Showing posts with label Branding. Show all posts

5 Things All Interviewers Want to Know About Your Employee Brand

In today's competitive job market, your employee brand is more important than ever. It's not just about your skills and experience; interviewers are increasingly interested in how you present yourself as a professional and what value you bring to their organization. Here are five key aspects of your employee brand that all interviewers want to know about:

4. Your Continuous Learning and Adaptability

In a rapidly changing work environment, employers value candidates who are committed to growth. They're interested in:

Recent courses or certifications you've completed
How you stay updated with industry trends
Your ability to adapt to new technologies or methodologies

Tip: Highlight specific examples of how you've applied new knowledge or skills in your previous roles.

5. Your Long-term Career Goals

Interviewers want to understand how the role fits into your broader career trajectory. They're curious about:

Where you see yourself in the next 5-10 years
How this position aligns with your career aspirations
Your commitment to personal and professional development

Tip: Be honest about your ambitions while emphasizing how they can benefit the company in the long run.

By focusing on these five aspects of your employee brand, you'll be well-prepared to make a strong impression in your next interview. Remember, your employee brand is not just about marketing yourself—it's about authentically communicating your professional identity and the unique value you bring to potential employers.

Read the first three things that interviews want to know and the full article

Why Personal Branding Is Essential For Getting A Job

This post was written by Pamela Paterson

What’s A Personal Brand?

According to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” They are the words that are invoked when people think of you—your skills, values, and talents. Your brand is what people can expect from you.

For example, I gave a lecture recently about personal brands to college students. I asked them to give me words that described their professors. Some said hardworking, quality, and committed. Others said disengaged, unprofessional, and unfriendly. I pointed out that all of their professors were qualified on paper, but some of them didn’t spend any effort to create a positive brand. If you lack tenure and are just entering the job market, you need to create a strong brand that tells employers why to hire you.

Developing Your Brand

Your brand will tell employers why you are a perfect fit for the job and their company: how you meet their needs. Your brand must be evident in your resume and cover letter, as well as your online presence (when you Google yourself, what do you find?). Your brand must match the requirements in the company’s job posting, as well as the company values that you find on their website. As an aside, matching the job posting will also help you get through the company’s applicant tracking system, which is designed to screen out poor keyword matches.

Through the job posting and website, and any other online searching you do (for example, of staff LinkedIn profiles), you’ll learn some general characteristics the company looks for in its employees. It could be people who can work in an aggressive, multiple-priority environment, or people who function best in a process-driven government organization. You’ll learn about the “personality” of the company. The closer your brand is to their personality, the better your chances of joining that company.

Know that even companies in the same industry may have different personalities. For example, two accounting firms will not necessarily embrace the same values. A small, local accounting firm that helps clients file their taxes will have a stronger requirement for customer service than an auditor in a global accounting firm who doesn’t have any direct customer contact.

Strengthening Your Brand - Read the rest of the WorkItDaily article

7 Things All Interviewers Want To Know About Your Brand

Cheryl Simpson

Your career brand is multifaceted and the good news is that, once defined, it can be shared with interviewers in many ways. Which is more good news, considering that your interviewers want to grasp the essence of your brand when they speak with you. In fact, all of their interview questions are aimed at clarifying your brand so they can evaluate its match to their needs.

Let’s take a look at seven questions interviewers ask themselves as they get to know you and the best ways for you to clarify Brand You™ in your interview responses.

1. What Sets Your Candidacy Apart?

What skills, experience, and credentials to you possess which make you a stronger candidate than the others who have applied? As interviewers slog through dozens of resumes and meet with candidate after candidate, they need to know what makes you different. They also need you to tell them this rather than expect them to figure out.

TIP: Summarize your strongest skills, experience, and credentials early in the interview, perhaps as a reply to the ubiquitous “tell me about yourself” question. Try this deceivingly simple but highly effective way to package your brand in reply to this question.

2. What Measurable Impact Have You Had To Date?

What specific measurable results have you achieved throughout your career that positively impacted your employers’ top- or bottom-lines? Define your revenue, sales, market share, profitability, cost reduction, productivity, and/or efficiency impacts in numerical terms.

TIP: Craft 5-8 CAR (challenge/action/results) statements that demonstrate the challenges you’ve faced with other firms, the actions you took to overcome them, and the measurable difference you made. Each CAR should address one or more of the key impacts employers are looking for; these are outlined in the job description and the job posting.

Read all 7 things and the complete Careeralism article

Why You Should Be Blogging on the Job Hunt

by Lisa Rangel

While blogging as a platform has been around for a while, it wasn’t until relatively recently when job seekers started using this social media tool to help them find their next job.

Since recruiters are already using social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn to find candidates you can also bet that they are looking through candidate blogs. In other words, if you don’t have one yet you may be missing out on some great job opportunities.

Below you’ll find a list of benefits that explain why you should start a blog to help you expand your job hunt.

You have more than just a resume.

Let’s be frank, everyone has a resume. Everyone also probably uses a lot of the same resume advice. However, not everyone can adequately show a recruiter their skills. This is where blogging comes in.

With blogging you have the ability to actually showcase your skills in a way that a resume never could. For example, if you’re a marketing executive you can share some of your favorite strategies and comment on the latest marketing research. If you’re a financial executive you can comment on new laws and policies.

Consequently blogging allows you to present yourself as an expert in your field. In a time when the job market is constantly changing those who are specialized are the ones who have an easier time finding a job.

