The Person in "Personal Branding" Should Not Be You

In today's social media world, you might just get the impression that personal branding is something that it isn't...a carefully tailored image of you that "wows" all who come into contact with it. In other words, you become so attractive, employers and network connections just flock to connect with you.

As a result, for many professionals, personal branding is something they either love or hate. The more extroverted seem to hop on board with it as they see it as a tool to meet more people and to come off "nicer" and more "social". For the introverted, it is more like an out-of-body experience where they are looking down at their "personal brand" and wondering who the heck that person even is (just hoping no one will notice how fake they really feel).

 In either case, though, extrovert or introvert, the real point of "personal branding" has been lost.

It's the same mistake most for-profit entities make when it comes to their marketing: they've missed the point. They've made it all about them and not about their target market. Thus, down, down, down go their sales while up, up, up go their marketing budgets. (Or maybe even worse...flat, flat, flat go their sales.)

When it comes to personal branding (which is really marketing in a thinly veiled disguise), the same holds true. You can spend a lot of time crafting it, only to find that no one is interested.  

Your Personal Brand Is Not About You

Rather, it's about your "customer" or your end user or target audience because that is who you are trying to connect with, engage, and (don't miss this!) ACHIEVE RESULTS FOR. Ultimately, that is what a career is all about...the problem you solve, the people you serve. So the more your "brand" speaks to them, the more opportunities you will receive. Period.

Honestly, it's why most resumes fail, interviews flop, and job searches falter. (It also happens to be why most businesses flounder.) Because self-employed or corporate-minded, the same principle holds: Work is service.

So does that mean personal ambition is bad or that image is evil, etc.? No, but if your personal branding comes off self-focused, more often than not, you'll struggle. Therefore, it's best to position your ambition and your image into the context of how what you do truly benefits (and not just because you're great and people should just be happy you walked in the room). A select few might be able to pull this off...a very select few.  

So Make Your Personal Brand Personal to Your "Customer"

If you are looking to attract employers or make certain connections, you first need to get to know them. Go on a listening tour. What do they want? What do they need? Get away from telling them what they want and what they need. Speak their language instead. If you have wisdom to impart, impart it in their context, not yours. Build credibility as someone who understands them, not as someone who secretly only cares about themselves.

If you start thinking in this direction, you will find that personal branding is really something quite different from what you originally thought. It has much less to do with your personality and more to do with your actual knowledge base.

Hmm...Maybe that's really why so many people get it wrong after all....maybe their knowledge of their "customer" isn't as good as they think it is.

No, personal branding isn't something you can fake or even really "craft". It's something you communicate. And either you do that well or you don't.

Do You Want These Employee Perks?

In reviewing some material regarding employee benefits the other day, I came across this infographic from Who Is Hosting This? that details 7 "insane" employee perks at tech companies.

I found it interesting that Twitter prides itself on not tracking vacation time, stating that leadership thinks Twitter is such a great place to work no one will abuse the system (hmmm, of course, this is also coming from a company that despite all the buzz has struggled to turn a profit, so maybe the jury is still out on that one?).

 I also find the places that offer healthcare and barber shops on site interesting. But I'm not really sure I want to get my haircut at work, much less have my yearly doctor check-up in the office. (Call me crazy, but I kind of like the idea of "leaving" the compound for a while, and I have this weird thing about wanting to choose my own doctor [and hair stylist!].)

Perhaps the most appealing perk to me, though, involves the free meals. That does seem kind of nice. I mean...it would certainly be convenient, if not fattening, to have all that food free and ready for the consuming. (Who doesn't overindulge when the food is free after all?)

I don't know. Somehow when I read through this list, I can't help but hear my grandfather whispering in my ear that old saying: "There's no such thing as a free lunch!"
 

14 LinkedIn Network-Building Tips

14 LI Network-Building Tips from Stephen Van Vreede

Acing the Informational Interview

When I speak with technical professionals, many of them will tell me all about their job board skills, all the alerts they have set up, and how many resumes they've dropped into the proverbial HR black hole. They will tell me that they either love or hate recruiters, and they will tell me that they show up at a networking meeting where they have colleagues "looking out" for them. Yet when I ask them about targeted employer profiling and leveraging network connections to secure informational interviews at their targeted employers, I can hear the crickets chirp, chirp, chirping.

