Company Culture Is as Real as Personal Brands Are

Company Culture Is as Real as Personal Brands Are Before JibberJobber, I worked at a company (Varsity Contractors) that did over $200M in building maintenance (janitorial, taking care of big buildings, etc.). I was the first IT Manager, and did things like web development (internet and extranet), networking management, user support, buying computers, upgrading the server room, etc.  I was a jack of all trades. Before I got there, the CFO managed about five contractors who did all of the IT stuff.  Taking that over was a blast, and I learned and grew a lot.  I am forever thankful for that chapter in my career, where I learned a lot.  One thing that Ill never forget is the power of a company culture.  Varsity had a rich history, and great contracts.  But the margins were super-thin, and we all know janitors dont make a lot of money.  But I entered a world where culture was highly touted, and one of the most critical things in the organization.  And the fruits of having a strong culture would be hard to believe, had I not witnessed them myself. One thing that stands out: watching people do ANYTHING (legal, ethical, etc.) for the company.  Not to the point of giving up their family or integrity, but managers would really do anything for the interest of the company.  They would do it gladly.  It was as if they had ownership in a big machine, and they were immensely proud of this machine.  I witnessed this for years, and was in awe at how powerful the culture was. Why?  How?  That is for another post.  In this post I want to just talk about the idea of culture it is real, and it is powerful. I share this with you because of three blog posts I recently read: Company Culture Is A Myth, by Laurie Ruettimann. Ive followed Laurie for years, and love her thinking.  But I dont agree with her post.  Many of her commentors, who are in HR or recruiting, dont agree either. Read the comments, and note the big difference between culture and fit. Does your job search plan address company culture? by Martin Buckland. I also love how Martin thinks hes an executive job search coach in Canada, and puts out great stuff.  This question reminds me of someone I know who transitioned careers and chose to go into a company that paid well (for a while then they did a bait-and-switch snakes!), but had a demoralizing, soul-crushing culture.  This was a first-hand example that proved that money isnt everything, and that money cant compensate for certain horrible things.  Go after money, and disregard culture, at your own peril. Why Am I Here? By Kylie Hunt, a new Pluralsight author.  Kylie is in Australia and in this inaugural blog post, she talks about why she left the company she has been at for over 10 years. Specifically, the leadership and the culture pushed her away, to a point of being unhappy, and she had to leave. Is it any surprise that her first course in Pluralsight is titled Boost Productivity Through Employee Happiness? Note: I can give you free access to her course, and to all of mine just watch the short how-to video on this page. Bonus: watch any of my courses, and you get an additional 7 day upgrade on JibberJobber. You can poo-poo the concept of culture, but having been there, and hearing from hundreds or thousands of job seekers over the years, I know, and cannot deny, the existence and power of company culture.  That could be at the meta level, or within a small team, or anywhere inbetween. What are your experiences, positive or negative, with culture within a company? Company Culture Is as Real as Personal Brands Are Before JibberJobber, I worked at a company (Varsity Contractors) that did over $200M in building maintenance (janitorial, taking care of big buildings, etc.). I was the first IT Manager, and did things like web development (internet and extranet), networking management, user support, buying computers, upgrading the server room, etc.  I was a jack of all trades. Before I got there, the CFO managed about five contractors who did all of the IT stuff.  Taking that over was a blast, and I learned and grew a lot.  I am forever thankful for that chapter in my career, where I learned a lot.  One thing that Ill never forget is the power of a company culture.  Varsity had a rich history, and great contracts.  But the margins were super-thin, and we all know janitors dont make a lot of money.  But I entered a world where culture was highly touted, and one of the most critical things in the organization.  And the fruits of having a strong culture would be hard to believe, had I not witnessed them myself. One thing that stands out: watching people do ANYTHING (legal, ethical, etc.) for the company.  Not to the point of giving up their family or integrity, but managers would really do anything for the interest of the company.  They would do it gladly.  It was as if they had ownership in a big machine, and they were immensely proud of this machine.  I witnessed this for years, and was in awe at how powerful the culture was. Why?  How?  That is for another post.  In this post I want to just talk about the idea of culture it is real, and it is powerful. I share this with you because of three blog posts I recently read: Company Culture Is A Myth, by Laurie Ruettimann. Ive followed Laurie for years, and love her thinking.  But I dont agree with her post.  Many of her commentors, who are in HR or recruiting, dont agree either. Read the comments, and note the big difference between culture and fit. Does your job search plan address company culture? by Martin Buckland. I also love how Martin thinks hes an executive job search coach in Canada, and puts out great stuff.  This question reminds me of someone I know who transitioned careers and chose to go into a company that paid well (for a while then they did a bait-and-switch snakes!), but had a demoralizing, soul-crushing culture.  This was a first-hand example that proved that money isnt everything, and that money cant compensate for certain horrible things.  Go after money, and disregard culture, at your own peril. Why Am I Here? By Kylie Hunt, a new Pluralsight author.  Kylie is in Australia and in this inaugural blog post, she talks about why she left the company she has been at for over 10 years. Specifically, the leadership and the culture pushed her away, to a point of being unhappy, and she had to leave. Is it any surprise that her first course in Pluralsight is titled Boost Productivity Through Employee Happiness? Note: I can give you free access to her course, and to all of mine just watch the short how-to video on this page. Bonus: watch any of my courses, and you get an additional 7 day upgrade on JibberJobber. You can poo-poo the concept of culture, but having been there, and hearing from hundreds or thousands of job seekers over the years, I know, and cannot deny, the existence and power of company culture.  That could be at the meta level, or within a small team, or anywhere inbetween. What are your experiences, positive or negative, with culture within a company?

