Unemployed in Des Moines

Pete Kistler is a leading Online Reputation Management expert for Generation Y, one of the Top 30 Definitive Personal Branding Experts on Twitter, a widely-read career development blogger for Brand-Yourself.com, and a Judge for the 2009 Personal Brand Awards.

Pete is a young, enthusiastic and active entrepreneur. As CEO, he manages strategic vision for Brand‐Yourself.com, the world’s first online reputation management platform for job applicants, named one of the Top 100 Most Innovative College Startups in the U.S. He has won a number of top honors for his writing, presentations and business plans.

When was the last time you Googled yourself? Nine out of ten recruiters now use the web to find information about potential applicants. And half of employers are more likely to hire candidates that invest time in developing a strong online brand using social networks.What does that mean for you? It’s time to shape up your online image! All of us, especially Generation Y, have all kinds of content out there: high school track scores, Facebook wall posts, blog comments, etc. And these digital breadcrumbs make up an online image that can work for or against us. Luckily, there is a new tool to help you make sure your online image actually helps advance your career.That tool is called Brand-Yourself.com, and it’s the first online reputation management platform for young professionals of its kind. My team and I at Brand-Yourself have been working hard to develop it, and we’re officially launching it this week.After working closely with readers like you, top HR folks and personal branding experts, we’ve created a process that makes it easy to manage your reputation. We walk you through our four-step process with automated tools along the way. Not only does it work, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun!
You will proactively:

• Build on-brand content that aligns with your career goals
• Optimize that content to show up at the top of Google
• Promote yourself in the right places using social media
• Monitor your progress along the way

Step One: BuildIn the Build section, we help you create the content you want people to associate with your name. We help you pinpoint your core strengths and build high-ranking web pages and profiles that demonstrate them.

Example Tool: Google Results Organizer

Throughout the process we’ve built some cool tools. Our Google Results Organizer is a fun way to discover how people perceive you when they Google you. You identify which results are about you and which are not by clicking and dragging results into appropriate columns. Our search engine optimization tools in the next section will then help you raise relevant results up above negative or irrelevant results.

Step Two: Optimize

Creating favorable content is not enough. The optimize section empowers you to choose which content shows up at the top of Google over negative content, irrelevant content and other peoples’ results.

Step Three: Promote

Being found when people are searching for you is an excellent reactive approach. In the Promote section, we help you proactively promote your content to the right people in the right places. We help you do this via social media by serving you daily recommendations of what to do next, and who to connect with to build your brand’s network.

Step Four: Monitor

Growing your reputation is an ongoing process. In the Monitor section, we make it easy to monitor your progress along the way by tracking changes in Google results and mentions of your name across the social web.

Over the past few months we’ve literally lived at the office, building the platform you can now try for free today. We’ve built something we are proud of, and we can’t wait to share it with you – and hear what you think.

For the first ten people who comment with feedback on the system, I’ll email you extra-extended free trial promo codes!

So poke around! Let us know what you like and what you’d change.

Sign Up for a Free Trial and We’ll Donate $0.25 to I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation

During our official launch this week, when you sign up for a free trial, we’ll donate $0.25 to the I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation, which ensures that every young adult affected by cancer is given access to the best support possible. The foundation strives to be a national leader in cancer advocacy, support and research, working exclusively on behalf of adolescents and young adults affected by cancer. With your support, they will continue providing hope, education and community to millions of survivors around the world.

1. Sign up for a free Brand-Yourself trial now >
2. Comment with your feedback and get an extension on your trial!

I’ve decided to take up office hours.

This Thursday (and almost every other Thursday from this Thursday, so check the calendar), I’ll be parked at Smokey Row from 9-11am. Anyone is free to come and chat.

I’ve had quite a few people reach out to me lately interested in “having my ear”, so I thought this would be the most efficient way for me to touch the most people.

On the opposing Thursdays we’ll have Unemployed in Des Moines networking.

Thoughts?