Furthermore, blogging on topics in your field keeps you on your toes. Maintaining a blog and creating new content is a cost effective way to keep your knowledge and skill set up-to-date.
Please note that this does not mean you forgo using a resume all together. We’re simply suggesting that you compliment your resume with content on a blog that showcases your particular skill set.

Expand and maintain your network - Read the full article for more information

7 Key Ways To Promote Your Personal Brand For Your Job Search

by Sean Harry

By now you understand finding the perfect job requires more than simply writing a resume and posting it online. In fact, if you are going to take the “apply-on-line” approach you should spend no more than two hours per week at it. Less than 5% of jobs are ever posted online, so if you are going to find your next job fast you need to spend your time elsewhere.

How To Promote Your Personal Brand

The successful and savvy job seeker will develop a compelling personal brand and spend 75% of their time (or more) promoting it. Here are seven key ways to promote your personal brand.

1. Buy Printed Business Cards

I am consistently shocked by the number of job seekers who have absolutely NO way of letting other people know how to contact them other than by shoving a resume in their face. And no, the one’s you print at home on your own computer are NOT good enough! Business cards are inexpensive. Sometimes you can even get free business cards from places like Prints Made Easy or free shipping from stores like Office Max.

As for what to put on your card? I recommend the minimalist approach. Put your name, e-mail address, phone, and LinkedIn profile address. You don’t need a title or a cute picture. Get a non-glossy finish and leave the back empty so people can jot down notes about you.

When you’re done reading this article, learn the three rules to smart business card etiquette.

2. Develop A Concise Elevator Pitch

Give just enough information to make people want to ask you to tell them more. Don’t focus on your past, instead focus on your future. Nobody cares you have 15 years experience in micro-processors. They want to know what you can do for THEM now! Be memorable, but not flippant or “cutesy.”

Lastly, rehearse it at least 100 times out loud BEFORE you use it in a group. You want it to be polished, but not too formulaic.

4. Listen And Build Trust

Networking is NOT about you. It’s about building a relationship. It’s about helping people in your network of friends and colleagues connect for mutual benefit. It’s about finding out what someone else needs and helping them.

Ways 3,5-7, and the complete Careerealism article

The 1 Thing You Must Do In Every Job Interview

I recently interviewed an excellent candidate for a position at our growing startup, Likeable Local. The woman had an incredible resume, an infectious personality, and, seemingly, a good work ethic. She was dressed for success, with a style fitting our culture. She answered my questions well, and seemed like a potential fit for our company. Yet, despite all of this, she didn’t receive another interview, and we chose to not hire her. What went wrong?

When I asked her what questions she had for me, twice, the job candidate replied, “None, really. I’ve been following you guys online for awhile and feel like I know everything already.”

That was a fatal error, of course. By not asking questions, she told me she wasn’t truly interested in learning more, in creating value, and in our company. She wasn't interested enough in learning more to find out if we were a fit for her. Confidence is great, but nobody can "know everything already." There are certainly things I don 't know about our company and its future - and I'm the CEO.

I didn't hire an otherwise well-qualified candidate because, in her lack of questions, she displayed a lack of passion for, interest in, and curiosity about our company, the position, and the fit.

The most important thing you must do in every interview is to ask great questions.

The key is to ask great questions- not to ask questions that you should know the answers to already (“What does the position entail?) or questions that make it all about you (“What is your vacation policy?”)

Don't ask questions to check a box. Ask questions out of authentic, genuine curiosity.

Here are 9 questions you can use or make your own on your next job interview. Of course, don't ask all nine, but choose a couple and tailor them based on your unique circumstances:
1) Who would make the ideal candidate for this position?
2) How will the work I’ll be doing contribute to the organization’s mission?
3) What were the best things about the last person who held this position?

4) What are three ways I can contribute to the company beyond the job description?

Questions 5- 9 and the complete article

Dave Kerpen loves interviewing great candidates for his companies. Dave is the founder and CEO of Likeable Local. He is also the cofounder and Chairman of Likeable Media, and the New York Times bestselling author of Likeable Social Media and Likeable Business.To read more from Dave on LinkedIn, please click the FOLLOW button above or below.

Recruiting & Hiring

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7 Stand-Out Tricks That Will Help You Land an Interview

By Andrianes Pinantoan

What do you do when 30 other candidates are competing with you for the same job—and many of them are more qualified than you are?

You need to do something to stand out. You need to have something unique, something that makes you what Seth Godin calls “The Purple Cow.”

Here are seven of the easiest and most effective strategies to do that.

Before you start, note that not one of these, in isolation, will do the trick. The secret is to implement as many of them as possible, because not only are they synergistic, but the more of these steps you take, the less likely other candidates will be to have done the same.

1. Get introduced

This is absolutely the best way to stand out in a sea of strangers. Being introduced to a hiring manager by a friend of his is like a having a red carpet rolled out for you.

How can you get introduced? Reverse engineer the hiring manager’s connections on LinkedIn to see how the two of you are connected, and then network your way into his circles. You’ll be surprised how closely related the two of you are, especially if you’ve been in the industry for a couple of years.

2. Conduct deep research

Yes, you always need to prepare before an interview. But you also need to go a step further than other candidates would.