Inevitably, someone will tell me informational interviews are for college graduates or "new" professionals only. Someone else will tell me that they are time-consuming. And yet another will tell me that they tried it and it didn't lead to anything.

All three responses tell me how ill prepared we are for executing not just an effective job search but also for networking in general.

For some reason, we naturally gravitate to "reactionary" methods, such as scouring the "classifieds" and waiting around for recruiters to have the right opening for us. We also equate networking with a "wait-and-see" approach.

Now, don't get me wrong. These methods are all fine. In general, I promote a diverse approach to conducting a job search, and I think too often we put our eggs in too few baskets, BUT studies show (and my experience in career services substantiates) that the most effective job search weighs more heavily on a "proactive" approach that targets employers best suited for you and your background.

In an age when corporate culture is considered the #1 candidate concern, employer profiling is even more important then. And part of that process comes down to setting up informational interviews to establish rapport and learn about the internal culture.

And while, yes, it can be time-consuming and it doesn't always lead to something (of course, all the same is true for job boards, recruiters, etc.), I have witnessed it lead to some of the best hires for both the candidate and the employer as well as turn around the course of a career...more so than I have ever seen landing a job board opening (for those 1-3% of you who do) or even working with recruiters.

With that in mind, the following presentation provides some pointers on how to make the informational interview more effective for you:

Acing the Informational Interview from Stephen Van Vreede

The 3 Types of Networkers...Which One Are You?

Although we consistently hear all the praise for the importance and effectiveness of networking in our careers, it continues to remain elusive for many professionals. It's not bad when you are talking about networking with close contacts, but once you start talking about network building with complete strangers, then things get a little dicey.

The common comments I hear are as follows: It's uncomfortable. It often doesn't really lead to anything. And it is time consuming.

Nevertheless, although all those things can be true for many professionals, that doesn't make network building any less important! Why? Because most of us don't naturally have the most effective networks. They might be large. They might be friendly. And they might want to be helpful. But more than likely, once we've tapped into them, then we're kind of stuck with nowhere else to go...we're just sort of waiting for something to happen.

Last week I wrote about how to get out of the endless networking "loop" to position yourself more effectively in front of decision makers. This week I want to share a presentation on the 3 most common types of networkers. This presentation is part of the Employer Profiling solution we have at ITtechExec and NoddlePlace, which comes with a job search agent who identifies employers best suited for each candidate and then develops contacts at those employers.

This presentation was prepared to identify the different types of contacts candidates will come across. These types are true across all kinds of networking, however, and it is wise to know how to approach each one:

The 3 Most Common Types of Networkers from Stephen Van Vreede

Your Job Search Agent Got the Ball Rolling...Now What?

The resume/messaging is in place; the strategic vision for the job search has been set; and your job search agent built an employer profile list, identified strong contacts at these employers, and made the initial introductions. Now it's time for you to pick up the ball, but you aren't sure what to do with it....The following presentation outlines how to identify the types of contacts you are dealing with and how best to approach them. It also provides key pointers for conducting an informational interview and the proper follow-up.

This is an exciting time, but it is also a critical one. To give yourself another option other than the job board/recruiter rat race, where you go from here with employer profiling is important. Patience and finesse will pay off.

Making the Most Out of Employer Profiling from Stephen Van Vreede

Which IT Roles Are the Hardest to Fill?

Recently, Rich Hein of CIO.com posted the results of a TEKsystems survey of 244 CIOs, CTOs, and other IT execs across several industries. The survey identified the following 9 IT roles as the most difficult to fill:

1. Programming & Application Development (with .NET and Java in highest demand)
2. Security
3. Business Intelligence and Big Data
4. Business Analyst
5. IT Architect
6. Cloud Roles
7. Help Desk / Technical Support
8. Software Engineer
9. Project Manager

It's no surprise that big data, security, cloud computing, and mobility all rank in the top 9. It's also no surprise that the survey revealed that 47 percent of companies plan to increase their IT workforce over the next year, which should mean good things for tech talent with these skill sets.

However, there has been a disconnect over the last couple years between a wealth of openings and a reluctance to hire, not to mention the high turnover and poor retention policies by companies. Therefore, if companies want to hire more IT talent, they need to address their hiring and retention practices. Period.

 And if tech professionals want to get out of the tech talent rat race (and runaround), they will need to understand differentiation like never before.

