The Voice of Job Seekers

Mark Anthony Dyson ★ Career Writer ★ Speaker ★ Thinker ★ Award-winning Blog & Podcast! ★ "The Job Scam Report" on Substack! ★ I hack and reimagine the modern job search!

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Defensive Googling and The Obsolete 40-Hour Work Week

Defensive Googling and The Obsolete 40-Hour Work Week

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Still conflicted with building your brand online. Have you tried defensive googling, yet? Concerned the data or the lack of data about you on Google it’s vital to your job search? Did you know the 40-hour work week is obsolete? We address all three of these questions in today’s episode.
We have two segments today I hope will improve your career. You’ll learn more about finding yourself and strengths can guide you to positive career outcomes. You should also stop looking for a 40-hour job. More on this in the show. Finally, You’ll also learn practical steps in using Google to correct, protect, and build your online presence to make yourself attracted to employers.

Join in on the conversation. Here’s how:

  • Call and leave a voicemail at 708-365-9822, or text your comments to the same number
  • Go to TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com, press the “Send Voicemail” button on the right side of your screen and leave a message
  • Send email feedback to [email protected]
Susan is the founder and a pioneer in the online job advice space. She is the founder of job-hunt.org and is an online job search expert. Susan also owns WorkCoachCafe.com. Both are Forbes 100 Best Career Sites. She is also a Personal SEO Researcher and Writer and writes for the Huffington Post and Forbes.   I want you to hear what Susan Joyce and I talked about Defensive Googling. I invite you to listen to the conversation, then go practice what we discussed. It could be the difference between knowing your value as a job candidate and not knowing why you’re getting rejected.

Here are some of the advice Susan gives about defensive googling:

  • Good bad and ugly of Googling or defensive Googling
  • People used to call it vanity Googling or ego-surfing for your name
  • Everyone should practice defensive googling once a week
  • 100% of employers and recruiters when considering potential candidates
  • Lack of information or misinformation on Google can ruin your reputation
  • Lack of knowledge to employers means irrelevance, or you’re hiding something
  • How often should you Google yourself? Once a week is best
  • Do a private search – Chrome is best – Use the “New Incognito Window” using the dots top right and choose – Google will ignore your preference through this window
  • You want to see what the world sees
  • Do the other browsers: Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go – Find the “Private Window” choice (See Safari browser)
  • Include searches on your position
The second conversation is with Diane Phillips who is the co-author of The Job Book: Find Yourself and a Job in 30 Days. She has more than three decades of experience spanning the globe that includes working with Fortune 100 executives and corporations, Nobel Prize winners, radio and TV programming and production, school curriculum development and author. Expert in personal and professional development of executive leaders and their teams, driving impactful outcomes and systematic solutions.

Here are some of the highlights from Diane about finding yourself and the 40-hour work week: 

  • The forty hour work week is obsolete and the ideal workplace
  • Good work often results in more action the following weeks
  • Companies and employees would benefit most when everyone works during their most productive times of day
  • Ideally getting paid for the chance to complete work (speed), and not for clocked in hours is the best
  • Diane explains how we find the best culture for us
  • Find our unique traits, original and inspired ideas–find yourself and identifying your strengths will help you find the opportunity
  • Diane shares the ideal work traits for herself as an example to create an environment to achieve quick solutions
  • Young people are breaking the “…this is how it always was done…” narrative
  • Diane explains how people can find themselves–through honesty, respecting each other’s unique qualities in how we work best

Do you need coaching or instruction?

I am here for it! Use my contact information above to inquire about individual or group coaching. You can also sign up for my weekly newsletter at the top right of my page. I try to pack as much value in my newsletter to more than 1,100 people as possible. If you want to see an example of what I send out, go here.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

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How Good Writing Skills Can Build Your Brand with the Grammar Goddess

How Good Writing Skills Can Build Your Brand with the Grammar Goddess

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Employers want employees and new hires to good writing skills. If you find writing a challenge, this is a good show for you. Susan Rooks, the Grammar Goddess is back to revisit the value of good business writing.

I also mention it’s National Punctuation Day and what better way and reason to celebrate it.

How important is good writing to you?Let’s discuss! You can do this in three ways:

  • Call and leave a voicemail at 708-365-9822, or text your comments to the same number
  • Go to TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com, press the “Send Voicemail” button on the right side of your screen and leave a message
  • Send email feedback to [email protected]

NEED A HOLIDAY JOB?