You can do this by asking a few people from the company out to coffee for an informational interview. Tell them you’re interested in working for the company and would like to know more about its culture (or anything else). Most will be happy to do it, at which time you can talk about where the company is going, what are its most pressing problems, etc.

Pro tip: Name-drop the person you talked to in your actual interview to gain extra points.

3. Invest in awesome resume design

After you get your “in,” remember to make your resume look professional. You need to go further than the Word document most people use.

If you have no design experience, hire a professional to do it for you. A decent one will cost you just $50. In my experience, there’s a diminishing return in resume design: a $500 top-of-the-line designer will only get you marginally better results than his competent competitor who charges $50.

Some people create infographics for their resume, though that might not be the right option for everyone.

4. Keep your resume concise

Less is more in your resume. If you’re applying to be a teacher, don’t include your experience waiting tables. And there’s no need to mention the spelling bee award you won, either.

Read every word, and ask yourself: can I still sell myself if I leave this out? The goal is to have a resume no longer than one page. You have no idea how appreciative hiring managers are when applicants get to the point.

Tips 5-7 and the complete Brazen Careerist article

Branding For A Job Vs Branding For An Opportunity

by Phil Rosenberg

I’m proud to have been named a weekly columnist of Personal Branding Blog. I will be republishing my articles from that site here on reCareered. This was my article published Monday, 11/5/12 …

Most job seekers brand themselves for a job because that’s how we’ve been taught to write resumes.

We’ve not only been taught to write resumes branding ourselves for a job, but it was reinforced while there were candidate shortages – because you could make lots of mistakes in a forgiving job market.

But in a job market of job shortages, the market isn’t forgiving at all … it’s brutal.
We’ve been taught that hiring managers look for the same thing, despite the obvious fact that each employer has its own unique set of circumstances and problems that are different from other employers.

We’ve been taught that hiring managers seek an average candidate with average skills and average experience.

So you brand yourself as a Senior Accountant, Marketing Director or IT Manager. It was good enough to help you land your last job … it should be good enough for this job search.
Except that it’s not …

Because in a job market with job shortages, where you compete against an average 1,000 applicants and most employers use ATS plus an additional 1 to 4 pre-screen steps, being good enough doesn’t get you interviews anymore.

If branding yourself for a job doesn’t get you interviews, what will?

Branding yourself for a specific opportunity helps you show the hiring manger that you’re a superior candidate for that specific job, rather than superior for any job.

Here’s 5 ways to brand yourself for a specific opportunity:

Resume Title: Your resume title or personal branding statement should include the actual title of the specific opportunity you’re applying for. This will be much more specific than Marketing Professional, Programmer or Sales Executive because it’s unlikely that the specific opportunity you’re applying for will have this broad of a title.
Research: In order to brand yourself for a specific opportunity, you’ll need to do more research on the opportunity before you send in your resume. Since most candidates don’t do much research until they are selected for an interview, this will mean starting your research earlier in your job search process.
Go Beyond The Job Description: Job descriptions list skills, not underlying problems. Job descriptions don’t list problems because they are public – Employers don’t want competitors, customers and shareholders to see their problems. If you want to brand yourself for the specific opportunity, you need to understand why the employer is hiring the position, even if the position is a replacement … before you send in your resume. By first understanding the employer’s (and hiring manager’s) underlying problems, you can show on your resume that you’ve already solved similar problems, branding yourself as a superior candidate for that specific opportunity.

Tips 4,5, and complete ReCareered article

Build Your Brand Before Starting A Job Search

by Margo Rose

I met Debbie on Twitter @DebbieLaskeyMBA She wrote this wonderful post that will help you build your job search brand. She offers great advice. I now give you Debbie Laskey.
Build Your Brand before Starting a Job Search

If you no longer feel challenged by your current job or just want to make a change, you should feel inspired to look for a new opportunity. Give your two week or four week notice, make sure to leave project instructions for your replacement or supervisor, and you may think you’re ready to move on. But wait, before you throw your hat into the job search pool, you need to build your personal brand.

In the words of David McNally and Karl D. Speak, “Everyone has a brand, and anyone can be a strong brand. It doesn’t involve changing your personality – you can be an introvert or extrovert…A personal brand is a perception or emotion, maintained by somebody other than you, that describes your outstanding qualities and influences that person’s relationship with you.”

Thanks to social media, you have all the tools necessary to define your brand, pitch yourself as an expert in your field, and become the best candidate available. Here are my “Top Five” tips for building your personal brand:

[1] Determine what you want your brand to be called – it may be your full name or it may be a portion of your first or last name with your specialty included, but whatever you choose, always be consistent in using this brand name on all social media sites (Hint: you can check if your chosen brand name is available on hundreds of sites with http://knowem.com)

[2] Create a mission statement to clarify your professional goals and keep a list of your key strengths and accomplishments up-to-date

[3] Establish a professional profile on LinkedIn: a good profile includes a professional photo, titles of previous and current positions with overviews of your responsibilities and highlights of accomplishments for each position, recommendations from supervisors and co-workers, degrees, certificates, list of key skills, groups, applications, etc.

