blueskyresumesblog

Career Hub Hits #1

Warning: Shameless bragging ahead ...

Some of you may know that I co-founded and manage a group blog called Career Hub, which brings together 24 top careers experts to give advice and insight into both job search and career management.

Career Hub has been growing steadily ever since it was launched two years ago, and has a strong subscriber base. Now I'm proud to say that we have been recognized as #1 in HR World's Top 25 Blogs of 2007. Thanks to all the great writers who made this possible.

If you haven't subscribed yet, head on over there and check us out!

Web Marketing that Works

I recently got a note from a resume client who wanted me to look at the new online portfolio he had developed. It looked very attractive until I started reading! The tone was casual (sometimes flippant) and the content seemed aimed more at his friends than at potential managers. This is a young man who plans to use his website to help with his job search, and yet he hadn't really thought about his audience.

If you have an online portfolio or personal website and you give that URL to potential employers in emails or on your resume, make sure that it presents a professional image and that it sells your talents and abilities just as well as your resume does. If you are not a professional designer, pay a designer to create your site. If you're not a great copywriter, pay someone to write the content.

And, don't forget blogs. If you write a personal blog, don't write anything that you'd be ashamed for a potential employer to see. Remember that nothing on the Web is private ...your managers, peers, business rivals and potential employers could all be looking for you online. Make sure they like what they find!

The Right Way to Use the Web

I often talk about the ways in which the Web is changing job search, but I don't think I've ever seen a better example than Tijs Vrolix, a Belgian web developer who is currently looking for work.

Tijs is asking site visitors to help him find a job by letting him know of any vacancies that might suit him. In exchange, he's awarding an iPod Shuffle to the person who ultimately helps him find a new job.

So instead of just relying on his own contacts, and on the jobs he finds himself, he now has hundreds of people searching on his behalf. And because his site is elegantly designed, he's also showcasing his web design skills at the same time.

This really is personal marketing at its very best and I hope it's inspiring to anyone who's frustrated with applying to online ads and rarely receiving a response. Take some time to brainstorm ways you could use the web for more than just posting a resume.

Don't Stand in the Doorways Don't Block up the Halls

Morgan Stanley's contest to choose an Intern (part of the "Ultimate Internship Contest") brings home just how much Youtube and sites like it have the potential to change job search.

Let's face it, a resume is a highly imperfect way for a company to choose whether you are the right candidate. A resume tells the employer more about your writing skills and ability to sell yourself than it does about your ability to do the job. So it's not surprising that companies and job seekers would explore other means of making a match.

Now Morgan Stanley, along with other major companies such as The Gap, Yahoo! and NBC, is running a contest to select an intern based on videos they submit. You can watch the videos here.

Now, I hate being filmed. I hate the way I look. I hate the way my voice sounds. I avoid cameras like the plague, sometimes trampling women and children to avoid having my picture taken, so my initial reaction to the idea of using videos for job applications goes something like this:

"It'll never work because video resumes will favor people who look and sound good on video, not necessarily people who are best for the job."

Sound familiar?

The Internet is changing everything (my mantra these days!) and video resumes are just an example of that. And there's never any point of standing in the way of change - it's inevitable that people will start to use video to communicate with potential employers.

That said, I think the question for you as a job seeker is whether video will work for you. Are you comfortable on camera? Can you be engaging or funny or thought-provoking? Can you impress other people with your presence? If so, why not incorporate video into your job search now? Sites like Youtube and Gofish make it possible for anyone to create a video message for potential employers.

If you're like me, and you're pretty sure that a video would be hurtful to your job search, don't go there! But take the video idea and run with it. How else can you leverage the new web 2.0 sites to improve your job search? Perhaps you could do something with Squidoo? Or MySpace? Perhaps you could use a photo site like Fickr to create an impressive slideshow that tells a story of your career.

The times they are definitely a' changin' and you can win if you figure out a way to capitalize on that change.

Great Example of Blogging for a Job

Kent Blumberg gets it.

Over on Career Hub I posted about the importance of blogging as a way of building a personal brand. Like all good bloggers, Kent knows the value of comments. He left one on my post and I went and checked out his blog.