© 2010 – All Rights Reserved – Sharon B. Cohen, MA, Dip.Educ, CPRP. Licensed Counselor. Career Counselor and Career Transition Specialist. Read all of her career blog postings at http://www.mycareermanager.blogspot.com/. On LinkedIn: “Sharon B. Cohen” On Twitter: “Mycareermanager”

•Is your resume getting the attention it deserves?

• Ever wonder what happens when you apply online?

• Ever try to apply to a job you are qualified, only to be blocked by the software?

• Wonder if the keywords in your resume are the “hot” keywords for your industry?

If you answered yes, to any of these questions, you need to learn about ATS software, right away! Each time you submit a resume online, chances are that ATS software will be used, to screen you in, or screen you out.

Learn how to build your resume with the keywords employers want…

ATS software

What is it?

According to Wikipedia, an “Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application that enables the electronic handling of recruitment needs. Nearly all major corporations use some form of Applicant Tracking Systems to handle job applications and to manage resume data. This provides a central location and database and enables companies to manage resumes and applicant information. Data is either collected from internal applications via the ATS front-end, located on the company website or is extracted from applicants on job boards.”

“Who uses it and why?

Further, Wikipedia states that “the majority of job and resume boards (Monster, Hotjobs, Career Builder) have partnerships with ATS software providers to provide parsing support and ease of data migration from one system to another.” According to Pat Kendall, from Jump-Start your Job-Search Online,” Web-based recruiting costs are about one-third the cost of traditional recruiting methods. The right keywords determine whether you are successful in getting your product or your message to your targeted audience. Whether you’re trying to attract customers or employers, the right keywords equal success.” http://www.jumpstartyourjobsearch.com/chapter1.html

How is ATS used by Human Resource staff, to prescreen applicants?

Employers use keywords to search for candidates with specific skills, which match their job postings, department needs and/or company culture. Your resume should contain the keywords which reflect your skills, knowledge and experience. The ATS software, can find keywords, regardless of where they appear on your resume. The most common keywords which employers look for is the position titles, education and degrees and the position descriptions. To increase your resume’s visibility, and online matches/hits, research the standard industry keywords. Though, software may be the “first set of eyes” to see your resume, hopefully, eventually a human being will see it. As such the top half of the first page is the prime real-estate. This is the section that recruiters and HR professionals can read, without having to scroll down the page.

How does it work: from the company/employer side?

Budgets are tight, HR departments have been cut, resumes are flooding the market. There just isn’t enough human capitol to manually screen resumes and applicants. Thus, companies are increasingly relying on Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to receive, store, and filter resumes. This software stores each resume into an online databases. Whenever the employer wants to search for candidates, they type in keywords, to find applicants in their database. Thus, it is essential that job seekers use the “hot” keywords to get their resumes noticed.

Examples of ATS software in use…

At GSU, Business Career Services, we manage several local, national and Global job-banks for our students. Currently, we have about 8,000 business student and 11,000+ employers in our databases. There are over 40 common search criteria which both employers and career staff, use when looking for candidates. One example is when the Career Department creates bi-annual resume books for employers. We create a different resume book for each major and specialization. However, we use ATS software to create search parameters such as degree, start date, graduation date, etc… This will help us quickly and effectively, pull the correct resume from the system. Note: this is predicated on whether students, have followed instructions and listed their degree and major correctly in the system. There are always last minute add-ins, which we have to manually enter into the system. Once the ATS software has pulled the resumes, we create hard-copy resume books, and send them to our key, recruiters and employer partners.

Example of how ATS software: may make mistakes…

One tip I would recommend is to avoid overuse of industry jargon and acronyms. IE: if you have a project management certificate, don’t just list “PMP, also list Project Management Professional. Regardless of whether an employer searches by acronym or term, your resume will have double the chances of being noticed. The ATS systems, aren’t discriminative or “smart.” A trained Human Resource professional, will know that PMP is the acronym for Project Management professional. However, the ATS software, often doesn’t have this capability and may screen you out! I have seen this occur, even when candidates match the job criteria perfectly. When this occurs on job-boards, which I manage, I create a manual over-ride, to allow the resume to go through. Many of us have had the experience of applying for jobs online, for which we are qualified, only to be stumped by the software, which doesn’t let us progress to the “submit” stage.