Tips 4 - 5 and complete HireFriday article

GUEST POST BY DEBBIE LASKEY, MBA
Debbie Laskey has 15 years of marketing experience and an MBA Degree. She developed her marketing expertise while working in the high-tech industry, the Consumer Marketing Department at Disneyland Paris in France, the non-profit arena, and the insurance industry. Currently, Debbie is a brand marketing, social media, and employee engagement consultant to small businesses, start-ups, and non-profits in California. Recognized as a “Woman Making a Difference” by the Los Angeles Business Journal, Debbie has served as a judge for the Web Marketing Association’s annual web award competition since 2002. Follow Debbie on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/DebbieLaskeyMBA) and on her Blog (http://debbielaskey.blogspot

How to Get the Most Out of Informational Interviews

Knowing how, why and when to have informational interviews might be the one thing between you and your dream job. Whether you're a second-semester senior in the midst a job search, or a sophomore looking for a great summer internship, informational interviews with industry-insiders are an invaluable resource.

What is an informational interview? 
An informational interview is a time to sit down with a professional or an industry expert, and get their insight, advice and wisdom on their career path, not a time to ask for jobs, internships, etc. You can find out more about certain industries, career paths or even specific companies -- all things will be great resources when you do begin a job search.

How can you find people to interview with? 
The best place to start is by reaching out to people you've worked with or have met at networking events. Additionally, don't be afraid to ask family members, friends and classmates to see if they know anyone working in your industry with whom you could talk.

Still feeling a little overwhelmed at the prospect of finding people to reach out to?
Spend a little bit of time looking into each of the channels below -- you're sure to find some great prospects. Look for contacts that work in industries that you're interested in, or at companies that you admire.

Your school's alumni directory
Professors and faculty
Former colleagues
Friends' parents
Your parents' friends
Professional and/or local organizations
Industry-specific networking events, workshops and seminars
Online networking (like LinkedIn!)
Online and offline trade publications and newsletters

More advice and complete HuffingtonPost article

Google interviews: would you get a job with the search giant?

In an extract from his new book, William Poundstone considers the logic puzzles, trick questions and mind-bending riddles that make Google interviews notoriously hard. Would you make it through to the next round.

William Poundstone

We live in an age of desperation. Never in living memory has the competition for job openings been more intense. Never have job interviews been tougher.

For some job seekers, Google is the shining city on the hill. It's where the smartest people do the coolest things. In the US, Google regularly ranks at or near the top of Fortune magazine's list of 100 Best Companies To Work For. But unsexy firms also find themselves with multiple well-qualified applicants for each position. That is very good for the companies that are able to hire. Like Google, they get to cherry-pick the top talent in their fields. It's not so good for the applicants. They are confronting harder, ruder, more invasive vetting.

This is most evident in the interviews. There are, of course, many types of questions traditionally asked in job interviews. These include the "behavioural" questions that have almost become clichés: "What is your biggest failure in life?" Questions relating to business: "How would you describe Holland & Barrett to a person visiting from another country?" And finally, there are open-ended mental challenges, such as how you would weigh an elephant without using a scale – something for which Google is particularly known, an attempt to measure mental flexibility and even entrepreneurial potential. The answer? Nudge the beast on to a barge. The elephant's weight will cause the barge to sink several inches in the water. Draw a line on the barge's hull to mark the water level. Then direct the elephant back on to land. Load the barge with 100lb bags of sand (or whatever is handy) until it sinks to the line marked on the hull. The elephant weighs as much as the sand.

The style of interviewing at Google is indebted to an older tradition of using logic puzzles to test job candidates at technology companies. Consider this one: the interviewer writes six numbers on the room's whiteboard – 10, 9, 60, 90, 70, 66. The question is, what number comes next in the series?
Most of the time, the job applicant stumbles around, gamely trying to make sense of a series that gives every indication of being completely senseless. Most candidates give up. A lucky few have a flash of insight.

Forget maths. Spell out the numbers in plain English, which gives you the following: ten nine sixty ninety seventy sixty-six. The numbers are in order of how many letters are in their names. Ten is not the only number you can spell with three letters. There's also one, two and six. Nine is not the only four-letter number; there's zero, four and five. This is a list of the largest numbers that can be spelled in a given number of letters.

Now for the payoff: what number comes next? Whatever number follows sixty-six should have nine letters in it (not counting a possible hyphen) and should be the largest nine-letter number. Play around with it and you'll probably come up with ninety-six. It doesn't look like you can get anything above 100, because that would start "one hundred" requiring 10 letters and upwards. You might wonder why the list doesn't have 100 (hundred) in place of 70 (seventy). "Million" and "billion" have seven letters, too. A reasonable guess is that they're using cardinal numbers spelled in correct stylebook English. The way you write out the number 100 is "one hundred".

At many of these companies, the one and only correct answer is 96. At Google, 96 is considered to be an acceptable answer. A better response is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000. Aka "one googol".

That's not the best answer, though. The preferred response is 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Ten googol.

Puzzles such as this have drawbacks as interview questions. The answer here is a simple matter of insight: either you get it or you don't. There isn't a process of deduction to relate, and thus no way to distinguish someone who solves the problem from someone who already knew the answer. At Google, of all places, anyone applying for a job knows how to use a search engine. It's expected that candidates will Google for advice on Google interviews, including the questions asked. Consequently, Google encourages its interviewers to use a different type of question, more open-ended, with no definitive "right answer".

Read the complete Guardian article for more questions and answers.

7 Personal Branding Trends for Job Search in 2012

By William Arruda

Give yourself an edge to attract the attention of recruiters and hiring managers with these tools and techniques.

I’ve been in the business of helping people build their brands for a decade and each year, I publish my personal branding trends for job seekers. Take a look at this year’s trends and decide which will help give you an edge and attract the attention of recruiters and hiring managers.