This May Be Too Disgusting to Read But Its True - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

This May Be Too Disgusting to Read But It’s True - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Last week on Oprah, MacKenzie Phillips launched her new personal brand. She is the self-dubbed, new face of “consensual incest,” according to Sunday’s New York Times. I won’t guess what reaction you’re having to MacPhil’s latest attempt to spin a lifetime of addiction and dereliction into an Oprah book bestseller (featured for ratings, not endorsed for your book club). At least consider the effort a stroke of branding genius. First, she set up her defense team’s argument for TV cameras being permitted in the courtroom for the trial on her latest drug arrest. As a public service, her situation could be framed as a “teachable moment” for parents and children who have gone way beyond breaching the missive that parents should be parents and not friends (especially not friends with benefits). Because I am a former marketing executive with the world’s #1 brand, I’m particularly taken with La Phillip’s hoary “reinvention” brand strategy. Thank aging heavyweights Madonna and Cher for pioneering a century of superb repackaging and unintentional self-lampooning. Sum up the years of the careers of these spackled and taut divas with their astonishing trophies of tiny bottoms spandexed onto fishnet hose peek-a-booing relentlessly dancing legs, and 100 years doesn’t actually cover their long and winding if withered clutch on international fame. Your market place Of course, for personal and real brands, the pervasive challenge is to define a unique position in a developed market place. Almost no “space” is vacant and lying fallow these days, leaving room for a new brand to gain the first mover advantage. Yet, the benefits of first mover advantage are inarguable, if expensive and transitory. Think of some of the first mover icons in real and personal brands: Microsoft, Eva Peron, Apple and Sarah Palin. In personal brands, even the celebrity “mean girl” space is cluttered, as it is in every high school, proving that art imitates life.   Heidi, Lindsay, whomever Lindsay breaks up with and Perez Hilton are among about 25 top contestants for icon of that brand personality. By contrast, Natalie Portman holds steady with her promise as educated, beautiful and the least celebrated of all celebrity personal brand promises: civilized. First mover advantage For the same reason that Snapple cramps the style of Sweet Leaf Tea, competition from a current brand in the category is the reason why Mackenzie has to settle for being the “new” face of consensual incest. Unfortunately for her, the same Sunday New York Times article points out that another woman already owns the first mover advantage in the category. That would be the author Kathryn Harrison, who broke ground in her 1997 memoir, “The Kiss,” detailing her own dance with the “devil as my father.” The potential for Mackenzie’s differentiation is that Harrsion’s father lived to voice his “outrage” and Harrison enjoys a real but also storybook ending with a loving husband and children living happily ever after with her. There’s also a reunification with her complicit mother who becomes beloved to the author! If that’s not enough yuck factor for you, read the book. There’s plenty more including scenes with her gynecologist, so have soda crackers ready to settle your stomach. By contrast in Phillips family, dad is dead and stepmothers stay storybook wicked. A bevy of Phillips wives claw over each other to say the man they all bedded “would never.” And, not one to miss a co-branding opportunity: savvy half-sister Chynna gives the round to Mackenzie, and surprise-surprise boasts the good fortune of timing the release of her new CD with her sibling’s confessional accusation. There’s even room in the brand blowout for Bijou, who is approaching actress hump day at 29 with a project to be announced for sure. Celebrity branding wars? Celebrity branding for mindshare looks a bit like the cola wars this year. Ever so often the blue challenger competes against the real thing and makes some noise before fading back. Right now, as the Phillips family of brands grabs the stage, it slightly dims the light on Michael Jackson’s family, as they all race to make money on perverse and tragedy-based iconography. As the new LA Personal Brand Examiner, I may not have a lock on celebrity brands just yet. But, my money is on the Jacksons. After all, they own half the Beatles publishing catalog. At the end of the week, does anyone care who owns Monday, Monday? Author: Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen.

