Self-Google! Don’t Jeopardize Your Executive Job Search is a post from: Executive Resume Branding

Do you know what the people who have a hand in hiring you are finding when they Google “your name”?

Trust me, you’re being Googled by recruiters, employers and hiring decision makers if they come upon you when they’re sourcing talent, or if they’re considering whether to interview you.

In fact, I do the same thing right before I speak with potential clients of mine for the first time.

Typically, they’ll have a minimal online footprint on the most important first few pages of results:

• Usually a LinkedIn profile, but it’s often not complete, branded or compelling.
• Little, if any, social media presence beyond LinkedIn.
• Sometimes a brief boring bio on their employer’s website.
• A mixed bag of anemic results that they haven’t posted on aggregator sites (Manta, Pipl, White Pages, etc.).

I generally only search the first page of results for my initial chat. What I’m looking for is more information about the person to assess whether they’re a good fit to work with me, to see whether they’ve done any work to build their brand online, and to see if they have any digital dirt that could cripple their search.

If they’ve done some research on the current executive job search landscape, they have an idea of how important it is for them to have a strong, branded online presence.

Given the same set of qualifications, skills and expertise, those who have a diverse and higher-volume of search results are more likely to be noticed, sought out, and hired.

According to Talent Management Magazine’s article about a recent survey from CareerBuilder, nearly 37 percent of firms use social networking sites to research job candidates. What are they looking for?

• To see if the candidate presents himself/herself professionally — 65 percent
• To see if the candidate is a good fit for the company culture — 51 percent
• To learn more about the candidate’s qualifications — 45 percent
• To see if the candidate is well-rounded — 35 percent
• To look for reasons not to hire the candidate — 12 percent

Nearly 34 percent found information that caused them NOT to hire a candidate.

That issue can pose major problems for some job seekers. In today’s highly competitive job market, hiring professional have their pick of the absolute best. If they find dirt or even a flimsy reason to rule you out, they will. There are plenty of others to slide in place.

One of the major problems I find when Googling people’s names is not within content these people posted themselves online (if they’ve even done so). It’s not inappropriate behavior that found its way online, or that they posted somewhere.

I’m finding content on the first page of results that the person DIDN’T post themselves, so they may have little control over it.

• Sometimes the person knows about it.
• Sometimes the person had an unfortunate blip in their career or personal life that made news. They’ve since made amends, but the bad news lingers forever online.
• Sometimes the content is associated with some dastardly person who has the same name.

Whatever the reason, those search results could seriously damage their job search.

My searches on two recent client prospects revealed problematic online identities:

1. A 65 year old mid-level sales and marketing executive, who was very concerned about ageism in his search.

LinkedIn was the #1 search result. About half way down the first page was a link to his high school yearbook and the year he graduated. Instantly, his age was revealed.

2. The second search result for a CMO in medical devices (let’s call him “Joe Smith”) jumped out with the hyperlink “Can anyone share their real thoughts on Joe Smith?” Who wouldn’t be drawn to that headline?

The link led to a snarky industry-related chat site where several anonymous people on his team trashed his leadership abilities . . . in detail.

In both instances above, the job seekers probably can’t get those pages taken down. Their only recourse is to work on outdistancing those bad search results with good ones, pushing the bad ones down and onto the second, or hopefully, third or fourth pages of results, where they’re less likely to be found.

Your takeaway?

Follow the steps that hiring professionals do when they’re sourcing and assessing talent by what they find online. Know what the people who have a hand in hiring you will find when they search you.

Do a quick Google search on “your name” right now, and then once a week or so, and see what’s out there.

If you find digital dirt, here are three things to do:

• Try to push it down beyond the first page or two by building up branded, relevant search results on high-ranking sites.
• See if you can get the page taken down.
• See if you can rewrite the content to position yourself in a more positive light.

Related posts:

Does Your Online Presence Scream “DON’T Hire Me”?

Executive Job Search: 6 Ways to Get Good With Google

Executive Branding Online: Write Book Reviews on Amazon

photo by SallyB2

Executive Recruiters and Your Job Search is a post from: Executive Resume Branding

If you’re a senior or c-level executive, you’ve probably worked with executive recruiters because they reached out and connected with you.

In the past, top executives could expect to be in demand, constantly pursued by numerous recruiters when they weren’t looking for a job.