1. Headshots Everywhere

Do you have a professional headshot?
People want to connect a face with a name. We have come to expect a photo alongside a blog post, Facebook profile and online article. People are less likely to click on a photo-less LinkedIn profile; and they’re less inclined to believe Web-based content if the picture of the person who contributed it is missing. Yet many people are still reluctant to post their photo to the Web. Some fear age discrimination in hiring; others just aren’t happy with the photos they have. Since it’s becoming common for hiring managers and recruiters to use Google and social networks to find candidates, your first impression could be your LinkedIn profile or other online content.

What does this mean for you?
Ensure those who are researching you get to connect a face with a name and credentials. Because there are so many places where your photo will appear — from your Google profile to your You Tube channel or about.me page — get a series of professional headshots and upload them to your social network profiles and Flickr or Picassa account. You don’t want someone doing a Google image search and seeing one photo replicated 30 times.

2. Crowdsourcing for Professionals

What do others say about you?

You’re only as good as the collective opinions of those who know you. Consultants have always understood the value of client feedback. Now, with the ease of requesting and providing recommendations, you too must be mindful of the power of external reviews. Virtually every new social network or app includes the opportunity to request and display reviews. LinkedIn calls them recommendations, BranchOut and BeKnown call them endorsements.

Honestly.com calls them reviews. Regardless of what you call them, they’re extremely important to those who are making decisions about you. A Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey determined that 90% of consumers trust peer reviews. Although no research to my knowledge has been done about this topic as it relates to people, I predict we will quickly become accustomed to using crowdsourcing to make decisions about each other.

What does this mean for you?
If you are looking for a job, what others say about you will be critical to getting hired. Get out there and get testimonials, recommendations and endorsements and make them visible through various social media and your own Web site. Hiring managers will be dubious of those without any external recommendations.

3. Personal QR Codes

Do you have a QR code?

QR codes are taking off in all kinds of ways that weren’t originally anticipated. For example, according to brandchannel.com, it’s now possible to place extremely large QR codes on the tops of buildings that will be photographed by the satellites that feed Google Maps. The QR code will cause a logo of that company to appear when someone looks at their building’s images on Google. Putting a giant QR code on the top of your house may not be the best way to land a job. But you do have the opportunity to use QR codes to point those who are evaluating you to your Web sites, blogs and other relevant career marketing content. I have seen QR codes on the top of resumes, on business cards and on networking name-badges. Vizibility.com allows you to customize what people see when they click on your QR code – and change it often, so you can direct hiring managers to the perfect presentation of your capabilities.

What does this mean for you?
You have a great opportunity to direct recruiters to the content you want them to see. If one of your brand attributes is 'innovative,' think about how you can use QR codes to tell others what you want them to know about you. If you’re a more seasoned professional and want to demonstrate that you’re innovative and on top of the latest trends, using QR codes on your resume and business card is like digital Botox. It will demonstrate that you are connected to what’s happening.

4. Job Postings R.I.P. Trends 4 - 7 and complete TheLadders article

New Rules For Branding On The Job Search

By: Rebecca Rapple

Advice about developing a personal brand is widely accepted because it is effective. But, in today’s economy, there are new rules for personal branding, especially on the job search.
Traditionally, your personal brand is the absolute best of yourself. It is purposefully unique and encompasses the kind of problems you solve, the way that you get things done, the situations that you excel in and the types of organizations you build. It is your values and your personality; it’s the very best of you.
Yet, today, in the job search, the brand that you worked so hard to develop just doesn’t cut it any more.
Your personal brand needs a few new rules.

Rule #1: Your brand is not about you. As counter intuitive as that sounds, your brand is not about you. Rather, it is about the value you deliver externally. Its all about your audience: their challenges, their needs, their dreams and how you can get them there.

Rule #2: Your brand is different for every opportunity. In the same way that you adapt to different situations, your brand needs change for every opportunity. It will emphasize different strengths, experiences and capabilities based on your audience (and their challenges, needs and dreams).

Rule #3: You need to be their Super Hero. Feel free to laugh at the name, but lets be clear, the goal of your personal brand is convey a direct and concise story about how you will be the organization’s Super Hero. That is, how you will defeat their challenges and enact the change that they are desperate to make.

More advice and complete PersonalBrandingBlog.com article

Ace Your Skype Job Interview: 14 Smart Tips

By Amy Levin-Epstein

Practice makes perfect. This dictum applies to learning to do anything well — whether it’s riding a bike, speaking a foreign language, or doing a Skype interview with confidence. Consultant Kerrie Hopkins, who works with clients on 5 continents, advises not only practicing but also recording your efforts to review. “People have no idea how they are being received on another’s computer screen,” says Hopkins.

That’s not a great thing, since in a still shaky economy when companies that are able to hire are increasingly turning to online interviews to save time and money, being able to interview comfortably on Skype is an essential skill to have.

So in addition to practicing, how else can job seekers prepare for an online interview? I asked dozens of executives, career consultants, and tech experts nationwide this question. Here are their best 14 tips. Got more? Please share them in the comments section below.