Want to Grow Your Business and Improve Profitability Turn to Email Marketing

Want to Grow Your Business and Improve Profitability Turn to Email Marketing Spam. This is one of the first things that comes to mind when people think about email marketing. You can’t stand the endless parade of junk emails that flood your account (and you have no idea from where they come from). It takes you 10, 20, and maybe even 3o minutes every single day just to sift through it all. A spam filter can certainly help people with this, but it can also derail your email marketing campaigns. The last thing you want is to bombard others with emails from your side hustle business. But you want this #sidehustle business to be successful! You may be working a full-time job, several jobs, or going to school, and no matter what you’ve got going on, you’re building a business on the side. One of the greatest challenges you’re facing at the moment is boosting profitability. Perhaps you’ve tried pay-per-click ads on Google, Facebook promotions, and other methods, but while you may increase profits a little bit for a short time, it doesn’t last. What you need to do is build relationships. Consumers in today’s society are focused on relationships. Sure, they want to save money and you’re going to encounter plenty of people who only worry about the cost of an item, but the vast majority of prospective customers (at least the ones you want to focus on) are more concerned with whether you’re an authority, whether you care about them, and what you’re willing to do to ensure they get the most from the products or services they purchase from your side hustle business. One of the most effective ways to do this is through email marketing. You don’t need to go out and start emailing any and every email you can find or purchase email lists (remember, those names associated with those email addresses didn’t sign up for your offers, but someone else’s), but you can start building your own email list. How do you build an email list? There are numerous things you could do. One is to offer a free giveaway, such as an informative ebook your target market would truly find useful. You could also offer free services, discounts, or something else of value. When people do offer their email address for something you’re offering, you still need to think about spam. Sometimes your emails will end up in the junk folder, where they will never be seen or read. A quality spam filter is a powerful tool that will help your emails reach the main inbox and boost visibility. When your emails are being noticed and when you have clear, potent, and engaging subject lines, you increase the chances your target market will actually read them, and when they read them, they will be more likely to click on whatever call-to-action you’ve included, which will inspire them to purchase from you and that will boost your profitability.

