StevieSue.com

One of the first things you find in situations where you are meeting new people is that they want to know about your work…what you do. They don’t want some long drawn out life history and it would obviously be rude and nonproductive to wave off their interest. Yet, you need to be able to effectively and naturally deliver the info they seek. Stuff like, what your work consists of now, what your experience (work &/or education) is, and maybe a bit about your career goals. They just need to be able to categorize you a bit. Getting categorized sounds rude but it is meant to be helpful. If an opportunity comes up that they want to share, they need to be able to quickly pull you out of their mental filing system. Many people love to make connections and help others this way especially if it is easy and they know just the right person to refer.

So, have you spent time practicing your one minute bio? The exercise feels kinda lame and unnatural but the important thing is that you give it some thought and practice putting your voice to your thoughts about your work — where you have been careerwise and where you are going.

There is an art to networking. It is quite difficult to remember to take a moment to understand who you are interacting with and how to best present yourself in various situations. But keep your mind on it and stay aware for opportunity, not just opportunity for you but opportunity to help others somehow — that is powerful networking. The person you help may not be the one to help you but you set wheels into motion by being generous with your knowledge, info, and positive energy.

The success of the album Nevermind was an accident of creative genius by punk rockers who reluctantly hit it big, right? Not exactly.

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Question: What is the quickest way to loose your mojo when it comes to career management?

Answer: Don’t have any savings.

We are all learning more each day and gathering new skills, insights, and info so a career decision will likely not be made once and for all. Situations change, technology changes, lifestyle preferences change too along with a person’s abilities, interests, skills, and values. So career choice is really an evolving process rather than deciding once and for all.

In job interviews of the past, potential employers saw only the papers handed to them and the impression that was made when a person entered the interview room combined with what others said about the interviewee beforehand. Now potential employers can and do get an even more accurate sense of personality, skills, and history based on an online presence before a person is invited to an interview.

Social networking websites strive to bring people of similar interests together in a “meeting place” online. I like to say that it is almost as good as attending a convention in person without the costs of travel or vacation time. Of course, meeting in person is ideal, but with the multimedia capabilities of today you can establish new, and even deepen existing relationships with a little online savvy. With social networking online it becomes easier to visualize your personal and/or professional networks. You can also connect people you know with other people you know quite easily using online introductions—a powerful networking strategy.

Social media is powerful and it is here to stay. There is potential for competitive advantage by having a presence online, but you have to manage your online identity in a way that positively serves you. By using social networking technology, you provide proof of your technology and communication skills (or lack thereof) depending upon how carefully you utilize the medium. And, by the way, the absence of an online presence is becoming a detriment to successful networking and job search too.

This has some strong language but the core message is really something. He is talking to web entrepreneurs but I think what he is saying is also applicable people who are working to develop their careers.

Listen to the passion in his voice…he has an important message to share. Find your passion and use it to serve others by developing your personal brand.

I’ve posted before about the resume’s downward spiral. Deb Dib tells it like it is so well today at the CareerHub blog. Check it out!

The other possibility when you begin ego surfing is that negative information comes up within the first three pages or so of search results. In this case, you have a couple of options. One is to contact the source of the negative information and ask for that information to be removed. The answer may be “no,” but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Beyond that, it is time to get to work creating more favorable footprints on the internet so that the negative gets pushed back on search results to beyond the fifth page or so. To do that, get busy creating new profiles and presentations of yourself online. Get on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Plaxo. Then move beyond those to additional social networking sites such as Facebook.com and MySpace.com. Remember, keep those presentations professional because you want positive stuff coming up about you on the first few pages of search results for your name.

A superb way to quickly bury negative search results is to create a blog or vlog. Blogs are simple websites that are used for written comments on a particular topic. Vlogs provide video commentary over the web in much the same way and are becoming popular, too. Here is a recent post I made that includes info on how to get started blogging.

To ego surf means to search the internet for your own name to see what information comes up. Begin the search at Pipl.com then follow up with a search at Google.com. Next, add one of the meta-search engines. Meta-search engines gather search results from many search engines at one time pulling the results together for review. Try Mamma.com, Dogpile.com, or Metasearch.com.