1. Look Into The Camera
“During Skype interviews, some people fixate on themselves on the computer screen. This gives the impression that the candidate is not making eye contact with the interviewer on the other end. When an interview starts, take a moment to make sure you look fine on the screen, then focus on looking into the camera.”–Davin Malasarn, Science Writer for the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles

2. Get Rid of Distractions
“Make sure that [you're] the only living object in view. Maybe you’re 27 and living with your parents, but the person interviewing you doesn’t need to know that. Let the people in your life know what’s happening, and insist they stay at the opposite side of the house/apartment. If you have kids, it would be helpful to have a babysitter come to make sure there is no crying during the Skype session. And pets should also be out of view.“–Rich DeMatteo, Co-Founder of Bad Rhino, a social media marketing firm, and Founder of Corn on the Job, a job search blog, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

3. Put Your Hands Where They Can See Them
“Make sure that the camera on your computer gives a good shot of your head and shoulders, as well as of your hands. Remember that a good portion of understanding comes from body language and other non-verbal cues, so you want to make sure that the upper half of your body is showing.”–John Heckers, MA, CPC, BCPC, “Heckers Development Group, LTD,  Cherry Creek, Colorado

4. Plug In Securely
“Plug your computer into an ethernet port, and plug your headphones into the computer’s jack. You want direct ethernet access because it’s far more stable than wireless, and you want to have headphones in to avoid playback from the speakers.”–Fan Bi, Founder + Chief Shirt, Blank Label, Boston, Massachussetts

Read Tips 5 - 14 and more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/career-advice/blog/on-job/ace-your-skype-job-interview-14-smart-tips/1444/#ixzz1Vs8HHthR

Eight Job-Interview Wins for the Record Book

A former human resources director recalls some applicants who impressed their way into getting instant job offers

By Liz Ryan

After revealing tales of job applicants who disappointed, disconcerted, or generally weirded me out in my last column, I thought it only fair to share stories about prospective employees who surprised me in positive ways. Even in lean times, job candidates who show that they know what an employer is up against and have insight into how to make things more effective are always in short supply. Here are eight stories of job-seekers who made good by standing in their power and helping employers see their value.

1. A Bit of Free Consulting
I'd already interviewed a half-dozen contenders for director of internal communications when Diane arrived. Her professional background included stints at top-tier consulting firms, but I wondered whether our company's breakneck pace and "Ready! Fire! Aim!" leadership style would throw her. "Traditional top-down communication will not do the trick in this environment, in my view," Diane told me. "What other alternative is there?" I asked. To my delight, Diane launched into new-client-consultation mode—right in the job interview. By the time we finished our chat, we had a rough communication plan outlined and Diane had consulted her way into the job.

The lesson: Use your interview time to learn the business conditions, not passively answer questions. People hire people they believe can help them, not the most-groveling or most-docile applicant in the mix.

2. Up From McDonald's
Twenty-plus years ago, I interviewed John for a client-service job. We were both 21; John had just graduated from college, and was working as a crew member at McDonald's (MCD). "Tell me about McDonald's," I said, and John jumped into an explanation of the company's supply chain: "It's incredible," he said. "They know exactly what each store sold on each shift yesterday, so the distribution center sends us just the items we need, based on projected sales for today. The feedback mechanisms are impressive. It's an incredibly efficient information flow." John used his ringside seat to study the operation in a situation where many of his colleagues merely flipped burgers. He saw the bigger picture, paid attention to the critical points where service and profitability were made or broken for the restaurant, and used the job interview to share what he knew. John got the client-service job, and today runs a research organization.

The lesson: You can get altitude on your business from any vantage point. Don't just complete the tasks assigned to you. Use your perch as a place from which to learn the business, and be able to talk about what you know.

3. Showing How You Do It
This story comes to me from my old friend Alice, who was interviewing for an admissions coordinator job at a tony prep school in central New Jersey. The admissions director liked Alice's down-to-earth communication style and her administrative background, but wasn't totally sold. "We multitask here every day, under tight deadlines," said Alice's prospective manager. "Let me show you what I can do," Alice replied. The admissions director said: "Go to the desk out in front of my office, and put together a spreadsheet of information on the competitive private schools in this area." Alice jumped online, got on the phone, and went to work. One hour and a dozen phone calls later, she had compiled a detailed spreadsheet on the prep school's competitive set, showing everything from year established and student/teacher ratios to after-school programs, tuition costs, and class sizes. She got the job.

The lesson: Don't be afraid to show, rather than tell, what you can do for your next boss.

Lessons 4 - 8 and Complete BusinessWeek Article

5 Personal Branding Tips To Boost Your Job Search

By: Adriana Llames

Do you know that what you have, or don’t have, in your pocket can affect the outcome of your job search?
Experience. Education. Skills. We all know that these factors matter when you’re on the hunt for a new job, but how can the contents of your pocket make a difference? These 5 Personal Branding will tell you just that, and more.

1. It’s All In Your Head
“The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne is based upon the law of attraction; thoughts become things. While I won’t say that you can sit at home all day thinking about a new job and it will simply manifest itself, I will say that thinking positive works. Taking it a step further to look positive on the outside is important as well. According to Harvard and Wesleyan economists, attractive people get hired and promoted more readily and earn more money because they’re seen as more self-confident.

2. Practice Makes Perfect
Ask any pro sports athlete and they’ll tell you that practice is essential to winning the game. If you want to win the job search game, practice your personal branding pitch. Step 1: Create the pitch. Step 2: Practice the pitch. Step 3: Deliver an authentic, natural pitch. Delivering a practiced pitch without your personality and authentic, individual stories is like showing up on the beach in August with a spray tan. You can do it but why would you?

