Articles - Page 236 of 257 - The Voice of Job Seekers

Grads, Memorial Day, and the Job Search

Boy Wonder is graduating today! ow.ly/i/EkzD

— Mark Anthony Dyson (@MarkADyson) May 24, 2012

As a proud poppa of a high school graduate, I tweeted the above before the ceremonies on Thursday. I am even more proud of him because of his abilities to live out conviction. He will be reading an essay for Memorial Day at a cemetery in Chicago. In his essay, he will express his disappoint of our family traditionally spending Memorial Day barbecuing.

Usually we barbeque with disregard for people who fought for freedom. This will be the first time our family will observe Memorial Day for the right reasons. Shamefully, it took a scholarship opportunity to get it right.

In one sense, it is embarrassing despite the norm for people to take the day off, and yet, liberating because we are observing today the right way.

Graduating seniors, approach scholarship hunting like job searching. Do it with zeal, fervor, and for the right reasons.

Do it like the men and women who serve our country and those who fell to protect American freedom. Be your own man or woman now that you don’t need permission to have conviction about your future.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

My Online Brand Earned Me a 10% Raise

Editors Note: My guest blogger today, Keith Townsend is the founder of virtualizedgeek.com is which he offer his take on cloud computing software and high tech products. He has a very unique perspective on using social media for the job search, particularly blogging.

Your “online brand” should be part of your overall personal brand strategy. What do I mean about a personal brand? Well if you haven’t started with defining and managing your personal brand and career, you should start here. Once you understand what a personal brand is all about you can then start to tackle your online brand. I’m not talking about the typical “Facebook can get you fired” management. If you’ve followed Mark Dyson’s blog at all you already know how to avoid poisoning your employment opportunities online by not protecting your social media identity. What I’m referring to is more detailed than just avoiding regretful posts or pictures. I’m talking about nurturing your online identity to fit your career goals.

When people think of me professionally going forward, I want to be considered an “IT Infrastructure Leader” or an authority in the specific subject field within Information Technology that I focus – IT Infrastructure. When you perform a search on my name or my area of focus area, I want my name to come up in the search results. I’ve been focusing on improving my online brand for the past 2 years and it has paid off. First, I’ll share my story and offer lessons learned.

I lost my job in April in 2009 as Director of Network Services for a small software company. It was one of the most difficult searches of my career. That’s when I decided that I needed to increase my profile. I tackled my online brand from 3 directions.

1. Social Media

2. Blog

3. Commenting

From a social media perspective I’ve always been a big user of LinkedIn. It is the de facto location of my resume online. But, I had been resistant to Twitter. I had already invested a large amount of time building up both my Facebook and LinkedIn friends list. To focus on yet another social media outlet seemed too much trouble. When I get to my blog you’ll see why it was worthwhile.

My blog www.virtualizedgeek.com has by far become my most important arsenal in my online brand. It allows me freestyle commentary on a range of technology topics. It provides a service to people looking to discover more information on a topic I’m passionate about and it’s almost free advertising for my professional brand.

On the flip side I have to spend time advertising my blog and the best way to do that is via twitter and commenting on like blog and websites. What I realized is that you don’t have to have a large number of followers on Twitter for it to be effective. If you post relevant content you’ll get picked up. I’ve been retweeted by Industry giants such as VMWare and GigaOM which all drew attention to my blog. I utilize my wordpress.com login and my Facebook brand page which all link back to my blog.

How did this get me a raise?

Well, I’m pretty happy with my current job but since I’ve elevated my online presence, I consistently get cold calls for employment opportunities. As I said before when someone searches for resource with my skill set online I want to be at the top of the search results. I received a call from a well-known IT services company and took the time to go to the interview process. They made me an offer I couldn’t ignore. I took the offer to my current employer and countered with a 10% raise in pay.

This was a result from me not looking for a job or promotion but just cultivating my online brand.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Choosing a Career Coach

Editor’s note: Jason Sanders is the Vice President of Executive Search at Ivy Exec, whose guest post is a reprinted article with the permission of Ivy Exec.

Most of the resumes that I receive nowadays come from job seekers using career coach services during their executive job search. They may receive advice from an outplacement company hired by their employer, or they may have hired someone themselves.

We have always received unsolicited resumes, but it now seems like using an outside agency is becoming standard practice. That can be great for recruiters because it allows us to decide whether to hit the delete key with much more accuracy.

If you want to set yourself apart from the pack and enhance your ability to network, you have to choose the right company. Here are some things to look for in a career coach:

1. How will their presentation of your credentials set you apart from the pack?
2. Do they offer access to networks that they have nurtured themselves?
3. Would you feel comfortable considering a complete change in the direction of you career, if advised by your career coach?

Notice, that I do not refer to resume templates, databases, mail merges and other such basic tools. Talking about those items as differentiators is like saying a telephone and a laptop make you an outstanding consultant.

If you want to reach a new audience in a new way, you will need a creative, well-connected counselor, who you can trust like you would your doctor.