5 Resources for discovering “hot” keywords. Get your Resume to the top of the pile@!

1. Conduct info interviews w. industry contacts. What buzzwords are they using? What skills sets come up as “must have” over and over during your meetings?

2. What hot topics appear in your industry newsletters, online sites? What topics are experts in your industry presenting at national, trade conferences? Stay involved in your industry’s trade associations, events, lectures etc. It is as important to stay current, while you are employed, as when you are not. These days there isn’t any job security.

3. Job Descriptions: Go to the major job-boards, type in the job titles you are interested in. Read the job descriptions, very carefully. Are there any trends? Do all of them ask for 2-3 specific skills?

4. Classified ads/online ads: what skills are the employers asking for? How is this worded?

5. Check out the major search engines (Google, Yahoo). Review articles about your field. How do they describe jobs in your field?

Brent Humphries was a technical project manager at the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care. His position was eliminated in June 2009, after five years with the nonprofit. Previously, he worked as an IT contractor for various financial services companies. Mr. Humphries, 37, earned a part-time MBA from the University of Iowa in 2009. He lives in Des Moines, Iowa.

I just finished the third interview in a week where the interviewer never even looked at my resume. In a world where companies streamline the screening process to the nth degree, personal networks trump everything else, and applicants are little more than a list of keywords. The conventional resume is dead.

In the interests of efficiency, companies seem to be squeezing out almost all of the opportunities for an applicant to creatively differentiate themselves. I recently completed an online application where 95% of the requested fields were marked as mandatory, and almost none of the fields were free-form. In the instructions, the implication was clear that “irregularities” or incomplete data would negatively impact an applicant’s chances of being hired.

So far in my job search, my personal network has proven to be infinitely more useful than my resume has been. For network-derived job leads, I’ve almost always secured at least a first interview; for job leads where my resume is the first contact with the company, it’s just not happening.

Since there is still a glut of job applicants for many positions, companies can continue to require long lists of highly specialized skills and dismiss applicants who don’t have all of them. In this scenario, meeting 100% of the job requirements plus 95% of the preferred skills often means that applying for the job isn’t going to result in getting an interview. Based on my experience, the idea of assessing an applicant from their resume and determining their usefulness to the organization has been replaced with simply counting keywords.

So, what am I doing to move my job search forward in a post-resume world? I’m putting more effort into my resume. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. I’m using my resume so it helps with my job search as it needs to be today. Writing and re-writing my resume helps to organize my thoughts about my career, helping me to be more prepared in interviews to discuss my experience, credentials, and strengths in a way that highlights how I can help the organization. My resume is also how my network gets me interviews, because a proper resume is still a requirement for most positions and makes it easier for my network to convince a hiring manager that I’m a good candidate for an interview.

A resume is still an opportunity to stand out to the people who read it, even if most “readers” are automated programs that are just counting keywords. One out-of-the-box option someone recently mentioned to me was to send out Valentine’s Day-themed resumes like using red ink on pink paper. Who knows, something so unusual might get my resume the attention it hasn’t garnered lately…I wonder if I should order some of those candy hearts with a custom message on them.

Has the conventional resume become less important in your job search? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

© 2010 – All Rights Reserved – Sharon B. Cohen, MA. Licensed Counselor. Career Counselor and Career Transition Specialist. Read my Career Blog postings at My Career Manager http://www.mycareermanager.blogspot.com/, On LinkedIn: “Sharon B. Cohen”, On Twitter: “Mycareermanager”

• Do you want to have suitable, jobs, emailed to you daily?
• Would you like to find out what it is really like, working in a particular company, division and department?
• Do you want to connect to decision makers and hiring mangers directly?
• Wouldn’t it be great to make your Facebook page and profile more professional-looking?