Now just imagine that you are a recruiter or a senior company executive and you come upon Kent's page. What is your impression?  Mine was one of expertise. In what? In the areas of "leadership, strategy and performance." It says so right under his name!

The impression made by this blog is completely different from the impression made by a resume. One says I am an expert sharing my knowledge. The other says "I need a job."

Kent wrote this on Career Hub:

I've been blogging on leadership, strategy and performance since late May. Before I began, Google turned up only a few, relatively old references to me. Now, the great majority of results on the first couple of pages are links to one of my blog posts, or to comments I have made on other posts.

Better yet, my blog came up in a recent interview. One of the interviewers had googled me, and then read my blog and my comments on others' blogs. About half her questions were related to those links. Since I blog about areas that I believe are my strengths, it gave me a great chance to reinforce what makes me different.

Blogging also helps show that I am up-to-speed on the latest technology and not stuck in the old economy.

I don't know if Kent is actively job searching right now, but I do know that he's building a personal brand online that will ensure he is seen as a leader in his field. What better way to make sure you never have to send another resume again?

While I'm on this subject, on the Simply Hired blog, CM Russell lists 7 suggestions for blogger job seekers. They're all excellent, so check out his post.

New Blog for 20-somethings

I came across a cool new blog today. I really like the focus and the tone, although this made me gulp:

all these career blogs I read daily have lacked something, and if I'm good at anything, it's finding a niche and filling it. They all seemed to promote change, or were otherwise aimed at a middle-aged crowd with more means to change than I have. I am currently 25. I've been at my first job out of college for three-and-a-half years. For my company's size, which is about 300 people locally and 500 worldwide, I would qualify as middle management. I have a lot of bills to pay, a tiny savings account and a husband in school. So for now, money buys security, which for me is happiness.

She's right and I'm glad she's started blogging, but do I now I have to face up to the fact that I truly am one of the middle-aged crowd?

NO!

40 is the new 20. I know because I saw it on Oprah.

Sweeping for Executive Jobs

Over on Career Hub, Billie Sucher points to Job Seeker, a new tool to allow executives to quickly search all $100K+ jobs. The tool was created by Six Figure Jobs, but claims to search all sources. Check it out and see how well it works.

One Way to Stand Out

Australian blogger Edwin of Entreplist sent me his innovative approach to getting the attention of one of his target companies.

Edwin is holding the company's Art Director hostage. Well, actually he isn't, but he's created a fake ransom letter designed to grab attention. He says he doesn't know if it's a good idea and frankly, I don't know if it will get him this position. But I do know that this kind of creativity will get attention, and for that reason alone it has to be better than filling in an online form.

New Careers Blog

I'm really excited about a new venture I launched this week. I love blogging and feel like I have some good insights to share, but I'm also pretty certain that I don't have all the answers, and some days I find I don't know how to be helpful, even though I know job seekers have a million questions and concerns. That's why I'm thrilled to announce the launch of Career Hub, a new group blog featuring excellent advice, insights and news from leading career industry experts. We're only just getting started, but already we've signed up some of the US's smartest career marketers. So bookmark the site or sign up for our feed. And - because Typepad rocks and allows me to moderate comments - we are inviting the open discussion that spammers blocked on this blog. I can't wait to hear from you.

Hub Pages

I've written before about the value of blogging for executive job seekers. I think that a blog gives you an excellent way to demonstrate your expertise and build your brand online. But blogs are limited in so many ways, so I'm interested to learn more about Hubpages,a new tool about to enter Beta. According to the founders:

Here at Hubpages we want everyone to share their passion to benefit others. Whether it be traveling right, tweaking your engine, or finding the ultimate deal, we let you share your genius with the world and enjoy the expert advice of others.

Just pick a topic and use our simple publishing tools to create a great looking website with rich functionality. Hubpages takes it from there. The site is designed to continually sort out the most useful pages, helping to build traffic and revenue for our highest quality authors.

Yes revenue! Although knowledge is its own reward, we thought you might also like cold hard cash. So, if your readers generate revenue by clicking on an ad, buying a product or generating a lead, you will earn a share of the profits.</blockquote>

Revenue is nice of course, but I think it's much less important than the opportunities a tools like this one and Squidoo give individuals to build their own personal brand online.