Unless you’re lucky, executive job search doesn’t work quite so easily these days. You can’t count on recruiters offering you your pick of jobs and seamlessly sliding into a new position whenever you’re ready. You could suddenly find yourself out of a job, with little warning, trying to pick up speed in a job search landscape that doesn’t look or feel familiar.

Recruiters are certainly out there, looking for superior candidates like you, but with so much competition in this job market, you may not stand out as readily. You may not be in demand like you were a few years ago. You’ll need to reach out to them.

How much do you know about the different kinds of recruiters and what they can do for you? Did you know that internal recruiters and external recruiters — either retained or on contingency — help you in different ways?

For help in sorting out all the pros and cons and how-to’s, go to the Work Coach Cafe and 2 posts written by Susan P. Joyce, online job search guru — one on Internal Recruiters, the other on External Recruiters.

Some of Susan’s tidbits on Internal Recruiters:

→  They have an insider’s perspective. They see how the organization works and typically know many of the people inside the organization, particularly the hiring managers.

→  They may be your advocate, if they believe you are the best person for the job.

But . . .

→  Their loyalty is to the organization. No matter how tempting, don’t tell them anything that you don’t want the rest of the organization to know.

→  They can “bar the door,” keeping you from being interviewed or considered, even if (sometimes, especially if) you try to go “around” them directly to the hiring manager.

And a few of her points on working with External Recruiters:

→  Contingency recruiters may be strong advocates of your candidacy – because they, or their employer, will earn a commission if you are hired.

→  They have an outsider’s perspective, so they are not caught up in the politics inside the organization, although – if they have worked with an employer before – they may understand quite a bit about how the organization and the people inside it operate.

But . . .

→  External recruiters are outsiders. They don’t know everything going on inside the organization. They may or may not know the people involved in every hire, so they may not be able to provide you with any meaningful coaching.

→  Your “cost of hire” (what it costs the employer to hire you) is higher than an internal referral or someone who walks in off the street because of the commission paid them if you are hired based on their referral. It can be as much as 20% to 25% of the annual salary.

Each kind of recruiter works differently. Understanding what motivates them can help you avoid making damaging assumptions that can derail your job search. Knowing how they work with candidates can help you to build positive, mutually rewarding relationships with them.

Related posts:

Build Winning Relationships with Executive Recruiters

Executive Job Search: How Recruiters Find You

Working with Recruiters For Senior Executives Over 50

photo by Rosmary

10 Pivotal Personal Branding Principles is a post from: Executive Resume Branding

You read a lot about personal branding these days.

If you’re facing a job search and doing some research on how to find a job in this market, you’re hard pressed to click anywhere without being inundated by content covering all the ins and outs of branding.

So you probably think you know what it’s all about. You “get” what branding is.

Or do you?

After all, the concept is pretty straightforward:

Define, differentiate and communicate the unique ROI (return on investment) value you offer your target audience over your competitors.

The target audience varies from person to person. Step one in defining your own brand is identifying and knowing who they are.

In job search and career management, your target audience is your future or current employer.

In business, if you’re an entrepreneur, your target audience is your customer or client base.

Either way, your brand messaging needs to resonate with that target audience. Your brand helps people decide whether to hire you, keep you as an employee, or do business with you.

Even though the concept of personal branding is simple, the elements that converge to exact a memorable brand and express it powerfully are complex.

Things like targeting, differentiating your unique value proposition and chemistry factor in. Jump over to Executive Career Brand for a breakdown of the 10 Keys To a Memorable Personal Brand.

Related posts:

10 Steps to an Authentic, Magnetic Personal Brand

Top 10 Executive Resume Branding Tips

10 Things to Love About Your Executive Brand

Executive Job Search Stress – Distract and Refocus is a post from: Executive Resume Branding

If you’re knee-deep in job search, you’ve probably found that stress comes with the territory.

Disappointments, delays, frustrations and fear are unfortunate parts of the process.

Accept it. Stress will hover about you . . . receding when things are going well and accelerating when they’re not. It creeps up in little ways, at first. Then the anxiety can become so overwhelming, it immobilizes you. That’s not good when you need to focus on getting a job.

A high stress level can keep you from performing well in interviews, making good decisions, and potentially landing the best job.