As a Business and Career Counselor and Instructor at Georgia State University, I am often asked how to job search using Social Media. One of the thirteen, MBA Business Career courses I teach, is called “Maximizing Social Media for your Job Search.” This course is geared specifically for busy, business professionals who need to focus on the most effective methods. None of us have time to use every Social Media method, unless we take this on as a full-time, job! At present, though LinkedIn is the premier source of business networking, Facebook is gaining ground.

Right now, Facebook is like the neighborhood, which is trying to gentrify. For years, it has been the ‘fun’ site and the site you invite your friends to hang-out, on. It is trying to be known as a business site and professional site and a job-search site. It is not there yet, but is getting better every day and is continually adding job-search functionality and applications.

Check out these 11 new, applications on Facebook.

1. Easy CV – This application adds a mini version of your CV or resume, to your profile section.

2. Office Book – Learn about the corporate culture, climate and work environment from insiders in companies. Read others’ opinions and post your opinions of your current employer. But, be professional and discrete. Beware – anything posted online, can be online forever – it doesn’t biodegrade *(like a styrofoam cup)!

3. Inside Job – Connects you, to industry insiders at companies of interest. Use this app to learn where people have interviewed, worked, or are currently employed. Find the right person and connect.

4. . Work With Us by Jobvite – The app displays jobs, on profile or fan pages. Review jobs, see where friends work and send Jobvites to your own contacts. What goes around, comes around. Be helpful to others.

5. Meeting Wave – Is a business networking tool that helps you crossover from Social Networking to live meetings and networking with people of interest. It is a way to set up “live” face to face meetings.

7. BraveNewTalent – new, social networking app that allows you to connect to employers directly. Join the employers’ online community.

8. LinkedIn Contacts – This application allows you to view and share your LinkedIn Contacts on Face book. My LinkedIn Profile – Post a badge on your Face book profile to promote your LinkedIn account.

Testimonials – Ask your professional contacts and employers to post testimonials. Or you can link your Face book account directly to your LI account and reference section. .

10. Business Cards – Instead of the standard signature, use the Business card application. Attach your virtual, business card to your Face book messages!

11. Jobster Career Network, Career Builder and Monster Trak, Indeed, InCircle Connections – Add all of these job-boards have Face book applications. Customize the app, by including your degree, major, geographic location etc. It will send you personalized job alerts

(excerpted from http://www.keppiecareers.com/2009/04/14/facebook-applications-for-your-job-search/

In addition to using Social Media, you will need a comprehensive Career Action Plan. Check out these 2 additional articles for more information  Use between 6-8 methods/channels to reach your intended audience of employers. Facebook, would be just one of these methods.

Job Seekers need to use both Push and Pull methods of Marketing to tap into the Hidden Job Market
http://mycareermanager.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-hidden-job-market-found-me-pull.html

Conduct a SWOT analysis to determine your competitive advantage. http://mycareermanager.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-are-you-strengths-and-weakness.html

Each job-seeker needs to determine for themselves, which social media platforms are most in line with their unique goals. Try a platform out for a minimum of 3 months before passing judgement about it’s efficacy. Then, after 3 months evaluate the time commitment, versus the ROI, return on invenstment

Matthew Levy is a well-rounded HR professional with fifteen years of broad experience in both specialist (e.g., recruiting) and generalist (e.g., HR business partner) roles at blue-chip companies, including Merck, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson.
You can see Matt’s bio by visiting his LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewflevy. He blogs at http://mlevy2222.wordpress.com/ and can be followed on [...]

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Sharon B. Cohen, MA,Dip.Educ, CPRP, Career Counselor and Career Transition Specialist. Read my Career Blog postings at http://www.mycareermanager.blogspot.com/, On LinkedIn: Sharon B. Cohen, On Twitter: Mycareermanager
How can you stand out from the crowd at a Career Fair?

Who are you hoping to meet?
What can you offer an employer?
What are you hoping to learn?

As part [...]