In the first segment of the show, Victoria Crispo offers some holiday job search advice. She is a Career Development Expert, Manager of College and Professional Outreach at Idealist.org. I first met her as she was the Content Manager at IdealistCareers.org. IdealistCareers.org is a not only a nonprofit job board but also has good content for your job search.

More about the Grammar Goddess


Susan Rooks is the Grammar Goddess and can be found at the GrammarGoddess.com. She is a copy editor and a corporate educator. Susan traveled the world training audiences on various subjects including business writing.

Here are some highlights from our discussion:

  • Susan talks about manners in writing in using “please” and “thank you”–not used enough
  • The misuse of commas–the Oxford comma she says is still essential–Helps guard against misinterpretation
  • E.g., My heroes are my parents, Superman, and Wonder Woman vs. My heroes are my parents Superman and Wonder Woman
  • Susan advocates a refresher on grammar usage. It has been since high school most people have taken a class
  • Most people should stop using colons and semicolons because they are often misused
  • I reference using Grammar Girl and Strunk and White, “The Elements of Style”
  • Although Word grammar check helps, it covers only a fraction of grammar usage

Do you need coaching or instruction?

I am here for it! Use my contact information above to inquire about individual or group coaching. You can also sign up for my weekly newsletter at the top of my page.

 

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

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The One Reason I Have Deleted Your Connection Request and Employers Won’t Hire You

The One Reason I Have Deleted Your Connection Request and Employers Won’t Hire You

I understand why employers won’t hire you

Lots of connection requests. So little tolerance for ignorance. It doesn’t make any sense. I’m not a superstar, but I love to write, hack, reimagine, help, consult, and “let my freak flag fly.” I get a lot of requests for job search advice, and  I feel obligated to answer most of them. I understand why employers won’t hire you. Let me explain.

I denied your connection request. I don’t know who you are. Whether you have a photo with no profile bio or a bio with no characterization, it’s a fail. I will take a minute at times to check out who you are because maybe you’re just getting started. Your job search is suffering. You’re canceled.

 

via GIPHY

Listen to Personal Branding for the Modern Job Seeker

Be more like Sarah. Let me introduce Sarah as an example.

Sarah has followed me for years. Like four years and rarely asks a question. She likes my content, and now and then, dm’s me for career advice. Yes, I gave her free advice. I gave her advice without hesitation breaking the entrepreneurial rule of “free information.” I have no problem. I have gotten tenfold back in return.

I know Sarah as she has moved from several states. Her boyfriend (she says “boy toy”) works for the government, and she has sworn me to secrecy what he does. Let’s just say she has no reason to work other than to secure her future. She is a college professor with tenure and currently is on hiatus to write her third book. The book she says, “…unless you have interned at NASA and practice as a part-time sociopath, would never know it exists.” Well, why does she follow me? Why does she share my content? Why does she congratulate me on every milestone? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.

Oh, I went to her university profile page at the private college where she teaches. She is everything she told me and then some. I can’t say because we have a discretionary agreement. I went to my college library online. I found three of her research papers–17 other collaborators between them all. She says she has written more.

When I first connected with Sarah in 2012, she did not have a profile picture. I connected with her anyway because her social profile was evident. Yes, clarity in everything is everything. She has a quality profile picture now.

There are profiles with the picture without clarity. I don’t want to connect with you either. Neither does an employer.

Read The Best Job Search Personal Branding Advice of 2016

Companies want clarity. At least a bird’s eye view.  

In “Manhattan,” Woody Allen’s character suggests his famous actor friend he’s a fraud. His sitcom has a laugh track during unfunny jokes. Sitcoms today still do this, and you know the jokes are, well, not funny. Most of these sitcoms are canceled.

via GIPHY

Is your profile like the sitcom with a laugh track? 

In a recent article, more than 60 percent of companies won’t interview a candidate not online,

“The study found that 61 percent of employers conduct social screenings to look for information that supports a candidate’s qualifications for the job, 50 percent want to make sure the candidate has a professional online persona, and 37 percent want to see what other people are posting about the candidate. Just 24 percent of those surveyed check social media to search for reasons not to hire someone. ” ~Business News Daily,  June 16, 2017

I find it an anomaly when people ask for advice, to connect, and own incomplete social profiles.

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They are inconsiderate when they don’t say why they want to connect. We don’t have common connections. Other than breathing we have don’t have common interests from what I can tell. Employers won’t either. Recruiters won’t acknowledge your existence.

Be like Sarah. You don’t have to stalk (or maybe you should), but be findable. Try connecting with me again and hopefully, you have a photo and a profile summary. A live audience that laughs a little is better than a laugh track responding to a lousy joke. Anytime.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.