copier, there is no way for the lost pages to get re-attached correctly.

5. Depending on your audience and work history, your resume may be 1-3 pages. Just make sure that what’s on it adds real value.

6. For hardcopy, good quality white, grey, and ivory make the best professional presentation. Make sure the color is light enough to copy well.

7. No spelling mistakes.

8. Use a positioning summary followed by a simple chronological format. No one will read your resume if they have to work too hard to piece it together. Watch an experienced recruiter. They go to the most recent job and start reading there. If your job information doesn’t start until page two, you have wasted an entire page of prime real estate.

This is the second in my series of Misconceptions About Resumes. Many people misunderstand the role of a resume in their job searches. If I had a dollar for every person who told me, “I’ve sent out lots of resumes, but I haven’t gotten any calls”, I’d be a very rich person. Resumes DO NOT GET JOBS. Your resume helps you get a job.

How often do you respond to your junk mail? Marketers call that junk mail “direct mail”. When you click on the apply button on a job board or on a company website, you are essentially executing a direct mail campaign. It is generally believed that direct mail campaigns get a 0.5% to 2.0% response rate – and more recently that it takes about 5 “viewings” for someone to notice a direct mail piece. With those response rates, it is not a dependable way to find a job any more than “direct” mail can be depended upon to sell a product or service. It can be an effective part of a job search strategy, but unfortunately too many people make it the major – or only – job search effort.

Furthermore, in sales, brochures, fliers, samples, etc. are called marketing collateral. The dictionary defines collateral as “additional to and in support of something; accompanying or additional but secondary.” The point is that when you are looking for a job, you are the product and your resume is your marketing collateral. Think about it. No one ever sold anything by simply dropping off their 12 page glossy brochure. In effect, that is what you are doing when you just send out your resume.

You still need a good resume. Your resume, done properly, may get someone’s attention. But more likely, you need to get someone’s attention and then, having gotten their interest, back it up with your resume to keep their attention. That’s when they are ready to dig into the details. What does get jobs are effective networking, a well-planned well-executed job search, good interviewing skills, and a great professional self-presentation. Having a good resume is essential to the process but not sufficient.

Some people may need to have a bio in addition to a resume. A bio is also marketing collateral and serves as a lead-in document. It is an interest-getter that is especially useful in the networking process. In initial sales calls, the representative often starts with a short introductory or “leave behind” flier – just enough to cover the highlights – because until he or she has the customers interest in the product or service, there is absolutely no interest in the detailed features. Do you see the parallel with your resume? Do you need to change your approach?

]]> http://blog.yellowbrickpath.com/resumes/resumes-get-jobs/feed/ 0