Need Help Finding Candidate Emails Try Hunter

Need Help Finding Candidate Emails Try Hunter Searching for the right candidate can be a tedious task, spending hours online searching for someone then trying to find their contact details without any success. Or even the times you want to contact someone that works for a specific business. You go to their website and are unable to find any relevant contact details that would be of use to you. For headhunters, employers, and recruiters, all of this can be a long and unproductive waste of your time. Sometimes it can be a huge pain in the backside. So we found Hunter, and want to share it with you. Hunter is a headhunters dream. It allows you to easily find email addresses from anywhere on the web, with just a few clicks of a button. It is  trusted by more than 400,000 users, as well as global conglomerates like IBM, Google, Microsoft and more. Features Hunter has three key features: 1. The domain search allows you to download a list of relevant company emails from the domain you have provided. 2. The email verification check is useful for validating that the email address you want to contact is still active, accessible and safe to connect with. 3. There is also an email tacker for Gmail, similar to the one implemented on Hubspot, that lets you know when your recipients open your emails. Benefits Hunter works extremely smoothly as an extension in Google Chrome, and it functions well with important sales and headhunting tools such as Hubspot, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, Zapier and Salesforce. Hunter had become an extremely popular tool for headhunters who spend most of their day searching for candidates on Linkedin, but unfortunately, Hunters integration with LinkedIn has now been removed. Problems One downside is that it is not integrated into Safari, which is the second most used web browser behind Google Chrome of course, and might be the preferred web browser for some people. Hunter just announced its integration with Firefox, so were sure a Safari integration is in the pipeline for the near future. Test To test out Hunter, we selected 20 LinkedIn accounts to check whether or not it was able to find their email address on their LinkedIn page. A simple check to see how reliable Hunter really is. We made sure that all the accounts were first and foremost active, and secondly were owned by people in high positions such as Founders, CEO’s, Managers, and Executives from all around the world in order to increase the possibility that their email address would be attainable. Our test found that Hunter was able to identify 80% of the email addresses from our sample group. That’s 16 email addresses out of the 20 Linkedin accounts. 80% is a little lower than we expected, as we anticipated something around the 90% mark. As noted previously, Hunter has now removed its extension from Linkedin, therefore the majority of benefits you would receive from the service will now come from its integration with company websites, and social media platforms like Twitter. Price Hunter is free for the first 100 requests, then you can choose from Starter, Growth, Pro and Enterprise packs which vary from €39 to €319 per month. If youve purchased Hunter, or use it religiously, wed love to know if it has been worth your money! Were sure other readers would appreciate it as well. Rating ????? (4/5) We like the product but had to deduct a few points because of the fact that it could not find a few emails of high-profile people when we were testing out the product. Other than that, Hunter is an unobtrusive extension we recommend  headhunters  use and is designed to make your online headhunting process far more fruitful than it has ever been. Sponsored: This is a paid article but the review has been written objectively by our editorial team.

Writing a Professional Ad Resume

Writing a Professional Ad ResumeWhy bother to write a professional, ad resume? Adverts need someone who is in-demand and capable of providing the necessary marketing expertise. When you are in a job that offers you the opportunity to market the business or product, it is important to know how to best sell the company and brand.Marketing is what sells. With an ad resume, you have a chance to really make a statement. It is your chance to stand out from the crowd. You want to give a professional image of you and your business.Advertising can be the same as promotion. Many people have jobs where they get promotional materials like flyers or brochures to distribute to their potential customers. Many others do this type of marketing themselves, often either from home or with the use of the internet. The two words that go together in advertising is 'promo'.With promotion, it is all about getting a 'buzz' around the advertisement campaign. This is where the customers are concerned. If you ar e trying to market a product, you have to see that it is something that customers will buy.'Competing' with others is what makes the competition between companies. While a competitive edge is required to win an audience, competition is what keeps people interested. You may be a part of a company, but without other competitors, the name of the company is not getting out there.Showing your potential customer that you are serious about the company and its products or services will help you gain the attention of the prospective customers. Many new business owners learn this lesson the hard way. Advertise that you are experienced and will do anything to get the word out.This is a perfect example of advertising. You are trying to find out what the masses want. If you advertise that you are up for anything, it will definitely help get you more customers.So if you are looking to get your foot in the door with your first ad, then you must be willing to write the ad resume. This is the docume nt that allows you to stand out from the crowd. It is the chance to write a professional ad resume and find a job that you will be happy to work for.