On a side note, a variation of meta-search that you may find useful is Chimby.com which is specifically for searching career advice-related articles. Additionally, meta-searching job openings can be achieved through SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com.

Back to ego surfing…there are a couple of possibilities you might learn about your online presence. One is that nothing comes up about you and the other is that negative info comes up.

If nothing comes up then it is time to embark upon a web presence campaign! A simple way to begin is with Twitter.com which is a mini-blogging platform. It is called a mini-blog because users are limited to posting messages of only 140 characters in length at a time. People simply sign up for a user name, then they begin posting messages–or “tweeting.” For career advancement purposes, remember to post tweets that reveal your specialized knowledge and skills, AND that showcase your personality.

Keep in mind, Twitter is a double edged sword. The downside is that it is very easy to send off scathing or sarcastic one-liners that do not demonstrate the best a you have to offer. The upside is that with very little, but consistent, effort you can build a web presence and begin fruitful dialog with others.

Another easy way to get started is to create a LinkedIn.com and/or Plaxo.com profile. LinkedIn is a key professional networking website. Recruiters and human resources professionals are getting quite accustomed to checking LinkedIn to find talent and to vet individual applicants before beginning an in-person dialog. LinkedIn also offers a question and answer area that is a great place to network.

Plaxo is also very good, but for different reasons. Most useful is that Plaxo enables people to automatically see what you are posting on the net via your “pulse stream.” So if you post an update to your blog or submit a new bookmark to your favorite bookmarking site, it will show up on your pulse stream which members of your Plaxo network will see. Plaxo also features the ability to make a business side of your profile and a personal side of your profile so that you may divide up who gets to see what. Plaxo started out as a web-based contact manager to keep address and information up-to-date, so it does that very well, too.

Creating LinkedIn and Plaxo profiles will be somewhat familiar because they resemble a resume format. One big difference is the ability to post a picture with a profile. You may want to have professional photos taken or otherwise use a suitable digital photo for upload. Adequate photo editing for online resizing of digital photos can be done for free at ShrinkPictures.com. I suggest the “create avatar” tool for use with Twitter, LinkedIn, and Plaxo profiles. This tool will shrink the photo down to a perfect size for posting online with just one click so you do not have to worry about defining dimensions or file size. By the way, avatar is an image, symbol, or graphic that represents a person online. You can get very creative with your avatars, but remember for career advancement purposes you will need to maintain a professional image.

For info on what to do when negative info comes up when ego surfing, check back here Friday or better yet click the blue RSS button at the upper left of the page. Thanks!

I have been blogging for a year and it has been a roller coaster ride. I began with a less than enthusiastic attitude because I was not sure about the process and there were tough decisions and commitments to make.  But now I am so happy that I tackled the learning curve because starting the blog helped me find my personal brand and gave me a reason to learn more about internet technology. Now as my first year of blogging comes to a close I have my arms up and I am screaming and laughing down the roller coaster’s big hill! It has been a worthwhile endeavor.

Blogging does not have to be a huge time commitment either. Heck, you can even use Twitter.com for micro blogging to begin building an online presence in a little by little kind of way that will add up after a few months (btw, I would be honored if you follow me on Twitter).

Examples of easy and popular software used for creating blogs include WordPress.com, Blogger.com, and TypePad.com. WordPress and Blogger offer ways to get started in blogging for free with just a couple of clicks. Blogger is an easy way for a non-techie person to get started within minutes. WordPress has more options that may be needed as a blogger becomes more experienced. It also offers excellent search engine optimization but it has a slower learning curve for the inexperienced.

An easy way to have your blog hosted on a domain name of your choice is to go with a hosting company that includes blog set up. I can highly recommend my hosting company www.hostmysite.com where you can set up a dedicated domain name for your blog for $45 per year. They have excellent customer service and you should feel free to call them with even the most basic questions about your new blog.

I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but blogging really is a cutting-edge way of being involved in your industry and providing proof of knowledge and technology savvy. The best thing that happens when you start blogging is that whole new relevant and deep discussions take place and new networking relationships and industry connections are made.