I don’t know any way to avoid stress entirely. But if you can be aware of the symptoms that typically manifest in you when you’re stressed, maybe you can stay on top of it and alleviate it.

For me, the first challenge is accepting that I’m dealing with a stressful situation and may not always handle it well.

When I am dealing with it well, I’m successful at finding ways to distract myself so I can regroup and refocus. This (usually) allows me to go back into the situation somewhat renewed and better able to manage things.

Turn to the simple things that bring you pleasure — listening to music, cooking, reading, etc.

See my Executive Career Brand post for some specific tips on dealing with job search stress by distracting yourself.

Related posts:

16 Ways to Stay Motivated in Executive Job Search

Say NO to Social Media . . . Sometimes

7 Ways To Stay Sane in Your Executive Job Search

photo by karindalziel

LinkedIn’s New Criteria For a Complete Profile is a post from: Executive Resume Branding

If you’ve spent some time on LinkedIn building your branded profile, you know that LinkedIn measures your profile for completeness, based on various criteria.

What does “100% complete” mean and why is it so important to get there?

Your profile is more likely to land higher in search results. Your visibility as a good-fit candidate increases dramatically.

Executive recruiters and hiring decision makers at your target companies are more likely to land on your profile when they’re sourcing and assessing good-fit candidates.

In mid-February, LinkedIn changed the completeness criteria and the way they calculate profile completeness:

“The new calculation gives you more control of your score by emphasizing things you have direct control over, like Skills, and putting less weight on areas you may have less control over, like Recommendations. The score also takes profile freshness into consideration, so frequent profile updates can now help with profile completeness.”

Here’s what you now need for a complete profile:

• Your industry and location
• An up-to-date current position (with a description)
• Two past positions
• Your education
• Your skills (minimum of 3)
• A profile photo
• At least 50 connections

LinkedIn says that adding a profile photo makes your profile 7x more likely to be found in searches. Having your 2 most recent positions makes your profile 12x more likely to be found.

Looks like it’s time for you and all of us who rely on LinkedIn to attract business and job opportunities, to spend a little time working on our profiles.

Related posts:

My free ebook, Executive Branding and Your LinkedIn Profile: How to Transform Your Executive Brand, Resume, and Career Biography Into a Winning LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search

Does My LinkedIn Profile Really Need a Photo?

Best LinkedIn Tips: Find LinkedIn Groups to Join

photo by nan palmero

Twitter Newbies’ Biggest Mistake is a post from: Executive Resume Branding

You’ve been swept up in the Twitter frenzy. You heard that it can help you in executive job search, so you jumped in and set up an account.

Beyond that, you don’t really know what to do with Twitter.

Oh sure, you didn’t have too much trouble providing the information they required. Selecting your Twitter name was easy. You chose @yourname, or a variation. You used the same photo you put in your LinkedIn profile and used your LinkedIn profile URL for the “Web” prompt. And you inserted your location. All easy, right?

Then you got to the “Bio” and you were stumped, so you skipped over it. You figured that, once you got a feel for Twitter, you’d come back and fill that in.

That’s it. That’s the biggest mistake you can make as a newbie . . . neglecting the bio or having an anemic bio.

Read more about that biggest newbie Twitter mistake at my Executive Career Brand blog.

Related posts:

Twitter Turbocharges Executive Job Search and Personal Brand Visibility

How Twitter Helped Me Build My Personal Brand

Twitter Executive Branding Strategy: The Beauty of a Retweet

55 Top Job Search Experts To Follow On Twitter

photo by josh semans

LinkedIn and Undercover Executive Job Search is a post from: Executive Resume Branding

Are you hesitant to use LinkedIn and all it has to offer because you’re currently employed and worried that people at work will discover you’re looking for a new job?

Then you’re like many of my c-level executive clients. A few years ago, they opened a LinkedIn account (everyone told them they needed to be on LinkedIn!), maybe filled in some of the requested information, and completely forgot about it, except when they received requests to connect.

Or maybe, like some of my clients, you’re resistant to having any online presence at all, so you don’t have even a bare-bones LinkedIn profile.

What you may not understand is that having NO LinkedIn profile is as good as being invisible to the very people you need to be positioned directly in front of. You need to have a branded, 100% complete profile (according to LinkedIn’s criteria) for passive job search — to be more easily found by executive recruiters and the hiring decision makers at your target companies.