Ten Things Job Seekers Must Do in 2012

Ten Things Job Seekers Must Do in 2012 261 Flares 261 Flares Yesterday I read a  post over on Life Without Pants that provided some much needed inspiration for todays COTJ piece.  The post is titled, 10 Things You Must Do to Make 2012 The Best Year Ever.   Go now or later, but definitely stop by and read it. Lets jump right into it! 1.  Increase Your Time Spent on Linkedin:  If you dont have time, then minimize your trips to Facebook.  Im almost certain that some people spend 10-15 hours per week just on Facebook.  Thats sickening, but Im close to 20 hours per week, so no worries. Make quality connections on Linkedin and set goals as to how many new requests youll send per week.  More targeted connections on Linkedin will result in more open doors for now and also in the future. Heres a beginners guide that I created. 2. Stop Applying to Every Job:  Applying to every damn thing you see is the wrong approach.  Its easy for recruiters to tell that you are just taking a stab in the dark.  When youre passionate about a job and/0r determined to gain a position in a specific field/industry, it shines through like you wouldnt believe.  Focus in on a few specific job types to apply to. 3.  Ask For Help:  Youre not alone and help is easy to come by.  If youve been unemployed for longer than 6 months, chances are that you need to change things up, refocus, and/or hire professional help.  A Career Coach can do amazing things for your job search. 4.  Learn a New Skill:  Find a class or certification thats relatively inexpensive.  While learning something new, youll end up boosting your resume and meeting new people that could potentially help you find a job. 5.  Refresh Your Resume:  Start over!  Research new formats to use and look for ways to spice up your content.  Keep the original so that you can copy information over, but its time for a facelift!  Also, make sure to include keywords to ensure its picked up by the company ATS or other HR Solutions. 6.  Change Your Routine:  Start going to a different coffee house.  Walk/Run a different route.  Get a week free pass at a different gym.  Do things a little different for a while.  You may meet some new and interesting people. 7.  Pick Up The Phone:  While #1 points to spending ample time on Linkedin, job seekers must learn to take online connections offline as soon as possible.  Conversations online build connections.  Conversations offline build trust. 8.  Blog:  Social Media usage has seen tremendous increases across all demographics over the last few years.  More than ever, company recruiters are utilizing social networks to connect with and also learn about job seekers.  Hire Me campaigns were huge in 2011, and I envision them becoming more common and more creative in 2012.  Starting a blog for your industry will help you make tons of connections, while also furthering yourself as a thought leader. 9.  Set a Job Search Schedule: I dont believe that a job search should be 40 hours per week, but I do believe it should be scheduled.  Schedule time Monday through Friday for your job search. This helps ensure that you dont burn out and spend far too much time looking for jobs/applying.   Outside of your schedule, try to relax and get away from your search as much as possible.  Its critical to recharge your batteries before the next day. 10:  Do Something Weird To Stand Out:  During long periods of unemployment, it should be obvious that something needs to change.  If you really are qualified for the jobs youve applied for, then what has gone wrong?  My guess is that companies are drowning in resumes and cant find you. Some people didnt like this suggestion, but maybe you send your resume in a big empty box and have it delivered to HR.  Maybe you hand out resumes in rush hour traffic.  Maybe you create business cards for your job search and scatter them all over a parking lot.  While 99 people might absolutely hate these ideas,  all you really need is 1 person to think its genius.  You just have to like those odds! What are your job search goals for 2012?  Would you change any of my suggestions?

Good-Bye Job Boards

Good-Bye Job Boards As a job seeker, you already know this, Im sure.   Not all jobs get posted on-line.   In fact, the good ones are filled through referrals and never make the job boards.   So why are they being used to measure the health of the job market by The Conference Board, Inc? (FYI, The help-wanted on-line data series measures the number of first-time on-line job ads and unduplicated on-line ads in nine census regions and 52 metropolitan Internet job boards and job boards serving smaller geographic areas) Hot off the press of RBJ which reported Conference Board findings for the month: Rochester-area businesses posted fewer total ads than each of the largest MSAs surveyed nationally. This is an interested finding and I am dont know how to explain  the root cause of this lag.  (We entered into the recession later than some regions, not all of them.) June 2008   4.63 million jobs posted nationally June 2009   3.29 million  jobs posted nationally Net change   1.34 million fewer jobs posted nationally.   Where did they all go? I dont think you can blame all of this on the economy.  There may be fewer  companies hiring because they are watching expenses after their decline in  profits.   It could also be that with so many people out  and looking, employers dont want to be overwhelmed by resumes and applicants.  They may, in fact, be hiring.   Perhaps they  are  using methods the Conference Board hasnt found a  way to track yet-  referrals and social network platforms. Dan Schawbels been conducting his own research and predicts the end is near for job boards.  Read his full post!  He has only 220 respondents so far and will continue the study longer, however, initial findings are: There are some key points here: We are living in rapidly changing times The way we used to do things is changing Network now and always to manage your career!