3. Pocket Power
“Let’s connect next week. Do you have a card?” Job seeker home run! Fireworks are going off in your head until you realize you don’t have business cards. What do you do now? Play it cool? Ask for their card? Sure, you can do that. Or, you can be a powerfully branded professional and hand them a personal branded business card, land an appointment for next week and enjoy the firework display going on in your head. Check out www.vistaprint.com for easy-to-make cards.

Tips 4 - 5 and Complete Personal Brand Blog Article

HOW TO: Use Career Branding to Bring Jobs to You

First of all, career branding is not the same as personal branding. Personal branding is everywhere, and people are starting to develop their personal brands with earnest. But what about career branding? What’s the difference between the two? It’s really quite simple. Personal branding is all about you, what you do, and the type of person you are and portray. A career brand is part of your personal brand, focused on highlighting your current and past professional accomplishments.
Finding a job in this market is harder than it ever has been. Gone are the days of merely looking for jobs on boards. Job searching has evolved into a two-way stream of conversations, connections, and ideas with individuals from around the world.
To pass the competition, you must impress employers with your online presence, your résumé, and in person. To do this, you need to present the unique value you bring to the table. Think of it like this: You are the “product,” and your potential employer is the “target audience.” Your message must compel the target audience to purchase the product. A successful career brand does just that.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
Make Your Brand Sizzle
Determine what special “features” you have to offer that your competitors don’t. This could be any and all of your skills, work experience, and even volunteer experience—it’s all valuable. As a leader in your industry, you have a unique blend of qualifications, talents, expertise, and accomplishments to offer a potential employer.
Use the Right Mediums
Showcase these strong points where recruiters and hiring managers can see—LinkedIn, and increasingly Facebook and Twitter, are great networks for this. Engage in discussions with employers—start by asking questions. Your involvement shows initiative and won’t be overlooked.

Read The Complete Career Rocketeer Article

Guest Expert:
Greg Coyle is the co-founder and Director of Product Development at MyWebCareer. For the past year, Greg and his co-founders at MyWebCareer have been working on developing online tools for career professionals that enable you to discover, evaluate, and monitor your professional online brand. You can visit the beta at www.mywebcareer.com and get your free, personalized Career Score.

WorkWise: What job seekers don't know about branding

By Mildred L. Culp

The job-hunting process depletes a person's imagination. If you don't have a brand or your campaign is getting stale, look for a fresh approach to differentiate yourself. The knowledge that employers and recruiters match needs with applicant brands will help inspire you to sharpen what you have to offer in the marketplace.
Lethia Owens of Lethia Owens International Inc., in St. Peters, Mo., stresses that "a brand isn't what you say it is but what you show people. Don't (announce), 'I'm cutting-edge.' Demonstrate the abilities and share information that shows you're credible."

BRANDING SECRETS

The concept of branding is well-known to sales, marketing and HR people, but many job seekers don't know how to use it in their campaigns. A brand needs "a compelling story that speaks uniquely to the challenges facing a prospective employer," observes corporate consultant Joseph McCool of The McCool Group LLC., in Amherst, N.H. "That message has to be wrapped up tightly and conveyed convincingly to stand out."

How do you identify your brand if it isn't already clear to you? Janice Ellig, co-CEO of New York City's retained search firm Chadick Ellig Inc., shares her secret. "Think about what people have said about you," she says. "Listening to those who've given us feedback and advised us in our current careers tells us a story about our strengths. The strengths become your brand, certainly your selling point, what differentiates you. Look to companies that might be really interested in what you bring which might be different from where they've been."
Owens recommends being strategic. This means, in part, selling benefits. It also means, as Ellig suggests, "Don't try to sell yourself from a position of weakness. Sell yourself from a position of strength." Appealing to every employer can sabotage a job search.

'BRUSH STROKES'

Owens continues with the need to "craft the message with language that paints that picture. Imagine you're painting a picture using words, those that help build the image of the type of brand identity you want, that you read periodicals, do community-based networking and attend professional organizations related to your industry or field. Mention recent updates of news you've discovered. Demonstrate by talking about what interests you and what you're doing. Brush strokes paint the picture."
How do employers use branding? Owens conducted behavioral interviews for an IT company hiring people full-time and on contract. "I was responsible for matching the gifts and talents of employees with opportunities within the organization," she explains, "which required evaluating the personal brand and capabilities to assure proper fit." She was looking for similarities between what a company needed and a candidate offered and now specializes in brand development as an advancement method for job seekers and people on the job.
Not everyone uses brands in the recruitment process. Not everyone thinks that brands apply. Mike Purcell, vice president of HR at Ambius, a global business interiors company headquartered in Buffalo Grove, Ill., speaks from the perspective of hiring senior managers. "I don't think people walk in thinking about what their brand is but the kind of organizational culture they've come from," he says. "In my experience, 'brand' is not a highly-used word in the interview process. In the general work world, 'culture' has universal application. It's like vanilla. When you throw out 'culture,' everyone immediately knows what you're talking about. Brand and culture right now are not synonymous in my view."
You have to decide whether you want to think in terms of branding. You can certainly apply the concept of your compelling story as you market yourself, but never mention the word.
Dr. Mildred Culp welcomes your questions at culp@workwise.net. © 2010 Passage Media.