You also may not understand that, if your LinkedIn profile lacks a keyword-rich Professional Headline and Summary section, and has little or nothing in the Experience section, people viewing it will have very little meaningful information to help them assess you.

For more information and tips, read my Executive Career Brand post on how to use LinkedIn for confidential job search.

Related posts:

LinkedIn Guide for Executive Branding and Job Search

Does Your Online Identity Scream “Hire Me”?

The Lazy C-level Executive Job Search

photo by Dave-F

FREE Personal Branding and Job Search Ebook by Tim Tyrell-Smith is a post from: Executive Resume Branding

One of my favorite job search and employment portals, Job-Hunt.org, has just released a new FREE ebook, adding to the list of 11 others already available for free download, with no sign-up required.

The ebooks range in topics from personal branding, interviewing, and career reinvention, to salary negotiations, working with recruiters and more.

The newest Job-Hunt ebook, “How To Create A Personal Marketing Plan: The 5 Powerful Steps To Bringing Your Brand To Life“, was written by Tim Tyrell-Smith, creator of the Tim’s Strategy approach to job search and Job-Hunt’s Personal Marketing Expert.

Tim explains just what “personal marketing” is:

“It is the work you do once you’ve created a personal brand. You know who you are and, importantly, know how you are different from others wanting to play the same role in the world.

You have to expose your brand and ideas to people in a way that gets them leaning in. Not turning away. So you have to be smart.”

He points out two universal truths:

1. “Marketing is hard. To do it right, anyway.

2. Marketing takes time. Only in rare cases will your brand become viral overnight (or even over a few months). People who ‘rush in’ are making mistakes. And those mistakes can be costly. Giving you a reputation that’s hard to shake.”

Tim is a wonderfully engaging writer. The ebook is quick to read (only 12 pages) and will give you actionable advice and resources, along with the tools you need to make your promise of value known to the world.

The ebook takes you through 5 steps to create and execute your personal marketing plan:

1. Build a Personal Marketing Hub
2. Learn to Engage with People
3. Start Building Social Credibility
4. Inspire Sharing of Your Ideas and Successes
5. Take a Few Calculated Risks

Download the free e-book now. Tim and Job-Hunt welcome you to share it freely with your friends or networks.

Related resources:

My ebook:  23 Ways You Sabotage Your Executive Job Search and How Your Brand Will Help You Land . . . A practical guide to executive branding, marketing your ROI value and navigating the new world of job search

My free Job-Hunt ebook:  Executive Branding and Your LinkedIn Profile: How to Transform Your Executive Brand, Resume, and Career Biography Into a Winning LinkedIn Profile

The New Work Coach Cafe Team is a post from: Executive Resume Branding

Sometime late last year, my friend and colleague Susan P. Joyce, an esteemed online job search guru, told me she was about to purchase the career blogsite Work Coach Cafe, and asked me if I’d like to be part of her team of career professionals supporting the site. I was thrilled to be asked and, without hesitation, said yes.

The founder, Ronnie Ann Himmel, had decided to move on to the next stage of her career. I’ve known of Ronnie Ann and the great work she’s done with Work Coach Cafe since it began in 2007. She built an amazing community of supportive members and will be sorely missed.

Susan summed up the challenges she’s facing in taking over the reins from Ronnie Ann:

“Ronnie Ann’s are the proverbial “big shoes” to fill, and I will do my best, honoring what Ronnie Ann has created over 5 years of hard work, and, hopefully, continuing to help people with work and job search issues.”

For nearly 15 years, Susan has been the publisher and editor of the top Internet employment portal Job-Hunt.org, named Forbes Best of the Web for Job Hunting and U.S. News & World Report Top Site for Finding Work.

I’ve known Susan for about 5 years and, for about that long, I’ve been Job-Hunt’s Personal Branding Expert, contributing articles on the various aspects of building and leveraging branding in job search.

With Job-Hunt, she is fiercely dedicated to providing job seekers the best and safest resources and advice. You can always trust her to have job seekers’ best interests at heart.

Because she knows most of the best career professionals in the industry, you can be assured that she and the new team’s mission will be to continue Ronnie Ann’s legacy of providing job seekers a safe place to fall in the daunting new world of job search and work.

You’ll see me responding to comments on Work Coach Cafe, and I’ll likely contribute blog posts and assist Susan with various behind-the-scenes activities.