Hitting the Job Search Brick Wall

I often get asked about the typical technical professional we come across at ITtechExec and NoddlePlace and the type of situation(s) he or she is facing when we first start working together.

Rather than describe these professionals, however, I thought I would let them two of them tell their own stories.  

Raul

Perhaps you can relate with Raul. Raul is an IT executive in his early 50s with a very impressive background that includes an MBA, Six Sigma Black Belt, and 14 years with a high-profile tech company. For various reasons, Raul found himself back out in the job market and hitting the "job search brick wall."  

Here is an excerpt from his story:

“So I thought I had a pretty decent resume. I mean, I knew I had good credentials and experience, and I knew that recruiters had always been interested in me in the past. Plus, after 14 years with a Fortune 100 company working my way to a high level, although I had heard about how hard the job market was these days, I wasn’t too concerned.

And then I started looking … First of all, I hadn’t really “looked” in 14 years. So that was eye-opening right there. Then I found out that all those recruiters who had seemed so interested before suddenly were nowhere to be found … for whatever reason. My network of colleagues, which I originally thought was pretty strong, was not producing much in the way of results. And pretty soon I found myself scouring job boards, to really no avail, and attending networking meeting after networking meeting, where things moved ever so slowly.

Finally, after almost no movement, virtually no response to my "decent" resume, and months of lost salary, I decided I needed to start looking for some help.

The problem, though, was that I just couldn’t fathom paying for a resume only to keep following the same job search pattern..." Read More  

Ahmed

Or perhaps you can relate with Ahmed. Ahmed is a Product Engineer in his late 30s in Boston. He is the father of 2 small children, and he came to me after taking a severance package from his previous employer as a result of a buyout. He had always had recruiters come to him in the past, but now that he wanted to engage them, he didn't know how best to match them to his needs and to do so efficiently.  

Here is an excerpt from his story:

"In the past, I always had recruiters pop up from time to time with different opportunities. To be honest, I usually brushed them off because I knew my certifications and credentials were good. I believed that would always keep me marketable. After all, employers kept saying they wanted someone with exactly the background and skills I had. But then my thriving company was bought out, and the incoming leadership wanted to take things in a new direction … a direction that didn’t leave much room for me. So I took a severance package and went on my way, confident that my connections would come through for me.

After a couple months went by, and my connections were pretty quiet, I started thinking about those recruiters who used to contact me all the time. I did my best to try and find them and reach out to them, but they were no longer as interested or had anything that suited me. At that point, I wasn’t sure what to do other than apply to online postings and hope for my personal connections to come through finally. I don’t like to sit around, so I started doing some research and found out about recruiter matching..." Read More  

Climbing Over the Wall

What I like about both stories is that even though each faced very typical job search issues, they understood that they needed to move away from what the masses were doing in order to climb over that brick wall they were facing. Therefore, despite being "typical" technical professionals, they weren't afraid to take "atypical" paths to get to where they wanted to go. And I'm happy to report that both did get there while learning how stay prepared for the next move. In other words, they leveraged this search to build in pipelines for the next one, something very few candidates think to do.

Perhaps that's the real lesson here: It's not the particular situation you face but the approach you take to dealing with it.

How Not to Get Trapped in the Networking Loop

Networking, networking, networking. When it comes to our careers, it's a nonstop mantra that keeps repeating over and over in our heads:  

We need to network. We need more professional connections. It's all about who you know and who they know.

Sound familiar? Most likely even if you aren't saying it, someone around you is.

And either you are a networking star or a networking dud. Rarely is someone in between. Either you make new "friends" fairly easily (extrovert) or you struggle to even get comfortable with the idea much less really "network" (introvert).

But as I wrote about in "The Problem With Networking," although the extroverts seem to hold all the cards in the networking scramble, more often than not, they are stuck in a continuous loop, much like hamsters on a wheel, gathering names and connections like nobody's business but often not really getting anywhere with the process.

They have professional meet-ups, Starbucks chats, Google hangouts, lunch meetings galore. It seems like everybody knows them, and they know everybody. They're feeling really good about all of it. But here's the key:  

The length of their job search is just as long, and although they appear busy, they aren't really progressing.

How can this be if networking really is so effective in the job search process?

The answer:

Because although networking is great and the "who you know" mantra is wonderful, there's a key concept often overlooked: positioning.  