Own Your Brand: Be The CEO Of Your Job Search

As a job seeker, your brand distinguishes you in whatever way you choose. How you cultivate your profile will directly speak to your next employer.

By Kate Madonna Hindes, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

It's often said that to be successful in the career world, those who are job searching need to be able to showcase their experience on multiple plains and platforms to capture the attention of those hiring. To de-mystify the process, think of your skills and accomplishments as a product; a valuable service to a company that is looking to solve a problem. Essentially, online profiles on social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are a way to personalize your brand and secure your future career. A few rules apply for all:

Your picture speaks volumes. In fact, it probably gives the recruiter or H.R. manager a much deeper glimpse into who you are than one might originally think. Your picture should be professional. If ageism is a concern, consider taking a picture of your networking or business card.

Profanity is out. Remember, you are speaking to your future boss and company. By using cursing, or otherwise questionable phrases, or even linking to questionable pictures or articles, it will make those looking question your integrity.

What happens on social media, stays on social media. There's one question to ask yourself once your profile is complete: "Are you being authentic?" What you post on Facebook, tweet on Twitter and proclaim on LinkedIn will remain in search engines for months to come. Personal integrity is vital to your brand.

Jason Douglas, online marketing manager for Spyder Trap Online Marketing, has often spoke the phrase, "Be who you are, with a filter." When questioning what to say and where, consider this easy guide:

LinkedIn is the office: Be professional and courteous in every way, never using slang or adopting lax speech.

Twitter is the water cooler: It's the perfect place to discuss your next opportunity, last night's game, challenges and display what you bring to a potential employer.

Facebook is the bar: It's a much needed rest from the suit and tie, however, profiles should be privatized except for your name and network.

Douglas sums it all up perfectly, "People care about what you achieved, but want to know how you did it. The ability to answer the what, how and why is essential." With authenticity and the correct marketing, you can shorten the job search period and heighten the passion behind a career transition.

Original Article

Your Personal Brand is Equal to Your Google Results

February 19th, 2009 in Management

People you know or have never met yet are googl’ing you. Let’s face it, you’re even google’ing yourself! At the end of 2007, the Pew Internet Research Team found that 47% of people search for information about themselves online (Self-Googling), which was more than double 5 years ago. It’s a pretty safe bet that percentage has climbed to over 50 or 60% by this year.

Some people might can it ego-surfing, but it’s actually a good practice to see what results come up for your name. Your teachers, friends, family, boyfriends and girlfriends and coworkers are Google’ing you either for fun or because they want to learn more about you. Hiring managers want to see if you have a clean record in Google, which is your permanent record because every move you make (yes even a blog comment) is stored there forever. Before I went on a second date once, the girl Google’ed me. If she hadn’t liked what she saw, the second date wouldn’t have happened. Try doing it right now and see what you get.

There is no hiding from Google!

Google keeps track of just about everything you do on the internet. It patrols and captures your online behavior, such as when you post on your blog, tweet using Twitter, join social networks, comment on other blogs, write articles for online news

sources and more. Aside from the content you create and distribute over the internet, other people are talking about you, which means that Google has a complete picture (almost like an autobiography) of your life. In the digital age, Google is your resume, your permanent record and a journal of your life. Your children and children’s children will be able to find out everything about you when they grow older. “Mom, look what I just found out about Dad in Google.” Your personal brand can’t hide from Google. There is one major exception to this though.

Common names

If your name is common, such as Mike Smith, then it will be very hard to own your Google results. There are over 54 million results for “Mike Smith” in Google. You won’t be able to compete with the athletes and musicians on the first few pages. If your life goal is to rank in the top ten results, that may be achievable, if you either become very famous or work extremely hard at building content each and every day for your entire life. At the age of sixty you might find out that Google changed their algorithm and you’ll lose all that hard work. The point being is that you’ll have to differentiate your name in order to rank high. I typically recommend you use your middle name or a nickname in this case. The worst case scenario is that you change your name completely ;).

Celebrity names

Celebrities are very fortunate because they get mass media attention, which means traditional media sources (NY Times, ABC News) write articles about them. These sources rank extremely high in Google. We’re talking Google PageRank’s of eight and higher! Your blog posts about these celebrities will never end up on the top twenty results for their name unless you are Perez Hilton. If your name is the same as a celebrities, you are in big trouble. Try searching for Christina Aquilera (21 million results), Britney Spears (88 million), Lil Wayne (40 million) and other major celebrities. Personally, I don’t have any friends with these names, but even with C-level celebrities, you don’t stand a chance. If you are stuck with a celebrity name, I suggest that you build your brand around an area of your expertise or interest and connect it to your brand name.

Unique names

While growing up, you might have been made fun of people of your unique name because it was “different.” Although you were ostracized and made fun of, right now you get to laugh at everyone else! With a distinct name, you are able to easily manipulate the results for your name on search engines. When you go to your high school reunion and see your friends, you’ll get the last laugh because you can be visible and control perceptions, while they simply cannot. When you Google your name, whether you have results that reflect your brand, you’ll see how hard it will be to rank high for it or not. Depending on the competition, it may take you a few days or a few months. Over time, if you work very hard, you’ll own the top ten results for your name.

In my next post, I’ll talk about what you can do to gain control over your Google results and let your personal brand shine through.

Original Article - http://www.lifehack.org/articles/management/your-personal-brand-is-equal-to-your-google-results.html

Tim Esse