Come visit us at Work Coach Café and subscribe to receive the latest blog posts. Lots of good things will be happening!

Online Personal Branding: 5 Key Elements is a post from: Executive Resume Branding

The following is my latest Job-Hunt.org article as the site’s resident Personal Branding Expert.

Do you want to increase your chances to be found by executive recruiters and your target employers?

What job seeker doesn’t?

Most recruiters and hiring authorities source talent by searching relevant keywords on LinkedIn, Google, and other search engines, and then assessing the people those searches reveal by what they find about them online.

If you’re in a job search and have no “online footprint” – that is, a good number of positive, solid search results when your name is Googled – you may be invisible to the very people you need to be positioned in front of.

The better your online reputation, the better you position yourself online, and the stronger your presence online, the more appealing you’ll be to these people.

Take a look at your own online footprint right now. Type your name into a Google search, and see what you find.

• Do you “own” the first several search results?
• Or does it take several pages of results before you get to anything related to you?
• What information will people find about you when they click on those search results?
• Is it what you need them to know about you and your potential value to the companies or organizations you want to work for?

[Note: If you are logged into your Gmail, Google, or Google+ account, Google usually "personalizes" your search results specifically for you, so log out first to see what the rest of the world sees.]

Here are the 5 components necessary to build a strong online brand for your job search:

1. Relevance

You should know, before starting your job search, which companies or which kind of companies you’re targeting, and what information about you is relevant to them and will resonate with them.

Without a clear target, how can you possibly differentiate your personal brand, ROI value and best-fit qualities, and create career marketing communications (online and offline) that will hit home, attract them and clearly distinguish you as a good hiring choice?

Keep your brand messaging relevant to your target, detailing how you can help them solve their current problems, and position yourself on sites that are relevant to and frequented by them.

2. Quality

Be careful what you post on social networks, or anywhere online. Continuously monitor your online presence. Get used to self-Googling regularly (about once a week) to see what exists on the first several pages of search results.

If someone has posted something nasty about you, see about getting it taken down. Adjust what people will find, whenever possible.

Are you finding any “digital dirt” that may disqualify you? Do you have the same name as others who have an online footprint? If so, you may easily be confused with them. That’s bad news for you, if any of them have a sordid reputation. You’ll have to work on building more positive search results to outdistance those of the bad guys.

3. Diversity

You need a good mix of static profiles/web pages and vibrant real-time content. A few online profiles that all contain the same content won’t cut it – change up the information in each one.

• Express your opinions, showcase your expertise and add value by blogging on your own site, commenting on other sites and/or guest blogging on other sites.
• Get busy on social networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, etc.
• Contribute to online forums that are open to the public, LinkedIn Group discussions, LinkedIn Answers.
• Publish white papers on relevant sites.
• Put up a profile and post book reviews on Amazon and other online booksellers.

4. Volume

Keep working on building more and more search results for your name and increase your number of diverse and accurate results on the first few pages.

To build up your volume of search results, focus on sites with strong “Google juice” (meaning, sites that Google and other search engines deem authorities because they’re content-rich, have been existence for a long time, and have a strong following, among other things), such as – LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Google itself (Google Profile).

Any activity on strong sites will likely result in those web pages (with your name on them) landing towards the top of your list of search results.

5. Consistency

You should already have done the back-end work of defining your personal brand, built around what will resonate with your target companies. (See my 10-Step Personal Branding Worksheet).

Express that same personal brand message, across all communications channels and social media you decide to use. I don’t mean that you should use the same information over and over. As I mentioned above, mix it up.

Put yourself in the place of people assessing you through your online identity and deciding whether to hire you or do business with you. If your brand message and focus varies from one real-life setting to the next or from one social network to the next or from one website to the next, your target audience won’t clearly see your promise of value to them. You’ll confuse them.

Use the same name or handle across all channels online, so that you’re easy to find and distinguish from others.

Bottom line:

Building your brand online takes planning and effort. It will take time for your hard work to gain traction and give you the kind of online presence that will appeal to your target companies. Get started now, and work on outdistancing your competition!

Related posts:

Does Your Online Presence Scream “DON’T Hire Me”?

Get Personal With Your Executive Brand Statement

How Twitter Helped Me Build My Personal Brand

photo by Vince Alongi