Networking without proper positioning is often a cruel sport.

It can lure you into this sense of accomplishment without really having accomplished much other than to have met a lot of nice people (and to have consumed a lot of Starbucks coffee).

Now, I know what you might be thinking, "But I'm attending meet-ups with my professional associations (aka my 'target market'), and I've met a lot of people in LinkedIn groups who are in my field. I've asked ALL of them if they know of any openings. So how much better positioned can I be?"

There's no doubt, if this is you, you've done some great things here...and it can work quite well when you stumble across just the right person who happens to know just the right person who has an immediate need for someone like you.

BUT what about when that doesn't happen? What do you do? Most likely, you keep running through the same loop, hoping for a break.

There's nothing new under the sun here: This is a typical sales conundrum...a lot of lookers but no buyers.  

Here's the problem: It isn't that you aren't networking; it's that you still aren't positioned with your networking to get in front of the real decision makers.

You've asked them about active openings or almost active openings, but you haven't really asked them the important question: just to get you an audience.

A really successful networker understands not just connections but audience. He or she will not be solely focused on whether a company has active (or about-to-be active) openings or whether there is a shortcut around HR (which is nice too). In addition to all of that, he or she will mostly be focused on getting positioned in front of the right audience so that the dialogue begins, not just with those who are out there watching out for us but also with people who could actually be the ones to make the decision to hire us someday.  

The point is to start planting seeds and to eliminate the middle man.

Listen. If you only speak with the "lookers," the best you can hope for is a good word someday, which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but you remain a layer or two away from the person who is actually in a position to buy.

So figure out who holds the cards and get in front of that person. That's using networking with positioning.

What to Expect from Employer Profiling

Although job boards continue to be the least effective job search method, they remain the one most frequently used. And we get why. They're alluring. It sounds like the jobs are right there, just waiting for you. You know there is an immediate need, and you know you can fill it. They make it so simple to apply, and you can do it in the middle of the workday or the middle of the night with very little effort.

And sometimes, just sometimes, but only sometimes, they actually work.

As part of our offerings at both NoddlePlace and ITtechExec, once our messaging design process is completed, we offer job search solutions. When I am working with one of our members to discuss the best strategy for him or her, I don't fuss about whether or not to use job boards. If it's there, and you want to go for it, go for it. But I wouldn't put a lot of hope in it.

Instead, I encourage our members to look at other methods that might not be quite as easy but tend to be more effective if you stick with them and give yourself some time to see them through. One option is recruiter matching, which I have discussed extensively here on this blog.

Another is peer-to-peer networking, which still ranks the #1 most effective job search method. The problem, however, is that most members don't have very engaged and well-matched professional connections...or at least they don't have very many of them. And when it comes to networking, you want to have those and as many as you can.

So what do you do when you don't? Well, one option is to try profiling. First you profile the employers that best meet your criteria, and then you cultivate connections at those employers.

Sounds time consuming? I'm not going to kid you: It is! BUT it can, and has, opened some interesting doors for our members...doors that job boards and recruiters would never have led them through.

At NoddlePlace and ITtechExec, we now have our own job search agent, Sue, who takes care of most of the "grunt" work when it comes to employer profiling for our members. But the real value is in what you do with the new connections made.

We've put together the following presentation as an overview of employer profiling as a job search method and what you can expect from it.

What to Expect From Employer Profiling from Stephen Van Vreede

How to Make the Most Out of Recruiter Matching

We've talked before about using recruiter "matching" as a way of aligning your background with technical recruiters who place professionals with your skill set and experience. Most candidates find it frustrating to find these recruiters and time-consuming to deal with recruiter "mismatch," which ends of up being a waste of time for both the candidate and the recruiter. That's' why a recruiter matching service can be valuable; however, to make the most of it, you do need to optimize your engagement with the matched recruiters who do respond, not just for this career move but for the next one as well.

I like to talk about building "pipelines" for what I call "career protection." Having a technical recruiter pipeline, where you have recruiters who are well matched with you that you can stay in contact with and vet opportunities through, is valuable and does provide a layer of "protection" just like other forms of effective networking. The following presentation takes you through some steps you can take to maximize your recruiter matching to help build in this pipeline.

Making the Most Out of Recruiter Matching from Stephen Van Vreede